Washington, DC, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush pushed for peace in Sudan Tuesday during telephone conversations with leaders of combatant sides, the White House said.
Spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush told Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir to continue working on a north-south agreement to end 21-years of civil war and allow more African Union peacekeepers into the country.
McClellan said Bush also spoke with John Garang, leader of the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army, which opposes the Khartoum government.
"The president urged that both sides now bring the discussions to a close and reach and agreement for the people of Sudan," he said.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Monday, November 15, 2004
THE NEW KILLING FIELDS IN DARFUR, SUDAN
The BBC's first class Panorama documentary "The new killing fields" aired on British TV last night.
It asked whether the first genocide of the 21st century is occurring in Darfur. The documentary left the viewer in little doubt that Darfur was genocide.
British Foreign Office Minsiter Chris Mullin, was interviewed, and made it clear there was no intention to intervene militarily with European troops who would get shot at from all sides with catastrophic repercussions for the whole of Africa. He rejected international intervention as complicated. "If any western force did intervene it would become very bogged down. Some new call for all the jihadists in the world would emerge and we'd find ourselves very quickly being shot at from all sides," he said.
BBC's Hilary Andersson, who for much of this year has been reporting from Darfur (and deserves an award) went on the trail of the killers to find out who the Janjaweed are. Travelling behind the rebel lines to areas where no television team has previously reached, the Panorama programme uncovered evidence of systematic killings on a horrifying scale. She also investigated where their orders are coming from and confronted the tribal head Hilal who is number one on the US State Department's list of suspected Janjaweed leaders.
Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, wearing a European style business suit, shirt and tie, was interviewed. He said Sudan's government has bombed towns in Darfur, but only to put down a regional uprising by the Sudan Liberation Army rebels. But survivors told a different story.
Note, another excellent report by Hilary Andersson in Darfur, from the Sunday Times yesterday: Genocide lays waste Darfur’s land of no men.
The Janjaweed are said to have shot children at this school in Kidinyir
- - -
FRUSTRATION OF DARFUR 'OBSERVER'
African Union Commander Seth Appiah Mensah told the BBC's Panorama programme that the remit he was working under was "highly restrictive" but added that he had no doubt that the Sudanese government was arming the Janjaweed militia.
"The government of Sudan forces and the militia work closely together in that area. It is difficult to distinguish who is who," he said. Read more in the Frustration of Darfur 'observer'.
Commander Seth Appiah Mensah of the African Union
- - -
Darfur in quotes
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
Panorama asked if the first genocide of the 21st century is occurring in Darfur.
Here are some key quotes from the programme and from people connected to the conflict.
"One of the reasons for our failure in Rwanda was that beforehand we did not face the fact that genocide was a real possibility. And once it started, for too long we could not bring ourselves to recognize it, or call it by that name."
Kofi Annan, April 2004 (speaking on the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide)
"We concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility, and that genocide may still be occurring. We believe that the evidence corroborates a specific intent to destroy a group in whole or in part."
Colin Powell, September 2004
"Genocide's not a word that I think should be bandied around lightly, for fear of devaluing the term. No-one doubts that there've been massive human rights violations, certainly crimes against humanity, committed in Darfur."
Chris Mullin, Foreign minister
"Our position is clear, that what has been going on is not a genocide, this is an American attempt to use a humanitarian situation for a political agenda."
Dr Mustafa Osman Ismail, Sudanese foreign minister
Mustafa Osman Ismail, Sudanese foreign minister
"My words are very clear in this regard. The war has its repercussions. The rebels started this war. They started burning and destroying many of the villages. They started destroying our villages first.
Musa Hilal, suspected Janjaweed leader
Musa Hilal - Arab tribal leader and 'leader' of the Janjaweed
"My son was clinging to my dress. An Arab looking man, in a uniform with military insignia, stopped his car next to me. He grabbed my son from me and threw him into a fire."
Kalima, resident of the village of Kidinyir, Darfur
"The government never initiated this war. The rebels, who are not denying it, they are the ones who initiated this war and insist on continuation of this war."
Dr Mustafa Osman Ismail, Sudanese foreign minister
"When they say we will go and fight the rebels, they lie. They do not actually go to fight the rebels. Instead they raid the villages and the small scattered communities and seize people's possessions."
Anonymous former Janjaweed recruit
"It's highly restrictive. Highly restrictive because we are not even allowed to look into issues like rape and other things. Highly restrictive because it only gives us an ability to observe, verify and report."
Commander Seth Appiah Mensah, African Union soldier in Darfur
"The children started jumping out of the windows of the classes, when they saw the 'Janjaweed' coming into the school. Some of the children were trying to run from the school, others were trying to hide inside. They killed two or three of the students who stayed in the classes. They were also shooting the other children who were trying to run away."
Hikma, teacher in the village of Kidinyir, Darfur
- - -
VIEWERS HAVE THEIR SAY ON THE NEW KILLING FIELDS
Read viewer's comments to the BBC on its New Killing Fields Panorama programme.
It asked whether the first genocide of the 21st century is occurring in Darfur. The documentary left the viewer in little doubt that Darfur was genocide.
British Foreign Office Minsiter Chris Mullin, was interviewed, and made it clear there was no intention to intervene militarily with European troops who would get shot at from all sides with catastrophic repercussions for the whole of Africa. He rejected international intervention as complicated. "If any western force did intervene it would become very bogged down. Some new call for all the jihadists in the world would emerge and we'd find ourselves very quickly being shot at from all sides," he said.
BBC's Hilary Andersson, who for much of this year has been reporting from Darfur (and deserves an award) went on the trail of the killers to find out who the Janjaweed are. Travelling behind the rebel lines to areas where no television team has previously reached, the Panorama programme uncovered evidence of systematic killings on a horrifying scale. She also investigated where their orders are coming from and confronted the tribal head Hilal who is number one on the US State Department's list of suspected Janjaweed leaders.
Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, wearing a European style business suit, shirt and tie, was interviewed. He said Sudan's government has bombed towns in Darfur, but only to put down a regional uprising by the Sudan Liberation Army rebels. But survivors told a different story.
Note, another excellent report by Hilary Andersson in Darfur, from the Sunday Times yesterday: Genocide lays waste Darfur’s land of no men.
The Janjaweed are said to have shot children at this school in Kidinyir
- - -
FRUSTRATION OF DARFUR 'OBSERVER'
African Union Commander Seth Appiah Mensah told the BBC's Panorama programme that the remit he was working under was "highly restrictive" but added that he had no doubt that the Sudanese government was arming the Janjaweed militia.
"The government of Sudan forces and the militia work closely together in that area. It is difficult to distinguish who is who," he said. Read more in the Frustration of Darfur 'observer'.
Commander Seth Appiah Mensah of the African Union
- - -
Darfur in quotes
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
Panorama asked if the first genocide of the 21st century is occurring in Darfur.
Here are some key quotes from the programme and from people connected to the conflict.
"One of the reasons for our failure in Rwanda was that beforehand we did not face the fact that genocide was a real possibility. And once it started, for too long we could not bring ourselves to recognize it, or call it by that name."
Kofi Annan, April 2004 (speaking on the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide)
"We concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility, and that genocide may still be occurring. We believe that the evidence corroborates a specific intent to destroy a group in whole or in part."
Colin Powell, September 2004
"Genocide's not a word that I think should be bandied around lightly, for fear of devaluing the term. No-one doubts that there've been massive human rights violations, certainly crimes against humanity, committed in Darfur."
Chris Mullin, Foreign minister
"Our position is clear, that what has been going on is not a genocide, this is an American attempt to use a humanitarian situation for a political agenda."
Dr Mustafa Osman Ismail, Sudanese foreign minister
Mustafa Osman Ismail, Sudanese foreign minister
"My words are very clear in this regard. The war has its repercussions. The rebels started this war. They started burning and destroying many of the villages. They started destroying our villages first.
Musa Hilal, suspected Janjaweed leader
Musa Hilal - Arab tribal leader and 'leader' of the Janjaweed
"My son was clinging to my dress. An Arab looking man, in a uniform with military insignia, stopped his car next to me. He grabbed my son from me and threw him into a fire."
Kalima, resident of the village of Kidinyir, Darfur
"The government never initiated this war. The rebels, who are not denying it, they are the ones who initiated this war and insist on continuation of this war."
Dr Mustafa Osman Ismail, Sudanese foreign minister
"When they say we will go and fight the rebels, they lie. They do not actually go to fight the rebels. Instead they raid the villages and the small scattered communities and seize people's possessions."
Anonymous former Janjaweed recruit
"It's highly restrictive. Highly restrictive because we are not even allowed to look into issues like rape and other things. Highly restrictive because it only gives us an ability to observe, verify and report."
Commander Seth Appiah Mensah, African Union soldier in Darfur
"The children started jumping out of the windows of the classes, when they saw the 'Janjaweed' coming into the school. Some of the children were trying to run from the school, others were trying to hide inside. They killed two or three of the students who stayed in the classes. They were also shooting the other children who were trying to run away."
Hikma, teacher in the village of Kidinyir, Darfur
- - -
VIEWERS HAVE THEIR SAY ON THE NEW KILLING FIELDS
Read viewer's comments to the BBC on its New Killing Fields Panorama programme.
Sudan's forces will return to retake territory they've lost - Danforth is asked should US send troops?
In the Shilluk kingdom, in southern Sudan, it is nature and not man which seems to be keeping the peace.
In blackspots like Shilluk, where there was large-scale violence this year, a stream of rainy season floodwater, too deep for a pick-up filled with troops to cross safely, runs between the opposing frontlines. Analysts fear that when the dry season comes, later this month, government forces will return with a vengeance and seek to retake the territory they have lost.
WHAT IS THE WORLD DOING ABOUT IT?
This Thursday and Friday, the UN security council is holding a special session in Nairobi to focus attention on two disasters: (1) southern Sudan (2) and Darfur in western Sudan. They aim to pressure Sudan's genocidal dictator Bashir and the southern rebels of John Garang, to sign a final peace deal aimed at ending two decades of war.
Agreements in Sudan have been known to be written in disappearing invisible ink - and are not worth the paper they're written on.
Khartoum agreed to a no-fly zone recently, as well as signing a ceasefire in April. But a lack of trust and inability by leaders on both sides to control forces on the ground has meant that violence is on the increase. The ceasefire has been repeatedly violated by both sides.
The U.S. has ruled out sending their own troops. Britain could be asked to contribute peacekeeping troops to an international force for Darfur.
The US ambassador to the UN, John Danforth, has hinted that offers of aid may be withdrawn if a peace agreement is not reached swiftly in the south.
- - -
LEANING ON A RUBBER STICK
The United States revises its strategy on Sudan, seeks UN aid if peace deal signed
Two previous UN Security Council resolutions have threatened Khartoum with sanctions if it fails to curb the violence.
Sudan has not complied with Security Council demands over three months to disarm, arrest, and prosecute Arab militia.
An offer of financial aid marks a strategy shift by the United States. John C. Danforth, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said that although the threat of sanctions stands, the Security Council meeting in Nairobi on Thursday and Friday will focus more on the "carrot" than the "stick."
The United States changed course on Sudan after facing stiff opposition to sanctions, including a Chinese threat to block the United States from adopting a UN resolution punishing Khartoum over Darfur, according to a senior US official involved in the discussions.
"Are we leaning on a rubber stick? Sure," Danforth acknowledged in an interview. "It would clearly be extremely difficult to get a resolution that actually imposes sanctions in the Security Council adopted. We're doing the best we can with that particular tool."
- - -
JOHN DANFORTH IS ASKED:
Should the United States send troops?
November 9, 2004. Gwen Ifill talks with John Danforth, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, about the latest efforts to end the violence in Darfur and the planned U.N. meeting to address a nationwide peace for Sudan. Here is an excerpt:
Q: GWEN IFILL: There have been at least, by my count, six protocols or agreements that have been worked out in the past. None of them had been enforced. Where is the incentive for the government of Sudan or the rebels, for that matter, to sign on to anything this time?
A: JOHN DANFORTH: You're absolutely right. The history of Sudan for years has been a whole series of agreements that have been reached -- they turn out to be paper agreements, it's as though they're written in disappearing ink -- and they don't amount to anything. So what we have found in dealing with Sudan is it's important for the international community to have a continuing presence, to be there with monitors, to be there guaranteeing what was done on paper, to be there with peacekeepers. And this is part of the future that we hope to lay out when we're there. If they reach a peace agreement, the world is not going to go away. We're going to continue to be very, very engaged in the future of Sudan. So the hope is that the continuing international engagement in Sudan will provide a more durable peace.
Q: GWEN IFILL: Does the world have to do more than watch, though? I understand an African problem that the African Union is trying to resolve. But at what point does the United States, independent of the United Nations perhaps, have to assert its own forceful, independent, perhaps boots-on-the-ground effort to control what's happening, especially in the Darfur region?
A: JOHN DANFORTH: Well, some have argued that. And they say that notwithstanding the U.N., the U.S. should go it alone. I mean, this would really be unilateralism if that's what we did. But it's not the position of the African Union. I think that because we are, our military is really extended, very engaged very much in other parts of the world right now, it's doubtful that we're going to do that. I think it would be impossible to get the Security Council to agree to that. So I believe that the most practical thing that could be done right now, basically two things that are the practical that could be done: One is the deployment of the African Union in Darfur in the most numbers that we can get in there. I think that's very positive; and the second is to wrap up the North-South peace agreement, and that's why we're going over to Nairobi next week.
Read the full transcript.
- - -
SUDAN AWARENESS DAY
u.s. students urge action against Sudan violence. Yale students participate in a vigil to kickoff today’s Sudan Awareness Day. Groups will encourage letter writing to U.S. and UN representatives. (SOPHIE PERL/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER)
Students urge action against Sudan violence, says the Yale Daily News:
Bearing candles and green ribbons, nearly 30 students gathered at a vigil Sunday evening to raise awareness about the ongoing violence in Darfur.
The vigil was an opportunity for Yale students to think about the meaning of genocide. It introduced Monday's Sudan Awareness Day, when student representatives from Amnesty International and Students Take Action Now: Darfur will be tabling on Cross Campus and in dining halls. Those tabling will encourage students to write letters petitioning U.S. and UN representatives to take action to stop what group members described as a genocide.
At the vigil, students circled around a chalked silhouette of the African country to read aloud Sudanese refugees' testimonies about the rape and violence they have experienced at the hands of the Sudanese government and the government-backed Janjaweed milita. They also read testimonies from survivors of the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust.
- - -
Note, Eleonora Sharef '07, who helped set up the vigil, urged those who attended to spread the word across the campus. "We think that with pressure from the U.S. something can change," Sharef said. "Spread the word about this to your friends."
In blackspots like Shilluk, where there was large-scale violence this year, a stream of rainy season floodwater, too deep for a pick-up filled with troops to cross safely, runs between the opposing frontlines. Analysts fear that when the dry season comes, later this month, government forces will return with a vengeance and seek to retake the territory they have lost.
WHAT IS THE WORLD DOING ABOUT IT?
This Thursday and Friday, the UN security council is holding a special session in Nairobi to focus attention on two disasters: (1) southern Sudan (2) and Darfur in western Sudan. They aim to pressure Sudan's genocidal dictator Bashir and the southern rebels of John Garang, to sign a final peace deal aimed at ending two decades of war.
Agreements in Sudan have been known to be written in disappearing invisible ink - and are not worth the paper they're written on.
Khartoum agreed to a no-fly zone recently, as well as signing a ceasefire in April. But a lack of trust and inability by leaders on both sides to control forces on the ground has meant that violence is on the increase. The ceasefire has been repeatedly violated by both sides.
The U.S. has ruled out sending their own troops. Britain could be asked to contribute peacekeeping troops to an international force for Darfur.
The US ambassador to the UN, John Danforth, has hinted that offers of aid may be withdrawn if a peace agreement is not reached swiftly in the south.
- - -
LEANING ON A RUBBER STICK
The United States revises its strategy on Sudan, seeks UN aid if peace deal signed
Two previous UN Security Council resolutions have threatened Khartoum with sanctions if it fails to curb the violence.
Sudan has not complied with Security Council demands over three months to disarm, arrest, and prosecute Arab militia.
An offer of financial aid marks a strategy shift by the United States. John C. Danforth, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said that although the threat of sanctions stands, the Security Council meeting in Nairobi on Thursday and Friday will focus more on the "carrot" than the "stick."
The United States changed course on Sudan after facing stiff opposition to sanctions, including a Chinese threat to block the United States from adopting a UN resolution punishing Khartoum over Darfur, according to a senior US official involved in the discussions.
"Are we leaning on a rubber stick? Sure," Danforth acknowledged in an interview. "It would clearly be extremely difficult to get a resolution that actually imposes sanctions in the Security Council adopted. We're doing the best we can with that particular tool."
- - -
JOHN DANFORTH IS ASKED:
Should the United States send troops?
November 9, 2004. Gwen Ifill talks with John Danforth, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, about the latest efforts to end the violence in Darfur and the planned U.N. meeting to address a nationwide peace for Sudan. Here is an excerpt:
Q: GWEN IFILL: There have been at least, by my count, six protocols or agreements that have been worked out in the past. None of them had been enforced. Where is the incentive for the government of Sudan or the rebels, for that matter, to sign on to anything this time?
A: JOHN DANFORTH: You're absolutely right. The history of Sudan for years has been a whole series of agreements that have been reached -- they turn out to be paper agreements, it's as though they're written in disappearing ink -- and they don't amount to anything. So what we have found in dealing with Sudan is it's important for the international community to have a continuing presence, to be there with monitors, to be there guaranteeing what was done on paper, to be there with peacekeepers. And this is part of the future that we hope to lay out when we're there. If they reach a peace agreement, the world is not going to go away. We're going to continue to be very, very engaged in the future of Sudan. So the hope is that the continuing international engagement in Sudan will provide a more durable peace.
Q: GWEN IFILL: Does the world have to do more than watch, though? I understand an African problem that the African Union is trying to resolve. But at what point does the United States, independent of the United Nations perhaps, have to assert its own forceful, independent, perhaps boots-on-the-ground effort to control what's happening, especially in the Darfur region?
A: JOHN DANFORTH: Well, some have argued that. And they say that notwithstanding the U.N., the U.S. should go it alone. I mean, this would really be unilateralism if that's what we did. But it's not the position of the African Union. I think that because we are, our military is really extended, very engaged very much in other parts of the world right now, it's doubtful that we're going to do that. I think it would be impossible to get the Security Council to agree to that. So I believe that the most practical thing that could be done right now, basically two things that are the practical that could be done: One is the deployment of the African Union in Darfur in the most numbers that we can get in there. I think that's very positive; and the second is to wrap up the North-South peace agreement, and that's why we're going over to Nairobi next week.
Read the full transcript.
- - -
SUDAN AWARENESS DAY
u.s. students urge action against Sudan violence. Yale students participate in a vigil to kickoff today’s Sudan Awareness Day. Groups will encourage letter writing to U.S. and UN representatives. (SOPHIE PERL/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER)
Students urge action against Sudan violence, says the Yale Daily News:
Bearing candles and green ribbons, nearly 30 students gathered at a vigil Sunday evening to raise awareness about the ongoing violence in Darfur.
The vigil was an opportunity for Yale students to think about the meaning of genocide. It introduced Monday's Sudan Awareness Day, when student representatives from Amnesty International and Students Take Action Now: Darfur will be tabling on Cross Campus and in dining halls. Those tabling will encourage students to write letters petitioning U.S. and UN representatives to take action to stop what group members described as a genocide.
At the vigil, students circled around a chalked silhouette of the African country to read aloud Sudanese refugees' testimonies about the rape and violence they have experienced at the hands of the Sudanese government and the government-backed Janjaweed milita. They also read testimonies from survivors of the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust.
- - -
Note, Eleonora Sharef '07, who helped set up the vigil, urged those who attended to spread the word across the campus. "We think that with pressure from the U.S. something can change," Sharef said. "Spread the word about this to your friends."
Sunday, November 14, 2004
U.S. activists pressing public pension funds to divest $91 billion in Sudan
Full Story and more from the Sudan Campaign
Displaced Sudanese children pray Saturday, Nov. 13, 2004, in the Kalma refugee camp near Nyala town in Sudan's western Darfur region. The children were saying special morning prayers marking Eid al-Fitr, the feast that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan was deemed by clerics in Sudan to be over Saturday. (AP).
- - -
JANJAWEED 'LEADER' DENIES GENOCIDE
Panorama documentary The new killing fields will be broadcast on television in the UK at 22:15GMT on Sunday, November 14 on BBC One.
- - -
UK BAND AID SONG RE-LAUNCH FOR DARFUR
Today, after 20 years, a new version of the Band Aid 1984 hit, Do They Know it's Christmas? is being recorded in England.
The single will be released on 29 November to raise money for famine relief in Darfur.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Duke students begin replica of Darfur suffering - Germany to send airlift planes to Sudan - Britain may deploy troops
This photo shows a group of Duke students working on putting up the first structure of what they intend to be a Sudanese refugee village replica at Duke on Friday.
The students are putting up a refugee type structure modelled after those in Darfur to raise awareness of the suffering and plight of the victims of genocide in Darfur Sudan. Here is a copy of a November 13 report from The Herald-Sun in America:
DURHAM -- The tent looked rickety, ready to fall to the slightest gust. But then, that's the point. A group of Duke undergraduates spent Friday afternoon propping up the structure, the beginning of a planned replica of a refugee village designed to draw attention to Darfur.
"We have to acknowledge that a genocide has happened," said Damjan Denoble, one of the project's organizers.
That crisis inspired the Duke students to build their own refugee village. They hope to add nine more to the first tent -- essentially a dirty sheet of canvas held up by tree branches. The design is based on pictures of actual refugee dwellings in Sudan and across the border in Chad.
And the students also plan to help passers-by write letters and make phone calls to members of Congress, asking them to put Darfur on the national agenda. The village will stay up through Thursday, when a vigil to raise awareness about the ongoing crisis in Sudan is planned for the steps of Duke Chapel.
Anders Luco, a graduate student in the philosophy department, said his group, Justice, and other students hope to raise money during the vigil for nongovernmental agencies providing aid to the refugees. The crisis has not received as much attention as it should, he said, given the human hardship involved.
"It's the single most dire humanitarian crisis on Earth right now," he said.
The students building the mock village said they hope it will educate students, but they added that it also would be worth the effort if it only sparked a few thoughts about the suffering in central Africa.
Political causes can get lost among all the others on a college campus, so the students have to do something dramatic to get attention, the organizers said.
"Part of it is the spectacle of it," said Vijay Brihmadesam, a sophomore involved in the project.
- - -
Note, MICHAEL PETROCELLI, the author of above report in The Herald-Sun, can be emailed at mpetrocelli@heraldsun.com. After posting this, I shall send him a link to the above.
Wouldn't it be great to see the mock village idea catch on at every campus across the world? A few scraps and twigs, and some energy and effort, are all that's needed to pitch up a village and grab the world's attention. Warm thanks to Mr Petrocelli for publicising this great initiative by the American students. It's a brilliant idea. Hope we get to hear more. They ought to be televised, across the world.
Here in England on BBC TV, there is a long running (well over 40 years) TV programme called Blue Peter that so many Brits grew up with, it's become a cult. Hugely popular with youngsters and parents, Blue Peter is an educational e-zine for teenagers that broadcasts serious news on world events and politics - and features all sorts of creative projects using scraps, empty washing up liquid bottles, drinking straws, bottle tops etc.
Maybe people like Michael Petrocelli can get TV stations interested in the students who could explain their Darfur project on TV (and radio) programmes like Blue Peter. More mainstream media and TV coverage is needed. We get just a minute or two on one news station, every few days - sometimes not for a week or two.
A previous post here dated November 11 linked to a BBC report re British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's shock at seeing BBC footage showing Sudan's police attacking a refugee camp in Darfur. You can view the video by clicking into a box in the top right hand corner of the report. Unfortunately, I'm using a PowerBook G4 and it wouldn't play for me.
Anyone can spread the word and get the video beamed around the world by linking to the BBC report in their weblog or website and pointing it out to readers. Please spread the word. Thank you. The UN Security Council meeting is next week, we need to get as much publicity on Darfur as possible. Jack Straw sent word out in the press: the pressure needs to be piled high on Khartoum. If we can put pressure on the Security Council - they might feel the pressure piling on them to do something.
- - -
GERMANY TO SEND AIRLIFT PLANES TO SUDAN
Some news reports say there are now 700 troops (probably including observers and monitors) in Darfur. The three US transport planes that airlifted AU soldiers into Darfur are now back in Germany.
The following report from Berlin (via expatica.com) November 11, explains how 3,000 AU soldiers - expected in Darfur by the end of this month - will get there:
The German government will seek parliamentary approval to send transport planes to Sudan to airlift African Union peacekeepers serving in the country, Defence Minister Peter Struck said on Thursday.
Struck told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that a parliamentary green light was needed because "danger to German soldiers cannot be ruled out."
The African Union (AU) has asked for European Union aid in deploying some 3,000 peacekeepers in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
Struck said he expected German Luftwaffe C160 Transall transport jets to be flying missions in Darfur later this year.
- - -
Note, Later this year? Hello. What about this month? Like, today? If you've followed Darfur closely these past six months, you may have noticed nothing much new has been put on the table since April and May when the death toll for Darfur was reportedly 10,000. Thousands of UN peacekeepers were planned for Sudan anyway - to enter by the end of Sept/Dec 2004 to monitor the ceasefires agreements after the long hoped for signing of the north-south peace accords.
Obviously, Kofi Annan has known this all along. Everyone on all sides (GoS, rebels, UN) have been delaying, biding their time and coasting along at everyone's expense with talk, sulks and more talk.
The UN is as good at delaying tactics as Khartoum and the rebels are. Meanwhile ... 10,000 Sudanese die every four weeks waiting for food, medicine and security forces who won't rape, attack, kidnap, bomb and kill them or force them to flee by burning down their homes and bulldozing their refuges. Who knows for sure if this is all to do with Khartoum 'clearing' their land for oil and drilling operations?
- - -
BRITAIN MAY DEPLOY TROOPS TO QUELL FIGHTING IN DARFUR
Here we go again. Deja vu. Round two. Repeat of last crunch-time meeting of UN Security Council. Drums are starting to beat again, turning the pressure on Khartoum. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said pressure must be piled on Khartoum.
Note the below copy of a November 10 report in The Guardian UK. Best thing about reports such as this is, given our history, Khartoum can't help but take any information mentioning British troops, seriously. Peace in Sudan 'by January' is the ultimatum Tony Blair personally delivered to Khartoum.
"Britain could be asked to contribute troops to a 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping force for Sudan under a draft resolution being discussed in the security council, government officials in London indicated yesterday:
"The proposal for a UN force is part of a British package of incentives designed to gain Sudan's agreement to a comprehensive settlement of the conflict in Darfur, in western Sudan.
The UN says fighting in Darfur has claimed the lives of 70,000 people since March. A further 1.5 million people have fled their homes as a result of the violence pitting militias, known as Janjaweed, against two rebel groups, the Sudanese Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement.
The security council passed two resolutions this year in an attempt to halt the conflict, threatening the Khartoum government with sanctions if it failed to rein in the Janjaweed. But recent reports have suggested the situation is deteriorating.
Speaking at the Foreign Office, Chris Mullin, the minister responsible for Africa, said Khartoum had demonstrated "reasonable cooperation" with international efforts to stem the Darfur fighting but it was "still not a very good situation".
Asked whether Britain would send troops to Sudan as part of the proposed UN force, as Tony Blair appeared to suggest earlier this year, Mr Mullin declined to rule it out saying it was "premature" to comment at this time.
Britain's ambassador to the UN, Sir Emyr Jones Parry, said the UN resolution, drafted by Britain, was under discussion and would be presented to an extraordinary security council meeting to be held in Nairobi on November 18-19.
The meeting, convened in Kenya at the request of the US, would focus on Darfur and the long-running talks between Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, he said.
"The draft resolution is the carrot," Sir Emyr said.
"We are saying that if you [the Sudanese government] get your act together to get a stable state and live together, then this is what we can contribute: a major peacekeeping operation by the UN, humanitarian relief, law and order, help with infrastructure and establishing the rule of law and democratic structures."
He said the resolution, if agreed, would support addi-tional deployments of African Union troops, with monitoring duties as now but possibly as peacekeepers with wider powers. And it could dangle the prospect of an international aid donors' conference for Sudan.
The aim was to show Sudan's leaders that "the international community will stand by Sudan but only if it behaves", he said. He said the possibility of sanctions remained if Khartoum failed to reach a settlement.
"Sanctions are held as a latent threat," he said, poised over the heads of both the government and the rebels. He added any punitive measures would be "smart sanctions", targeting financial assets and the foreign travel of officials, rather than ordinary Sudanese.
He appeared to rule out curbs on Sudan's oil exports, which would almost certainly be opposed in the security council by China, one of Sudan's biggest customers.
Britain's special representative for Sudan, Alastair McPhail, said peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, over Darfur were making progress, with agreement reached in principle on humanitarian and security protocols.
It was also hoped that the Nairobi meeting would be a catalyst for a peace accord in the south, he said.
The latest British proposals to break the impasse over Darfur came at a critical moment. UN World Food Programme officials in the region said yesterday that violence in the past month had deprived 175,000 people of emergency food supplies and driven 150,000 people from their homes.
The International Red Cross said last month that villages throughout Darfur faced "an unprecedented food crisis" that was worse than the famines of the 1980."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,14658,1347485,00.html
- - -
BRITISH LIBERAL MP TOM BRAKE HOLDS SUDANESE AMBASSADOR TO ACCOUNT OVER DARFUR
10/11/2004 Tom Brake MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow International Development Secretary, is today meeting with the Sudanese Ambassador to the UK HE Dr Hassan Abdin. Commenting, Mr Brake said:
“As the humanitarian and security situation continues to deteriorate, the Sudanese government continues to give questionable assurances on Darfur. The government is failing to control and disarm the Janjaweed militia and security remains an illusion for the people of Darfur. I am seeking the Ambassador's response to reports that Khartoum is losing control of the region and that Darfur is descending into anarchy.
"Sudan's oil-hungry friends on the Security Council should not help Sudan escape the threat of UN sanctions. Sudan must make good its promises on Darfur and comply with UN resolutions and co-operate with the African Union mission."
“The Sudanese government must halt violations of international humanitarian law and it must re-start peace talks.”
- - -
Note, Jim has written an excellent short summary on Darfur that puts the whole hellish story in a nutshell:
"It's not that complicated: a genocide in Darfur, by proxies of the government of Sudan, in order to suppress an insurgency and intimidate people in other regions of the country."
The students are putting up a refugee type structure modelled after those in Darfur to raise awareness of the suffering and plight of the victims of genocide in Darfur Sudan. Here is a copy of a November 13 report from The Herald-Sun in America:
DURHAM -- The tent looked rickety, ready to fall to the slightest gust. But then, that's the point. A group of Duke undergraduates spent Friday afternoon propping up the structure, the beginning of a planned replica of a refugee village designed to draw attention to Darfur.
"We have to acknowledge that a genocide has happened," said Damjan Denoble, one of the project's organizers.
That crisis inspired the Duke students to build their own refugee village. They hope to add nine more to the first tent -- essentially a dirty sheet of canvas held up by tree branches. The design is based on pictures of actual refugee dwellings in Sudan and across the border in Chad.
And the students also plan to help passers-by write letters and make phone calls to members of Congress, asking them to put Darfur on the national agenda. The village will stay up through Thursday, when a vigil to raise awareness about the ongoing crisis in Sudan is planned for the steps of Duke Chapel.
Anders Luco, a graduate student in the philosophy department, said his group, Justice, and other students hope to raise money during the vigil for nongovernmental agencies providing aid to the refugees. The crisis has not received as much attention as it should, he said, given the human hardship involved.
"It's the single most dire humanitarian crisis on Earth right now," he said.
The students building the mock village said they hope it will educate students, but they added that it also would be worth the effort if it only sparked a few thoughts about the suffering in central Africa.
Political causes can get lost among all the others on a college campus, so the students have to do something dramatic to get attention, the organizers said.
"Part of it is the spectacle of it," said Vijay Brihmadesam, a sophomore involved in the project.
- - -
Note, MICHAEL PETROCELLI, the author of above report in The Herald-Sun, can be emailed at mpetrocelli@heraldsun.com. After posting this, I shall send him a link to the above.
Wouldn't it be great to see the mock village idea catch on at every campus across the world? A few scraps and twigs, and some energy and effort, are all that's needed to pitch up a village and grab the world's attention. Warm thanks to Mr Petrocelli for publicising this great initiative by the American students. It's a brilliant idea. Hope we get to hear more. They ought to be televised, across the world.
Here in England on BBC TV, there is a long running (well over 40 years) TV programme called Blue Peter that so many Brits grew up with, it's become a cult. Hugely popular with youngsters and parents, Blue Peter is an educational e-zine for teenagers that broadcasts serious news on world events and politics - and features all sorts of creative projects using scraps, empty washing up liquid bottles, drinking straws, bottle tops etc.
Maybe people like Michael Petrocelli can get TV stations interested in the students who could explain their Darfur project on TV (and radio) programmes like Blue Peter. More mainstream media and TV coverage is needed. We get just a minute or two on one news station, every few days - sometimes not for a week or two.
A previous post here dated November 11 linked to a BBC report re British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's shock at seeing BBC footage showing Sudan's police attacking a refugee camp in Darfur. You can view the video by clicking into a box in the top right hand corner of the report. Unfortunately, I'm using a PowerBook G4 and it wouldn't play for me.
Anyone can spread the word and get the video beamed around the world by linking to the BBC report in their weblog or website and pointing it out to readers. Please spread the word. Thank you. The UN Security Council meeting is next week, we need to get as much publicity on Darfur as possible. Jack Straw sent word out in the press: the pressure needs to be piled high on Khartoum. If we can put pressure on the Security Council - they might feel the pressure piling on them to do something.
- - -
GERMANY TO SEND AIRLIFT PLANES TO SUDAN
Some news reports say there are now 700 troops (probably including observers and monitors) in Darfur. The three US transport planes that airlifted AU soldiers into Darfur are now back in Germany.
The following report from Berlin (via expatica.com) November 11, explains how 3,000 AU soldiers - expected in Darfur by the end of this month - will get there:
The German government will seek parliamentary approval to send transport planes to Sudan to airlift African Union peacekeepers serving in the country, Defence Minister Peter Struck said on Thursday.
Struck told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that a parliamentary green light was needed because "danger to German soldiers cannot be ruled out."
The African Union (AU) has asked for European Union aid in deploying some 3,000 peacekeepers in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
Struck said he expected German Luftwaffe C160 Transall transport jets to be flying missions in Darfur later this year.
- - -
Note, Later this year? Hello. What about this month? Like, today? If you've followed Darfur closely these past six months, you may have noticed nothing much new has been put on the table since April and May when the death toll for Darfur was reportedly 10,000. Thousands of UN peacekeepers were planned for Sudan anyway - to enter by the end of Sept/Dec 2004 to monitor the ceasefires agreements after the long hoped for signing of the north-south peace accords.
Obviously, Kofi Annan has known this all along. Everyone on all sides (GoS, rebels, UN) have been delaying, biding their time and coasting along at everyone's expense with talk, sulks and more talk.
The UN is as good at delaying tactics as Khartoum and the rebels are. Meanwhile ... 10,000 Sudanese die every four weeks waiting for food, medicine and security forces who won't rape, attack, kidnap, bomb and kill them or force them to flee by burning down their homes and bulldozing their refuges. Who knows for sure if this is all to do with Khartoum 'clearing' their land for oil and drilling operations?
- - -
BRITAIN MAY DEPLOY TROOPS TO QUELL FIGHTING IN DARFUR
Here we go again. Deja vu. Round two. Repeat of last crunch-time meeting of UN Security Council. Drums are starting to beat again, turning the pressure on Khartoum. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said pressure must be piled on Khartoum.
Note the below copy of a November 10 report in The Guardian UK. Best thing about reports such as this is, given our history, Khartoum can't help but take any information mentioning British troops, seriously. Peace in Sudan 'by January' is the ultimatum Tony Blair personally delivered to Khartoum.
"Britain could be asked to contribute troops to a 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping force for Sudan under a draft resolution being discussed in the security council, government officials in London indicated yesterday:
"The proposal for a UN force is part of a British package of incentives designed to gain Sudan's agreement to a comprehensive settlement of the conflict in Darfur, in western Sudan.
The UN says fighting in Darfur has claimed the lives of 70,000 people since March. A further 1.5 million people have fled their homes as a result of the violence pitting militias, known as Janjaweed, against two rebel groups, the Sudanese Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement.
The security council passed two resolutions this year in an attempt to halt the conflict, threatening the Khartoum government with sanctions if it failed to rein in the Janjaweed. But recent reports have suggested the situation is deteriorating.
Speaking at the Foreign Office, Chris Mullin, the minister responsible for Africa, said Khartoum had demonstrated "reasonable cooperation" with international efforts to stem the Darfur fighting but it was "still not a very good situation".
Asked whether Britain would send troops to Sudan as part of the proposed UN force, as Tony Blair appeared to suggest earlier this year, Mr Mullin declined to rule it out saying it was "premature" to comment at this time.
Britain's ambassador to the UN, Sir Emyr Jones Parry, said the UN resolution, drafted by Britain, was under discussion and would be presented to an extraordinary security council meeting to be held in Nairobi on November 18-19.
The meeting, convened in Kenya at the request of the US, would focus on Darfur and the long-running talks between Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, he said.
"The draft resolution is the carrot," Sir Emyr said.
"We are saying that if you [the Sudanese government] get your act together to get a stable state and live together, then this is what we can contribute: a major peacekeeping operation by the UN, humanitarian relief, law and order, help with infrastructure and establishing the rule of law and democratic structures."
He said the resolution, if agreed, would support addi-tional deployments of African Union troops, with monitoring duties as now but possibly as peacekeepers with wider powers. And it could dangle the prospect of an international aid donors' conference for Sudan.
The aim was to show Sudan's leaders that "the international community will stand by Sudan but only if it behaves", he said. He said the possibility of sanctions remained if Khartoum failed to reach a settlement.
"Sanctions are held as a latent threat," he said, poised over the heads of both the government and the rebels. He added any punitive measures would be "smart sanctions", targeting financial assets and the foreign travel of officials, rather than ordinary Sudanese.
He appeared to rule out curbs on Sudan's oil exports, which would almost certainly be opposed in the security council by China, one of Sudan's biggest customers.
Britain's special representative for Sudan, Alastair McPhail, said peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, over Darfur were making progress, with agreement reached in principle on humanitarian and security protocols.
It was also hoped that the Nairobi meeting would be a catalyst for a peace accord in the south, he said.
The latest British proposals to break the impasse over Darfur came at a critical moment. UN World Food Programme officials in the region said yesterday that violence in the past month had deprived 175,000 people of emergency food supplies and driven 150,000 people from their homes.
The International Red Cross said last month that villages throughout Darfur faced "an unprecedented food crisis" that was worse than the famines of the 1980."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,14658,1347485,00.html
- - -
BRITISH LIBERAL MP TOM BRAKE HOLDS SUDANESE AMBASSADOR TO ACCOUNT OVER DARFUR
10/11/2004 Tom Brake MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow International Development Secretary, is today meeting with the Sudanese Ambassador to the UK HE Dr Hassan Abdin. Commenting, Mr Brake said:
“As the humanitarian and security situation continues to deteriorate, the Sudanese government continues to give questionable assurances on Darfur. The government is failing to control and disarm the Janjaweed militia and security remains an illusion for the people of Darfur. I am seeking the Ambassador's response to reports that Khartoum is losing control of the region and that Darfur is descending into anarchy.
"Sudan's oil-hungry friends on the Security Council should not help Sudan escape the threat of UN sanctions. Sudan must make good its promises on Darfur and comply with UN resolutions and co-operate with the African Union mission."
“The Sudanese government must halt violations of international humanitarian law and it must re-start peace talks.”
- - -
Note, Jim has written an excellent short summary on Darfur that puts the whole hellish story in a nutshell:
"It's not that complicated: a genocide in Darfur, by proxies of the government of Sudan, in order to suppress an insurgency and intimidate people in other regions of the country."
Thursday, November 11, 2004
PETITION TO ASK KOFI ANNAN TO RESIGN AFTER HIS FAILURE OVER DARFUR SUDAN - Dear President Bush - China's Africa policy, oil, and Darfur Sudan
Terrible news. Darfur is sliding into a state of anarchy and emergency. Government of Sudan forces are out of control. It's taken up until a few weeks ago for 500 African Union soldiers to be on the ground in Darfur, despite months of negotiations and promises of another 3,000 several weeks ago.
The AU soldiers have to act as observers and watch refugee camps being bulldozed by government forces. A few days ago Government of Sudan forces attacked innocent civilians, threw tear gas into refugee camps, took refugees and drove away with them in vehicles against their will - and shot at a BBC reporter ... I'm lost for words ... and cannot repeat what is happening. Please read previous posts, and the most recent ones on the front page at Passion of the Present. Here are links to today's posts:
(1) HERE'S CALLING FOR THE RESIGNATION OF KOFI ANNAN (my post)
(2) Petition to ask Kofi Annan to resign, after his failure to stop the genocide in Darfur Sudan (Jim's)
(3) Petition to UN Security Council asking Kofi Annan to resign, after his failure to stop the genocide in Darfur Sudan (my post)
(4) Dear President Bush (another great post by Jim)
(5) China's Africa policy, oil, and Darfur Sudan (Jim - great links, thanks)
Note, Nick's buddy, Dr Jonathan Spector, who is recently back home in Boston after working with MSF (Doctors Without Borders) in Darfur - is, at long last, featured in a post at the Passsion (authored by Jim or his wife, I think) Don't lose hope for the children of Darfur Sudan. Seems there has been difficulty getting the photos online. Be sure to click on the photo (sorry it is too large for flickr to size here) of Jonathan's screen.
The AU soldiers have to act as observers and watch refugee camps being bulldozed by government forces. A few days ago Government of Sudan forces attacked innocent civilians, threw tear gas into refugee camps, took refugees and drove away with them in vehicles against their will - and shot at a BBC reporter ... I'm lost for words ... and cannot repeat what is happening. Please read previous posts, and the most recent ones on the front page at Passion of the Present. Here are links to today's posts:
(1) HERE'S CALLING FOR THE RESIGNATION OF KOFI ANNAN (my post)
(2) Petition to ask Kofi Annan to resign, after his failure to stop the genocide in Darfur Sudan (Jim's)
(3) Petition to UN Security Council asking Kofi Annan to resign, after his failure to stop the genocide in Darfur Sudan (my post)
(4) Dear President Bush (another great post by Jim)
(5) China's Africa policy, oil, and Darfur Sudan (Jim - great links, thanks)
Note, Nick's buddy, Dr Jonathan Spector, who is recently back home in Boston after working with MSF (Doctors Without Borders) in Darfur - is, at long last, featured in a post at the Passsion (authored by Jim or his wife, I think) Don't lose hope for the children of Darfur Sudan. Seems there has been difficulty getting the photos online. Be sure to click on the photo (sorry it is too large for flickr to size here) of Jonathan's screen.
BBC has concrete evidence - Straw says UN Security Council wanted to slacken their efforts in Sudan
More pressure must be piled on the Sudanese government after new evidence showed security forces storming a Darfur refugee camp, says British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. Responding to a BBC film which also showed civilians driven away by officials, the foreign secretary said he found the footage "very shocking".
Jack Straw said he hoped the "concrete evidence" would be broadcast in the capitals of Security Council members, "who frankly have thought that it is time to slacken our efforts in Sudan, rather than increase the pressure".
Jack Straw said he hoped the "concrete evidence" would be broadcast in the capitals of Security Council members, "who frankly have thought that it is time to slacken our efforts in Sudan, rather than increase the pressure".
NUMBER OF DARFUR VICTIMS: 2 MILLION AND COUNTING
U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said questions have already been raised about the AU force's ability to prevent attacks and the possible need for U.N. troops to be sent to Darfur as well.
Darfur is heading for total anarchy and the United Nations would be blamed if the Security Council did not take action, a senior U.N. official warned.
Jan Pronk, U.N.' s special envoy to Sudan told the Security Council that Darfur is sliding into anarchy as government and rebel forces battle over control of the territory the size of France (or the State of Texas).
He said that U.S.-supported plans to send 3,300 Africans soldiers to halt the violence in Darfur are inadequate and that more than twice that number are needed to restore calm.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Andrey Denisov, when asked about the possibility of deploying non-AU troops, said "I don't see it." He called the 3,700-strong AU force for Darfur "a good contingent".
An aerial view of an abandoned village in Darfur
Darfur is heading for total anarchy and the United Nations would be blamed if the Security Council did not take action, a senior U.N. official warned.
Jan Pronk, U.N.' s special envoy to Sudan told the Security Council that Darfur is sliding into anarchy as government and rebel forces battle over control of the territory the size of France (or the State of Texas).
He said that U.S.-supported plans to send 3,300 Africans soldiers to halt the violence in Darfur are inadequate and that more than twice that number are needed to restore calm.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Andrey Denisov, when asked about the possibility of deploying non-AU troops, said "I don't see it." He called the 3,700-strong AU force for Darfur "a good contingent".
An aerial view of an abandoned village in Darfur
BBC eyewitness to terror in Darfur
The BBC's Fergal Keane witnesses an assault by Sudan's security forces on a refugee camp in the troubled region of Darfur.
Here below is a copy of his report, just in from Darfur.
The first police action at El-Geer refugee camp near Nyala began soon after midnight.
I saw at least four jeep-loads of police driving over the flimsy shacks erected by displaced people.
Later they returned and began to beat and tear-gas the frightened crowd.
I saw one of the community leaders being thrown to the ground and attacked by several policemen.
The police launched tear-gas grenades into a compound where women and children were sheltering.
Police then entered and forced them to flee.
Relocation
A police commander at the scene told me he was under orders to move the people to a new camp several kilometres away.
Forcible relocation is a grave breach of international humanitarian law, but the internal community is powerless here.
The police showed open contempt for United Nations officials when they arrived, firing tear-gas grenades and driving aggressively around the camp.
African Union (AU) peacekeepers at the camp said they did not have power or mandate to intervene.
More police have now arrived to reinforce the earlier contingent.
The UN representatives pulled out of the camp for security reasons.
All of this took place on a day when the UN representative in Sudan, Mr Jan Pronk, was due to visit the camp to talk with local officials. Government officials in this area knew this.
Provocation
For the UN and African Union, this assault on El-Geer camp is a calculated affront.
The police staged two assaults on displaced people, and wouldn't desist from bulldozing their camp, despite the presence of representatives of the UN, AU and international aid agencies.
At one stage a plastic bullet was fired at a BBC cameraman standing next to a UN vehicle.
The BBC has also confirmed that tear gas was fired at people, mostly women and children, queuing at a nearby medical clinic.
We witnessed harrowing scenes.
One woman was crying hysterically because her baby son had been lost in the panic. She later found him.
A number of men and women were also arrested.
Bewilderment
The displaced people here are vulnerable and defenceless, and they felt real terror.
All the people here I have spoken to were driven out of their own villages by the pro-government Janjaweed militia and have witnessed rape and murder.
It is really hard to convey what it is like, when in the dark hours of the early morning, jeeps come in with searchlights, knowing that these people have absolutely no protection.
I've been covering Africa for 21 years and I thought I'd seen everything, but to watch the officials and the police of a state like Sudan - which has just signed a peace agreement - demolishing people's shacks under the eyes of international observer and breaching international law, is quite extraordinary and unique.
The population is terrorised and bewildered, with little faith in the power of the international community."
Here below is a copy of his report, just in from Darfur.
The first police action at El-Geer refugee camp near Nyala began soon after midnight.
I saw at least four jeep-loads of police driving over the flimsy shacks erected by displaced people.
Later they returned and began to beat and tear-gas the frightened crowd.
I saw one of the community leaders being thrown to the ground and attacked by several policemen.
The police launched tear-gas grenades into a compound where women and children were sheltering.
Police then entered and forced them to flee.
Relocation
A police commander at the scene told me he was under orders to move the people to a new camp several kilometres away.
Forcible relocation is a grave breach of international humanitarian law, but the internal community is powerless here.
The police showed open contempt for United Nations officials when they arrived, firing tear-gas grenades and driving aggressively around the camp.
African Union (AU) peacekeepers at the camp said they did not have power or mandate to intervene.
More police have now arrived to reinforce the earlier contingent.
The UN representatives pulled out of the camp for security reasons.
All of this took place on a day when the UN representative in Sudan, Mr Jan Pronk, was due to visit the camp to talk with local officials. Government officials in this area knew this.
Provocation
For the UN and African Union, this assault on El-Geer camp is a calculated affront.
The police staged two assaults on displaced people, and wouldn't desist from bulldozing their camp, despite the presence of representatives of the UN, AU and international aid agencies.
At one stage a plastic bullet was fired at a BBC cameraman standing next to a UN vehicle.
The BBC has also confirmed that tear gas was fired at people, mostly women and children, queuing at a nearby medical clinic.
We witnessed harrowing scenes.
One woman was crying hysterically because her baby son had been lost in the panic. She later found him.
A number of men and women were also arrested.
Bewilderment
The displaced people here are vulnerable and defenceless, and they felt real terror.
All the people here I have spoken to were driven out of their own villages by the pro-government Janjaweed militia and have witnessed rape and murder.
It is really hard to convey what it is like, when in the dark hours of the early morning, jeeps come in with searchlights, knowing that these people have absolutely no protection.
I've been covering Africa for 21 years and I thought I'd seen everything, but to watch the officials and the police of a state like Sudan - which has just signed a peace agreement - demolishing people's shacks under the eyes of international observer and breaching international law, is quite extraordinary and unique.
The population is terrorised and bewildered, with little faith in the power of the international community."
CALLING FOR THE RESIGNATION OF KOFI ANNAN
The latest report for the UN Security Council prepared by the UN's top envoy, Jan Pronk of The Netherlands, calls for nothing concrete.
The present UN and AU personnel in Darfur are standing by watching civilians being attacked without the power to protect and defend.
Government of Sudan is losing control of its security forces.
The Security Council will hold a formal meeting in Nairobi on November 18-19, only the fourth time it has done so outside UN headquarters in New York since 1952.
The meeting will concern the whole of Sudan and consist mainly of setting out timeframes and timetables - and provide more carrots but no sticks.
A few weeks ago I left word (yet again) at a British Member of Parliament's blog to suggest the UK ask China to send 80,000 special police to Darfur.
I emailed a copy to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Yesterday, I left word at the blog of a high profile Conservative Member of Parliament.
My last post here on November 1st called for the resignation of Kofi Annan.
Seems the only way to get the UN to take action is to threaten its existence.
Does any reader here have the skills to put up an online petition calling for the resignation of Kofi Annan?
We'd have a week to get word of it to mainstream media.
The UN Security Council are meeting in Nairobi November 18-19, 2004.
The present UN and AU personnel in Darfur are standing by watching civilians being attacked without the power to protect and defend.
Government of Sudan is losing control of its security forces.
The Security Council will hold a formal meeting in Nairobi on November 18-19, only the fourth time it has done so outside UN headquarters in New York since 1952.
The meeting will concern the whole of Sudan and consist mainly of setting out timeframes and timetables - and provide more carrots but no sticks.
A few weeks ago I left word (yet again) at a British Member of Parliament's blog to suggest the UK ask China to send 80,000 special police to Darfur.
I emailed a copy to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Yesterday, I left word at the blog of a high profile Conservative Member of Parliament.
My last post here on November 1st called for the resignation of Kofi Annan.
Seems the only way to get the UN to take action is to threaten its existence.
Does any reader here have the skills to put up an online petition calling for the resignation of Kofi Annan?
We'd have a week to get word of it to mainstream media.
The UN Security Council are meeting in Nairobi November 18-19, 2004.
Britain drafts UN resolution on Sudan peace accord
The government in Khartoum and the SPLM/A rebels in the south adjourned peace talks in October for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Darfur peace talks adjourn for 1 month after parties strike deal to end hostilities
Britain on Friday circulated a draft UN resolution pushing for a comprehensive peace accord in Sudan that the Security Council expects to adopt at a rare meeting in Africa November 18-19, only the fourth time it has done so outside UN headquarters in New York since 1952.
The draft promises generous development assistance to the warring parties if they make peace.
Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir shakes hands with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the presidential palace in Khartoum in Sudan, Oct 6, 2004.(AFP).
Darfur peace talks adjourn for 1 month after parties strike deal to end hostilities
Britain on Friday circulated a draft UN resolution pushing for a comprehensive peace accord in Sudan that the Security Council expects to adopt at a rare meeting in Africa November 18-19, only the fourth time it has done so outside UN headquarters in New York since 1952.
The draft promises generous development assistance to the warring parties if they make peace.
Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir shakes hands with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the presidential palace in Khartoum in Sudan, Oct 6, 2004.(AFP).
Monday, November 08, 2004
Darfur mass graves desecrated
08/11/2004 - Kabkabyia, Sudan - Unknown assailants desecrated several mass graves in the Darfur region of Sudan, an aid worker in Kabkabyia told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa on Sunday.
The attackers removed the bodies from the graves, possibly in an attempt to conceal the traces of a massacre, said the aid worker who did not want to be named.
Members of the African Union's peacekeeping mission in the region (Amis) confirmed the destruction of the graves. A spokesperson said Amis was investigating the incident but had not yet found any clues. The number of bodies removed was also unknown, the spokesperson said.
The mass graves were created in early 2003, after Arab militias attacked and killed many residents of the village of Shoba. The survivors had hastily buried the victims in mass graves before fleeing further attacks.
"This is the first time that we hear about graves being desecrated in such a way," said the aid worker.
Meanwhile, another eight people were killed in the strife-torn area on Saturday, when rebels of the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) attacked a fuel convoy of the Sudanese military.
The Sudanese subsequently sent a military plane into the area.
Rebels have frequently attacked government convoys in recent weeks in order to replenish their own supplies. - Sapa-dpa
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1617343,00.html
The attackers removed the bodies from the graves, possibly in an attempt to conceal the traces of a massacre, said the aid worker who did not want to be named.
Members of the African Union's peacekeeping mission in the region (Amis) confirmed the destruction of the graves. A spokesperson said Amis was investigating the incident but had not yet found any clues. The number of bodies removed was also unknown, the spokesperson said.
The mass graves were created in early 2003, after Arab militias attacked and killed many residents of the village of Shoba. The survivors had hastily buried the victims in mass graves before fleeing further attacks.
"This is the first time that we hear about graves being desecrated in such a way," said the aid worker.
Meanwhile, another eight people were killed in the strife-torn area on Saturday, when rebels of the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) attacked a fuel convoy of the Sudanese military.
The Sudanese subsequently sent a military plane into the area.
Rebels have frequently attacked government convoys in recent weeks in order to replenish their own supplies. - Sapa-dpa
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1617343,00.html
U.N. team in Sudan to investigate genocide reports
EL FASHER, Sudan, Nov 8 (Reuters) - A U.N. team has arrived in Sudan to investigate whether genocide has occurred in Darfur.
George Somerwill, a U.N. spokesman in Sudan, told Reuters the international commission of inquiry arrived late on Sunday and would travel to Darfur in the west of Sudan on Wednesday. He said they were due to return to the capital Khartoum on Nov. 20.
"It is to begin its investigation of reports of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law in Darfur by all parties, including to determine whether or not acts of genocide have occurred and to identify the perpetrators of such violations," he said of the team's mandate.
Somerwill did not give details of the make-up of the team. In October U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan named a five-member panel led by Italian judge Antonio Cassese to investigate whether genocide has taken place in Darfur. The panel was created at the request of the U.N. Security Council.
Cassese was the first president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a court based in The Hague that is looking into suspected war crimes in the Balkans including during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.
Two U.N. human rights watchdogs told the U.N. Security Council in September that war crimes had probably occurred on a "large and systematic scale" in Darfur.
George Somerwill, a U.N. spokesman in Sudan, told Reuters the international commission of inquiry arrived late on Sunday and would travel to Darfur in the west of Sudan on Wednesday. He said they were due to return to the capital Khartoum on Nov. 20.
"It is to begin its investigation of reports of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law in Darfur by all parties, including to determine whether or not acts of genocide have occurred and to identify the perpetrators of such violations," he said of the team's mandate.
Somerwill did not give details of the make-up of the team. In October U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan named a five-member panel led by Italian judge Antonio Cassese to investigate whether genocide has taken place in Darfur. The panel was created at the request of the U.N. Security Council.
Cassese was the first president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a court based in The Hague that is looking into suspected war crimes in the Balkans including during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.
Two U.N. human rights watchdogs told the U.N. Security Council in September that war crimes had probably occurred on a "large and systematic scale" in Darfur.
U.K.'s Blair Says Sudan Failing to Make Progress on Peace Plan
Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sudan is failing to make progress bringing peace to the Darfur region, raising the chances of United Nations sanctions against the oil-rich nation.
"It is a very difficult and very delicate situation,'' Blair told Parliament in London. ``If anything, it has gotten worse in the last few weeks. If we do not get obedience and compliance in the next few weeks we will have to return to the UN Security Council.''
Sanctions would threaten Sudan's ability to sell oil on the international markets, which accounts for 75 percent of the nation's export earnings. Sudan started exports in 1999 and plans to boost production to 500,000 barrels a day by the end of next year from 345,000 barrels a day in June.
Last month, Blair traveled to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum for talks with Bashir, winning a commitment from the government to allow African Union troops into Darfur and to increase protection for Western aid workers in the region.
Peace Talks
African Union officials have yet to win Sudan's agreement on a security agreement outlining how and where troops could act in the region, Agence France-Presse reported today, citing delegates to peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria.
Blair said his agreement with Bashir required progress "by the end of the year.'' If that process fails, Blair said he will seek some sort of action from the UN Security Council, which could reprimand Sudan or levy economic or diplomatic sanctions.
Economic sanctions would hurt Chinese and Indian companies most, since the U.S. banned trade with Sudan in 1997. In 2002, the U.S. further tightened its sanctions, barring Americans from doing business with the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co., a group that taps Sudanese crude and ships it to overseas customers.
Western Companies
Except for Sweden's Lundin Petroleum AB, Western oil companies have pulled out of Sudan as violence flared between government and rebel troops in 1983. Chevron Corp. explored in the region from the 1960s to 1985.
Talisman Energy Inc. of Canada sold out in 2003, as did OMV AG of Austria. Total SA of France suspended work in Sudan but retains rights to drill, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
China National United, or Chinaoil, and China National Chemicals, known as Sinochem, were awarded contracts in August to buy half of the Sudanese Nile Blend crude oil for sale in the fourth quarter.
Those companies, controlled by the Chinese government, also have stakes in drilling projects in Sudan and in a pipeline that exports most of the nation's crude. Oil & Natural Gas Corp. of New Delhi works in Sudan.
Sudan also needs outside help to expand petroleum refineries at Port Sudan on the Red Sea and Khartoum in the center of the nation. Those plants, with a combined capacity of 72,000 barrels a day, produce gasoline for cars and butane for cooking. The government wants each plant to produce 100,000 barrels a day.
With a population of 39 million, Sudan has an annual gross domestic product of about $15.6 billion and external debts of $21 billion. Britain allocated 62.5 million pounds ($112 million) of aid for Sudan this year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&sid=adXqgi0SaJ08&refer=uk
"It is a very difficult and very delicate situation,'' Blair told Parliament in London. ``If anything, it has gotten worse in the last few weeks. If we do not get obedience and compliance in the next few weeks we will have to return to the UN Security Council.''
Sanctions would threaten Sudan's ability to sell oil on the international markets, which accounts for 75 percent of the nation's export earnings. Sudan started exports in 1999 and plans to boost production to 500,000 barrels a day by the end of next year from 345,000 barrels a day in June.
Last month, Blair traveled to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum for talks with Bashir, winning a commitment from the government to allow African Union troops into Darfur and to increase protection for Western aid workers in the region.
Peace Talks
African Union officials have yet to win Sudan's agreement on a security agreement outlining how and where troops could act in the region, Agence France-Presse reported today, citing delegates to peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria.
Blair said his agreement with Bashir required progress "by the end of the year.'' If that process fails, Blair said he will seek some sort of action from the UN Security Council, which could reprimand Sudan or levy economic or diplomatic sanctions.
Economic sanctions would hurt Chinese and Indian companies most, since the U.S. banned trade with Sudan in 1997. In 2002, the U.S. further tightened its sanctions, barring Americans from doing business with the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co., a group that taps Sudanese crude and ships it to overseas customers.
Western Companies
Except for Sweden's Lundin Petroleum AB, Western oil companies have pulled out of Sudan as violence flared between government and rebel troops in 1983. Chevron Corp. explored in the region from the 1960s to 1985.
Talisman Energy Inc. of Canada sold out in 2003, as did OMV AG of Austria. Total SA of France suspended work in Sudan but retains rights to drill, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
China National United, or Chinaoil, and China National Chemicals, known as Sinochem, were awarded contracts in August to buy half of the Sudanese Nile Blend crude oil for sale in the fourth quarter.
Those companies, controlled by the Chinese government, also have stakes in drilling projects in Sudan and in a pipeline that exports most of the nation's crude. Oil & Natural Gas Corp. of New Delhi works in Sudan.
Sudan also needs outside help to expand petroleum refineries at Port Sudan on the Red Sea and Khartoum in the center of the nation. Those plants, with a combined capacity of 72,000 barrels a day, produce gasoline for cars and butane for cooking. The government wants each plant to produce 100,000 barrels a day.
With a population of 39 million, Sudan has an annual gross domestic product of about $15.6 billion and external debts of $21 billion. Britain allocated 62.5 million pounds ($112 million) of aid for Sudan this year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&sid=adXqgi0SaJ08&refer=uk
Saturday, November 06, 2004
U.N. envoy Jan Pronk says more troops needed in Darfur
UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N.' s special envoy to Sudan told the Security Council on Thursday that Darfur is sliding into anarchy as government and rebel forces battle over control of the territory. The U.N. official, Jan Pronk of the Netherlands, said that U.S.-supported plans to send 3,300 Africans soldiers to halt the violence in Darfur are inadequate and that more than twice that number are needed to restore calm.
http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/news/nation/10102856.htm
http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/news/nation/10102856.htm
U.S.Airmen return from Darfur mission
11/5/2004 - RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) -- Two C-130 Hercules and about 100 Airmen returned here Nov. 5 after completing a two-week airlift mission moving African Union troops into the Darfur region of Sudan.
During the mission, the Airmen moved 47 Nigerian and 238 Rwandan soldiers, and more than 25,000 pounds of cargo. The last mission was flown Nov. 3.
The mission began Oct. 21 when an advance team of about 30 Airmen arrived at Kigali International Airport, Rwanda, to set up the operations. Airmen on the team represented various specialties such as logistics, contracting, airfield management, security forces and communications. The majority of the Airmen deployed from here and Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England.
About 90 more Airmen deployed from here Oct. 22 to begin the mission.
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123009111
During the mission, the Airmen moved 47 Nigerian and 238 Rwandan soldiers, and more than 25,000 pounds of cargo. The last mission was flown Nov. 3.
The mission began Oct. 21 when an advance team of about 30 Airmen arrived at Kigali International Airport, Rwanda, to set up the operations. Airmen on the team represented various specialties such as logistics, contracting, airfield management, security forces and communications. The majority of the Airmen deployed from here and Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England.
About 90 more Airmen deployed from here Oct. 22 to begin the mission.
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123009111
Friday, November 05, 2004
Sudan belatedly tries to sharpen its act
By Alice Thomson (Filed: 05/11/2004) Telegraph UK:
We were wandering around the souk in Khartoum late at night - dodging the boys selling plastic AK-47s and looking at the camel saddles - when the electricity went. The market was plunged into darkness, and suddenly a hand grabbed my elbow. Anywhere else in the world, particularly in any other fundamentalist Muslim country, I would have been frightened. But in northern Sudan the people are incredibly hospitable to "Khawaja" - Westerners. The man was merely guiding me to the pavement.
Walking by the Nile in the early morning, the washerwomen wave. One man asked if I was Russian. When I explained that I was English, he laughed as he told me that my country had done bad things, going back to Kitchener. In the refugee camps and the homes I visited for The Daily Telegraph Christmas Appeal, everyone offered tea and fizzy drinks.
But they are nervous. In the camps, the tribal elders listen to the BBC Arabic service. In Khartoum, the news was switched off only when Manchester City played Norwich. The presidential election is as crucial to the future of the Sudanese as to Seattle.
"Bush has won," said one man, cradling his head in his hands. Hayder Ahmed is a psychologist. He was imprisoned and tortured by the Sudanese government for refusing to join the army at university. But he says he would prefer any Sudanese government to George W Bush.
"Emotionally, we were for Kerry even though we didn't understand what he stood for," he said.
"After Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush could go for us next," said his friend, Imad Musa. "It's either us, Iran or Syria. He can do what he wants now he has won such a big victory."
In northern Sudan, this is their fear - that they will become the next Iraq, just as their lot seems to be improving. They know the world's attention has swung to the largest country in Africa. In the past three months, they have received visits from Hilary Benn, Colin Powell, Jack Straw, Kofi Annan and Tony Blair. They are becoming used to the motorcades and cameras.
The "Western elders" all lectured them on the atrocities being perpetrated in Darfur. Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, called the 1.5 million refugees, and the reports of rape and looting, "unacceptable". Colin Powell made it clear that the Janjaweed irregulars terrifying Darfur had to be bought under control. Kofi Annan begged for peace. And you know, said Mr Blair, it really would be better if the Khartoum regime sorted itself out and held independent elections. Hanging over their words was the threat: if you don't get your act together, you could be next.
In many ways, Sudan is in dire straits, particularly in southern Darfur, where villages continue to be torched by the Janjaweed. But the situation in the rest of the country is improving. In the north, the imams are relaxing their grip. Women walk with their heads uncovered. At an orphanage I visited two years ago, babies found on the streets by the police were often left to die; single mothers were stoned. Now the same police beam as they rush the babies to the doctors.
It is no longer illegal to talk negatively about the regime. As a result, many I met were openly outraged by corruption. Even the ministers are trying belatedly to sharpen up their act. "Iraq has been a lesson to us all," said one Sudanese minister, who didn't want to be named.
"If Americans troops arrive, our country will suffer for another 40 years."
In the Darfur refugee camps, foreign intervention is welcome. The area is suffering from a crippling famine and US Aid, the EU and Britain have flown in enough food to feed one million people for the next six months. The refugees no longer trust their own government, whom they believe armed the nomadic Janjaweed against the farmers.
But everyone else I met wanted to keep the West out. "They are what you call a sticking plaster with their aid, and for that we are very grateful. But what we need is more African Union troops; at present, we only have 3,000 of them to keep the peace," said one Sudanese director of an aid agency. "This continent needs to prove we can change on our own."
Most insist that anything that can be seen as occupation will play into the hands of foreign
fundamentalists. "Arabs, Africans, Christians, Muslims: we will be obliged to take up arms against the West."
Mr Blair has promised that Africa is his top priority. He has been saying that since his party conference speech three years ago. Now he seems to mean it. When Britain takes over the presidency of both the G8 and the European Union next year, Africa will be the main topic.
Sudan is an obvious starting point. So what do the Sudanese think Mr Bush and Mr Blair should do? The answer on the streets is that they should put more pressure on those involved in the peace agreements. Then ensure that Khartoum sticks to its promise of independent elections.
Easier said than done. Britain, when it is not shaking Robert Mugabe's hand, has been pushing for regime change in Zimbabwe for years. Sanctions didn't work in toppling Saddam.
What's different about Sudan? "Everyone has had enough of war. We want to be normal. Every family has lost at least one member," said a paediatrician who fled the south 20 years ago.
The war in Iraq has been both a curse and a blessing to Sudan. It has meant they no longer like America, in the way they liked the America of Ronald Reagan, who gave them aid when they were starving in the 1980s.
But it has also shown everyone - from ministers to imams to rebels - that, if they don't sort out their own affairs, they could become a country occupied by both Western troops and foreign fundamentalists.
http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/11/05/do0502.xml&
We were wandering around the souk in Khartoum late at night - dodging the boys selling plastic AK-47s and looking at the camel saddles - when the electricity went. The market was plunged into darkness, and suddenly a hand grabbed my elbow. Anywhere else in the world, particularly in any other fundamentalist Muslim country, I would have been frightened. But in northern Sudan the people are incredibly hospitable to "Khawaja" - Westerners. The man was merely guiding me to the pavement.
Walking by the Nile in the early morning, the washerwomen wave. One man asked if I was Russian. When I explained that I was English, he laughed as he told me that my country had done bad things, going back to Kitchener. In the refugee camps and the homes I visited for The Daily Telegraph Christmas Appeal, everyone offered tea and fizzy drinks.
But they are nervous. In the camps, the tribal elders listen to the BBC Arabic service. In Khartoum, the news was switched off only when Manchester City played Norwich. The presidential election is as crucial to the future of the Sudanese as to Seattle.
"Bush has won," said one man, cradling his head in his hands. Hayder Ahmed is a psychologist. He was imprisoned and tortured by the Sudanese government for refusing to join the army at university. But he says he would prefer any Sudanese government to George W Bush.
"Emotionally, we were for Kerry even though we didn't understand what he stood for," he said.
"After Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush could go for us next," said his friend, Imad Musa. "It's either us, Iran or Syria. He can do what he wants now he has won such a big victory."
In northern Sudan, this is their fear - that they will become the next Iraq, just as their lot seems to be improving. They know the world's attention has swung to the largest country in Africa. In the past three months, they have received visits from Hilary Benn, Colin Powell, Jack Straw, Kofi Annan and Tony Blair. They are becoming used to the motorcades and cameras.
The "Western elders" all lectured them on the atrocities being perpetrated in Darfur. Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, called the 1.5 million refugees, and the reports of rape and looting, "unacceptable". Colin Powell made it clear that the Janjaweed irregulars terrifying Darfur had to be bought under control. Kofi Annan begged for peace. And you know, said Mr Blair, it really would be better if the Khartoum regime sorted itself out and held independent elections. Hanging over their words was the threat: if you don't get your act together, you could be next.
In many ways, Sudan is in dire straits, particularly in southern Darfur, where villages continue to be torched by the Janjaweed. But the situation in the rest of the country is improving. In the north, the imams are relaxing their grip. Women walk with their heads uncovered. At an orphanage I visited two years ago, babies found on the streets by the police were often left to die; single mothers were stoned. Now the same police beam as they rush the babies to the doctors.
It is no longer illegal to talk negatively about the regime. As a result, many I met were openly outraged by corruption. Even the ministers are trying belatedly to sharpen up their act. "Iraq has been a lesson to us all," said one Sudanese minister, who didn't want to be named.
"If Americans troops arrive, our country will suffer for another 40 years."
In the Darfur refugee camps, foreign intervention is welcome. The area is suffering from a crippling famine and US Aid, the EU and Britain have flown in enough food to feed one million people for the next six months. The refugees no longer trust their own government, whom they believe armed the nomadic Janjaweed against the farmers.
But everyone else I met wanted to keep the West out. "They are what you call a sticking plaster with their aid, and for that we are very grateful. But what we need is more African Union troops; at present, we only have 3,000 of them to keep the peace," said one Sudanese director of an aid agency. "This continent needs to prove we can change on our own."
Most insist that anything that can be seen as occupation will play into the hands of foreign
fundamentalists. "Arabs, Africans, Christians, Muslims: we will be obliged to take up arms against the West."
Mr Blair has promised that Africa is his top priority. He has been saying that since his party conference speech three years ago. Now he seems to mean it. When Britain takes over the presidency of both the G8 and the European Union next year, Africa will be the main topic.
Sudan is an obvious starting point. So what do the Sudanese think Mr Bush and Mr Blair should do? The answer on the streets is that they should put more pressure on those involved in the peace agreements. Then ensure that Khartoum sticks to its promise of independent elections.
Easier said than done. Britain, when it is not shaking Robert Mugabe's hand, has been pushing for regime change in Zimbabwe for years. Sanctions didn't work in toppling Saddam.
What's different about Sudan? "Everyone has had enough of war. We want to be normal. Every family has lost at least one member," said a paediatrician who fled the south 20 years ago.
The war in Iraq has been both a curse and a blessing to Sudan. It has meant they no longer like America, in the way they liked the America of Ronald Reagan, who gave them aid when they were starving in the 1980s.
But it has also shown everyone - from ministers to imams to rebels - that, if they don't sort out their own affairs, they could become a country occupied by both Western troops and foreign fundamentalists.
http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/11/05/do0502.xml&
Darfur crisis now affects two million, UN reports
Copy of report:
THE crisis in Darfur is now affecting at least two million people as violence and insecurity in the war-torn region of Sudan intensify, the United Nations warned last night.
Kofi Annan, the UN general secretary, accused the Sudanese government and rebels of trying to take more territory in Darfur, and spoke of strong indications that war crimes have been committed in the region.
The UN has demanded that Khartoum take action to end the violence, disarm the government-backed Janjaweed militias blamed for many attacks and punish the perpetrators.
The latest evidence of continued fighting in Darfur is contained in a report which went before the UN Security Council last night.
The report, written by Jan Pronk, the senior UN envoy to Sudan, recommends council members take "prompt action" to get the government and rebels to comply with UN resolutions and urges countries with influence to exert pressure on the parties to negotiate a peace deal.
According to copies of the report circulated ahead of publication, the estimate of people in Darfur affected by the conflict rose during September from 1.8 million to 2 million, an upward trend expected to continue until the end of the year.
The increase stems mainly from the growing number of internally displaced people who have fled their homes because of insecurity, now 1.6 million, the report said. A further 400,000 people affected by the conflict require humanitarian assistance.
The report said various sources had reported a new rebel group, the National Movement for Reformation and Development, has attacked government troops and threatened African Union troops deployed to help end the violence.
Until the government starts taking more than "pinprick" action against the perpetrators, the report warned, no displaced people will dare return home and no group will agree to disarm.
"Without an end to impunity, banditry goes from strength to strength, menacing the population and obstructing the delivery of aid to desperate people in isolated areas," the report said.
"There are strong indications that war crimes and crimes against humanity have occurred in Darfur on a large and systematic scale."
An international commission appointed by Mr Annan has three months to study human rights violations and determine whether genocide has occurred in Darfur.
THE crisis in Darfur is now affecting at least two million people as violence and insecurity in the war-torn region of Sudan intensify, the United Nations warned last night.
Kofi Annan, the UN general secretary, accused the Sudanese government and rebels of trying to take more territory in Darfur, and spoke of strong indications that war crimes have been committed in the region.
The UN has demanded that Khartoum take action to end the violence, disarm the government-backed Janjaweed militias blamed for many attacks and punish the perpetrators.
The latest evidence of continued fighting in Darfur is contained in a report which went before the UN Security Council last night.
The report, written by Jan Pronk, the senior UN envoy to Sudan, recommends council members take "prompt action" to get the government and rebels to comply with UN resolutions and urges countries with influence to exert pressure on the parties to negotiate a peace deal.
According to copies of the report circulated ahead of publication, the estimate of people in Darfur affected by the conflict rose during September from 1.8 million to 2 million, an upward trend expected to continue until the end of the year.
The increase stems mainly from the growing number of internally displaced people who have fled their homes because of insecurity, now 1.6 million, the report said. A further 400,000 people affected by the conflict require humanitarian assistance.
The report said various sources had reported a new rebel group, the National Movement for Reformation and Development, has attacked government troops and threatened African Union troops deployed to help end the violence.
Until the government starts taking more than "pinprick" action against the perpetrators, the report warned, no displaced people will dare return home and no group will agree to disarm.
"Without an end to impunity, banditry goes from strength to strength, menacing the population and obstructing the delivery of aid to desperate people in isolated areas," the report said.
"There are strong indications that war crimes and crimes against humanity have occurred in Darfur on a large and systematic scale."
An international commission appointed by Mr Annan has three months to study human rights violations and determine whether genocide has occurred in Darfur.
Pronk's latest report for UNSC demands no concrete measures
Editorial: The Heart Of Darkness - 5 November 2004 - copy of report and other notes:
The report by Jan Pronk, the United Nations’ envoy to Darfur, makes grim reading, indeed. Since the UN became involved in Darfur the number of refugees has doubled to almost two million. And more are coming in every day. Fleeing refuges, mostly women and children, have been slaughtered at a rate of 2,000 a day.
Pronk uses strong language for a diplomat. He reports that war crimes are being committed “on a large and systematic scale”, and that both the Khartoum authorities and the rebel militias are engaged in grabbing as much territory as they can even if that means destroying the lives of numerous people.
Although Pronk minces no words, his report is ultimately disappointing because he demands no concrete measures to cope with a situation that he labels as desperate. All he does is call for “urgent action” and more money. Writing a check for $150 million as Pronk demands, of course, is not hard for the major powers. What is harder is to decide what action to take on the ground.
The United Nations, still sulking over the toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, is clearly reluctant to recommend military action even under its own flag. This deliberate and rather pompous exclusion of all forms of military action cannot but weaken the UN’s position in Sudan. The reason is not hard to divine. Why should the rival military gangs, involved in this genocidal struggle, stop their activities if they know that they can do so with impunity?
The tragedy in Darfur has exposed the dangers of the entire do-good industry of which the United Nations’ is the center. This industry provides food, medical aid and shelter in conflict situations. By doing so it enables the parties to the conflict to use all their resources for war rather than meeting the basic demands that the good-industry is meeting. In Darfur the UN is feeding villagers who will be killed tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. But it is also, indirectly, feeding the killers. The UN builds the tent cities that receive villagers driven out of their homes, but also attract others who simply wish to flee poverty.
That the UN has decided to speak out on Darfur, rather than remain silent as it did during the Rwandan genocide, is welcome. But speaking out is not enough. Passing yet another Security Council resolution would not save a single life in Darfur. Another “serious warning” from Kofi Annan is unlikely to put the fear of God in the Janjaweed killers or their manipulators.
Later this month, the Kenyan capital Nairobi will host a peace conference on Sudan. The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan people’s Liberation Army (SPLA) are scheduled to finalize a peace accord brokered by the United States after months of negotiations. The peace accord will enable the Sudanese government to divert some of its resources from fighting an endless war in the south to other pursuits. By all indications Khartoum intends to use those resources for a more aggressive policy in Darfur. And that is bad news for the people of Darfur.
- - -
Pronk said Arab tribes drove their neighbors off their land two years ago to get more space for themselves and their cattle in an act of "pure ethnic cleansing." But now it was payback time, with rebels stealing cattle and blocking camel tracks "leading to a survival of the fittest and death for the weakest."
Pronk said the government no longer fully controlled the militias, with lines between the military, militia and police blurred. And he said the rebels were split, fighting each other for private gain and taking no responsibility for damages and loss of life as they gained territory. "We may soon find Darfur is ruled by warlords," Pronk said.
Pronk said the council should speak with "one voice" when its goes to Nairobi in an effort to seal an agreement between the government and rebel groups in the south, which might serve as a model for Darfur as well as insist on a timetable for talks being held on the Darfur crisis.
The report by Jan Pronk, the United Nations’ envoy to Darfur, makes grim reading, indeed. Since the UN became involved in Darfur the number of refugees has doubled to almost two million. And more are coming in every day. Fleeing refuges, mostly women and children, have been slaughtered at a rate of 2,000 a day.
Pronk uses strong language for a diplomat. He reports that war crimes are being committed “on a large and systematic scale”, and that both the Khartoum authorities and the rebel militias are engaged in grabbing as much territory as they can even if that means destroying the lives of numerous people.
Although Pronk minces no words, his report is ultimately disappointing because he demands no concrete measures to cope with a situation that he labels as desperate. All he does is call for “urgent action” and more money. Writing a check for $150 million as Pronk demands, of course, is not hard for the major powers. What is harder is to decide what action to take on the ground.
The United Nations, still sulking over the toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, is clearly reluctant to recommend military action even under its own flag. This deliberate and rather pompous exclusion of all forms of military action cannot but weaken the UN’s position in Sudan. The reason is not hard to divine. Why should the rival military gangs, involved in this genocidal struggle, stop their activities if they know that they can do so with impunity?
The tragedy in Darfur has exposed the dangers of the entire do-good industry of which the United Nations’ is the center. This industry provides food, medical aid and shelter in conflict situations. By doing so it enables the parties to the conflict to use all their resources for war rather than meeting the basic demands that the good-industry is meeting. In Darfur the UN is feeding villagers who will be killed tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. But it is also, indirectly, feeding the killers. The UN builds the tent cities that receive villagers driven out of their homes, but also attract others who simply wish to flee poverty.
That the UN has decided to speak out on Darfur, rather than remain silent as it did during the Rwandan genocide, is welcome. But speaking out is not enough. Passing yet another Security Council resolution would not save a single life in Darfur. Another “serious warning” from Kofi Annan is unlikely to put the fear of God in the Janjaweed killers or their manipulators.
Later this month, the Kenyan capital Nairobi will host a peace conference on Sudan. The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan people’s Liberation Army (SPLA) are scheduled to finalize a peace accord brokered by the United States after months of negotiations. The peace accord will enable the Sudanese government to divert some of its resources from fighting an endless war in the south to other pursuits. By all indications Khartoum intends to use those resources for a more aggressive policy in Darfur. And that is bad news for the people of Darfur.
- - -
Pronk said Arab tribes drove their neighbors off their land two years ago to get more space for themselves and their cattle in an act of "pure ethnic cleansing." But now it was payback time, with rebels stealing cattle and blocking camel tracks "leading to a survival of the fittest and death for the weakest."
Pronk said the government no longer fully controlled the militias, with lines between the military, militia and police blurred. And he said the rebels were split, fighting each other for private gain and taking no responsibility for damages and loss of life as they gained territory. "We may soon find Darfur is ruled by warlords," Pronk said.
Pronk said the council should speak with "one voice" when its goes to Nairobi in an effort to seal an agreement between the government and rebel groups in the south, which might serve as a model for Darfur as well as insist on a timetable for talks being held on the Darfur crisis.
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