Here is a copy of a comment I have just left at Jim's post of Sep 6 (sorry still can't direct link to posts at the Passion) entitled "Crimes of the Sudenese government, oil boycotts and sanctions":
Jim, the report "The government of Sudan doesn't hide its atrocities", that you've linked to here, I found alarming. Authored by Kelly D. Askin, it was published yesterday, and again at IHT today, entitled "Sudan's government does not hide its atrocities". Kelly Askin is senior legal officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative - where the report also appears. Note these two paragraph excerpts, in particular the second:
" ... I met with survivors from nine different villages that had been attacked, although exactly how many villages were involved is unclear. I spoke with one survivor after another who told a strikingly similar story of the most recent attacks: Government planes flew overhead to view the villages, and then government vehicles attacked from the hillsides while thousands of janjaweed simultaneously set in on horseback. Most of the villages had been attacked before, and survivors had sought safety in the nearby mountains. But Sudanese policemen had gone to the mountains and used microphones to lure the civilians back to the villages, saying it was safe and offering protection.
While on the border we could hear planes and bombing just to our north. Survivors told us that a UN camp for internally displaced persons had also been attacked that Saturday and, ominously, that UN staff members had been evacuated from the camp on July 29, a week and a half before the attack. There were also reports that some 20,000 men, women, and children were trapped in the Jabal Moon mountains near Chad. Soldiers had sealed off the area to prevent their escape and to stop aid from getting through in what was apparently an attempt to starve them to death. ..."
Has anyone read elsewhere that UN staff members had been evacuated from a camp on July 29? And what about the 20,000 men, women, and children reportedly trapped in the Jabal Moon mountains near Chad? Is it true that Sudanese soldiers recently sealed off the area to prevent their escape and to stop aid from getting through in what was apparently an attempt to starve them to death? Can anyone verify this information? If it is true, why has a big deal not been made of it by the UN and news agencies?
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Can anyone verify this report? The government of Sudan doesn't hide its atrocities
Here's an alarming report entitled The government of Sudan doesn't hide its atrocities. Authored by Kelly D. Askin, it was published yesterday (and again today, entitled Sudan's government does not hide its atrocities) by the International Herald Tribune. Kelly Askin is senior legal officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative.
Check out the paragraph below that I have emboldened. Has anyone read elsewhere that UN staff members had been evacuated from a camp on July 29? And what about the 20,000 men, women, and children reportedly trapped in the Jabal Moon mountains near Chad? Is it true that Sudanese soldiers recently sealed off the area to prevent their escape and to stop aid from getting through in what was apparently an attempt to starve them to death? Can anyone verify this information? If it is true, why has a big deal not been made of it by the UN and news agencies? Here is the report, in full:
N'DJAMENA, Chad -- As Bill Frist, the majority leader of the U.S. Senate, was interviewing Darfurian refugees in Chad earlier this month, the Sudanese government and Arab janjaweed forces attacked a number of black Darfurian villages just a few miles away, over the Sudanese border. Frist was in Chad because Sudan had refused to grant him a visa, even though Khartoum had done so on earlier occasions. The timing and location of the attacks demonstrated the Sudanese government's confidence that it could act with impunity.
I was in Chad at the same time to provide parallel assistance to a U.S.- government-funded mission led by the Coalition for International Justice, to interview refugees about why they fled Darfur, and to participate in documenting and assessing the crimes they endured or witnessed before leaving. According to witnesses I interviewed, since its independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956, Sudan has systematically discriminated against its black citizens, amounting to the crimes against humanity of persecution and apartheid. It has now reached the scale of genocide - executed through violence, starvation and other means of destroying the black Africans in the Darfur region.
After interviewing five boys aged 10 to 18 who had escaped from their capture and torture by janjaweed or Sudanese government forces, I spoke with a Sudanese refugee-camp leader who had just received information that several Darfurian villages were being attacked by government and janjaweed troops. Traveling to the border the next morning, I met dozens of men, women, and children who had managed to escape the ambush and were now trickling into Chad.
I met with survivors from nine different villages that had been attacked, although exactly how many villages were involved is unclear. I spoke with one survivor after another who told a strikingly similar story of the most recent attacks: Government planes flew overhead to view the villages, and then government vehicles attacked from the hillsides while thousands of janjaweed simultaneously set in on horseback. Most of the villages had been attacked before, and survivors had sought safety in the nearby mountains. But Sudanese policemen had gone to the mountains and used microphones to lure the civilians back to the villages, saying it was safe and offering protection.
While on the border we could hear planes and bombing just to our north. Survivors told us that a UN camp for internally displaced persons had also been attacked that Saturday and, ominously, that UN staff members had been evacuated from the camp on July 29, a week and a half before the attack. There were also reports that some 20,000 men, women, and children were trapped in the Jabal Moon mountains near Chad. Soldiers had sealed off the area to prevent their escape and to stop aid from getting through in what was apparently an attempt to starve them to death.
The definition of genocide is not limited to mass killing, although that is the means that generates the most attention and outrage. The Genocide Convention of the United Nations also requires states to prevent and punish other acts committed with an intent to destroy, even partially, a racial, ethnic, national or religious group. The most common form of genocide committed in Darfur is the infliction of “slow death” through starvation and disease - an act covered under Subarticle C of the Genocide Convention, which prohibits inflicting on a group “conditions of life” calculated to result in its demise.
The government of Sudan, far from being a helpless bystander, is a leading participant in these crimes, and its soldiers and its air force are openly working hand in hand with the janjaweed. The slaughter, rape and massive destruction over the past several months were preceded by decades of systematic discrimination by Khartoum in all areas of life against black Darfurians. The government cannot be trusted to protect the civilians, much less assist them. The African Union, with the logistical and, if necessary, military support of Western democracies, must act before tens of thousands more innocent lives are lost. And justice must be pursued in order for Sudan to have any chance for a real and lasting peace.
Check out the paragraph below that I have emboldened. Has anyone read elsewhere that UN staff members had been evacuated from a camp on July 29? And what about the 20,000 men, women, and children reportedly trapped in the Jabal Moon mountains near Chad? Is it true that Sudanese soldiers recently sealed off the area to prevent their escape and to stop aid from getting through in what was apparently an attempt to starve them to death? Can anyone verify this information? If it is true, why has a big deal not been made of it by the UN and news agencies? Here is the report, in full:
N'DJAMENA, Chad -- As Bill Frist, the majority leader of the U.S. Senate, was interviewing Darfurian refugees in Chad earlier this month, the Sudanese government and Arab janjaweed forces attacked a number of black Darfurian villages just a few miles away, over the Sudanese border. Frist was in Chad because Sudan had refused to grant him a visa, even though Khartoum had done so on earlier occasions. The timing and location of the attacks demonstrated the Sudanese government's confidence that it could act with impunity.
I was in Chad at the same time to provide parallel assistance to a U.S.- government-funded mission led by the Coalition for International Justice, to interview refugees about why they fled Darfur, and to participate in documenting and assessing the crimes they endured or witnessed before leaving. According to witnesses I interviewed, since its independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956, Sudan has systematically discriminated against its black citizens, amounting to the crimes against humanity of persecution and apartheid. It has now reached the scale of genocide - executed through violence, starvation and other means of destroying the black Africans in the Darfur region.
After interviewing five boys aged 10 to 18 who had escaped from their capture and torture by janjaweed or Sudanese government forces, I spoke with a Sudanese refugee-camp leader who had just received information that several Darfurian villages were being attacked by government and janjaweed troops. Traveling to the border the next morning, I met dozens of men, women, and children who had managed to escape the ambush and were now trickling into Chad.
I met with survivors from nine different villages that had been attacked, although exactly how many villages were involved is unclear. I spoke with one survivor after another who told a strikingly similar story of the most recent attacks: Government planes flew overhead to view the villages, and then government vehicles attacked from the hillsides while thousands of janjaweed simultaneously set in on horseback. Most of the villages had been attacked before, and survivors had sought safety in the nearby mountains. But Sudanese policemen had gone to the mountains and used microphones to lure the civilians back to the villages, saying it was safe and offering protection.
While on the border we could hear planes and bombing just to our north. Survivors told us that a UN camp for internally displaced persons had also been attacked that Saturday and, ominously, that UN staff members had been evacuated from the camp on July 29, a week and a half before the attack. There were also reports that some 20,000 men, women, and children were trapped in the Jabal Moon mountains near Chad. Soldiers had sealed off the area to prevent their escape and to stop aid from getting through in what was apparently an attempt to starve them to death.
The definition of genocide is not limited to mass killing, although that is the means that generates the most attention and outrage. The Genocide Convention of the United Nations also requires states to prevent and punish other acts committed with an intent to destroy, even partially, a racial, ethnic, national or religious group. The most common form of genocide committed in Darfur is the infliction of “slow death” through starvation and disease - an act covered under Subarticle C of the Genocide Convention, which prohibits inflicting on a group “conditions of life” calculated to result in its demise.
The government of Sudan, far from being a helpless bystander, is a leading participant in these crimes, and its soldiers and its air force are openly working hand in hand with the janjaweed. The slaughter, rape and massive destruction over the past several months were preceded by decades of systematic discrimination by Khartoum in all areas of life against black Darfurians. The government cannot be trusted to protect the civilians, much less assist them. The African Union, with the logistical and, if necessary, military support of Western democracies, must act before tens of thousands more innocent lives are lost. And justice must be pursued in order for Sudan to have any chance for a real and lasting peace.
GENERAL ROMEO D’ALLAIRE: A Broken Soldier, A Peacekeeper's Nightmare (Transcript) - and review of book "Shake Hands with the Devil"
Yesterday, I came across the following transcript while reading Crazy Canuck's blog Lost Below the 49th
The transcript, courtesy of an ABC online report dated February 7, 2001, is copied here, in full, for future reference.
A Peacekeeper's Nightmare (Transcript) (This is an unedited, uncorrected transcript.)
GENERAL ROMEO D’ALLAIRE I was just like any other person who is left homeless, screaming and yelling and crying and drinking.
TED KOPPEL, ABCNEWS He was a decorated general at the height of his military service. He’d been preparing for just such an assignment his entire career.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE I am a field commander who had knowledge of the situation on the ground, and I was not able to convince my superiors in taking the proper action.
TED KOPPEL But what happened to his mission left him haunted and nearly destroyed him.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE You will never forget this stuff. It has imposed itself in your brain forever.
TED KOPPEL Tonight, Broken Soldier, a peacekeeper’s nightmare.
ANNOUNCER From ABCNEWS, this is Nightline. Reporting from Washington, Ted Koppel.
TED KOPPEL I don’t know whether some times of day are worse than others for Romeo D’Allaire , but if so, this is probably one of the bad times, a time when he might be thinking about going to bed, to sleep. On the other hand, his is a nightmare that rarely ends. The memories are surely as bad or worse than any dreams might be. Romeo D’Allaire is a soldier who was caught in the middle, trapped between what he knew he ought to do and what he was being ordered to do. And no, if you think D’Allaire is a soldier taking cover behind another man’s orders, you are wrong. Almost alone among those who might have shared the blame for what happened, retired Lieutenant General Romeo D’Allaire accepts his blame fully. And the source of his personal anguish is not what he did, but what he failed to do.
He was, in the spring of 1994, field commander of a United Nations peacekeeping force. He is a Canadian. His force of peacekeepers was made up of international troops, a couple of thousand men, sparsely armed, adequate perhaps for policing a cease-fire, if both sides had been committed to observing it, but totally inadequate for stopping a campaign of genocide. General D’Allaire warned his superiors in New York. He predicted what would happen. He begged for help. But when his warnings were ignored, when help was denied, when the US government, which could have made a difference, refused to, then General D’Allaire and his men stood by and watched as 800,000 people were slaughtered. As Kevin Newman reports, Romeo D’Allaire has never been able to get those images out of his mind.
KEVIN NEWMAN, ABCNEWS (VO) It was a mission Lieutenant General Romeo D’Allaire was eager to command. He was at the prime of his military career when the United Nations put him in charge of its Rwandan peacekeeping mission. His command in Rwanda earned him a promotion when he returned to Ottawa. He was about to be Canada’s next chief of defense staff, the country’s top soldier.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE Did a good job, not too bad. You know, work hard and you’ll get through it. Don’t worry, Romeo because—and all I was doing was driving myself right into the ground.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) His career unraveled in the spring, the day after his 54th birthday.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE I walked down one of the main roads here in Ottawa for about an hour. I stopped and bought a bottle of scotch. And I walked to the—to the park, sat on the bench, and I was reliving my mission. The booze was—I mean I was just drinking it like that out of the bottle. And I was just like any other rubby-dub or person who is left homeless, screaming and yelling and crying and drinking. I was screaming for them to kill me.
KEVIN NEWMAN So what happened? Well, the story of Romeo D’Allaire is much more than the personal tragedy of a broken man. As a peacekeeper, he found himself alone amid forces too powerful for one man to overcome, a nation in the madness of genocide and a world largely indifferent to it. It was and is the peacekeeper’s nightmare.
(VO) It begins, as it usually does, with the dream of something better. When the United Nations peacekeepers started arriving at Rwanda’s main airport in the fall of 1993, it was for a routine mission to monitor a cease-fire between two warring sides, the Hutu-led government and Tutsi opposition. It didn’t last.
SOLDIER (From file footage) Hit the deck!
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) Within months, UN soldiers were being ambushed and killed. Western governments panicked, ordering their soldiers to abandon the mission.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE (From file footage) It’s simply going to get messier, I suspect, until we get a cease-fire.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) At the UN peacekeeping compound in Rwanda’s capital, Romeo D’Allaire tried to regain control.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE My force was withering. I had no capability to defend any onslaught. I mean, we couldn’t defend the airport. We couldn’t even defend the headquarters with enough troops because every minute passing, nations were—capitals were calling their troops and giving them orders.
1ST MAN (Foreign language spoken)
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) With the attacks continuing, D’Allaire heard reports that Hutu authorities were registering all Tutsis in the country for the purpose, he faxed UN headquarters in New York, ‘of their extermination.’ It was a warning of the genocide that would begin three months later. Hutu extremists butchered Tutsis and Hutu moderates by the hundreds of thousands. The roads were blood soaked and littered with bodies. Bloated corpses floated in rivers. Terrified refugees ran to camps so vast there were people as far as the eye could see. The killers entered the camps and murdered some more. The United Nations and its peacekeeping force of now barely 400 were helpless.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE Now when you look at those people as they are dying of hunger and thirst, women having chil—children and dying right there, when you go to the sites where massacres had already been and the people are still, you know, injured and a bit alive, and you look at them, you know what you see in their eyes, what I saw in their eyes? Bewilderment. They saw me. They saw what was happening, and they were saying, ‘What happened? What happened?’
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) What happened is that Romeo D’Allaire’s warning was ignored. His desperate appeal to intervene before the killing started was rejected by UN peacekeeping headquarters, led at the time by the current secretary-general Kofi Annan, who did not believe that there was support among the members for more involvement. As a peacekeeper, D’Allaire was told he could not take sides. He had to remain impartial. He was ordered by UN headquarters to meet with the very same authorities who were sanctioning the killings.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE How can I negotiate with a person who’s just finished slashing and hacking people? How do I make a joke with him? How do I plead with him? How come I didn’t take my pistol out and blow a hole right in the middle of his forehead? And do that day in and day out. What stops you from doing that? And is it moral to do that?
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) Journalist Carol Off, who has just published a book on UN peacekeeping, says institutionalized impartiality is its greatest failing.
CAROL OFF, AUTHOR The worst that the United Nations has done is create something that they call ‘moral equivalency,’ where the easiest way to keep a peacekeeping force operating in a country is to pretend that both sides are equal, to look at them as moral equivalents, to not see them as good guys and bad guys. And that’s where we failed in Rwanda. That’s where we failed in Bosnia.
UNDER-SECRETARY GENERAL UN PEACEKEEPING JEAN-MARIE asdf GUEHENNO I prefer to speak about impert—impartiality than—than neutrality.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) The head of UN peacekeeping today says many hard lessons have been learned from the failures, but the guiding principle of involvement remains the same.
JEAN-MARIE GUEHENNO You can’t say that one side is right and the other side is—is wrong. You have to come to a—an arrangement—a political arrangement where the peacekeeping operation then can—can deploy.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) For the soldiers involved, being impartial can be personally devastating. In Bosnia, the blue-helmeted UN stood by for years while violence engulfed the lives of thousands. The final horror was when Dutch peacekeepers stood passively as Serbs separated women and children from the men of Srebrenica. The men were then exterminated. Just as in Rwanda, UN peacekeepers were forbidden to act.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE An individual sergeant or corporal who witnesses such actions who cannot use force goes through a mental crash. His moral values, his ethical values, his religious beliefs are all brought together and they’re all crashing against the rules of engagement and against the use of force, which he considers the natural means to solve it. And so that enormity, it—it’s your whole being.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) All soldiers witness horror. Peacekeepers have the added burden of following orders to stand by and simply watch.
TED KOPPEL As the weeks went on, the horrors in Rwanda worsened, and General D’Allaire’s pleas for help grew more desperate. That in part two of Kevin Newman’s report when we come back.
ANNOUNCER This is ABCNEWS: Nightline, brought to you by...
(Commercial break)
TED KOPPEL General D’Allaire’s warning that Hutus were preparing to slaughter Tutsis by the thousands had gone unanswered by the United Nations and its members, and soon his warning was a reality, as Kevin Newman explains in part two of his report.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) It went on for three months. The killers had nothing to fear. No one was stopping them even though news reports were revealing to the world the horror and magnitude of the genocide. General Romeo D’Allaire was now openly pleading for help.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE I need food, medicine, and material for two million people, and I got to stockpile it now. Because, ladies and gentlemen, if I may say in conclusion, we’re all late. We’re already weeks and weeks late.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) D’Allaire was saddled with peacekeepers from countries that sent no weapons with them or ways to house or feed them. There was only one country that could help. Only one country has the capability of moving troops and material fast enough and imposing order on chaos quickly, the United States. And it was refusing to get involved.
(OC) So by being involved, could the United States have prevented more of the killing in Rwanda?
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE Oh, absolutely. I only asked. I was down to barely 2,000 by then. And I asked only for 3,000 more combat troops. We could have nipped it.
KEVIN NEWMAN Why didn’t we act?
RICHARD HOLBROOKE You have to ask the people who were there. I’m—I don’t know. I find it inconceivable that the United States blocked action in the Security Council.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) Richard Holbrooke was the Clinton administration’s last UN ambassador. Its first, Madeleine Albright, said during the months of killing, it was impossible to confirm that an organized campaign of genocide was under way. The State Department acknowledged it only as it was ending and 800,000 were already dead.
1ST WOMAN (From June 10 1994 file footage) We have every reason to believe that acts of genocide have occurred.
2ND MAN (From June 10 1994 file footage) How many acts of genocide does it take to make genocide?
KEVIN NEWMAN The United States isn’t merely one member of the United Nations. It is arguably the most influential. So in the judgment of many, it is inconceivable that the United States didn’t know the magnitude of the Rwandan genocide since reports of it had been circulating in this building for months. The reasonable conclusion then is that the US chose not to help the peacekeepers. And the consequences of that were horrific.
(VO) America was still traumatized by another peacekeeping mission in another African country a year earlier, Mogadishu, Somalia, where 18 US rangers were killed and some brutalized.
RICHARD HOLBROOKE Mogadishu was a powerful driving force in American foreign policy ever since it occurred in October of 1993. It has deeply affected the shape of the American political debate over our involvement in peacekeeping.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) From that point forward, the Clinton administration declared US troops would only be involved in peacekeeping missions that were in America’s national interest. The Bush administration is looking to tighten the definition further. Not getting involved, in the opinion of at least one peacekeeper, ensures the nightmare of Rwanda will be repeated.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE That cost is the cost of being a world power. Abdicating that is turning into a self-centered power in itself. And it is going to shrink the superpower.
RICHARD HOLBROOKE We have two choices, abandon the UN and watch it get worse, or make the UN effective through high efforts to reform it.
CAROL OFF Other countries have come to terms with this and realized that we can’t only be interested in our own country, our own national security. We must intervening to—in the interest of humanity.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) Almost five years after one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century, President Clinton went to Rwanda to apologize for not responding sooner.
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON (From file footage) We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name, genocide.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) But Romeo D’Allaire is alone among the players in this tragedy in accepting responsibility for what happened. Tranquilizers and antidepressants, nine pills a day, which settle his mind, but not his conscience.
(OC) When people tell you you did all you could, what does that mean to you?
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE Nothing. In fact, I find it very negative. I am a field commander who had knowledge of the situation on the ground and I was not able to convince my superiors in—in—in taking the proper action to prevent this genocide. You live always with the dimension that you don’t have long to live. For me, it’s like, go to Carnegie Hall, huge, black curtains are coming. You know how they come to the middle and then they they swing around all around and, you know, envelope someone. And so they’re coming. You just don’t have much time. And so...
KEVIN NEWMAN Before you lose control again or what? I don’t understand. Before what?
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE To—To—to be either lucid or to kill yourself.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) This is Kevin Newman for Nightline in Ottawa.
TED KOPPEL When we come back, an American politician who tried but failed to gain support for General D’Allaire and the peacekeepers in Rwanda.
(Commercial break)
TED KOPPEL Until his retirement in 1997, Paul Simon served his home state of Illinois in the US Senate for 12 years. He is now a professor at Southern Illinois University and joins us from our Chicago bureau.
You tried to get in touch with the White House?
PAUL SIMON, DEMOCRAT, FORMER SENATOR ILLINOIS I did. I called—I chaired the Subcommittee on Africa. The ranking Republican was Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont. When we heard what was starting to happen in Rwanda, we got on the phone to General D’Allaire, who is—who is one of the few heroes in this whole tragic, tragic story. And he told us, he said, ‘If I can get 5,000 to 8,000 troops quickly,’ he said, ‘We can put a stop to this thing.’
TED KOPPEL Now, you called—you called the White House. Whom did you try to reach?
PAUL SIMON Well, I—what I did was, Jim Jeffords and I signed a letter. We had it hand delivered to the White House that afternoon urging immediate action, leadership in the Security Council.
TED KOPPEL And wher—where and when did you hear back?
PAUL SIMON And I didn’t hear anything for a week or 10 days. And then I called the White House and talked to someone. I remember I tried to reach Tony Lake, who was the only high level person in the White House who knew anything about Africa.
TED KOPPEL He was the national security adviser to the president at that point.
PAUL SIMON That is correct. And...
TED KOPPEL But—but he wouldn’t talk to you.
PAUL SIMON Well, he wasn’t there at that point.
TED KOPPEL Well, I mean, presumably they could have reached him, right?
PAUL SIMON Well, I don’t know what happened. Anyway, I talked to someone else. And the—the basic message was there isn’t a base of public support for doing anything in Africa. It was a tragically anemic response.
TED KOPPEL And you’re saying that—that the general was asking for somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 troops, I mean, in the—in the taped report that we just saw he said 3,000 would have made a difference. Why do you believe that that request was denied not just by the United States, I mean, you know, this would have been an international force presumably. We wouldn’t have had to supply all those soldiers or even the majority of them, would we?
PAUL SIMON Or maybe even none of them. If we had just asked the Security Council to act and we could have transported troops. But I would certainly have favored having some of those troops be American troops. I think the—the lesson of Somalia that you’ve heard about before, you know, we learned the wrong lesson. Hundreds of thousands of lives were saved in Somalia. It’s one of the finest things that former President Bush did.
TED KOPPEL In point of fact, later on, the United States did become involved in the Balkans and—and sent the US Air Force, together with other NATO air forces, to bomb over Kosovo and Serbia. I have to ask the question, and it is probably going to be the last question I can ask you on this, is—is there racism involved here? I mean, it sure seems as though there is.
PAUL SIMON I...
TED KOPPEL It’s easier to let Africans die than to let Europeans die?
PAUL SIMON It should be added that we moved much too late in the Balkans also. But, there is racism. There is another political factor and that is because of slavery, the roots of African Americans were severed from their countries in Africa. So when as a senator I visited in a Greek community in Chicago, people ask me what I’m doing to help Greece or visit a Jewish community, they ask what I’m doing to help Israel, Polish community, Poland. When I visit an African-American community, hardly anyone asks about Africa because there isn’t a sense of identity with Rwanda or Senegal or any other country.
TED KOPPEL Do you think we’ve learned anything at all?
PAUL SIMON I don’t know. And when I—when I hear that we’re only going to respond when there’s a strategic interest involved, humanity is our strategic interest. If we can—if we’re going to see massive slaughters of people and we’re not going to do anything, but we will move if there’s oil or something like that involved, then we haven’t learned much of a lesson.
TED KOPPEL Senator Simon, I thank you for taking the time to talk with us. Good of you to..
PAUL SIMON Thank you.
TED KOPPEL Good of you to come in.
I’ll be back in a moment.
(Commercial break)
TED KOPPEL Tomorrow on “World News Tonight,” a giant tobacco company spending more money publicizing its good works than it spends on the good works themselves. The money trail, tomorrow on “World News Tonight.”
And that’s our report for tonight. I’m Ted Koppel in Washington. For all of us here at ABCNEWS, good night.
- - -
Note to self to get the book Shake Hands with the Devil : The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda and explore similar items.
Review - courtesy Amazon.com:
Lt. General Roméo Dallaire is revered by Canadians everywhere. When I finished the book, I could understand why. Here was a man who screamed into the void. No one listened, no one cared, no one heard. But he never stopped screaming. He valued every human life. He wept for every human loss. He never gave up.
Stephen Lewis in The Walrus
Using the detailed daily notes that were taken by his assistant in the field, Gen. Dallaire painstakingly recreated the events leading up to the genocide and provides a minute-by-minute account of the eruption of bloodshed in April, 1994, as his pleas for reinforcements to UN headquarters in New York were ignored.
Stephanie Nolen, The Globe and Mail
Almost certainly the most important book published in Canada this year.
The Globe and Mail
Shake Hands with the Devil is both an exorcism and a scathing indictment. With all the powerful immediacy of an open wound, Shake Hands with the Devil is the most important non-fiction book of the year.
The Vancouver Sun
It [is] a story of international indifference and political failure, but it [is] also one of the most profoundly disturbing tales of the century.
The Ottawa Citizen
With considerable effort, pain and sacrifice, retired Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire has provided us with an insider?s account of how he struggled with one of the most horrific events in the 20th century while an indifferent world and an incompetent United Nations looked on. Hopefully, this well written and comprehensive book represents the last chapter in Dallaire's painful Rwandan journey.
The National Post
Shake Hands with the Devil [is] one of the year's, if not the decade?s, most important events in Canadian publishing.... Dallaire gives us something to believe in. That he has done so with his eyes and heart wide open to the worst our species has to offer is a monumental achievement. Shake Hands with the Devil delivers this remarkable man and his story to us.
Vancouver Sun; Times-Colonist (Victoria)
[O]n the enormously important issue of Third World development and the moral obligation of the Western world to assist the dispossessed, [Shake Hands With The Devil] is a powerful cri de coeur for the powerless, and a gut-wrenching description of what really happened during those awful months 10 years ago.
The Toronto Star
Dallaire, the proud, dedicated Canadian in charge of that mission, a man of deep humanitarian conviction.
The Ottawa Citizen
The very spareness of the prose reflects a supreme effort at self-mastery and heightens the anguish described....He manages to convey the full horror of the genocide in relatively few passages of extraordinary, wrenching lyric power....This is a book to read to understand what genocide means, to relect on the failure of *humanity,* and to be inspired by the courage of the few in the face of genocidal horror and international indifference.
The Gazette
With the best intentions in the world, we asked Romeo Dallaire to inhabit an unspeakable world for us, to witness horrors beyond imagining, to carry a moral burden that no one person should ever have had to shoulder. He has now done us the immeasurable service of setting out in print what price that burden exacted on his mind and his soul.
The Gazette
Anyone wondering whether the United Nations still has a role to play ought to be reading Romeo Dallaire's long-awaited account of the Rwandan massacre. Shake Hands with the Devil is a harsh, uncompromising account of a great catastrophe - one the great powers saw coming and chose not to prevent. This is an important book.
Edmonton Sun
As painful as Shake Hands with the Devil is to read, it is impossible to imagine the agony it author had to go through to write it. What he witnessed, what he was incapable of stopping, would have broken anyone. Dallaire?s condemnation of the free world is stark and uncompromising. It is impossible to read this memoir, written in meticulous detail, without feeling sick and without feeling rage.
Calgary Herald
[A] powerful story of leadership and sacrifice, of moral and physical courage, and a deep love of humanity. In short, a story of a fine soldier and a hero.
The Edmonton Journal
This is an important book because it is a factual record of the genocide of recent times?. So we encounter with him the misery and chaos and the sheer unadulterated terror of living through an unnecessary and avoidable atrocity?. Read this book and rediscover if you have lost it, your capacity for moral outrage.
Winnipeg Free Press
Shake Hands with the Devil, Dallaire?s powerfully eloquent reconstruction of genocide, [is] a haunting story of evil?.That he has survived and found a way to write about those events is a triumph. Not a book for the faint of heart, perhaps. But Shake Hands with the Devil should be mandatory reading for Western leaders and citizens of every country that pays lip service to the peacekeeping ideals and the sanctity of human life.?
The Chronicle-Herald (Halifax)
[A]n almost day-by-day chronology of the horror?. Dallaire has written an emotional, often bitter book, moving and tragic.
The Telegram (St. John's)
[Dallaire's] passionate, disturbing memoir of those awful days is harrowing reading. It is a savage book. But his humanity shines through, unlike so many others tainted by the blood of innocents.
?The Calgary Sun
[Shake Hands with the Devil] is an affidavit for an indictment - an indictment of the murderers, the hamstrung, bureaucratized UN, and the self-absorbed developed world?. If Shake Hands with the Devil serves as an introduction to the Rwandan genocide, even for those only voyeuristically in what happened to a Canadian general, it has surpassed its original intent. For all this, Romeo Dallaire emerges as our post-Cold War hero.
Quill & Quire
To read his soul-searching book is to feel a rush of empathy with its author. It is also to confront uncomfortable truths. Shake Hands with the Devil is an uncommonly courageous work, wrung from the depths of despair and wrought in plain, forthright prose. Abroad in the world, the Canadian humanitarian needs a saint?s compassion, a scholar's knowledge, and a soldier's strength. Bravely and passionately, Romeo Dallaire has shown us where to start.
Literary Review of Canada
In his book, Shake Hands with the Devil, Dallaire has documented the callousness and inertia that precluded military intervention in Rwanda. The book is a scathing indictment of the United Nations and its member countries and a dire warning of the consequences to be expected when we choose to not get involved.
?The Hamilton Spectator
Retired Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire has writeen a book that is sure to mark all those that read it. Shake Hands With the Devil is a book with a message. LGen Dallaire?s *cri du coeur* is a must read.
The Edmonton Sun
There's something about [Shake Hands With the Devil] that is Shakespearean - this sincere soul with a solid heart who tries to do the right thing while the rest of the world cynically covers their butts.
Michael Donovan, interviewed in The Globe and Mail
[a] remarkable book. I hope Canadians will read this book?Dallaire does not spare us any of the details, for which, once again, thank you!...Read this book! Thank you, again, Dallaire ? not just for the book, but also your service to Canada and the world.
The Guelph Mercury
Product Description:
On the tenth anniversary of the date that UN peacekeepers landed in Rwanda, Random House Canada is proud to publish the unforgettable first-hand account of the genocide by the man who led the UN mission. Digging deep into shattering memories, General Dallaire has written a powerful story of betrayal, naïveté, racism and international politics. His message is simple and undeniable: “Never again.”
When Lt-Gen. Roméo Dallaire received the call to serve as force commander of the UN intervention in Rwanda in 1993, he thought he was heading off on a modest and straightforward peacekeeping mission. Thirteen months later he flew home from Africa, broken, disillusioned and suicidal, having witnessed the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans in only a hundred days. In Shake Hands with the Devil, he takes the reader with him on a return voyage into the hell of Rwanda, vividly recreating the events the international community turned its back on. This book is an unsparing eyewitness account of the failure by humanity to stop the genocide, despite timely warnings.
Woven through the story of this disastrous mission is Dallaire’s own journey from confident Cold Warrior, to devastated UN commander, to retired general engaged in a painful struggle to find a measure of peace, reconciliation and hope. This book is General Dallaire’s personal account of his conversion from a man certain of his worth and secure in his assumptions to a man conscious of his own weaknesses and failures and critical of the institutions he’d relied on. It might not sit easily with standard ideas of military leadership, but understanding what happened to General Dallaire and his mission to Rwanda is crucial to understanding the moral minefields our peacekeepers are forced to negotiate when we ask them to step into the world’s dirty wars.
Excerpt from Shake Hands with the Devil
My story is not a strictly military account nor a clinical, academic study of the breakdown of Rwanda. It is not a simplistic indictment of the many failures of the UN as a force for peace in the world. It is not a story of heroes and villains, although such a work could easily be written. This book is a cri de coeur for the slaughtered thousands, a tribute to the souls hacked apart by machetes because of their supposed difference from those who sought to hang on to power. . . . This book is the account of a few humans who were entrusted with the role of helping others taste the fruits of peace. Instead, we watched as the devil took control of paradise on earth and fed on the blood of the people we were supposed to protect.
Product Details:
• Hardcover: 584 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (October 10, 2004)
• ISBN: 0786714875
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The transcript, courtesy of an ABC online report dated February 7, 2001, is copied here, in full, for future reference.
A Peacekeeper's Nightmare (Transcript) (This is an unedited, uncorrected transcript.)
GENERAL ROMEO D’ALLAIRE I was just like any other person who is left homeless, screaming and yelling and crying and drinking.
TED KOPPEL, ABCNEWS He was a decorated general at the height of his military service. He’d been preparing for just such an assignment his entire career.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE I am a field commander who had knowledge of the situation on the ground, and I was not able to convince my superiors in taking the proper action.
TED KOPPEL But what happened to his mission left him haunted and nearly destroyed him.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE You will never forget this stuff. It has imposed itself in your brain forever.
TED KOPPEL Tonight, Broken Soldier, a peacekeeper’s nightmare.
ANNOUNCER From ABCNEWS, this is Nightline. Reporting from Washington, Ted Koppel.
TED KOPPEL I don’t know whether some times of day are worse than others for Romeo D’Allaire , but if so, this is probably one of the bad times, a time when he might be thinking about going to bed, to sleep. On the other hand, his is a nightmare that rarely ends. The memories are surely as bad or worse than any dreams might be. Romeo D’Allaire is a soldier who was caught in the middle, trapped between what he knew he ought to do and what he was being ordered to do. And no, if you think D’Allaire is a soldier taking cover behind another man’s orders, you are wrong. Almost alone among those who might have shared the blame for what happened, retired Lieutenant General Romeo D’Allaire accepts his blame fully. And the source of his personal anguish is not what he did, but what he failed to do.
He was, in the spring of 1994, field commander of a United Nations peacekeeping force. He is a Canadian. His force of peacekeepers was made up of international troops, a couple of thousand men, sparsely armed, adequate perhaps for policing a cease-fire, if both sides had been committed to observing it, but totally inadequate for stopping a campaign of genocide. General D’Allaire warned his superiors in New York. He predicted what would happen. He begged for help. But when his warnings were ignored, when help was denied, when the US government, which could have made a difference, refused to, then General D’Allaire and his men stood by and watched as 800,000 people were slaughtered. As Kevin Newman reports, Romeo D’Allaire has never been able to get those images out of his mind.
KEVIN NEWMAN, ABCNEWS (VO) It was a mission Lieutenant General Romeo D’Allaire was eager to command. He was at the prime of his military career when the United Nations put him in charge of its Rwandan peacekeeping mission. His command in Rwanda earned him a promotion when he returned to Ottawa. He was about to be Canada’s next chief of defense staff, the country’s top soldier.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE Did a good job, not too bad. You know, work hard and you’ll get through it. Don’t worry, Romeo because—and all I was doing was driving myself right into the ground.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) His career unraveled in the spring, the day after his 54th birthday.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE I walked down one of the main roads here in Ottawa for about an hour. I stopped and bought a bottle of scotch. And I walked to the—to the park, sat on the bench, and I was reliving my mission. The booze was—I mean I was just drinking it like that out of the bottle. And I was just like any other rubby-dub or person who is left homeless, screaming and yelling and crying and drinking. I was screaming for them to kill me.
KEVIN NEWMAN So what happened? Well, the story of Romeo D’Allaire is much more than the personal tragedy of a broken man. As a peacekeeper, he found himself alone amid forces too powerful for one man to overcome, a nation in the madness of genocide and a world largely indifferent to it. It was and is the peacekeeper’s nightmare.
(VO) It begins, as it usually does, with the dream of something better. When the United Nations peacekeepers started arriving at Rwanda’s main airport in the fall of 1993, it was for a routine mission to monitor a cease-fire between two warring sides, the Hutu-led government and Tutsi opposition. It didn’t last.
SOLDIER (From file footage) Hit the deck!
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) Within months, UN soldiers were being ambushed and killed. Western governments panicked, ordering their soldiers to abandon the mission.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE (From file footage) It’s simply going to get messier, I suspect, until we get a cease-fire.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) At the UN peacekeeping compound in Rwanda’s capital, Romeo D’Allaire tried to regain control.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE My force was withering. I had no capability to defend any onslaught. I mean, we couldn’t defend the airport. We couldn’t even defend the headquarters with enough troops because every minute passing, nations were—capitals were calling their troops and giving them orders.
1ST MAN (Foreign language spoken)
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) With the attacks continuing, D’Allaire heard reports that Hutu authorities were registering all Tutsis in the country for the purpose, he faxed UN headquarters in New York, ‘of their extermination.’ It was a warning of the genocide that would begin three months later. Hutu extremists butchered Tutsis and Hutu moderates by the hundreds of thousands. The roads were blood soaked and littered with bodies. Bloated corpses floated in rivers. Terrified refugees ran to camps so vast there were people as far as the eye could see. The killers entered the camps and murdered some more. The United Nations and its peacekeeping force of now barely 400 were helpless.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE Now when you look at those people as they are dying of hunger and thirst, women having chil—children and dying right there, when you go to the sites where massacres had already been and the people are still, you know, injured and a bit alive, and you look at them, you know what you see in their eyes, what I saw in their eyes? Bewilderment. They saw me. They saw what was happening, and they were saying, ‘What happened? What happened?’
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) What happened is that Romeo D’Allaire’s warning was ignored. His desperate appeal to intervene before the killing started was rejected by UN peacekeeping headquarters, led at the time by the current secretary-general Kofi Annan, who did not believe that there was support among the members for more involvement. As a peacekeeper, D’Allaire was told he could not take sides. He had to remain impartial. He was ordered by UN headquarters to meet with the very same authorities who were sanctioning the killings.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE How can I negotiate with a person who’s just finished slashing and hacking people? How do I make a joke with him? How do I plead with him? How come I didn’t take my pistol out and blow a hole right in the middle of his forehead? And do that day in and day out. What stops you from doing that? And is it moral to do that?
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) Journalist Carol Off, who has just published a book on UN peacekeeping, says institutionalized impartiality is its greatest failing.
CAROL OFF, AUTHOR The worst that the United Nations has done is create something that they call ‘moral equivalency,’ where the easiest way to keep a peacekeeping force operating in a country is to pretend that both sides are equal, to look at them as moral equivalents, to not see them as good guys and bad guys. And that’s where we failed in Rwanda. That’s where we failed in Bosnia.
UNDER-SECRETARY GENERAL UN PEACEKEEPING JEAN-MARIE asdf GUEHENNO I prefer to speak about impert—impartiality than—than neutrality.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) The head of UN peacekeeping today says many hard lessons have been learned from the failures, but the guiding principle of involvement remains the same.
JEAN-MARIE GUEHENNO You can’t say that one side is right and the other side is—is wrong. You have to come to a—an arrangement—a political arrangement where the peacekeeping operation then can—can deploy.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) For the soldiers involved, being impartial can be personally devastating. In Bosnia, the blue-helmeted UN stood by for years while violence engulfed the lives of thousands. The final horror was when Dutch peacekeepers stood passively as Serbs separated women and children from the men of Srebrenica. The men were then exterminated. Just as in Rwanda, UN peacekeepers were forbidden to act.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE An individual sergeant or corporal who witnesses such actions who cannot use force goes through a mental crash. His moral values, his ethical values, his religious beliefs are all brought together and they’re all crashing against the rules of engagement and against the use of force, which he considers the natural means to solve it. And so that enormity, it—it’s your whole being.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) All soldiers witness horror. Peacekeepers have the added burden of following orders to stand by and simply watch.
TED KOPPEL As the weeks went on, the horrors in Rwanda worsened, and General D’Allaire’s pleas for help grew more desperate. That in part two of Kevin Newman’s report when we come back.
ANNOUNCER This is ABCNEWS: Nightline, brought to you by...
(Commercial break)
TED KOPPEL General D’Allaire’s warning that Hutus were preparing to slaughter Tutsis by the thousands had gone unanswered by the United Nations and its members, and soon his warning was a reality, as Kevin Newman explains in part two of his report.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) It went on for three months. The killers had nothing to fear. No one was stopping them even though news reports were revealing to the world the horror and magnitude of the genocide. General Romeo D’Allaire was now openly pleading for help.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE I need food, medicine, and material for two million people, and I got to stockpile it now. Because, ladies and gentlemen, if I may say in conclusion, we’re all late. We’re already weeks and weeks late.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) D’Allaire was saddled with peacekeepers from countries that sent no weapons with them or ways to house or feed them. There was only one country that could help. Only one country has the capability of moving troops and material fast enough and imposing order on chaos quickly, the United States. And it was refusing to get involved.
(OC) So by being involved, could the United States have prevented more of the killing in Rwanda?
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE Oh, absolutely. I only asked. I was down to barely 2,000 by then. And I asked only for 3,000 more combat troops. We could have nipped it.
KEVIN NEWMAN Why didn’t we act?
RICHARD HOLBROOKE You have to ask the people who were there. I’m—I don’t know. I find it inconceivable that the United States blocked action in the Security Council.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) Richard Holbrooke was the Clinton administration’s last UN ambassador. Its first, Madeleine Albright, said during the months of killing, it was impossible to confirm that an organized campaign of genocide was under way. The State Department acknowledged it only as it was ending and 800,000 were already dead.
1ST WOMAN (From June 10 1994 file footage) We have every reason to believe that acts of genocide have occurred.
2ND MAN (From June 10 1994 file footage) How many acts of genocide does it take to make genocide?
KEVIN NEWMAN The United States isn’t merely one member of the United Nations. It is arguably the most influential. So in the judgment of many, it is inconceivable that the United States didn’t know the magnitude of the Rwandan genocide since reports of it had been circulating in this building for months. The reasonable conclusion then is that the US chose not to help the peacekeepers. And the consequences of that were horrific.
(VO) America was still traumatized by another peacekeeping mission in another African country a year earlier, Mogadishu, Somalia, where 18 US rangers were killed and some brutalized.
RICHARD HOLBROOKE Mogadishu was a powerful driving force in American foreign policy ever since it occurred in October of 1993. It has deeply affected the shape of the American political debate over our involvement in peacekeeping.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) From that point forward, the Clinton administration declared US troops would only be involved in peacekeeping missions that were in America’s national interest. The Bush administration is looking to tighten the definition further. Not getting involved, in the opinion of at least one peacekeeper, ensures the nightmare of Rwanda will be repeated.
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE That cost is the cost of being a world power. Abdicating that is turning into a self-centered power in itself. And it is going to shrink the superpower.
RICHARD HOLBROOKE We have two choices, abandon the UN and watch it get worse, or make the UN effective through high efforts to reform it.
CAROL OFF Other countries have come to terms with this and realized that we can’t only be interested in our own country, our own national security. We must intervening to—in the interest of humanity.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) Almost five years after one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century, President Clinton went to Rwanda to apologize for not responding sooner.
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON (From file footage) We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name, genocide.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) But Romeo D’Allaire is alone among the players in this tragedy in accepting responsibility for what happened. Tranquilizers and antidepressants, nine pills a day, which settle his mind, but not his conscience.
(OC) When people tell you you did all you could, what does that mean to you?
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE Nothing. In fact, I find it very negative. I am a field commander who had knowledge of the situation on the ground and I was not able to convince my superiors in—in—in taking the proper action to prevent this genocide. You live always with the dimension that you don’t have long to live. For me, it’s like, go to Carnegie Hall, huge, black curtains are coming. You know how they come to the middle and then they they swing around all around and, you know, envelope someone. And so they’re coming. You just don’t have much time. And so...
KEVIN NEWMAN Before you lose control again or what? I don’t understand. Before what?
ROMEO D’ALLAIRE To—To—to be either lucid or to kill yourself.
KEVIN NEWMAN (VO) This is Kevin Newman for Nightline in Ottawa.
TED KOPPEL When we come back, an American politician who tried but failed to gain support for General D’Allaire and the peacekeepers in Rwanda.
(Commercial break)
TED KOPPEL Until his retirement in 1997, Paul Simon served his home state of Illinois in the US Senate for 12 years. He is now a professor at Southern Illinois University and joins us from our Chicago bureau.
You tried to get in touch with the White House?
PAUL SIMON, DEMOCRAT, FORMER SENATOR ILLINOIS I did. I called—I chaired the Subcommittee on Africa. The ranking Republican was Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont. When we heard what was starting to happen in Rwanda, we got on the phone to General D’Allaire, who is—who is one of the few heroes in this whole tragic, tragic story. And he told us, he said, ‘If I can get 5,000 to 8,000 troops quickly,’ he said, ‘We can put a stop to this thing.’
TED KOPPEL Now, you called—you called the White House. Whom did you try to reach?
PAUL SIMON Well, I—what I did was, Jim Jeffords and I signed a letter. We had it hand delivered to the White House that afternoon urging immediate action, leadership in the Security Council.
TED KOPPEL And wher—where and when did you hear back?
PAUL SIMON And I didn’t hear anything for a week or 10 days. And then I called the White House and talked to someone. I remember I tried to reach Tony Lake, who was the only high level person in the White House who knew anything about Africa.
TED KOPPEL He was the national security adviser to the president at that point.
PAUL SIMON That is correct. And...
TED KOPPEL But—but he wouldn’t talk to you.
PAUL SIMON Well, he wasn’t there at that point.
TED KOPPEL Well, I mean, presumably they could have reached him, right?
PAUL SIMON Well, I don’t know what happened. Anyway, I talked to someone else. And the—the basic message was there isn’t a base of public support for doing anything in Africa. It was a tragically anemic response.
TED KOPPEL And you’re saying that—that the general was asking for somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 troops, I mean, in the—in the taped report that we just saw he said 3,000 would have made a difference. Why do you believe that that request was denied not just by the United States, I mean, you know, this would have been an international force presumably. We wouldn’t have had to supply all those soldiers or even the majority of them, would we?
PAUL SIMON Or maybe even none of them. If we had just asked the Security Council to act and we could have transported troops. But I would certainly have favored having some of those troops be American troops. I think the—the lesson of Somalia that you’ve heard about before, you know, we learned the wrong lesson. Hundreds of thousands of lives were saved in Somalia. It’s one of the finest things that former President Bush did.
TED KOPPEL In point of fact, later on, the United States did become involved in the Balkans and—and sent the US Air Force, together with other NATO air forces, to bomb over Kosovo and Serbia. I have to ask the question, and it is probably going to be the last question I can ask you on this, is—is there racism involved here? I mean, it sure seems as though there is.
PAUL SIMON I...
TED KOPPEL It’s easier to let Africans die than to let Europeans die?
PAUL SIMON It should be added that we moved much too late in the Balkans also. But, there is racism. There is another political factor and that is because of slavery, the roots of African Americans were severed from their countries in Africa. So when as a senator I visited in a Greek community in Chicago, people ask me what I’m doing to help Greece or visit a Jewish community, they ask what I’m doing to help Israel, Polish community, Poland. When I visit an African-American community, hardly anyone asks about Africa because there isn’t a sense of identity with Rwanda or Senegal or any other country.
TED KOPPEL Do you think we’ve learned anything at all?
PAUL SIMON I don’t know. And when I—when I hear that we’re only going to respond when there’s a strategic interest involved, humanity is our strategic interest. If we can—if we’re going to see massive slaughters of people and we’re not going to do anything, but we will move if there’s oil or something like that involved, then we haven’t learned much of a lesson.
TED KOPPEL Senator Simon, I thank you for taking the time to talk with us. Good of you to..
PAUL SIMON Thank you.
TED KOPPEL Good of you to come in.
I’ll be back in a moment.
(Commercial break)
TED KOPPEL Tomorrow on “World News Tonight,” a giant tobacco company spending more money publicizing its good works than it spends on the good works themselves. The money trail, tomorrow on “World News Tonight.”
And that’s our report for tonight. I’m Ted Koppel in Washington. For all of us here at ABCNEWS, good night.
- - -
Note to self to get the book Shake Hands with the Devil : The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda and explore similar items.
Review - courtesy Amazon.com:
Lt. General Roméo Dallaire is revered by Canadians everywhere. When I finished the book, I could understand why. Here was a man who screamed into the void. No one listened, no one cared, no one heard. But he never stopped screaming. He valued every human life. He wept for every human loss. He never gave up.
Stephen Lewis in The Walrus
Using the detailed daily notes that were taken by his assistant in the field, Gen. Dallaire painstakingly recreated the events leading up to the genocide and provides a minute-by-minute account of the eruption of bloodshed in April, 1994, as his pleas for reinforcements to UN headquarters in New York were ignored.
Stephanie Nolen, The Globe and Mail
Almost certainly the most important book published in Canada this year.
The Globe and Mail
Shake Hands with the Devil is both an exorcism and a scathing indictment. With all the powerful immediacy of an open wound, Shake Hands with the Devil is the most important non-fiction book of the year.
The Vancouver Sun
It [is] a story of international indifference and political failure, but it [is] also one of the most profoundly disturbing tales of the century.
The Ottawa Citizen
With considerable effort, pain and sacrifice, retired Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire has provided us with an insider?s account of how he struggled with one of the most horrific events in the 20th century while an indifferent world and an incompetent United Nations looked on. Hopefully, this well written and comprehensive book represents the last chapter in Dallaire's painful Rwandan journey.
The National Post
Shake Hands with the Devil [is] one of the year's, if not the decade?s, most important events in Canadian publishing.... Dallaire gives us something to believe in. That he has done so with his eyes and heart wide open to the worst our species has to offer is a monumental achievement. Shake Hands with the Devil delivers this remarkable man and his story to us.
Vancouver Sun; Times-Colonist (Victoria)
[O]n the enormously important issue of Third World development and the moral obligation of the Western world to assist the dispossessed, [Shake Hands With The Devil] is a powerful cri de coeur for the powerless, and a gut-wrenching description of what really happened during those awful months 10 years ago.
The Toronto Star
Dallaire, the proud, dedicated Canadian in charge of that mission, a man of deep humanitarian conviction.
The Ottawa Citizen
The very spareness of the prose reflects a supreme effort at self-mastery and heightens the anguish described....He manages to convey the full horror of the genocide in relatively few passages of extraordinary, wrenching lyric power....This is a book to read to understand what genocide means, to relect on the failure of *humanity,* and to be inspired by the courage of the few in the face of genocidal horror and international indifference.
The Gazette
With the best intentions in the world, we asked Romeo Dallaire to inhabit an unspeakable world for us, to witness horrors beyond imagining, to carry a moral burden that no one person should ever have had to shoulder. He has now done us the immeasurable service of setting out in print what price that burden exacted on his mind and his soul.
The Gazette
Anyone wondering whether the United Nations still has a role to play ought to be reading Romeo Dallaire's long-awaited account of the Rwandan massacre. Shake Hands with the Devil is a harsh, uncompromising account of a great catastrophe - one the great powers saw coming and chose not to prevent. This is an important book.
Edmonton Sun
As painful as Shake Hands with the Devil is to read, it is impossible to imagine the agony it author had to go through to write it. What he witnessed, what he was incapable of stopping, would have broken anyone. Dallaire?s condemnation of the free world is stark and uncompromising. It is impossible to read this memoir, written in meticulous detail, without feeling sick and without feeling rage.
Calgary Herald
[A] powerful story of leadership and sacrifice, of moral and physical courage, and a deep love of humanity. In short, a story of a fine soldier and a hero.
The Edmonton Journal
This is an important book because it is a factual record of the genocide of recent times?. So we encounter with him the misery and chaos and the sheer unadulterated terror of living through an unnecessary and avoidable atrocity?. Read this book and rediscover if you have lost it, your capacity for moral outrage.
Winnipeg Free Press
Shake Hands with the Devil, Dallaire?s powerfully eloquent reconstruction of genocide, [is] a haunting story of evil?.That he has survived and found a way to write about those events is a triumph. Not a book for the faint of heart, perhaps. But Shake Hands with the Devil should be mandatory reading for Western leaders and citizens of every country that pays lip service to the peacekeeping ideals and the sanctity of human life.?
The Chronicle-Herald (Halifax)
[A]n almost day-by-day chronology of the horror?. Dallaire has written an emotional, often bitter book, moving and tragic.
The Telegram (St. John's)
[Dallaire's] passionate, disturbing memoir of those awful days is harrowing reading. It is a savage book. But his humanity shines through, unlike so many others tainted by the blood of innocents.
?The Calgary Sun
[Shake Hands with the Devil] is an affidavit for an indictment - an indictment of the murderers, the hamstrung, bureaucratized UN, and the self-absorbed developed world?. If Shake Hands with the Devil serves as an introduction to the Rwandan genocide, even for those only voyeuristically in what happened to a Canadian general, it has surpassed its original intent. For all this, Romeo Dallaire emerges as our post-Cold War hero.
Quill & Quire
To read his soul-searching book is to feel a rush of empathy with its author. It is also to confront uncomfortable truths. Shake Hands with the Devil is an uncommonly courageous work, wrung from the depths of despair and wrought in plain, forthright prose. Abroad in the world, the Canadian humanitarian needs a saint?s compassion, a scholar's knowledge, and a soldier's strength. Bravely and passionately, Romeo Dallaire has shown us where to start.
Literary Review of Canada
In his book, Shake Hands with the Devil, Dallaire has documented the callousness and inertia that precluded military intervention in Rwanda. The book is a scathing indictment of the United Nations and its member countries and a dire warning of the consequences to be expected when we choose to not get involved.
?The Hamilton Spectator
Retired Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire has writeen a book that is sure to mark all those that read it. Shake Hands With the Devil is a book with a message. LGen Dallaire?s *cri du coeur* is a must read.
The Edmonton Sun
There's something about [Shake Hands With the Devil] that is Shakespearean - this sincere soul with a solid heart who tries to do the right thing while the rest of the world cynically covers their butts.
Michael Donovan, interviewed in The Globe and Mail
[a] remarkable book. I hope Canadians will read this book?Dallaire does not spare us any of the details, for which, once again, thank you!...Read this book! Thank you, again, Dallaire ? not just for the book, but also your service to Canada and the world.
The Guelph Mercury
Product Description:
On the tenth anniversary of the date that UN peacekeepers landed in Rwanda, Random House Canada is proud to publish the unforgettable first-hand account of the genocide by the man who led the UN mission. Digging deep into shattering memories, General Dallaire has written a powerful story of betrayal, naïveté, racism and international politics. His message is simple and undeniable: “Never again.”
When Lt-Gen. Roméo Dallaire received the call to serve as force commander of the UN intervention in Rwanda in 1993, he thought he was heading off on a modest and straightforward peacekeeping mission. Thirteen months later he flew home from Africa, broken, disillusioned and suicidal, having witnessed the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans in only a hundred days. In Shake Hands with the Devil, he takes the reader with him on a return voyage into the hell of Rwanda, vividly recreating the events the international community turned its back on. This book is an unsparing eyewitness account of the failure by humanity to stop the genocide, despite timely warnings.
Woven through the story of this disastrous mission is Dallaire’s own journey from confident Cold Warrior, to devastated UN commander, to retired general engaged in a painful struggle to find a measure of peace, reconciliation and hope. This book is General Dallaire’s personal account of his conversion from a man certain of his worth and secure in his assumptions to a man conscious of his own weaknesses and failures and critical of the institutions he’d relied on. It might not sit easily with standard ideas of military leadership, but understanding what happened to General Dallaire and his mission to Rwanda is crucial to understanding the moral minefields our peacekeepers are forced to negotiate when we ask them to step into the world’s dirty wars.
Excerpt from Shake Hands with the Devil
My story is not a strictly military account nor a clinical, academic study of the breakdown of Rwanda. It is not a simplistic indictment of the many failures of the UN as a force for peace in the world. It is not a story of heroes and villains, although such a work could easily be written. This book is a cri de coeur for the slaughtered thousands, a tribute to the souls hacked apart by machetes because of their supposed difference from those who sought to hang on to power. . . . This book is the account of a few humans who were entrusted with the role of helping others taste the fruits of peace. Instead, we watched as the devil took control of paradise on earth and fed on the blood of the people we were supposed to protect.
Product Details:
• Hardcover: 584 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (October 10, 2004)
• ISBN: 0786714875
Customers who shopped for this item also shopped for these items:
• Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda by Michael Barnett
• Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwanda Genocide and the International Community by Linda Melvern
• When Victims Become Killers : Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda by Mahmood Mamdani
• A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide by Linda Melvern
• We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch
• The Graves Are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe, and Power in the Heart of Africa by Bill Berkeley.
Monday, September 06, 2004
HERE IS A "VIRTUAL" MEETUP - Today, for Sudan, in the blogosphere
Today, Monday September 6, is monthly International Sudanese Peace Meetup Day.
Meet ups are for people interested in peace for Sudan (and other topics).
You can sign up and get together - in person - with others in your locality. And even start your own Meet up.
Because I am unable to attend a Meet up, I have created a "virtual" Meet up via this post.
Below are links to bloggers - mostly regular reads from my sidebar - who have written about the Sudan.
Here's sending you all a warm hello - and a big thank you for your posts on the Sudan.
See you at the next virtual Meet up here in October :)
Bye for now. With love from Ingrid and Ophelia xx
PS Special thanks to Nick for alerting me to the Meet up date that enabled me to complete this, and the following two posts, in time.
- - -
POEM FOR SUDAN
By Virginia Barros in Portugal
This poem was composed in English by Virginia Barros (blogging under the name of Monalisa) - of SÃtio da Saudade - especially for today's Meet Up.
Virginia is a Portuguese blogger who lives in a small town in Portugal. See her beautiful locality in the photo of a bridge - here below. She kindly emailed me this poem for Sudan, in response to my previous post publicising the Sep 6 International Sudanese Peace MeetUp Day. Warm thanks to Virginia for her poem for Sudan:
In my comfortable
And warm room I sleep
I sleep quietly
And you die
Suffering horrors that my brain
Does not obtain to imagine
Because all of us sleep tranquil
And in the same minute
The great pain of the planet
Doesn’t affect us
We pass by lifeless
Indifferent and silently
and we wake up
Thinking to be happy
But the happiness
is spotted of blood and barbarity
Because we let the heartless
Take the world
and we do nothing.
[Photo courtesy of Osterreich Hilft Darfur ORF ]
- - -
SUDAN: INTERNATIONAL MEETUP DAY
Sep 6 Labor Day - Sudan Campaign
Eugene Oregon at Demagogue received this email from Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick of Christian Solidarity International and the Sudan Campaign:
This Labor Day, Monday, September 6, the Sudan Campaign is inviting everyone to take a “day on” rather than a “day off” to protest the ongoing genocide in Sudan. Demonstrations have been held at the Sudan embassy everyday since June 29th, and they will continue. Over 50 persons have offered themselves for arrest by committing non-violent acts of civil disobedience to draw attention to the urgency and seriousness of the issue. Radio personality and activist, Joe Madison, has been a hunger strike for six weeks. In light of the UN findings that the Khartoum regime has not fully complied with the UN mandate issued over 30 days ago, it is time to move to a new level of pressure, economic.
The Sudan Campaign hopes to accomplish 3 goals at the Monday protest:
(1) To thank the Red Cross and other humanitarian aid organizations that have begun massive operations to feed the displaced and starving people of Darfur (celebrating the end to the fast of the Black Eagle, Joseph Madison)
(2) To decry the weakness of the response of the United Nations to the failure of the government of Sudan to comply fully with the mandate given them by the UN thirty days ago
(3) To announce and to launch a bold new strategy of our drive to bring peace to all of the people of the Sudan: Demand that U.S. citizens, their pension funds and their corporations divest themselves of all investments of money in their names in corporations doing business in the Sudan.
Please join us and/or distribute flyers available at the Sudan Campaign and Passion of the Present and encourage others to do the same.
- - -
DOWNLOAD GENOCIDE POSTER AND FACTSHEET
At www.blockstreet and building.com
Please feel free to download Sudan poster and factsheet - courtesy Passion of the Present at www.blockstreet and building.com
PARTNER UP:
Join with others to take creative action and blog about it.
REACH OUT:
Blog about contacting the media and elected officials.
GET LINKED: Join Save Darfur to moblise national action.
GIVE: For a list of aid organisations working in Sudan go to InterAction or DEC UK or download Songs for Sudan album (see link in next post here below)
COME TO: Passion of the Present for daily news and community.
SPREAD THE WORD: on the latest - Sep 12 Rally at the U.N. in New York - to Stop Sudan Genocide.
- - -
THANK YOU TO ONE AND ALL
For blogging the plight of Sudanese in Darfur and Chad
Sudanese women are silhouetted at Abu Shouk camp in North Darfur, Sudan, where more than 40,000 displaced people are receiving food and shelter from international aid agencies. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) (September 01, 2004)
ENGLAND
Alistair Coleman (kudos to the BBC + Caversham for great coverage on Sudan)
The UK Today - thanks to Clive for the info on EDMs and how to make contact by fax and email with our MPs
Norman Geras - great weekly postings on Sudan
IRELAND
Gavin Sheridan - oil and China posts (btw great work being done in Sudan by Ireland's GOAL aid agency)
SCOTLAND
Scottish Webring members (and kudos to Scotsman.com for great reporting on Sudan)
WALES
Bob Piper - always kindly posted on Sudan
Doug Floyd lyrics of Sudan Song and list of the album's tracks
Doug at Quadrophrenia for posting the lyrics of Song for Sudan.
CANADA
Jim Elve at BlogsCanada - The Suffering Continues Unabated
Officially Unofficial - BlogsCandada - The Suffering Continues Unabated
BlogsCanada E Group Blog Multi-partisan Political Punditry
Jim Elve another awesome post on aid links courtesy BBC
E Group Blog - Multi-partisan Political Punditry - Arjun's great discussion thread on: "Should Canada Intervene?"
Boris Anthony another neat post on A failure of will
Allseasons
Lost Below the 49th: Darfur, ReDux - check out link to great piece on Romeo D'allaire (and his book)
Lost Below the 49th Crazy Canuck returns
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Arjun Singh Sudan Genocide: UN finds No Significant Progress...
Arjun Singh has written great posts on Sudan at CanadaBlogs e-group.
Sébastien Paquet - real neat posts as usual
FRANCE
Loic Le Meur (has not posted on Sudan, as far as I am aware, but Loic has many links in his sidebar for anyone wishing to connect up with French bloggers)
AUSTRALIA
Robert Corr - Time for action (best Sudan intro in the blogosphere)
Jonathan Rowbottom hosted interesting discussion thread
PORTUGAL
Virginia Barros' SÃtio da Saudade: Sudão powerful post on Sudan (also see above Poem for Sudan)
Nelson
HOLLAND
Ado (who is Dutch and works in Tokyo at Joi Ito's)
JAPAN
Joi Ito re Images of genocide
Joi Ito's list of posts on Sudan
finalvent on China, Japan, Russia and oil
finalvent on Darfur
finalvent re Sudanese FM visit to Japan Sept 5-9 for talks on Darfur
finalvent - more on oil
MALAYSIA
Rajan's first of the great round ups on Sudan
Rajan's second great Sudan Genocide roundup
Rajan's third and, for the Sep 6 meetup, his latest Sudan Genocide roundup
Aiseh, man thoughtful post on Compassionate Infidels
USA
Jim Moore's Journal - April 22, 2004 post that started it all (here at this blog I mean!)
Jim Moore's Journal - April 23, 2004 post that I picked up on and have been blogging about ever since (*yawn*)
Sudan Day of Conscience
Ethan Zuckerman Top Ten Worst Dictators
Ethan Zuckerman Making Room for the Third World in the Second Superpower
ChaiTeaLatte Madhu kindly linked to several posts and got my blog Instalanched
Instapundit - regular posts on Sudan and esp re oil
Nicholas Genes has written some super posts - his doc buddy Jonathan Spector is now safely back home in the US after working with MSF in Darfur
Pauly's Side of the Truth - has just written another great post on Sudan
Jonathan Broad "Dallaire on Darfur: It is happening...again" (a must-read)
Gary Silberberg - regular postings on Sudan
Patrick Hall - exclusively Sudan posts - neat finds
Allied - one of the few great female bloggers writing about Sudan
Squirrel in DC - link to Samantha Power's great piece in New Yorker on her travels in Sudan
Cheers to The Register for publicising Oxfam's "Songs for Sudan" download album for Darfur.
[Note: sincere apologies to those I've missed out, I've not checked through four months of archives in my main blog. If I have missed you, please email me or comment and I will add your link here - or write a special post later on. Thanks.]
- - -
Note to Jim: Sorry, unable to post image of Passion of the Present's poster. Flickr is superb but for some reason I couldn't get it to show. Instead, I've posted a link to the download at www.blockstreet and building.com
Here is a photo of the town in Portugal where Portuguese blogger Virginia lives. Virginia kindly volunteered to compose, in English, a poem for Sudan, especially for today's "virtual" meet up.
[Photo - with thanks to SÃtio da Saudade - courtesy of Rui Vale de Sousa - apologies to photographer, this transmission has cropped right side of picture, full image avail at www.ruivaledesousa.com or copy and paste it into a page in your computer and whole image should appear]
- - -
UPDATE September 8, 2004:
Seems there is no accurate way of knowing who is all blogging about Darfur. Technorati's lists are invaluable (blogosphere would not be the same without it) as you can also search on key words Sudan and Darfur and read blogs that have published using those words during previous 7 days.
Trouble is, the list changes every week, and sometimes there are hundreds to click through. It takes too much time to keep up with. As much as we'd like, we can't visit every blog posting on Sudan. Also (but not too often) links to this site, and others, do not show up in Technorati's listings.
So, if you have posted on the Sudan and are not linked here or at Passion of the Present, please do please make contact in comments or by email - even if it is just to say the word hi - with your blog URL to link here for readers interested in seeing what others are saying, doing and thinking about the Sudan. Thanks. Don't be shy. These two writers took the time and trouble to comment:
AUTHOR OF SUDAN POSTS AT WAVEFLUX BLOG
Is the best sousaphone player in South Carolina
Hello and thank you to the author of Waveflux in St Louis, USA for his neat posts on the Sudan that include Who will save the people of Darfur? - and:
- contact info on officials who may have influence
- copy of a reply received from Sen. Jim Talent's office
- great post for the Day of Conscience
- and Passion of the Present's poster.
In his "about" section, Waveflux writes that a band director once called him the best sousaphone player in the state of South Carolina - and says "that's saying something, because those things are heavy" (but, to be fair he admits, the ones he played way back when were mostly made of fiberglass).
Sousaphone (SOO-zah-fone) is a brass instrument invented by John Philip Sousa which was adapted from the tuba. The Sousaphone has a forward bell which coils around to rest upon the player's shoulder thus allowing the instrument to be carried with greater ease while marching.
[Photo - with thanks to Waveflux - courtesy of G. Leblanc Corporation]
- - -
ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY
Hello to founder Cameron Sinclair
Hello to Cameron and thank you for commenting at my virtual meet up post at Passion of the Present.
Cameron is the the founder of Architecture for Humanity and was trained as an architect at the University of Westminster and at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London.
During his studies, he developed an interest in social, cultural and humanitarian design. His postgraduate thesis focused on providing shelter to New York's homeless population through sustainable, transitional housing.
After completing his studies, he moved to New York where he has worked as a designer and project architect. Since 1996, Cameron has worked on projects in more than 20 countries including England, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. [read more ...]
Meet ups are for people interested in peace for Sudan (and other topics).
You can sign up and get together - in person - with others in your locality. And even start your own Meet up.
Because I am unable to attend a Meet up, I have created a "virtual" Meet up via this post.
Below are links to bloggers - mostly regular reads from my sidebar - who have written about the Sudan.
Here's sending you all a warm hello - and a big thank you for your posts on the Sudan.
See you at the next virtual Meet up here in October :)
Bye for now. With love from Ingrid and Ophelia xx
PS Special thanks to Nick for alerting me to the Meet up date that enabled me to complete this, and the following two posts, in time.
- - -
POEM FOR SUDAN
By Virginia Barros in Portugal
This poem was composed in English by Virginia Barros (blogging under the name of Monalisa) - of SÃtio da Saudade - especially for today's Meet Up.
Virginia is a Portuguese blogger who lives in a small town in Portugal. See her beautiful locality in the photo of a bridge - here below. She kindly emailed me this poem for Sudan, in response to my previous post publicising the Sep 6 International Sudanese Peace MeetUp Day. Warm thanks to Virginia for her poem for Sudan:
In my comfortable
And warm room I sleep
I sleep quietly
And you die
Suffering horrors that my brain
Does not obtain to imagine
Because all of us sleep tranquil
And in the same minute
The great pain of the planet
Doesn’t affect us
We pass by lifeless
Indifferent and silently
and we wake up
Thinking to be happy
But the happiness
is spotted of blood and barbarity
Because we let the heartless
Take the world
and we do nothing.
[Photo courtesy of Osterreich Hilft Darfur ORF ]
- - -
SUDAN: INTERNATIONAL MEETUP DAY
Sep 6 Labor Day - Sudan Campaign
Eugene Oregon at Demagogue received this email from Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick of Christian Solidarity International and the Sudan Campaign:
This Labor Day, Monday, September 6, the Sudan Campaign is inviting everyone to take a “day on” rather than a “day off” to protest the ongoing genocide in Sudan. Demonstrations have been held at the Sudan embassy everyday since June 29th, and they will continue. Over 50 persons have offered themselves for arrest by committing non-violent acts of civil disobedience to draw attention to the urgency and seriousness of the issue. Radio personality and activist, Joe Madison, has been a hunger strike for six weeks. In light of the UN findings that the Khartoum regime has not fully complied with the UN mandate issued over 30 days ago, it is time to move to a new level of pressure, economic.
The Sudan Campaign hopes to accomplish 3 goals at the Monday protest:
(1) To thank the Red Cross and other humanitarian aid organizations that have begun massive operations to feed the displaced and starving people of Darfur (celebrating the end to the fast of the Black Eagle, Joseph Madison)
(2) To decry the weakness of the response of the United Nations to the failure of the government of Sudan to comply fully with the mandate given them by the UN thirty days ago
(3) To announce and to launch a bold new strategy of our drive to bring peace to all of the people of the Sudan: Demand that U.S. citizens, their pension funds and their corporations divest themselves of all investments of money in their names in corporations doing business in the Sudan.
Please join us and/or distribute flyers available at the Sudan Campaign and Passion of the Present and encourage others to do the same.
- - -
DOWNLOAD GENOCIDE POSTER AND FACTSHEET
At www.blockstreet and building.com
Please feel free to download Sudan poster and factsheet - courtesy Passion of the Present at www.blockstreet and building.com
PARTNER UP:
Join with others to take creative action and blog about it.
REACH OUT:
Blog about contacting the media and elected officials.
GET LINKED: Join Save Darfur to moblise national action.
GIVE: For a list of aid organisations working in Sudan go to InterAction or DEC UK or download Songs for Sudan album (see link in next post here below)
COME TO: Passion of the Present for daily news and community.
SPREAD THE WORD: on the latest - Sep 12 Rally at the U.N. in New York - to Stop Sudan Genocide.
- - -
THANK YOU TO ONE AND ALL
For blogging the plight of Sudanese in Darfur and Chad
Sudanese women are silhouetted at Abu Shouk camp in North Darfur, Sudan, where more than 40,000 displaced people are receiving food and shelter from international aid agencies. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) (September 01, 2004)
ENGLAND
Alistair Coleman (kudos to the BBC + Caversham for great coverage on Sudan)
The UK Today - thanks to Clive for the info on EDMs and how to make contact by fax and email with our MPs
Norman Geras - great weekly postings on Sudan
IRELAND
Gavin Sheridan - oil and China posts (btw great work being done in Sudan by Ireland's GOAL aid agency)
SCOTLAND
Scottish Webring members (and kudos to Scotsman.com for great reporting on Sudan)
WALES
Bob Piper - always kindly posted on Sudan
Doug Floyd lyrics of Sudan Song and list of the album's tracks
Doug at Quadrophrenia for posting the lyrics of Song for Sudan.
CANADA
Jim Elve at BlogsCanada - The Suffering Continues Unabated
Officially Unofficial - BlogsCandada - The Suffering Continues Unabated
BlogsCanada E Group Blog Multi-partisan Political Punditry
Jim Elve another awesome post on aid links courtesy BBC
E Group Blog - Multi-partisan Political Punditry - Arjun's great discussion thread on: "Should Canada Intervene?"
Boris Anthony another neat post on A failure of will
Allseasons
Lost Below the 49th: Darfur, ReDux - check out link to great piece on Romeo D'allaire (and his book)
Lost Below the 49th Crazy Canuck returns
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Arjun Singh Sudan Genocide: UN finds No Significant Progress...
Arjun Singh has written great posts on Sudan at CanadaBlogs e-group.
Sébastien Paquet - real neat posts as usual
FRANCE
Loic Le Meur (has not posted on Sudan, as far as I am aware, but Loic has many links in his sidebar for anyone wishing to connect up with French bloggers)
AUSTRALIA
Robert Corr - Time for action (best Sudan intro in the blogosphere)
Jonathan Rowbottom hosted interesting discussion thread
PORTUGAL
Virginia Barros' SÃtio da Saudade: Sudão powerful post on Sudan (also see above Poem for Sudan)
Nelson
HOLLAND
Ado (who is Dutch and works in Tokyo at Joi Ito's)
JAPAN
Joi Ito re Images of genocide
Joi Ito's list of posts on Sudan
finalvent on China, Japan, Russia and oil
finalvent on Darfur
finalvent re Sudanese FM visit to Japan Sept 5-9 for talks on Darfur
finalvent - more on oil
MALAYSIA
Rajan's first of the great round ups on Sudan
Rajan's second great Sudan Genocide roundup
Rajan's third and, for the Sep 6 meetup, his latest Sudan Genocide roundup
Aiseh, man thoughtful post on Compassionate Infidels
USA
Jim Moore's Journal - April 22, 2004 post that started it all (here at this blog I mean!)
Jim Moore's Journal - April 23, 2004 post that I picked up on and have been blogging about ever since (*yawn*)
Sudan Day of Conscience
Ethan Zuckerman Top Ten Worst Dictators
Ethan Zuckerman Making Room for the Third World in the Second Superpower
ChaiTeaLatte Madhu kindly linked to several posts and got my blog Instalanched
Instapundit - regular posts on Sudan and esp re oil
Nicholas Genes has written some super posts - his doc buddy Jonathan Spector is now safely back home in the US after working with MSF in Darfur
Pauly's Side of the Truth - has just written another great post on Sudan
Jonathan Broad "Dallaire on Darfur: It is happening...again" (a must-read)
Gary Silberberg - regular postings on Sudan
Patrick Hall - exclusively Sudan posts - neat finds
Allied - one of the few great female bloggers writing about Sudan
Squirrel in DC - link to Samantha Power's great piece in New Yorker on her travels in Sudan
Cheers to The Register for publicising Oxfam's "Songs for Sudan" download album for Darfur.
[Note: sincere apologies to those I've missed out, I've not checked through four months of archives in my main blog. If I have missed you, please email me or comment and I will add your link here - or write a special post later on. Thanks.]
- - -
Note to Jim: Sorry, unable to post image of Passion of the Present's poster. Flickr is superb but for some reason I couldn't get it to show. Instead, I've posted a link to the download at www.blockstreet and building.com
Here is a photo of the town in Portugal where Portuguese blogger Virginia lives. Virginia kindly volunteered to compose, in English, a poem for Sudan, especially for today's "virtual" meet up.
[Photo - with thanks to SÃtio da Saudade - courtesy of Rui Vale de Sousa - apologies to photographer, this transmission has cropped right side of picture, full image avail at www.ruivaledesousa.com or copy and paste it into a page in your computer and whole image should appear]
- - -
UPDATE September 8, 2004:
Seems there is no accurate way of knowing who is all blogging about Darfur. Technorati's lists are invaluable (blogosphere would not be the same without it) as you can also search on key words Sudan and Darfur and read blogs that have published using those words during previous 7 days.
Trouble is, the list changes every week, and sometimes there are hundreds to click through. It takes too much time to keep up with. As much as we'd like, we can't visit every blog posting on Sudan. Also (but not too often) links to this site, and others, do not show up in Technorati's listings.
So, if you have posted on the Sudan and are not linked here or at Passion of the Present, please do please make contact in comments or by email - even if it is just to say the word hi - with your blog URL to link here for readers interested in seeing what others are saying, doing and thinking about the Sudan. Thanks. Don't be shy. These two writers took the time and trouble to comment:
AUTHOR OF SUDAN POSTS AT WAVEFLUX BLOG
Is the best sousaphone player in South Carolina
Hello and thank you to the author of Waveflux in St Louis, USA for his neat posts on the Sudan that include Who will save the people of Darfur? - and:
- contact info on officials who may have influence
- copy of a reply received from Sen. Jim Talent's office
- great post for the Day of Conscience
- and Passion of the Present's poster.
In his "about" section, Waveflux writes that a band director once called him the best sousaphone player in the state of South Carolina - and says "that's saying something, because those things are heavy" (but, to be fair he admits, the ones he played way back when were mostly made of fiberglass).
Sousaphone (SOO-zah-fone) is a brass instrument invented by John Philip Sousa which was adapted from the tuba. The Sousaphone has a forward bell which coils around to rest upon the player's shoulder thus allowing the instrument to be carried with greater ease while marching.
[Photo - with thanks to Waveflux - courtesy of G. Leblanc Corporation]
- - -
ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY
Hello to founder Cameron Sinclair
Hello to Cameron and thank you for commenting at my virtual meet up post at Passion of the Present.
Cameron is the the founder of Architecture for Humanity and was trained as an architect at the University of Westminster and at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London.
During his studies, he developed an interest in social, cultural and humanitarian design. His postgraduate thesis focused on providing shelter to New York's homeless population through sustainable, transitional housing.
After completing his studies, he moved to New York where he has worked as a designer and project architect. Since 1996, Cameron has worked on projects in more than 20 countries including England, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. [read more ...]
Sunday, September 05, 2004
AU OBSERVERS' FINDINGS - need to be publicised for the whole world to know: Sudan hinders African mission to protect Darfur
Now Sudan says it is willing to allow in more Darfur observers.
It's no wonder Sudan is not opposing additional monitors and does not object to the deployment of more foreign cease-fire monitors and protection troops for Darfur. According to a report in today's UK Telegraph, it's a farce what is going on with the present observers in Sudan.
The Telegraph's report is most telling on what it is like on the ground for the present observers, and confirms that Sudan is hindering them from carrying out their mission to protect Darfur.
Note the report says [bold emphasis is mine]: "a friend of Cdr Steyn's criticised the AU for not publicising the observers' findings - "The world needs to know so pressure is put on the government," he said."
Perhaps any news of more observers into Sudan is not as good it sounds as they will end up as hamstrung as the present mission (or any peacekeeping mission - see last paragraph here below).
The Telegraph's report is copied here in full incase it disappears into archives or link becomes broken. Please pass on the latest news for all the world to know.
Sudan 'hinders African mission to protect Darfur' by Benjamin Joffe-Walt at Al-Fashir Military Airfield (Filed: 05/09/2004):
The troops were ready, the mission decided and the flight crew was standing by, but the African Union ceasefire monitors still lacked one vital element. "The Sudanese say there is no fuel," said one of the soldiers waiting to board. "They say there's a fuel problem whenever they want to keep us on the ground. They don't want us to see. It's a big ceasefire violation."
Not for the first time, soldiers sent from neighbouring African countries were being prevented by the Sudanese from fulfilling their mission: to ensure that Khartoum is honouring its pledge to rein in the Arab militias that have brought terror and misery to Darfur.
Hours later, as a Sudanese army attack helicopter came in to land, its own mission complete, the "shortage" was suddenly resolved. Fuel trucks that had sat all the while on the other side of the fence lumbered towards the aircraft, chartered to carry the troops on observation missions across the region.
Although the 120-strong contingent of African Union (AU) troops has been on the ground for only a few weeks, a pattern of obstruction by Sudanese officials has been established. "We're always fighting about these fuel issues," said William Molokwane, a South African intelligence officer. "We are supposed to know about these Sudanese movements, attack helicopters flying in and out of the airport, troops moving out of the city."
Instead the observers expend time negotiating with the authorities, while Sudanese troops deploy with impunity. So when the helicopter finally returned, there was no way of knowing what it had done.
There were suspicions, however, that some kind of attack mission may have been carried out, as Sudanese officials lined up to welcome the 30 returning soldiers.
"They're not acting in good faith," said Col Anthony Amedoh, the Ghanaian chief military observer. "There are many clear ceasefire violations by the Sudanese government but we can't stop them, we can just report them."
Even when the Sudanese are caught in the act, the AU observers are powerless to stop them. In Nyala, the biggest city in Darfur, a Nigerian observer reported that his team saw Sudanese government soldiers fighting alongside the Janjaweed militia at a large refugee camp.
"We caught them fighting together red-handed," he said. His team could do nothing, however. "Aside from a small protection force there are absolutely no arms here," Mr Molokwane said. "If something happens now, what can we do?" Barry Steyn, a South African commander responsible for investigating ceasefire complaints in Nyala, the area of Darfur with most violence, said: "In traditional peacekeeping there is a line, and if either side crosses that line the peacekeeper fights back. But there are no lines and borders here and we don't directly intervene so it's a very difficult mission."
Any distinction between the government and militia forces was fiction, he said. "You don't know who's who. The government, Janjaweed, they all wear the same thing."
A friend of Cdr Steyn's criticised the AU for not publicising the observers' findings. "The world needs to know so pressure is put on the government," he said.
The task is frustrated by the presence in each observer team of representatives of both the Sudanese government and rebel movements. "We are all friends," the Sudanese representative said with a sleazy smile during a helicopter ride. The rebel next to him stared despondently at the floor. The tension is overt, a game of bickering and convivial posturing for the cameras.
"It's challenging because I have to mediate all the time," said Steven Saidu, the Ghanaian commander on the helicopter. "When it's not in one of the parties' favour they start fighting."
Cdr Steyn said that neither the rebels nor the government should be among the observers. "Everyone must sign each investigative report, so we have to water down everything because we have warring parties on the team," he said.
None of the team is optimistic about the outlook for Darfur. "We can't make peace - they have to want peace, and I haven't seen anyone that wants to end things," said Cdr Steyn. "The rebels are winning this war. The whole world blames the Janjaweed and government already, so what would they gain by disarming?"
Leo Burman, a Dutch European Union representative with the African Union force, and a veteran of similar operations elsewhere, said: "None of the major peacekeeping operations has succeeded. Gaza, Lebanon, Kosovo, Bosnia, Angola - what did we accomplish? A big waste of money and lives. We'll feel guilty if we do nothing, but actually it doesn't work."
- - -
Update:
Congrats to the AU for being ready to send more troops to Darfur. Nigerian head of State and current chair of the African Union, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Saturday declared the 'willingness' of the continental body to provide more protection forces and observers to the Darfur region 'if solicited'."
Cheers to the Aussies march for Sudan. About 800 people marched through Sydney's CBD today to protest against the worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
Note: tomorrow (Monday Sep 6) is International Sudanese Peace MeetUp day; Sep 12 is the date for protest at the UN building in New York.
It's no wonder Sudan is not opposing additional monitors and does not object to the deployment of more foreign cease-fire monitors and protection troops for Darfur. According to a report in today's UK Telegraph, it's a farce what is going on with the present observers in Sudan.
The Telegraph's report is most telling on what it is like on the ground for the present observers, and confirms that Sudan is hindering them from carrying out their mission to protect Darfur.
Note the report says [bold emphasis is mine]: "a friend of Cdr Steyn's criticised the AU for not publicising the observers' findings - "The world needs to know so pressure is put on the government," he said."
Perhaps any news of more observers into Sudan is not as good it sounds as they will end up as hamstrung as the present mission (or any peacekeeping mission - see last paragraph here below).
The Telegraph's report is copied here in full incase it disappears into archives or link becomes broken. Please pass on the latest news for all the world to know.
Sudan 'hinders African mission to protect Darfur' by Benjamin Joffe-Walt at Al-Fashir Military Airfield (Filed: 05/09/2004):
The troops were ready, the mission decided and the flight crew was standing by, but the African Union ceasefire monitors still lacked one vital element. "The Sudanese say there is no fuel," said one of the soldiers waiting to board. "They say there's a fuel problem whenever they want to keep us on the ground. They don't want us to see. It's a big ceasefire violation."
Not for the first time, soldiers sent from neighbouring African countries were being prevented by the Sudanese from fulfilling their mission: to ensure that Khartoum is honouring its pledge to rein in the Arab militias that have brought terror and misery to Darfur.
Hours later, as a Sudanese army attack helicopter came in to land, its own mission complete, the "shortage" was suddenly resolved. Fuel trucks that had sat all the while on the other side of the fence lumbered towards the aircraft, chartered to carry the troops on observation missions across the region.
Although the 120-strong contingent of African Union (AU) troops has been on the ground for only a few weeks, a pattern of obstruction by Sudanese officials has been established. "We're always fighting about these fuel issues," said William Molokwane, a South African intelligence officer. "We are supposed to know about these Sudanese movements, attack helicopters flying in and out of the airport, troops moving out of the city."
Instead the observers expend time negotiating with the authorities, while Sudanese troops deploy with impunity. So when the helicopter finally returned, there was no way of knowing what it had done.
There were suspicions, however, that some kind of attack mission may have been carried out, as Sudanese officials lined up to welcome the 30 returning soldiers.
"They're not acting in good faith," said Col Anthony Amedoh, the Ghanaian chief military observer. "There are many clear ceasefire violations by the Sudanese government but we can't stop them, we can just report them."
Even when the Sudanese are caught in the act, the AU observers are powerless to stop them. In Nyala, the biggest city in Darfur, a Nigerian observer reported that his team saw Sudanese government soldiers fighting alongside the Janjaweed militia at a large refugee camp.
"We caught them fighting together red-handed," he said. His team could do nothing, however. "Aside from a small protection force there are absolutely no arms here," Mr Molokwane said. "If something happens now, what can we do?" Barry Steyn, a South African commander responsible for investigating ceasefire complaints in Nyala, the area of Darfur with most violence, said: "In traditional peacekeeping there is a line, and if either side crosses that line the peacekeeper fights back. But there are no lines and borders here and we don't directly intervene so it's a very difficult mission."
Any distinction between the government and militia forces was fiction, he said. "You don't know who's who. The government, Janjaweed, they all wear the same thing."
A friend of Cdr Steyn's criticised the AU for not publicising the observers' findings. "The world needs to know so pressure is put on the government," he said.
The task is frustrated by the presence in each observer team of representatives of both the Sudanese government and rebel movements. "We are all friends," the Sudanese representative said with a sleazy smile during a helicopter ride. The rebel next to him stared despondently at the floor. The tension is overt, a game of bickering and convivial posturing for the cameras.
"It's challenging because I have to mediate all the time," said Steven Saidu, the Ghanaian commander on the helicopter. "When it's not in one of the parties' favour they start fighting."
Cdr Steyn said that neither the rebels nor the government should be among the observers. "Everyone must sign each investigative report, so we have to water down everything because we have warring parties on the team," he said.
None of the team is optimistic about the outlook for Darfur. "We can't make peace - they have to want peace, and I haven't seen anyone that wants to end things," said Cdr Steyn. "The rebels are winning this war. The whole world blames the Janjaweed and government already, so what would they gain by disarming?"
Leo Burman, a Dutch European Union representative with the African Union force, and a veteran of similar operations elsewhere, said: "None of the major peacekeeping operations has succeeded. Gaza, Lebanon, Kosovo, Bosnia, Angola - what did we accomplish? A big waste of money and lives. We'll feel guilty if we do nothing, but actually it doesn't work."
- - -
Update:
Congrats to the AU for being ready to send more troops to Darfur. Nigerian head of State and current chair of the African Union, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Saturday declared the 'willingness' of the continental body to provide more protection forces and observers to the Darfur region 'if solicited'."
Cheers to the Aussies march for Sudan. About 800 people marched through Sydney's CBD today to protest against the worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
Note: tomorrow (Monday Sep 6) is International Sudanese Peace MeetUp day; Sep 12 is the date for protest at the UN building in New York.
EU ready to support Darfur police mission, will study sanctions
European Union foreign ministers Saturday vowed to help launch an African police force in Darfur and also started drafting possible sanctions against Khartoum, including a ban on oil trade.
The EU was ready to back up African Union efforts to deploy a police mission in Darfur, Dutch Foreign Minister and current EU spokesman Bernard Bot told reporters.
“The African Union is responsible for the situation (in Darfur) ...we are there to help if a request is made,” Bot said, adding: “We believe the AU is capable of creating stability.”
The EU move comes only days after the Sudanese government warned that it will not accept foreign peacekeeping troops in Darfur, but may agree to have more ceasefire monitors deployed in the region.
37 per cent of the region’s population still had no access to food supplies. Only about 500 international aid workers were currently present in Darfur, compared to the 2,000 needed to run an efficient humanitarian operation.
EU spokesman Mr Nielson insisted that the African Union - whose top official will meet EU ministers later Saturday - was best-placed to tackle the Darfur crisis.
The EU was ready to back up African Union efforts to deploy a police mission in Darfur, Dutch Foreign Minister and current EU spokesman Bernard Bot told reporters.
“The African Union is responsible for the situation (in Darfur) ...we are there to help if a request is made,” Bot said, adding: “We believe the AU is capable of creating stability.”
The EU move comes only days after the Sudanese government warned that it will not accept foreign peacekeeping troops in Darfur, but may agree to have more ceasefire monitors deployed in the region.
37 per cent of the region’s population still had no access to food supplies. Only about 500 international aid workers were currently present in Darfur, compared to the 2,000 needed to run an efficient humanitarian operation.
EU spokesman Mr Nielson insisted that the African Union - whose top official will meet EU ministers later Saturday - was best-placed to tackle the Darfur crisis.
US plans new resolution on Darfur
The UN Security Council discussed Darfur on Thursday, after its deadline expired for Sudan to make improvements or face sanctions. No action was agreed.
The United States says it is preparing a new United Nations resolution to deal with the crisis.
"We'll be talking to other governments shortly about the elements that can go into a resolution," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
Mr Boucher said US Secretary of State Colin Powell would testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next week.
Mr Powell is expected to provide preliminary results of a US investigation into whether genocide is being committed in Darfur.
The US has been pressing for sanctions against the government in Khartoum, insisting that it is still backing the Arab militias.
- - -
The U.S. Congress has already labelled the conflict in Darfur genocide but the administration of President George W. Bush has not yet taken that step.
Sudanese FM Ismail said he planned to speak to Powell later on Saturday to explain the current situation in Darfur.
The United States says it is preparing a new United Nations resolution to deal with the crisis.
"We'll be talking to other governments shortly about the elements that can go into a resolution," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
Mr Boucher said US Secretary of State Colin Powell would testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next week.
Mr Powell is expected to provide preliminary results of a US investigation into whether genocide is being committed in Darfur.
The US has been pressing for sanctions against the government in Khartoum, insisting that it is still backing the Arab militias.
- - -
The U.S. Congress has already labelled the conflict in Darfur genocide but the administration of President George W. Bush has not yet taken that step.
Sudanese FM Ismail said he planned to speak to Powell later on Saturday to explain the current situation in Darfur.
Friday, September 03, 2004
Straw urges UN reform and attacks response to Darfur
Note to readers, this is a new blog in the process of being developed. Some news articles are copied here in full and posted as a reminder for a later date.
Recently, the leader of South Africa spoke out about the need for UN reform. I'm looking forward to following this issue closely, especially in regard to failed states and how the UN could react more swiftly to events, such as those in Darfur, to stop crimes against humanity.
In time to come, I hope to write original commentary on UN reform, and hope to include the UN's World Food Programme and its refugee agency. For what purpose, I have not yet clarified in my mind.
Apart from Sudan and Africa as a whole, these topics have taken my interest ever since I discovered, from Jim Moore's Journal on April 24, 2004, that genocide was unfolding in Darfur while very little was being done to help the people of Darfur, or bring their plight out into the open.
By following the Sudan crisis closely over the past four months, it has piqued my interest in the Human Rights Bill (and its absence of "obligations"), the politics of mineral and oil rich countries, and what Jim has dubbed as "The Genocidal Bloc".
This post is a rough draft that I don't expect will be of use or make much sense to anyone else.
The following is a copy of a Guardian UK report dated September 3, 2004, "Straw urges UN reform and attacks response to Darfur":
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, urged reform of the United Nations security council yesterday after criticising the body for its slow response to the humanitarian disaster in Sudan.
Mr Straw, in a speech calling for a reshaping of the UN to create a stronger body, said: "We need to be able to act earlier, as threats emerge, and our action needs to be sustained."
The UN is embarked on the latest of several attempts at reform over the last decade.
An independent panel is preparing proposals by the end of the year for the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, including expanding the 15-member security council to 24. The Foreign Office and Downing Street are also trying to find a new set of post-Iraq criteria to justify UN intervention in sovereign states.
Mr Straw said that the security council had expanded over the last few years the range of issues regarded as a threat to peace: overthrow of a democratically-elected government, terrorism, large-scale human rights violations, humanitarian catastrophe, refugee crises and states that flout their international obligations on weapons of mass destruction.
"We now need to take that evolution further, with the council beginning to treat such issues more consistently, and as a matter of course, rather than in the relatively ad hoc way in which it has done so to date," he said.
Since the Iraq invasion, the UN has embarked on peacekeeping missions in Liberia, Ivory Coast and Haiti, with a further mission pencilled in for Sudan if agreement is reached to end the north-south civil war.
Mr Straw said: "It can no longer be acceptable to classify situations such as that in Darfur, or before in Rwanda or Kosovo, as simply the concern of one national government." Governments had a responsibility towards their own people. "So we are, correctly, not allowing the Sudanese government to regard the situation in Darfur as a sovereign matter which is none of the world's business - but, instead, we are putting pressure on that government to meet its responsibility to provide security for its own people."
The security council yesterday began discussion on whether to apply sanctions against the Sudanese government. The likeliest outcome is a fudge that will see the Sudanese government given another 30 days to comply with UN demands. Although the British government officially refuses to rule out western military intervention in Darfur, it prefers to leave the issue of security to a force provided by the 53-member pan-continental African Union.
Mr Straw, speaking at Chatham House, the London-based thinktank on international relations, said there had to be a quicker response to emerging threats. "Despite the warnings from United Nations staff this spring of looming catastrophe in Darfur, and active efforts by the UK to draw international attention to the situation, it took the security council until the end of July to agree a resolution."
Mr Straw supports the creation of a permanent strategic unit for Mr Annan that would try to identify failed states and crises such as Darfur early on. When the idea was floated two years ago, the US, backed by some developing states, opposed it.
The foreign secretary touched on the issue of widening the security council, saying new members should be aware that with representation came responsibility. "That does not necessarily imply accepting specific military commitments. But it does require strong engagement with security issues across the board wherever they arise."
The panel is proposing expanding the council to 24 states but Britain and the other permanent members are refusing to give up their vetoes. Expansion is unlikely to happen, given the difficulty of agreeing who the new members should be and the unwillingness of existing members to give up their privileged position.
Recently, the leader of South Africa spoke out about the need for UN reform. I'm looking forward to following this issue closely, especially in regard to failed states and how the UN could react more swiftly to events, such as those in Darfur, to stop crimes against humanity.
In time to come, I hope to write original commentary on UN reform, and hope to include the UN's World Food Programme and its refugee agency. For what purpose, I have not yet clarified in my mind.
Apart from Sudan and Africa as a whole, these topics have taken my interest ever since I discovered, from Jim Moore's Journal on April 24, 2004, that genocide was unfolding in Darfur while very little was being done to help the people of Darfur, or bring their plight out into the open.
By following the Sudan crisis closely over the past four months, it has piqued my interest in the Human Rights Bill (and its absence of "obligations"), the politics of mineral and oil rich countries, and what Jim has dubbed as "The Genocidal Bloc".
This post is a rough draft that I don't expect will be of use or make much sense to anyone else.
The following is a copy of a Guardian UK report dated September 3, 2004, "Straw urges UN reform and attacks response to Darfur":
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, urged reform of the United Nations security council yesterday after criticising the body for its slow response to the humanitarian disaster in Sudan.
Mr Straw, in a speech calling for a reshaping of the UN to create a stronger body, said: "We need to be able to act earlier, as threats emerge, and our action needs to be sustained."
The UN is embarked on the latest of several attempts at reform over the last decade.
An independent panel is preparing proposals by the end of the year for the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, including expanding the 15-member security council to 24. The Foreign Office and Downing Street are also trying to find a new set of post-Iraq criteria to justify UN intervention in sovereign states.
Mr Straw said that the security council had expanded over the last few years the range of issues regarded as a threat to peace: overthrow of a democratically-elected government, terrorism, large-scale human rights violations, humanitarian catastrophe, refugee crises and states that flout their international obligations on weapons of mass destruction.
"We now need to take that evolution further, with the council beginning to treat such issues more consistently, and as a matter of course, rather than in the relatively ad hoc way in which it has done so to date," he said.
Since the Iraq invasion, the UN has embarked on peacekeeping missions in Liberia, Ivory Coast and Haiti, with a further mission pencilled in for Sudan if agreement is reached to end the north-south civil war.
Mr Straw said: "It can no longer be acceptable to classify situations such as that in Darfur, or before in Rwanda or Kosovo, as simply the concern of one national government." Governments had a responsibility towards their own people. "So we are, correctly, not allowing the Sudanese government to regard the situation in Darfur as a sovereign matter which is none of the world's business - but, instead, we are putting pressure on that government to meet its responsibility to provide security for its own people."
The security council yesterday began discussion on whether to apply sanctions against the Sudanese government. The likeliest outcome is a fudge that will see the Sudanese government given another 30 days to comply with UN demands. Although the British government officially refuses to rule out western military intervention in Darfur, it prefers to leave the issue of security to a force provided by the 53-member pan-continental African Union.
Mr Straw, speaking at Chatham House, the London-based thinktank on international relations, said there had to be a quicker response to emerging threats. "Despite the warnings from United Nations staff this spring of looming catastrophe in Darfur, and active efforts by the UK to draw international attention to the situation, it took the security council until the end of July to agree a resolution."
Mr Straw supports the creation of a permanent strategic unit for Mr Annan that would try to identify failed states and crises such as Darfur early on. When the idea was floated two years ago, the US, backed by some developing states, opposed it.
The foreign secretary touched on the issue of widening the security council, saying new members should be aware that with representation came responsibility. "That does not necessarily imply accepting specific military commitments. But it does require strong engagement with security issues across the board wherever they arise."
The panel is proposing expanding the council to 24 states but Britain and the other permanent members are refusing to give up their vetoes. Expansion is unlikely to happen, given the difficulty of agreeing who the new members should be and the unwillingness of existing members to give up their privileged position.
OXFAM RELEASES "SONGS FOR SUDAN" - Download album for Darfur
Kudos to The Register for linking to Oxfam's "Songs for Sudan" download album for Darfur
It features 18 tracks from the likes of Ash, REM, Badly Drawn Boy, Jet, Faithless and David Gray, and costs £7.99, of which £5 goes directly to Oxfam.
It features 18 tracks from the likes of Ash, REM, Badly Drawn Boy, Jet, Faithless and David Gray, and costs £7.99, of which £5 goes directly to Oxfam.
Thursday, September 02, 2004
Sudan: Government, Darfur rebel groups agree to protocol on humanitarian situation
UN news confirms the Sudanese Government and Darfur’s two rebel groups have reached agreement on a draft protocol to alleviate the dire humanitarian situation.
The draft protocol was prepared by African Union (AU) mediators with the assistance of United Nations (UN) officials and others participating in the talks in Abuja, Nigeria, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters today at UN Headquarters in New York.
The Abuja peace talks between Khartoum and the two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), will now focus on security issues, Mr. Dujarric said. The parties will then discuss political issues and social and economic matters.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) said yesterday it has taken delivery of eight all-terrain trucks to help it distribute aid around Sudan, where many roads have become virtually impassable because of recent heavy rains. The airlift of eight trucks to Sudan was paid for by the United States Agency for International Development.
The draft protocol was prepared by African Union (AU) mediators with the assistance of United Nations (UN) officials and others participating in the talks in Abuja, Nigeria, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters today at UN Headquarters in New York.
The Abuja peace talks between Khartoum and the two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), will now focus on security issues, Mr. Dujarric said. The parties will then discuss political issues and social and economic matters.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) said yesterday it has taken delivery of eight all-terrain trucks to help it distribute aid around Sudan, where many roads have become virtually impassable because of recent heavy rains. The airlift of eight trucks to Sudan was paid for by the United States Agency for International Development.
UN report says Khartoum took no concrete steps to apprehend militia - and demands international force to be sent to Sudan asap
The UN urges more peacekeeping troops for Sudan.
Kofi Annan said Sudan’s government has not stopped attacks on ”terrorised and traumatised” civilians in its Darfur region and urged the speedy deployment of an expanded international peacekeeping force.
Annan did not say how large a force he wanted, but UN diplomats said a UN plan presented to the African Union called for about 3,000 peacekeepers. The 53-nation African organisation now has about 80 military observers in Darfur, protected by just over 300 soldiers, monitoring a rarely observed cease-fire signed in April.
- - -
ANNAN'S REPORT FOR THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL
Meeting today to discuss action against Khartoum
BBC online has a copy of the UN report prepared by Jan Pronk on behalf of Kofi Annan.
It is being discussed at a UN Security Council meeting today on what action to take against Khartoum.
The report accuses Sudan of involvement in militia attacks despite commitments and demands an international force be sent to Sudan as quickly as possible.
Key quote from the report: "Attacks against civilians are continuing and the vast majority of armed militias has not been disarmed. Similarly, no concrete steps have been taken to bring to justice, or even identify, any of the militia leaders or the perpetrators of these attacks."
Kofi Annan said Sudan’s government has not stopped attacks on ”terrorised and traumatised” civilians in its Darfur region and urged the speedy deployment of an expanded international peacekeeping force.
Annan did not say how large a force he wanted, but UN diplomats said a UN plan presented to the African Union called for about 3,000 peacekeepers. The 53-nation African organisation now has about 80 military observers in Darfur, protected by just over 300 soldiers, monitoring a rarely observed cease-fire signed in April.
- - -
ANNAN'S REPORT FOR THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL
Meeting today to discuss action against Khartoum
BBC online has a copy of the UN report prepared by Jan Pronk on behalf of Kofi Annan.
It is being discussed at a UN Security Council meeting today on what action to take against Khartoum.
The report accuses Sudan of involvement in militia attacks despite commitments and demands an international force be sent to Sudan as quickly as possible.
Key quote from the report: "Attacks against civilians are continuing and the vast majority of armed militias has not been disarmed. Similarly, no concrete steps have been taken to bring to justice, or even identify, any of the militia leaders or the perpetrators of these attacks."
Lindsey Hilsum reports from Darfur on the noisy diplomacy
International British journalist, Lindsey Hilsum reports in the New Statesman on the noisy diplomacy in Darfur. Here is an excerpt of the must-read report from Darfur, along with my personal note, below.
" ... The Janjaweed are certainly aware that they need to do a better public relations job. In al-Fasher, I met a dozen sheikhs from Arab tribes associated with the militia. We sat on chairs in a straw-built house with a sand floor, eating oily groundnut paste with bread and sweet vermicelli. On the central table perched an incongruous set of yellow and maroon woollen chickens, like tea cosies. The sheikhs wanted to tell me that all this talk of Janjaweed was lies ..."
" ... They drove me to Masri, six hours away, reputed to have a large Janjaweed camp. They had melted into the desert, leaving no trace. The Janjaweed may be as difficult to find as weapons of mass destruction, not because they were never there, but because they are no longer visible. For the moment, their work is done - we flew over mile after mile of deserted villages. All diplomacy can do now is try to turn the ceasefire into a real peace agreement and find some way of giving displaced people the confidence to return home. They, of course, are not confused by the disappearance of the Janjaweed, knowing that the moment the world stops looking, they'll be back..." [Full Story]
- - -
Lindsey Hilsum, who started her career over 15 year ago as a reporter for the BBC in London, is currently international editor for Channel 4 News (the best channel for in-depth news on UK television). She has become one of Britain's most respected foreign correspondents.
From the outset, and throughout the height of the war in Iraq, Lindsey presented live TV reports from Baghdad - and has reported from some of the most troubled regions in the world. Her reports are always first class. It's great to see her reporting from Darfur. Millions of us in Britain have watched her recent television reports, live from Sudan, on Channel 4 News.
Sometime during the early 1990's, I had the privilege of assisting Lindsey's father on an education initiative of his that raised millions of pounds for physics equipment in schools. He is a great physicist and one of the most clever, and kind, chaps in London. It's no wonder that Lindsey and her work are so unique and first rate. It's easy to see her father in her, the way she articulates and concentrates her mind - and gets straight to the heart of matters - like a laser beam, with great speed - and accuracy.
" ... The Janjaweed are certainly aware that they need to do a better public relations job. In al-Fasher, I met a dozen sheikhs from Arab tribes associated with the militia. We sat on chairs in a straw-built house with a sand floor, eating oily groundnut paste with bread and sweet vermicelli. On the central table perched an incongruous set of yellow and maroon woollen chickens, like tea cosies. The sheikhs wanted to tell me that all this talk of Janjaweed was lies ..."
" ... They drove me to Masri, six hours away, reputed to have a large Janjaweed camp. They had melted into the desert, leaving no trace. The Janjaweed may be as difficult to find as weapons of mass destruction, not because they were never there, but because they are no longer visible. For the moment, their work is done - we flew over mile after mile of deserted villages. All diplomacy can do now is try to turn the ceasefire into a real peace agreement and find some way of giving displaced people the confidence to return home. They, of course, are not confused by the disappearance of the Janjaweed, knowing that the moment the world stops looking, they'll be back..." [Full Story]
- - -
Lindsey Hilsum, who started her career over 15 year ago as a reporter for the BBC in London, is currently international editor for Channel 4 News (the best channel for in-depth news on UK television). She has become one of Britain's most respected foreign correspondents.
From the outset, and throughout the height of the war in Iraq, Lindsey presented live TV reports from Baghdad - and has reported from some of the most troubled regions in the world. Her reports are always first class. It's great to see her reporting from Darfur. Millions of us in Britain have watched her recent television reports, live from Sudan, on Channel 4 News.
Sometime during the early 1990's, I had the privilege of assisting Lindsey's father on an education initiative of his that raised millions of pounds for physics equipment in schools. He is a great physicist and one of the most clever, and kind, chaps in London. It's no wonder that Lindsey and her work are so unique and first rate. It's easy to see her father in her, the way she articulates and concentrates her mind - and gets straight to the heart of matters - like a laser beam, with great speed - and accuracy.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
The UN's quiet diplomacy not working on Sudan - Not one Janjaweed camp has been closed
In her latest report entitled "The UN's quiet diplomacy not working on Sudan", Julie Flint raises the point that the most notorious Arab tribal leader was permitted to hold court in a five-star hotel in Khartoum.
Don't you think it's curious how the media made nothing of a so-called Janjaweed leader lording it in the lobby of a five-star hotel, while being interviewed by the press for all to see, in the knowledge that Pronk's offices were situated upstairs? Why was he was not arrested and put on trial for murder?
Julie Flint, is a journalist and author of the Human Rights Watch report Darfur Destroyed. Here is a copy of her latest report, in full:
"Even in a best-case scenario, the World Health Organisation says, 110 000 people will die in Darfur by year end. Others believe it could be as many as 350 000. Slowly evolving, deniable death by hunger and disease is one of the favourite weapons of the Arab generals who seized power 15 years ago. They used it in the Nuba mountains and oilfields of southern Sudan - now they're using it in Darfur.
When the international community first reacted to the slaughter in Darfur, a predominantly African but wholly Muslim region, Khartoum blocked efforts to save lives with an array of stratagems. It denied access, demanded that UN drugs be tested in Sudanese labs, insisted that storage fees be paid on items the state itself was holding up.
In the last month, despite guaranteeing unimpeded access, it has opened some doors but closed others. The UN Security Council today begins debating whether Khartoum has done what Resolution 1556 of July 30 demanded that it do: immediately impose "a moratorium on all restrictions that might hinder the provision of humanitarian assistance" and, most critically, "disarm the Janjaweed militias and apprehend... Janjaweed leaders and their associates".
But not one Janjaweed camp has been closed
But not one Janjaweed camp has been closed. A handful have even been opened. Not a single Janjaweed leader has been apprehended. Common criminals have been paraded as Janjaweed detainees. The most notorious Janjaweed leader, who wears the uniform of an army colonel, has been permitted to hold court in a five-star hotel in Khartoum.
It is a foregone conclusion that the Security Council, driven by self-interest, will this week give Khartoum more time in which to let the Janjaweed destroy more lives.
Quiet diplomacy does not work. The Security Council must conclude that the government has not fulfiled its obligations under Resolution 1 556 and name and shame the officials responsible. International travel by them and their families should be barred, their assets frozen and an international commission of inquiry established to investigate war crimes. Sanctions should be introduced and the arms embargo that was ordered against the Janjaweed in July redirected to the government, which supplies the Janjaweed.
The Security Council must demand that Khartoum accept an African Union mission robust enough to protect civilians."
Don't you think it's curious how the media made nothing of a so-called Janjaweed leader lording it in the lobby of a five-star hotel, while being interviewed by the press for all to see, in the knowledge that Pronk's offices were situated upstairs? Why was he was not arrested and put on trial for murder?
Julie Flint, is a journalist and author of the Human Rights Watch report Darfur Destroyed. Here is a copy of her latest report, in full:
"Even in a best-case scenario, the World Health Organisation says, 110 000 people will die in Darfur by year end. Others believe it could be as many as 350 000. Slowly evolving, deniable death by hunger and disease is one of the favourite weapons of the Arab generals who seized power 15 years ago. They used it in the Nuba mountains and oilfields of southern Sudan - now they're using it in Darfur.
When the international community first reacted to the slaughter in Darfur, a predominantly African but wholly Muslim region, Khartoum blocked efforts to save lives with an array of stratagems. It denied access, demanded that UN drugs be tested in Sudanese labs, insisted that storage fees be paid on items the state itself was holding up.
In the last month, despite guaranteeing unimpeded access, it has opened some doors but closed others. The UN Security Council today begins debating whether Khartoum has done what Resolution 1556 of July 30 demanded that it do: immediately impose "a moratorium on all restrictions that might hinder the provision of humanitarian assistance" and, most critically, "disarm the Janjaweed militias and apprehend... Janjaweed leaders and their associates".
But not one Janjaweed camp has been closed
But not one Janjaweed camp has been closed. A handful have even been opened. Not a single Janjaweed leader has been apprehended. Common criminals have been paraded as Janjaweed detainees. The most notorious Janjaweed leader, who wears the uniform of an army colonel, has been permitted to hold court in a five-star hotel in Khartoum.
It is a foregone conclusion that the Security Council, driven by self-interest, will this week give Khartoum more time in which to let the Janjaweed destroy more lives.
Quiet diplomacy does not work. The Security Council must conclude that the government has not fulfiled its obligations under Resolution 1 556 and name and shame the officials responsible. International travel by them and their families should be barred, their assets frozen and an international commission of inquiry established to investigate war crimes. Sanctions should be introduced and the arms embargo that was ordered against the Janjaweed in July redirected to the government, which supplies the Janjaweed.
The Security Council must demand that Khartoum accept an African Union mission robust enough to protect civilians."
Irish Prime Minister urged to press for UN intervention in Sudan - Khartoum had done "absolutely nothing" to meet UN demands
Irish aid agency GOAL has called on the Prime Minister of Ireland, Bertie Ahern, to use his influence to press for UN Security Council intervention in Sudan.
GOAL chief executive John O’Shea said today the Sudanese Government had done "absolutely nothing" to meet the UN demands.
- - -
Note: GOAL knows Khartoum from past experience. What difference will another 30 days make? And, in the following years, what will happen when the West's back is turned and Sudan finds it needs areas of land cleared, to make way for new oilpipes and infrastructure?
- - -
CONDITIONS WORSEN in Darfur, UN agencies say
Conditions for 1.2 million Sudanese displaced in Darfur continue to worsen amid violent attacks, spreading disease, and heavy rains which wreak havoc with aid convoys, United Nations agencies said on Tuesday.
- - -
BE REASONABLE, Sudan urges UN
Sudan says it is hoping for a "reasonable" security council decision on sanctions, its foreign minister said yesterday as the deadline for compliance with UN demands expired.
The security council had given Sudan 30 days to show it was serious about disarming Arab militias. "We wish ... the relationship with the security council will not be the way of confrontation," the foreign minister, Mustafa Ismail, said in a television interview.
Hilary Benn, Britain's international development secretary, told Radio 4's Today programme: "The situation has changed substantially, and that is a result of huge international pressure."
Continued pressure was vital, he added.
GOAL chief executive John O’Shea said today the Sudanese Government had done "absolutely nothing" to meet the UN demands.
- - -
Note: GOAL knows Khartoum from past experience. What difference will another 30 days make? And, in the following years, what will happen when the West's back is turned and Sudan finds it needs areas of land cleared, to make way for new oilpipes and infrastructure?
- - -
CONDITIONS WORSEN in Darfur, UN agencies say
Conditions for 1.2 million Sudanese displaced in Darfur continue to worsen amid violent attacks, spreading disease, and heavy rains which wreak havoc with aid convoys, United Nations agencies said on Tuesday.
- - -
BE REASONABLE, Sudan urges UN
Sudan says it is hoping for a "reasonable" security council decision on sanctions, its foreign minister said yesterday as the deadline for compliance with UN demands expired.
The security council had given Sudan 30 days to show it was serious about disarming Arab militias. "We wish ... the relationship with the security council will not be the way of confrontation," the foreign minister, Mustafa Ismail, said in a television interview.
Hilary Benn, Britain's international development secretary, told Radio 4's Today programme: "The situation has changed substantially, and that is a result of huge international pressure."
Continued pressure was vital, he added.
Sunday, August 29, 2004
UK political blog: The Tangled Web disses UK effort and Straw's visit to Khartoum
This morning I came across a good blog out of the UK:
"A Tangled Web - A dissenting review of contemporary politics".
It made an interesting read and so I scrolled - and did a search - for any posts on the Sudan.
Found one post dated Monday, August 23, 2004, entitled "Straw in the Sudan". Below here is a copy - along with my response that I left in the comments, hoping that DV would write a good post to raise awareness of what is really happening in Sudan - and participate in the "virtual" International Sudanese Peace MeetUp Day on Sep 6 (see previous post below).
Here is DV's post:
I'm sorry but this "story" run by the BBC about Jack Straw visiting Sudan a la Princess Diana to fell their pain and worry about" humanitarian issues" is just tosh. Straw and the rest of the one-worlders in the UN are proving, once more, how utterly impotent they are in dealing with genocide. The people are being massacred by the Arab militias and the best the UK can do is send in the half-wit Straw-man - pathetic.
# posted by DV @ 8:15:47 AM
And, here is my response, bashed out in a hurry -- wish I could have had more time to provide a stronger argument -- but I was in a hurry and had to write it off the top of my head - live - in a titchy little comment box that was difficult to edit:
Hello DV, good to see you writing about the Sudan crisis. In defence of the UK, I have to say that the British government has done more than most countries in the world. It has been the largest cash donor of aid - and is the second largest contributor -for Darfur. The British public raised many of millions of pounds for aid to Darfur via DEC (representing 11 major UK charities). UK Oxfam has sent several plane loads of aid to Darfur and is doing a huge amount of work there.
The British government has rightly supported the African Union and provided a great deal of support. Recently it provided logistical support and funded the airlifting of 150 AU led Nigerian troops into Darfur and is financing all of their rations. It is working in close liaison with the UN and Kofi Annan and providing further support and logistics to the AU. Before leaving for Sudan, Jack Straw pledged to help finance 1500 - 3000 AU led peacekeepers in Darfur.
The situation is highly complex in Sudan -- many countries are helping -- but many are not. We ought to be proud of what the UK has been doing and continues to do to help. Jack Straw's visit was part of a process to pile pressure on Khartoum. His visit was announced in July. He won a pledge from Khartoum to allow British offices of human rights organisations into Darfur - and a commitment from Khartoum to use the Navaisha peace accords as a template for the peace talks on Darfur. He met with GoS President and FM and UNs Jan Pronk and spent time with Khartoum to help focus on the Action Plan for Darfur. He gave a strong message to the government of Sudan: sort it out, or face the music.
There is a huge amount happening behind the scenes that is not widely reported. The Guardian, Telegraph and Scotsman have been doing good jobs on almost daily reporting of Darfur. Seems that troops from all over the world are being garnered over the past two months and put on standby. At one point we had British troops on standby. A few weeks ago a 30-man military team returned from a 10-day recce. British military planners are working on logistics and looking at plans involving hundreds or thousands of peacekeepers in Darfur.
Khartoum has consistently refused any peacekeepers on its land. If they are forced onto Sudan, Khartoum could dismiss all the aid workers and then aid will never reach those who are most in need. Sanctions could stop the railways from being built to get aid flowing.
The present AU led troops are there to protect the 80-120 observers on the ground monitoring the April ceasefire agreement of north-south Sudan. I have blogged about the crisis almost daily since April 24. For more information please read http://passionofthepresent.org blog out of Harvard. I would appreciate an updated post in your great blog on what is really going on in the Sudan. Thank you.
"A Tangled Web - A dissenting review of contemporary politics".
It made an interesting read and so I scrolled - and did a search - for any posts on the Sudan.
Found one post dated Monday, August 23, 2004, entitled "Straw in the Sudan". Below here is a copy - along with my response that I left in the comments, hoping that DV would write a good post to raise awareness of what is really happening in Sudan - and participate in the "virtual" International Sudanese Peace MeetUp Day on Sep 6 (see previous post below).
Here is DV's post:
I'm sorry but this "story" run by the BBC about Jack Straw visiting Sudan a la Princess Diana to fell their pain and worry about" humanitarian issues" is just tosh. Straw and the rest of the one-worlders in the UN are proving, once more, how utterly impotent they are in dealing with genocide. The people are being massacred by the Arab militias and the best the UK can do is send in the half-wit Straw-man - pathetic.
# posted by DV @ 8:15:47 AM
And, here is my response, bashed out in a hurry -- wish I could have had more time to provide a stronger argument -- but I was in a hurry and had to write it off the top of my head - live - in a titchy little comment box that was difficult to edit:
Hello DV, good to see you writing about the Sudan crisis. In defence of the UK, I have to say that the British government has done more than most countries in the world. It has been the largest cash donor of aid - and is the second largest contributor -for Darfur. The British public raised many of millions of pounds for aid to Darfur via DEC (representing 11 major UK charities). UK Oxfam has sent several plane loads of aid to Darfur and is doing a huge amount of work there.
The British government has rightly supported the African Union and provided a great deal of support. Recently it provided logistical support and funded the airlifting of 150 AU led Nigerian troops into Darfur and is financing all of their rations. It is working in close liaison with the UN and Kofi Annan and providing further support and logistics to the AU. Before leaving for Sudan, Jack Straw pledged to help finance 1500 - 3000 AU led peacekeepers in Darfur.
The situation is highly complex in Sudan -- many countries are helping -- but many are not. We ought to be proud of what the UK has been doing and continues to do to help. Jack Straw's visit was part of a process to pile pressure on Khartoum. His visit was announced in July. He won a pledge from Khartoum to allow British offices of human rights organisations into Darfur - and a commitment from Khartoum to use the Navaisha peace accords as a template for the peace talks on Darfur. He met with GoS President and FM and UNs Jan Pronk and spent time with Khartoum to help focus on the Action Plan for Darfur. He gave a strong message to the government of Sudan: sort it out, or face the music.
There is a huge amount happening behind the scenes that is not widely reported. The Guardian, Telegraph and Scotsman have been doing good jobs on almost daily reporting of Darfur. Seems that troops from all over the world are being garnered over the past two months and put on standby. At one point we had British troops on standby. A few weeks ago a 30-man military team returned from a 10-day recce. British military planners are working on logistics and looking at plans involving hundreds or thousands of peacekeepers in Darfur.
Khartoum has consistently refused any peacekeepers on its land. If they are forced onto Sudan, Khartoum could dismiss all the aid workers and then aid will never reach those who are most in need. Sanctions could stop the railways from being built to get aid flowing.
The present AU led troops are there to protect the 80-120 observers on the ground monitoring the April ceasefire agreement of north-south Sudan. I have blogged about the crisis almost daily since April 24. For more information please read http://passionofthepresent.org blog out of Harvard. I would appreciate an updated post in your great blog on what is really going on in the Sudan. Thank you.
AU's logistics nightmare in Darfur
The below copied report by Simon Apiku explains the AU's logistics nightmare in Darfur.
Note, in the middle of the report, quote: "Many institutions, including the European Commission, have pledged funds to support the operations of the mission but only a fraction of that help has actually arrived. "The timelines are not being met," Amadoh complains."
Can we bloggers not help to put pressure on countries to cough up the monies they have pledged to help Darfur? Why does the UN not name and shame them? How can we find out who they are, and each of us - in the countries who are dragging their feet on not paying aid contributions pledged - press our political reps for action?
Why isn't China and Russia that sits on the UN Security Council made to help more? Can't see any reports of what Russia is doing to help. Why has there not been an arms embargo? If Sudan does have 30 billion to spend on purchasing military hardware from Russia - how come Sudan with its billions in oil revenues can't be made to repay the aid that the West has contributed, so the money could be put back into EU and US pots to help other countries in need like the Congo and Uganda. Here is the report:
El Fasher, Sudan - Monitoring military activity in a vast desert region the size of France would pose enormous problems for the best equipped team. But for the African Union ceasefire commission in Darfur, it is a logistics nightmare.
The commission's chief military observer, Colonel Anthony Amadoh, says he has grown used to the region's blazing heat, but he has to patrol the arid wastes of western Sudan with just three helicopters, 35 vehicles and 133 military observers in the full glare of the international spotlight.
On top of that, the region has next to no metalled roads, few landlines and no mobile telephones at all outside the three main towns.
The logistics are "very poor," says Amadoh, stealing a glance at the handful of vehicles parked outside his office tucked away on the western outskirts of the North Darfur state capital of El Fasher.
"We conduct our patrols by land or air," he explains. "We do not have enough vehicles and we used to have only two choppers."
The commission has divided its area of operation into six sectors covering the three states of Darfur and the Abeche region of neighbouring Chad, where 200 000 of the more than 1,2 million people displaced by the conflict have taken refuge.
Each sector has two teams of between seven and 10 members, and they must all share the 35 vehicles and three helicopters.
Many institutions, including the European Commission, have pledged funds to support the operations of the mission but only a fraction of that help has actually arrived.
"The timelines are not being met," Amadoh complains.
Good roads are almost non-existent, increasing the chances of vehicle breakdown, which in turns puts additional pressure on the remaining fleet.
The observers must also bring in fuel from El Obeid in North Kordofan state far to the east. The supplies often "take up to four days to arrive" in special military escorted convoys, says Amadoh.
Communications too continue to be a major problem. There are only a handful of land lines in the main towns and the mobile phone services that exist in the big towns of El Fasher, Nyala and Gineina are irregular at best.
Amadoh consults a dossier on the table next to him and pulls out a manuscript document.
"We used to get all our reports in this form," he says, pointing to the barely decipherable handwriting. "Now we have been able to buy some laptops."
But that does not eliminate all the problems in the absence of any Internet services.
The confidential nature of the reports means it may not be entirely safe to ship them to headquarters by land so air transport is often a necessity.
"They have to wait until a chopper goes there," says Amadoh. And there are only three helicopters to ferry the observers on missions at short notice as well as doubling up as couriers.
Amadoh also has difficulties deploying the more than 150 Rwandan troops dispatched to the region to provide protection for the observer teams, as there are simply not enough vehicles to go around.
With such constraints, it is all too easy for the observers to miss alleged attacks like that on the village of Yassin which prompted the walkout of the Darfur rebels from peace talks with the government in the Nigerian capital on Saturday.
The village, where the rebels say 64 civilians were killed by government forces on Wednesday, is close to the South Darfur state capital of Nyala, but even there it is difficult for the observer mission to be constantly on the ground.
All it can do is follow up the allegations afterwards to test Khartoum's denials.
Note, in the middle of the report, quote: "Many institutions, including the European Commission, have pledged funds to support the operations of the mission but only a fraction of that help has actually arrived. "The timelines are not being met," Amadoh complains."
Can we bloggers not help to put pressure on countries to cough up the monies they have pledged to help Darfur? Why does the UN not name and shame them? How can we find out who they are, and each of us - in the countries who are dragging their feet on not paying aid contributions pledged - press our political reps for action?
Why isn't China and Russia that sits on the UN Security Council made to help more? Can't see any reports of what Russia is doing to help. Why has there not been an arms embargo? If Sudan does have 30 billion to spend on purchasing military hardware from Russia - how come Sudan with its billions in oil revenues can't be made to repay the aid that the West has contributed, so the money could be put back into EU and US pots to help other countries in need like the Congo and Uganda. Here is the report:
El Fasher, Sudan - Monitoring military activity in a vast desert region the size of France would pose enormous problems for the best equipped team. But for the African Union ceasefire commission in Darfur, it is a logistics nightmare.
The commission's chief military observer, Colonel Anthony Amadoh, says he has grown used to the region's blazing heat, but he has to patrol the arid wastes of western Sudan with just three helicopters, 35 vehicles and 133 military observers in the full glare of the international spotlight.
On top of that, the region has next to no metalled roads, few landlines and no mobile telephones at all outside the three main towns.
The logistics are "very poor," says Amadoh, stealing a glance at the handful of vehicles parked outside his office tucked away on the western outskirts of the North Darfur state capital of El Fasher.
"We conduct our patrols by land or air," he explains. "We do not have enough vehicles and we used to have only two choppers."
The commission has divided its area of operation into six sectors covering the three states of Darfur and the Abeche region of neighbouring Chad, where 200 000 of the more than 1,2 million people displaced by the conflict have taken refuge.
Each sector has two teams of between seven and 10 members, and they must all share the 35 vehicles and three helicopters.
Many institutions, including the European Commission, have pledged funds to support the operations of the mission but only a fraction of that help has actually arrived.
"The timelines are not being met," Amadoh complains.
Good roads are almost non-existent, increasing the chances of vehicle breakdown, which in turns puts additional pressure on the remaining fleet.
The observers must also bring in fuel from El Obeid in North Kordofan state far to the east. The supplies often "take up to four days to arrive" in special military escorted convoys, says Amadoh.
Communications too continue to be a major problem. There are only a handful of land lines in the main towns and the mobile phone services that exist in the big towns of El Fasher, Nyala and Gineina are irregular at best.
Amadoh consults a dossier on the table next to him and pulls out a manuscript document.
"We used to get all our reports in this form," he says, pointing to the barely decipherable handwriting. "Now we have been able to buy some laptops."
But that does not eliminate all the problems in the absence of any Internet services.
The confidential nature of the reports means it may not be entirely safe to ship them to headquarters by land so air transport is often a necessity.
"They have to wait until a chopper goes there," says Amadoh. And there are only three helicopters to ferry the observers on missions at short notice as well as doubling up as couriers.
Amadoh also has difficulties deploying the more than 150 Rwandan troops dispatched to the region to provide protection for the observer teams, as there are simply not enough vehicles to go around.
With such constraints, it is all too easy for the observers to miss alleged attacks like that on the village of Yassin which prompted the walkout of the Darfur rebels from peace talks with the government in the Nigerian capital on Saturday.
The village, where the rebels say 64 civilians were killed by government forces on Wednesday, is close to the South Darfur state capital of Nyala, but even there it is difficult for the observer mission to be constantly on the ground.
All it can do is follow up the allegations afterwards to test Khartoum's denials.
EAC to send peacekeeping troops to Darfur
Copy of report from Sudan Tribune - NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 28, 2004 (PANA):
The East African Community (EAC) Heads of States Summit resolved here Saturday to deploy troops to the troubled western Sudan region of Darfur to monitor a peace agreement between the government and rebel forces and not for interventionist purposes.
Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa said the three countries were awaiting the outcome of the Africa Union-led Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria under the chairmanship of the Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to proceed with their plan.
"If there is any peace to be monitored, we shall be ready. There must be a process whose implementation we will follow. We are waiting for the outcome of the Abuja peace talks," Mkapa told journalists here Saturday.
The EAC, grouping Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, is holding a three- day Heads of States Summit here to speed up the implementation of the EAC Common External Tariffs (CET).
Member states signed the protocol but hitches have delayed ratification by member states before it becomes operational.
President Mkapa, who was answering questions from journalists on whether his country was ready to send troops to the troubled Darfur region, where some 30,000 people have died and 1.2 million internally displaced after nearly 19 months of fighting, also stressed that the Sudanese government must accept to welcome the foreign troops.
The AU is poised to deployed 300 troops to Darfur drawn from Nigeria and Rwanda to protect some 80 Observers whose assignment is to oversee the non-violation of a peace deal reached in Chad.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his Ugandan compatriot Yoweri Museveni also endorsed Mkapa's sentiments, saying they will only play by the rules.
Museveni, who has been facing 18 years of rebel insurgency in the north of Uganda, publicly admitted supporting the rebel Sudanese Peoples' Liberation Army (SPLA).
"As much as we sympathise with the black people in southern Sudan, we know that the Khartoum government made a mistake by supporting the (Ugandan rebel) Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)," Museveni said, adding, "It was a regrettable mistake they made."
http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=5065
The East African Community (EAC) Heads of States Summit resolved here Saturday to deploy troops to the troubled western Sudan region of Darfur to monitor a peace agreement between the government and rebel forces and not for interventionist purposes.
Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa said the three countries were awaiting the outcome of the Africa Union-led Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria under the chairmanship of the Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to proceed with their plan.
"If there is any peace to be monitored, we shall be ready. There must be a process whose implementation we will follow. We are waiting for the outcome of the Abuja peace talks," Mkapa told journalists here Saturday.
The EAC, grouping Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, is holding a three- day Heads of States Summit here to speed up the implementation of the EAC Common External Tariffs (CET).
Member states signed the protocol but hitches have delayed ratification by member states before it becomes operational.
President Mkapa, who was answering questions from journalists on whether his country was ready to send troops to the troubled Darfur region, where some 30,000 people have died and 1.2 million internally displaced after nearly 19 months of fighting, also stressed that the Sudanese government must accept to welcome the foreign troops.
The AU is poised to deployed 300 troops to Darfur drawn from Nigeria and Rwanda to protect some 80 Observers whose assignment is to oversee the non-violation of a peace deal reached in Chad.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his Ugandan compatriot Yoweri Museveni also endorsed Mkapa's sentiments, saying they will only play by the rules.
Museveni, who has been facing 18 years of rebel insurgency in the north of Uganda, publicly admitted supporting the rebel Sudanese Peoples' Liberation Army (SPLA).
"As much as we sympathise with the black people in southern Sudan, we know that the Khartoum government made a mistake by supporting the (Ugandan rebel) Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)," Museveni said, adding, "It was a regrettable mistake they made."
http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=5065
U.N. Sudan mission under preparation in Vienna
Copy in full of report from Sudan Tribune:
VIENNA, Aug 26, 2004 (dpa) -- A sensitive U.N. mission to Sudan is presently being prepared by Austria and 13 other countries, the newspaper Die Presse said on Thursday.
The mission would be of the "Multinational Standby High Readiness Brigade for United Nations Operations" (Shirbrig), set up in 1996 to provide the U.N. with a rapid intervention force for peacekeeping missions.
Under Austria's 2004 presidency of the brigade, preparations were already far advanced, said the report. Chief of operations, Austrian Army Colonel Ewald Hausdorf, said that building could begin any time of a headquarters for a U.N. mission in Sudan.
However, the report pointed out that a U.N. mandate was still lacking for operations in Sudan. It was not yet clear whether the planned "Unmisud" (United Nations Mission Sudan) would only monitor the ceasefire between the Khartoum government and Christian rebels, or also the conflict in Darfur in West Sudan.
The U.N. wanted to monitor both, but the Sudanese government was against this.
Shirbrig was founded eight years ago by Austria, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden. Since then, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Spain have also become full members.
Under coordination by the presidency, each country takes on set duties. For instance in Sudan, Austria would be responsible for setting up the headquarters in Khartoum. Austrian soldiers would have transport, guard and security duties.
VIENNA, Aug 26, 2004 (dpa) -- A sensitive U.N. mission to Sudan is presently being prepared by Austria and 13 other countries, the newspaper Die Presse said on Thursday.
The mission would be of the "Multinational Standby High Readiness Brigade for United Nations Operations" (Shirbrig), set up in 1996 to provide the U.N. with a rapid intervention force for peacekeeping missions.
Under Austria's 2004 presidency of the brigade, preparations were already far advanced, said the report. Chief of operations, Austrian Army Colonel Ewald Hausdorf, said that building could begin any time of a headquarters for a U.N. mission in Sudan.
However, the report pointed out that a U.N. mandate was still lacking for operations in Sudan. It was not yet clear whether the planned "Unmisud" (United Nations Mission Sudan) would only monitor the ceasefire between the Khartoum government and Christian rebels, or also the conflict in Darfur in West Sudan.
The U.N. wanted to monitor both, but the Sudanese government was against this.
Shirbrig was founded eight years ago by Austria, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden. Since then, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Spain have also become full members.
Under coordination by the presidency, each country takes on set duties. For instance in Sudan, Austria would be responsible for setting up the headquarters in Khartoum. Austrian soldiers would have transport, guard and security duties.
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