Chad and the Darfur domino effect: Darfur conflict will suck in all its neighbours

Mail & Guardian by Katharine Houreld 8 May 2006 - excerpt: [sub-headings are mine]

Spillover from the Darfur conflict is in danger of destabilising the entire central African region say observers. Since the war in Sudan erupted, rebel groups have formed in neighbouring Chad and are beginning to emerge in the Central African Republic (CAR), which shares a border with both states.

Although many of the Sudanese rebels come from the same tribe as Chad's President Idriss Deby, for the first few years of the rebellion he tried to avoid antagonising his powerful neighbour by not openly supporting the rebels, while turning a blind eye if members of his government chose to do so. But relations between Chad and Sudan soured last year, with each country accusing the other of supporting rebel groups on each other's territories.

The situation is complicated by numerous defectors from Deby's inner circle, who have formed their own rebel group in Chad. They accuse Deby of not doing enough to support their kinsmen in Sudan.

Observers also say that they were angered by his decision to seek a third term in Wednesday's elections. Since Chad began exporting oil a few years ago, many of Deby's family has been eyeing the position.

United States of Africa?

"Chad's crisis is homegrown, but converging dangerously with the conflict in Darfur. These crises feed off of one another and, inevitably, civilians are caught in the middle. CAR is involved because northern CAR is essentially ungoverned and, therefore, a useful rear base for attacks on Chad," said Colin Thomas-Jenson of the International Crisis Group. "You cannot solve one conflict in the region without addressing the others."

Adam Rakiss, a 41-year-old who claims to be a colonel in the CAR, is one of about 235 rebels who were seized after they launched a major assault on Chad's capital a fortnight ago. He says Sudan promised the CAR fighters bases from which to launch their own rebellion if they helped topple Deby. "If we help [leader of the United Front for Change rebels] Mohamet Nour take power in Chad, Sudan will help us," he said, adding that he had arrived with about 20 fighters from the CAR.

Sudanese-backed rebels using CAR as base for incursions into Chad

A Chad-backed coup helped CAR President Francois Bozize into power three years ago. Last week, his foreign minister lodged an official complaint with Sudan regarding two planes that had allegedly landed in the north of the country carrying 100 mercenaries. Military observers believe that Sudanese-backed rebels are already using the CAR as a base for incursions into Chad.

One country sets an entire region afire

Olivier Bercault of Human Rights Watch says the availability of automatic weapons, porous borders and weak government means the Darfur conflict will suck in all its neighbours. "The dynamic is unfortunately something we know very well. One country sets an entire region afire. In western Sudan, eastern Chad and CAR, it's exactly the same pattern."



Photo: Sudanese children sit in their makeshift classroom in the refugee camp Kou Kou Angarana in Chad. (Photograph: AP)

Oil from Sudan makes up one-tenth of China's imported oil - China's invested $2bn in Sudan over last 10 years

Snippets from an opinion piece entitled "Digging for misery" by Tom Harper at Guardian's Comment is free May 12, 2006:

Sudan's oil has fuelled much of the country's desctruction. Its profits block the chance of many of its refugees returning home.

The Chinese economy is now growing at around 10% a year and needs feeding. Zhu Weilie, the director of Middle East and African studies at Shanghai International says: "Oil from Sudan makes up one-tenth of all of China's imported oil ... if we lose this source, how can we find another market to replace it? China has to balance its interests."

Corporation (CNPC), which produces 300,000 barrels a day; is involved in construction projects all over the country; and sells arms to the Khartoum government (one recent reported purchase of Shenyang fighter planes came to $100 million). All in all, China has invested roughly $2bn in Sudan over the last ten years.

China's economic ties to Khartoum have hindered international action on the matter. Since 2004 China, a permanent member of the UN security council, has abstained on six resolutions including one last month that, for the first time, imposed sanctions on four Sudanese accused of atrocities in Darfur, and another last March that proposed an oil embargo, cutting off at source the strongest card the Sudanese government can play.

CNN's Nic Robertson reports from Sudan-Chad border

In his report from Sudan-Chad border, CNN's Nic Robertson says a journalist can easily be shot for his or her automobile in Sudan or Chad, and explains:

As we've seen here in crowds, tensions can run high. A crowd can go from being sort of loud and peaceful to being angry and vengeful within a matter of seconds.

In Sudan, we saw two types of crowds. We saw a crowd that appeared to be organized by the government that was out to tell Jan Egeland that they didn't want the peace deal implemented by U.N. peacekeepers coming into the country.

And we've seen refugees in the Sudan camps who have been there two to three years, saying they do want international peacekeepers because they don't have faith in the African Union peacekeepers who are supposed to keep them safe right now.

They don't trust the Sudanese government. They say they get arrested when they go into town.

When you're in a crowd here, I think you really have to watch people's facial expressions, you have to watch their moods, you have to see if anything is changing their mood.

If one person turns in a crowd -- and this is the same in Afghanistan, Iraq and many other countries -- the whole mood of the crowd can shift in seconds. You have to be aware of that.

In Chad, the refugees, even those who have been here three years or more, are remarkably peaceful. They recognize and respect everything the international community is doing for them.

One of the refugee leaders in one of the camps told me today, "We know there's no one else out here who is going to provide security, who's going to help us and take care of us other than the international community."

[Note, many of the refugees are onside with the rebels. Darfur rebels are anti AU mediators and AU troops. Throughout the past few years they've wanted UN troops onside and UN to replace AU mediators at Darfur peace talks. Propaganda is rife]

US suggests May 30 deadline to start preparation for UN force takeover in Darfur

The US circulated a draft UN resolution that sets a May 30 deadline for deploying an assessment team to Darfur to prepare a UN takeover of the AU peacekeeping mission.

The new text, expected to be taken up by the 15-member Security Council during closed-door consultations Friday, calls on the parties to the Abuja accords to cooperate with the AU, the UN and member states "to accelerate transition to a United Nations operation, and ...calls for the immediate deployment of a joint African Union and United Nations technical assessment mission no later than May 30."

US has spent $1 billion feeding the hungry in Darfur

US Department of State report by Charles W. Corey, Washington File Staff Writer, 11 May 2006. Excerpt:

Between 2004 and 2006, the United States has spent more than $1 billion feeding the hungry in the crisis-gripped Darfur region of western Sudan, and remains committed to caring for distressed people in the area, a top U.S. government official told the U.S. Congress May 11.

"While we give a lot to WFP," the United States also has given $22 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross's (ICRC's) food distribution program and $8 million to five NGOs distributing food in Darfur, Hess said.

Additionally, even though WFP has been forced to cut daily food rations by 50 percent because of a severe shortfall in funding, Hess reassured Congress that the United States will continue contributing to supplemental feeding programs to ensure that those people who are most in danger of acute malnutrition will receive the support they need.

Dworken said Food for Peace has taken three key steps to help deal with the current WFP ration shortfall:

- Moving 2,850 tons of noncereal commodities to Port Sudan from pre-positioned stockpiles in Dubai and Lake Charles, Louisiana, for distribution in Darfur;

- Diverting 4,750 tons of food to Port Sudan that was being shipped to stockpiles in Dubai; and

- Procuring 40,000 tons of cereals valued at $36 million for rapid direct shipment to Sudan (an emergency action taken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture).

Dworken said those three steps add up to about 47,600 tons of food, valued at $48 million, which should be delivered from late May through late June.

Dana Ott, acting director of the Office of Sudan Programs at USAID, told the lawmakers that Sudan is the largest program in USAID's Africa Bureau -- which she attributed to the ongoing emergency food program. "Of the $850 million we spent in Sudan last year, easily $500 million was food assistance," she said, "and then a significant other portion was humanitarian nonfood assistance."

Ott predicted that USAID's new office will be opened in Khartoum in July and said USAID also is looking forward to the construction of a new consulate compound in Juba.

Minnawi's SLA delegation arrives in N Darfur to popularise peace accord

A delegation from Minni Minawi's faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army Movement arrived Thursday evening in Al-Fashir, capital of Northern Darfur State to start political activities in Darfur five days after signing a peace agreement with the government in Abuja, says SudanTribune report from Khartoum May 11, 2006:

The agreement raises hope that a UN force will be allowed into Darfur to help out the AU troops, as Khartoum has said it would consider such a force after a peace deal was signed.

On May 11, the leader of the SLM faction, Abdelwahed al-Nur, said he is willing to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement if Khartoum satisfy certains demands.

He said his key demands were for more compensation funds for Darfur from Khartoum, greater political representation for his group, and greater involvement in mechanisms to enforce a ceasefire and disarmament plan foreseen in the accord.

Displaced women in Sudan's Darfur are still being raped on a large scale says UN rights chief

Despite assertions by Sudan's Government, displaced women in that country's Darfur region are still being raped on a large scale, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said today.

Full report UN News Centre 11 May 2006. Excerpt:

Ms. Arbour said that there was no sign that sexual violence against the women of Darfur had receded or been brought under control in any way. During her first visit to Darfur in 2004, she met with groups of women in the camps who had been raped by the Arab militia called janjaweed.

She said she had been shocked to meet women this time who had subsequently given birth to the children of rape and who might later be ostracized by the community. After meeting groups of Darfur's women who had recently been raped, she said she told the Government the rapes were taking place "on a large and unattended scale."

"The Government asserted that it had taken many initiatives to address the question of sexual violence. The initiatives that I have been made aware of, as far as I am concerned, so far, continue to be paper initiatives. I saw no evidence on the ground that any of these committees that have been set up to look after these issues have made a dent in the problems," the High Commissioner said.

INTERVIEW: Hassan Al-Turabi says Islam and democracy are not incompatible - absence of democracy is the main reason behind Sudan's Darfur conflict

May 11, 2006 Al-Ahram Weekly Hassan Al-Turabi interview by Gamal Nkrumah. Excerpts:

"People are not stupid, nor lacking in civic responsibility," Sheikh Hassan Al-Turabi points out. His voice rises with excitement as he talks about the prospects for peace in Darfur. Choking on his words, he explains that the absence of democracy is the main reason behind conflict. "There is no notion of consensus (shura ), as Islam enjoins, nor an imperative to democratise."

"I am against the enforcement of Sharia law on non-Muslims. The Christian southerners must not forcibly succumb to Islamic Sharia law. "The Jews of Medina were not subjected to Sharia law during the days of Prophet Mohamed. Why should we Muslims, today, force Sharia law on Christian subjects?"

He reserves his harshest criticism for the military clique ruling Sudan. The curious thing is that they have not learnt from their mistakes, he says. "They insist on doing things their way -- which has more to do with totalitarianism and authoritarianism than Islam -- and so have got almost everything wrong."

"Women's rights are paramount. Where women's rights are thwarted there can be no democracy.

"Military rule ruined the country. Democracy is the only viable answer to Sudan's numerous challenges."

Turabi asks how difficult it really is to maintain universal notions of human rights. He argues that the inferior status of women in contemporary Muslim societies has nothing to do with Islam as revealed in the Qur'an and Sunna (the traditions of Prophet Mohamed).

Turabi said that as long as there are foreign troops on Sudanese soil, the country for all intents and purposes remains a colony. He also said that the Islamist experiment in Sudan was a failure.

Turabi stresses that Islam and democracy are not incompatible.

It is an open secret that many of the leaders of the Justice and Equality Movement, one of two armed Darfur opposition groups that declined to sign a peace agreement with the Sudanese government, were former members of the PCP or close associates of Turabi.

Islamist activists from Darfur were staunch supporters of the NIF regime in the past. Some observers would go so far as to claim that JEM is, in effect, the armed wing of the PCP.

"Democracy is the only way forward."

First of all, he elaborates, it is almost inevitable -- it is going to happen. The future of Africa and the Arab world is democratic.



Photo: Sheikh Hassan Al-Turabi, in above interview, said "I was imprisoned because I spoke with the southerners -- the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) -- I spent 30 months in jail for doing so -- and I was also imprisoned, 15 months, for speaking with Darfur's armed opposition groups. Now, I have entered into discussions with the Easterners," he says nonchalantly.

SLA's Minnawi disproves claims by rivals he signed Darfur Peace Agreement under pressures

During a press conference by telephone in Khartoum today SLA leader Minnawi said his movement would engage in political activities soon by setting up offices in different parts of the country so as to participate with the political forces in the country for the sake of development in the country.

In holding this press conference Minnawi meant to disapprove his political advisor Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim who said in a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General that Minnawi signed Darfur agreement under pressures. Full report Sudan Tribune May 11, 2006.

UN says considering international force for Chad - Egeland meets with Deby

The UN is looking to create an international force to help protect civilians and refugees in Chad from attacks by armed groups spilling over from Darfur, a UN official said on Thursday, Reuters report:

"We have a seriously deteriorating security situation in Chad and the government's capacity is also diminishing in terms of security response," Kingsley Amaning, Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Chad, told Reuters.

"Therefore along with the (Chadian) government we are looking at the possibility of putting in place an expatriate, international force that will support government efforts to provide security in the areas where we are operating," he said.

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland earlier met Chad's President Idriss Deby to discuss the situation in the country's long and porous border region with Darfur, where armed groups have been mounting cross-border raids on villages.

"It's very clear that Chad has limitations with its present armed forces being small and its police force being even smaller, and that's why ... we are looking at other methods to try to protect the civilian, refugee and displaced populations," Egeland told reporters.

WOAT/SOAT: Continued targeting of civilians in Donkey Dereisa, Nyala, South Darfur

Excerpt from a Press Release by World Organization Against Torture (Geneva) May 10, 2006:

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT), a member of the OMCT network, of the continued targeting of civilians, including extrajudicial killing, arbitrary detentions and burning of houses in Donkey Dereisa, Nyala, South Darfur State.

According to the information received, three officers from the government of Sudan armed forces, allegedly under the command of an officer from the military intelligence named Abu Ashara, arrested Mr. Ibrahim Adam (42 yrs) whilst he was working on a water container in Donkey Dereisa on 29 April 2006. According to eyewitnesses' accounts, Mr Adam was taken to a nearby hut and hanged on the same day. The soldiers set fire to the hut, that was completely destroyed.

Furthermore, according to the information received, military intelligence arrested fourteen people from Donkey Dereisa on suspicion of the collaboration with the SLA on 26 April 2006. The men were taken into military detention custody in an unknown place. On 03/04 May 2006, the detainees were transferred to a military intelligence detention center in Nyala where they remain in detention. The men face no official charges.

Lastly, it is reported that on 27 April 2006, armed militias working with government forces attacked and looted Donkey Dereisa village. During the attack, the militias burnt over three thousand houses. The government alleges that there are rebel groups in the surrounding areas of Donkey Dereisa. The attack was reportedly coordinated by Officer Abu Nobu.

The International Secretariat of the OMCT is gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of the above-mentioned detainees [see details in press release] and calls for an immediate and impartial investigation into their arbitrary detention.

- - -

Mar 16 2006 Sudanese air force bombed villages of Donkey Dreisa and Omgonya in South Darfur last month?

African Union says Nur's SLM faction may join Darfur deal

Today, from Copenhagan, Denmark, where he is attending a conference on Africa, AU Commission Chairman Alpha Konare told the AP:

"We have been approached by the movement of Abdel Wahid, who has shown interest in being part" of the Darfur peace agreement.

"This is an opening," Konare said, adding that details were sketchy but that talks between the Sudanese rebel leader and the AU were ongoing. "There are contacts going on."

"If new parties want to join, maybe they need more guarantees," Konare said. He did not elaborate what those guarantees - or possible Nur demands - could be.

"But if we have a united front ... we should be able to give this guarantee," Konare added.

Konare's comments could signal a significant development in the Darfur peace drive.

- - -

May 11 2006 Reuters (Estelle Shirbon) - Nur and Minnawi loathe each other. Their fight for control of the SLA was one of the main problems during the Abuja peace talks, which dragged on for close to two years. There have been tensions between Minnawi and Deby and observers fear that the Chadian president could act as a spoiler for the Darfur peace deal unless he is pacified.

Darfur Peace Agreement met central demand of Darfur rebellion - SLM faction and JEM were making "a profound mistake" by not signing - Benn

British Secretary of State Hilary Benn said the Darfur Peace Agreement met a central demand of the Darfur rebellion by creating a regional transitional government which could be consolidated by a referendum on regional governance in three years time.

Mr Benn said the two factions which did not sign were making "a profound mistake".

Full report by Mark Doyle, BBC World Affairs Correspondent May 10, 2006.

May 8 2006 Daily Trust/ST SLM's al-Nur says peace deal misses core concern of Darfur people - According to al-Nur his movement cannot accept the peace agreement in its present form as it would make them the employees of the Sudan government in Khartoum. [What else do they expect to be? This guy sounds as slippery as an eel - defining his demands here is like trying to nail mercury]

Denmark hosts conference on aid to Africa - focus on Darfur

The Danish government on Thursday hosted a conference on peacebuilding measures for Africa and the Scandinavian country's aid to the impoverished continent, Russia's Pravda reported May 11, 2006 - excerpt:

At the start of the one-day meeting, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare and UN's deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch Brown. Also attending the conference were Mozambique Prime Minister Luisa Dias Diogo and Tanzania's foreign minister, Asha-Rose Migiro, along with other AU and Danish officials.

The conference was expected to focus on Darfur. After talks with Fogh Rasmussen on Wednesday, Konare said he backed calls for a large UN peacekeeping force to be deployed quickly and expressed hope the UN would soon decide on whether to send Darfur peacekeepers.

Highlights of Darfur Peace Agreement, last-minute modifications

Click here for three pages of text elaborated by the International mediators to convince the different rebel groups in Abuja to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement on Friday 5 May 2006 [via Sudan Tribune May 11, 2006]

May 9 2006 Trocaire report via Reuters Partial Darfur peace agreement - an opportunity which should not be missed

South Darfur's Kalma Camp residents attack AU police station and lynch to death AU interpreter

AU Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe expressed deep "shock and sadness over the lynching to death of an AU Language Assistant", following an attack against an AU Civilian Police Station by internally displaced persons in their Camp at Kalma in south Darfur, says Sudan Tribune report from Khartoum May 10.

Angry demonstrators killed a Sudanese interpreter working with AU forces in Darfur on Monday 8 May in riots which broke out during a senior UN official's visit to a camp for displaced Sudanese.

"The incident, which seemed to have been orchestrated to coincide with the visit of Jan Egeland, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, who was himself under threat of physical harm, took place on 8th May 2006." an AU press statement said

AMIS is concerned about the spate of violent demonstrations by the IDPs in Darfur, particularly the ones that took place in Kalma and Hassahissa where, in addition to human casualties, a number of AMIS vehicles and other properties were either burnt, damaged or vandalised. (ST)



Photo: Diplaced Sudanese people hold up banners at Kalma Camp, 8 May 2006, where thousands demonstrated demanding international protection. The head of the African Union's executive said it was vital for the peace accord to end the civil war in the Sudanese region of Darfur to be implemented as soon as possible. (AFP/File/Jonah Fisher)

May 8 2006 Reuters UN evacuates Kalma Camp, after attack

Jan 19 2006 Firewood patrols for IDPs at Kalma Camp, Darfur Sudan

Feb 7 2006 Controlled anarchy at Kalma camp in South Darfur, Sudan

Mar 20 2006 South Darfur's Kalma and Seraif Camp - Rape; Attempted Rape; Risk of Death Penalty

AU mediators issue Open Letter to Darfur rebels: May 15 deadline to sign DPA

Darfur mediators defend peace deal after protests, reports Estelle Shirbon for Reuters May 10, 2006. Excerpt:

Six AU mediators issued an open letter on Wednesday to the rebel groups who rejected the [Darfur Peace] agreement, explaining in detail the benefits the deal is designed to bring to them and to the people of Darfur.

"There are so many attempts to misrepresent the agreement," said Sam Ibok, head of the AU mediation team and one of the signatories of the open letter.

After two years of peace talks in Nigeria, only one faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), led by Minni Arcua Minnawi, accepted the settlement drafted by AU mediators.

A rival SLA factional leader, Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur, is still in the Nigerian capital Abuja where he is facing diplomatic pressure to belatedly sign the deal. The deadline for any signatures to be added is May 15.

Nur is weak militarily but the international community is desperate for him to endorse the agreement because he is a member of the Fur tribe, Darfur's largest. Minnawi has more fighters but he is from the smaller Zaghawa ethnic group.

"The open letter is first and foremost aimed at Abdel Wahed (Nur) and his people," said Ibok.

He added that a campaign was being prepared to inform people in Darfur about what the deal offered them. This would include explanatory leaflets in Arabic.

The open letter said some of the suspicions the rebels had expressed about the agreement stemmed from ignorance or misunderstanding of its content.

"At the moment you have nothing. Everything in the agreement is a gain, and if you obtain the support of the people, you can gain still more," said the letter, referring to elections that the agreement says must be held in three years.

"Whoever wins those elections, governs Darfur," the letter said, stressing that this represented an avenue for the rebels to pursue some of the demands that the accord does not meet.

Turning to security arrangements, the mediators wrote that these were the best part of the deal for the rebels. "At long last, there is a clear plan for dealing with the problem of the Janjaweed," the letter said, spelling out a sequenced plan in which the government must disarm the Janjaweed before the rebels are required to lay down their weapons.

"Demilitarised zones are created along humanitarian supply routes and around camps for internally displaced persons, and in buffer zones that separate the forces of the parties," it added.

AU commission chairman urges UN force for Darfur - Six month delay for UN Darfur force

The African Union commission chairman said Wednesday that a large UN peacekeeping force should be deployed quickly in Darfur.

"We need a massive and strong commitment without delay," Konare said. Full report (ST/AP) May 10, 2006.

Note, it will take at least six-months for UN peacekeepers to be on the ground in Darfur, western Sudan.

Darfur's JEM rebels had no intention to agree peace - Pronk

UN SGSR Jan Pronk blogs his account of the run up to the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement in Abuja. Excerpt:

The JEM, not surprisingly, opted out. I do not think the latter ever had the intention to reach an agreement. Abdul Wahid did. However, he did shy away for peace, because he was afraid to confront his constituency. He kept saying that the agreement did not meet the expectations of his people. No wonder, because he had raised these expectations by making promises he could not keep.

Salim's text was a 'take it, but not leave it' paper. Parties could improve the text, leaving the basic structure intact and provided that they would agree on the amendments.

Abdul Wahid, however, took distance from his negotiators and said that the text was unacceptable. Khalil, the leader of the JEM, did the same, using language that insulted President Obasanjo who was chairing the talks very charmingly, and left.

Not the worst of accords on Darfur (Julie Flint)

Julie Flint, in her latest opinion piece on Darfur (Daily Star May 9, 2006) says the rebel movements have from the beginning suffered from delusions of grandeur (I agree) and their region is "of little or no strategic importance: It has now water and no oil" (sorry to disagree - she is my favourite journalist on Darfur - there does appear to be oil in Darfur, see previous Sudan Watch entries re Darfur oil, listed here below).

The piece explains that even those who have rejected the Darfur Peace Agreement acknowledge that its security provisions are surprisingly good. Excerpt:

The Sudan government must withdraw its forces from many areas it currently occupies, and must disarm the Janjaweed within five months - before the rebels even begin to lay down their guns. Guarantees include an independent advisory team that both Canada and Norway, outspoken critics of the Sudanese government, are keen to head up. The government must downsize the paramilitary Popular Defense Force (PDF) and Border Guards in which Janjaweed have been hidden. The hated PDF must be abolished in three or four years. Thousands of rebels will be integrated into the Sudanese armed forces. Some will even be given command posts.

The agreement's weakest points, from Darfur's viewpoint, are its provisions for power-sharing. At the federal level, the rebel movements have won few concessions and have been refused the third place in the national hierarchy. But they have the fourth - in itself a gigantic step up. The government has won the battle to keep Darfur divided into three states, until a referendum on a single region, and controls 50 percent of state legislatures to the rebels' 30 percent, with 20 percent going to independents - a division that could, in reality, produce an anti-government majority. Critically, however, the movements will control the Transitional Darfur Regional Authority (TDRA) and annual income of hundreds of millions of dollars. It is the TDRA which will be the real power until elections. It will implement the peace agreement, supervise reconstruction and economic development, and help the return and resettlement of the refugees. All the TDRA's commission heads will be the movements' nominees.

Further reading

Jul 12 2004 Oil and Darfur

Dec 4 2004 Oil and Darfur - India signed new pipeline deal - France interested in Uranium and has drilling rights

Dec 20 2004 Rebels attack Darfur oil, Libyans mediate in Abuja, AU probe attack on AU helicopter

Mar 29 2005 Rebels attack villages in South Darfur - Sudanese FM blames SPLM over Darfur, oil

Apr 3 2005 Oil found in South Darfur - Oil issues threaten to derail Sudan hopes for peace

Apr 16 2005 Sudan says oil discovered in impoverished Darfur

Apr 18 2005 New oil field in Darfur expected to produce crude oil by August 2005

Jun 9 2005 Friedhelm Eronat is behind Cliveden Sudan and Darfur oil deal

Jun 10 2005 Friedhelm Eronat and Cliveden Sudan named as buyer of Darfur oil rights

Jun 17 2005 Chinese sign up with Eronat's Cliveden and Canada's Encana to explore oil in Chad

Apr 26 2006 Uranium in Darfur? - Iran 'could share nuclear skills'