Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Darfur Sudan genocide has killed more than the tsunami

Jan Coebergh, a doctor with an interest in epidemiology who worked in Darfur before the present crisis writes:
News reports have consistently reported 70,000 dead in Darfur. This figure is certainly wrong. Infact, at least three and perhaps four times as many people have died. By this time next year the death toll may equal that of Rwanda in 1984.
Full Story Sudan Tribune Jan 31, 2005 [via A Tangled Web, with thanks]
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UN: reports of unrest continue to flow in from Darfur

7 Feb UN confirms reports of unrest continue to flow in from various parts of Sudan's western Darfur region, including abductions, the burning of villages, the disruption of relief operations and shooting, the UN mission in the country said.

African Union (AU) monitors and humanitarian agencies last week found seven villages that have been totally burnt recently and three others abandoned in South Darfur state, but there was no information on who was responsible, the UN Advance Mission in Sudan (UNAMIS) reported.

In North Darfur, an AU team found over the weekend that six people were abducted allegedly by three armed men who took their cattle before releasing them. In West Darfur suspected armed tribesmen disrupted a food distribution operation by a non-governmental organization (NGO), while other armed tribesmen looted 50 bags of cereal and five bags of sugar.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO), meanwhile, is helping the Ministry of Health to raise supplementary funds to constitute a vaccine stock in the event of widespread meningitis outbreak.

According to the Ministry, between 22 January and 2 February, 69 cases, 23 deaths of them fatal, were reported from Gadaref and Blue Nile states. Since then, more cases and related deaths have been reported form South Kordofan and El Gazeria states.
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Situation in Darfur dramatically worsened, says African Union

7 Feb Deutsche Presse article says the African Union envoy to Sudan confirmed in a statement late Sunday that the security situation in Darfur "had progressively deteriorated to appalling levels over the last four months, with with unacceptable consequences to the peace and tranquility of the civilian populations." Also, that the worst perpetrators in the worsening situation in Darfur were "mostly the Janjaweed/Armed Militias who appeared to enjoy immunity from their inhuman and brazen acts of destruction of life and property wherever they struck".

An AU mission is currently in South Darfur, investigating an air raid by government planes reported to have killed about 100 people on January 26. Thirty people were killed on January 13 and 24 more on January 21 in previous air raids, according to AU reports.
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Darfur rebel commanders split from group

4 Feb ReliefWeb confirms that about 10 Darfur rebel commanders have renounced leadership of the main movement in Sudan's west, rebel officials said on Friday, raising fears that negotiations for Darfur could stutter.

Also last week, UN envoy Jan Pronk stressed to Council members that the peace process in southern Sudan will falter unless there is no incentive for any Sudanese groups to solve their problems through force. These groups "could be people in other parts of Sudan who feel oppressed, marginalized or neglected," he said.

Mr. Pronk said it was therefore vital to move quickly to disarm and demobilise former combatants, reform the security sector, return and reintegrate refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), establish solid economic and political governance, promote the rule of law, remove landmines, rebuild damaged infrastructure and reduce poverty.

The envoy acknowledged that "this is an enormous challenge," and also emphasised that the UN mission is designed to have "a relatively light footprint" - helping the Sudanese fulfil functions rather than imposing or carrying them out itself.
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Darfur rebel group NMRD halts talks with government

8 Feb Swiss news report says a breakaway Darfur rebel group has suspended negotiations with the Sudanese government after Arab militias attacked villages in its areas, the leaders of the movement said. The group, the National Movement for Reform and Development, (NMRD), split from the two main Darfur rebel movements last year but signed separate ceasefire agreements and humanitarian and security protocols with Khartoum on December 17. The two sides were supposed to meet on January 17 to discuss implementing those deals.

"We never went and now we are suspending negotiations," said political secretary Khalil Abdallah.
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Sudan's Beja opposition demands more power

6 Feb Reuters report says an opposition group from Sudan's increasingly unstable east called today for more power and resources for the impoverished region, echoing demands made by other anti-Khartoum forces in Africa's largest country. Here is an excerpt from the report:

Last month, Sudanese police killed at least 20 ethnic Beja when they opened fire in Port Sudan on protesters preparing for a march to demand that the Khartoum government start negotiations on sharing power and the country's resources.

Ali El-Safi, an official of the opposition Beja Congress, added in an interview that the movement rejected a recent pact on Sudan's future reached with Khartoum by an alliance of opposition groups of which it is a member, arguing it does not tackle the east's problems.

''We need our share of power and wealth. We need a federal state. That is, we need to solve our problems by ourselves,'' Safi told Reuters at a meeting in neighbouring Eritrea of Sudan's opposition umbrella National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

''Then there are grievances of development. We are a backwater in the East, so we need to allocate resources to address these problems,'' he added.

Originally a nomadic people, many moved to the port to work as labourers after famine killed their cattle and mechanised farming took over their lands in the 1980s.

The Beja Congress, which has a military wing that has carried out minor military operations in the east, and other Sudanese opposition groups accuse the government of neglecting the remote regions of the country in favour of the centre.

They see an accord signed in January between the government and the southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) as a model for their own regions. The agreement gives the southerners a share of their region's oil revenues.

The NDA was a serious challenge to Khartoum in the 1990s, when it launched a military campaign into the east from Eritrea. The alliance says it still has thousands of fighters under arms.

Apart from the SPLM, the other main group in the NDA is the Democratic Unionist Party, one of the big traditional parties in the Arab north. Other members include the Sudanese Communist Party, the Baath Party, the Beja Congress, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) from Darfur in the west and an alliance of southern parties independent of the SPLM.

The government and NDA reached a tentative agreement in Cairo on January 16 on Sudan's political future that builds on a peace accord already signed with the SPLM.

The power-sharing deal struck by Khartoum and the SPLM allocates a proportion of seats in a new national government to other parties, and the Cairo accordpaves the way for talks on how to divide up those seats and how to integrate opposition armed forces into the national army.

But Safi said the Beja Congress rejected the pact.

''Our stance is clear. We refused the Cairo agreement because it doesn't address the Eastern problem,'' he said. ''The substance is not convincing, a very superficial tackling of the problem.'' NDA negotiators are due to fly to Cairo on Friday for further talks with the Khartoum government to build on the Cairo pact. Safi said the Beja Congress should be the sole negotiator for the NDA when the east is discussed at the Cairo talks.
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Sudanese vice president, leader of former rebels to attend UN meeting today

8 Feb Reuters report says Kofi Annan said Sudan refused to arrest those responsible for atrocities in Darfur, and rebels intensified attacks against police forces. Also, Annan said he was investigating how a planned UN peacekeeping mission in the South could help the African Union, which is monitoring the Darfur crisis. But he stopped short of recommending the peacekeepers go to Darfur, which would require Khartoum's permission.

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Photo: Kofi Annan and Jan Pronk

Today, Mr Annan, along with AU representative Baba Gana Kingibe, Sudanese First Vice President Osman Taha and John Garang, leader of former rebels in southern Sudan, will participate in an open meeting of the UN Security Council. During the session which will last for two days, the council will discuss the arrangements to implement the North-South peace agreement which the Sudanese government signed with the SPLM on Jan. 9 as well as the establishment of a UN peacekeeping mission to this effect, and the conflict in Darfur, West Sudan.
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Annan discussed Darfur with Bashir and Ismail on Feb 2

6 Feb RFE/RL report reveals Kofi Annan told a press conference on 2 February that on a recent trip to Nigeria he was able to meet with Sudanese leaders to warn them that they must end the bloodshed.

"And I was also able to sit down with President of Sudan and his foreign minister, with my representative, for us to tell them exactly what we think should be done and the fact that the situation in Darfur was not getting any better and it was essential that they took every step to bring the situation under control," Annan said.

The chairman of the UN Security Council, said on 2 February after a closed council meeting that the council members are determined to make sure the Darfur crimes are punished.

But the Security Council has yet to take concrete action. One reason is that China and the United States oppose referring the case to the ICC, for very different reasons.

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Photo: Sudanese First Vice President Osman Taha (AFP/File/Gerard Cerles)

Sudan will not allow any citizen to be tried abroad in connection with suspected crimes against humanity in Darfur, Taha was quoted by the press as saying.

A sealed envelope containing 51 names of senior officials, security force members and other citizens accused of serious war crimes has been sent to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The identities of about 40 more individuals accused of similar abuses, but with less evidence gathered against them, have been sent to the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights for possible further investigations.

None of the names have been made public to ensure due process is carried out and to protect witnesses. Washington lobbied Security Council members for a new tribunal to prosecute alleged crimes from Darfur which would operate with the African Union.
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Justice for Darfur needs more than 'consensus'

7 Feb report at Independent UK suggests Britain supports an ICC referral as long as America does not disagree.

Note, well that's what real friends are for. No?
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Sudan number two sets out Darfur peace proposals

5 Feb Middle East news report says Taha called upon "the holders of weapons" to abide by a much broken 10-month-old truce and return to the negotiating table in search of a comprehensive settlement, state television reported from the North Darfur state capital of El Fasher.

"The gun will not bring about a solution to the problem -- development and services will not be reached via subversion," Taha said, urging the rebels to "put down the gun so that all of us will carry the spade for building Darfur."

"We reiterate our commitment to a decentralized rule in Darfur and the people of Darfur will rule their region at their own will."

Taha warned the rebels not to rely on foreign intervention to secure satisfaction of their demands. "Seeking foreign protection and resorting to international powers will not contribute to confidence building and will only lead to renewed fighting among the sons of the homeland." [Note: this is what he means - see Feb 8 report titled "Darfur rebels want UN to supervise talks with Sudan government"]

The vice president, who was recently appointed the government's pointman in the Darfur conflict, said the search for a solution was proceeding on three tracks.

One subcommittee would investigate complaints of criminal acts against the security forces and their allied militias, another would look into compensation for the victims, while a third would address the root causes of conflict between the minorities and the region's Arab tribes.

Taha said the subcommittees would tour the entire region to listen to grievances and vowed: "There will be no courtesy or leniency with anyone who has done injustice."

UN envoy Jan Pronk said Friday that he feared last month's peace deal ending two decades of conflict in southern Sudan would prove short-lived without an end to the bloodshed in Darfur.

"I am convinced that without a solution in Darfur, the north-south will not remain a sustainable peace agreement," he told reporters after briefing the Security Council in New York.

The European Union has called for an immediate end to the "impunity" of government forces and militias in Darfur, which are held responsible for widespread rape and murder in the suppression of the nearly two year old rebellion.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Friday that the Security Council would decide how to bring to justice suspected war criminals in Darfur but Khartoum has said it is totally opposed to any overseas trials of its nationals.
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Kofi Annan's 6-month review of Darfur confirms dramatic increase in lawlessness

A 6-month review of the Darfur crisis was issued by Kofi Annan in a report to the UN Security Council last night. It said Sudan's government implemented some promised measures but ignored others and instituted a "road-clearance" project that wiped out villages in an attempt to retaliate against armed rebels.

"The last six months have seen a substantial increase in lawlessness, in particular banditry and abduction, which have dramatically increased since October," said the report.

"Fighting on the ground continues, and those responsible for atrocious crimes on a passive scale go unpunished. Militias continue to attack, claiming they are not part of any agreement. The government has not stopped them."

On hand for today's UN Security Council meeting will be Charles Snyder, the State Department's lead negotiator on Sudan, and Pierre-Richard Prosper, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes. Prosper is lobbying council members to have the Sudanese accused of atrocities tried in a court in Tanzania, rather than the European-preferred International Criminal Court, which the Bush administration opposes.

The US intends to pick up "a significant share of the costs," a senior U.S. officials said. But Prosper's presence could prove embarrassing for Taha, whose government has said no Sudanese would go on trial outside the country. In anticipation of the meeting, the US distributed "elements" of a resolution to the 15 council members. It would create a committee to decide which Sudanese officials, militia and rebels members should be put under a travel ban and have their assets frozen abroad.

In addition, the draft resolution seeks an arms embargo on Darfur and again threatens an oil embargo but does not call for it to be instituted. The draft, when completed, will not designate where perpetrators of atrocities would be tried until that issue is settled among council members.

Russia and China have argued against sanctions in the past. But all 15 council members, except for the United States and China, have signed or ratified the treaty creating the Hague-based International Criminal Court, a permanent court set up to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and massive human-rights abuses.

Further reading:

8 Feb report in the Guardian UK says Sudan has failed two major UN demands aimed at ending violence in its Darfur region - disarm militias and arrest groups attacking villagers, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday Excerpt:

Annan's grim report details commitments the government has failed to keep, a lack of cooperation by rebels in peace talks, and increasing threats to humanitarian workers. Annan has asked the council to approve a 10,130-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission to enforce the north-south peace deal, but he stressed again yesterday that efforts to monitor and verify the Jan. 9 agreement must include the separate Darfur crisis.

Annan's report said the government has made "little progress" in meeting its UN obligation to adopt measures to end impunity, investigate reports of human rights violations, and ensure that the accused are brought to justice without delay.

Since September, it said, there also has been no evidence of disarmament as the government promised. "Disarmament and arrest of the perpetrators of these brutal acts is the single most important demand of the council and the clearest case of failure by the government to live up to its responsibilities," the report said.
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Sudan vows to frustrate sanction attempts

7 Feb Xinhua China View reports that Sudanese Secretary General of the ruling National Congress (NC) Party Ibrahim Ahmed Omar stressed on Monday that the government would do its best to frustrate attempts to impose sanctions on Sudan.

Omar told reporters that Sudanese First Vice President Ali Osman Taha would present the government's stance on how to solve the Darfur problem to the UN Security Council on Tuesday Feb 8.

Omar pointed out that the Sudanese government had decided to assume the stance at the five-way summit held in Tripoli last October, which was attended by leaders of Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, Chad and Sudan.

"The UN secretary general's call to impose sanctions on Sudan is baseless and unjustified because he is not a president of an international government nor an executive authority," said Omar. "Annan might have been confused about the issue," he said, expressing hope that the UN Security Council would listen to real facts on the issue and regard the efforts exerted to end the crisis in the region.
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Garang said he is willing to help seek a solution to Darfur

5 Feb - Former southern rebel leader John Garang, soon to be installed as Sudan's vice president following the north-south peace accord in January, has said he is willing to help seek a solution to the war in Darfur. "I will listen to the government and the resistance and I will be happy to play that role," he said after meeting the head of the AU, Alpha Oumar Konare, over the weekend.
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Sudan accuses some "foreign circles" of stirring up Darfur conflict

7 Feb China View reports that Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir accused on Monday some "foreign circles" of stirring up conflict in the western region of Darfur.

In an interview with an Iranian TV channel, Bashir affirmed that "some hidden hands are working for stirring up the conflict in Darfur."

"These foreign circles wanted to internationalize the Darfur issue to divert attention of the international community from what is taking place in Palestine and Iraq," he said.

He announced that his government will soon reach an agreement with the opposition Democratic National Alliance in Cairo, Egypt, to realize a national compromise among Sudanese people.

The Sudanese president reiterated his government's determination to implement a peace agreement it signed with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Jan. 9.

"We will achieve our objectives," he said, referring to an improvement in the wake of the long-standing war in southern Sudan.

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Photo: Omar el-Bashir
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Homecoming delayed for Sudanese refugees in Uganda

8 Feb report by IRIN confirms the SPLM/A has opened offices in Juba barely a month after signing a peace accord with Khartoum to end 21 years of conflict. The southern Sudanese flag flew high as jubilant crowds held banners that read: 'Welcome, Welcome new Sudan', 'Bye-Bye Old Sudan' and 'Our long awaited child "peace" is born, handle him with care'. Full Story. Note, While the town of Rumbek will initially be the main political headquarters in the south, John Garang, the leader of SPLM/A, has previously stated that Juba would eventually become the new capital of South Sudan.
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5 Feb Reuters report via Sudan Tribune: Shattered infrastructure and the threat of landmines are delaying the assisted return of thousands of south Sudanese refugees languishing in camps in northern Uganda, the UN refugee agency said on Saturday. Full Story.

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Photo: Sudanese refugees arriving at Kyangwali settlement in Uganda after being displaced from their original camp in Achol Pii

Note, Uganda hosts about 220,000 Sudanese refugees, more than any other country bordering Sudan. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says moves to transport them home are not expected to start until October. "We are taking a very cautious, phased approach," the agency's representative in Uganda, told Reuters.

"UNHCR has not been operating in southern Sudan for 20 years, so we are starting from scratch to begin receiving these groups. There is very little infrastructure in place, and of course there is the huge problem of landmines."

Officials from seven nations hosting Sudanese refugees -- Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda -- held talks in Khartoum this week to discuss repatriation plans.

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This is the market where an returning refugee sells her homemade beer. There is not a lot of choice as most of the goods which are on sale here are made locally. A few of the things are brought in from Uganda and Kenya. Photo courtesy BBC.

Analysts say some of those who fled to neighbouring states do not necessarily support southern leader John Garang -- who becomes vice president under the peace deal -- and are seeking assurances of their safety before making the journey home.

Since Sudan's peace deal was signed in January there have been no large-scale movements of refugees heading home unaided.
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Darfur ghost town awaits return of its citizens

6 Feb Reuters describes the ghost town of Tine on the Chad-Sudan border where a few residents remain, camping in the hospital and the dilapidated school while they wait for their old neighbours to return:

All 5,000 or so inhabitants of the town, in the Darfur region of western Sudan, fled in late 2003 when rebels and government forces clashed nearby and government forces bombarded the town and surrounding areas.

About 200 have returned but they live from day to day, ready to move on if the need arises. Full Story.

Note, their stories stop people coming back. But also the people are scared. They do not believe there is now security.
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Stricken Darfur faces food crisis

The following editorial is an excerpt from an in-depth report at the Wall Street Journal Feb 7:
Jan Pronk, the UN's chief envoy in Sudan, says the cumulative effect of one failed harvest after another, along with rising prices and malnutrition rates, could eventually leave all six million Darfurians in need of food aid. Surveying the economics now in play, he says, "the future in 2005 is bad."

Hunger has been willfully engineered by destroying all aspects of the agricultural system. Seed stocks have been burned, animals stolen or killed, and the tools of cultivation, such as hoes and tractors, smashed. The current Darfur crisis, however, will likely continue even after the farmers return to their land, because the very means of their livelihood have been destroyed.

In December WFP said more than half of the $438 million of food aid needed in Darfur for 2005 must be delivered by the end of January, to insure food would be in place before rains make overland transport nearly impossible and isolate tens of thousands of people. In addition to food donations -- wheat, beans, cooking oil and a corn-soya blend make up the standard ration -- cash contributions were needed to buy dozens of heavy-duty trucks to haul the food across the desert.

If enough food isn't available for Darfur, the WFP may be forced to reduce the size of the monthly rations, or limit the number of recipients.

Even when Darfur dominated the humanitarian spotlight last year -- nearly 100 relief agencies flocked in to help with water, sanitation and health care -- Darfur's farming needs were overlooked. The U.N. says the agriculture section of its appeal, which would have provided seeds and tools to help farmers, received less than one-fifth of funding requirements.
Note, Last year I published a post that quotes Sudanese President Bashir saying he would ensure the Darfurians were provided with all sorts of things including, seeds. See here, the offer is not mentioned again:
Government officials in Khartoum downplay the food scarcities, and have resisted pressure from the U.N. to stabilize prices by shifting 100,000 tons of food from other regions to Darfur. "There is a food gap in Darfur, but it's not so significant," says Ahmad Ali El Hassan, the director of rain-fed agriculture. "Humanitarian assistance will fill the gap."

He insists Darfur's farmers, despite continuing security threats, will leave the camps and return to their farms to plant this spring. He concedes the farmers' seeds, tools and livestock have been destroyed in the war, which the government blames on tribal conflicts. Still, he says, "God willing, we'll get a good crop."
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Meanwhile, Sudan plans to put its first satellite in orbit this year at a cost of 60 million dollars.
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MSF news update on activities in Darfur, Sudan

Here is an excerpt from the latest news in the field by Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Darfur:

By December 2004, 197 international volunteers and 2,582 national staff for MSF were providing emergency assistance in 27 locations in Darfur in areas with more than 600,000 displaced people. MSF doctors and nurses conducted an estimated 78,000 consultations each month. MSF's main activities continued to focus on treating malnourished children in therapeutic feeding centers (TFCs) and supplementary feeding centers (SFCs); treating patients suffering from diseases like respiratory infections, diarrhea, hepatitis E, and malaria; running blanket feeding programs; and providing clean water and improving sanitation to reduce the risk of disease.

It is now winter, and very cold in the mountainous regions. There are still many needs in the areas controlled by the rebels. The MSF assessment of the Jebel Si region in November and December showed that people in remote and isolated regions still need absolutely everything - food, non-food items, medical care etc.

Increasing insecurity has impacted on the food distribution activities of other agencies, especially in the north part of North Darfur. On November 1st, a group of 300 women demonstrated at Abu Shouk camp during a WFP food distribution. They were protesting about being omitted from the distribution for the past 3 months. Police were called in, and tear gas and electric sticks were used to disperse the angry mob.
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Violence strikes Eastern Sudan

Graham Wood, Head of Policy at Ockenden International, has lived and worked in Africa, Asia and the Middle East for the past 20 years. Here is an excerpt from his op-ed:

Eastern Sudan has received little attention by the international media and even by some donors. Yet according to the UN World Food Programme, the nutritional situation of children is worse than in parts of Darfur.

Some 250,000 displaced Sudanese also live in the main towns of Port Sudan and Kassala. Many of these live under cardboard boxes, spending what little they have on the water to survive in the desert climate. In 20 years of working in some of the world's poorest countries, the conditions in the poorest areas of Port Sudan are as bad as any I have seen.

Ethnic tensions run high in Sudan. There will be many calls on the resources of the new [South Sudan] government. And that government has to respond, throughout the country, by ensuring a representative mix of peoples making up its number and the even-handed distribution of resources.

Some three million have lost their lives as a result of 20 years of conflict. North, south, east and west: the vast majority of Sudanese live an existence on the edge. Without an intelligent distribution of aid money, conflict is likely to be the result from those who feel left out.

The [recent] Port Sudan clashes herald changes to come and are likely to occur elsewhere. They are, in some ways, part of the bidding process of peace. How they are dealt with will be an indication of the future shape, and fate, of this troubled state.
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Sudan and Chad's leaders to meet on Darfur with AU next week

7 Feb Middle East article says the presidents of Sudan and Chad will meet African Union officials February 15-16 to discuss enforcing a ceasefire.

"This will entail knowing where rebel positions are in order to enforce a ceasefire, the neutralisation and disarming of the Janjaweed and the withdrawal of government forces to their positions of before December 8, 2004, in line with the last resolution made by the AU Peace and Security Council" in Gabon.

The talks will also be attended by representatives of Libya, the United States, France and the European Union.
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Professor explores cause of genocide

8 Feb Nashville City Paper article by Ron Wynn - excerpt:

Dictatorial practices by Sudan's central government are the main culprit responsible for the ongoing crisis in that African nation, according to Dr. Mahgoub Mahmoud, Tennessee State University (TSU) professor of sociology.

"In realty, the central government has created a situation where parties from the other regions have been in conflict trying to get some measure of representation, and their wishes have been repeatedly ignored.

"The central government seized power in a military coup decades ago and has been brutalizing all political opponents and refusing to share power ever since.

"Without addressing the political problems in all the regions of Sudan, you have a situation of constant conflict, lawlessness and groups preying on other groups. But all that has to be understood within the realm of the central government refusing to share power and acknowledge its faults," he added.

Mahmoud has been at TSU since the late '90s, but he was born and raised in Omdurman, the capital city in central Sudan.

He credits human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch with publicizing the atrocities that have often spotlighted the enslavement and brutalization of Christians in the area by Muslims, but he cautions things are far more complex than usually presented.

"As far as injustices go, the central military has been responsible for a campaign that has tried to eliminate many different groups and religions," Mahmoud said. "There is an element of enslavement in this, but it must be viewed within a political context, not a racial or a religious one."

Mahmoud also praised the American government for its role in working alongside other African nations in the region to find some peaceful solutions.

"As a result of those efforts, the Southern region will now have a chance for autonomous rule," Mahmoud said.

"This accord, which also instituted a referendum in January, has opened the possibilities for changes in the nation's other regions and for eventually the central government to share the wealth and power with all the people and regions of Sudan. Until they really recognize and begin that process, the problems will continue."

"The biggest misconception that many around the world have regarding the Sudan is that is it just a tribal conflict with the JanJaweed tribal group attacking other groups," Mahmoud said.
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Sudan Crisis far from over, warns Sudan expert

7 Feb 2005 Caritas report says two recent developments have allowed the Sudanese government to get away with increasing atrocities in Darfur, warned John Ashworth, a spokesman for Sudan Focal Point, who is visiting Australia on behalf of Caritas Australia during Project Compassion to warn about the worsening of the Sudan crisis.

Mr. Ashworth spoke at the annual Caritas Australia lunch hosted by Premier Bob Carr at State Parliament House on Monday. Here is an excerpt from a report at ReliefWeb:

"The Asian tsunami has taken the media's attention away from Darfur. And the recent peace settlement in the South, announced in early January, has given many in the West the impression that the Darfur crisis is now over," said Mr. Ashworth. "But in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The situation for people in Darfur has actually worsened - and is likely to deteriorate even more," he said.
"In the 1970s oil was discovered in the South, so the strategy of the government, highly centralized in the North, then became one of dividing the loyalties of groups who had been agitating for the rights of the people in the South, so both groups would be severely weakened," he said. "In fact, the Sudanese government began carrying out ethnic cleansing campaigns around the oil fields of the South as early as 1997," he said.
Mr Ashworth said that recent interest by the American administration in monitoring the events in the Sudan had been helpful in bringing peace to the South. The US government is motivated by its fear of Sudan's potential as a terrorist state and continues to watch the situation carefully because of plans it has for a restructured middle east. In addition, the US needs to diversify its sources of oil supply.
"All these factors mean that the US is interested in the Sudan and this has a protective effect. But unfortunately the priorities of the US are not about the long-term interests of the people of the Sudan. And many of us have grave concerns about the vulnerability of the South, once the US loses interest in it."
Mr. Ashworth said the peace agreement recently struck between the North and the South 'looks good on paper'. The people of the South have been offered a six year interim period, after which they will be given the opportunity to vote on seceding from the North. "But the Southern Sudanese are very concerned that, given the 50 year history of agreements broken by the North that this agreement may also be undermined," he said. So how can the people of the Australia help the Sudanese of the South? Mr. Ashworth identified six ways. Full Story
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World forgetting Darfur crisis, says Dallaire

8 Feb Canadian CTVNews excerpt: Romeo Dallaire says the world's silence over the crisis in Sudan bears haunting resemblance to what he remembers before the massacre in Rwanda a decade ago.

The retired lieutenant general, whose horrific experiences in Rwanda became both an award-winning book and documentary, is now a fellow with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. There, he works on preventing other Rwandan-style crises.

Dallaire says the atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan are not any different from the genocide he observed in Rwanda, in which about 800,000 Rwandans, most of them Tutsis, died at the hands of Hutus.

"It is. It's another Rwanda," Dallaire told Canada AM from Boston. Full Story.

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Photo: Amnesty International's Alex Neve

Alex Neve of Amnesty International Canada says UN has to start taking tougher action and begin arresting those responsible for the killings.

"A recent UN commission of inquiry has looked at the situation in Darfur and it's very clearly said there's a need for strong international justice now," he told Canada AM from Ottawa. "We have a tribunal that was established two years ago, the International Criminal Court, which is perfectly poised to play that role.

"If there's not something done very quickly to break that kind of cycle of impunity whereby military and other leaders in Sudan feel they can commit abuses of this sort and get away with it, then the crisis in Darfur is only going to deepen -- and in other parts of Sudan where there's very serious concerns may deteriorate as well."

"There's been ample advance warning going back months and even years that a crisis was mounting in Darfur, just as there was ample warning that a crisis was coming in Rwanda.

"If the international community doesn't start soon to begin to take effective action at early stages to head off crises of this sort, then Africa is going to continue to suffer the kind of inattention it's getting now."

As for the current Darfur situation, Dallaire has his own ideas of what should be done. He says if the UN Security Council cannot get its act together and come with a resolution, "then middle powers, like Canada and Germany and Japan, should join forces with the African Union, beef it up, and go in under that regional power."

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Photo: Romeo Dallaire
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Sudan Begins 3rd Consecutive Term on Human Rights Panel

8 Feb Talon news report from Hawaii, copied here in full:

Even while the UN is recommending sending 10,000 troops to Sudan to quell genocidal violence there, the African nation begins a third consecutive term on the world body's Human Rights Commission.

Fred Gedrich, a former US State and Defense Department official who has traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East, explained to Talon News that politics is at the center of the incongruity.

"The global body -- particularly its general assembly -- is controlled by a majority of states that do not have truly free and democratic governments," Gedrich said. "Sudan happens to be a member of three powerful voting blocs in the institution: 56-nation Islamic Conference, 53-nation African Union, and the 22 members of the League of Arab States. Such alliances serve to protect ruthless regimes like Sudan from criticism and get them promoted to prestigious positions within the U.N. system -- often to the detriment of their citizens and mankind."

The State Department has labeled Sudan a terrorist state, and many human rights groups classify its regime as being one of the worst human rights abusers. It had been the home of such notorious terrorists as Abu Nidal, Carlos the Jackal, and Usama bin Laden, and a supporter of terror groups such as Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and Hezbollah.

Gedrich recounted Sudan's bloody past saying, "Sudan has remained in almost a perpetual state of civil warfare since it achieved independence, with British and Egyptian consent, in 1956. The Sunni Arab majority -- which represents about 70 percent of the population -- controls the government apparatus and the military. Human rights groups like Freedom House and Amnesty International as well as the U.S. Department of State and others have accused Sudan's rulers of committing genocide against millions of Black Africans that occupy the southern part of the nation."

He is critical of the U.N.'s response to the situation, creating a commission of inquiry that recently concluded that the Arab controlled government has not pursued a policy of genocide despite compelling evidence to the contrary.

Gedrich said, "These U.N. actions offer little comfort to the 2 billion people in the world who live under oppression and who would like to look to the U.N. Human Rights Commission for hope and help - or millions of Black African Sudanese currently suffering under the tight-fisted rule of their Arab oppressors."

He pointed out that since the end of the colonial era African nations have opposed outside interference in their internal affairs. Millions have perished as the result of that policy that breeds situations like those witnessed in Rwanda, Sudan, and elsewhere.

Gedrich chastised the U.N., saying, "Responsible members of the free world - led by the United States - appear ready to help alleviate and end the massive suffering being endured by Sudan's African Black population. The U.N and leaders of groups like the African Union should do likewise and take the additional step of ostracizing instead of rewarding those, like Sudan's terror regime, who clearly do not abide by the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

Several other countries with repressive governments also sit on the commission, including China, Cuba, and Zimbabwe.

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Sudan will not allow Darfur crimes suspects to be tried abroad: Taha

Middle East news report Feb 5 says Sudan will not allow any citizen to be tried abroad in connection with suspected crimes against humanity in Darfur, First Vice President Ali Osman Taha was quoted by the press as saying. Here is an excerpt from the report:

Taha, speaking at a meeting with officials in South Darfur state on Friday, was referring to an international discussion over whether Sudanese suspected of such crimes be tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC) or by a special tribunal.

"The government is opposed to trying any Sudanese official or ordinary citizen involved in the Darfur incidents outside the Sudan," Taha was quoted as saying.

"The government is capable of doing justice among its people in Darfur," said Taha, adding that Sudan "is a sovereign state committed to the international agreements and conventions it has signed."

The independent Al-Ayam daily reported Saturday that 51 Sudanese accused by a UN fact-finding commission of committing crimes against humanity in Darfur included 10 senior officials in the national government.
---

Note, The regime in Khartoum is either full of bluff and bluster or it believes it can get away with anything. Bluff and bluster more like. Some of them are educated enough to know if there is a warrant for their arrest, and they fail to surrender or show up in court, security forces will have to go and fetch them, even if it means military force. I believe the days of the present regime in Khartoum are numbered. Trouble is, it may take a long while and cost many more lives.

51 names are on the UN's sealed list of names for prosecution, some may be rebels, approximately 10 are Sudanese officials. You have to wonder if any of the rebel leaders or Sudanese officials know whether they are on the sealed list of names or not. Psychologically, it must be sobering for them, especially in the still of the night when they put their head down to sleep, wondering if they are marked men or not. They may as well give up violence and work towards peace, now.

Sudan says to withdraw Antonov planes in Darfur

One cannot trust or believe a word the regime in Khartoum say. This item is only posted here for future reference so the next time a bomb is dropped on civilians via helicopters or MiGs, I can point back to this post:

Reuters report Feb 5 confirms Sudan said today it would remove all its Antonov planes and would not use them at all in Darfur, where it has been accused of using the aircraft to bomb villages.

"We are not going to use Antonov aircraft at all anymore," Interior Minister Abdel Rahim Hussein told Reuters during a trip to the remote west on Saturday. "We are not going to use them at all not for anything," he said.

The governor of North Darfur state, Osman Kedir, said all the aircraft had been withdrawn from the region. "They have been withdrawn. All of them and they will not return -- from all of Darfur," he said.

The government has said it needs to fly the planes for reconnaissance and said the ceasefire and security deals signed with the rebels only banned them from bombing, not from flying their aircraft.

First Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, on his FIRST visit to Darfur since taking responsibility for the region last month, said on Saturday he wanted to see for himself what had been happening. He met international aid workers in all three Darfur states.

London agrees to keep Darfur Sudan trials out of ICC

Today, the Washington Times reveals that London agrees to keep Darfur trials out of ICC:
"London's change of heart shields Washington from accusations that it stands alone against much of the Western world because of politically motivated objections to The Hague-based tribunal."

UK Liberal Democrats call for no-fly zone over Darfur, Sudan

Britain's Liberal Democrat website Feb 3 noted a call for action on Darfur by Sir Menzies Campbell MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary, quoting him as saying:
"Why are troop numbers so low? Has the Sudanese Government been obstructive and if so what is being done about it? As a matter of urgency UN Security Council must institute sanctions, establish a no-fly zone for the protection of Darfur and provide logistical support for the deployment of the full force of military observers."
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Swedish officers to Sudan (one for Darfur!)

The Swedish Government decided Thursday to contribute six staff officers to the UN rapid deployment force SHIRBRIG in southern Sudan over a six-month period and one staff officer to the African Union's peace support initiative in Darfur.
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AU says force in Darfur reaches 1,400

Reuters report Feb 4 excerpt:
The African Union said on Friday its protection force in Darfur had reached 1,401 soldiers after the deployment of 339 troops from Nigeria, Senegal and Kenya. AU spokesman Assane Ba said South Africa and Tanzania were expected to soon provide 196 troops each, but no date for their arrival has yet been set.

The AU force in Darfur is ultimately supposed have 3,320 troops, but it has grown slowly because the pan-African body is relying on foreign aid to pay for it. So far, the AU has received $186.7 million of the $221 million it budgeted for the Darfur operations, Ba said. Contractors building the camps to house the troops are also still behind schedule, Ba said.
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Note, the AU has received a few hundred million dollars while only 1,000 AU soldiers are in Darfur. It's a nonsense for the AU to suggest that funding and the building of military camps are the reasons for the delay in deploying troops to Darfur. Personally, I think Khartoum is doing everything it can to thwart any troops entering Sudan. African leaders (the ones agreeing to send troops for Darfur) may be giving leeway to the regime in Khartoum. No other explanation makes sense.
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Cartoon: Call us back when you have some Europeans says UN

examinercartoon.jpg
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Americans tell UN: Don't hide from genocide

iAbolish.com summarises what's at stake and invites Americans to tell the UN to take action.

[Cartoon and links via Instapundit and Parkview Blog, with thanks]
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Darfur rebel commanders quit SLA group

The UN inquiry into genocide in Darfur said the rebels have committed crimes too. The EU and UN have made clear that those brought to justice will include some on both sides.

Today, Fred at Rantburg writes a post on the news via Reuters that SLA commander Jumaa Mohamed Haggar said the military field command had renounced the leadership of the movement, which is based in the Eritrean capital Asmara.
"We will very soon be announcing a new secretary-general and chairman," Haggar's head of office told Reuters from Darfur yesterday. The SLA chairman and secretary-general both confirmed the statement but said it posed no threat to the movement.
Fred adds:

The humanitarian coordinator for the movement, Suleiman Adam Jamous, told Reuters he had travelled to meet the commanders, but was still waiting to start talks with them. "There are several commanders with Haggar. There may be 10 of them," Jamous said by telephone from Darfur, adding he did not think it was a serious threat to the movement. Asked why the commanders had said they had no confidence in the leadership, Jamous said: "Because of their absence I think."
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Note, Last summer, in my personal blog, I pointed to news reports that said Darfur rebel groups have bases or headquarters in Europe, and that Darfur rebel leaders visited governments in France, Germany and Britain for closed door talks in the run up to the final round of peace talks on Southern Sudan. After nine months of blogging almost daily on Darfur, and reading almost every news report that has appeared since then, I have yet to find information on how the SLA and JEM rebels are funded/supplied or the location of their European HQ's or who is behind them. It is well known the the US supported the Southern Sudan rebels SPLM.

The above report confirms there is a connection to Eritrea where the rebels' supplies may be coming from (when they are not looting food, petrol and trucks from the UN relief agency). UN food, supplies and vehicles are stolen so regularly, it makes one wonder if it is just another of the many ways in which the international community is "supporting" Sudan's rebels.

Who funds/supplies satellite phones and radios to Sudan's rebels? It has been reported the rebels have their ears glued to BBC radio news Arabic service and communicate with satellite phones. Also, Kofi Annan and Jan Pronk issue such odd statements at times, it seems as if they both use the press to convey cryptic messages to people on the ground in Sudan.

Sometime last year, Kofi Annan, in a UN Off the Cuff interview, revealed he uses the press to communicate to his people on the ground in Sudan [I regret not keeping the link].
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UN envoy: Darfur key to Sudan peace

Fred at Rantburg, in his latest post titled "UN envoy: Darfur key to Sudan peace", writes:
Actually, I'd say Khartoum is the key to Sudan peace. If Darfur was the only place on fire, then Darfur would be the key. But Bashir splits his time between oppressing people and putting down rebellions. You'd almost think the two were connected or something.
Fred notes that Jan Pronk, on calling for thousands of peacekeepers for Southern Sudan, said:
"I am convinced that without a solution in Darfur, the north-south will not remain a sustainable peace agreement."
Fred's reply:
"I dunno. I think that, rather than peacekeepers like they have in DRC, an army of occupation might be more to the point. They obviously are incapable of keeping their own house in order."
Several months ago, I suggested that Darfur should be turned into a UN Protectorate until Sudan could get its house in order. It would allow for the displaced Sudanese to return home to start planting their food and put their lives and livestock back together. If this goes on for much longer, they will be displaced for years and dependent on foreign aid. But when you think about it, if they were in the way in the first place, no country is going to rush in and risk their troops' lives to help Sudanese return home where they are not wanted by their own government.

Western countries weigh up the cost in terms of their own troops, if there were to be military intervention in the Sudan. There are well founded fears it would be seen as colonialism and trigger a holy war. Africa is a tinder box. So the international community puts its stock in the African Union. African solutions to African problems. But who knows, leaders of the African Union may be corrupt. Africans and Arabs often say it is none of our business. They appear to resent help from the West and say the West should not interfere. My hope is one day, they all walk out of Darfur into to Chad, and that African women start refusing to take violence anymore, rise up and band together to do something unique. I did read a report a while ago that explained how some groups of Sudanese women went on strike refusing sex with their partners. It sure got the menfolk's attention, quickly.

Today, the BBC reports news of protestors in Nigeria holding a Nigerian oil plant. One man has died. It shows a photo of Nigerian women standing up against an American oil giant.

Note, as an aside, the report states:
A spokesman from ChevronTexaco - which operates Escravos in partnership with the Nigerian government - said the incident was handled by the security forces, and refused to go into any more details. ChevronTexaco say they do not know why the villagers were demonstrating. But there has been a long standing dispute in the area, with local people claiming that the company has failed to honour of promises of community development which it made following the 2002 occupation.
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Three years ago hundreds of women occupied the oil installation

I still suspect there may be oil and other riches in Darfur and, like the native Americans and aborignes in Australia, the African tribes and nomads are perceived as a nuisance, taking up precious resources and standing in the way of "progress".

The regime in Khartoum (many are educated, so they cannot plead ignorance) are so ruthless, they give Arab militias a free reign to commit atrocities. The Sudanese air force bombs civilians to eliminate the rebellion. Rebels are civilians, and civilians who are not rebels (mostly women and children) are seen as supporting an uprising against the regime in Khartoum that wants to hang on to power at any cost, no matter if it costs another 2 million lives.

EU: shortage of water and food in northern Darfur, Sudan

Yesterday, the European Union called for immediate end to "impunity" in Darfur and said "it is up to the UN Security Council to decide" on whether suspects should be taken before the ICC, but noted that the investigation commission had recommended this.

Also on Feb 4, European Union Commissioner Louis Michel strongly condemned recent violence in Darfur. He called on all parties to provide unimpeded access for aid and said he "deplored the further deterioration of the humanitarian situation, notably in Northern Darfur, due to shortage of water and food mostly caused the systematic vandalising of critical water points, accompanied by raiding and looting of crops."
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LETTERS RE DARFUR TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON TIMES

February 05, 2005

Responsibility for Darfur atrocities
From Mr Tony Baldry, MP for Banbury (Conservative)

Sir, Five members of the International Development Select Committee and myself have spent the last three days in Darfur.

Wherever we went we heard eyewitness reports of attacks on villages, murder of civilians, rape, looting and a co-ordinated campaign of forced displacements.

From all that we have seen and heard, we find it entirely consistent that the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, set up by the United Nations, should have found that:

the Government of the Sudan and the Janjaweed are responsible for serious violations of international human rights . . . amounting to crimes under international law . . . these acts were conducted on a widespread and systematic basis . . . and therefore may amount to crimes against humanity.

The commission found that there was no policy of genocide, although it concluded that:

the crimes against humanity and war crimes that have been committed in Darfur may be no less serious and heinous than genocide . . .

If there are to be no further Kosovos, Rwandas or Darfurs, there must be no impunity for those responsible for such crimes.

The commission of inquiry has identified a number of perpetrators and the international community, including the UK Government, must ensure that those officials of the Government of Sudan and others responsible for these crimes are brought to trial as soon as possible by the International Criminal Court.

Yours faithfully,
TONY BALDRY,
(Chairman, International Development Select Committee),
House of Commons.
February 3.

From Mr Michael Kennedy

Sir, That the situation in Darfur is allowed to continue, and is in effect rubber-stamped by a UN inquiry that decides that genocide has not taken place (report, February 1), covers that institution in ignominy.

This is beyond my comprehension. How many more lives will be destroyed by fudge, complicity and self-interest?

The United Nations, born out of noble ideas, has failed. It must be replaced by a new authority which calls genocide by its name and calls its perpetrators to account.

Yours faithfully,
MICHAEL KENNEDY,
February 1.
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880 slaves freed in Sudan but many left, says Swiss group

An old friend of mine is descended from William Wilberforce who spent decades, most of his working life really, abolishing slavery - and succeeded just before he died. It is dreadful to know that slavery is still going on in this day and age despite all the media, communications technology, laws, rules and regulations and decades of work by human rights advocates and agencies. Please read the following report out of Geneva via Reuters South Africa, confirming:

Some 880 slaves, said to have been abducted in southern Sudan by government-backed raiders, have been freed, but tens of thousands are still held in Darfur and elsewhere, a Swiss-based group said on Friday.

Christian Solidarity International said the government had transported 607 freed slaves, mainly women and children, back to southern Sudan from northern Sudan, while CSI had helped free 273 slaves, mainly boys.

"880 liberated slaves returned to their homeland of northern Bahr El Ghazal, southern Sudan, between January 23 and February 2," the Zurich-based group said in a statement. It has spearheaded a controversial campaign to buy back slaves.

"Tens of thousands of black Sudanese women and children remain enslaved in Sudan -- mainly in Darfur and neighbouring Kordofan -- notwithstanding the peace agreement signed by the government of Sudan and SPLA," it added.

"The majority of women and older girls said they were raped or gang-raped while in bondage," CSI statement said.

Sudan's government, which has always denied that slavery exists in Africa's largest country, set up a committee in 1999 to investigate and eradicate abductions of women and children.

The peace process has facilitated the liberation of southern Sudanese slaves, but "the capture and enslavement of black (African) women and children by government-backed Arab militias continues in Darfur", CSI said.

"The government appears to be using the same method against the African population in Darfur by arming militia. The description of the raids is identical," CSI's Sudan programme head, John Eibner, told Reuters.

But chaos in Darfur had prevented the group from doing the extensive documentation it had done in southern Sudan, where it documented 80,000 liberated slaves since 1995, he said.

Most had reported "gross abuse by their Arab Muslim masters", including beatings, death threats, forced Islamisation and Arabisation and racial and religious slurs.

Friday, February 04, 2005

Sudan's shame

The below copied op-ed from yesterday's Telegraph says what I would like to say, if I was able to write such a neat piece, with regard to three points in particular: (1) that the disagreement over what constitutes genocide seems academic in the absence of effective outside intervention (2) enforcement of a no-fly zone (3) the truth is that Omar al-Bashir's National Congress is determined to crush any form of dissent and in a country of such political, ethnic and religious diversity, that is no recipe for long-term stability.

Unfortunately, the Telegraph does not credit the name of the author. The piece is copied here in full for future reference:

The American Congress and State Department and the European Parliament have declared that the Sudanese government's military campaign in Darfur amounts to genocide. The United Nations begs to disagree, accusing Khartoum and its allied militias of atrocities that fall short of that crime as defined by the 1948 convention. It is probably true to say that the government did not embark on operations in the western region with the intention of eliminating its sedentary population.

It was, rather, doing what it has done in many other parts of the country: seeking to crush an insurgency through terror tactics. Yet each day the line between that brutal campaign and genocide becomes thinner. Despite numerous appeals for peace, Khartoum is stepping up an offensive aimed not so much at the two rebel groups as the civilian population.

Studying data from various sources, Jan Coebergh, a doctor who has worked in Darfur, estimates that the death toll there is about 300,000, well above the commonly quoted figure of 70,000.

Whatever the truth, the escalation of the conflict is rapidly pushing up the total. Sudan's Islamist government may not have sized up its victims with the same chilling method displayed by the Hutus in Rwanda in 1994, but that is a distinction likely to be lost on those in Darfur subjected to bombing, murder, rape and loot.

Likewise, the disagreement over what constitutes genocide seems academic in the absence of effective outside intervention. It is piously said that this is a problem for Africa to sort out. Yet the African Union force in Darfur is both tardy in deployment and ill equipped to bring order to such a vast area. Western logistical help is overdue. Beyond that, the enforcement of a no-fly zone and the dispatch of a small ground force under a UN mandate should be enough to blunt Khartoum's offensive.

That is not happening because Darfur is regarded as a sideshow to the north-south peace agreement between Khartoum and Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, which was signed in January and ratified by the Sudanese parliament yesterday. Yet what confidence can there be that a government oblivious to outside appeals over Darfur will not renege on its agreements with the south? The truth is that Omar al-Bashir's National Congress is determined to crush any form of dissent. In a country of such political, ethnic and religious diversity, that is no recipe for long-term stability.

[Telegraph report via Tas's post titled "And how many of these 300,000 deaths were preventable?"]

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Conservatives challenge Straw to explain why Darfur atrocities are not 'genocide'

A press release dated February 3, 2005, by Britain's Conservative Party is copied here in full for future reference:

Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram, today wrote to Jack Straw requesting under the Freedom of Information Act, that he reveal the basis for the government's decision not to label the atrocities in Darfur, as genocide. He said:

"I can only think that you must have received advice suggesting that genocide was/is indeed taking place in Darfur but have chosen deliberately to ignore it.

"If it is the case that you have ignored advice on the scale of atrocities being committed by the Janjaweed militia, and supported by the Sudanese Government, then you now need to explain yourself. If you have not then you will have no problems with releasing the information I seek.

"I hope that you will not use the Freedom of Information Act as a shield or smokescreen. It is only right that the British public learn what sort of decision-making processes you undertake. After all is not the Act designed to hold Ministers to account regarding the decisions that they have made?"

Rt Hon Michael Ancram QC MP

UN suspends its road movements in part of West Darfur, Sudan, after attack on truck

UN road movement has been suspended on the route between two of the main towns in West Darfur after armed men yesterday fired at a clearly marked UN truck and looted all the personal belongings of the driver and passengers, says UN news report Feb 3.

Also, in North Darfur, UNAMIS said it had received reports that armed tribesmen had attacked a camp containing members of the rebel SLA and that the SLA had stopped a bus north of El Fasher and abducted four passengers, killing three.
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10,000+ troops proposed for UN peace-support mission for South Sudan

Kofi Annan today formally recommends in a report a deployment of 10,130 military troops and up to 755 civilian police with Chapter VI mandate for southern Sudan. And he voices concern that, despite appeals to at least 100 nations, the UN "has received a very limited number of responses." So far there are enough commitments to meet only the first phase of the planned deployment.

Jan Pronk is expected to brief the Council tomorrow on the contents of Mr Annan's report.
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Call for probe into sexually explicit jokes about Mbeki

On a lighter note, South African Broadcasting Corporation Feb 3 says the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) has called for the National Intelligence Agency and forensic auditors to assist with an internal investigation that some ICD officials are allegedly circulating sexually explicit jokes about President Thabo Mbeki on the organisation's internal email.

Karen McKenzie, the ICD executive director, says a full report will be made public as soon as the probe is completed. She says any ICD employee implicated will be dealt with severely.

According to reports some jokes refer to Mbeki seeking prostitutes. Others are of cartoons of people having sex.
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Note, Mbeki recently ingratiated himself to Sudanese officials by insulting Churchill and the Brits in a speech. So I have posted this to get him back. Heh.
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Update: American blogger Black River Eagle at Jewels in the Jungle in Germany writes another great post on Darfur, this time about the UN report. Sorry I cannot comment more about it now but I need to rest as my eyeballs are burning from reading ten zillion reports flying round cyberspace. Tracking, sifting, summarising and capturing them for here before they disappear from the news reels, is quite a feat. News output changes by the minute and keeping your eyes peeled (literally) is challenging but tiring. Although I will keep up to date with tracking the news and post important items at a later date, I need to take a break from posting for a while. There is plenty for readers to catch up on here from the past week. Bye for now. P.S. I can tell from my visitor stats that hundreds of different readers here visit from all corners of the world. Don't be shy. Please say hi in comments or email me. Thanks.

Putin signs order to send Russian peacekeepers to Sudan

According to an AP report in the Guardian this morning, Moscow President Vladimir Putin has signed an order to send forces to join a proposed UN peacekeeping operation in Sudan. Russian news agencies say the resolution calls for Moscow to send units from the Interior Ministry, which includes police and military but there was no immediate specification on what types of forces would be sent.

Note, dozens of news reports currently covering this story make no mention of peacekeepers for Darfur. This news is probably about Russia's contribution to the 10,000 troops the UN is rallying for the monitoring of the South Sudan peace deal. It has been reported that deployment of the 10,000 troops for southern Sudan won't be completed for another six months.

Recently, Sudanese officials said they would only accept peacekeepers who spoke Arabic. Perhaps this order signed by Putin is to make Russia look good because it is blocking sanctions being imposed on Sudan.
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Cargo plane crashes in Sudan, seven killed

3 Feb Reuters report says a Sudanese cargo plane carrying aid to Darfur crashed near the capital Khartoum on Thursday Feb 3, killing all the crew.

The captain reported an emergency a few minutes before the Ilyushin-76 went off radar screens, Civil Aviation Authority director Abu Bakr Jaafar said. "He (the pilot) said there was something wrong with the fuel system ... A few minutes later it disappeared from the screens," he told Reuters. "Of course, it is too early to tell what is the cause," he added.

"This was a courageous move." Jaafar said at the scene where the Sudanese plane crashed east of the Nile River. "He changed his flight to move the plane out of the inhabited area." The aircraft went down about 800 metres from the residential district.
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Note, a Russian news report says the Russian embassy in Sudan is investigating the circumstances of the crash. Earlier it was reported that the plane's crew consisted of Russians, however, the embassy's representative has told RBC that so far, this information had not been confirmed. The officer said that the embassy was making every effort necessary to identify the crash victims.

Update Feb 3 Moscow News says six Russian citizens were killed in the cargo plane crash. The Russians were crewmembers. Their interpreter, a citizen of Sudan, was also killed.

The plane belonged to the private Sudanese company, Air West. It was flying from Sharjah, UAE, and was being used by the UN to carry humanitarian cargo. An official at the Russian embassy in Sudan is currently at the civilian aviation directorate investigating the cause of the crash, RIA Novosti reported. One of the preliminary reasons given was a lack of fuel.

sudan.jpg
Rescue workers carry a body wrapped in blankets from the wreckage of a Sudanese Ilyushin plane / Photo: AP

Nato 'could step in to help in Darfur'

NATO's secretary general Japp de Hoop Scheffer, who held talks with Tony Blair yesterday, said:
"If African leaders would come, through the UN, to Nato, and ask Nato what could you do to support what we are doing, I think the Allies would have a very serious discussion."
Full Story at The Scotsman, Feb 3.
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Note, the above report quotes the secretary general as saying,
"Nato could (have a role), if the African Union and the UN would ask Nato, then Nato could I think - but that question is not on the table - Nato could give support, in command and control and logistical support, to an operation. But I think that, quite honestly, we should leave it to the Africans and the African Union to find a way of solving this indeed tragic and horrendous conflict".
Leave it to the Africans, and the African Union? African and Arab leaders often say the same thing. African leaders petitioning the United Nations to help Darfur? Sorry for being so negative here, but the tantalising prospect of NATO coming to the rescue of millions of people in the Sudan is probably just another story the politicians are spinning to the media to add pressure on Khartoum and placate those who are calling for action. NATO's secretary general also said:
"As far as Darfur is concerned, Nato is not involved, because the African Union is trying to set up a peace monitoring mission. The Security Council is divided, and Nato will not go and rush into Darfur. What I think is necessary, and that is an initiative stemming from the G8 group nations, I think much more should be done in the sphere of training African security forces so that they really can mount a serious peace-keeping and monitoring operation."
Note how nobody else is rushing into Darfur either. The AU have received hundreds of millions of dollars from the EU and US for the deployment of troops to Darfur. Recently, the AU confirmed they are not short of funds and claimed the delays are due to lack of accommodation for their soldiers in Darfur. Two million Sudanese are curently suffering with no accommodation because of lack of security. Surely AU soldiers could be temporarily accommodated in military tents.

sudan2.jpg
Sudanese national policemen / Photo: AFP courtesy Moscow News
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2m dead - but still the world stands idly by

Lord Alton of Liverpool, an independent crossbench peer, writes the following must-read opinion piece published today in The Scotsman Feb 3, and copied here in full for future reference:

Imagine a military junta that has killed two million of its population of 32 million in the past two decades because of their skin colour and religion. Imagine a regime that has caused so much terror within its own borders that six million people are internally displaced. Is this a description of the Chinese in Tibet? Or Burma rebranded as Myanmar? Or, until recently, Indonesia in East Timor?

No, this is Sudan, described by the British ambassador to Khartoum in a London-cleared speech, as "on the threshold of a new era", and our great friend. In April last year, at the height of the state-sponsored killing in Darfur, William Patey boasted that British trade with Sudan was up 25 per cent and set to rise further.

The United Nations has released the report of a commission set up four months ago to determine whether genocide could be said to be happening in Darfur. Last September, Colin Powell, then US Secretary of State, determined it was occurring, and that the government of Sudan and its proxies, the Janjaweed, were to blame. While the commission deliberated, the World Health Organisation estimates 10,000 civilians died every week. Under pressure to act, it was the UN Security Council's masterstroke to set up the commission as a useful diversion. Shouldn't we do something about the government of Sudan burning hundreds of its own villages? No, we must wait until the UN commission reports.

Now, as the Sudanese government continues to bomb its own citizens, the international community has again found a way of avoiding any discussion of stopping the bloodshed. Returning to one of its favourite spats, Europe and the US are locked in a row about whether those responsible for crimes against humanity in Darfur should be sent to the International Criminal Court or a tribunal run by the UN and African Union. So, while 14 people die every hour in Darfur, the international community is talking about what to do with the people who are murdering them - after the war criminals have gone about their business, that is.

Unfortunately, the UN commission was politically compromised before it began its work. Whatever our politicians may say about Africa being a scar on their consciences, securing peace with the oil-rich south of Sudan is paramount. But while Tony Blair was in Khartoum in October, a German diplomat heard him assure a member of the Sudanese junta that Britain would not turn up the heat on Khartoum over Darfur because of fears of making Sudan a failed state, or provoking a coup.

The British diplomats in Khartoum, and their brothers around the international community, must be heaving a collective sigh of relief now that the UN report on Darfur has been published. By denying that genocide is occurring, it has, in effect, promised to continue looking the other way while the Sudanese kill their own citizens with impunity.

Further reading:

2 Feb Eric Reeves' critical analysis of the report of the international commission of inquiry on Darfur.

3 Feb Japan Times report says Japanese defence officials cool on Sudan - risks seen outweighing benefits to diplomatic image. Japanese peacekeeprs would not be able to go to Sudan anytime soon because it would require careful preparation, meaning a dispatch could not get under way until summer at the earliest. Having SDF troops participate in a Sudan mission could be possible, but there would be "a long way to go" one senior agency official said.

3 Feb Italy On Line, a special news service by AGI on behalf of the Italian Prime Minister's office, reports: "The UN report does not speak of genocide, but this does not take away from the seriousness of the violence in Darfur: 50-70,000 people massacred by the Janjaweed militias are an inerasable tragedy," said the Under Secretary to Foreign Affairs, Margherita Boniver, to the newspaper Avvenire. For Boniver, harsher sanctions "would be an important step. And the UN report takes us in that directions."

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Security Council President vows 'no impunity' for war crimes in Darfur, Sudan

A United Nations news report Feb 2 confirms the Security Council is determined to ensure there is no impunity for anyone who has committed war crimes or crimes against humanity in Darfur, its President for February said today as he announced that the situation will be the focus of at least two Council meetings this month.

As Council members study the report of a UN-appointed commission of inquiry into whether genocide has occurred in Darfur, Ambassador Joel Adechi of Benin, which holds the rotating presidency for this month, told reporters at a briefing that the 15-member body wants to deal with the situation in an "internationally recognised way." Full Story.

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Council President Amb. Joel W. Adechi

Taha and Garang to appear before UN Security Council next week

Update report at The Scotsman Feb 3 - The Security Council, ratcheting up pressure to resolve the Darfur crisis, has asked two key Sudanese players to appear before the council next week - Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, and John Garang, head of the main southern Sudanese rebel group that just signed a peace deal with the government.

Britain's UN ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, said the council needs to do "two things crucially: one to stop any more atrocities in Sudan and secondly to address those things that have happened."

"My primary interest is in addressing them in a way (of) getting an outcome under a council that is united," he said. Full Story.
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A court could eventually find there had been genocidal acts in Darfur

On Feb 2 the Scotsman published an analysis of the 176-page UN report published Feb 1.

Note, the UN report's panel did not rule out that a court could eventually find there had been genocidal acts in Darfur. Also, the panel said:

As many as 2,000 Darfur villages had probably been destroyed, mainly by being torched by the attackers.

"We heard credible accounts showing that the acts of destruction were wanton and deliberate," said the report commissioners. "Oil presses, flour mills, wells and pumps, crops and vegetables and almost all household utensils were found scorched or smashed at the sites inspected by the commission team."

After listing many other atrocities, the commissioners conclude:

"The magnitude and serious nature of the crimes committed against the civilian population in Darfur, both by the government forces and the Janjaweed, and by the rebels, demand immediate action by the international community to end these atrocities. Authors of these crimes must be brought to justice."

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A child suffering from malnutrition where it is being treated at the therapeutic feeding centre run by Doctors Without Borders, a non-governmental organisation based in Belgium.
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Tales of burning, rape and looting ... and the men wore army uniforms

The following editorial is taken from the Scotsman's analysis Feb 2, above:

Much of the report consists of graphic case studies of attacks carried out in Darfur during the conflict.

On 23 November last year, for example, two Sudan Air Force helicopter gunships and an Antonov bomber attacked the village of Adwa.

The aircraft were supported by ground forces using a variety of weapons, including assault rifles, anti-tank rockets and heavy machine guns mounted on vehicles.

"Civilians, including women, children and elderly persons, were targeted during the attack," the report says. "Men were summarily shot, as was anyone who attempted to escape. Young girls were taken by the attackers to another location and many were raped in the presence of other women.

The attackers looted the village. Many people were killed and more than one hundred persons were injured.

Following the attack, representatives of an international organisation searched the village and found the bodies of between 20 and 30 civilians, including women and children.

All belonged to the Fur tribe. It is also alleged that many villagers [who fled successfully] are still to be found in the [nearby] mountains."

A young rape victim during an attack on a boarding school at Tawila, North Darfur, 11 months ago, described the assault, by Janjaweed wearing government uniforms, and the rape of one of her friends.

The Arab militiamen arrived in a lorry at 6am while government soldiers surrounded the school.

"When they attacked the boarding house, they pointed their guns at the girls and forced [all 110 of] them to strip naked, took their valuables and all of their bedding," she said. "[My friend] was taken from the group, blindfolded, pushed down to the ground on her back and raped. She was held by her arms and legs. Her legs were forced and held apart. The rape lasted for about one hour.

"[Other girls were] screaming as they were raped. After the rape, the Janjaweed started burning and looting."

The victim whose rape is described became pregnant as a result and gave birth to a child late last year.

The commissioners said they interviewed witnesses "who gave a very credible, detailed and consistent account" of an attack last year on the South Darfur village of Surra by government forces and Janjaweed.

Out of a total population of 1,700, more than 250 people were killed in an early morning attack.

Mortars were used against unarmed civilians. The soldiers and militiamen "entered the homes and killed the men," says the report.

"They gathered the women in the mosque. There were around ten men hidden with the women. They found those men and killed them inside the mosque.

They forced women to take off their [clothes] and when they found young sons hiding under them they killed the boys.

The survivors fled and did not bury the dead."

In a nearby village, men were partially skinned and thrown on fires to burn. Another part of the report details an attack on the village of Anka, North Darfur.

The report said: "Witnesses from Anka observed between 300 and 400 Janjaweed on foot, and another 100 Janjaweed on camels and horseback, advancing towards Anka...

"The attackers were described as wearing the same khaki uniforms as the government soldiers."
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EU Supports ICC to try Darfur war criminals

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2 Feb Yuba news report "EU supports ICC to try Darfur war criminals" -- EU Spokesperson Amadeu Altafaj Tardio said EU countries have studied the UN report on Darfur: "We have become one of the strongest supporters of the role of this court in the international community."

Excerpt from the report:
My own support for the ICC is well known," Mr. Annan said in his statement on the report today. "But this is a decision for the Security Council, not for me. What is vital is that these people are indeed held accountable. Such grave crimes cannot be committed with impunity. That would be a terrible betrayal of the victims, and of potential future victims in Darfur and elsewhere."
Note, Yuba's website features a quotation: "I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell." - Harry Truman
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UK prefers ICC involved in Darfur

2 Feb London Reuters confirms "UK prefers ICC for Darfur, wants consensus" - Amid suggestions Britain was wavering over the ICC on Sudan in the face of US opposition, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told a news conference on Wednesday Feb 2: "Our position has been very clear ... Our preference is for the International Criminal Court to be used in respect of the findings of the international commission in respect of Sudan." But he said the final decision lay with the United Nations Security Council and London would push for a consensus. Since Sudan is not party to the ICC statutes, the Security Council must decide on whether it is used or not, Straw said.

Meanwhile, European diplomats said there were already signs that Britain, a founder member of the ICC, was "less than one hundred per cent" behind the tribunal, and was peeling off from the rest of the EU, says Belfast Telegraph in its report Feb 2 "Britain accused of siding with US on Darfur killings".

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British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, seen in January 2005, said it wants 'perpetrators' of atrocities in the rebel-hit Darfur to be put on trial, ideally at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague (AFP/File)
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2 Feb France's International Herald Tribune report "UK caught between US and EU over Sudan".

2 Feb Financial Times report "UK and US on possible collision course over Darfur war crimes suspects" - UN Security Council members - the US, France, Britain, China and Russia - will consider in coming days how to react to the UN report.

France appeared to back the UN's call for international trials, saying Darfur could "legitimately be discussed" when Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, visits Europe next week.

Mr Blair, meanwhile, came under domestic pressure to back referral to the ICC publicly. Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrats, said: "When the present government was first elected, it quite rightly laid a great deal of emphasis on the need for an international court."

2 Feb Financial Times report "US urges UN oil sanctions over Darfur" - Richard Boucher, State Department spokesman, said Washington was working with African nations towards the establishment of a "UN and African Union tribunal that would be based in Arusha, Tanzania". African support for that option could undermine the case for the ICC at the Security Council. At the same time, Mr Boucher did not suggest that the US would veto a referral to the ICC, and variously described the US-proposed tribunal as the "best way", the "preferred way" and the "better way".

France yesterday said it would continue to push for the ICC option. Jean Marc de la Sabliere, French ambassador to the UN, called it a "progress in civilisation", and warned: "I don't think the alternatives are a good option."

But if the council concedes to the US over Darfur, analysts fear that would constitute a serious blow to the ICC's authority. "This is a critical moment for the Blair government. If they fold and buckle in the light of the clear-cut recommendation, they would be sinking beyond redemption," said Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

2 Feb Guardian report "UN Envoy Accuses Sudan of Atrocities" - The UN envoy for Sudan accused the government Wednesday of failing to stop the killing of civilians in Darfur and said a UN commission believed more than 50 high-ranking civil servants should be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court.

2 Feb Guardian report "A case for the court".

2 Feb Washington Times report "Separate tribunal for Darfur sought" - The US asked the UN Security Council yesterday to establish an Africa-based tribunal for war crimes in Darfur, to impose sanctions on the Khartoum government and to create a UN peacekeeping mission in the country. [Note, several news reports say an ad hoc tribunal would cause a delay of one year in bringing the war criminals to justice]

2 Feb Christian Aid report welcomes the call made in the UN's report to refer war crimes and human rights abuses by all warring parties to the ICC, and is also calling on the UN to apply targeted sanctions and extend the arms embargo to all parties involved in the conflict.

2 Feb Trocaire Catholic Agency report "UN report on Darfur underlines urgent need for action" - While the world has understandably been focused on the aftermath of the tsunami in Asia, things in Darfur have in many ways been getting worse. "The number of people who have been displaced has doubled since early last year, and now stands at nearly two million," said Trocaire's Director Justin Kilcullen.

2 Feb News from Russia report "400,000 deaths can't be called genocide" - UN special commission has been criticised and accused of "splitting hairs" by refusing to declare the killing of 400 000 people in Sudan to be genocide.

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Sudanese displaced children are seen from inside a tent in the Internally Displaced Persons camp of Drage on the outskirts of the town of Nyala in Sudan's southern Darfur region in 2004. Canada called for referring the case of rights abuses in Darfur to the ICC after a UN report said genocide had not occurred in the troubled region. (AFP/File/Jose Cendon)
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How do you trust people who have been fighting you?

The following excerpt from a Financial Times report Feb 2 points out some of the challenges facing the peace process, and why a commander of the SPLA wishes they were still fighting:

"As citizens we have no problems. It's the system, it's the ruling system," said a northern trader trying to explain why north-south conflict has raged for all but 11 years since Sudan gained independence in 1956.

Under the surface the picture is not so rosy. Bahr al-Ghazal region suffered hugely during the conflict and many southerners will struggle to trust or welcome their northern neighbours: the memories of the conflict and its brutality are too fresh. In the 1980s and 1990s, Arab militias unleashed by Khartoum launched camel and horseback raids into southern villages, plundering livestock, killing many civilians and abducting thousands of others as concubines or forced labour, according to Unicef. Bahr al-Ghazal was also a key recruiting ground for the SPLA.

"How do you trust people who have been fighting you?" said Wek Deng, an SPLA official in the region, "GOD IS LOVE" emblazed on his sweater.

John Garang, leader of the SPLA, says it is up to his movement and the planned northern transitional government to create the conditions for a "unity" vote in six years time. But while Commander Garang publicly supports a unified Sudan, many southern Sudanese think the south should separate immediately and he will be tested just keeping the south, where southern factions have often fought each other, together.

"The deal is not good and it's not bad," Mr Deng, 50, said. "Six years is too long" for the referendum.

He later says he would rather the SPLA was still fighting. And it is not just the older generation who will find it hard to live with their northern neighbours. Bahr al-Ghazal's young have also witnessed the violence and suffered its repercussions.

Mary Adel, 12, sits in a mud-hut primary school classroom that has no desks, chairs or electricity and few books - a common feature in a region that has seen virtually no development in decades.

Her father and brother are SPLA members, her uncle was killed during fighting and Arab raiders abducted her sister. She has seen her fellow southerners killed and their livestock looted. "I've been told Arabs are not good people," she said.

The task of changing the mindset of a generation born into war, not to mention that of their elders, will be one of the biggest challenges facing the peace process.
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SUDAN-UGANDA: Refugees reluctant to repatriate to southern Sudan

A recent post here explained how the UN agencies were preparing for the return of at least 500,000 Sudanese refugees into southern Sudan. On Feb 1, the UN agency reports many refugees are reluctant to repatriate to southern Sudan.

Here is an excerpt:
Thousands of Sudanese refugees living in camps in northern Uganda are reluctant to consider repatriation for a variety of reasons, including the lack of facilities in southern Sudan, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, told IRIN on Tuesday.

An estimated 200,000 registered Sudanese refugees are housed in southwestern and western Uganda. However, UNHCR says an estimated 40,000 others who are not registered with the agency have been living in Ugandan border towns, while others are in the capital, Kampala.

In Uganda, according to UNHCR, the refugees were well settled and lived in better material and security conditions than others elsewhere in Africa, and this was also why they were reluctant to leave and face the unknown conditions of southern Sudan.

However, all is not rosy for the Sudanese refugees in Uganda: they have been attacked several times by Ugandan rebels of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), who at one time claimed their settlements were being used by the SPLA as recruitment grounds.

In early 2004 the LRA launched 31 raids on UNHCR refugee settlements, displacing some 32,000 Sudanese refugees from the southern Zoka Forest Belt in northwestern Adjumani District.

The worst LRA attack was in August 2002, on Achol-pii refugee camp in Pader District, when the rebels killed more than 60 people, and the more than 24,000 Sudanese refugees there dispersed into the bush, fearing relocation to a camp further inland.

During this attack, the LRA took four aid workers from the International Rescue Committee hostage, but later released them.
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10,000 Indian peacekeepers for Sudan?

India is getting cosy with Sudan. See why in the next post here below. And note this excerpt from an Indian news report Feb 2 "Sudan welcomes Indian role in UN mission" - Sudan will welcome India's participation in the UN peace mission to the country for the implementation of the Jan 9 peace accord that ended over two decades of civil war, a senior minister has said.

"If you have to bring in someone to keep peace here, you have to bring in someone who understands the traditions and customs here," Energy and Mining Minister Awad Ahmed Al-Jazz told a visiting IANS correspondent.

"We have a very intimate relationship with India. We don't feel any problem if India is ready to partner with us in the peace era," said Al-Jazz.

Al-Jazz described reports of genocide in Darfur as "propaganda" by the Western media. "Life is almost normal there, with no fighting," he claimed.

Indian Ambassador to Sudan Ashok Kumar said New Delhi had agreed in principle to send a peace mission to the country under the UN to monitor the implementation of the peace agreement. He said up to 10,000 Indian peace troopers were likely to be involved in the mission, though the numbers were yet to be finalised.

A 25-member UN Advance Mission, including Indian officials, is already here to help in the peace process. Col. Vikram Taneja of the Indian Army, a member of the team, said the UN Security Council is expected to finalise the details of the mission shortly.

"The Sudanese government is not opposed to Indian presence here," he said.

But officials and the Sudanese people are keeping their fingers crossed.

"I am optimistic but it is going to be a long haul," said a senior official.

Mamoun Gamal, managing director of Citypharm Pharmaceutical Industry in north Khartoum, echoed the sentiments. "Implementation of the peace accord would face challenges as often happens and there is going to be differences on interpretation of the accord," he said.
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India's ONGC to build 1.2 billion GBP refinery in Sudan

2 Feb India news report - India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), which is laying a 741-km long petroleum product pipeline in Sudan, will also build a 1.2 billion GBP oil refinery in the African nation. Sudanese Minister of Energy and Mining Awad Ahmed Al-Jazz said, "We had previously awarded the work of building a 100,000 barrels per day refinery at Port Sudan to Malaysian firms but the project could not take off. We have now mandated ONGC to build the refinery."

Further reading:

2 Feb Navhind Times report "India seeking more exploration blocks in Sudan" - Sudan Energy and Mining Minister, Mr Awad Ahmed Al-Jazz said:

"Sudan plans to open the bids on Block 15 in the beginning of February. After that we will invite tender for Block 12. The award of contract for Block 15 may be done by mid-February."

OVL is one of the bidders for the Blocks 12 and 15 along with Chinese and companies from other countries, the Minister said.

1 Feb Hindustan Times report - India is keenly looking to acquire more exploration blocks in Sudan where it has already got equity stakes in three concessions, including the Greater Nile Oil Project producing around 15 million tonne annually.

2 Feb These Times opinion piece "The Axis of Oil" by Jehangir Pocha.

2 Feb China View report "Chinese, Sudanese FMs talk over phone" - both agreed to further develop friendly relations of the two countries in all fields on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit.

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Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said the UN had asked Japan to send troops for a potential mission in Darfur. (AFP/File/Toru Yamanaka)
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Darfur & US black history month 2005

American blogger Marian Douglas writes:
"We need something from each of us who reads this blog to help save the people of Darfur in 2005. The first thing is sharing a commitment to act; to do some little thing for Darfur on a regular basis. That includes sending designated material help through known and respected organisations. There is no choice ... Darfur must be our priority.

See Okuwori's entry on Darfur over at her blog, Black Looks.