UNAMID has supplied 495,000 litres of water to Zam Zam camp in Darfur, W. Sudan

UNAMID continues to provide water to Zam Zam IDP Camp. UNAMID peacekeepers on a mission of public awareness distributed booklets with rules of engagements with unidentified objects to new arrivals at the camp after an unexploded ordnance went off in a shack last Friday injuring three newly displaced children.



Photo: Sudanese refugees line up for water while an UNAMID truck, unseen, which is carrying water donated to the camp, unloads at the Zamzam refugee camp, outside the Darfur town of al-Fasher, Sudan Thursday, March 19, 2009. Tens of thousands newly displaced Sudanese arrived at the overcrowded refugee camp of Zamzam in the last several weeks. (AP/Nasser Nasser)

UNAMID continues to provide water to Zam Zam IDP Camp

From Daily Briefing by United Nations - African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) Monday, March 23, 2009 via APO:

UNAMID distributed 52,000 litres of water to the new arrivals at Zam Zam Internally Displaced Persons Camp yesterday as part of efforts to assist the new arrivals.

UNAMID has supplied a total of 495,000 litres of water to Zam Zam IDP Camp. Water distribution began on 11 March 2009, to support the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the area assisting the new arrivals at the camp. So far, UNAMID has been providing a total of 45,000 litres of water per day and intend to continue until a long term solution is found.

UNICEF, through its implementing partner Water and Environmental Sanitation Project (WES) and in support of Government of Sudan officials, has already dug nine shallow wells and drilled three boreholes as sources of water for the IDP Camp. It is planned to dig ten more wells, equipped with hand pumps, in and around the camp.

Unexploded ordnance went off in a shack, injuring 3 children



Photo: A displaced Sudanese woman selling vegetables, holds a booklet being distributed by UNAMID peacekeepers at Zamzam refugee camp, out side the Darfur town of al-Fasher, Sudan, Monday, March 23, 2009. UNAMID peacekeepers on a mission of public awareness distributed booklets with rules of engagements with unidentified objects to new arrivals at
the camp after an unexploded ordnance went off in a shack last Friday injuring three newly displaced children. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)



Photo: Newly-arrived displaced Sudanese girls, who are selling bread, look at a booklet that was distributed by UNAMID peacekeepers at Zamzam refugee camp, outside the Darfur town of al-Fasher, Sudan, Monday, March 23, 2009. Every day, a peacekeeper truck pulls into this teeming camp carrying loads of water, and is greeted by long lines of refugees. It's not the troops' job — but after the expulsion of many aid groups in Darfur, everyone is scrambling to fill the gaps in the safety net that keeps millions of refugees alive. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)



Photo: A worker explains a booklet for new arrivals of displaced Sudanese children, that is distributed by UNAMID peacekeepers at Zamzam refugee camp, out side the Darfur town of al-Fasher, Sudan, Monday, March 23, 2009. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)



Photo: A Sudanese guard walks by rolled up straw roofs, intended for distribution to new refugees to help build shelters, at the compound of the expelled American aid group CHF International at the Zamzam refugee camp, outside the Darfur town of al-Fasher, Sudan Thursday, March 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Expulsion of major NGOs and Darfur rebel leaders' call to refuse Sudan gov't aid prompt food and health fears

Expulsion of major aid agencies and rebel leaders' call to refuse Sudan government aid prompt food and health fears.

Britain and Ireland slam Sudan's "retaliation" aid ban.   Oxfam and Save the Children said they would appeal against the decision to withdraw their licences for operations in Sudan.

The World Food Programme is distributing a two-month ration to 1.1 million displaced people who were served by Care, Solidarites, Action Against Hunger and Save the Children, which have all been expelled.

In Kalma camp in south Darfur, home to 90,000 people, camp leaders have refused to accept government fuel to run the borehole generators, and are trying to raise money to buy their own diesel.

Sources: the following three reports from Guardian, M&C, Sudan Tribune.

Report from Guardian.co.uk by Xan Rice in Nairobi, Tuesday, 24 March 2009 -
Warning as humanitarian crisis deepens in Darfur:

The humanitarian situation in Darfur is growing more precarious by the day following the expulsion of major aid agencies and a call from the main rebel group for displaced people to refuse any government assistance, NGO officials warned today.

The results of the joint UN-government mission to assess the gap in aid provision has not yet been published, but humanitarian workers say the supply of medicine, clean water and food has already been significantly affected, and could worsen in coming weeks.

Some 13 foreign agencies and six local organisations were kicked out of Darfur three weeks ago when the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir.

Numerous hospitals and clinics remain closed, while others are being run by local staff at a basic level. One agency today expressed concern at reports that "non-health professionals" in displaced persons' camps were using the medical equipment it was forced to leave behind.

The World Food Programme is distributing a two-month ration to 1.1 million displaced people who were served by Care, Solidarites, Action Against Hunger and Save the Children, which have all been expelled. But Rachid Jafaar, a WFP official, said this was "unsustainable" and that it could not guarantee all the affected people, at 140 different sites, would receive food.

The situation has been exacerbated by a surge in attacks on aid workers, which have severely restricted the activities of some of the agencies left on the ground. Three foreign Médecins Sans Frontières workers were kidnapped for several days by a militia supportive of Bashir two week ago, causing the agency to temporarily withdraw all its international staff from Darfur. A local employee of a Canadian aid agency was shot dead on Monday night.

Despite pleas from the international community, Sudan's government has refused to reconsider the decision to expel the aid groups, which it accuses of collaborating with the ICC. It insists that local relief agencies, assisted by Khartoum, can fill the gap.

Even if this were possible, the mistrust in Darfur means that much of the government aid will not reach the intended recipients. In Kalma camp in south Darfur, home to 90,000 people, camp leaders have refused to accept government fuel to run the borehole generators, and are trying to raise money to buy their own diesel.

"More people are now relying on hand pumps, but the water is not enough," said Alun McDonald, a spokesman for Oxfam, which helped manage the water supply in Kalma before it was expelled. "Things are getting very tense."

The refusal to allow the government to work in Kalma is based on a widespread suspicion within the camp that the government wants to shut it down. Other camps are also refusing government aid, a move backed by the Justice and Equality Movement, the most effective of Darfur's rebel groups, which said it was taking a "political stance" against the expulsion of the aid agencies.

"Our position is that our people should not accept any food, medicine or other assistance from government agencies," said Ahmed Hussein Adam, a JEM spokesman, speaking by telephone from Darfur.

"How do we know what they will put inside the food or drugs? Bashir cannot be both the oppresser and the helper."

The expelled agencies, which were responsible for more than half the total humanitarian effort in Darfur, where 4.7 million people receive aid, say fear among the remaining groups of being expelled has made gathering information extremely difficult. There are reports that the Sudanese health ministry has deployed in some locations where clinics have been closed, though the extent of the work remains unclear. An emergency meningitis vaccination campaign in Kalma, where several people have died of the disease, has yet to begin.

The International Rescue Committee said that some of its clinics have reopened, although at "drastically reduced hours", while water supply had nearly halved in one camp where it used to operate. Kurt Tjossem, the IRC's regional director, said the sanitation work it carried out had stopped altogether, heightening the risk of disease.

"If such services aren't replaced, this is going to create a huge health hazard, fast. The scale of the humanitarian need in Darfur is simply immense and this has to be recognised."

Photo: Sudanese refugees pass by the site of the looted compound of the expelled British aid group, Oxfam at Al Salam refugee camp, outside the Darfur town of al-Fasher, Sudan Saturday, March 21, 2009. Al Salam refugee camp leaders in Darfur say a dozen men broke into the warehouse of an expelled British aid group, Oxfam, stealing all its contents. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Report from M&C, March 05, 2009 London -
Britain, Ireland slam Sudan's "retaliation" aid ban

The British government Thursday criticised Sudan for retaliating against international aid workers following the arrest warrant issued against President Omar al-Bashir.

Aid organizations have warned that millions of lives would be put at risk by al-Bashir's decision to expel 10 humanitarian groups from the Darfur region, including Oxfam, Save the Children, Care International and Doctors Without Frontiers.

Deputy Labour Party leader Harriet Harman, standing in for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, told parliament that it was important that Sudan should not 'retaliate' against the agencies and refrain from 'escalating' the situation.

In Ireland, Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Martin urged the Sudanese government to reverse its decision which amounted to using 'extremely vulnerable people as pawns.'

Al-Bashir Wednesday became the first sitting head of state to be served with an arrest warrant for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, a move that has sparked anger, protests, and rallies of suppport in Sudan.

Oxfam and Save the Children said they would appeal against the decision to withdraw their licences for operations in Sudan.

Penny Lawrence, Oxfam's International Director, said the withdrawal of its registration would affect more than 600,000 people who were being given 'vital humanitarian and development aid, including clean water and sanitation on a daily basis.'

Of those, 400,000 were affected by the ongoing conflict in Darfur where people continued to flee from violence and the humanitarian needs remained 'enormous.'

Oxfam GB has operated in northern Sudan since 1983 and currently has 450 staff there, 90 per cent of whom are Sudanese.

Photo: A Sudanese refugee carrying a child walks over strewn documents at the site of the looted compound of the expelled British aid group, Oxfam at Al Salam refugee camp, Saturday, March 21, 2009. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)



Photo: Sudanese refugee children play with strewn documents at the site of the looted compound of the expelled British aid group, Oxfam at Al Salam refugee camp, Saturday, March 21, 2009. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)



Photo: Sudanese workers are seen at a feeding center of the expelled aid group, Action Contre La Faim, at Al Salam refugee camp, Saturday, March 21, 2009. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Article from Sudan Tribune Tuesday, 24 March 2009 by Wasil Ali - Darfur JEM say 4 IDP children die from malnutrition, criticize Qatar - excerpt:

March 23, 2009 (WASHINGTON) — The Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), warned today that Khartoum’s expulsion of humanitarian groups is taking a toll on the vulnerable population within the IDP camps in the war ravaged region. [...]

Aid groups say that it will be nearly impossible for the United Nations and the remaining aid groups to fill the void left by the evacuating workers.

JEM spokesperson Ahmed Hussein told Sudan Tribune that four children have died at the Shangil Tobaya camp in North Darfur over the last couple of days He disclosed their names as Esam Babiker Yacoub (3 years); Munir Mohamed Ibrahim (9 months); Maitha” Ahmed Musa (7 months); Abdel-Latif Hassan Gar El-Nabi (7 months).

“They died because of the severe shortage in food levels caused by departure of aid groups. There is also an alarming drop in water supplies which will increase the likelihood of mass disease outbreaks” Hussein said via satellite phone from an undisclosed location in Darfur.

The JEM official said that the foreign aid organizations that covered the camp were all evicted per Khartoum’s orders. He accused the government security agents of standing behind last week’s looting of a warehouse in Al-Salam camp owned by the expelled British Oxfam group in North Darfur.

Hussein said that the warehouse guard and another woman were killed during the armed attack.

“The government detained four camp leaders who notified UNAMID of the incident. All of them need to be released immediately and unconditionally” he said.

The JEM spokesperson warned that residents of IDP camps around EL-Geneina in South Darfur may soon be forced to cross borders into Chad in search for food.

“We will hold president Bashir personally responsible for the current situation and any deaths among our people that result from his decision” Hussein said angrily.

Asked about Darfur camp rejecting Sudanese aid groups from offering help, Hussein said that the IDP’s “made the right choice” saying that these are “undercover security agents

“A couple of those organizations are owned or administered by Bashir’s wives and relatives. The head of the Commission for Humanitarian Affairs Hasabu Abdel-Rahman is a security officer working on dismantling those IDP camps” Hussein claimed.

He also criticized the “complicity” of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in its response to expulsion of aid groups.

“The UNSC must intervene under a Chapter VII resolution to avert the imminent humanitarian disaster. Even if China and Russia block it the US and European Union (EU) must act unilaterally” the JEM official said.

“A No-Fly zone must be established over Darfur and we are prepared to secure the ground and provide safe corridors for humanitarian groups through which they can enter” he said.

But a US state department official told Sudan Tribune last week that there is nothing in the works with regard to a No-Fly Zone.

Hussein blasted the Arab League and African Union (AU) saying their positions on the aid group expulsion is “shameful”.

“They would not even utter a single word to condemn the decision by Sudan. How can they remain silent before an intentional campaign to starve the people of Darfur?” he questioned.

He reiterated JEM’s position on suspension of the Qatar hosted peace talks until Sudan rescinds its expulsion order.

“Make no mistake about it. There will be no return to the negotiating table until aid groups are allowed back. The expulsion decision in itself constitutes a violation of the agreement Khartoum signed with us in Doha which provides for facilitation of humanitarian flow” Hussein said.

“If Qatar wants to assert itself as an impartial peace broker they must publicly demand that Khartoum revokes their decision” he added.

Yesterday Qatar urged JEM to continue the peace talks it started last month with Khartoum despite the move against relief groups.

“They [Qataris] asked us to convey a message to the movement saying that we can protest the decision without halting the entire peace process” the head of JEM’s general congress Abu-Bakr Al-Gadi told Agence France press (AFP) yesterday.

Last month JEM and Khartoum signed a goodwill agreement in the Qatari capital, pledging to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the six-year conflict in the western Sudan region of Darfur but a date for the full blown talks has not been fixed yet.

Copy of Comment on this article...
7 Comments

by Namaa
The death of Sudanese children is a grave and disturbing matter, and the issue needs to be addressed before more Sudanese children are lost to malnutrition, which is so easily cureable, specially when the Government of Khartoum’s food banks are full of grains and bursting with several seasons worth of harvest.

What is even more disturbing, is when JEM use this grave matter as a weapon of war, 4 children have died from lack of food, but how many have you killed by your guns...who launched the offensive onslaught in Darfur, who chose to take up weapons to ask for basic services, when you could have taken on the government through peacful channels, JEM did, JEM started the fire on the people of Darfur, JEM used propoganada war tacticts, JEM is refusing to sign any peace agreement and JEM is responsible for escalating the crisis in Darfur.....
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by Saif El Hag
Namaa,You are looking at the elephan but keep spearing its shedow. JEM and the rest of arm struggle groups in Darfour are fighting for their rightful cause, which Khartoum has been denying them ever since.

What JEM and the rest armed groups are doing is a honourable stand against a tyranny of NCP. People like you have no sympathy for who are starving and will starve to death by the Khartoum action. If you are really a person who has a heart and concious you will be siding with the people of Darfour and you will shout down El Bahire and his regime as you did to Israel when the bombed Gaza.

But I think you belong to those groups in Sudan who call themselves ARABS, so let me tell you all loud and clear.. Arabs are the Worst and the most RACIST human species in the face of the world, this is a clear cristal fact,and all their stands and countinous support to their Arab cousins in Sudan.  

Saif El Hag

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by Samani
!!! 4 IDP children died !!
Can JEM get any lower than this ?? Now the repeat like stupid parrots what the british an americans say ’al bashir will be responsible for every death in darfur’ !! Do they wait for these people to tell them what to say.

Ocampo keeps blabbering on about 5000 people death every month in darfur now. So now its 5004?? Oh what a crisis !! quick get the UN and US and ICC involved !! Its all lies lies lies .. those who believe this bull are either ignorant or have a clear agenda against sudan and its people.

Its becoming clear to everyone that JEM have no real agenda or intention of peace. They are working for the french, british and americans trying to make as much trouble in darfur until all of sudan collapses or the government is toppled. Traitors !! Who only want power for themselves.

Al Nur sits in his hotel room in france getting fat and telling everyone when i am president i will do this and that. The JEM look for any excuse to get out of signing a peace treaty. The other sad groups in darfur are headed by greedy people that want power and to be recognized ! I feel sorry for the people of darfur if they expect these people to give them security, peace and prosperity.
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by Logic
Sammani, I think you’re being extremly unfair here! the rebel groups might be taken advatage of by the West but that is no reason to deny the marginlization of the Darfur people by Khartoum elitists.

The Darfuris have a just cause, for too long the Khartoum government has denied many of its sons and daughters their due recognition in society especially after they fought along side their muslim brothers against the South for the sake of religion but now they relize they were simply tools being used by the khartoum elites.

I am not a fan of Khalil Ibrahim or Abdel Wahid but their people deserve better than what they have received.
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by tayeb M. Alhassan
Namaa, We have talked too much about Darfur crises suggesting solutions but these people either never read or never understand. Time is running taking more lives of innocent people in the refugee camps but they don’t care or rather they exploit the disaster to market for their own objectives servicing further agenda imposed on them.

Request for No-Fly-Zone, Petrol for food and other disgusting Iraqi war terms already expired and unusable in Sudan for the administration inverted those terms already gone and the new administration in the White House not interested and much wiser to turn history on reverse mode.

If they really don’t act as ((puppets)) to prolong Darforeans suffering in service of others they have to opt for negotiations whether in Qatar or any place they suggest however they have to put behind any personal interests and act with self-denial, goodwill and determination to reach crises solutions for the wefare of the real agonized people in Darfur.
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by Logic
Tayeb!  You make it sound like it is only the responsibility of JEM and SLM to prevent further deaths in Darfur but in fact the bigger responsibility falls on the government.

There is so much more they could do as well, if they always had the capabilities to feed the hungry, why in God’s name have they not helped the situation before? and why are they not speeding up the repatriation of IDPs to their homelands? etc etc etc....
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by Logic
I don’t have any sympathy for the rebel leaders nor the NCP because they are all equally responsible for the deaths in Darfur but for JEM to encourage the IDPs to refuse food from Khartoum aid agncies because they’re spies sounds to me like irony.

As the main reason cited for the expulsion of the aid agncies was because the NCP accusses them of being western spies. However, if you’re hungry? does it really matter who feeds you or would you be more concerned with being fed!! I would’ve thought...

So JEM is guilty of starving IDPs as much as the NCP is guilty of playig the power game.

If you want peace, you negotiate not attach conditions before you negotiate. You can attach your conditions to a final settlement not for having a conversation about how to stop the deaths.

Gunmen demanding Thuraya satellite phone kill Darfur aid worker

From Reuters Khartoum Tuesday, 24 March 2009:
Gunmen demanding phone kill Darfur aid worker

Gunmen demanding a satellite phone have shot dead a Sudanese aid worker at his home in the Darfur region where he worked for a Canadian charity, the man's employer said on Tuesday.

"He was ambushed two days ago by men demanding a satellite phone. They beat him because he couldn't provide them with a Thuraya (phone)," said Mark Simmons, Sudan country director for the Fellowship for African Relief (FAR).

"They came to his house at 9 p.m. on Monday and when they didn't find a phone there they shot him," he added.

(Reporting by Andrew Heavens; Writing by Cynthia Johnston)

From BBC News Tuesday, 24 March 2009 - excerpts:
Relief worker shot dead in Darfur

A Sudanese worker with a Canadian aid agency has been shot dead in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The man was killed by gunmen who called at his home demanding his satellite phone, the Fellowship for African Relief told Reuters news agency.

"They came to his house at 9pm on Monday and when they didn't find a phone there they shot him," said Mark Simmons, of the charity.

"He was ambushed by men demanding a satellite phone. They beat him because he couldn't provide them with a Thuraya [phone]," Mr Simmons also told Reuters. [...]

Earlier this month, a Canadian woman was among three foreign aid workers kidnapped at gunpoint in Darfur and later freed by a gang calling themselves "Bashir's Eagles". [...]

Tribute to UNAMID peacekeeper - Memorial services for Lance Corporal Ahmed will be held in Nigeria and Darfur

In Memoriam: Lance Corporal John Ahmed
Source: African Union - United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID)
23 March 2009

On the last day of his life John Ahmed could be found where his colleagues always knew to look for him: hard at work, ensuring the smooth passage of mail, messages and other information between his battalion and the rest of UNAMID.

The Nigerian Lance Corporal, who had only served with the Mission since last November, had in those four months swiftly acquired a reputation among his peers in Darfur as the most diligent of clerical officers. He was fast, he was thorough and he was someone who could be relied on to ensure the safe transmission of confidential information, a critical aptitude in such a position.

Lieutenant Colonel Johnson Irefin, Lance Corporal Ahmed’s commanding officer, says the peacekeeper – who served in West Darfur for three months before recently transferring to South Darfur – was among his best soldiers.

“His attitude was excellent and his approach to work was very encouraging. He was very dedicated,” Lieutenant-Colonel Irefin says, noting that Lance Corporal Ahmed was always prepared to go the extra mile to assist a colleague.

The 35-year-old was on his way back to the battalion’s headquarters at the “Super Camp” outside Nyala on 17 March when both his vehicle and another were ambushed by unknown gunmen. Lance Corporal Ahmed was shot in the ensuing firefight and later died on his way to El Fasher for medical treatment.

Warrant Officer Anthony Ekoja says he speaks for all of his colleagues when he describes his grief at Lance Corporal Ahmed’s death. Many are wearing black armbands in honour. “We all feel really sad and shocked. His death was so sudden,” he says simply.

Part of the reason for that grief is the sense of absence in so many lives now that Lance Corporal Ahmed has passed away. Quiet and serious thinking, he was a husband, a father to four children, a committed Christian and an apparently self-confessed “football addict”.

The Manchester United fan (his favourite player was Cristiano Ronaldo) suffered when his beloved team was thrashed by rivals Liverpool recently, and was a frequent contributor to inter-battalion games as an attacking midfielder.

But it was his faith that sustained him, both before and during his time in Darfur. Lance Corporal Ahmed attended church regularly and could often be found reading a religious book or involved in church activities, Warrant Officer Ekoja recalls.

Memorial services for Lance Corporal Ahmed will be held in both Nigeria and Darfur.

The blue helmet was the fourteenth UNAMID casualty as a result of hostile actions since the Mission took over operations from the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) at the start of 2008.

+ + + Rest In Peace + + +



Photo: Flowers in El-Fashir, northern Darfur, western Sudan (Photo by Andrew Heavens/Sudan Watch archives 2006)

[UNAMID link with thanks to Andrew Heavens' tweet from Khartoum]

SaveDarfur.org needs $150,000 by March 31 to fund their "work"

Email received today from SaveDarfur.org:

NEW VIDEO: We must act for Darfur now

Starvation and disease threaten millions in Darfur.

What we do RIGHT NOW will determine their fate.

There isn't a moment to lose! Watch and donate today.

Dear friend,

We've entered a new phase of destruction in Darfur. Millions of people in refugee camps depend on food and medicine from aid groups the government of Sudan recently expelled from the county. Thousands could die.

It's going to take relentless pressure in the next few weeks to ensure world leaders act to restore aid to Darfur—and bring a lasting peace to Sudan.

We wanted to share a video that we put together to express the dire urgency of this moment—and we've set a goal of raising $150,000 by March 31 to fund our work. Can you help us meet it?

Watch this video and rush your urgent $50 gift to us today. What we do right now will determine the fate of innocents in Darfur.

The International Criminal Court's recent decision to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has sent out a ripple of hope. And last week, President Obama appointed General J. Scott Gration as his special envoy to Sudan. But these positive steps forward are just the beginning.

President Obama must lead the effort to protect Darfuri civilians by spearheading an urgent and sustained diplomatic push to establish humanitarian access in Darfur and lasting peace for all Sudan.

What will compel him to act? The same thing that has gotten us this far—a constituency of conscience, a grassroots movement of towering strength and unyielding passion for justice.

We will work around the world and around the clock to end the genocide—pressuring governments, organizing community activists, introducing Darfuris and their stories to the media and key policymakers. But we can't do it without your support.

We don't have a moment to lose—watch the video and donate $50 now.

Thank you so much for everything you've done. I know we can count on you now, when the people of Darfur need us most.

Sincerely,

Suzie Armstrong
Save Darfur Coalition

The Save Darfur Coalition is an alliance of over 180 faith-based, advocacy and human rights organizations whose mission is to raise public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and to mobilize a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of more than two million people in the Darfur region. To learn more, please visit http://www.SaveDarfur.org.


Not a moment to lose—give today!

With new hope for peace in Darfur comes renewed danger for the Darfuri people.

In coming weeks, we will relentlessly pressure President Obama and other world leaders to take bold action to isolate Bashir and end the crisis in Sudan. But we can't do it alone.

We've committed to raising $150,000 by March 31 to ensure this moment doesn't slip away. Please help by filling out the fields below and making your gift today.

Please select a donation amount:
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- - -
Note, Sudan Watch March 23, 2009: Save Darfur movement spends its annual budget of $15 million not on assisting victims but on spreading the message

U.S. students collect shoes to illustrate Darfur 'genocide'

You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.

From wtop.com March 23, 2009
Students collect shoes to illustrate genocide

Photo: The shoes will be donated to people in homeless shelters.

ASHBURN, Va. - In an effort to raise awareness about the number of people killed in Darfur, students at Briar Woods High School are collecting shoes -- 400,000 pairs of them.

The plan is to put the shoes on display on the National Mall April 26.

"Our hope is that the image will be hard to ignore. Our hope is the impact will last in people's minds and in their hearts," says a Web site set up to promote the Shoes on the Mall effort.

After they're displayed, the shoes will be donated to homeless shelters.

The students are getting donations from as far away as New Zealand.

The school is getting help from dozens of elementary schools, high schools, retirement centers and universities, including Virginia Tech and the College of William & Mary.

Of course, they're looking for more. Here's where you can send your donations:

Briar Woods High School
c/o Logan Williams
22525 Belmont Ridge
Ashburn, Virginia 20148
If you want more information about the project, contact Logan Williams at logan.williams@loudoun.k12.va.us.

See Sudan Watch March 23, 2009: Save Darfur movement spends its annual budget of $15 million not on assisting victims but on spreading the message

5 Sudanese rebel groups agree to join Qatari peace initiative

Last week, five Darfur rebel groups signed an agreement in Libya to take part in the Doha peace process with one delegation. The signatories of the common ground deal are: the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) – Unity, SLM led by Khamis Abdallah Abakr, the United Resistance Front (URF), the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Idriss Azrag faction, and the SLM- Juba faction.



Photo: Qatari state minister for foreign affairs Ahmed Bin-Abdullah Al-Mahmoud

Source: Sudan Tribune Monday 23 March 2009 -
Qatar urges Darfur JEM to drop link between peace talks and aid groups

March 22, 2009 (DOHA) — The Qatari government today called on the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to continue the peace talks it started last month with Khartoum.

Darfur JEM announced this week that it has decided to suspend its participation in the Doha peace process, one month after signing a goodwill agreement with the Sudanese government in the Qatari capital. [...]

The head of JEM’s general congress Abu-Bakr Al-Gadi told Agence France press (AFP) that the Qatari state minister for foreign affairs Ahmed Bin-Abdullah Al-Mahmoud made the appeal during their meeting today in Doha.

“They asked us to convey a message to the movement saying that we can protest the decision without halting the entire peace process” Al-Gadi said.

“We understand and appreciate the Qatari effort because it is one that seeks peace for the Darfuri people and this is our position as well”.

Al-Mahmoud met today with the Sudanese ambassador in Doha and Al-Gadi separately which according to Qatari news agency discussed latest developments with regard to the goodwill agreement signed last month and addition of new rebel groups to the talks.

Last week five Darfur rebel groups signed an agreement in Libya to take part in the Doha peace process with one delegation. The signatories of the common ground deal are: the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) – Unity, SLM led by Khamis Abdallah Abakr, the United Resistance Front (URF), the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Idriss Azrag faction, and the SLM- Juba faction.

Al-Gadi said that he “promised them [Qatar] good and that we will transmit the request to our leaders on the ground” before adding that Khartoum’s decision “violates the spirit of the Doha agreement”.

JEM has previously said that the expulsion of aid groups is a breach of the goodwill agreement “which provides that the parties commits themselves to refrain from IDP’s harassment and to not obstruct the delivery of humanitarian aid to the displaced”.

The JEM official also said that Khartoum is “dragging its feet” in submitting the list of their POW’s that they pledged to release while they have provided a list of Sudanese soldiers they are holding.

Last year the Darfurian rebel group staged a bold attack and fought fierce battles with the Sudanese army on the outskirts of the capital before they were repulsed.

However in February both JEM and Khartoum signed a goodwill agreement in the Qatari capital, pledging to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the six-year conflict in the western Sudan region of Darfur but a date for the full blown talks has not been fixed yet.

Hassan al-Turabi fuels Darfur war

In an interview with Sudan Radio Service in Khartoum on Friday, Dr. Hassan al-Turabi said that he will not keep quiet as long as people in Darfur are being killed by government forces. What a weasel. Why isn't he being investigated for his part in the Darfur war?

The only people who can stop the rebellion are the rebels themselves. None of them are interested in peace. They're bloodsucking leeches living off the backs of poor uneducated Africans while getting away with murder. The law is an ass.

From Sudan Radio Service 22 March 2009 (Khartoum) -

The leader of the opposition Popular Congress Party has reiterated his position on President al-Bashir and the ICC issue, saying that President al-Bashir and his government are responsible for the atrocities in Darfur.

In an interview with Sudan Radio Service in Khartoum on Friday, Dr. Hassan al-Turabi said that he will not keep quiet as long as people in Darfur are being killed by government forces.

[Hassan Al-Turabi]:” Say we count the victims in thousands, in hundreds, those being raped, being evicted from their homes, the killing and torturing of children and the continued detention of people - should we keep quiet about all this? He continues to kill civilians. Imagine ten thousand people have been killed. Our religion says that killing one person is just like killing all the people. And if he has killed 250,000 people? You have displaced thousands of people from their homes and villages. You have burned their villages and chased them away. This government has really shamed us. In god’s name, we are really ashamed!”

Al-Turabi stressed that President al-Bashir should go to The Hague and appear before the ICC.

[Al-turabi]:”I told him, please go and cleanse yourself, go there and defend yourself and say you have not done this and that, and you have not ordered the execution of any act. Go there and deny all these charges. The warrant of arrest has been issued for him and they told him to go to the ICC and if he does not go to the ICC, he will be arrested. He is now a fugitive. This is a shame on us as a nation. It is more painful for us than for him”.

Al-Turabi also accused the Government of National Unity of controlling the country’s judiciary.

[Al-Turabi]:” There is supposed to be justice in Sudan. Our judges are supposed to be independent and these judges know whether they judge in favor of the government or against the government. They know that if they don’t support the government they risk being sacked, or being transferred. The judges say they cannot be independent because the government orders them to do this and not to do that”.

Al-turabi was arrested by security agents and detained for two months after a statement to the media in January. He had said that President al-Bashir should go to The Hague to stand trial for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Al-Turabi was unexpectedly released a few days after the ICC issued an arrest warrant against al-Bashir earlier this month.

Save Darfur movement spends its annual budget of $15 million not on assisting victims but on spreading the message

From Boston.com
Politics and humanitarianism
By Anna Mundow, March 22, 2009

Mahmood Mamdani, a third-generation East African of Indian descent, grew up in Uganda, studied at Harvard, taught at various African and American universities, and is currently Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University. A political scientist and anthropologist, he is best known for "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim" and "When Victims Become Killers." His latest book, "Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror" (Pantheon, $26.95), meticulously exposes the tangled roots of the current conflict and the global forces at play in Darfur. Mamdani spoke from his home in New York City.

Q. Is there a link between this book and your previous work?

A. There are several; the most obvious is an understanding of the way in which the Cold War almost seamlessly morphed into the war on terror. Another connection - with my work on the Rwanda genocide and on the effect of colonialism in Africa - is the way in which identities are imposed from above.

Q. Such as who is an Arab, a Muslim, an African?

A. Yes. Interestingly, [originally] "Africa" was a word the Romans used for their North African province. But after the trans-Atlantic slave trade, "Africa" referred to parts of the continent from which slaves were hunted and sold. In Sudan, where everybody was equally native, the British arbitrarily identified certain groups as African and others as Arab.

Q. Why do you concentrate on the Save Darfur campaign?

A. In a context where African tragedies seem never to be noticed, I wondered why Darfur was an obsession with the global media. The reason, I realized, was that Darfur had become a domestic issue here, thanks to the Save Darfur movement. So I thought it important to examine the movement's history, organization, and message. I learned that this self-confessedly political group whose level of organization is phenomenal spends its annual budget of $15 million not on assisting victims but on spreading the message.

Q. Why?

A. There are various motives. One part of the group emerged out of solidarity with the struggle in south Sudan and believes that Darfur is another version of south Sudan. Most have no idea of the difference between the two situations. Another wing is what I understand to be neoconservatives who want to incorporate Darfur into the war on terror. Both groups reinforce the racialization of the conflict and the demonization of the Arabs.

Q. For political reasons?

A. For political reasons. There are few sources that really analyze Save Darfur; the clearest I found was an article [see copy here below] by Gal Beckerman in the Jerusalem Post ["US Jews leading Darfur rally planning," April 27, 2006]. The facts there speak for themselves.

Q. Yet you say that this campaign depoliticizes Americans?

A. I'm struck by the contrast between the mobilization around Darfur and the lack of mobilization around Iraq. The explanation, I believe, lies in the fact that Save Darfur presented the conflict as a tragedy, stripped of politics and context. There were simply "African" victims and "Arab" perpetrators motivated by race-intoxicated hatred. Unlike Iraq, about which Americans felt guilty or impotent, Darfur presented an opportunity to feel good. It appealed to the philanthropic side of the American character. During the presidential election, Save Darfur's constituency became integrated into the Obama campaign, and I welcomed that opportunity to organize around real concerns. The downside now is the attempt by Save Darfur to pressure the Obama administration to intervene militarily in Darfur.

Q. Are you saying that humanitarianism is a form of colonialism?

A. I'm saying that historically it has been. The movement after which Save Darfur patterned itself is the antislavery movement of the 19th century. Remember that the elimination of slavery was the ostensible reason given by British officials for colonization of the African continent. The cataloging of brutalities - real ones, not exaggerated - was essential preparation for seizing chunks of real estate, again ostensibly to protect victims. Today, the humanitarian claim uses ethics to displace politics. Conflicts are typically presented as tribal or race wars between perpetrators and victims whose roles are unchanging.

Q. Does the problem lie in who uses the humanitarian label?

A. The language of human rights was once used primarily by the victims of repression. Now it has become the language of power and of interventionists who turn victims not into agents but into proxies. It has been subverted from a language that empowers victims to a language that serves the designs of an interventionist power on an international scale.

Q. Do you worry about the reaction to this book?

A. My experience is that it is better to defend what you have said than to explain why you left half the case unsaid. I worried about the extent to which the book is readable because the middle chapters are in-depth historical exploration. I worried about losing the general reader. But faced with a human-rights constituency determined to decontextualize this issue, I felt compelled to examine Darfur in both a regional and a historical context, focusing on its complexity. This morning I received figures from UNAMID [the United Nations Mission in Darfur] in Khartoum, on civilian deaths from conflict in Darfur during 2008. The figure was 1,520, with 600 dead as a result of the conflict in the south between different Arab groups over grazing land and 920 deaths attributable, I am told, more to rebel movements than to the government-organized counterinsurgency. This is the kind of complexity that has been totally simplified.

Anna Mundow, a freelance journalist living in Central Massachusetts, is a correspondent for the Irish Times. She can be reached via e-mail at ama1668@hotmail.com.

- - -

Aprril 27, 2006 - Updated Apr 28, 2006
US Jews leading Darfur rally planning
By GAL BECKERMAN

Photo: Anti-America rally in Darfur, Sudan (AP)

Thousands of people will be marching this Sunday in Washington, DC under a banner that carries a simple two-word demand: "Save Darfur."

This is the name of the coalition organizing the rally, the first public action of its size intended to focus attention to the past three years of mass killing and ethnic cleansing carried out by the Sudanese government against the ethnically black farmers living in the Western region of Darfur. By most accounts, over 200,000 people have been massacred and two million displaced in a campaign that the US government and the United Nations two years ago decided to term genocide.

The rally, and the coalition that is organizing it, is hoping to pierce the consciousness of Americans and pressure the Bush administration into taking a more active line to end the conflict and help the refugees of the violence - most of whom are living in degrading conditions in neighboring Chad.

For this effort, the coalition has recruited major celebrities like George Clooney and Elie Wiesel to speak to those assembled. Though recent reports have indicated that the turnout might be lower than expected, organizers, while refusing to give a concrete number, believe it will be in "the tens of thousands."

Little known, however, is that the coalition, which has presented itself as "an alliance of over 130 diverse faith-based, humanitarian, and human rights organization" was actually begun exclusively as an initiative of the American Jewish community.

And even now, days before the rally, that coalition is heavily weighted with a politically and religiously diverse collection of local and national Jewish groups.

A collection of local Jewish bodies, including the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, United Jewish Communities, UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, sponsored the largest and most expensive ad for the rally, a full-page in The New York Times on April 15.

Though there are other major religious organizations, like the United States Conference on Catholic Bishops and the National Association of Evangelicals, both of which have giant constituencies that number in the millions, these groups have not done the kind of extensive grassroots outreach that will produce numbers.

Instead, the Jewish Community Relations Council, a national organization with local branches that coordinate communal activity all over America, has put on a massive effort to bus people to Washington on Sunday. Dozens of buses will be coming from Philadelphia and Cleveland. Yeshiva University alone, in upper Manhattan, has chartered eight buses.

Besides the Jewish origins and character of the rally - a fact the organizers consistently played down in conversations with The Jerusalem Post - the other striking aspect of the coalition is the noted absence of major African-American groups like the NAACP or the larger Africa lobby groups like Africa Action. When asked to comment, representatives of both groups insisted they were publicizing the rally but had not become part of the coalition or signed the Unity Statement declaring Save Darfur's objectives.

The coalition's roots go back to the spring of 2004 following a genocide alert, the first ever of its kind, issued by the United States Holocaust Museum. An emergency meeting was coordinated by the American Jewish World Service, an organization that serves as a kind of Jewish Peace Corps as well as an advocacy group for a variety of humanitarian and human rights issues.

At the meeting, which was attended by numerous American Jewish organizations and a few other religious groups, it was decided that a coalition would be formed based on a statement of shared principles.

After a year of programming that involved raising awareness about the genocide, the coalition came up with the idea for a rally in Washington. Planning began in the fall of 2005.

David Rubenstein, the director or "coordinator," as he prefers it, of the coalition says that, given that the groups who started the coalition were Jewish, "it's not surprising that they had the numbers of more Jewish organizations in their rolodexes."

He says that the Jewish community has been "extraordinarily responsive and are really providing the building for this thing," and yet he insists that the coalition has worked "very, very hard to be inclusive, to make sure there are people beyond the usual suspects."

This is a sentiment echoed by Ruth Messinger, president of American Jewish World Service and one-time Manhattan borough president and Democratic mayoral candidate for New York City. The world service and Messinger personally have been at the forefront of planning for the rally. Much of the Jewish turnout has been a result of her lobbying efforts.

She thinks the strong Jewish response has to do with the memories of Rwanda. "The Jewish community has probably had a higher level of lingering guilt over Rwanda than the average person," Messinger says. "And now learning about another genocide, I think people are beginning to understand that we are close to making a mockery of the words 'Never Again.'"

Still, there are critics who say the heavy Jewish involvement might have deterred some other groups from joining.

The fact that the aggressors in Darfur are Arab Muslims - though it should be said that the victims are also mostly Muslim - and are supported by a regime in Khartoum that is backed by the Arab League has made some people question the true motives of some of the Jewish organizations involved in the rally.

Committee of Muslim Scholars in Khartoum tells Sudan's Bashir to drop Qatar trip as "enemies of the nation are creeping around"

An earlier news report here today at Sudan Watch - and on Friday - reveals that Sudanese rebel group JEM has quit participating in Darfur peace talks hosted by Doha, Qatar.

A report today from Alarabiya.net [Sunday, 22 March 2009] tells us that Sudan clerics tell Bashir to drop Qatar trip. Khartoum's scholars warn "enemies are creeping around". There has been speculation about Bashir's possible arrest if he leaves Sudan. Here is the report in full, followed by a news report: "Qatar Under No Obligation to Arrest Al-Bashir"

KHARTOUM (AlArabiya.net, Agencies) -- Sudan's highest religious authority has issued a fatwa or ruling that President Omar al-Bashir, targeted by an international arrest warrant, should not attend an Arab summit in Qatar.

The fatwa, issued by the Committee of Muslim Scholars, said that despite Khartoum's insistence that Bashir would go to the March 29-30 Doha summit, he should not attend because "the enemies of the nation are creeping around."

"It is inadmissible for the president of the republic to take part in the Arab League summit in Qatar under current conditions while the enemies of God and of the nation are creeping around," local media quoted the text as saying.

The International Criminal Court on March 4 issued an arrest warrant against Bashir for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur and there has been speculation about his possible arrest if he leaves Sudan.

"Because you are the symbol and the guardian of the nation...we think that the conditions are not right (to attend the summit) and that this task can be carried out by persons other than yourself," the fatwa said.

Implementing ICC warrants

The ICC does not have a police force and therefore calls on signatory states to implement warrants.

Qatar is not a member of the International Criminal Court and would have no legal obligation to arrest the president if he entered its territory.

The ICC chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has warned in the past that any plane carrying Bashir in international airspace could be intercepted, though the court has no enforcement apparatus of its own.

Besides the possibility of his arrest in Qatar, some officials in Sudan fear that Bashir's presidential jet could be intercepted by other states once out of Sudanese airspace.

Before the authority issued its statement, Sudanese presidential spokesman Mahjoub Fadul told Reuters the government had not decided whether Bashir would attend the Qatar summit.

Fadul said security arrangements had been put in place in case Bashir did make the journey. He was not immediately available for comment on Sunday.

The Arab League and the African Union have both criticized the warrant as not helping to end the six-year-old Darfur conflict and called for the United Nations to exercise its right to defer it.

The United Nations says 300,000 people have died in the conflict between ethnic minority rebels and the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, which puts the figure at only 10,000. An estimated 2.7 million people more have fled their homes.

- - -

Report from Asharq Al-Awsat by Abdullah Mustapha, March 22, 2009:
Qatar Under No Obligation to Arrest Al-Bashir- ICC

Brussels, Asharq Al-Awsat- The International Criminal Court [ICC] Spokeswoman Laurence Blairon has stated to Asharq Al-Awsat the ICC cannot force the state of Qatar to arrest Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and hand him over to the court to answer charges leveled at him on war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Sudanese Province of Darfur.

She added: "Now that the court has issued its decision early this month, the next step is for us to expect President Al-Bashir to voluntarily come to The Hague, or to expect the Sudanese Government to hand him over to us."

She noted that if President Al-Bashir continues to refuse to appear before the court or if the Sudanese Government refuses to hand him over, the judges will refer the case to the UN Security Council for the necessary measures.

The ICC spokeswoman said there is no definitive timeframe during which Al-Bashir must give himself up or during which Sudan or any other state must hand him over. Also, no definitive timeframe can be determined for the judges to take a decision to refer the case to the UN Security Council. Such action may take place in a week, month, or a year, she added.

In reply to a question as to what will happen if Al-Bashir arrives in Qatar to take part in the next Arab summit, the ICC spokeswoman said: "Qatar represents a special case because it is not a signatory of the court's statute. On that basis, the court cannot force Qatar to arrest Al-Bashir and hand him over."

She added: "At the same time, however, Qatar is member of the United Nations, and the international organization's resolution on the establishment of the court obliges the member states to cooperate with the court and respect its decisions."

She went on: "Accordingly, if the state of Qatar hands Al-Bashir over to the court, it will have cooperated with the court, in implementation of a previous decision."

She noted: "However, if Qatar does not arrest Al-Bashir and refuses to hand him over to the court, should he arrive in Qatar to participate in the summit, the court will inform the UN Security Council of the situation. Afterward, the Security Council will take the appropriate measures vis-à-vis Qatar or any other state that refuses to cooperate with the court if Al-Bashir visits it."

When I asked the ICC spokeswoman what would happen if the Sudanese Government handed the other two wanted persons, Ali Kushayb and Ahmad Harun, to the court, and the arrest warrant against President Al-Bashir was postponed or cancelled, she immediately interrupted my question and said: "No, never. We will not accept such an offer." She added: "There will be no alternative to the implementation of the ICC decisions, whether regarding Al-Bashir or other wanted persons."

On Wednesday, 4March 2009, the ICC approved the request that the prosecution presented on 14July 2008 to issue an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Al-Bashir.

It is recalled that, on 20 November 2008, the ICC public prosecutor submitted a request to the Pre-Trial Chamber I to issue an arrest warrant against three rebel leaders in Darfur for war crimes that were committed against the African Union peacekeepers in (Hasaknitah), Darfur, on 29 September 2007.

The UN Security Council referred the Darfur case to the ICC under its Resolution 1593, which it passed on 31 March 2005. On 6 June 2005, the ICC public prosecutor decided to open an investigation into this case.

The legal action that was taken against these three leaders is the third of its kind in such a case.

In the past, Pre-Trial Chamber I issued two arrest warrants against Ahmad Muhammad Harun, a former minister of state for internal affairs in the Sudanese Government and current minister of state for humanitarian affairs, and Ali Muhammad Abdul -Rahman, also known by the name of Ali Kushayb, who is leader of the Janjawid militia. The arrest warrants were issued for their alleged responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In its latest decision early this month, however, the ICC excluded charges of genocide against Al-Bashir and reduced the list of charges against him from 10 to only seven.

JEM says no to Doha Qatar peace talks - "war crimes being committed" in Darfur

Head of the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) Khalil Ibrahim said that his group will no longer attend the peace talks hosted in Doha, Qatar, because President Omar el-Beshir’s decision to expel the NGOs condemns his people to death.

“Unfortunately, the government violated the good intention agreement… [when it] expelled 13 NGOs from Darfur. This is a real violation of one of the provisions [of the agreement],” Sulaiman Sandal, Jem’s chief of staff told RFI.

“We are calling on the international community so as to take responsibility that there is genocide going on, by depriving our people of food – there are war crimes being committed”, Sandal said from Darfur.

Source: Radio France Internationale 21 March 2009 - Darfur rebel group pulls out of peace talks- - -

UPDATE: See Sudan Watch, Tuesday, March 24, 2009: Qatari PM denies withdrawal of Sudan's JEM from peace talks

Defer ICC arrest warrant against Bashir

In the following excerpt from Eric Reeves' opinion piece at the Boston Globe, Reeves states that "before the ICC announcement, Darfuri sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of al-Bashir's arrest warrant." Surely such a sweeping statement authored by someone based in the USA is nonsense. Even Rob Crilly who writes for the Times and recently reported direct from Darfur, was hard pressed to find any displaced people who had heard of the ICC. Eric Reeves' articles are well written but terribly misleading and inaccurate.

Arrest warrant too costly for Darfur
By Eric Reeves
March 21, 2009 - excerpt:

The one option that remains - a distinct long shot - is Security Council deferral of the al-Bashir prosecution for a year under Chapter 16 of the ICC's Rome Statute, in return for re-admission of humanitarians with security guarantees. A Chapter 16 deferral has long been expediently supported by the Arab League and African Union; however, for Western nations - including Security Council permanent members France, Great Britain, and the US - supporting a deferral now would be transparently succumbing to the ugliest form of blackmail. And yet given the inaction by the West and other international actors, are we in any position to invoke scruples about "deferring" international justice? Does anyone dare say that justice for Darfur must go forward, even at the expense of countless Darfuri lives threatened by humanitarian expulsions?

Before the ICC announcement, Darfuri sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of al-Bashir's arrest warrant. That may well be changing, however, as suffering and deprivation grow. Is anyone bothering to ask the people of Darfur?

Eric Reeves, a Smith College professor, is author of "A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide."
---

Comment by Karana Dharma, an independent consultant focusing on community peacebuilding:

Eric Reeves opines that we have two options in the face of the growing conflict in Darfur - to defer the indictment of President El Bashir or stick to our guns at the cost of a humanitarian crisis that will cost human lives.

With all due respect to Professor Reeves and his very laudable work in this area, these two options leave the Darfuri people and the international community at the same stalemate that has led to the current standoff.

I worked for a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Sudan for over a year and the manipulations of the humanitarian community, both by the rebels and government officials, has long been the status quo. National and international NGOs are regularly denied access to one area in favor of another in a game of chess with the relief organizations as the pawns.

The current limited expulsion of 13 relief organizations and the threat to kick out or restrict the access of the remaining 85 operating on the ground is a heavy play on the part of the government to force the international community to limit its analysis to the very two options Mr. Reeves has presented.

But what Mr. Reeves and other analysts seem to ignore is that relief and recovery/development organizations in Darfur have faced the cancellation of their licenses and expulsion from Darfur many times before. Each time, with a few exceptions, they have won out with persistent shuttle diplomacy, appeals at the local administrative offices, and finally pressure from the Darfuri people themselves, especially the thousands who would lose their jobs when the projects folded and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that will be lost to the local market. In this current crisis, NGOs have reverted to this old playbook and started working with whomever will listen to get a quiet reversal of the political decision or at least an extension to allow them to work until the political storm has found a more appropriate target. But thus far, no clear target has presented itself. And here is where the international community is failing Darfur.

The US government and its European allies have developed a very confusing relationship with Sudan - ally in the war on terror, pariah in the human rights world, trading partner in the market for oil and gum arabic. This type of bi-polar diplomacy is hardly unique to Sudan but it clouds the field, hinders bilateral dialog, and makes any representative of the international community in Sudan fair game from the Sudanese administration's perspective.

Presenting a strong diplomatic team with a clear and transparent agenda will help to diffuse the current crisis and allow the local and international NGOs to go back to work, and spare the Sudan officials the embarrassment of admitting that they do not have the capacity to handle the crisis without help.

One parting anecdote, back in 2008, shortly after the ICC prosecutor submitted his request for an indictment against President El Bashir, the Sudanese Humanitarian Assistance Commission (HAC) began replacing the technocrats who approved and tracked the activities of the relief operations in Darfur with security agents loyal to the government in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. Suddenly, travel and work authorizations, normally approved on the spot, were held up for days or weeks or simply denied out of hand without explanation. The backlog of food and non-food items and various other programming and services created such a uproar among the Darfur people that local security officials began to fear for their lives and quietly left the Darfur capitals on permanent vacations. The technocrats returned and the work resumed.

Should the Darfuri people get a say in all this? The short answer is yes, but first you need to be clear who is speaking and who has the right to speak on their behalf. Is the local NGOs? Is it the rebel leaders? Is it the national, state, or local governments? The traditional leaders such as the Sheikhs, Shattais, Omdas? To some degree, all the above have lost influence and trust among their own people. But I agree that the need for Darfuri self-expression is desperately needed. A few programs on the ground are seeking to help local communities find their voice, and we have not heard any mention of the ICC or the desire for peace negotiations to continue. Even the word peace has been so deformed that it is associated with wat and politics.

The Darfur people need something more. Local and international groups are attempting to bring them a broader range of self-expression than the ICC and Peace. But the diplomats need to do their part to keep the options open.

Darfur 'genocide' activists return to Chad

PRESS RELEASE from Stop Genocide Now:
Activists Return to Darfur Despite Danger

Los Angeles, CA, March 22, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Over the last several weeks the genocide in Darfur has grown exponentially dire. Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir was indicted on counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, 16 aid agencies were expelled from the region, and food, water, medicine, and shelter supplies have run out in the refugee camps.

That’s why Stop Genocide Now has chosen to return to the Darfur refugee camps in Chad, despite ongoing violence against aid workers.

For 10 consecutive days, Stop Genocide Now’s I-ACT program (interactive-activism) will connect you with the faces and lives of Darfur refugees who escaped genocide in their homeland. Watch live videos from the field team, read journal entries and add your comments, take action daily and change the way the world responds to genocide.

Stop Genocide Now will be one of the only advocacy groups in the region, allowing viewers to get a closer look on what has occurred after President al-Bashir order for the removal of all aid organizations in Darfur.

The group is leaving for Darfur refugee camps in Chad on March 21, 2009.

Media associates stationed in the United States and inside the camps will be available to take questions from the press during the trip. Interviews from the camps using Skype/webcams are available.

Please contact Gabriel Stauring or Katie-Jay Scott for more information about their trip, or follow them on http://twitter.com/iact or http://stopgenocidenow.org for up to date information on the work of Stop Genocide Now.

Contact:

Gabriel Stauring
Director, Stop Genocide Now
310-415-2863
gabriel@stopgenocidenow.org

Katie-Jay Scott
Director of Community Programming, Stop Genocide Now
503-349-4946
ktj@iactivism.org

Kathryn Nelson
Media associate for Darfur trip March 2009
952-220-1903
knelson@iactivism.org

S. Darfur Kalma camp refusing aid after expulsion of groups

The Kalma camp leaders have threatened to organize a hunger strike until the government permits the return of expelled aid groups.

"The decision is irreversible," said Al-Hadi Najim, secretary-general of the government agency that oversees humanitarian aid here. "If they want the services, we are ready to facilitate. But we can't force anybody to eat."

He said the government had tried to deliver 46 drums of fuel to restart water pumps, offered to pay the salaries of workers at health clinics and attempted to open five meningitis-vaccination centers. All were rejected by the camp leaders. Najim blamed the camp's intransigence on Nur.



Photo: Voitek Asztabski/AP

Darfur camp refusing aid after expulsion of groups
By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times, 22 March 2009

NYALA, Sudan — Angered by the Sudanese government's decision to expel 13 foreign-aid groups in the Darfur region, leaders at one of the largest displacement camps are threatening to reject all humanitarian assistance until the organizations are allowed back.

The self-imposed aid embargo at Kalma displacement camp, which includes monthly food distribution, is heightening concerns about the welfare of the 88,000 residents.

The World Food Program said Kalma leaders Thursday refused a grain delivery. The U.N. food agency faced similar resistance a week earlier.

The camp's motorized water pumps aren't working because there is no fuel, and women have to fetch water from a polluted river nearby, aid officials said. Kalma's three health clinics have shut down, even as meningitis sweeps through the camp.

Kalma's leaders have even threatened to organize a hunger strike until the government permits the return of expelled aid groups — including Care International, Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders.

"We want the international (aid groups) back," said Ali Abdel Khaman Tahir, the chief sheik at Kalma, speaking by telephone because the government refused to give journalists access to the camp, which is on the edge of Nyala, the capital of Southern Darfur province.

"If we allow them to distribute the food, then the government will be able to say to the world that everything is OK in Kalma," said Mubarak Shafi, a camp activist. "We want all the other problems solved first."

In particular, Kalma leaders refuse to accept help from the Sudanese government or Sudanese charities, which they suspect will spy on them. But they are also rejecting assistance from the U.N. food agency and Western organizations such as World Vision.

Kalma has long been one of Darfur's most radical and militarized camps, with close ties to rebel leader Abdel Wahid Nur, head of a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army.

For years, Sudanese security forces and local charities have been unable to operate inside the camp because residents burned down their facilities. In August 2008, government soldiers fatally shot 31 people in Kalma, including women and children, in an early-morning standoff with residents carrying sticks and knives.

"The situation is very volatile," said Jean-Marie Stratigos, the Nyala representative for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "For now, we are just trying to find a way in which they will accept aid."

Camp leaders say that food supplies are stable but that prices are rising at the camp market and hundreds of people are lining up for water at the few dozen hand pumps.

Camp leaders say there have been 85 cases of meningitis, including several deaths over the last two weeks. But the figures cannot be confirmed.

Government officials insist they will not reverse the expulsion of aid groups, which they accused of providing information to help the International Criminal Court build a war-crimes case against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

The groups denied the charges.

"The decision is irreversible," said Al-Hadi Najim, secretary-general of the government agency that oversees humanitarian aid here. "If they want the services, we are ready to facilitate. But we can't force anybody to eat."

He said the government had tried to deliver 46 drums of fuel to restart water pumps, offered to pay the salaries of workers at health clinics and attempted to open five meningitis-vaccination centers. All were rejected by the camp leaders. Najim blamed the camp's intransigence on Nur.

Nur, based in Paris, did not return phone calls seeking comment. He wants the government to reverse its order and warned that it might lead to further violence inside the camps.

Najim praised the international-aid groups' efforts to train thousands of Sudanese humanitarian workers in Darfur but said the foreign agencies spend too much money on themselves, including guesthouses, security guards and air-conditioned trucks. Sudanese agencies, he said, would be more cost effective.

Camp leaders say the government is expelling the foreign-aid groups as a precursor to closing the camps and forcing people to go home.

Najim said security in many areas of Darfur had improved enough to allow families to return. He said thousands had already left camps.

"We hope that more people will go home," he said. "They can't spend the rest of their lives begging the international community to feed them."

AU Darfur Panel to come up with a proposal for expediting the peace process in Darfur

Mr. Mbeki's panel has a daunting three-fold mandate. First, come up with a proposal for expediting the peace process in Darfur. Second, advise the African Union on how to face the challenge of dealing with war crimes and those who commit them. Third, to find a way to achieve reconciliation among the region's warring parties.

Voice of America News report by Peter Heinlein (Addis Ababa) March 20, 2009
AU Darfur Panel Asked To Find Middle Path Between Justice and Reconciliation:

A newly-formed high-level African Union panel has been assigned the task of developing a formula that would reconcile calls for justice in Darfur with the need to heal the wounds of war. Panel chairman Thabo Mbeki is looking for inspiration in the reconciliation process that brought an end to apartheid in his native South Africa.

Mr. Mbeki's panel has a daunting three-fold mandate. First, come up with a proposal for expediting the peace process in Darfur. Second, advise the African Union on how to face the challenge of dealing with war crimes and those who commit them. Third, to find a way to achieve reconciliation among the region's warring parties.

The eight-member panel has until the end of July to submit its report.

Even before it began work, the panel has been accused of being little more than a mask for efforts to delay the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) war crimes indictments against Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The African Union is on record as opposing the indictments, calling them an obstacle to peace.

But Mr. Mbeki says the panel's work will not include a critique of the ICC indictments. "There isn't any specific mandate from the African Union for us to assess the work of ICC. The African Union decided some time back and has reaffirmed that decision, that it would prefer the (UN) Security Council should defer the serving of warrants on President Bashir for 12 months... so the African Union itself, never mind the panel, is saying, can you take this matter and put it in abeyance so we can deal with this matter?," he said.

Mr. Mbeki told reporters he accepts the need for an end to impunity in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people are believed to have died in six years of war marked by ethnic cleansing. But he says while the ICC indictments may strike a blow against impunity, they will do little to soothe the hatreds that have spawned massacres and worse in the vast region of western Sudan.

Speaking of his own experience in South Africa, he recalled the decision not to prosecute leaders of the hated apartheid regime, even though they could have been brought to trial for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of black people.

"The African Union takes the position that we really need to do something to ensure we do achieve peace as a matter of urgency, that we do address the issue of war crimes, impunity, etcetera, and that we seriously have a look at how to reconcile the Sudanese people after all these terrible conflicts," he said.

African Union leaders authorized the Mbeki panel at their last summit in February, after it became clear the ICC would issue arrest warrants for President Bashir. The indictments handed down March fourth accuse the Sudanese leader of orchestrating atrocities against civilians in Darfur.

China urges restraints on Darfur issue

From China Daily (Xinhua) March 21, 2009
China urges restraints on Darfur issue

UNITED NATIONS -- China on Friday called for the parties concerned to exercise restraint and adopt a comprehensive solution to the issue of Darfur, so as to prevent the escalation of tension.



Photo: A truck loaded with new refugees enters Zamzam refugee camp, outside the Darfur town of al-Fasher, Sudan, Thursday, March 19, 2009. [Agencies]

"The issue of Darfur is multi-faceted and complex," Liu Zhenmin, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the council in a public meeting. It encompasses areas such as political process, deployment of peacekeepers, humanitarian relief, judicial justice and economic reconstruction, he said.

Some of the recent events have shown that the issuance by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of an arrest warrant to the Sudanese leader has already "adversely affected the situation in Darfur," he said.

"It is our hope that the parties concerned will exercise restraint to prevent the escalation of tension so as to avoid any new negative impact on the political process, deployment of peacekeepers and humanitarian assistance in Darfur," he said.

He urged the UN Security Council to have "a comprehensive discussion on the issue of Darfur to develop an integrated strategy," and move ahead all work "in a balanced way in order to seek a comprehensive solution to the issue."

In early March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country's restive western region of Darfur between 2003 and 2008.

The Sudanese government reiterated several times that the ICC has no jurisdiction over Sudan because the country is neither a member of the tribunal nor a party which ratified the Rome Statute that set up the tribunal.

ICC's Ocampo denies getting any help or information from NGOs in Darfur and says Sudan expulsions 'confirm crimes'

According to the following report from Aljazeera today, the International Criminal Court's (ICC) chief prosecutor denied getting any help or information from NGOs in Darfur. But the report makes no mention of those who worked in Chad and in other countries outside of Sudan.

Note that a report filed here at Sudan Watch [March 4, 2009 - Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s drawings of Darfur that were accepted by ICC as evidence in any trial] claims that last year, UK based rights group Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s pictures of Darfur war that were accepted by the ICC as contextual evidence to be used in any trial. Waging Peace collected the drawings from refugees in Chad.

March 21, 2009 report from Aljazeera/Agencies:
Sudan expulsions 'confirm crimes'

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has criticised the Sudanese president's decision to expel 13 aid agencies from the country.

Moreno-Ocampo said that the ejection of the non-governmental organisations proves that the ICC was correct to pursue Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, on war-crimes charges.

The Netherlands-based court granted Moreno-Ocampo's request earlier this month for a warrant for al-Bashir's arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Al-Bashir's government has been battling ethnic African groups in Darfur since 2003 and he has been accused of orchestrating atrocities against civilians.

"This idea to expel the humanitarians is confirming the court decision," Moreno-Ocampo said in New York after the UN Security Council met to receive an updated assessment on the Darfur crisis.

"Expelling them is confirming the crimes."

Reversal rejected

Khartoum ordered the aid agencies out of Darfur after the ICC issued the arrest warrant, and has ruled out reversing that decision, despite pressure from the US and UN Security Council members.

"The decision of the government of Sudan is a legitimate sovereign decision which we will never reverse," Mohamed Yousif Ibrahim Abdelmannan, Sudan's envoy to the UN, told the council on Friday.

"This should not be a issue for discussion."

The UK, Austria, Uganda and several other countries have appealed to Khartoum to rethink its position.

A rebel group in Darfur, meanwhile, announced that it was pulling out of peace talks with the Sudanese government after the aid agencies were expelled.

"The movement cannot negotiate with the government of al-Bashir," Khalil Ibrahim, the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), told the Reuters news agency by telephone on Friday.

Jem signed a deal with the Sudanese government after talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, last month, under which both sides agreed to undertake "good faith" measures.

"There was supposed to be a conference [in Doha] after three weeks but we will not go," Ibrahim said.

'Free prisoners'

Ibrahim said the government must allow the expelled aid agencies back into Darfur and free Jem prisoners before talks could resume.

Ibrahim signed a 'good faith deal' with Sudan after talks in Qatar last month [EPA] Rashid Khalikov, a senior UN humanitarian affairs official, told the council on Friday there were "significant signs of an erosion of humanitarian response capacity, with a concurrent impact on the lives of people in Darfur" since the 13 foreign and three domestic NGOs were expelled.

UN officials say the banished aid groups accounted for around half of the aid-distribution capacity in Darfur.

Sudan says the aid groups, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Care, helped the ICC issue the arrest warrant.

The groups reject the charge.

Moreno-Ocampo said he had received no help or information from NGOs or UN agencies in his investigation.

JEM seem to energetically welcome any excuse not to participate in peace talks.
- - -

Report from Alarabiya.net Saturday, 21 March 2009:
US says Bashir responsible for Darfur deaths

The United States demanded late on Friday that the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir “be held accountable for each and every death" in Darfur following his decision to expel foreign aid groups.

"President Bashir and his government are responsible for and must be held accountable for each and every death caused by these callous and calculated actions," Washington's U.N. ambassador Susan Rice told the U.N. Security Council during a briefing on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's strife-torn western region.

"We urge the international community to press the government of Sudan to reverse its expulsion edict and to ensure it does nothing to worsen an already grave situation," Rice said. "President Bashir created this crisis…He should rectify it immediately."

Without giving details, Rice told reporters after the meeting that Washington was consulting with council members and other U.N. member states on "appropriate next steps."

British, Austrian, Ugandan and several other envoys also appealed to Khartoum to rethink its position. They cited a bleak report on the humanitarian situation in Darfur from Rashid Khalikov, a senior official of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

But the Chinese and Libyan delegates were more cautious, focusing on the negative impact of the ICC arrest warrant.

British Ambassador John Sawers also had tough words for Khartoum, saying: "The United Kingdom will hold the government of Sudan responsible for the suffering that their decision causes."

The U.S. delegation requested Friday's briefing by Khalikov, who warned of "significant signs of an erosion of humanitarian response capacity, with a concurrent impact on the lives of people in Darfur."

Rice said Khartoum "owns its consequences, which will not only cost lives but leave the government locked deeper in an isolation of its own making."

Defiant Sudan

Several other ambassadors appealed to Khartoum to rescind the expulsion order. But Mohamed Yousif Abdelmannan, a Sudanese U.N. delegate, reiterated that his government's decision was irreversible.

"The decision of the government of Sudan is a legitimate sovereign decision which we will never reverse, and this should not be an issue for discussion," the Sudanese diplomat told the council.

Earlier Khalikov said the world body was still pressing for a reversal of the NGOs expulsion and recalled that a series of joint U.N.-Sudan assessments of the situation in three Darfur states was underway.

"The findings will be finalized this weekend with government counterparts in Khartoum," he noted. "We should be able to speak more next week about their impact on the wider assistance effort in Darfur."

"There is no doubt that our ability to help the people of Darfur and northern Sudan has been seriously compromised," the OCHA official said. "The current atmosphere of fear and uncertainty facing all aid organizations is affecting the assistance available to the people of Darfur."

Visiting ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who observed Friday's council proceedings, said Bashir, by expelling the humanitarian aid groups, "is confirming the crime" of extermination.

"The king is naked," Moreno-Ocampo said, referring to Bashir. "It is not my responsibility that the king is naked."

The United Nations says that 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have been made homeless by the conflict in Darfur which erupted in February 2003.

Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers hold 700 Ugandan traders hostage

Southern Sudan's SPLA soldiers are demanding seven months in salary arrears.

Report: Southern Sudanese soldiers hold Ugandan traders hostage
From EarthTimes March 21, 2009 Kampala -

Hundreds of Ugandan traders in southern Sudan are being held hostage by soldiers picketing over long delays in the payment of their wages, the Ugandan press said Saturday. At least 1000 Ugandan vehicles are stranded along the roads from the border points to southern Sudan's capital Juba after being barred from moving by Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers, the government newspaper, The New Vision reported.

The daily reported that the soldiers were demanding seven months in salary arrears.

Central Broadcasting Service (CBS) reported that as many as 700 Ugandans were being held hostage by the SPLA and that some of the vehicles had been set ablaze by the soldiers.

Thousands of Ugandan and other regional nationals rushed to southern Sudan for business ventures following peace with the Muslim north.

The mostly Christian and animist southern Sudanese fought for decades against successive Muslim governments in Khartoum.

UN Security Council resolution 1583 urges all UN members to co-operate with the ICC

BBC report 21 March 2009 - excerpt:
Sudan 'extermination' as aid cut

The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court has accused Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir of "exterminating" refugees by expelling international aid agencies.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo said that by blocking aid the president was attacking the civilians in the giant camps that dot Darfur.

He called for President Bashir to be arrested as soon as he leaves Sudan.

The president is due to attend this month's Arab League summit in Qatar.

Speaking to the BBC's Network Africa, Mr Moreno-Ocampo said that by expelling the international aid agencies the president was "confirming that he is exterminating his people".

Arab League summit

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said that he would work for the arrest of President Bashir as soon as he leaves Sudan.

Judges at the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges earlier this month.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said that entering international airspace would be enough, since UN Security Council resolution 1583 urges all UN members to co-operate with the court.

Qatar, which invited President Bashir to the Arab League summit, has not signed the statute that brought the ICC into being.

Some Sudanese leaders, concerned about the president's safety, have urged him not to visit the annual Arab summit, due to start on 29 March.

Earlier this week the Sudanese former president Siwar Al-Dahab urged President Bashir to exercise "patience and wisdom" and not risk travelling to Qatar "for his safety and the safety of Sudanese people".

The United Nations and the Sudanese authorities concluded a joint assessment mission to Darfur to investigate how best to deal with the camps after President Bashir's expulsion of the 13 international aid agencies.

The UN delegation returned to Khartoum on Friday and are due to meet the Sudanese government for formal consultations.

Gunmen loot Oxfam warehouse in Darfur, W. Sudan

Report from The Associated Press March 21, 2009 - excerpt:
Gunmen loot Oxfam warehouse in Darfur

AL-SALAM CAMP, Sudan: Refugee camp leaders in Darfur say a dozen men broke into the warehouse of an expelled British aid group, stealing all its contents.

Camp leader Adam Mahmoud told Darfur peacekeepers that armed men stormed the site early Saturday, driving off the guards with gunfire. Another leader, Ismail Braima, said the men stole cement sacks and water pipes.

The area where the Oxfam-UK center once stood has been emptied of all its contents.

This is believed to be the first such looting of an aid group's material since the government expelled Oxfam and 12 foreign aid groups on March 4. [...]