Sudan: We are fully mandated to conclude peace, Ismail - blaming non-tapping of Sudan's resources on conflict

Sudan Vision June 16, 2006 via ANDnetwork.com:

The Eastern Sudan peace talks between the Government of National Unity (GoNU) and Eastern Sudan Front opened yesterday in the Eritrean Capital, Asmara. The Government delegation is headed by the President's Advisor, Dr Mustafa Osman Ismail, while the Front delegation is led by Mussa Mohammed Ahmed.

"One of the parties of the GoNU is to realize peace in all parts of Sudan," said Dr. Ismail in his address to the inaugural session, adding that no sustainable peace would be achieved unless peace is realized all over Sudan.

"The government strategy to address problems does not lie in the use of arms, but by resorting to dialogue," Ismail added. The head of Government delegation stressed the importance of building a new Sudan on the core justice, equality, the equitable distribution of wealth, power and democratic transformation.

"The government delegation has come with heart and mind, mandated by the President and the Vice-President, in addition to the Council of Ministers to conclude a comprehensive peace acceptable to all parties and capable of bringing stability and realizing development to Eastern Sudan," Ismail Said.

The Presidential Advisor stated that the negotiations could be difficult, but, according to him they have the resolve to transcend these difficulties with the help of Eritrea. The head of the delegation blamed non-tapping of Sudan's resources on conflict.

Darfur governor warns against deploying UN forces

The governor of Sudan's West Darfur state warned Thursday against deploying "international" troops in Darfur, saying the African Union peacekeeping force already there should do the job. Sudan Tribune report June 15, 2006 (Khartoum) - excerpt:

Jaafar Abdel Hakim Ishaq, quoted by the official SUNA news agency, also said a "disaster would befall Darfur if international forces entered the region without the consent of the Sudanese government."

Ishaq, speaking in the state capital of Geneina with a visiting delegation from the United Nations and the African Union, did not elaborate on what the disaster might be.

The team of high-ranking officials has been in Sudan since last week to study the possibility of a handover of AU peacekeeping responsibilities to the UN.

UN officials have made it clear they want to replace the embattled AU forces with better-equipped troops mandated by the world body.

But Ishaq warned against "the grave consequences of international forces entering the state" and called for "reliance on the African forces mission and supporting it so as to fully discharge its responsibilities."

Meanwhile, despite everything that has been reported lately (scroll down the last month of posts here) Eric Reeves in his latest opinion piece (June 16, 2006 "The UN Security Council and a Final Betrayal of Darfur: No willingness to confront Khartoum on the need for civilian and humanitarian protection") manages to write a whole page without mentioning JEM and SLM-Nur's activities in the Sudan.

French officials travel to Chad to urge Deby to engage in political dialogue

VOA report (via Sudan Tribune June 15 2006) reveals two senior French officials flew to Chad to convince President Deby to open a dialogue with leaders of the political opposition:

A French official contacted by VOA in Paris said the purpose of the diplomatic visit was to strongly insist that President Deby renew dialogue with the country's legal opposition.

That message will be delivered to President Deby by French Cooperation Minister Brigitte Girardin and senior French official Michel de Bonnecorse, known in the government as Mr Africa.

Jun 15 2006 Sudan seeks France help to restore relations with Chad - FM

Jun 16 2006 France would join any international operation in Chad - UK says camps in Chad need police protection

Jun 16 2006 In Tine, along Sudan-Chad border, residents attribute violence to Darfur rebel group JEM

Oil Fuels displacement in South Sudan - report

Refugees International said in a report published Wednesday that South Sudan has seen a rapid increase in oil exploration initiatives since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005.

The new investment potentially threatens the safety of Sudanese living in oil-rich South Sudan and displaced people returning home to these areas. In Upper Nile State in south Sudan there are reports of forced migration and violence in the areas of oil exploration. - Sudan Tribune June 16, 2006.

In Tine, along Sudan-Chad border, residents attribute violence to Darfur rebel group JEM

Somewhere in my blog archives are reports of oil to be found along the Chad-Sudan border. Copied here below is a report from Deutsche Presse Agentur by Noel King in Tine, Chad-Sudan, 15 June 2006. It reminds us of JEM's attack on Tine in July 2003 and JEM's occupation of the Sudanese Embassy in April, around the time of the failed attempts to kill and/or overthrow Chadian President Deby.

Up until recently, JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim used Chad, President Deby is a tribal ally, as a base. A few months ago, Deby told Ibrahim if he did not sign the Darfur Peace Agreement by May 31, he must leave Chad as the AU and UN are sanctioning non-signatories.

Ibrahim has political asylum in France and, it seems, went to Libya after his forced departure from Chad in April - Chad expelled him after his occupation of the Sudanese embassy (see further reading below). Recently, Ibrahim returned from Slovenia. Some news reports on the eastern Sudan peace talks indicate he is now in Asmara. Here is the DPA report:

Tine, near Sudan's border with Chad is a ghost town. Houses are overgrown with weeds, their brick walls crumbling, their thatched roofs torn open.

The silent streets wind past a graveyard where the dead, who were killed by a Sudanese government airstrike, were hastily honoured with crude stone markers before the residents of the Darfuri town fled.

His wife and children gone, Zubeir Ismail tries to retain some sense of normalcy, offering visitors stale peanuts and dates.

Ismail has painful memories of the violence that trimmed the population of Tine from more than 3,000 people to fewer than 300.

"On July 9, 2003 the rebels attacked Tine and people started fleeing," Ismail told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa.

"Then the government started an airstrike and everyone left. My wife and children went to the refugee camps in Chad."

Ismail is a relative of the village leader and has stayed to look after the man's house.

In most Darfuri villages, residents tell horror stories of attacks by militias known as Janjaweed.

But in Tine, which straddles the Sudan/Chad border, residents attribute the violence to the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which attacked government positions three years ago.

After an aerial bombardment by the government, the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) then occupied the town for four tumultuous months.

Today, Tine, Sudan is relatively secure, patrolled regularly by Sudan government soldiers who appear to have a friendly relationship with the people here.

But in Tine, Chad, less than one kilometre away, an attack on June 4 left some twenty rebels and Chadian soldiers dead, thousands of residents on edge, and observers saying they expect more violence from Chadian rebels based in Sudan.

In April, rebels swept across Chad from Darfur, attacking the capital of Ndjamena in an attempt to unseat President Idris Deby. The rebellion was put down, but Deby immediately cut ties with Sudan, claiming his neighbour had helped to arm and harbour the rebel United Front for Change (FUC).

Since then, there have been sporadic attacks along the common border that is blithely ignored by the people who have family on both sides of the border.

"When the gunfire started I ran across the border to get my children," says Hawa Hamid of the recent attack.

"They live with their grandmother in Tine, Chad, because the school in Tine, Sudan, closed down."

Hamid managed to run with her three children to safety but says she will send them back to Chad to continue their schooling.

The mother of three is in a very difficult position in this family-oriented region and says that she still makes her children their school lunches and sends them across the border whenever she can.

African Union troops based in Tine were equally unnerved by the recent attack. They could see and hear heavy arms fire across the valley which marks the border, but the AU mandate forbids them to cross over to Chadian soil.

"The rebels came in from Sudan. I am sure of that. They attacked the Chadian armed forces and then retreated back into Sudan," says Siddiq Sherif, a Chadian mediator working with the AU in Darfur.

Unlike most AU troops, Sherif is allowed to cross into Chad because of his position as a mediator in the region.

"These are the same rebels that launched the April 13th attack," Sherif told dpa. Sherif says he believes the Chadian rebels have the support of the Sudan government.

While the AU would not comment on reports that the government of Sudan is arming the rebels, the continental body said intelligence reports suggest the rebels who attacked Tine, Chad, were members of the United Front for Change (FUC).

The few men and women left in Tine, Sudan, say they will not leave anytime soon, though there are no aid agencies present due to the town's tiny population.

Many residents say they do not have enough food and water.

Halima Abdel Omer sums up the position of those who have their choices limited to one war zone or another.

"I am Sudanese," she says. "I'll stay in my own country and wait for the others to return."

- - -

The President of Sudan has denied supporting rebels who are trying to topple the President in neighbouring Chad:

Mar 15 2006 IRIN - Chad" Coup attempt foiled, government says: A 15 March government statement named seven military officers who allegedly "aimed to shoot down" Deby's plane as he returned from a summit of central African leaders in Equatorial Guinea. Since October 2005 waves of Chadian soldiers and military officers have deserted their posts and joined rebels in the eastern part of Chad bordering Darfur. Several rebel groups in December formed an alliance, including the Platform for Change, National Unity and Democracy (known by its French acronym SCUD) formed by Chadian army deserters and led by Yaya Dillo Djerou, and the Rally for Democracy and Liberty led by Mahamat Nour.

Apr 17 2006 Aegis Trust - Chad coup failure: Implications for Darfur: On 13 April, rebels widely believed to have been backed by Sudan launched an assault in Ndjamena in an attempt to topple the Government of Idris Deby. They were swiftly crushed by Government forces. In the wake of the failed coup attempt, Chad has severed diplomatic relations with Sudan and withdrawn from its role as mediator at talks in Abuja between the Government of Sudan and Darfur's African rebels.

Apr 21 2006 Sudan Tribune - Chad expels JEM rebel leader Khalil Ibrahim after occupation of Sudanese embassy: Khalil Ibrahim has political asylum in France and, it seems, went to Libya after his forced departure from Chad.

May 18 2006 JEM leader will have to leave Chad if he does not sign Darfur peace deal by May 31: Deby told Ibrahim if he does not sign by May 31, he must leave Chad as the AU and UN are sanctioning non-signatories.

May 29 2006 JEM's Ibrahim and SLM/A faction travel to Slovenia in an attempt to get their demands met

May 31 2006 Slovenia says JEM needs to stay in the Darfur peace process - JEM leadership will have to make a decision in Slovenia

Jun 2 2006 Darfur's JEM rebel leader says "We're going to have our own country"

Jun 4 2006 Chadian army, rebels battle near Sudan border - Is RDL/FUC leader Mahamat Nour dead or alive?

Jun 5 2006 Drnovsek and Prince Albert II agree on resolving Darfur crisis - JEM leader in Slovenia

Jun 9 2006 AU says four Darfur faction leaders back peace agreement: Ustaz Abdel Raheem Adam Abdel Raheem Abu Risha (general secretary for JEM, Southern Darfur)

Jun 8 2006 AFP report via Middle East Times - Darfur Islamists emerge as key to east Sudan peace: While the Eastern Front has similar aims to its counterparts in Darfur - autonomy and greater control over their region's resources - their newfound allies in the JEM demand a seat on the presidency, key to eventual national power.

Jun 13 2006 Reuters and Sudan Tribune - Darfur's JEM rebels threaten to topple eastern Sudan peace talks - SPLA hands over Hamesh Koreb to Kassala State

MSF: Over 10,000 people flee violence in Chad

MSF press release Um Dukhun, West Darfur confirms more than 10,000 people have fled violence and insecurity in southeastern Chad and crossed the border to take refuge in Darfur.

In the second week of May, refugees in search of security started arriving in Um Dukhun, a small town in the southwestern corner of Darfur located at a junction with the borders of Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR). Most of the new arrivals are Chadian, but a significant minority is Sudanese who initially fled the conflict in Darfur and entered Chad as long as three years ago and now have been displaced again.

France would join any international operation in Chad - UK says camps in Chad need police protection

Reuters report by Evelyn Leopold June 16, 2006. Excerpts:

France asked the United Nations on Thursday to consider ways to protect refugee camps in Chad, where rebels forcibly recruit Darfur survivors of murderous attacks by Sudanese militia.

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere and his British counterpart, Emyr Jones Parry, addressed the U.N. Security Council on the 15-member body's recent trip to Sudan and Chad, aimed at convincing the Khartoum government to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force in its western region of Darfur.

"It is appropriate for the secretary-general (Kofi Annan) to consider this question of international protection of the camps and make recommendations to us," de la Sabliere told the council. "Personally I can only see advantages of this."

He did not elaborate on what kind of protection, such as troops, police or guards, he had in mind.

Chadian president Idriss Deby had told the diplomats, after they visited camps near Goz Beida, about 60 miles (100 km) from the Sudan border, that he was unable to care for the homeless and asked for international help.

"If nothing is done in this area, we will see a deterioration in all respects," de la Sabliere said.

France, which has about 1,000 airmen stationed in its former colony, has said it would not provide protection for the Chadian camps but would join any international operation.

Jones Parry, during the visit, was more noncommittal about U.N. security for Chad, saying the camps needed police protection rather than the kind of U.N. troops envisioned for Darfur.

Jones Parry said that Sudan's President Omar Hassan Bashir made "clear that he did not think external troops should be mandated to attack Sudanese."

"We looked to them to fulfill that responsibility now."

The Khartoum government, however, has not accepted U.N. peacekeepers for Darfur and has objected to a robust mandate the council wants so the troops can protect civilians.

However, Jones Parry said, "By the end of our visit, the mission felt we had edged further toward the probability of the government accepting a U.N. force."

Tanzanian ambassador, Augustine Mahiga, noted that the African Union, now fielding troops in Darfur, firmly supported U.N. peacekeepers and was "waiting for expeditious deployment."

The council mission, from June 5 to June 12, went to Khartoum, Darfur, Juba, the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to talk to African Union officials, and visited refugee camps in Chad as well as the capital, N'Djamena. The trip ended in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

- - -

Jun 15 2006 Sudan Tribune and LA Times - Sudan seeks France help to restore relations with Chad - FM

Jun 15 2006 UN press release and UN News Centre report - UN Security Council told that Sudan Government is closer to agreeing on UN Darfur force

Jun 15 2006 UN and Reuters - International Criminal Court Prosecutor briefs UN Security Council on Darfur, says will not draw conclusions on genocide until investigation complete

Jun 16 2006 BBC - UN moves to transfer Taylor trial

The Gurkhas are just what is needed for the base of a U.N. force: Gurkhas could be the heart of the world's first real police force

The highly respected Gurkhas, regarded as among the finest soldiers in the world, are making the news in an excellent opinion piece at Osceola News Gazette June 15, 2006. "Gurkhas could be the heart of the world's first real police force", writes former diplomat Menandro M. de Mesa, in the following piece:

Time and again, the United States has pledged help to strengthen peacekeeping capabilities in Africa and elsewhere.

Fierce fighting raged in Darfur, leaving 200,000 dead and 2 million homeless. There are also continuing conflicts in Angola, Congo, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Somalia, not to mention similar flare-ups in East Timor and Haiti. After its tragic experience in Vietnam, the U.S. has shown little inclination to intervene militarily in regional conflicts abroad. Instead, it is looking for opportunities to back off on some of its ongoing overseas commitments.

The U.S. cannot and should not be the policeman of the world. Instead, the United Nations should play a greater and more assertive role in dealing with conflicts that can escalate to imperil the stability of an entire region. The U.N. should be in a position to organize, maintain and deploy in a crisis a sizable force anywhere in the world.

The idea of a U.N. standing force to intervene where fighting threatens isn't new. It was included in the organization's charter in 1945, but was never carried out because of the Cold War. With the demise of the Soviet Union, it needs reviving now along the old lines of traditional military contributions from members. The idea may yet win more adherents, but today's circumstances show that a new approach is needed.

Instead, the U.N. should have a permanent fighting force in readiness, loyal to its flag and to no state, that would be supplemented by national contributions, particularly in logistics. It just so happens that a perfect base exists - the Gurkhas, the doughty units from Nepal's martial tribes who have served with distinction in the British Army since 1814, and have given an outstanding account of themselves. Intrepid and fierce, they are regarded as among the finest soldiers in the world.

There are many reasons why the Gurkhas can form the heart of the world's first real police force. A major reason is that nobody hates them, and they don't hate any ethnic group, country or religion.

In the early 1990s, there were nearly 10,000 well-trained Gurkhas in the British Army - 1,000 in Brunei, 1,500 based in the United Kingdom, some deployed in Cyprus, Kuwait and Belize, and 5,000 in Hong Kong when it reverted to China in 1997. In addition, there are about 65,000 more Gurkhas in the Indian Army, paid on a similar scale, and no shortage of recruits eager to take on a foreign military career.

The export of soldiers has been an important source of income for Nepal in the form of pensions and remittances from the soldiers to their families.

The Gurkhas have a reputation for being well-disciplined, doggedly loyal to their superior officers, respectful of families and not at all mean. They don't go berserk on the battlefield and commit atrocities, as soldiers from other countries have done for ethnic or other reasons of enmity.

Some would call the Gurkhas mercenaries: the British Army gags at the thought, pointing out that they have been enlisted by agreement with the government of Nepal. But mercenaries - troops serving no state - are exactly what the U.N. needs, for the same reason the Vatican hired Swiss Guards in medieval times so that its protectors would be beholden to no other masters.

In addition to logistical support, a Gurkha force would need a command structure. The highest rank any has reached under the British is lieutenant colonel. Most are in the infantry, some are in engineering units and others are signal specialists. None are men of the high-tech rocketry, armor and aviation forces that overwhelmed Iraq during the Persian Gulf War, but that isn't what a standing U.N. force is most likely to require.

It needs well-trained professional soldiers willing to go in and restore peace, primarily in brush-fire wars in difficult parts of the world.

Should they be sent without the invitation of a host government? That big political decision underlies the idea of a new, purposeful international law that puts certain principles above untouchable national sovereignty.

The Gurkhas are just what is needed for the base of a U.N. force, and no doubt they are willing. Certainly, they are able.

Menandro M. de Mesa, a former Philippine diplomat living in Kissimmee, is a founder of the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial at the Kissimmee lakefront park.
- - -

June 15 2006 Toronto Star [via Coalition for Darfur] - United Nations: "Army" Proposal to be Presented: This week, a group of academics, former officials and security experts are tabling a proposal they hope will change that by creating an international rapid reaction force that could be deployed within 48 hours of a green light from the United Nations.

June 16 2006 Opinion piece at Townhall.com by Mary Katharine Ham, former Senior Writer and Associate Editor for Townhall.com - We're From the U.N. and We Want Your Guns - President Ronald Reagan once said that the scariest nine words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Darfurian Nur covets post of Darfur's Vice President - Darfur rebels turn against each other (David Blair)

If SLM/A's Nur signed the Darfur Peace Agreement, who would take up the position of Vice President, SLM/A's Minnawi or Nur? I've yet to find a news report that answers this question. David Blair, in his Telegraph report from Jebel Marra June 16, 2006 points out that Nur (a Darfurian) is believed to covet the post of Darfur's Vice President. Minnawi (a Chadian) is set to take up the post because, unlike Nur and the other rebel group JEM, he signed the Darfur Peace Agreement. Are they now using their people to slug it out between themselves until winner takes all? Copy of David Blair's report:

On a sun-baked plateau, strewn with razor-sharp volcanic rock, hundreds of Darfur's rebels chanted a new war cry across their desolate mountain stronghold.

"Minni is betraying his people," they cried. "Down with Minni!"

These black African rebels in western Sudan rose against the regime three years ago but they were not denouncing their enemies in Khartoum.

Instead, their target was Minni Minawi, leader of a rival faction of their own Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).

A split in the rebel movement has transformed Darfur's civil war. The battle-lines in this conflict, which has forced at least two million people to flee their homes and claimed up to 300,000 lives, either through violence or disease, were once easy to describe.

The insurgents, drawn largely from Darfur's black African tribes, fought against Sudan's Arab-dominated regime and its notorious "Janjaweed" militias.

Today, by contrast, most of the fighting is taking place within the SLA. Clashes between rival factions account for the great majority of the 50 incidents recorded by the United Nations in the largest of Darfur's three provinces since May 1.

The delivery of aid is already being sabotaged. Rebel commanders have closed the Binasa area to aid workers, denying essential help to about 60,000 people in a region once considered relatively safe.

The signing of a Darfur peace agreement in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, last month triggered the split. Mr Minawi's faction endorsed the deal along with Sudan's regime but Abdul Wahid al-Nur, his main rival within rebel ranks, refused to sign.

Tribal rivalry lies at the heart of the split. Mr Minawi is from the Zaghawa tribe, which has provided most of the fighters in the rebellion, while Mr Nur is from the Fur tribe, the largest among the region's six million people.

The name Darfur means "home of the Fur" and Mr Nur's followers believe they have a special right to denounce the peace deal and continue fighting.

"The Fur are the owners of this land," said Sultan Suleiman Hassab al-Rassoul, who holds sway over a large area of the Jebel Marra mountains, which provide an impregnable fortress for the SLA's Fur faction.

About 300,000 people live here, all under the tight control of leaders such as Sultan Rassoul.

"Please assure the world that all the people here are standing by Abdul Wahid and rejecting the signing of the peace agreement," said the Sultan.

Under the agreement, a larger slice of Sudan's oil revenues would go to Darfur, with Khartoum providing GBP 180 million within 12 months and an extra GBP 120 million every year thereafter.

A politician from Darfur, probably an SLA leader, would occupy the fourth highest position in Sudan's regime, serving as "special adviser" to President Omar al-Bashir.

But Mr Nur is believed to covet the post of vice-president. He also wants more oil money, supposedly to compensate those who have suffered in the fighting.

In their Jebel Marra bases, his rebels proclaim their willingness to fight on. They shy away from the fact that, since the agreement was signed, their principal targets have been other rebels, not the regime.

"If he had signed, he would have betrayed his people," said Salah Adam Tor, who commands SLA forces loyal to Mr Nur in the Finna area of Jebel Marra.

"We are not against peace. We want peace. But it must be a just peace and we will fight to the last until we achieve that." Jebel Marra is filled with those have suffered in this war. Awatif Adam Abar, 34, lost four of her five children when government forces raided her village three years ago, forcing her to flee into the mountains.

An Antonov bomber opened the attack, destroying her home and killing her son, Abdusalaam, eight.

"I was at the well when the bombs fell. I came back to the house and I found Abdusalaam lying dead," she said. "His body was in pieces. I took his head with me. I wanted to bury some part of him in a grave."

Asked what she wanted for her country, Mrs Abar replied: "Peace."
- - -

June 16 2006 Telegraph Timeline of Darfur conflict

AU unveils Darfur Ceasefire Commission (CFC)

The African Union (AU) Thursday announced the inauguration of a new ceasefire commission for monitoring all provisions related to suspension of aggressive actions as stipulated in the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA).

As set out in the DPA, the Darfur Ceasefire Commission (CFC) assumes the responsibility to implement and monitor the ceasefire provisions of the DPA, and other previous agreements between Sudanese parties involved in the armed conflict that racked the western region of Sudan over the last three years.

The AU Commission said that the CFC was launched on 13 June 2006, at the Force Headquarters of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) in El Fasher, Sudan. - AngolaPress June 16, 2006.

Jun 15 2006 Sudan Tribune - African Union launches ceasefire monitoring body in Darfur: The CFC is the organ responsible for the implementation and monitoring of the ceasefire provisions of the DPA signed on May, and other previous agreements between the Sudanese parties. Ambassador Kingibe announced that efforts will be made to inaugurate the Joint Commission soon, if possible, before the holding of the African Union Summit in Banjul, scheduled for 1-2 July 2006.

US Senate allocates $60M for UN peacekeepers in Darfur - Have AU peacekeepers in Darfur been paid?

AP report via Sudan Tribune 15 June 2006 confirms the U.S. Senate on Thursday allocated $60 million for a UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

Note, the report says the Sudanese government must give its approval.

[As the UN already has resources for peacekeeping, I wonder why the $60 million was not donated to the AU Mission in Darfur. A recent news report reveals it has been two months since any soldier with the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur has received a salary, adversely affecting troop morale. Surely its scandalous that the peacekeepers have not been paid. News reports say the AU Mission in Darfur is costing donors $1 billion a year. Where is the money going if the troops are not being paid?]

UN Security Council told that Sudan Government is closer to agreeing on UN Darfur force

UN press release 15 June 2006 confirms the Security Council told recent mission to Sudan successful, although agreement not reached on transfer of peacekeeping to UN.

The head of the UN Security Council delegation that recently visited Darfur, said today that such an agreement was now a "probability" UN News Centre reported 15 June 2006. Excerpt:

Speaking to reporters in New York today, Secretary-General Kofi Annan also emphasized the importance of the Agreement and repeated his earlier calls for the AU force on the ground to be strengthened.

"We need to maintain the pressure on those who have signed the Agreement to live up to the Agreement that they have signed. That goes for the Sudanese Government that has responsibility for the disarmament of the Janjaweed, and for the rebel groups, and to maintain the pressure on the two rebel groups that are outside the Agreement to join the process."

"And the African Union forces on the ground should be strengthened to do what they can. We are not on the ground yet, and cannot therefore take this on."

A joint UN-African Union team arrived in Darfur on Tuesday aiming to strengthen the AU monitoring force already there and to prepare for its possible transition to a full-fledged UN peacekeeping operation.

SLA-Minnawi rebels torture of civilians and disappearance of humanitarian Suliman Gamous clouds peace hopes (Julie Flint)

Julie Flint's latest commentary appears at the Journal Gazette June 11, 2006 [via CFD and POTP, with thanks] - copy:

Fifteen days after the Sudanese government signed the Darfur peace agreement with one of Darfur's rebel factions last month, fighters loyal to rebel leader Minni Minawi entered the village of Bir Maza in North Darfur and seized at gunpoint the man they chose as their humanitarian coordinator when they first took up arms - 61-year-old Suliman Gamous.

Gamous has not been seen since and all efforts to win his release, including those by senior U.S. officials, have failed.

His daughter, living in Fort Wayne, is beside herself with worry.

"I have no idea if my father is alive or not," Safia Gamous said in a telephone interview last week. "This is the third time Minni Minawi has arrested him. The first time was for one week, the second for three days. This time it's more than two weeks.

"Eighteen people from my family went to ask why he was arrested. They tied them with ropes and hit them. Two of them cannot talk now because they have so much pain."

Safia Gamous came to the United States in 2004, believing it "the best place to improve your life."

She has lived in downtown Fort Wayne with her husband, Abdalla, and 7-month-old daughter for the past three months.

Photo: Safia Gamous of Fort Wayne holds pictures of her father, who is missing since his arrest by Darfur rebels after the signing of the Darfur peace agreement. U.S. pleas for his release have so far failed. (Samuel Hoffman/The Journal Gazette)

The gang that abducted her father was led by Minawi's chief of staff.

Relatives who visited chief of staff Arko Suliman Dhahiyah to inquire about Suliman Gamous were tortured - tied, pistol-whipped and burned with cigarettes - and then imprisoned in wretched conditions for six days.

Officers from the African Union force in Darfur who visited Bir Maza have confirmed the torture. Richard Lourens, the AU's sector commander, described burn marks and swollen jaws caused by beating and ropes. Safia Gamous' relatives told her they were tortured for opposing the peace agreement.

Minawi's story is that Bir Maza was attacked by "Chadian mercenaries" seeking to disrupt the Darfur peace.

Speaking privately, senior African Union officials say this is not true. But Minawi knows that those who forced the peace agreement across the finish line - primarily the United States - are concerned by reports that Chadian President Idriss Deby is arming Darfurians who oppose the agreement to strengthen his own defenses against Khartoum-backed Chadian rebels based in Darfur.

As Suliman Gamous' disappearance lengthens, there is growing concern that Minawi is playing the Chad card to win time and space to silence his critics while he consolidates his new power.

Under the peace deal, he could - if he wishes - become the fourth official in the land: senior assistant to President Omar Bashir.

Gamous is a critic of both leaders of the divided SLA - Minawi and SLA Chairman Abdul Wahid Mohamed al Nur - but above all of Minawi's human rights record.

Minawi appears determined to impose himself in peace as he did in war - by force. A 50-year-old trader named Abdalla Ali Hassaballa is one of the men who visited Dhahiyah. He has testified that Dhahiyah told the group: "I can shoot Gamous and I can sodomize you!"

After this, he said, "They stripped us, tied us and put us in the open under the sun and started beating us. They also shot rounds to terrorize us."

Three members of the group were driven around the village, naked on open trucks, for all to see.

The other villagers were told: "We can force the peace on you!"

Photo: Darfur rebel leader Minni Minawi arrested Suliman Gamous in Bir Maza in North Darfur. Eighteen relatives of Gamous were tortured when they asked Minawi's chief of staff why he had been apprehended. Julie Flint/Special to The Journal Gazette

As the peace talks drew to a close last month, the United States took over defining the solution. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick flew into the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on May 2. Three days later the peace deal was signed.

The U.S. says the agreement can end a conflict that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives since the government unleashed its army, air force and Janjaweed militias against the tribes that support the rebels.

But most Darfurians see the agreement as "a peace between two criminals" that will not enable them to return safely to their villages and rebuild their shattered lives, much less end Darfur's political and economic marginalization.

U.S. support for Minawi appears to be based on the assumption that he is the strongman of Darfur who can deliver peace.

But Minawi's Zaghawa tribe comprises, at most, 8 percent of the population of Darfur and is itself divided, with more and more rejecting Minawi's brutal leadership.

Today the Zaghawa, more than any other Darfurians, live in the "dars" - administrative areas - of other ethnic groups.

Their success, especially in the fields of trade and commerce, had caused tensions with other tribes even before the present conflict.

But since the rebellion began, the behavior of Minawi's forces has soured relations between Zaghawa settlers and their hosts in many regions and has awakened old fears that the tribe has a hidden agenda - the creation of an expanded Zaghawa homeland carved out of the more fertile lands of others.

It is the Zaghawa who have the most to lose if this peace fails. It is their land that is dying, their bombed and burned villages that desperately need development; their civilians who are being victimized because of the abuses of Minawi's men.

A first test of the peace is whether Suliman Gamous is released unharmed without further delay.

If the U.S. is unable to bring about the release of Gamous, what chance does it have of the far more difficult task that faces it - persuading the Sudan government, which has not honored a single commitment made since the war began, to honor the Darfur peace agreement?

Photo: SLA rebels in a village destroyed by government troops and Janjaweed, which the Sudanese government has released against the tribes that support the Darfur rebels. (Julie Flint/Special to The Journal Gazette)

June 6 2006 BBC Sudan's Darfur rebels accused of torture - Last week Minnawi's SLA faction targeted Bir Maza, Minnawi's home town occupied by rival rebel group

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.