International Criminal Court Prosecutor briefs UN Security Council on Darfur, says will not draw conclusions on genocide until investigation complete

"Identifying those persons with the greatest responsibility for the most serious crimes in Darfur is a key challenge for the investigation," Luis Moreno Ocampo, of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said as he presented his latest report to the Security Council June 14, 2006. - UN News Centre June 14, 2006

Click here to read full report and pdf copy of third report of the Prosecutor of the ICC to the UN Security Council pursuant to UNSCR 1593 (2005).

June 14, 2006 UN report: International Criminal Court Prosecutor briefs Security Council on Darfur, says will not draw conclusions on genocide until investigation complete - Luis Moreno-Ocampo tells Council, given scale, complexity of crimes, anticipates prosecuting 'sequence of cases, rather than a single case'.
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June 15 2006 Reuters report via Sudan Tribune - ICC has no jursidiction in Darfur - Sudanese minister: Under the Rome Treaty which formed the court, the ICC cannot indict suspects who have been tried fairly in a competent national court. Sudan signed but has not ratified that treaty.

Sudan seeks France help to restore relations with Chad - FM

Yesterday, visiting Sudanese Foreign minister Lam Akol told reporters in a press conference held in Paris he asked France to use its influence and help to restore bilateral relations with Chad. - Sudan Tribune June 15, 2006.

Darfur conflict bleeds across the border into Chad - LA Times June 15, 2006 - excerpt:

Eastern Chad has become home to a dizzying collection of militants, including Sudanese janjaweed, Chadian janjaweed, Chadian rebels and Sudanese rebel groups such as the Sudanese Liberation Army. All sides have been accused of launching attacks on civilians.

"Everybody is running everywhere and everybody is attacking everybody," the UNHCR's Findlay said.

Humanitarian groups who went to eastern Chad in 2004 to assist Darfur refugees are now grappling with displaced Chadians as well.

"It's putting a lot of strain on our resources," aid Nitesh Patel, head of the World Food Program's office in Goz Beida.

In just three months, nearly 12,000 Chadians have settled on farmland about a mile outside town, not far from the Djabel camp for more than 17,000 Sudanese refugees. There is not enough water to supply the two camps and the local population, stirring tension and resentment. Women from the camps are spending up to nine hours a day fetching water in buckets.

Soon the rainy season will begin, flooding the farmland and heightening the risk of malaria and other diseases.

Aid groups had resisted providing free food and supplies to the Chad population, fearful that they would encourage them to become dependent on aid and create permanent camps. They are attempting to scatter families into small villages and offering them plots of farmland on which to support themselves.

But the situation is deteriorating. The World Food Program this month began its first major distribution of seeds and food baskets.

"We are in a situation now where if we don't give them food, they won't have anything to eat," Patel said.

Darfur refugees in ZamZam Camp watch World Cup in a hut

Report from Ireland Online June 15, 2006:

The hut of thatch walls was as rickety and windblown as any other in Zamzam Camp for refugees on the sand dunes of western Sudan, but dozens of men and boys squeezed inside to watch the TV broadcasts of the World Cup.

"It's so ... different," said 11-year-old Abdelazziz Adam, pointing to the lush green grass of a German soccer stadium.

Many in the hut were too poor to pay the admission fee, and the refugees with a different view of the May 5 peace accord watched the match from a separate cinema-hut.

"I've come every afternoon since the cup began," said Adam, turning his back on the open door that let in gusts of sand.

His eyes fixated on the screen, Adam clung to his shoe-polisher's box.

Adam said he polished shoes every morning to pay for his ticket to the hut. At 50 Sudanese dinars (about 17c), the sum is a fortune for Darfur's refugees. Most are farmers who have lost all their possessions in the militia raids that have plagued this vast, arid region since the fighting began in February 2003.

"The ticket is costing me more than half the money I earned this morning," Adam said. He said he attended school, but he was evasive when asked how he fitted it in. He claimed he was currently on holiday.

Adam said he could not remember how long he had been at Zamzam, a camp where some 40,000 people take refuge from the Janjaweed militia, who are blamed for most of the atrocities in a war that has killed more than 180,000 people and displaced 2.5 million.

"We left my village after the Janjaweed attacked and killed my uncle," Adam said. His mother died of sickness shortly after the family arrived at Zamzam.

The hut's manager, Elfateh Ishat, said he bought the satellite dish and TV sets a few months ago with about Euros 1,755 that he saved while working as a paramedic for an aid agency.

He began to recoup his money only when the World Cup started last week, drawing more than 100 people a day to his hut.

"The problem is that they've got no money, so I have to let many of them in for free," Ishat said.

"They give me what they can in return," he said, slapping hands with members of the audience in an African gesture of friendship.

Dressed in white gowns with a dagger on their left side, most of the spectators hailed from the Fur tribe - Darfur means "land of the Fur".

Ishat said his customers used to include members of the camp's other important tribe, Zaghawa, but that relations had soured since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement on May 5.

While the leader of the main Darfur rebel group, Minni Minnawi, a Zaghawa signed the accord with the Sudanese government, the dissident rebel leader Abdelwahid Elnur, a Fur, refused.

Zamzam camp consists mostly of Elnur supporters but it stands close to Minnawi's bases. Inside the camp, discussion of the peace agreement has become a taboo.

Ishat said the Zaghawas had created their own venue to watch the game, "but I heard it's much less nice and smaller".

Wearing the purple jersey of Nigeria's World Cup team, spectator Assadis Abdallah said most people in Zamzam wanted South Africa to win the tournament as it was the African side with the best chance. "We all love football here," he said.

Most refugees cannot leave the camp for fear of the militia that roam the area, killing men and raping women, Abdallah said.

"There's not much else to do here anyway than watch the soccer," he said, sitting in the hut among an entirely male audience.

Outside the hut, 11-year-old Asma Adham said she and the girls around her would not mind watching a World Cup game, but they had neither the money nor the time.

"There's water to fetch, firewood to collect, and the children to look after," said Adham, who was taking care of her one-year-old sister.

"Soccer is just for boys," she said.

Darfur's JEM rebels excluded from E Sudan peace talks

IRIN report June 14 via Reuters says peace talks aimed at ending a simmering civil conflict in eastern Sudan are not expected to become a drawn-out process, Sudanese authorities said. Excerpt:

The eastern rebels accuse the Sudanese government of marginalising the remote regions of the country and demand greater autonomy.

The EF - an alliance between two rebel movements, the Beja Congress and a smaller insurgency, the Rashaida Free Lions - has been active in the poor region near the Eritrean border, but fighting is sporadic and on a small scale.

Other rebel groups, such as the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which is also active in Darfur, have gained importance but been kept outside the negotiations, however. Observers fear their exclusion might derail a potential eastern peace deal.

"We do not accept the decision to exclude us from the talks between the Eastern Front and Khartoum," said JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim in Asmara on Tuesday. "Khartoum will not get peace if we don't participate in the talks," he added, warning that JEM's presence in the east could not be ignored.

El-Samani acknowledged JEM's geographical presence in the east, but stressed they had no role to play at the peace talks. "They have not been invited for the simple reason that they have nothing to do with the Eastern Front talks - by no means - because they are from Darfur," he said.

Note, the report points out Eastern Sudan is a strategic region that includes Port Sudan - the country's economic lifeline, through which most of its foreign trade passes - the oil pipeline, many irrigated and semi-mechanised agricultural schemes, and a long border with Eritrea, with whom Sudan has had rocky relations for the past 12 years.

If fighting between Darfur's rebel factions doesn't stop soon, thousands will starve warns German aid agency

Deutsche Welthungerhilfe has been forced to halt its relief supplies in many areas of Darfur. 385,000 people will therefore not receive food rations in June and are thus at risk of starvation. The reason behind this is the fighting going on for weeks between various groups of the SLA. On the 5th May 2006 a peace treaty was signed by the government in Khartoum and the SLA. However, this was not recognised by all the rebel groups. Since then relief organisations have not been able to access SLA-dominated areas.

"If fighting between rebel factions doesn't stop soon then thousands of people will starve," warned regional coordinator, Johan van der Kamp. "Many people received their last monthly rations at the end of May and now have nothing left." The distribution of seed has also been stopped - just before the rainy season. This means people will be unable to sow the fields and that next year there will be no harvest. - ReliefWeb June 14, 2006.

Job Vacancy: GOAL Field Coordinator, Kutum, North Darfur

See OneWorld.net. Closing date July 13, 2006. CVs should be sent to: recruitment@goal.ie

Million pound idea: Belu's biodegradable water bottle is made of corn and will help fund water projects in Africa

Good news from England. Pablo Halkyard at PSD Blog - The World Bank Group points out the economics and ethics of bottled water and says an English company named belu has developed a biodegradable bottle for its water AND donates its profits to projects with WaterAid in India and Africa.



Photo and caption via Treehugger: This is the first biodegradable bottle on sale in Britain. It is made of corn and breaks down by commercial composting methods in 12 weeks, and by home composting in about a year. The corn is grown in 100 days and can return to the soil in 100 days. The water is from deep wells in Shropshire and is sold in some major supermarket chains.

belu is a small company founded with a goal to finance clean-water projects around the world. They are part of a growing group of ethical entrepreneurs who are turning their businesses and profits towards having an impact on the world's problems. Their intention is to generate one million GBP profit and spend it on water projects. The first is in India where they are building wells and hand pumps and sanitation facilities. The second is in Mali Africa where they are providing clean water and sanitation to a community of 10,000 people.

UN Security Council delegation fear Darfur war could destabilise Africa

AP report by Edith Lederer June 12, 2006 (via Cron.com) U.N. visitors fear Darfur war could destabilise Africa - Delegation calls Sudan peace vital to the entire region:

KINSHASA, CONGO - A U.N. Security Council delegation wrapped up its Africa trip Monday with a sense of urgency for finding ways to bring peace in the three-year conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

During their final stop in Congo, which is just emerging from its own war, council members were warned that all of central Africa could be destabilized by the fighting in Darfur, which has killed at least 180,000 people and forced 2 million to flee their homes.

"Peace in Darfur is basic to peace in Sudan, in Chad, in the subregion, and perhaps more widely," said Britain's U.N. ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry. "We've learned a lot. We've seen the camps. ... We've had a very good feel for it, and now we've got to go back and see if we can draw some conclusions."

France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said he was "very reassured" that the Security Council's plan for a U.N. military force to take over peacekeeping in Darfur from a 7,000-soldier African Union mission should be the next step in the process.

But the Sudanese government still must give its approval. It has so far been reluctant, but it also is wary of directly opposing the inter-national community when both the African Union and the United Nations say U.N. peacekeepers are needed.

"What we are doing is to try to have this train, which already left, arriving to the station in Darfur, and the question now is to deploy a force there to do the whole thing right - and it's very complex," de la Sabliere said.

Decades of low-level clashes in Darfur over land and water erupted into war in early 2003 when ethnic African rebels based in farming villages rose up against Sudan's Arab-led government, which responded by unleashing the nomadic Arab militias known as janjaweed.

The janjaweed have been accused of widespread atrocities against farm villagers.

Sudan's leaders deny backing the militias, but agreed under a May 5 peace agreement with the largest rebel group to disarm and disband the janjaweed.

Darfur, Who Started It? Timelines and UNMIS Background

In his blog entry entitled "Darfur, Who Started It?" American blogger Eugene Oregon (not his real name) of Coalition for Darfur (in Washington D.C., I think) says he wants to try and set the record straight about how, when and why the Darfur rebellion started, implying that Alan Kuperman, the UN and Reuters et al get it wrong when referring to Feb 2003 as the date when the Darfur rebellion began after the two main rebel groups in Darfur, SLA and JEM, took up arms and began attacking government forces and installations in Darfur in protest of being marginalised and neglected by Khartoum.

On this question, it would take a book to explain and there are too many reports in the archives here at Sudan Watch for me to look up and simply point out right now. Off the top of my head, most reports are along the lines of the timelines by UN and CBC (see here below) and the following excerpt from Background report by UN Mission in the Sudan:

The conflict between the North and the South began in 1955, and has continued for all but eleven of the 49 years that Sudan has been independent. [The Sudan gained independence from British-Egyptian rule on 1 January 1956.] For the past two decades, the Government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), the main rebel movement in the south, have fought over resources, power, the role of religion in the state and self-determination.

Darfur

The civil war in the south has concluded with the signing of the peace agreement on 9 January 2005, yet another has continued in the Darfur region in the country's west, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 1.8 million others displaced or have fled to neighbouring Chad since rebel groups took up arms against the Sudanese Government in early 2003, partly in protest at the distribution of economic resources.

Excerpts from UN, CBC, Reuters, Islamic Relief, BBC, Human Rights Watch:

UN - Darfur Timeline: March 2003 - Fighting breaks out in the Darfur region of western Sudan between Government forces and rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

CBC - Timeline of events since fighting began in Darfur, Sudan: In April 2003, refugees began arriving in eastern Chad to escape the conflict that erupted after the two main rebel groups in Darfur, SLA and JEM, began attacking government forces and installations in Darfur, western Sudan.

Reuters - Darfur conflict at a glance - Conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region began in 2003 when two rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), rose up against the government, accusing it of neglect. The government's response was swift and brutal.

Islamic Relief - Darfur Timeline: February - April 2003 - Emergence of SLA and JEM rebel movements in Darfur, who begin to campaign against the marginalisation of the region.; SLA launch surprise attacks on towns in northern Darfur; Refugees begin arriving in eastern Chad to escape the conflict. Large numbers of civilians flee their homes.

BBC Timeline: Sudan: 2003 February - Rebels in western region of Darfur rise up against government, claiming the region is being neglected by Khartoum.

Human Rights Watch: Since February 2003, Sudanese government forces and allied, government-backed militias known internationally as the "Janjaweed" have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of "ethnic cleansing" in Darfur in the context of a military counter-insurgency campaign against rebel groups known as the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) ... the conflict in Darfur in 2003-2004 and the humanitarian crisis it has produced is of an entirely different scale, gravity and nature than the clashes of previous years. This is largely due to the overlap of national security interests - combating the rebel insurgency - and local interests in claiming land and other resources. ... The emergence of the main Darfur rebel movement, the SLA, in February 2003, and its surprising military successes, sharpened fears in the central government, which was then engaged in longstanding political talks in Naivasha, Kenya with the southern rebels, the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in an effort to end the long-running war in the south. The timing of the SLA's emergence in the midst of the Naivasha talks, its surprising military success in the first months, and fears that it did or could forge a coalition with other real or potential insurgencies seeking power-sharing in Sudan, resulted in the Sudanese government's decision to crush the rebellion militarily. It did this by looking beyond the national army, which had always been manned by ill-trained and ill-motivated conscripts and many troops from Darfur. As one observer noted, "President Bashir did not want to rely on his 90,000-strong regular army. It consists to a large extent of Darfuri foot soldiers whom he does not trust. So the Janjaweed was created."

Excerpt from Coalition for Darfur:

Kuperman claims, and many others have argued as well, that much of the blame for the situation in Darfur falls on the rebels who, by rebelling, set off the counter-insurgency/genocide that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

As Kuperman says in his op-ed,
"Darfur was never the simplistic morality tale purveyed by the news media and humanitarian organizations. The region's blacks, painted as long-suffering victims, actually were the oppressors less than two decades ago - denying Arab nomads access to grazing areas essential to their survival. Violence was initiated not by Arab militias but by the black rebels who in 2003 attacked police and military installations."

I have seen this idea repeated in several places and so I just wanted to try and set the record straight. Read more: Darfur, Who Started It?

Peace in southern Sudan is far from sustained - Jan Pronk

UN SGSR Jan Pronk in his blog entry June 11, 2006 describes how the peace process in South Sudan is slowing down and, on top of many unresolved issues,

There are conflicts between nomads and settlers, between cattle raiders and herders, between shepherds and farmers, between returnees and the local population. Disgruntled soldiers, for long not having been paid, start looting. Crime is on the rise. Some Other Armed Groups, not having been part of the SPLA, but loosely associated with the former rival liberation movement SSDF, refuse to follow their leader Paulino Matiep, who has decided to join the SPLA. Instead they continue fighting. In Jonglei a civilian militia, the White Army, refuses to lay down arms. People living around the oil fields are being harassed or even evicted from their land. In many Southern states tribal conflicts explode into violent clashes. In the deep South the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is attacking villages.

Mr Pronk concludes by saying:

Chances are that we will get a second peace keeping task in Darfur. Presently we are preparing ourselves for this challenge. It could very well be more difficult than the task in the South. In Darfur there at least as many other armed groups as in the South and the Darfur Peace Agreement is more disputed than the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between North and South. But whoever might think that we could build a peace keeping force in Darfur by cannibalizing the forces in the South and redeploying some of these towards another part of Sudan would be mistaken. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is no solution. In the South we need all the forces we have, because peace is yet far from sustained.

SA President in Sudan June 20 to push for UN Peace Force

South African President Thabo Mbeki will visit Sudan on June 20, hoping to press Khartoum to approve a UN takeover of an AU peacekeeping operation there, a senior government official said on June 13. Reuters SA reported:

Mbeki's one-day visit would include talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and First Vice-President Salva Kiir, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said.

"This will be a good opportunity for the president ... to discuss progress made," Pahad told reporters. He said Mbeki's visit would seek ways to strengthen implementation of Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

However, he said Mbeki would also press Khartoum to agree to an AU proposal to allow the UN to take over in Darfur. "You cannot manage without it (a UN presence)," Pahad said. "The situation is grave."

Pahad said South Africa hoped most of the peacekeepers would still come from African countries, which could allay what analysts say are Sudanese fears that a UN force would seek to arrest officials and government-allied militia leaders likely to be indicted by the International Criminal Court investigating alleged war crimes.

He said Pretoria, which itself has 437 troops in the AU force in Darfur, believed that only the UN would have the resources needed to mount an effective peacekeeping operation.

A senior UN official, in Sudan on a week-long mission seeking to plan for a possible transition, said on Monday that UN troops would not be able to deploy in Darfur before January 2007, making it likely that the AU force would remain in the country beyond its Sept 30 mandate.

Darfuris hostile towards AU peacekeepers - 20 armed factions create hell around ZamZam, Darfur

It's no wonder the gangsters and uneducated masses in Sudan are ruled with a stick. Even peacekeepers costing the international community $1 billion a year are treated with contempt by Darfuris. What a waste. Imagine all the water pumps and school books that could be purchased with such sums of money.

AP report by Alfred de Montesquiou June 12, 2006 - excerpts:

"With all the splinter rebel groups, the Janjaweed controlled by the Sudanese army and those who act own their own, there are maybe 20 armed factions in this zone," said Lt. Col. Mohammed Sallam, an Egyptian officer who commands AU military operations in the Zamzam area. "When you get in an ambush, you know you are being shot at, but you never know by who." [edit]

In Zamzam, officers say they never leave their small police office without a military escort. "We're scared. The situation is completely unpredictable here," said Lekbaraki Salem, a Mauritanian police officer. He said he suspected there were many weapons in the camp, and that combatants from the Sudan Liberation Movement -- the region's main rebel group -- crossed the lines at night to visit their families. [edit]

Still, communication is a problem. The peacekeepers said many refugees who support Elnur's faction blame the AU for the treaty, which they consider unfair. While several translators at the nearby El Fasher headquarters complained they were underworked, the AU military patrol Friday did not include a single Fur or Arabic speaker.

"We have to explain it (the treaty) better to them," said Maj. James Mulenga, a Zambian officer with the AU. A group of Zaghawa and Fur sheiks said they would be eager to return to their villages if security improves, and hoped to be compensated for their loss. But they didn't want to discuss the peace agreement, and AU peacekeepers insisted on leaving before the gathering grew hostile.

In Zamzam, Hawatilin Hamid said finding wood for cooking was one of her hardest chores. AU soldiers once accompanied women gathering wood, but such patrols were stopped because of the growing hostility among many refugees toward the African force.

[Why are the translators underworked? You'd think they'd distribute radios and work flat out to broadcast the real deal so that all the women and children in Darfur and Chad get a chance to hear the full story, not just what the rebel leaders and their henchmen choose to impart to the uneducated masses]

Darfur's SLA rebel faction opens fire on AU troops and foreign journalists in Fakyale, Darfur - Gunmen attack UNHCR office in W Darfur, wound guard

Four armed men attacked a UN field office in Darfur, shooting one guard in the leg, UNHCR said Tuesday, AP/ST reported June 13, 2006:

The men, who were wearing military uniforms, attacked the office in Habila in the far west of Darfur late Monday, said a spokeswoman for the UNHCR. Habila is about 95 km south of the West Darfur capital of al-Geneina. UNHCR has seven staff in Habila, and around 75 in West Darfur.

The attackers forced their way in, shot the guard, stole communications equipment, asked one of the staff for money and then left, Pagonis said. She had few other details.

Photo: AU soldiers and foreign journalists run for cover from a SLA faction that opened fire on them during an AU patrol near the SLA controled Fakyale village in central Darfur, south of the town of Al-Fasher, June 10, 2006. The AU patrol was prevented from entering the village and was forced to change course, with no casualties. (AP)

Darfur's JEM rebels threaten to topple eastern Sudan peace talks - SPLA hands over Hamesh Koreb to Kassala State

June 13, 2006 Reuters report confirms eastern Sudan peace talks to begin in Asmara after delay: "The United Nations will be participating in the talks tonight," UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said on Tuesday. UN observation of the talks is a key rebel demand.

Darfur's JEM rebel group threatened on Tuesday to scuttle peace efforts in Sudan's east if excluded from planned negotiations, Sudan Tribune reported June 13, 2006:

"We do not accept the decision to exclude us from the talks between the Eastern Front and Khartoum," Khalil Ibrahim, leader of Justice Equality Movement (JEM) said in Asmara. "Khartoum will not get peace if we don't participate in the talks," Ibrahim said, warning that JEM's presence in the east could not be ignored.

The Sudanese government and the Eastern Front fighters - grouping rebels from the region's largest ethnic group, the Beja, along with Rashaida Arabs - are set to open talks later Tuesday in a bid to end a simmering civil conflict in eastern Sudan.

Ibrahim said he had told Eastern Front rebels that they stood to benefit from JEM's group's participation in the peace negotiation.

"If we join the Front in the talks they will get more," he said. "They need experience and political awareness - on the other side, there is a well-trained group from the government."

The JEM, which is active in the conflict-ravaged western region of Darfur, has also emerged as a key player in eastern Sudan. It demands a seat at the presidency as part of any peace settlement, but has not been invited to the Asmara talks.

The Eastern Front, formed last year, controls an area on the Sudanese-Eritrean border around the town of Hamesh Koreb and has been involved in low-intensity guerrilla activity against the Khartoum government for years.

- - -

SPLA HANDS OVER HAMESH KOREB TO KASSALA STATE

Kassala State's Government has received Hamesh Koreb area from Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) Sunday in the framework of the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Sudan Tribune reported June 12, 2006:

Hamesh Koreb, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) northeast of Khartoum in Sudan's Kassala province, was the largest town controlled by the SPLM/A in eastern Sudan during the 21-year north-south civil war that ended last January.

The first phase of Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLA) withdrawal from Eastern Sudan to the Southern Sudan commenced on 20 April.

Photo: SPLA troops before their departure to South Sudan from the east. (ST)

RARE INTERVIEW: Sheik Musa Hilal, leader of Um Jalul tribe in his hometown of Mistariha, Darfur (Lydia Polgreen)

Copy of interview "Over Tea, Sheik Denies Stirring Darfur's Torment" by Lydia Polgreen, New York Times (via The Ledger) June 12, 2006:

MISTARIHA, Sudan - Their camouflage uniforms bear no insignia. Their machine guns lack the brassy patina of long use. Instead of boots, most wear sandals or flip-flops. The armed men swarming this mysterious town, usually off limits to foreigners, look almost, but not quite, like soldiers. Their allegiance does not appear to be to any military commander, but to a tall, copper-skinned man in a white robe and turban named Musa Hilal.

Mr Hilal, the sheik who the State Department and human rights organizations say is an architect and perhaps the key leader of the fearsome Arab militias that have unleashed a torrent of misery in Darfur, laughed softly at the question of who these armed men were. "They are soldiers," he replied with an easy smile in a rare interview here. "Just regular soldiers."

But the commander of the African Union peacekeeping base two dozen miles away, Col. John Bosco Mulisa, said there was little doubt who these men really were. "They are janjaweed," he said, using the local term for the Arab militias. "This town is their headquarters."

Whoever their commander is and whatever they are called, these men and the weapons they carry will determine whether, after three years of conflict that has left at least 200,000 dead, the fragile efforts to bring peace to this shattered region will succeed or fail.

"The greatest threat to this peace agreement right now is the janjaweed," said a senior military intelligence officer with the African Union who is not authorized to speak publicly. "It is not clear what is in it for them or how it serves their interests to disarm. No one is sure what they will do or who exactly controls them."

The first and most critical step of that agreement, signed in May between the government in Khartoum and the largest rebel faction, is the disarmament of the janjaweed. The government pledged to submit a plan to disarm the militias of their heavy weaponry one month after signing the agreement and to finish the job before the end of October. But how do you disarm a phantom army whose sponsors and leaders deny its existence? And exactly who are the janjaweed and is it within the government's power to disarm them? "Who are the janjaweed?" asked Eltayeb Hag Ateya, director of the Peace Research Institute at the University of Khartoum. "It depends on what you mean and who you ask."

The term itself has long been used to refer to highwaymen and bandits from tribes living across Sudan's western border in Chad who roamed the vast, semi desert plains of Darfur, robbing Arabs and non-Arabs, nomads and farmers. But the word came to have a new meaning after rebels attacked a government outpost in Darfur in 2003, sparking the conflict that would engulf the region and eventually spill into Chad.

The militias that came to be known as the janjaweed were deployed as a kind of counterinsurgency proxy force that the government used in place of and sometimes alongside its military. It had used such Arab militias with brutal success in the 20-year civil war in the south. These fighters were paid a small stipend, but their greatest reward was the right to loot and seize livestock and land from the Fur and Zaghawa, non-Arab tribes from which the rebels drew their ranks.

The chief figure in the deployment of these militias, according to the State Department and human rights organizations, was Mr Hilal, who leads a powerful Arab tribe in Darfur called Um Jalul.

Long before the war began, Mr Hilal wielded control over a fearsome tribal militia, and because of his deep connections to the Arab elite of Khartoum, he was the first tribal leader the government turned to when the insurgency among non-Arab tribes began, human rights investigators say.

He responded to the call by summoning recruits to enlarge his militia to thousands of men, who were trained and equipped in vast barracks here in Mistariha. Soon, this dusty village nestled between a pair of mountains was a beehive of military activity, with truckloads of recruits and helicopters full of weapons and other supplies arriving daily. Platoons of armed men on camels and horseback arrived constantly, their animals weighed down with loot, according to witness accounts collected by human rights groups. At the center of it all was Mr. Hilal, the witnesses said, directing and rallying his troops and urging them to plunder.

Officially, the town was called the headquarters of the government's Border Intelligence Unit, though it is about 120 miles from the nearest border, with Chad.

In Mistariha, Mr Hilal took pains to explain that he was not a militia leader, merely an influential sheik. In a two-hour interview over a lunch of grilled meats and tea near a bustling market, Mr Hilal said repeatedly that the Arab militias he was accused of commanding simply did not exist.

"It is a lie," he said. "Janjaweed is a thief. A criminal. I am a tribal leader, with men and women and children who follow me. How can they all be thieves and bandits? It is not possible."

He said there were no tensions here between Arabs and non-Arabs. By way of demonstration, he ordered one of his soldiers to round up a group of market women. When the women arrived, cowering under their bright robes as Mr Hilal hovered over them, one by one said there were no tensions here.

"I am a Fur," said Fatouma, a woman who sells millet in the market, naming the largest non-Arab tribe in the region. Her eyes avoided Mr Hilal's imperious glare. "We get along with the Arabs fine," she added, before begging to be allowed to return to her market stall.

"See!" Mr. Hilal exclaimed to his foreign visitors. "We have no problems here. We live together in peace."

But in much of his territory the only peace is the peace of a graveyard. The road leading here from the nearby town of Kebkabiyah tells another story new Arab villages line the road, while old Fur and Zaghawa villages are burned-out husks.

In one Zaghawa village, bullet holes scar a crumbling schoolhouse. All the thatch roofs have been burned away, and rain and desert winds have worn the walls of the decapitated huts down to mere suggestions of habitation. In time, even those will disappear, leaving no trace of the Zaghawa.

Mr Hilal's claim that he has no control over any militia does not bear scrutiny, said Alex de Waal, an Africa scholar who studies Sudan. "He is at the center of all of this," Mr de Waal said.

In letters to government officials and other tribal leaders, Mr Hilal has repeatedly said his fighters are engaged in a jihad, or holy war, and will not disarm even if the government demands it.

"We will not retreat," he wrote in one such letter in 2004 to the leaders in Khartoum. "We continue on the road of jihad." Trying to disarm his men, he wrote, would be "cowardly," and impossible to enforce.

Another communique from Mr Hilal's headquarters in 2004, obtained by Mr de Waal, demanded that the militias "change the demography of Darfur and empty it of African tribes."

The janjaweed so far have not respected the new peace agreement, attacking rebel-held towns in the area of Kutum in northern Darfur and Shearia in South Darfur, killing dozens of people.

Indeed, the Arab militias did not sign the peace agreement. They were represented, after a fashion, by the government, which has steadily denied their existence. Even so, one of the assumptions of the agreement was that the government had control over the Arab militias and the power to disarm them. This is based on a deeper assumption that the interests of Darfur's Arabs would be tended to by Khartoum. Neither is turning out to be true.

"If you ask me where my allegiance lies, with the government or with Darfur, I will have to tell you Darfur," Mr. Hilal said.

This is not the first time the government has promised to disarm the Arab militias. It pledged during seven separate rounds of peace talks over the past three years to neutralize them but has failed to do so. These failures have met with no sanction, so there is little confidence the government will take action now.

"Frankly it is the weakest link in an otherwise deeply flawed agreement," said John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group, an organization that studies violent conflicts. "It leaves intact the same promise the international community has relied upon, and that is that the government is principally responsible for reining in and otherwise neutralizing the murderous militias. It hasn't happened before and there is no new reason why it would happen now."

For some time, the government has been simply integrating the janjaweed militias into its official paramilitary Popular Defense Forces and the regular army, Mr Prendergast said. That process is likely to speed up in the coming months as negotiations continue over whether Sudan will allow a United Nations peacekeeping force to take over the understaffed and underfinanced African Union mission here.

If the alliance of convenience between the Arab militias and the government crumbles, there is little incentive for the militias to play along. Under the peace agreement, they are likely to lose control of land they stole, and there are deep fears that Arabs will be subjugated by the small but influential Zaghawa tribe, which leads the most powerful faction of the rebels.

"There is going to be a lot of conflict between the government and some of the Arab leaders," Mr Prendergast said. "But the government built the Frankenstein monster and now they have got to deal with it."



Photo: Sheikh Musa Hilal, a Sudanese chief who heads Darfur's largest Arab tribe, is seen inside a small shop in Mistariha, Sudan, May 23, 2006. (Reuters/STR/Sudan Watch archive)

Sudan and Chad now openly support rebel activities on their respective terrorities UNHCR tells UN Security Council delegation in Chad

Reuters report by Evelyn Leopold, CAMP GOUROUKOUN June 11, 2006:

French military aircraft flew the 15-nation Security Council delegation in Chad from N'Djamena, the capital, to Abeche in the east and then to Goz Beida, about 100 km (62 miles) from the Sudan border.

Half the delegation visited a camp for 10,000 Chadians who fled attacks in their villages.

The rest went to the Djabal Refugee camp of 14,000 Sudanese refugees, who lined the road with signs protesting the May 5 Darfur peace accord between the government and two rebel groups.

"We have been attacked by the Janjaweed. We have become widows. Our girls have been raped and our men killed. Our properties were destroyed," said Hanne Adam Ali, in a presentation to the UN group and about 1,000 displaced people.

Security is dreadful for many Sudanese camp dwellers and relief workers, said Ana Liria-France, the UNHCR representative in Chad. The rebel Sudan Liberation Army has forcibly recruited young men and boys. Even teachers in the camp are recruiting.

Deby wants an international peacekeeping force, which the Security Council plans to send to Darfur. But the council has not figured out how to deal with Chad's own crisis.

"The main requirement here is there should be better policing in the camps," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Jones Parry said after the council members spent two hours with Deby in N'Djamena. "It's a policing effort rather more than the sort of mission that is necessary in Darfur."

France has some 1,000 military personnel in its former colony, nearly all in the air force but its UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said they would not be policing the camps, although "we will do our share" if there was an international response.

To add to the misery, Sudan now has aligned itself with warlords in Chad as part of its counter-insurgency strategy in Darfur.

"Both countries now openly support rebel activities on their respective territories," UNHCR said in briefing notes for council members.

Photo: A tribal representative speaks to members of the UN Security Council at the Gouroukoun camp for Internally Displaced Persons, in Goz Beida, Chad, June 10, 2006, for people who have fled their homes in eastern Chad after fighting has spilled across the border from Sudan. The UN Security Council is touring on a fact finding mission about the situation in Darfur. REUTERS/Chip East (CHAD)

Sudan and Darfur: The problem is political (Fathi M. El Fadl)

Fathi M. El Fadl, a member of the Sudanese Communist Party's international affairs committee, has an opinion piece at Political Affairs Magazine today that takes issue with many western media reports. El Fadl says the crisis in Sudan is not one of race or ethnicity (Arab vs. African), but a political and economic one that requires political and economic solutions, and, quote:

Sudan's colonial legacy cannot be blamed for today's problems. It is 50 years since the British left the Sudan. The problem is that Sudan is 10 times worse than when the British left. Those who took power either through democratic election or military means failed the people of the Sudan miserably. [Edit]

For those in other countries wishing to express solidarity with the Sudanese people, the most important action is to explain the political ramifications of the crisis of Darfur, both domestic and international, and the real way out, as described here.

What Sudan really fears is UN troops may be used to arrest officials and militia likely to be indicted by the ICC investigating war crimes in Darfur

Senior UN and AU officials opened unprecedented talks in Khartoum today, to convince the government to accept UN peacekeeping troops in Darfur, Reuters reported - excerpt:

"The United Nations never imposes itself on any country," UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno told reporters after the joint team met Foreign Minister Lam Akol.

"All our peacekeeping operations in Africa are deployed with the cooperation of the host country."

Guehenno's heading of the joint U.N.-AU technical mission was unprecedented, UN officials said. His counterpart in the African Union, Said Djinnit, headed his delegation.

Sudan rejects UN transition in Darfur, painting the picture of a Western invasion that would attract jihadi militants. Al Qaeda Islamist Ayman al-Zawahri on Friday criticised a "spineless" Khartoum for even allowing the assessment mission to enter Sudan.

Akol said military and other technical experts from the team would be leaving for Darfur on Tuesday. Asked if the Sudanese government's position had changed, he said: "Any decisions of any sort will be taken after that," referring to the team's trip to Darfur.

The joint mission will return to Khartoum for further talks after visiting Darfur. The mission, which arrived on Friday, is expected to last around 18 days.

Akol said the joint team could not tell Khartoum what the mandate and aim of a possible U.N. mission in Darfur would be until after they had visited the region and assessed what was required.

But the United Nations would have to move fast. The AU has a mandate only until September 30 and is struggling to find funds to sustain the mission until then.

Asked if the AU mandate could be extended, Djinnit said it was too early to say. "It depends ... how soon the United Nations will be ready to take over ... once all the conditions are met for that mission to take over the African mission in Sudan (AMIS)," he said.

The mission's more pressing role is to assess what extra the AU needs ahead of transition to help implement a May 5 Darfur peace deal. It will likely send at least 3,000 more troops.

"It has to do with what needs to be done as a matter of urgency for AMIS to be able to perform its responsibilities," Djinnit said of the team's visit.

"It has huge responsibilities to maintain peace and to help in the implementation of the Darfur peace agreement," he said.

Important note: The report points out that analysts say what Sudan really fears is UN troops may be used to arrest officials or militia leaders likely to be indicted by the International Criminal Court investigating war crimes in Darfur. This is what I believe all the fear is really based on. Can you blame them? Me neither. Somehow, I believe the politicians will find a way of dropping the ICC stick by using it as a trade off for agreeing peace, disarmament and reconciliation using local traditions and customs.

Al-Qaeda criticised Khartoum as "spineless" for allowing UN-AU assessment mission into Sudan

A report by Reuters Opheera McDoom today, points out that Al-Qaeda criticised Khartoum as "spineless" for allowing UN-AU assessment mission into Sudan. And the Malaysia Sun tells us al-Qaeda's deputy discussed Egypt, where he is from, and Darfur:

Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's deputy, made a brief appearance on al-Jazeera TV Friday mentioning Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi but not his death.

The BBC said al-Zawahiri's main topic was the referendum on statehood by Palestinians, which he said should be rejected by Muslims.

He also discussed the political situation in Egypt, where he's from and the situation in the Darfur region of Sudan.

He praised al-Zarqawi but making no mention of his death indicated the tape was made before the U.S. air strike Wednesday that killed the Iraqi insurgent leader.

Darfur: "If a UN force is sent here, I will call for jihad," warned Muwad Jalalabin, chief of the Barty tribe

At long last, we are hearing news of the tribal leaders in Sudan. A BBC report today reveals UN ambassadors in Sudan have met with strong opposition from tribal leaders to the deployment of troops in Darfur, including threats of holy war. Excerpt:

Khartoum has made clear that it would prefer the AU peacekeepers to be given more support rather than allow a UN force into the region.

UN officials have stressed they want to work alongside the Sudanese government and not take over peacekeeping efforts.

Tribal chiefs in Darfur have also expressed resistance to the idea.

"If a UN force is sent here, I will call for jihad," warned Muwad Jalalabin, chief of the Barty tribe.

Any deployment of non-African forces in the region would be considered as "foreign occupation", he told the reporters in el-Fasher, the main town in north Darfur.

Osman Kebir, governor of northern Darfur, also voiced opposition to the UN proposal, telling the Reuters news agency that the region needed humanitarian assistance but "not troops".

Their comments came as members of Security Council delegation toured Darfur and met with tribal leaders, relief workers and government officials over the proposal.

My hopes are that the African Union Mission in Darfur receives all the support it needs from the UN and NATO, with permission from Khartoum. Tribal leaders run the Janjaweed. Only they can sort it out. It's time they stepped up to the plate. My guess is Khartoum can't manage it otherwise they would have done it by now because of all the billions of dollars staked on peace. The world is watching. We need to hear more from the tribal leaders, their point of view and what it is they can do to help the millions of defenceless women and children in Sudan and Chad - and resolve the battles over drinking water, land and livestock.