Sudan: Leaders of six Darfur tribes sign a new pact

Associated Press Feb 16, says leaders of six tribes with links to either side of the Darfur conflict signed a reconciliation pact today, agreeing to cease fire and to waive claims for compensation and bloody money. According to the report, this may quiet South Darfur, the scene of some of the heaviest fighting in the past two months.

The news seems hopeful as Norway's highly regarded Hilde Frafjord Johnson is mentioned as a witness. Here is an excerpt:

The accord, the first of its kind since the conflict began two years ago this month, commits the leaderships of six South Darfur tribes not to hide fighters associated with either the rebels or the pro-government Janjaweed militia.

"We swear to God that we will not conceal anyone who will seek to terrorize people," the pact states.

"We declare that we are dropping all claims for blood money or losses because we need each other, and because most of our people have been displaced and we do not possess money," the pact adds.

The signing ceremony in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, was witnessed by the provincial governor, Al-Haj Atalmannan Idris, and Norway's Minister of International Cooperation Hilde Frafjord Johnson, who is visiting Sudan.

The Sudanese government, which the UN has criticized for failing to stop the Darfur conflict, arranged for journalists to fly from Khartoum for the ceremony.

The authorities said the negotiations for the pact began two months ago, with each tribe represented by 10 elders.

The Darfur conflict has pitted rebels, who come from the region's ethnically African population, against the government and allied Janjaweed, which draws its members from the region's Arabs.

The tribes taking part in Wednesday's ceremony came from either side of the African-Arab divide. In some cases, members of the same tribe are believed to have fought on opposite sides.

The government hopes the accord will quiet South Darfur, the scene of some of the heaviest fighting in the past two months.

In a case singled out by the UN's mission to Sudan, unidentified militia ransacked the South Darfur village of Hamada in January, killing about 100 people, mainly women and children.

The fighting in Darfur has forced about 2 million people to flee their homes. One of the largest camps for the displaced, Kalma, stands outside Nyala.
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Summit on Darfur crisis opens in Chad

AFP report Feb 16 says Presidents from several African countries began summit talks Wednesday in Chad to seek ways ways to enforce a ceasefire in Darfur. Here is an excerpt:

The two-day meeting has brought Gabon's Omar Bongo Ondimba and the Congo Republic's Denis Sassou Nguesso to Ndjamena to join Chad's Idriss Deby, Omar el-Beshir of Sudan and Alpha Oumar Konare, a former president of Mali who is now chairman of the commission of the African Union.

The leaders plan, with Chad as mediator, to get a ceasefire back in place for Darfur. This pits two rebel groups from the local population of black African origin against an Arab horseback militia, the Janjaweed, widely accused of major human rights violations.

Note, Sudan's Bashir is to briefly visit Nigeria later on Wednesday for talks. The heads of state meeting in Chad was due to be followed by talks between Darfur's two main rebel groups - the SLM and the JEM - and Sudanese government officials.

UPDATE:

16 Feb AFP report: Several African leaders wrapped up summit talks, agreeing on steps to ensure respect of a ceasefire in western Darfur.

16 Feb Reuters report: Sudan's president on Wednesday, speaking after talks with African leaders in Chad, urged the international community not to send troops to the Darfur region, saying he wanted the problem to remain in the hands of the African Union. "We also ask the international community not to send neutral forces so that the rebels can realise their aims. We want the rebels to come to the negotiating table with serious intentions,: Bashir told reporters.

16 Feb Sudan Tribune report: The Darfur rebel group SLA/M issue a statement on N'djamena meeting on Darfur.
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Khartoum to negotiate with Eastern Sudan rebels

Aljazeera article yesterday, Feb 15, says the Sudanese government has agreed to negotiate with the opposition Beja Congress as the legitimate representative of the people of eastern Sudan.


Photo: Self appointed President of Sudan, al-Bashir, recently named the world's worst dictator

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How many have died in Darfur, Sudan?

Nobody knows for sure how many people have died during the two-year conflict in Darfur. Hundreds of thousands of people are still out of the reach of aid workers. Today, the BBC says the widely quoted UN figure of 70,000 is clearly wrong, because it was based on a study that does not include those killed in the violence and covers just six months of the conflict. Here are some snippets from the BBC report dated Feb 16:

The UN says that 1,650,000 of the estimated six million population have fled their homes within Darfur and a further 200,000 have crossed the border into Chad. But the organisation is reluctant to even suggest how many might have died.

Khartoum consistently underplay the scale of the crisis. The UN Security Council remains unable to agree on how to sanction the government or the perpetrators of abuses. The small African Union force meant to monitor a ceasefire is ineffective and under strength. This has led to continuing clashes, meaning many parts of the province remain insecure and inaccessible to those who might investigate.

The only major study of deaths in Darfur so far has been conducted by the UN's World Health Organisation which estimated that as many as 70,000 people had died of disease and malnutrition caused by the conflict between March and October 2004.

The UN's emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland has admitted the death toll in Darfur could be much higher than the 70,000 WHO figure but says he does not know.

US academic Eric Reeves estimates the toll at 340,000 at the beginning of 2005.

Dr Jan Coebergh, who once worked in Darfur, has examined a range of aid agency health surveys. He puts the figures slightly lower at about 300,000 - but he admits it is little more than a stab in the dark. "We don't know enough about how many people are dying from violence let alone natural causes in inaccessible areas. The reality is that we just don't know the scale of the problem," Dr Coebergh told BBC News.
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Food shortages in four Sudanese states, including North and West Darfur

Yesterday, Feb 15, Sudan's Agriculture minister said the international community must finance Sudan. Here are some snippets taken from IRIN and VOA news reports:

The minister was in Rome for a day to sign a loan agreement of about 25.5 million US dollars granted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development for the Western Sudan Resources Management Programme that will benefit an estimated 200,000 households in the central Sudanese region of Kordofan.

On the issue of bringing to trial those responsible for the incidents in Darfur, he declared that the Sudanese government was in favour of a trial, but by its own courts in Sudan and not by an international court.

He said the amounts of food in Sudan are satisfactory with some states having surplus food. But, he said, there are four states where there are food deficiencies, including north and west Darfur. He added that through food reserves the government has secured enough food for the region until July 2005.

He acknowledged that many crops would be left untended in Darfur. People in rural areas live in fear of violent opposition rebel groups. Those who have been displaced are scared to return to their homes. The minister said the situation has improved and the health situation is considered satisfactory, but many still feel threatened by the violence. He said the government is coordinating with voluntary organizations in the area to supply surplus food from other states to those that need it. But he agreed that there is still looting and insecurity in the region which creates difficulties in transporting the assistance.

Referring to the recent suggestion by Kofi Annan for NATO or EU intervention in Darfur, he said this had no basis because the security situation is continuously improving. The matter should remain under the responsibility of African Union troops because, he said, "they understand our mentality better."

In the same breath, he said the international community must support the Sudanese government, help it decrease its debt and invest in the country. Full Story at VOA Feb 15.

Further reading:

UN warns Darfur could face new food shortage. A Reuters report Feb 15 says the UN urged donors on Tuesday to speed the flow of food aid to Darfur or risk worsening shortages in the region. "Urgent and timely financial backing is crucial to ensure that WFP is able to meet the needs of those most at risk in the coming months," spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said. Without rapid assistance, a recent improvement in the food situation of about two million people driven from their homes by violence in the region could be reversed, the agency said.
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UN agency seeks to develop locally produced, fuel effective stoves

UNICEF Feb 14 said one of the main concerns women and girls raise is the constant threat of rape they face when they leave camp to collect firewood. “Darfur is largely a desert and women and girls are walking for miles and miles to collect enough firewood to feed themselves and their families,” a UNICEF spokesperson explained.

To minimise the exposure of women and girls to attack, UNICEF is working to develop locally produced, fuel-effective stoves which use much less firewood. These would cut down the time spent outside the relative safety of the camps.



Note, It has been said that if the men collect firewood they are killed. When the women collect firewood they are raped. They are all being stopped from foraging for food, water and firewood. Incacerated. Prisoners in the camps, for years if other countries who are against western actions and intervention have their way. What a life eh?
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Bundeswehr observers ready for Darfur

Today, Feb 16, the EUobserver confirms Germany would take part in UN mission to Sudan. German government spokesman Thomas Steg said on Monday that Berlin is prepared to let German soldiers take part in a UN-led mission to Sudan.

Yesterday, a German news article said Germany's most widely-read newspaper, Bild, has quoted a defence ministry report as saying that Berlin is ready to provide personnel to act as observers in Sudan and to help run any military headquarters.

Bild said that the UN peace-keeping mission in Sudan will involve 10,000 soldiers from participating countries. Germany's role in the mission will be limited as it will send only military observers and staff officers for the headquarters, the paper quoted German military sources as saying

Germany's Bundestag lower house of parliament approved on December 3 a government plan to make some 200 soldiers available to the African Union to help resolve the crisis in Darfur.


Photo: Towards the end of ast year, German troops airlifted African Union soldiers into Darfur
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I would stop my contacts in Darfur in case of foreign intervention, Libya's leader says



Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has commented on Kofi Annan's call for NATO and EU intervention in Darfur, says Libyan news Feb 15:

"In case of foreign intervention in Darfur, I would halt my contacts that I am undertaking now with the people of Darfur, its tribes, chiefs and military leaderships, which I am making in implementation of the decisions of the quintet African Summit held in Tripoli last October," he said.

"The statement of Kofi Annan is very serious, and bars us from continuing our African efforts. If the content of the statement is to be implemented, the Sudan could turn into another Iraq. I have informed the president of the African Union and Darfur leaders of my position," he added.
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Sudanese opposition parties meet in Ugandan capital

Note for new readers, the following two items do not relate to Darfur in Western Sudan which is a separate conflict from the one that recently ended in Southern Sudan:

A report at China News Feb 16 says Sudanese opposition parties are meeting in Kampala to discuss political developments following the signing of a final peace accord by the Khartoum government and the SPLM/A, Radio Uganda reported on Wednesday.

An executive member of the opposition parties' umbrella organization, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Mutaz el Fahal, was quoted as saying that "top executive members of the NDA are discussing how they can prepare their parties for participation in the political arrangement in Sudan after the signing of the peace agreement ... and how to prepare the people for democracy." He said 30 top NDA officials were attending the meeting which started on Monday.

Members of the NDA include the Democratic Unionist Party, the Sudanese Communist Party, Darfur's Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, and the SPLM/A. The NDA was established in 1989 following a coup in which Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir overthrew Sudan's prime ministerSadiq el-Mahdi.

During the past 16 years, armed NDA members fought alongside the SPLM/A in the southern civil war, which left two million people dead, and launched sabotage attacks and other low-level violence in Sudan's north and east in opposition to the Khartoum government.
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White Nile shares suspended

British based oil exploration firm White Nile, whose shares have soared since listing last week, said on Wednesday it had sealed a deal in southern Sudan.

A snippet in Feb 16 Scotsman says shares in White Nile were suspended at the request of the company after it agreed to buy a 60% interest in an oilfield in southern Sudan and pledged to publish details of the deal by the end of this week.
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Thank you to Stones Cry Out blog for linking to this blog and highlighting the plight of the Sudanese.

Highlights of new US draft on Sudan at UN

A report from Reuters today reveals:

Diplomats said the US had so far failed to get enough council support for its proposed new court set up in Arusha, Tanzania. Some nine of the 15 council members prefer the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Consequently, the resolution may be adopted, possibly within two weeks, without mentioning the name of a court if no agreement is reached by then while negotiations continue.

The measure again threatens an oil embargo if violence continues in Darfur, but diplomats said there was little chance it would be implemented. The resolution also leaves the door open for a UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur and asks Kofi Annan to report on options to help the African Union.

Another report from Reuters today, is copied here in full:

The United States proposed on Monday a draft UN Security Council resolution on a peacekeeping force in southern Sudan and sanctions in Darfur. Following are highlights of the eight-page measure that may be voted on within two weeks.

- Establishes a U.N. Mission in Sudan, called UNMISUD, for an initial period of 6 months to help enforce a landmark peace agreement in southern Sudan that ended 21 years of civil war. The draft calls for 10,000 troops, 715 police and civilian personnel with a mandate to protect civilians under imminent threat of violence.

- Asks Secretary-General Kofi Annan to come up with options in 60 days on how to reinforce an African Union monitoring mission in Darfur.

- Sets up a special unit to make sure peacekeepers do not sexually exploit the local population as was the case in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

- Imposes a travel ban and financial assets on violators of a Darfur cease-fire and other violence as determined by a new Security Council committee, consisting of all 15 member nations. Exemptions are possible on religious grounds and for negotiating purposes.

- Widens an arms embargo in Darfur to include the Sudanese government and demands Khartoum refrain from conducting military flights in and out of Darfur unless the Security Council approves them in advance.

- Determines that perpetrators of crimes and atrocities identified in a sealed list by a U.N. inquiry commission be brought to justice by "internationally accepted means."

Council members are still debating where the trials will be held, with the United States wanting a court in Tanzania and at least nine other council members preferring the International Criminal Court that Washington opposes. The resolution may be adopted without naming the specific court.

- Establishes within a month from the date of the resolution's adoption, a panel of four experts, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and El Fasher in Darfur, to assist the Security Council and make recommendations on future action.

- Threatens to consider an oil embargo if the situation in Darfur continues to deteriorate.

- Urges parties to the North-South agreement, including former rebels, to "play an active role" in the Darfur talks in Abuja, Nigeria.



Some members of the Security Council are set to object to the new US Sudan resolution. According to sources from within the Security Council they anticipate opposition from Russia and China, who both have the veto power, as well as Algeria. All three have rejected previous calls for sanctions in order to give Khartoum more time to rein in the militia. [Photo courtesy Aljazeera]
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Gaddafi attacks Annan's proposals for Darfur

Reuters confirms today that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has attacked Kofi Annan's call for the EU and NATO to help end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, saying it risked creating a second Iraq.

"The brother Kofi Annan's statement is very dangerous and stops us from pursuing the African efforts. If his statement were to be implemented that will make Sudan a second Iraq," Gaddafi said in remarks reported late on Monday by the official news agency Jana. "I made my position on that known to the African Union chairman and the leaders in Darfur."

Gaddafi has close relations with the government in Khartoum as well as tribes and rebels in Darfur region, which borders on Libya and Chad.

US draft on UN Sudan mission skirts trials issue

This evening, Reuters news confirms the US has circulated a draft UN resolution that would send as many as 10,000 peacekeepers to South Sudan (this was on the cards nine months ago); ban arms sales to Sudan, including the government (pretty hard to monitor); impose a travel ban (it does not say if this includes top Sudanese officials, rebel and Arab tribal leaders); and impose a freeze on assets on those responsible for violating a ceasefire in Darfur (it does not detail who).

It looks like a Security Council committee would be set up to identify which individuals should be subject to the sanctions. US officials said they hoped to bring to the resolution to a vote within two weeks.

The US draft is silent on where those responsible for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur should be tried. The draft text expresses only the council's determination that perpetrators of the crimes identified by the UN commission "be brought to justice through internationally accepted means."
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UN rights chief prepares to brief UN Security Council on possible war crimes in Darfur

14 Feb Canadian and UN human rights chief Louise Arbour addressed a Moscow news conference yesterday. After flying back to Geneva yesterday she is due in New York this week to brief the UN Security Council Wednesday on the human rights situation in Darfur.

She'll return to Canada in a few weeks, where she'll press for an increased Canadian role in global politics. Full Story.


Photo: UN human rights chief Louise Arbour (Ivan/Van Sekretarev/AP)
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14 Feb UN News Centre report confirms that just as the top UN human rights official prepares to brief the Security Council on reported war crimes in Darfur, scattered reports of violence continued to come in today from the region.

The UN Advance Mission in Sudan said incidents included an armed attack by tribal militia four days ago in South Darfur, where two civilians were reportedly killed and 1,500 cattle looted. The police intervened and the attackers fled.

The African Union, which has monitoring teams in the area, is facilitating the return of livestock stolen by the Janjaweed on 9 February in the Kass area of South Darfur where other cattle looting has been reported.

The AU reported that part of a market was burned down in tribal clashes east of Nyala in which four villagers were allegedly killed and four wounded.

In North Darfur SLA rebels reportedly attacked Sudanese Government forces east of Al Fasher and also allegedly seized nine commercial trucks, UNAMIS said.
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Sudan, France reject NATO role in Darfur

Yesterday, Feb 13, Kofi Annan called at an important security conference in Munich, Germany for urgent Western intervention in Darfur. "People are dying, every single day, while we fail to protect them. Additional measures are urgently required. Those organizations with real capacity -- and NATO as well as the EU are well represented in this room -- must give serious consideration to what, in practical terms, they can do to help end this tragedy," the UN chief said.

Annan saluted the work of the 1,850 African Union peacekeepers currently deployed in Darfur, but said other international bodies must act as quickly as possible in a region where tens of thousands have died and 1.6 million displaced. "Remember this -- our current collective shortcomings are measured in lives lost," he said.

Today, Islam online says Sudan and France roundly rejected yesterday's call by Kofi Annan for a NATO intervention in Darfur, saying that world ought to back the existing AU observer mission. Full Story.

Also, today China View news says Sudanese Minister of State in the Foreign Ministry Najeeb el-Kheir said any effort to handle the Darfur conflict must come in accordance with the stance of the Sudanese government and the African Union on the issue. "Any outside work will be rejected, the Sudanese official told reporters.

"It is AU's responsibility to ensure a just solution to the Darfur dispute," the official said. He attributed the current situation in Darfur to the failure of "the developed countries to fulfill their commitments to meet the needs of the region."

The Sudanese official said the AU has made effective contribution to improve the situation in Darfur, expressing hope that the AU would expand its mandate in peacekeeping across the region. He said the Sudanese government would cooperate with the AU to help it achieve its mission, urging the international community to fulfill its commitments to help the Sudanese government and the AU on the issue.

[Note, this sounds like (to me anyway) bargaining dialogue, ie Khartoum is really saying: "if we allow the AU to expand their mandate, there will be no need to bring in foreign troops". Also, the bit where he says the developed countries have failed to fulfill their commitments to meet the needs of the region - sounds like Khartoum are miffed at not getting the loads of money promised for development, once a peace deal was signed. The money will be handed over once there is peace in Sudan - which includes Darfur.]
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Sudan slams Annan call for Western intervention in Darfur

13 Feb AFP: Sudan hit out Sunday at a call by Kofi Annan for EU or NATO intervention in Darfur, saying the world body ought to back the existing AU observer mission.

"We believe that the AU has the full mandate and capabilities to accomplish its mission satisfactorily and we expect that no other agency would tamper with this mission," a junior foreign minister told AFP.

"We commend the work done by the AU which has been recognised by the UN as the major body responsible for supervising the peace efforts in Darfur, and we expect the UN secretary general to spare no effort to bolster the AU in carrying out its assigned mission," Abdel Wahab said. - Full Story at Sudan Tribune Feb 13.

[Note the AU mission in Darfur is hamstrung without the full mandate to be effective, which is why the Darfur rebels are complaining AU troops are only observing]
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Annan calls for urgent Western intervention in Darfur

13 Feb UN News Centre: Kofi Annan today called on European and US officials gathered at a leading international forum in Munich, Germany to support efforts to strengthen the UN so that its system of collective security can better respond to changing conditions in the world.

He also addressed the case of Darfur, Sudan. "Additional measures are urgently required," the Secretary-General said. "Those organizations with real capacity - and NATO as well as the European Union are well represented in this room - must give serious consideration to what, in practical terms, they can do to help end this tragedy."

He conceded that peace-building efforts succeed only one time out of two. "Half of the civil wars that appear to have been resolved by peace agreements tragically slide back into conflict within five years," he observed.

The UN is stretched thin, with more than 75,000 personnel deployed in 18 peace operations on four continents, while a 19th operation is planned for Sudan. "For the foreseeable future, the global demand will outstrip the capacity of the UN to respond -- particularly when only one in five of our uniformed personnel comes from developed countries," he warned. Full Story.

[Note We have heard the prospect of foreign troop intervention before. Perhaps it is another tactic to pressure Khartoum and get them and the AU to agree to expand the mandate of AU troops in Darfur. NATO recently said it might look into helping if asked to do so by the AU. If EU troops are ever deployed in the Sudan, they will be part of the 10,000 UN peacekeepers monitoring the peace deal in Southern Sudan, not for the separate conflict in Darfur in Western Sudan. The UN peacekeeping force for South Sudan is not expected to be completed for another six months]
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Darfur rebels criticise AU troops

13 Feb UN News Centre: The AU force has come in for strong criticism from the Darfur rebels. SLA spokesman Mohammed Hamed Ali charged Saturday that ever since their deployment last year, the AU observers had "sat idly by while government planes mounted air raids and the Janjaweed militias carried out massacres." A peacekeeping force should be made up of "UN troops because they have the capacity and necessary means to protect Darfur," he said.

Full Story.

[Note This criticism is unfair. The AU troops are hamstrung without a mandate that allows them to operate as protection force and not just as observers and monitors. This could be a tactic employed by the rebels to stoke the UN to stoke Khartoum and the AU to expand the mandate of AU troops in Darfur]
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Senator Clinton calls for NATO to stop genocide in Darfur

14 Feb New York Times: Ex-first lady sways security policy forum in Munich, Germany: In her maiden appearance before the clubby - and overwhelmingly male - gathering of experts, Senator Hilary Clinton advocated a direct role by NATO to stop the genocide in Darfur. She asked for logistical, communication and transportation support.

"We cannot continue to say, 'Never again,' as it happens again before our eyes," she said in her speech, although the flatness of her delivery robbed her words of their impact.

Senator Clinton's husband, former US President Bill Clinton was in the audience. He has a new job with the UN, dealing with countries providing the aid for Asia's tsunami disaster.
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14 Feb Guardian report confirms the US government, departing from its normal practice of relying on US farmers to supply food for hungry foreigners, expects to turn to overseas markets for part of its food aid program.

[Note, This is good news, first of all for the overseas farmers, and for the logistics and cost involved transporting food aid from the US to countries such as Africa]
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Could Sudanese deal inspire secession?

Southern Sudan's secession six years from now? A United States of Africa in which borders become meaningless?

Sudan was created by the British who co-ruled it with Egypt from 1899 to 1955. Four times bigger than Texas, it straddles the great African divide between the Arab Muslim north and the black, heavily Christian south, and that faultline has defined the country's 21-year southern civil war.

This month's peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels could be the first test of whether Africa's largest country can stay in one piece.

Now that a deal has been signed with Sudan's southern rebels stipulating that the south will get to vote on independence in six years, the Darfur insurgents in the west of the country have started to speak more forcefully about autonomy. There's unrest in the central areas of Sudan too.

And why stop there, in a country U.N. special envoy Jan Pronk has described as "a failed nation ... many nations together in one huge territory, held together by force"?

For that matter, why stop at Sudan? It is only one of many African nations whose borders, it could be argued, are artificial.

Click here for full story via AP at Guardian, February 14, 2005.

[Note, the report states that President Bashir sounds determined to hold Sudan together. "Our ultimate goal is a united Sudan, which will not be built by war but by peace and development," he told crowds during a tour of the south following the signing of the peace deal. "You, the southerners, will be saying 'we want a strong and huge state, a united Sudan.'"]

Sudan's President Omar Bashir named world's worst dictator

US Parade magazine's yearly list of the planet's 10 worst living dictators has named Sudan's Omar Bashir as the head of world's most ignominious class. Here is a copy of a UPI report:

Although last year Bashir ranked a mere seventh among the 10 worst dictators, this year's list has him as the worst of the worst because of the 70,000 people who have been killed in Sudan's Darfur region and 6 million internally displaced as a result of Khartoum's ethnic cleansing, contributing editor David Wallechinsky wrote in Sunday's edition of Parade.

Among his signature forms of abuse: slave trading and aerial bombing of women's and children's refugee camps.

Following Bashir are, in order: Kim Jong Il (North Korea), Than Shwe (Myanmar, formerly Burma), Hu Jintao (China), Crown Prince Abdullah (Saudi Arabia), Muammar al-Qadafi (Libya), Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan), Saparmurat Niyazov (Turkmenistan), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe) and Teodoro Obiang Nguema (Equatorial Guinea).

Receiving dishonorable mentions are King Mswati III (Swaziland), Aleksander Lukashenko (Belarus) and Fidel Castro (Cuba), the world's longest-reigning -- and in Latin America an almost beloved -- dictator.

Wallechinsky developed his list by consulting such human rights groups as Freedom House, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders.

Bashir bumps Kim Jong-il off first place in world's worst top ten

13 Feb: South Korean news has picked up on the story: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il comes second in a sorry top ten of the world's worst dictators compiled by the US magazine Parade. The magazine, a weekend supplement to 340 US newspapers, said in its Sunday edition Kim was the among the planet's worst living dictators because of the personality cult surrounding him and his late father Kim Il-sung, the oppression of a third of North Koreans classified as a "hostile class", detention of 250,000 political prisoners, public execution of dissidents, and suppression of press freedom. The annual list was compiled by Parade contributing writer David Wallechinsky.

Musharraf included in world's 10 worst dictators list!

13 Feb India news says even though US President George W Bush has time and again acknowledged Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's contribution in the US led global War on Terro', an American weekly magazine has included Musharraf among the "world's 10 worst dictators".

According to the Daily Times, Parade, which is distributed with every newspaper delivered to an American home or sold on the street or at a newsstand at weekends, has compiled in consultation with Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Amnesty International, and Reporters Without Borders, a list that places General Musharraf among the 'world's worst 10 dictators" along with others like Kim Jong Il of North Korea, Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, Than Shwe of Myanmar, Hu Jintao of China, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Teodoro Obiang Nuguema of Equatorial Guinea.

"Two years after seizing power in a military coup that overthrew an elected government, Gen Pervez Musharraf appointed himself President of Pakistan. He recently agreed to step down as head of the military, then reversed the decision, claiming that he was best suited to unite Pakistan's contentious political and military elements. 'The country is more important than democracy,' he said. Pakistan has endangered the world by spreading nuclear technology. Last year, it was discovered that Abdul Qadeer Khan, head of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, has been selling nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran. As for civil liberties in Pakistan, a woman who has been raped may present her case only if she can produce four Muslim men who witnessed the attack," the paper quoted the report as saying. (ANI)
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Mans inhumanity to man

Following on from the post above, it is interesting to see Middle East Financial Network online Feb 12 carrying the same UPI report titled "Omar Bashir named world's worst dictator".

Here's hoping the news item will spread on the Internet and reach him and all the other dictators listed, in time for Valentine's Day as a message from the world to make love not war. Who knows if it might sober them up and change their mindset. If their wives, children, relatives, friends and religious leaders got to hear about it, maybe they could make a difference. Mankind needs more love, not hate and cruelty.

Note the absence of females among the list of those who mass murder defenceless women and children. Since when did men stop protecting women and children? Men really must wake up to what is going on or they will, like the Neanderthals become extinct. It might take 10,000 years or more but with so many psychos in power and so few men willing to do stop them, who needs any of them?

On the other hand, with a population of six billion human beings chasing resources, maybe the world needs such predators. After the holocaust and Rwanda the world said "never again" but it was less than ten years ago, and a two hour flight away from here in England, that genocide occurred in Bosnia while the world watched. Mankind is not as civilised as we like to believe. There is a long way to go yet. Genocides will continue to occur. Too many humans amongst too many predatory barbarians. Perhaps sporadic culling of humans is part of nature in their battle for survival. I have no other explanation for mans inhumanity to man.


Photo: June 2004 Secretary-General Kofi Annan (second from left) meeting with the President of Sudan, Omir Hassan A. Al-Bashir (right). (UN Photo by Eskinder Debebe). See more photos of Mr Annan's visit to the Sudan June 30, 2004 and July 10-12, 2002.
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13 Feb Sunday Times report says a psychiatrist brings back concept of evil - Many killers are diagnosed as psychopaths but most psychopaths never commit violent crimes. This suggests that something extra is at work. A study of serial killers and mass murderers suggests that some criminals are so inherently bad that there is no other word to describe their actions.
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Islam will remain main source for legislation in Sudan: president

9 Feb AFP news reveals Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir said that Islam will continue to be the main source of legislation in Sudan even after the peace deal with the mainly animist and Christian southern rebels. He made the comments while addressing a crowd in al-Suqi in central Sudan, the official Sudan News Agency reported.


Photo: Sudanese Sufis practice their religious rituals in the arid Khartoum suburb of Omdurman. (AFP)
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Sudan's FM spins Arab media today

Sudan's FM praises UAE support. Ismail told Dubai news today:

"President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has spared no efforts to help Sudan and its people. He said that the UAE had paid a special attention to the plight of the people of Darfur and was one of the first countries to dispatch humanitarian aid to the people of that region. "Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and I are in continuous contacts about developments in Sudan," Ismael added.

The Sudanese Foreign Minister called on the Arab countries to get actively involved in the efforts being made to help the people of Darfur, "so Darfurians will not feel abandoned by their Arab brethrens." He said that a five-side summit will be hosted by Chad on February 16 to try to come with a clear view of the forthcoming round of negotiations with Darfur rebels. The summit will be attended by leaders of Nigeria, Libya, Egypt and Sudan.


Photo: Dr Mustafa Osman Ismail, Sudanese foreign minister
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Annan tells EU, NATO more help needed in Darfur

13 Feb Munich, Germany Reuters report: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the European Union and NATO on Sunday to do more to help end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

"People are dying every single day, while we fail to protect them," Annan told a hall full of government ministers and top defence officials at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

He said the African Union's capacity to provide security in Darfur was dwarfed by the size of the challenge.

"Additional measures are urgently required. Those organisations with real capacity -- and NATO as well as the EU are well represented in this room -- must give serious consideration to what, in practical terms, they can do to help end this tragedy," he said.

"Together, working in close cooperation, we must come up with an effective strategy that halts the killing and protects the vulnerable. Otherwise, we shall have failed the people of Darfur. I am ready to play my full part in working out such a strategy," Annan said.
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Sudan opposition pushes for trials abroad for Darfur war crimes

13 Feb AFP report: Sudanese opposition parties from across the political spectrum pressed for Darfur war crimes suspects to stand trial abroad, backing the international community against the Khartoum regime.
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Darfur rebels reject Garang offer of peacekeeping troops

Feb 13 AFP report: SLA rebel group in Darfur, Western Sudan Sunday rejected an offer by John Garang's former SPLM rebel group in Southern Sudan to provide peacekeeping troops for Darfur.

Darfur war criminals in Sudan must fear The Hague

Samantha Power has an op-ed on Darfur in New York Times Feb 12. Here is the closing paragraph:

Skeptics say that international courts will never deter determined warlords. Musa Hilal, the coordinator of the deadly Janjaweed militia in Darfur, gave me a very different impression when I met with him soon after the Bush administration had named him as a potential suspect. He had left Darfur and was living in Khartoum, courting journalists in the hopes of improving his reputation. Almost as soon as I sat down with him, he began his defense. Like his victims, he had only one place on his mind. "I do not belong at The Hague," he said. Surely Bush doesn't want to find himself on the side of someone his administration considers a killer.
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"My words are very clear in this regard. The war has its repercussions. The rebels started this war. They started burning and destroying many of the villages. They started destroying our villages first. - Musa Hilal, suspected Janjaweed leader - Janjaweed 'leader' denies genocide

Further reading at Jewels in the Jungle post titled "Sudan: PBS Frontline World & BBC Panorama programmes:
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Security Council alone to determine venue for Darfur trials: UN

12 Feb news via AFP:

UN spokesperson Radhia Achouri said today, "The designation of the court which will examine the cases of 51 persons mentioned in the report as having committed crimes in Darfur is the responsibility of the Security Council."


Photo: The spokesperson for the United Nations advance mission in the Sudan, Radhia Achouri. (AP)
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Kofi Annan travels from England to Germany

11 Feb UN news reveals the Secretary-General travelled to Germany after wrapping up his visit to England, UK.
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Sudan arranges to try Darfur "war crimes" in Sudan

To avoid facing a court outside of Sudan, Sudanese officials are making their own arrangements to try Darfur war crimes in Sudan. A news report Feb 12 via BBC says Sudanese Minister of State Al-Tijani Salih Fudail [acting for Sudan's Foreign Minister Ismail who should be on UN's sealed list of wanted war criminals] asked the international community to give Sudan the opportunity to resolve the Darfur problem within the competencies given to the Sudanese first vice-president [also should be on UN list] who said that he had already started doing some thing about it.
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Sudan's FM to meet French counterpart tonight

Yesterday it was reported that Sudanese Foreign Minister Ismail stopped off in London "on his way home" from New York following a UN Security Council attended by Garang and Taha.

Tonight, Saturday Feb 12, he is in Paris, meeting with his French counterpart, M. Barnier. Note, Ismail requested the meeting.


Photo: French Foreign Minister M. Barnier
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UK envoy to Sudan calls for talks to end conflict in east

11 Feb news via BBC Monitoring Service says British ambassador to Sudan, William Patey, has said that it is necessary for the government and the Beja Congress to hold talks in order to solve the problem in the east.

During a press conference yesterday Ambassador Patey affirmed the British government's commitment to help in resolving the Sudanese conflicts.

He said: "We want peace both in the east and west. We would like to tell the Beja Congress that talks are the way to solve the problem in the east, and that our message to the government is to start peaceful negotiations."

He pointed out that there were friends who could help in solving the crisis and bringing peace everywhere in Sudan. He also says that Britain's role is to give assistance.

"Britain's role is to give assistance to solve the cease-fire and renounce violence," he said.

He affirmed that agreement with the south would help in solving all the problems in both the east and west.


Photo: UK Ambassador to Sudan William Patey

Further reading:

12 Feb news via BBC: Sudanese opposition alliance approves Cairo agreement. The meetings also approved the Beja Congress and the Free Lions organizations as the official representatives of eastern Sudan, and the legality of the two organizations, as well as the SLM. http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=7985

12 Feb news via BBC: Opposition alliance to withdraw its forces from east Sudan. An agreement has been reached on the withdrawal of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) forces from Al-Qiran town in Hamashkoreb area following a political settlement on the dossier of the eastern region. The NDA leader has held talks with the Eritrean President to discuss how to eliminate the political tension between Khartoum and Asmara. During the meeting, the sources say, President Afewerki expressed his anger over Khartoum government for hosting the summit of the Eritrean factions opposed to the his regime, which was held in Khartoum recently.


Photo: Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki (R) receives the Chairman of the Sudanese opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani in his office, on Friday, February 4, 2005. (ERINA).
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John Garang: A Conversation on Sudan

12 Feb John Garang, who for two decades led the People's Liberation Movement in southern Sudan, will soon be vice president in a new Sudanese government of national unity. He says he hopes the new government will be able to end the widespread human rights abuses in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Click here at NPR to listen to a full, 37 minute interview.


Photo: John Garang speaks after the United Nations Security Council met in New York on Feb. 8.

12 Feb Arabic News news says there may be a Sudanese Central Bank branch in the south this month.

12 Feb Sudan Tribune news via SUNA says the European Union (EU) has allocated 30 million euros for boosting the basic education in Sudan toward enforcing the recently signed peace agreement between the Government of Sudan (GOS) and the SPLM. The federal Minister of Education, Ahmed Babiker Nahar, made this declaration, after receiving an EU work team for educational support programmes.

Lack of access muddies death toll of 400,000+ in Darfur, Sudan

Estimates vary widely as Sudan stalls efforts by the United Nations to survey death rates in Darfur, writes Washington Post Staff Writer Colum Lynch in an opinion piece Feb 8 - here is an excerpt:

The conflict has produced widely varied estimates of the death toll in Darfur, with the UN estimating that as many as 70,000 displaced Darfuris died between March and October 2004 and some outside analysts suggesting more than 400,000 have been killed or perished from disease or malnutrition since the violence began in February 2003.

The World Health Organization has been in tense negotiations with Sudan for about a month over allowing a team of international epidemiologists to conduct a study of mortality in Darfur. A U.N. official familiar with the discussions said Khartoum has so far refused to grant visas to the agency's specialists because Sudan is "just terrified" that a new mortality study will heighten international criticism of the government. "They think any attempt to look at mortality is going to lead to a new headline figure that is going to dominate the news for the next couple of weeks," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing concern that the confidential negotiations could be derailed by public comments. Full Story.
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Over 1.5 million people are going without the international aid they need

Sudan expert Professor Eric Reeves publishes his latest analysis, quoting the International Committee of the Red Cross as saying on Feb 9:

"We are speaking about a severely deteriorating situation. There is no place for optimism as far as the Darfur conflictual dynamics are concerned."

Professor Reeves estimates as many as 3 million people in Darfur and Chad are now food-dependent, and of these (even assuming fully adequate food distribution in Chad) over 1.5 million are going without any international food aid. Sadly, he says most of these people have not had adequate food assistance to this point in the crisis, and are thus badly weakened and acutely susceptible to disease and the effects of malnutrition.
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Needs are huge in Darfur

10 Feb Oxfam report reveals water shortages add to daily misery of camp life:

"The level of suffering that is still going on in Darfur is incredible," said Caroline Nursey, Oxfam's regional director. "In response to the natural disaster of the tsunami, the world united to save lives. In Darfur, people are dying needlessly because of other people's actions, yet the world has responded with half measures and empty promises."

Further reading:

11 Feb British Red Cross report explains the needs are huge in Darfur.

11 Feb Reuters report says WHO issues warning over meningitis: cases had been reported in the eastern Sudanese states of Gadaref and Blue Nile, bordering Ethiopia. Between 22 Jan and 2 Feb, a total of 169 cases, including 23 deaths, were reported from both states. "The Sudanese government has responded quickly and sent in vaccination teams straight away and the number of reported cases has been falling since last week," spokesman of the communicable diseases section of the WHO in Geneva, told IRIN on Friday.

11 Feb Alex de Waal in his latest essay at ZNet writes, "according to the letter of the law, it is genocide in Darfur."

11 Feb report from CNS News explains how African churches are gearing up to teach people in southern Sudan about democracy and human rights to better prepare them for the changes ahead.

12 Feb International Herald Tribune report from International: "Born with rape's stigma in Sudan".

Quotation of the Day

"We will take care of the child. It is very difficult to love a janjaweed, but we will try to accept him as our own." - Mohammad, whose sister Ashta gave birth after being raped by a janjaweed militia fighter in Darfur, Sudan. [via NYT]


Photo: First prize Portraits Stories category of the World Press Photo 2005 contest by American photographer Adam Nadel, Polaris Images, showing a portrait in Darfur, Sudan (AP Photo/Adam Nadel/ Polaris Images)

Postscript: An Indian photographer for Reuters won the World Press Photo award today for a tsumani disaster image [many more people were killed in the Sudan]
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The Sudan is a perfect example of the impotence of political solutions to the problem of evil men carrying out evil deeds

The following excerpt is from a post by Charlie at AnotherThink blog:

The Sudan is a perfect example of the impotence of political solutions to the problem of evil men carrying out evil deeds.

What should compassionate and mercy-loving people do to help the dying and starving people of Darfur?

First, give. Find a reputable charity that is working in the Sudan and make a financial commitment to their efforts. You will find a number of these organizations listed here.

Second, write to Secretary of State Rice and President Bush asking them to exert greater pressure on the government of Sudan and the UN to intervene and stop the killing.

Third, pray for peace. Pray that evil men will be stopped and brought to justice. Pray for healing, forgiveness, and the restoration of families to their homes.

Fourth, stay informed. Sudan Watch continuously updates its website with news and developments. Check there often.

God's people are to be prophetic voices in a lost world. The suffering people of Darfur have no voice. You can speak for them. You can be their voice.

UN Security Council agrees to peace mission for S. Sudan

Unfortunately, there is still very little news of the UN Security Council meeting held a few days ago. A report today Feb 11 at IRIN confirms the council has started working on a resolution to establish a peacekeeping operation in Sudan to support the peace process, the Council's President, Ambassador Joel Adechi, of Benin, said on Tuesday.

Also, the news report says "council members, Adechi noted, remained gravely concerned by the dire situation prevailing in Darfur and called upon the parties to do their best to bring the conflict to an end quickly through a sustainable political settlement."
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Blair stands firm with Annan

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was in London yesterday Feb 10 giving a speech on UN reform at The Banqueting House, Whitehall. Click here for a copy of the speech.

10 Feb news report says British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed support for Mr Annan Thursday, calling him a tremendous unifier.


Photo: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (R), shakes hands with Ali Osman Mohammed Taha (L), Vice-President of Sudan, in New York February 8, 2005. A senior UN envoy called for robust outside troops in Darfur to supplement those from the African Union. (Reuters/Chip East)
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British FM urges Sudan to restart Darfur peace talks

So far, the press has not made much of a meeting in London today between British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, International Development Secretary Hilary Benn and Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail.

A report today Feb 11 by AFP says they called for peace talks on Darfur in the Nigerian capital Abuja to resume.

Straw held talks with Ismail on Thursday as the Sudanese minister called into London on his way home from a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York.

Britain would continue to back a recent peace deal ending Sudan's 21-year civil war, Straw said in a later statement. "But the situation in Darfur is still extremely worrying," he added. "I urge all sides to stop the fighting, to abide by the commitments they have made and then to return to the negotiating table in Abuja. This can be the only way to a lasting peace in Darfur."

Hilary Benn, who held a separate meeting with FM Ismail, noted that while Khartoum had publicly committed itself to peace, "the world will judge the government by the action it takes".

Note, as far as I am aware, it is not the Sudanese government delaying Darfur peace talks, it is he Darfur rebel group JEM that is refuses to attend any more peace talks until the UN gives in to their request for the UN mediate the talks instead of the African Union.


Photo: Feb 8 Darfur rebels from the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) wait in their base in Gellab, North Darfur, Sudan. The SLM called on the UN to oversee peace negotiations with the government. (AFP/File/Marco Longari)
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Mauritania sends military observers to Darfur Sudan

10 Feb Associated Press confirms a group of armed observers from the Arab-dominated West African nation of Mauritania, flew to Darfur to join in the African Union peace mission, police officials said Thursday.

The military and police observers, 30 in all, arrived Thursday in Sudan to join about 1,400 ceasefire monitors and protection troops sent by the AU, a senior police official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Before departing, the observers met with Mauritanian President Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya, who called upon them to "rightly fulfill their mission" which he said was to be "peace messengers," the official said.
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South Africa sends two police teams to Sudan on peacekeeping mission

11 Feb ReliefWeb report from Cape Town, South Africa (Xinhua via COMTEX) says South African police are sending two teams to Darfur on a peacekeeping mission this weekend.

The office of the national police commissioner said on Friday the 12-strong party would form part of an AU operation and will fall under the authority and guidance of the continental body.

National police Commissioner spokesperson, Director Sally de Beer, said Pillay's team would be deployed to Sudan for six months, while an advance team would be deployed for a period of three weeks. Both teams would consist of six people.

"The task for these 12 members will be to establish a headquarters in El Fashir and Nyala and to ensure that accommodation and logistical requirements are put in place as speedily as possible to receive the ten teams of 10 SAPS civilian police monitors as requested by the AU," said de Beer.

"It must be emphasized that the members of the SA Police Service will be regarded as civilian police monitors and will be performing monitoring and advisory duties only," she said.
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Sudan Tribunal would take a year to set up while 100,000 die

11 Feb Former UK foreign secretary Robin Cook (who was replaced by Jack Straw) has an article in today's Guardian saying that US hostility to the international criminal court knows no bounds. He writes:

The gravest, most grotesque crimes against humanity since the international criminal court was set up are to be found in Darfur. The UN commission of inquiry has provided a compelling account of the harrowing brutality with which Sudanese forces are pursuing a strategy of ethnic cleansing, and concluded that the victims are "living a nightmare of violence and abuse". That nightmare has included men being dragged over the ground behind camels by a noose around their necks, women being kept naked in rape camps and girls as young as eight being violated.

Wryly, he adds:

A state department official expressed to a visiting European: "No US citizen is going to be tried by a Belgian", which raises doubts as to whether the Bush administration actually knows in which European country The Hague is located.

Also, Mr Cook points out that Condoleezza Rice has been using her contacts in Europe to lobby privately for the Darfur atrocities to be referred anywhere but the international criminal court. He notes:

It would take at least a year But it would take at least a year before any tribunal starting from scratch would have the staff, premises and procedures to get down to work. In the meantime, while the UN tried to accommodate the ideological antipathy of the Bush administration to the international criminal court, another 100,000 people would have been killed in Darfur. One of the six reasons cited by the UN commission for recommending the international criminal court was precisely that it could be activated immediately, without any delay.

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Reporter's Notebook: Actor Don Cheadle in Sudan

Here is an excerpt from "A View from the Ground on the Killing in Northeast Africa" by American actor Don Cheadle:

I was invited to join five members of Congress on a fact-finding mission to see refugees and the way they are forced to live.

Late last month, we traveled with Paul Rusesabagina, the man I portray in the film "Hotel Rwanda," which is about the genocide of 800,000 people in Rwanda more than a decade ago. Rusesabagina used his hotel as an impromptu refugee camp and saved more than 1,000 lives.

I agreed to go to Sudan because I think it would be very disingenuous for me to have been saying all this time since we made the movie, "We can't allow this to go on," and "We have to get involved" -- and I had the opportunity to get involved and didn't.

We entered Sudan from neighboring Chad. Our first stop was a military base belonging to the 53-nation African Union, which is monitoring the activities in Sudan. Full Story.

African Union "Sudan Tribunal" for war crimes in Darfur

Unusually, there is an absence of UN Security Council news following its meeting held Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Perhaps council members are hammering out details of a "Sudan Tribunal" proposed by the US.

A report Feb 9 by Washington File UN correspondent details the US proposal of an alternative to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution of violators. What it does not mention though, is how they propose to bring the violators to court. It would be a clever move to get the Africans to decide. Here is an excerpt from the report:

Senior US officials have been meeting with members of the Security Council to work out a way to bring to trial those accused of human rights abuses and war crimes in Darfur. US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Pierre-Richard Prosper says that he and other council members are discussing the merits of various proposals, but the most important issue is "to recognize that response is needed now to ensure effective accountability.

"The key is to stop the violence, the killing," Prosper told journalists after a private meeting with council members. "We know that it's hard to pursue justice when people are continuing to be killed and there's an unstable environment. We've seen that in other parts of the world.

"So the immediate task for the Security Council is to take the measures required to end violence and then we'll be in a position to deal with the justice questions, [and] a timetable," the ambassador said.

The US has proposed a "Sudan Tribunal," created and mandated by a UN Security Council resolution and administered by the UN in conjunction with the African Union (AU). The tribunal would have the authority to prosecute those individuals held responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Darfur from January 1, 2003, to the present.

The proposed tribunal, US officials said, would allow the AU to continue its leadership role while the issue of the accountability for war crimes is pursued by other agencies. It also would contribute to the development of the African Union's overall judicial capacity on the continent.

The United States, which is not a party to the Rome Statute that created the ICC, is confident that there are more suitable alternatives for prosecuting those accused of committing war crimes in Darfur, State Department officials said.

The so-called "Sudan Tribunal" would be more appropriate than the ICC in this case because it takes full account of and reinforces the AU role in addressing the Darfur conflict, they said.

Under the US proposal the tribunal would be based in Arusha, Tanzania. It would share the existing physical infrastructure the Security Council created for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda but would have its own judges, registrar, prosecutor, and other personnel appointed by Secretary-General Annan in coordination with the AU.

US officials point out that the ICC has a limited presence in Africa and its staff is now occupied with investigations in Uganda and Congo. The Rwanda Tribunal, in contrast, has extensive infrastructure on the ground and established relationship agreements with governments throughout the continent, and thus there would be no significant difference in cost between the additional costs incurred by the ICC and the UN/AU court.
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Airbus cancels Sudan Airways' 45 million dollar debt: minister



9 Feb (AFP) report via Turkish Press confirms European aviation consortium Airbus Industrie has cancelled the 45-million dollar debt owed to it by Sudan Airways, Sudanese Aviation Minister Ali Tamim Fartak said. In return, the European firm will win the majority of the ailing carrier's contracts for new aircraft of various types to boost its fleet, Fartak told the official SUNA news agency.

Sudan announced last year that it would privatize the national carrier and invite foreign investors to buy shares in a new company. It said the decision had been taken because of losses and debts of millions of dollars.

Officials said 30 percent of the shares of the new firm would be held by the government, 21 percent by Sudanese businessmen and 49 percent by foreign investors yet to come forward.

Sudans next challenge: preserving its borders

Following on from the previous post below, here are some extracts from an article at Aljazeera Feb 10 that suggest a national identity needs to be created if Sudan is to remain united, or it may be better for Sudan to go its own way:

An extremely significant article in the peace deal, and one that many have passed off lightly, is that after six years a referendum will be held to the Southern Sudanese on whether they choose to secede from the north or not. This referendum brings up the issue of the possible redrawing of the map of Africa for the first time since the end of the colonial era.

Most of the conflicts within Africa are over control of land and natural resources - oil, diamonds, copper and silver - and the best means of grasping at those have traditionally been to control the central government.

"Most of these insurgencies are striving for power at a national level," said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "That is the only thing that matters. If you are out of power you are out of luck."

In some cases, Morrison saya, the conflicts are simply too deep and complex to be resolved any other way than by breaking up. Sudan, which has been at war for much of its 50-year post-colonial history, would seem to be the foremost example of such a case.

But many times it's the rebels themselves who oppose the border redrawing. Having seen how lucrative centralized power can be, most are reluctant to give it up for what is often paradoxically seen as the lesser goal of independence.

In the case of Sudan, John Garang the SPLA/M leader, has argued against secession despite its popularity among his followers, pushing instead for a bigger role in the central government in Khartoum.

"How can a people who have been subjugated...for so long accept unity?" asked Adam Cholong Ohiri, a professor at Juba University. "Many will conclude it is better to go our own way."


Photo (Aljazeera) SPLA soldiers look at a copy of the comprehensive peace agreement before a meeting in Rumbek, Southern Sudan

Sudan: Child soldiers in Janjaweed and breakaway Darfur rebel group NMRD

In Darfur last week, things were unusually quiet while Sudan's First Vice-President Taha toured the region. It was his first visit to Darfur and proves that Khartoum do have control over the violence. He was not attacked by the outlaws and bandits known as the Janjaweed over which the regime in Khartoum says it has no control. One never sees news of Janjaweed killed by landmines and bombs.

Recently, Khartoum pledged not to use cargo planes for their bombings of Darfur. But the promise did not extend to other military aircraft, such as helicopter gunships that Sudan's air force have used to straf civilians. Maybe Khartoum anticipated a no-fly zone could be on the table at the UN Security Council. Khartoum do not do anything out of kindness.

At times, one can't help feeling that Jan Pronk, the UN special envoy for Sudan, molly coddles Khartoum. There was a time last year when Mr Pronk sat in his office, situated on the upper floor of a hotel in Khartoum, while downstairs, at the same time, the most wanted Arab tribal leader gave press interviews. This happened shortly after Kofi Annan, Colin Powell and the UN Security Council demanded that Khartoum rein in the Arab militias. Khartoum always deny they have any control over the Janjaweed. Arab militias are used by Khartoum to attack the rebels because too many Sudanese soldiers originate from the Darfur region and cannot be trusted to attack their own people.

Regular Sudan Watchers will know there are two main rebel groups in Darfur, namely the SLM/SLA and JEM. Since last summer, a third rebel group has gained publicity. They broke away from the JEM and called themselves the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD). You have to wonder if this is a strategy employed by Sudan's rebel groups (including John Garang's) to add more strings to their bow for the Darfur peace talks. It seems obvious (to me anyway) the rebels' only aim is to weaken and overthrow a regime that aims to retain power at any cost. Both sides make the Darfur peace talks seem like a charade. Whenever the SLM/SLA and JEM are in a corner during the Darfur peace talks, they either fail to attend or walk out to cause further delays, and trouble or another rebel group springs up elsewhere to bait Khartoum into responding. NMRD rebels recently bombed an oil pump near Khartoum and protested in the streets of Port Sudan for the people of Eastern Sudan who also want a share of power and oil revenues.

The SLM/SLA and JEM are fighting for Darfur in Western Sudan. A recently signed north-south peace accord, negotiated over several years to bring peace to the whole of Sudan, covers Southern Sudan only. As a result of the signed deal, John Garang, leader of the Southern Sudan rebel group SPLM/A will soon replace Taha as First Vice-President of Sudan. Taha and Bashir are very close. It is difficult to believe Bashir and Taha are not, along with foreign minister Ismail, on the UN's list of 10 Sudanese officials suspected of being responsible for some of the war crimes committed in Darfur.

When Garang takes over as First Vice-President, it looks like Taha who, with his new responsibilities for managing the Darfur catastrophe, will float in the background, perhaps taking on the role of foreign minister Ismail who is stepping down when the newly formed South Sudan Government starts to become a reality.

Note, it is common knowledge US government officials were instrumental in getting Sudan's north-south peace accord negotiated and signed. Maybe they fear being called to an International Criminal Court to answer questions. After all, it is no secret the US backed and supported Garang's rebels. Garang is a trained economist, educated in the States. I have yet to find a report that explains how the Darfur rebels have been supported and funded over the past two years. My theory is they are supported by the international community.

The regime in Khartoum have proven to be completely untrustworthy. It can't be easy for them to know who to trust. Garang and Bashir were arch enemies. Two is company, three is a crowd. Maybe Bashir will slope off and retire, followed by Taha to avoid being called to a tribunal, and Garang will take over as president to try and unite a New Sudan. But there are many people who backed Bashir and Taha and committed atrocities over the last 15 years. Surely they would fear retribution and so continue fighting for the Arabisation of Sudan. In my view, Sudan may need to break apart. It is not easy believing peace is just around the corner. Peace may take many more years to achieve. Meanwhile, something unique is needed to change the mindset of those who hold so many grievances. Perhaps they could be helped by a charismatic and inspirational leader. Maybe Garang can do it. Maybe not. I believe women could manage the change that is needed. Men, over so many decades, attacking, raping and murdering hundreds of thousands defenceless women and children is all wrong. Today's children of Sudan ought to be carrying lambs, not arms.

Darfur rebels roam empty African plains

The following editorial re the child soldiers in the breakaway Darfur rebel group NMRD is a copy of a report dated Feb 9 by Opheera McDoom titled "Darfur rebels roam empty African plains":

JABEL MOUN, Sudan (Reuters) - Mohamed Abdel Karim crouches down on the sandy earth next to a rifle bigger than his tiny frame, lights up a cigarette and nurses a stick cast protecting his broken right arm.

The 12-year-old is one of many child soldiers caught up in fighting during the rebellion in Darfur, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced more than 1.8 million people from their homes in the arid region the size of France since it began in February 2003.

Sheltering from the sweltering heat of the Savannah plains surrounding West Darfur's Jabel Moun area, he proudly states he is fighting for the freedom of his people, sporting the traditional light green head wrap which runs the entire length of his small body.

"My mother and father would be happy because I will free Darfur from tyranny," he said. His family are across the border in Chad in a refugee camp, having fled fighting last year.

He joined the rebels 11 months ago when his two brothers also joined. Mohamed carries a pistol -- he's not graduated to carrying Kalashnikovs like his older comrades.

Jabel Moun, about four and a half hours off-road driving through burned villages, desolate desert and African plains from the Chadian-Sudanese border town of Tine, is the stronghold of a breakaway rebel group, the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD).

The NMRD is a little-known group which split from the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) last April. Fighters said they command between 2,000 and 5,000 troops, mostly along the border with Chad and around the Jabel Moun area.

They move camps and stay as mobile as possible in clapped out old vehicles they stole from the government during attacks or in newer 4x4s, which they say were donated to them by rich supporters outside the country. Leader Gibril Abdel Karim Bari's vehicle had no windscreen left.

Gibril is the commander the militias say they most want and the rebels from NMRD most respect. An accomplished military mind, his driving skills are famously lacking. A crashed car wrapped around a smashed tree next to the track was testament to his latest accident.

"Oops, sorry," he said, laughing as he drove at breakneck speed into a ditch, with dozens of soldiers hanging off the back, clinging on for dear life.

The rebel soldiers roam throughout the rough, thorny terrain, empty for hundreds of kilometres but for the odd hawk or pea hen. Most of the inhabitants fled the fighting and are among the more than 200,000 refugees encamped in Chad. Many villages were burned.

Rebels often come under attack from Arab militias, known as Janjaweed. But they say the government has not bombed for about six months in their area.

REBEL FAMILIES

Despite the splits in Darfur's rebel movements and the external political leadership's differences, the lines between the rebel groups on the ground are faint. Many joined the NMRD from JEM or the other group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).

One of Mohamed Abdel Karim's brothers is in JEM, and the other in the SLA. He regularly touches base by telephone. Abdel Gasim is the general secretary of the NRMD and his uncle is the JEM spokesman in London.

"We are all fighting for the same reasons -- why would we not coordinate?" said Khalil Abdallah, the political secretary of the movement.

Gibril said his forces in South Darfur took orders from the SLA commander there and the SLA base near Jabel Moun answered to him.

The NMRD move freely back and forth across the Chadian border, where they sporadically signal to groups of armed men to let them pass.

"The roads there are safer -- on the Sudan side there are Janjaweed," said one driver, who identified himself as Ahmed.

UN report warns on child soldiers

9 Feb Guardian UK report says in his annual report to the UN Security Council on child soldiers, Kofi Annan recommended sanctions against groups who use child soldiers. These could include travel bans on leaders, arms embargoes and a "restriction on the flow of financial resources to the parties concerned," he said.

The report said child soldiers are used in Burundi, Ivory Coast, Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Colombia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Uganda. There are about 300,000 child soldiers around the world, compared to between 350,000 and 380,000 two years ago.

Annan's report said child soldiers are used in the Darfur by the Arab militia known as the Janjaweed, which has killed, maimed and committed grave sexual violence against children.

The UN Security Council is to debate Annan's report on Feb. 23.
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Darfur refugees live in Chad within sight of their homes

Update 10 Feb: Reuters report from Tine, Chad tells us a little about the Sudanese refugees sheltering on the Chadian side of Tine, a town that straddles the border of Sudan and Chad. Here is a copy of the report Feb 10:

Sudanese refugee Rajab and thousands of other refugees have lived on the Chadian side of Tine town for 13 months since they fled battles between rebels and government forces in Sudanese Tine. The towns are separated by a dry river bed. Rajab lives 50 metres from his home -- but he dare not go back to live there for fear of being caught in the middle of a two-year-old rebellion in Darfur bordering Chad. "If we go back the opposition (rebels) may kill us thinking we are with the government, and the government may accuse us of being with the rebels and kill us," he said.

A makeshift refugee camp extends Chadian Tine's suburbs by a few kilometres on all sides. Buses and trucks fill the marketplace, ready to transfer hundreds of Sudanese back to the camps set up by aid agencies away from the border and which house more than 200,000 refugees.

Mohamed Mansour Dousa said rebels had told the refugees not to go back to the Sudanese side. He is the son of the leader of the main Zaghawa tribe in Tine and wears Sudanese traditional white turban and galabiyya. "And we don't want to go back until there is a final peace deal between the rebels and the government," he said. "Otherwise war could break out at any time -- there's no guarantees."

Many of the lesser-educated women repeated stories they had clearly heard over and over again. "(President) Omar al-Bashir will kill us if we go back. The Janjaweed are his family," Tanbus Adam Haggar said, flashing a toothless grin. "People say the Janjaweed are still there, attacking," she said.

The Zaghawa, are the base for the revolution

Colourfully dressed women described pictures of sprawling Sudanese Tine completely flattened by government bombardment, and did not believe it was mostly still standing, if completely empty.

Adam Shatta, a Zaghawa, said Janjaweed shot and killed three of his children. He managed to save two by heaving one on each shoulder and running to safety across the border to Chad in February 2004. "I want to go back and will, but only when the government gets rid of the Janjaweed," he said. "My farm is still waiting for me." He said non-Arab tribes could go back but the Zaghawa would never go back until there was a final peace deal.

"We, the Zaghawa, are the base for the revolution," he said. "That's why the government wants to kill us."

African Union not trusted

Najmeddin Ibrahim Eissa said the African Union, mandated to monitor a shaky ceasfire between the warring parties in Darfur, was not well liked among the general population.

"They are seen to be too sympathetic with the government because they have such close relations and cooperate so much together," he said. "I don't have anything against them personally but they do need a wider peace-keeping mandate."

Sudanese Tine was a bustling town of tens of thousands but now about 150 people live there with about 3,000 government soldiers, who fill the market place.

The AU camp of about 90 soldiers lies a few hundred metres outside the town and is the only life to be heard at night, apart from sporadic eery whispers blown over on the wind from acoss the border.

"The people will only go back when the army soldiers leave the town and the African Union soldiers move into Tine," said Hussein Bishara Dousa.
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AU observers have failed people of Darfur: Sudan rebel leader

9 Feb (AFP) report says African Union (AU) observers monitoring a ceasefire between ethnic minority rebels and government forces in Darfur have failed the local population, a rebel leader charged Wednesday.

"They have failed to be observers. Their presence has had no effect on the ground," Abdul Wahid Mohammed Ahmed al-Nur, leader of the SLM, told AFP by telephone from Asmara, Eritrea. "All they have done is watch and write," said Nur, arguing that the military observers have also failed to adequately respond to reports about attacks on civilians, often arriving "four or five days after an incident".

Nur called on the UN Security Council to issue a resolution changing the mandate of the AU in Darfur from observer to a full-fledged peacekeeping mission with a larger force and broader mandate. "I also urge African countries and others to contribute forces to protect civilians in Darfur," the SLM leader said.

Leader of the SPLM/A John Garang has proposed the deployment of a tripartite force -- one-third each from the government, the SPLA and the AU -- to oversee the Darfur ceasefire and end the bloodshed. "You really do need a robust force in order to be able to sufficiently protect the civilian population," Garang said Monday in New York.

Nur welcomed the participation of the SPLA in such a force, but said the government, which he accused of complicity in attacks against civilians in Darfur, cannot be part of that force. "We cannot accept that," he said.

AU says parties have demonstrated no real political will or commitment to finding solution for Darfur Sudan crisis

8 Feb Reuters report says Taha and Garang told the UN Security Council today not to make prosecuting war criminals as its first priority. Taha said bringing the accused to justice "should not distract us from the need to realise peace first and to put an end to all hostilities."

Taha and Garang said development aid that was promised upon signing of the North-South peace agreement should be provided before the Darfur conflict ends. [Note, the international community is withholding development aid for Sudan until there is peace throughout Sudan]

Taha said the impoverished country should be free of any economic sanctions and that foreign debt should be completely written off. Garang agreed, saying any lack of reconstruction help, in a country that has known only a few years of peace since independence, would be self defeating.

Garang proposed a new force of some 15,000 to 30,000 troops to keep peace in Darfur -- a third from the government, a third from his Sudanese People's Liberation Army and the rest from the African Union and others.

Garang said the janjaweed, needed to be punished -- but only after peace was achieved.
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Parties not demonstrating political will or commitment

Jan Pronk said the Sudanese government was incapable of reining in the Janjaweed, the Darfur rebels were making a power grab and the African Union peacekeeping force needed to be supplemented by a "third force."

Pronk appealed to all parties, including the AU and members of the Security Council, "to find a creative way to expand the present third force into one which can stop all attacks."

Baba Gana Kingibe, the African Union special representative in Sudan, said the number of troops was not the issue.

"So far, I have not found that the parties have demonstrated sufficient political will or commitment to finding a lasting solution to the crisis," he said, adding that 3,320 troops and police would be on the ground by mid-April.
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Sudanese tell UN Security Council it wants all for nothing

8 Feb UN news report excerpt:

Mr. Taha called on the international community to support efforts aimed at reconstruction and development, to lift any economic and trade restrictions or sanctions, to write off all foreign debt, to initiate partnerships with Sudan and to give generously at a forthcoming donors' conference in Oslo, Norway.

Mr. Garang noted the many challenges ahead, including the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees and millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs), some of whom are already moving to their home areas before necessary conditions were in place, thus putting additional strain on host communities. The SPLM needs assistance, he said.

Mr. Annan, who attended the session in view of its historic significance, did not speak, but in his report he emphasizes the substantial resources needed for relief and recovery and calls for the deployment of a multidimensional UN peace support operation that includes more than 10,000 troops and civilian police.

His Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, underlined the important momentum the peace accord in the south could give to efforts to solve Sudan's other major conflict in the west, in Darfur, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly 2 million displaced in the past two years in what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission in the Sudan, Baba Gana Kingibe, stressed that the coming weeks would be critical for the smooth take-off of the new agreement and the manner in which its implementation unfolded would determine the future not only of Darfur and other areas in conflict within the Sudan but also to the future of the country as a whole.

Further reading:

8 Feb UN press statement on Sudan by Security Council President, excerpt: The Council calls on all parties to cooperate fully with the African Union mission and to ensure its freedom of movement and safety in all areas of Darfur. In the absence of progress on the ground and in the political process the situation in Darfur can only further deteriorate, and put at great risk the future of the whole country. The Council encourages Vice-President Taha and Dr. Garang to use their leverage in Darfur to ensure speedy progress in the Abuja talks.