The European Commission makes the following announcement today on its allocation of EUR 12 million to victims of the Darfur conflict who have fled to Chad.
[Note the break down, listed below, re EUR 400 million donation for South and North Sudan. Since southern Sudan appears to be in desperate need of funding and the violence in Darfur has, especially compared to this time last year, greatly reduced, it looks like EUR 50 milliion will soon be released and split evenly between South and North Sudan.]
The EC has released 12 million euros in humanitarian aid for the victims of the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan, to alleviate the consequences of the population movements affecting Chad.
This aid is to cover the immediate needs of the refugees, the host population and returnees. It will be channelled through the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), under the responsibility of Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid.
Since the beginning of the crisis in February 2003, the political and humanitarian situation in Darfur has brought massive population displacements that have not been confined to Sudan. In 2004, fighting and attacks on civilians in Darfur drove a large number of Sudanese refugees into Chad. There are currently more than 213 000 Sudanese refugees in eleven camps spread around the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti, Biltine and Ouaddai regions of Chad. Water and agricultural resources are scarce in these three regions, which are quite unsuited to large population influxes.
The decision is intended to provide for the refugees' main needs in areas such as health, water and hygiene, food security, protection of the civilian population, education, shelter and basic necessities like cooking equipment, blankets and so forth. The decision also covers the most pressing needs of the host population directly affected by this influx.
The situation in Darfur and the scale of the humanitarian crisis are such that there is no prospect of a swift return to Sudan for the refugees. Current events in Sudan mean that there may yet be further waves of refugees.
The European Commission has donated a total of EUR 213 million to the region since the beginning of the Darfur crisis, including aid to Sudanese refugees in Chad. EUR 86 million has been channelled via ECHO, of which EUR 72 million was for Darfur and EUR 14 million for Chad.
For further information see:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/echo/field/chad/index_fr.htm
http://europa.eu.int/comm/echo/index_en.htm
Given conditions in the country, this cooperation strategy must also respond to basic needs at the local level.
The cooperation-strategy paper sets out a framework for the EU's contribution to Sudan, corresponding to an indicative amount of EUR 400 million, broken down as follows:
EUR 127.5 million: 9th European Development Fund - allocation for new programmes;
EUR 191 million: transfer to cover lost revenue from farm exports. These funds will be allocated to food security operations;
EUR 16.5 million: programmes already decided but still to be implemented;
EUR 43 million: 9th European Development Fund - contingencies, notably humanitarian needs;
EUR 5-10 million annually: indicative budget allocations (not including humanitarian assistance).
The response strategy adopted by the Commission will focus on two primary sectors: food security and education. It will target in particular the resettlement of displaced persons, with an emphasis on capacity-building for good governance. The strategy may also cover demobilization, disarmament and reintegration operations, including mine clearance, the training of security forces and other actions under Article 11 of the Cotonou Agreement. It also concerns human rights, good governance and the rule of law and provides direct support to the peace process, initiatives to consolidate peace and efforts to strengthen civil society and the healthcare sector.
Immediately following the signing of the strategy paper and of the national indicative programme, the Commission and Sudanese government must study and approve a memorandum of understanding. This will take place in cooperation with the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/government of South Sudan, the goal being to reflect the country's new institutional set-up in the wake of the Naivasha Agreement and the scenario planned for the post-conflict period.
Once the strategy paper has been signed, a EUR 50 million programme will be quickly launched to bring the benefits of peace as rapidly as possible to the North as well as the South (EUR 25 million for each region). The programme's core aim is to organize projects bringing together the country's communities that will be implemented in partnership with local NGOs and non-state actors.
More information: ECHO.
- - -
Zoellick in Darfur to support African Union
America's two billion dollar man is in town.
"This visit is ... to assess the humanitarian and security situation (and) to show support for the African Union mission," a senior State Department official said.
[Maybe that is code speak for dishing out some money. The United States has contributed some two billion dollars for southern Sudan and Mr Zoellick, who is a very experienced accountant, is in charge of guarding that the funds are spent wisely.]
Zoellick held private talks on Darfur with the leaders of Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia and Uganda
According to the above Reuters report:
Mr Zoellick said he would meet AU and UN officials, tribal leaders and aid workers in Darfur and discuss how to get more food to the region and improve security.
At the beginning of the year, the WFP had predicted the number of people needing food would peak at 2.8 million.
But persistent insecurity has stopped local farmers from planting crops and women are scared to leave their villages for food or firewood because they fear attacks, it says.
"The rural population is becoming more and more food insecure," Jamie Wickens, WFP's associate director of operations, told Reuters. "It's getting to be very serious, a vicious cycle," he said.
As well as meeting Bashir, Zoellick held private talks on Darfur with the leaders of Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia and Uganda. The first three plus Senegal have agreed to send troops to Darfur as part of an expanded AU peace force.
Friday, June 03, 2005
3.5 million people in Darfur now need food aid - When will Gaddafi, Sudan, Egypt, Chad, Nigeria, Eritrea and Arab League start footing the bill?
The number of people in Darfur needing food aid soars to 3.5 million - more than half the population and 700,000 more than the worst-case scenario predicted at the start of the year.
WFP said rural families were joining refugees in the hunger line and called for an additional $96 million for Darfur, bringing its budget to $563 million for the year.
Holdbrook Arthur, WFP regional director for East and Central Africa, said a massive aid operation, hit by a chronic lack of trucks and attacks on its land convoys, would start flying mobile teams to remote areas to distribute rations.
Full Story by the Scotsman's Gethin Chamberlain, June 3.
- - -
"We don't want oil on our fire - We will cut off any warlike hand that is extended to us" says Gaddafi
According to Central African news online June 3, Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi said on Thursday (June 3) any intervention in Darfur from outside Africa would exacerbate the crisis, adding that the continent was capable of dealing with its own problems.
"We are against any foreign intervention in Darfur because that would do nothing but pour oil on the fire," Gaddafi said after a summit of heads of state from West and North Africa in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou.
"There are threats of intervention from outside which raise the chances of civil war in our region. We should be firmly opposed to all these foreign interventions ... which aim to resolve our problems as if we weren't grown up," he said.
[Grown up eh? OK then, hurry up and sort it - and while we are waiting you foot the bill Libya. We are fed up waiting while paying to feed millions of Africans for decades. Other countries are in desperate need of the West's help and aid]
- - -
Sudan mobilises army reserves in east - Sudan's stance on LRA
Read this report via Reuters Wed 1 June 2005 and then read the next three items published within 24 hours of each other to see how you can't trust any news issued by the Khartoum regime:
Sudan has called for general mobilisation of its army reserves in the eastern region bordering Eritrea to secure roads and an oil pipeline after rebels kidnapped kidnapped three regional legislators, a local official said.
Eastern rebels joined with an insurgent group from the western Darfur region to kidnap three local politicians last month on a major road in Sudan's poor east.
"We called our troops for mobilisation. This is to call all the reserves, in Red Sea state and in Kassala state," governor Hatim al-Wasiyla told Reuters from the eastern city of Port Sudan on Wednesday.
He said the extra troops would number between 500-1,000 and would be to protect the border with Eritrea, major roads and the oil pipeline which runs to the port.
Wasiyla said the rebels who kidnapped the politicians came from Eritrea. But he said the mobilisation of reserves was not to attack Eritrea, but to defend Sudan.
"They want to destroy the petrol and attack the roads -- we have to defend ourselves," he said.
He said the mobilisation would continue until a new government was formed on July 9.
- - -
Sudan's stance on Ugandan terrorists LRA
Via Washington Post Thurs June 2, 2005:
The May 15 editorial "Beyond Darfur" said that my government is sending militias to eastern Sudan to threaten the local population and that it support attacks against Uganda by supporting the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
For the record, Ugandan authorities, including President Yoweri Museveni, have publicly and privately noted the full cooperation of my government in eradicating the LRA, which we consider a terrorist group. Indeed, during the past two years, the LRA has often targeted Sudanese military personnel.
KHIDIR HAROUN AHMED
Ambassador
Embassy of Sudan
Washington
- - -
Sudanese FM warns aid groups about meddling
Via AP Wed June 1, 2005. Excerpt:
Striking an unapologetic note after the arrest of two foreign aid workers, Sudan's foreign minister Wednesday (June 1) warned international organizations not to meddle in the country's affairs or tarnish its image.
"Organizations operating in Sudan should observe the country's national security in their dealings and they should not be seen to tarnish Sudan's image through issuance of false information," Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail was quoted as saying by the official Sudan News Agency.
Ismail said Sudanese authorities had investigated the agency's claims and found they contained incorrect information. He said investigations of the two aid workers were continuing.
The minister called on international organizations "to avoid meddling into what does not concern them."
"We would like to see this episode ending with a confirmation of Sudan's sovereignty and independence, and an end to all attempts seeking to smear or tarnish the image of Sudan by some organizations," he was quoted as saying.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said the UN also deplored the arrests. He told reporters Wednesday that he backed the MSF report on rapes in Darfur "100%." Full Story.
- - -
Sudanese FM sees no reason for aid workers arrest
Via Reuters Wed June 1:
Sudan's foreign minister said on Wednesday (June 1) he saw no reason why two international aid workers had been arrested for crimes against the state and pledged to solve the problem in talks with the UN.
"I agreed with (UN envoy) Jan Pronk yesterday that there was no reason for the arrest of the two employees of the organisation and they will likely be released," Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters in Khartoum.
Full Story by Opheera McDoom.
[Sudan's FM reminds me of Iraq's Minister for Information, Comical Ali. Ismail's nickname, given by locals, is "smiley". He doesn't smile a lot but he used to be a dentist.]
-- - -
Western media reports insulting Muslims
Here is a copy of an insightful opinion piece in The Nation (Nairobi) May 26, 2005 by Salim Lone. I am posting it here in full for future reference as a reminder to those (especially Americans and the Clare Shorts of the UK) who feel free to (and I want to insert words like unthinkingly and irresponsibly) call for Western military intervention in Darfur [military intervention is an act of war which must have an objective to work towards - either deposing a regime or maintaining a political settlement and peace agreement]:
There is a profound crisis in the US and some other Western media coverage of the Islamic world, a crisis exacerbated by a lack of awareness.
The problem, in fact, goes beyond coverage of the Islamic world; there is an overall post-9/11 trend which has seen too much of the Western media slip on the cardinal principles of objectivity and independence.
I can comfortably say that Kenyan media are freer than the American, both in terms of fearlessness in criticising President Kibaki, and in the diverse range of opinion it carries.
That should be a cause for concern for those in the West who have struggled since John Milton's Aeropagetica in the 17th century to establish freedom of the press, which is one of the greatest accomplishments of humanity.
But it is the coverage of Muslims which is the most problematic because it exacerbates the profound tensions that have risen since 9/11 and the subsequent wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
These have brought us what, so far, is a clash at the extremities of two great civilisations.
It is imperative therefore that all of us in the media worldwide, and of course, including media in Muslim countries, work to prevent fear and hatred from infecting ever-widening sections of previously moderate populations on either side of this divide, or we will fail in the common struggle to defeat the devastating scourges of terrorism and wars of aggression.
The Western media, because of their global reach, power, and tradition, must be especially watchful that their coverage, witting and unwitting, does not portray Muslims as the founts of terror.
Let me list some telling examples of seriously flawed Western mainstream media coverage of Muslims. In the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003, the American TV network, NBC, placed in the New York Times a large advertisement framed around a photograph of Saddam Hussein. Headed "Saddam: America's most dangerous enemy", the ad went on to say that "Saddam Hussein may have enough chemical and biological weapons to kill every man, woman and child on earth. What will he do next? How far will he go? Can he be stopped?"
Similar demonisation of Iraq, or of accusations that it possessed awful weapons, appeared just about everywhere, the latter even in the New York Times, unarguably one of the world's greatest media treasures.
A related problem before that war was how contrary opinion on whether Iraq did have such weapons was dismissed or even ridiculed.
A CNN newscast on February 5, 2003, for example, excerpted from an Iraqi general's rebuttal of these charges at the UN Security Council that day. Anchor Paula Zahn then brought on Jamie Rubin, former State Department spokesman, and said to him: "You have got to understand that most Americans were probably either laughing out loud or got sick to their stomach. Which was it for you?"
"Well, really both," said Mr Rubin.
Then there was this from the Economist of July 31, 2004 concerning Darfur.
An article headed "Must intervention be legal?" provided an answer in the subhead immediately after. "Armed intervention in Darfur may - or may not - flout the law. So what?"
It went on to argue that armed intervention in Darfur need not be "as drastic an assault as some legal sticklers fear." However, it also proposed "another possible tack - to persuade Chad, across whose borders tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees are streaming, to initiate an intervention in Darfur under its right to self-defence. This would obviate the need for a Security Council vote."
That same week, Newsweek similarly urged Tony Blair on its cover to overcome his Iraq setbacks by taking the lead in intervening in Darfur if the crisis was not quickly resolved.
More recently, there was an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune by Thomas Friedman (January 7, 2005), titled: "Let Iraq have the right kind of civil war." It stated in its opening paragraph that "we have to have an election in Iraq so we can have a proper civil war."
He goes on to say "the civil war we want is a democratically Iraqi government against the Ba'athist and Islamist militants."
How easy it is for the media of the powerful to encourage devastating wars against weak nations! Can we imagine what would become of mainstream Muslim journalists who urged Iraqis to launch attacks inside the US for its occupation of their country?
Similarly, when hostages are beheaded by Muslim captors or dead bodies desecrated by Iraqi crowds, reporters use phrases like "barbaric" or "inhuman" to describe these acts - but not when commenting on the death of half a million Iraqi children through UN sanctions imposed at US behest, or when 2,000-pound bombs rain down on civilian areas, or when the city of Fallujah is blockaded and water and electricity cut off.
In saying all this, I am not remotely implying that in the American media there are no glorious examples of brilliant writing and reporting on the Islamic world or on American misdeeds. But, they must reassert some of their great values even in a fear-filled world, and assert much greater independence from the strategic international goals being pursued by the world's sole superpower.
They must also do much more to understand Muslim societies and pay much greater attention to what more than a billion people think, if we are to prevent our world from descending into an armed Western camp and chaotic Muslim states run by dictators supported by the US.
Mr Lone was the keynote speaker on the subject of Western media coverage of the Islamic world during the just-ended IPI World Congress.
- - -
Ultimately, the main responsibility rests with the government of Sudan
Excerpt from June 3 Guardian:
The best single measure to relieve the deepening crisis would be rapid enlargement of the African Union's monitoring force, and a new mandate for it to confront the gunmen rather than merely make reports. Other foreign troops are not needed, nor is Nato. "Nato cannot be the world's gendarme," as the French foreign minister, Michel Barnier, rightly put it. But Britain, France and other countries with African experience should provide helicopters, transport and armoured cars to help the AU.
Ultimately, the main responsibility rests with the government of Sudan. The people of Darfur are its citizens. Unless Khartoum wants another 20 years of civil war and the prospect of secession - as it had in the south until last year's peace agreement there - it must rein in the Janjaweed and work hard in Abuja to make the peace talks bear fruit.
- - -
Darfur: airlift of troops for expanded AU mission could start this month
KIGALI, June 2 (AFP) - The airlift of some 5,000 additional men to be deployed in Darfur as part of the African Union (AU) Mission could get underway later this month, a US senior official said Thursday. Full Story via ReliefWeb
- - -
Eyewitness account: new communities emerging in Darfur's IDP camps
Note this first hand account by Sarah in Darfur Thurs June 2 in a post entitled Evolution of the evicted at RELIEF TO DARFUR? the first blog (that I am aware of) out of Darfur.
Here is an excerpt from the post about Darfur's Abu Shouk, a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) located in the middle of the desert that is home to some 71,000 people since April 2004:
Abu Shouk is slowly taking on the shape of a large village, made up of many different people from parts of North Darfur who fled the fighting and destruction to find themselves struggling to define this new space in which they live. Structure is provided through the family first, then the Omdas and the Sheiks that have led and sometimes followed their people to this place that is meant to provide food, water and shelter. Abu Shouk is immense and seems to be a sprawling slum set in the middle of the Sahel. Stretching as far as the eyes can see is a jumble of colorful makeshift tents, shelters and shacks. Already the colors of these shelters are faded by the sun and they are covered in a cloak of desert sand, making mute their once vibrant shades and designs. There is nothing brilliant to this assemblage now, although the sight is overpowering. All available space seems to be filled. There are donkeys, and goats, chickens and children of all ages. It is a rural city springing up from these dry desert sands.
In Abu Shouk people are talking about returning and about staying right where they are. They are changing their shelters, and making brick walls and paths through the plastic pre- fab tunnels that provided the means to escape the desert sandstorms and scorching heat. They are using words like security and safety and do not expect a comprehensive peace. They know that this will take time and they are designing and defining their own ways to construct community and conversation between neighbors that are new and an environment that requires local methods to be new, innovative and inclusive. This is the face of Abu Shouk and probably the face of most IDP camps in Darfur.
Please read post at full story. [Great. Thanks Sarah. Hope you are well.]
- - -
Why Is West Showing So Much Interest in Darfur?
An opinion piece in Arab news by Hassan Tahsin entitled Why Is West Showing So Much Interest in Darfur? asks a good question"
Also, Hassan Tahsin writes:
Note, he also goes on to say:
In the last line, he says "foreign powers must take their hands off Sudan" but he does not mention why Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Eritrea and Gabon are leaving it to "foreign powers" to foot the bill - for how long - and how many more AU and UN troops and millions of mouths will be added to the bill by the time Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Eritrea and Gabon grow up and get their act together.
- - -
World bodies under fire for serving few
Montreal, June 3 report via OneWorld South Asia. Excerpt:
Mainstream media, once the vital fourth estate "has largely been absorbed by the corporate community." As a result, freedom of the press has become subservient to the bottom line, and, by extension, accountable to shareholders, FIM says.
"The response to current crises such as (war against) Iraq, (genocide in) Darfur, the spread of AIDS and the future of our environment, is a sad reflection of weak and misguided governance," the group says.
"If these and other challenges continue to be exacerbated by the politics of greed and power, then new democratic measures must be invented, and by and for the people," it adds.
[Yes, I agree new democratic measures must be invented. But what is the big question]
- - -
Emmanuel Jal and Sudanese music compilation
Twelve years ago as a starving child soldier in war-torn Sudan, Emmanuel Jal, contemplated suicide and cannibalism, but these days, he basks in local celebrity as rap artist who has hit the Kenyan charts. (AFP). Full Story via BBC London and Sudan Tribune June 1, 2005. Excerpt:
Emmanuel Jal is a young rapper from the southern Sudan and a former soldier who for five years of his childhood was involved in the bloody civil war in Sudan. By a stroke of luck he ended up being adopted by a British aid worker when he was 11, smuggled to Nairobi, Kenya, where he got the chance to change his life and get an education.
Emmanuel also developed a passion for music and started rapping (in Nuer Arabic, Swahili and English). His break happened last September with his single 'Gua' which became a massive hit in Kenya.
- - -
Thank You
To PBS Frontline for linking to Sudan Watch. PBS Frontline produced a great special on Darfur.
To applegrove at Democratic Underground Forums for starting a discussion May 29 on a recent post at Sudan Watch entitled: "The Poor Are Not the Problem But the Solution".
To bloggers for their recent links and interest in the Sudan, DR Congo and northern Ugandan crises. Sorry I've not had time to say hello and thank you in the comments at these blogs:
Christopher/Cara at Darfur Update
Global Wire
Daniel at Exegesis
Marcus at Crossfader
P. Scott Cummins
Las chicas del quinto Cenicienta in Spain
WFP said rural families were joining refugees in the hunger line and called for an additional $96 million for Darfur, bringing its budget to $563 million for the year.
Holdbrook Arthur, WFP regional director for East and Central Africa, said a massive aid operation, hit by a chronic lack of trucks and attacks on its land convoys, would start flying mobile teams to remote areas to distribute rations.
Full Story by the Scotsman's Gethin Chamberlain, June 3.
- - -
"We don't want oil on our fire - We will cut off any warlike hand that is extended to us" says Gaddafi
According to Central African news online June 3, Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi said on Thursday (June 3) any intervention in Darfur from outside Africa would exacerbate the crisis, adding that the continent was capable of dealing with its own problems.
"We are against any foreign intervention in Darfur because that would do nothing but pour oil on the fire," Gaddafi said after a summit of heads of state from West and North Africa in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou.
"There are threats of intervention from outside which raise the chances of civil war in our region. We should be firmly opposed to all these foreign interventions ... which aim to resolve our problems as if we weren't grown up," he said.
[Grown up eh? OK then, hurry up and sort it - and while we are waiting you foot the bill Libya. We are fed up waiting while paying to feed millions of Africans for decades. Other countries are in desperate need of the West's help and aid]
- - -
Sudan mobilises army reserves in east - Sudan's stance on LRA
Read this report via Reuters Wed 1 June 2005 and then read the next three items published within 24 hours of each other to see how you can't trust any news issued by the Khartoum regime:
Sudan has called for general mobilisation of its army reserves in the eastern region bordering Eritrea to secure roads and an oil pipeline after rebels kidnapped kidnapped three regional legislators, a local official said.
Eastern rebels joined with an insurgent group from the western Darfur region to kidnap three local politicians last month on a major road in Sudan's poor east.
"We called our troops for mobilisation. This is to call all the reserves, in Red Sea state and in Kassala state," governor Hatim al-Wasiyla told Reuters from the eastern city of Port Sudan on Wednesday.
He said the extra troops would number between 500-1,000 and would be to protect the border with Eritrea, major roads and the oil pipeline which runs to the port.
Wasiyla said the rebels who kidnapped the politicians came from Eritrea. But he said the mobilisation of reserves was not to attack Eritrea, but to defend Sudan.
"They want to destroy the petrol and attack the roads -- we have to defend ourselves," he said.
He said the mobilisation would continue until a new government was formed on July 9.
- - -
Sudan's stance on Ugandan terrorists LRA
Via Washington Post Thurs June 2, 2005:
The May 15 editorial "Beyond Darfur" said that my government is sending militias to eastern Sudan to threaten the local population and that it support attacks against Uganda by supporting the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
For the record, Ugandan authorities, including President Yoweri Museveni, have publicly and privately noted the full cooperation of my government in eradicating the LRA, which we consider a terrorist group. Indeed, during the past two years, the LRA has often targeted Sudanese military personnel.
KHIDIR HAROUN AHMED
Ambassador
Embassy of Sudan
Washington
- - -
Sudanese FM warns aid groups about meddling
Via AP Wed June 1, 2005. Excerpt:
Striking an unapologetic note after the arrest of two foreign aid workers, Sudan's foreign minister Wednesday (June 1) warned international organizations not to meddle in the country's affairs or tarnish its image.
"Organizations operating in Sudan should observe the country's national security in their dealings and they should not be seen to tarnish Sudan's image through issuance of false information," Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail was quoted as saying by the official Sudan News Agency.
Ismail said Sudanese authorities had investigated the agency's claims and found they contained incorrect information. He said investigations of the two aid workers were continuing.
The minister called on international organizations "to avoid meddling into what does not concern them."
"We would like to see this episode ending with a confirmation of Sudan's sovereignty and independence, and an end to all attempts seeking to smear or tarnish the image of Sudan by some organizations," he was quoted as saying.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said the UN also deplored the arrests. He told reporters Wednesday that he backed the MSF report on rapes in Darfur "100%." Full Story.
- - -
Sudanese FM sees no reason for aid workers arrest
Via Reuters Wed June 1:
Sudan's foreign minister said on Wednesday (June 1) he saw no reason why two international aid workers had been arrested for crimes against the state and pledged to solve the problem in talks with the UN.
"I agreed with (UN envoy) Jan Pronk yesterday that there was no reason for the arrest of the two employees of the organisation and they will likely be released," Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters in Khartoum.
Full Story by Opheera McDoom.
[Sudan's FM reminds me of Iraq's Minister for Information, Comical Ali. Ismail's nickname, given by locals, is "smiley". He doesn't smile a lot but he used to be a dentist.]
-- - -
Western media reports insulting Muslims
Here is a copy of an insightful opinion piece in The Nation (Nairobi) May 26, 2005 by Salim Lone. I am posting it here in full for future reference as a reminder to those (especially Americans and the Clare Shorts of the UK) who feel free to (and I want to insert words like unthinkingly and irresponsibly) call for Western military intervention in Darfur [military intervention is an act of war which must have an objective to work towards - either deposing a regime or maintaining a political settlement and peace agreement]:
There is a profound crisis in the US and some other Western media coverage of the Islamic world, a crisis exacerbated by a lack of awareness.
The problem, in fact, goes beyond coverage of the Islamic world; there is an overall post-9/11 trend which has seen too much of the Western media slip on the cardinal principles of objectivity and independence.
I can comfortably say that Kenyan media are freer than the American, both in terms of fearlessness in criticising President Kibaki, and in the diverse range of opinion it carries.
That should be a cause for concern for those in the West who have struggled since John Milton's Aeropagetica in the 17th century to establish freedom of the press, which is one of the greatest accomplishments of humanity.
But it is the coverage of Muslims which is the most problematic because it exacerbates the profound tensions that have risen since 9/11 and the subsequent wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
These have brought us what, so far, is a clash at the extremities of two great civilisations.
It is imperative therefore that all of us in the media worldwide, and of course, including media in Muslim countries, work to prevent fear and hatred from infecting ever-widening sections of previously moderate populations on either side of this divide, or we will fail in the common struggle to defeat the devastating scourges of terrorism and wars of aggression.
The Western media, because of their global reach, power, and tradition, must be especially watchful that their coverage, witting and unwitting, does not portray Muslims as the founts of terror.
Let me list some telling examples of seriously flawed Western mainstream media coverage of Muslims. In the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003, the American TV network, NBC, placed in the New York Times a large advertisement framed around a photograph of Saddam Hussein. Headed "Saddam: America's most dangerous enemy", the ad went on to say that "Saddam Hussein may have enough chemical and biological weapons to kill every man, woman and child on earth. What will he do next? How far will he go? Can he be stopped?"
Similar demonisation of Iraq, or of accusations that it possessed awful weapons, appeared just about everywhere, the latter even in the New York Times, unarguably one of the world's greatest media treasures.
A related problem before that war was how contrary opinion on whether Iraq did have such weapons was dismissed or even ridiculed.
A CNN newscast on February 5, 2003, for example, excerpted from an Iraqi general's rebuttal of these charges at the UN Security Council that day. Anchor Paula Zahn then brought on Jamie Rubin, former State Department spokesman, and said to him: "You have got to understand that most Americans were probably either laughing out loud or got sick to their stomach. Which was it for you?"
"Well, really both," said Mr Rubin.
Then there was this from the Economist of July 31, 2004 concerning Darfur.
An article headed "Must intervention be legal?" provided an answer in the subhead immediately after. "Armed intervention in Darfur may - or may not - flout the law. So what?"
It went on to argue that armed intervention in Darfur need not be "as drastic an assault as some legal sticklers fear." However, it also proposed "another possible tack - to persuade Chad, across whose borders tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees are streaming, to initiate an intervention in Darfur under its right to self-defence. This would obviate the need for a Security Council vote."
That same week, Newsweek similarly urged Tony Blair on its cover to overcome his Iraq setbacks by taking the lead in intervening in Darfur if the crisis was not quickly resolved.
More recently, there was an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune by Thomas Friedman (January 7, 2005), titled: "Let Iraq have the right kind of civil war." It stated in its opening paragraph that "we have to have an election in Iraq so we can have a proper civil war."
He goes on to say "the civil war we want is a democratically Iraqi government against the Ba'athist and Islamist militants."
How easy it is for the media of the powerful to encourage devastating wars against weak nations! Can we imagine what would become of mainstream Muslim journalists who urged Iraqis to launch attacks inside the US for its occupation of their country?
Similarly, when hostages are beheaded by Muslim captors or dead bodies desecrated by Iraqi crowds, reporters use phrases like "barbaric" or "inhuman" to describe these acts - but not when commenting on the death of half a million Iraqi children through UN sanctions imposed at US behest, or when 2,000-pound bombs rain down on civilian areas, or when the city of Fallujah is blockaded and water and electricity cut off.
In saying all this, I am not remotely implying that in the American media there are no glorious examples of brilliant writing and reporting on the Islamic world or on American misdeeds. But, they must reassert some of their great values even in a fear-filled world, and assert much greater independence from the strategic international goals being pursued by the world's sole superpower.
They must also do much more to understand Muslim societies and pay much greater attention to what more than a billion people think, if we are to prevent our world from descending into an armed Western camp and chaotic Muslim states run by dictators supported by the US.
Mr Lone was the keynote speaker on the subject of Western media coverage of the Islamic world during the just-ended IPI World Congress.
- - -
Ultimately, the main responsibility rests with the government of Sudan
Excerpt from June 3 Guardian:
The best single measure to relieve the deepening crisis would be rapid enlargement of the African Union's monitoring force, and a new mandate for it to confront the gunmen rather than merely make reports. Other foreign troops are not needed, nor is Nato. "Nato cannot be the world's gendarme," as the French foreign minister, Michel Barnier, rightly put it. But Britain, France and other countries with African experience should provide helicopters, transport and armoured cars to help the AU.
Ultimately, the main responsibility rests with the government of Sudan. The people of Darfur are its citizens. Unless Khartoum wants another 20 years of civil war and the prospect of secession - as it had in the south until last year's peace agreement there - it must rein in the Janjaweed and work hard in Abuja to make the peace talks bear fruit.
- - -
Darfur: airlift of troops for expanded AU mission could start this month
KIGALI, June 2 (AFP) - The airlift of some 5,000 additional men to be deployed in Darfur as part of the African Union (AU) Mission could get underway later this month, a US senior official said Thursday. Full Story via ReliefWeb
- - -
Eyewitness account: new communities emerging in Darfur's IDP camps
Note this first hand account by Sarah in Darfur Thurs June 2 in a post entitled Evolution of the evicted at RELIEF TO DARFUR? the first blog (that I am aware of) out of Darfur.
Here is an excerpt from the post about Darfur's Abu Shouk, a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) located in the middle of the desert that is home to some 71,000 people since April 2004:
Abu Shouk is slowly taking on the shape of a large village, made up of many different people from parts of North Darfur who fled the fighting and destruction to find themselves struggling to define this new space in which they live. Structure is provided through the family first, then the Omdas and the Sheiks that have led and sometimes followed their people to this place that is meant to provide food, water and shelter. Abu Shouk is immense and seems to be a sprawling slum set in the middle of the Sahel. Stretching as far as the eyes can see is a jumble of colorful makeshift tents, shelters and shacks. Already the colors of these shelters are faded by the sun and they are covered in a cloak of desert sand, making mute their once vibrant shades and designs. There is nothing brilliant to this assemblage now, although the sight is overpowering. All available space seems to be filled. There are donkeys, and goats, chickens and children of all ages. It is a rural city springing up from these dry desert sands.
In Abu Shouk people are talking about returning and about staying right where they are. They are changing their shelters, and making brick walls and paths through the plastic pre- fab tunnels that provided the means to escape the desert sandstorms and scorching heat. They are using words like security and safety and do not expect a comprehensive peace. They know that this will take time and they are designing and defining their own ways to construct community and conversation between neighbors that are new and an environment that requires local methods to be new, innovative and inclusive. This is the face of Abu Shouk and probably the face of most IDP camps in Darfur.
Please read post at full story. [Great. Thanks Sarah. Hope you are well.]
- - -
Why Is West Showing So Much Interest in Darfur?
An opinion piece in Arab news by Hassan Tahsin entitled Why Is West Showing So Much Interest in Darfur? asks a good question"
"A monitor of African affairs may ask why all this sudden interest in Darfur and this blatant intervention in Sudan's internal affairs while massacres in Rwanda and other parts of the world were still going on."But then it goes on to say something that for sure does not make sense, unless of course you are reading propaganda out of Khartoum:
"The question is worth being asked, especially after an organization like Medicines Sans Frontiers gave a different interpretation to what has happened in Darfur contrary to what has been claimed by the Western media."I've seen a news report that says Khartoum uses Sudanese media to discredit MSF's rape report and even implies that the aid agencies are working against the interests of the people of Sudan.
Also, Hassan Tahsin writes:
"Amnesty International's report claiming mass murder in Darfur is as untrue as the claims by the US on Iraqi WMD used as a pretext to attack and occupy Iraq. Foreign powers have sought by all means to derail the Sudanese peace talks between the north and south before adding fuel to the fire in Darfur. Those powers drove some tribes to rebel against the legitimate government in Khartoum in order to open the door to foreign intervention and the ultimate disintegration of Sudan into tiny tribal entities to serve their strategic interests."You have to wonder how the author knows Amnesty's report is untrue and why he does not mention conclusions reached in UN investigation reports. If you replace the above words "foreign powers" with the words "Sudanese rebels" the paragraph makes sense.
Note, he also goes on to say:
"The recent minisummit on Darfur held in Tripoli, Libya, was timely since it managed to put a halt to the military intervention by the West in Sudan. The summit attended by the leaders of Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Eritrea and Gabon agreed on the resumption of peace talks in Abuja and the convening of a national conference for all the people of Darfur to ascertain their views on the conflict.The opinion piece contains rubbish. Military intervention by the West in Sudan was never on the cards. OK, given the author is brainwashed by propaganda, it does not explains why thinks it is OK for the West to go on paying billions of dollars to quell anarchy in the Sudan and feed six million people ad infinitum.
The seven African leaders laid a road map to resolve the conflict through successive steps that address the roots of the problem. The summit's most important decision in my view is its rejection of any intervention by a non-African nation in Darfur. The summit wanted to keep the issue an African affair to be settled within an African framework.
The African Union has about 2,400 troops and 244 civilian police trying to restore peace in Darfur.
On April 28 it voted to increase the force to 6,171 military personnel and 1,560 police by the end of September.
Sudan is passing through an extremely critical stage in its history.
Sudanese political and other civic powers must unite to ensure the stability of Darfur and work hard to lay down a new basis for governing the country in a manner that would satisfy all parties under the auspices of the African Union.
Continued foreign intervention threatens Sudan's unity and stability and the future of its people who should be allowed to live as an ethnically and culturally diverse nation. Foreign powers must take their hands off Sudan."
In the last line, he says "foreign powers must take their hands off Sudan" but he does not mention why Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Eritrea and Gabon are leaving it to "foreign powers" to foot the bill - for how long - and how many more AU and UN troops and millions of mouths will be added to the bill by the time Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Eritrea and Gabon grow up and get their act together.
- - -
World bodies under fire for serving few
Montreal, June 3 report via OneWorld South Asia. Excerpt:
Mainstream media, once the vital fourth estate "has largely been absorbed by the corporate community." As a result, freedom of the press has become subservient to the bottom line, and, by extension, accountable to shareholders, FIM says.
"The response to current crises such as (war against) Iraq, (genocide in) Darfur, the spread of AIDS and the future of our environment, is a sad reflection of weak and misguided governance," the group says.
"If these and other challenges continue to be exacerbated by the politics of greed and power, then new democratic measures must be invented, and by and for the people," it adds.
[Yes, I agree new democratic measures must be invented. But what is the big question]
- - -
Emmanuel Jal and Sudanese music compilation
Twelve years ago as a starving child soldier in war-torn Sudan, Emmanuel Jal, contemplated suicide and cannibalism, but these days, he basks in local celebrity as rap artist who has hit the Kenyan charts. (AFP). Full Story via BBC London and Sudan Tribune June 1, 2005. Excerpt:
Emmanuel Jal is a young rapper from the southern Sudan and a former soldier who for five years of his childhood was involved in the bloody civil war in Sudan. By a stroke of luck he ended up being adopted by a British aid worker when he was 11, smuggled to Nairobi, Kenya, where he got the chance to change his life and get an education.
Emmanuel also developed a passion for music and started rapping (in Nuer Arabic, Swahili and English). His break happened last September with his single 'Gua' which became a massive hit in Kenya.
- - -
Thank You
To PBS Frontline for linking to Sudan Watch. PBS Frontline produced a great special on Darfur.
To applegrove at Democratic Underground Forums for starting a discussion May 29 on a recent post at Sudan Watch entitled: "The Poor Are Not the Problem But the Solution".
To bloggers for their recent links and interest in the Sudan, DR Congo and northern Ugandan crises. Sorry I've not had time to say hello and thank you in the comments at these blogs:
Christopher/Cara at Darfur Update
Global Wire
Daniel at Exegesis
Marcus at Crossfader
P. Scott Cummins
Las chicas del quinto Cenicienta in Spain
Thursday, June 02, 2005
In Darfur, Sudan 700,000 people rely on Oxfam to survive
Last week, the New Statesman accused Oxfam aid agency of failing Africa by diluting the Make Poverty History message. Barbara Stocking, Director of Oxfam, replies in this piece entitled Oxfam bites back June 6:
On 26 May, my colleagues in Darfur awoke to begin again the daily task of supporting 700,000 people who rely on Oxfam to survive. In Europe, staff reflected on the promised doubling of EU aid budgets - the fruit of years of campaigning by Oxfam and many others. Unusually I was in Washington, preparing to tackle Paul Wolfowitz, the new president of the World Bank.
I took an early call from back home. The New Statesman's latest issue - cover story: "Why Oxfam is failing Africa" - had just come out. My staff were shocked at the injustice of the headline and worried by the impact on the Make Poverty History campaign, which we support along with 450 other organisations.
In what sense is Oxfam "failing Africa"? This extraordinarily serious allegation not only insults hundreds of our staff and partners, who work incredibly hard each day to help overcome poverty, it is also an affront to hundreds of African organisations that have helped shape the political demands of our campaigns as well as the direction of our humanitarian and development programmes.
Beyond the headline, the article itself made a somewhat different charge - not that we are failing Africa but failing to be sufficiently critical of the British government. True? Ask Margaret Beckett what she thinks of Oxfam's condemnation of the lily-livered reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in 2003. Ask government aides who remember their embarrassment when we described the outcome of the Canadian G8 summit as "recycled peanuts", as the UK tried to talk up the deal. We were a leading member of the coalition that pressed Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to commit to the target of spending 0.7 per cent of national income on aid with the call for them to "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is". Hardly the chant of a cheerleader for govern-ment. We have criticised governments over Iraq, Afghanistan, asylum vouchers and the arms trade. Where they have done the right thing, we have recognised that, too. We don't oppose for the sake of it. We praise when decision-makers do what our 600,000 supporters ask them to do and criticise toughly when they do not.
Perhaps most importantly, we recognise that, for progress to be made, change cannot come from the UK alone. We need action from other governments and international institutions. Oxfam International is a confederation with partners in more than 100 countries and the Make Poverty History campaign in Britain is part of a global call to action against poverty. We expect the British government to use its political capital and move others because, when the UK does take a lead, it helps our colleagues in Germany, China and America to push the more recalcitrant governments into following suit.
Oxfam takes what it learns from people in poverty and delivers those messages either through lobby meetings or research reports. But ultimately, for change to last, it must be supported in the hearts and minds of people. That's why we launched initiatives such as the Big Noise petition to Make Trade Fair, which has been signed by six million people worldwide. A major campaigning organisation cannot choose between direct lobbying on the "inside" and activism "outside"; each is essential.
We are proud to be part of a huge, diverse coalition. Together we are making a significant impact - something last week's story glossed over. Europe's promise to double aid by 2010 is at least partly the coalition's doing, and the story did in fact quote a Whitehall source as saying "without Make Poverty History . . . Africa would not be on the G8 summit at all". Pressure from the Trade Justice Movement, of which Oxfam is a founder member, recently forced a shift in the UK's policy that is causing consternation in Brussels. Progress on debt cancellation is slow, but there is now the chance of a deal, something not on the horizon a year ago.
The NS's front page last week was a punch in the stomach for campaigners impatient for a breakthrough at the G8 summit. It did no credit to a progressive, pro-development political magazine. But we are confident it will not distract the 100,000 heading for Edinburgh on 2 July to deliver their message to the G8, or the many more who will join this call at the Live 8 concerts. They will stay focused on the real fight - to make poverty history.
On 26 May, my colleagues in Darfur awoke to begin again the daily task of supporting 700,000 people who rely on Oxfam to survive. In Europe, staff reflected on the promised doubling of EU aid budgets - the fruit of years of campaigning by Oxfam and many others. Unusually I was in Washington, preparing to tackle Paul Wolfowitz, the new president of the World Bank.
I took an early call from back home. The New Statesman's latest issue - cover story: "Why Oxfam is failing Africa" - had just come out. My staff were shocked at the injustice of the headline and worried by the impact on the Make Poverty History campaign, which we support along with 450 other organisations.
In what sense is Oxfam "failing Africa"? This extraordinarily serious allegation not only insults hundreds of our staff and partners, who work incredibly hard each day to help overcome poverty, it is also an affront to hundreds of African organisations that have helped shape the political demands of our campaigns as well as the direction of our humanitarian and development programmes.
Beyond the headline, the article itself made a somewhat different charge - not that we are failing Africa but failing to be sufficiently critical of the British government. True? Ask Margaret Beckett what she thinks of Oxfam's condemnation of the lily-livered reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in 2003. Ask government aides who remember their embarrassment when we described the outcome of the Canadian G8 summit as "recycled peanuts", as the UK tried to talk up the deal. We were a leading member of the coalition that pressed Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to commit to the target of spending 0.7 per cent of national income on aid with the call for them to "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is". Hardly the chant of a cheerleader for govern-ment. We have criticised governments over Iraq, Afghanistan, asylum vouchers and the arms trade. Where they have done the right thing, we have recognised that, too. We don't oppose for the sake of it. We praise when decision-makers do what our 600,000 supporters ask them to do and criticise toughly when they do not.
Perhaps most importantly, we recognise that, for progress to be made, change cannot come from the UK alone. We need action from other governments and international institutions. Oxfam International is a confederation with partners in more than 100 countries and the Make Poverty History campaign in Britain is part of a global call to action against poverty. We expect the British government to use its political capital and move others because, when the UK does take a lead, it helps our colleagues in Germany, China and America to push the more recalcitrant governments into following suit.
Oxfam takes what it learns from people in poverty and delivers those messages either through lobby meetings or research reports. But ultimately, for change to last, it must be supported in the hearts and minds of people. That's why we launched initiatives such as the Big Noise petition to Make Trade Fair, which has been signed by six million people worldwide. A major campaigning organisation cannot choose between direct lobbying on the "inside" and activism "outside"; each is essential.
We are proud to be part of a huge, diverse coalition. Together we are making a significant impact - something last week's story glossed over. Europe's promise to double aid by 2010 is at least partly the coalition's doing, and the story did in fact quote a Whitehall source as saying "without Make Poverty History . . . Africa would not be on the G8 summit at all". Pressure from the Trade Justice Movement, of which Oxfam is a founder member, recently forced a shift in the UK's policy that is causing consternation in Brussels. Progress on debt cancellation is slow, but there is now the chance of a deal, something not on the horizon a year ago.
The NS's front page last week was a punch in the stomach for campaigners impatient for a breakthrough at the G8 summit. It did no credit to a progressive, pro-development political magazine. But we are confident it will not distract the 100,000 heading for Edinburgh on 2 July to deliver their message to the G8, or the many more who will join this call at the Live 8 concerts. They will stay focused on the real fight - to make poverty history.
UN Sudan Situation Reports - 27, 29 and 31 May 2005
The following text is copied from three UN Sudan Situation Reports. The sections have not been edited by myself. But the sections have been extracted from larger reports too lengthy to post in full here. Sorry, unable to link to the original reports due to pdf format.
UN Sudan Situation Report 27 May 2005
Key Developments:
On 26 May, the AU announced the appointment of Dr Salim Ahmed Salim as its Special Envoy for the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on Darfur. The AU also announced on the same day that the peace talks on Darfur would resume in Abuja on 10 June. SG Annan and SRSG Pronk attended the Darfur Donors' conference in Addis Ababa on 26 May. Today, the Secretary-General arrives in Khartoum for meetings with GoS officials, SRSG Pronk and UNMIS leadership and address UN staff working in Sudan in a Town Hall meeting. On 28 May, SG Annan will visit Darfur.
Security Issues:
North Darfur:
A GoS administrative convoy was reportedly ambushed on 24 May on El-Fasher-Tawilla road. The ambush took place near Kuwuima village, 20 km East of Tawilla. 3 GoS policemen were killed, 4 injured and one driver was abducted by the assailants.
A GoS military/police patrol was attacked on 24 May on the road between Tawilla and Kebkabiya (20 km west of Tawilla) and allegedly killed 3 policemen, injured 3 and kidnapped another. Police indicated a week ago that they are intensifying patrols on the road to prevent banditry activities on the road which has been prominent during the last month.
South Darfur:
Reports indicate that on 25 May, 4 armed bandits attacked a commercial vehicle at Gussa 28 km NW of Nyala. The village is 2 km off the NyalaKass road, which is notorious for banditry.
West Darfur:
On 25 May, the AU was informed that regular harassment of the residents of Kulo village allegedly by the nomads forced many of them to desert the village.
Eastern Sudan:
On the 25 May, a commercial truck hit an anti-tank landmine on the road between Kassala and Awad. No injuries were reported. According to local sources, the mine is an old mine that was exposed by the rain. The road remains a NO GO area fro UN operations.
An incident took place on 24 May along Kassala Port Sudan highway at Amadam (between Hadila and Wagar). Two soldiers and three staff members from Council of Legislation travelling in a Land Cruiser and a Toyota Pick Up were ambushed and kidnapped by suspected armed members of the opposition Beja Congress and some elements of SLA who are active in the area. The two vehicles and five people are still missing. A search by Government forces in the area is continuing. In light of this incident, UN staff movements from Kassala - Port Sudan are suspended until further notice.
- - -
UN Sudan Situation Report 29 May 2005
Key Developments:
After attending the AU pledging conference in Addis Ababa on 26 May, Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited Khartoum on 27 May and South Darfur on 28 May.
Security Issues:
North Darfur:
On 26 May, the AU reported that GoS Forces had reported that its administrative convoy moving from Tawilla to Kabkabiya was ambushed by forces alleged to be SLA 8 km to Omm. Preliminary investigation revealed that one GoS Police was killed and eight injured. In a related development, GoS filed a written complaint with the CFC Chairman claiming that the past few days had witnessed a couple of ambushes against GoS forces on the Tawilla - Kabkabiya road which left many killed and many more injured. The GoS forces expressed their intention to clear the route using superior forces within 2hrs if the situation persist.
On 27 May, the AU reported a clash on 26 May between IDPs and GoS Police at ZamZam IDP camp which left 1 IDP dead and six injured. The reason for the gunfire remains unclear. Reportedly 6 persons are under arrest. There was considerable tension in the camp and the area was subsequently declared NO GO. AU CIV POL and MILOBs were deployed to the area to help restore calm. The situation has reportedly returned to normal and the security restrictions were lifted. Detailed investigation is ongoing.
South Darfur:
On 28 May, firing was reported to the AU at Muhajeria by the Military Observers Group Sector (MGS) stationed in the area. AU reported that due to confrontation between SLA and JEM in Muhajeria five people, including a three year old child, have sustained bullet wounds. The small child was later reported to be in critical condition requiring further medvac. MSF are treating the child.
Southern Sudan:
On 23 May 2005, a Dinka Bor rustled a few cattle from Mundari Camp in Gemeiza approx. 98 km north of Juba along Juba to Bor road. Some Mundari pursued and caught the Dinka Bor and beaten him to death. The Mundari tribesmen, fearing a counter attack, withdrew to Mangala approx. 60 km north of Juba. The situation is tense and due to the history between these tribes and that both are armed.
Eastern Sudan:
It was reported that on 26 May at the local Red Sea State university in Port Sudan some demonstrations took place over student elections and the involvement of the different political parties in it. Police were deployed and had to use teargas to control the situation.
- - -
UN Sudan Situation Report 31 May 2005
Key Developments:
The Head of Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF-H) in Sudan was released on bail on 30 May following a brief arrest. In Nyala, the Darfur co-ordinator for MSF-H, was detained on 31 May for the same reasons.
Security Issues:
West Darfur:
An international NGO convoy experienced some harassment at Durti checkpoint on 29 May. They were asked to produce a permit for the fuel they were carrying or else pay the soldiers with fuel. UNDSS intervened through the Army commander; the convoy was released, and the soldiers were reportedly prosecuted.
Protection Issues:
North Darfur:
The GoS security committee in North Darfur has communicated to UNMIS that in response to several complaints/allegations of sexual abuse reportedly committed by GoS personnel, it has issued a directive to the military commanders in different locations that serious action will be taken against them if found implicated in such acts.
West Darfur:
On 29 May, a conference was held in Zalingei as a follow-up to the Khartoum Conference on Peaceful Co-existence held in March. Participants included HAC and GoS security authorities, Arab traditional leaders and all humanitarian agencies in the area. The aim was to find ways of improving the security situation in the area and to promote intertribal cooperation.
UNHCR has spoken to refugees in Kounoungo camp in Chad. Despite statements made on 17 May by sheikhs claiming to represent the refugees, the refugees indicated they do not want to return due to insecurity.
Political Affairs:
The Head of Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) in Khartoum, Paul Foreman, was released on bail on 30 May following a brief arrest by the GoS authorities for "crimes against the state." However, according to a statement released by MSF, Mr. Foreman will not be allowed to leave the country. Charges against MSF are related to crimes against the State, after publishing a report on sexual violence in Darfur on 8 March in which they documented that hundreds of women and girls in Darfur were the victims of sexual violence. On 31 May, Vincent Hoedt, Darfur co-ordinator for MSF-H in Nyala, was brought to Khartoum to answer questions by the authorities. He has then been released on bail.
During an interview given to Al-Wan newspaper on 30 May, Sudanese Foreign Minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, stated that he would not continue as Foreign Minister after the establishment of the Government of the National Unity (GNU), nor accept any Ministerial post within the GNU. He stated the decision signaled the GoS was sincere about its intention to give opportunities to the SPLM/A to participate in Sudan's foreign policy.
UN Sudan Situation Report 27 May 2005
Key Developments:
On 26 May, the AU announced the appointment of Dr Salim Ahmed Salim as its Special Envoy for the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on Darfur. The AU also announced on the same day that the peace talks on Darfur would resume in Abuja on 10 June. SG Annan and SRSG Pronk attended the Darfur Donors' conference in Addis Ababa on 26 May. Today, the Secretary-General arrives in Khartoum for meetings with GoS officials, SRSG Pronk and UNMIS leadership and address UN staff working in Sudan in a Town Hall meeting. On 28 May, SG Annan will visit Darfur.
Security Issues:
North Darfur:
A GoS administrative convoy was reportedly ambushed on 24 May on El-Fasher-Tawilla road. The ambush took place near Kuwuima village, 20 km East of Tawilla. 3 GoS policemen were killed, 4 injured and one driver was abducted by the assailants.
A GoS military/police patrol was attacked on 24 May on the road between Tawilla and Kebkabiya (20 km west of Tawilla) and allegedly killed 3 policemen, injured 3 and kidnapped another. Police indicated a week ago that they are intensifying patrols on the road to prevent banditry activities on the road which has been prominent during the last month.
South Darfur:
Reports indicate that on 25 May, 4 armed bandits attacked a commercial vehicle at Gussa 28 km NW of Nyala. The village is 2 km off the NyalaKass road, which is notorious for banditry.
West Darfur:
On 25 May, the AU was informed that regular harassment of the residents of Kulo village allegedly by the nomads forced many of them to desert the village.
Eastern Sudan:
On the 25 May, a commercial truck hit an anti-tank landmine on the road between Kassala and Awad. No injuries were reported. According to local sources, the mine is an old mine that was exposed by the rain. The road remains a NO GO area fro UN operations.
An incident took place on 24 May along Kassala Port Sudan highway at Amadam (between Hadila and Wagar). Two soldiers and three staff members from Council of Legislation travelling in a Land Cruiser and a Toyota Pick Up were ambushed and kidnapped by suspected armed members of the opposition Beja Congress and some elements of SLA who are active in the area. The two vehicles and five people are still missing. A search by Government forces in the area is continuing. In light of this incident, UN staff movements from Kassala - Port Sudan are suspended until further notice.
- - -
UN Sudan Situation Report 29 May 2005
Key Developments:
After attending the AU pledging conference in Addis Ababa on 26 May, Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited Khartoum on 27 May and South Darfur on 28 May.
Security Issues:
North Darfur:
On 26 May, the AU reported that GoS Forces had reported that its administrative convoy moving from Tawilla to Kabkabiya was ambushed by forces alleged to be SLA 8 km to Omm. Preliminary investigation revealed that one GoS Police was killed and eight injured. In a related development, GoS filed a written complaint with the CFC Chairman claiming that the past few days had witnessed a couple of ambushes against GoS forces on the Tawilla - Kabkabiya road which left many killed and many more injured. The GoS forces expressed their intention to clear the route using superior forces within 2hrs if the situation persist.
On 27 May, the AU reported a clash on 26 May between IDPs and GoS Police at ZamZam IDP camp which left 1 IDP dead and six injured. The reason for the gunfire remains unclear. Reportedly 6 persons are under arrest. There was considerable tension in the camp and the area was subsequently declared NO GO. AU CIV POL and MILOBs were deployed to the area to help restore calm. The situation has reportedly returned to normal and the security restrictions were lifted. Detailed investigation is ongoing.
South Darfur:
On 28 May, firing was reported to the AU at Muhajeria by the Military Observers Group Sector (MGS) stationed in the area. AU reported that due to confrontation between SLA and JEM in Muhajeria five people, including a three year old child, have sustained bullet wounds. The small child was later reported to be in critical condition requiring further medvac. MSF are treating the child.
Southern Sudan:
On 23 May 2005, a Dinka Bor rustled a few cattle from Mundari Camp in Gemeiza approx. 98 km north of Juba along Juba to Bor road. Some Mundari pursued and caught the Dinka Bor and beaten him to death. The Mundari tribesmen, fearing a counter attack, withdrew to Mangala approx. 60 km north of Juba. The situation is tense and due to the history between these tribes and that both are armed.
Eastern Sudan:
It was reported that on 26 May at the local Red Sea State university in Port Sudan some demonstrations took place over student elections and the involvement of the different political parties in it. Police were deployed and had to use teargas to control the situation.
- - -
UN Sudan Situation Report 31 May 2005
Key Developments:
The Head of Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF-H) in Sudan was released on bail on 30 May following a brief arrest. In Nyala, the Darfur co-ordinator for MSF-H, was detained on 31 May for the same reasons.
Security Issues:
West Darfur:
An international NGO convoy experienced some harassment at Durti checkpoint on 29 May. They were asked to produce a permit for the fuel they were carrying or else pay the soldiers with fuel. UNDSS intervened through the Army commander; the convoy was released, and the soldiers were reportedly prosecuted.
Protection Issues:
North Darfur:
The GoS security committee in North Darfur has communicated to UNMIS that in response to several complaints/allegations of sexual abuse reportedly committed by GoS personnel, it has issued a directive to the military commanders in different locations that serious action will be taken against them if found implicated in such acts.
West Darfur:
On 29 May, a conference was held in Zalingei as a follow-up to the Khartoum Conference on Peaceful Co-existence held in March. Participants included HAC and GoS security authorities, Arab traditional leaders and all humanitarian agencies in the area. The aim was to find ways of improving the security situation in the area and to promote intertribal cooperation.
UNHCR has spoken to refugees in Kounoungo camp in Chad. Despite statements made on 17 May by sheikhs claiming to represent the refugees, the refugees indicated they do not want to return due to insecurity.
Political Affairs:
The Head of Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) in Khartoum, Paul Foreman, was released on bail on 30 May following a brief arrest by the GoS authorities for "crimes against the state." However, according to a statement released by MSF, Mr. Foreman will not be allowed to leave the country. Charges against MSF are related to crimes against the State, after publishing a report on sexual violence in Darfur on 8 March in which they documented that hundreds of women and girls in Darfur were the victims of sexual violence. On 31 May, Vincent Hoedt, Darfur co-ordinator for MSF-H in Nyala, was brought to Khartoum to answer questions by the authorities. He has then been released on bail.
During an interview given to Al-Wan newspaper on 30 May, Sudanese Foreign Minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, stated that he would not continue as Foreign Minister after the establishment of the Government of the National Unity (GNU), nor accept any Ministerial post within the GNU. He stated the decision signaled the GoS was sincere about its intention to give opportunities to the SPLM/A to participate in Sudan's foreign policy.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Sudan drops MSF charges after international outcry
Good news. BBC confirms today charges are to be dropped against two aid workers in Darfur accused of falsifying a report on rape, diplomats say. BBC report extracts:
The arrests led to an international outcry, which the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Khartoum says seems to have forced the Sudanese government into a u-turn.
In Khartoum, United Nations special envoy Jan Pronk met both the president and foreign minister. He is said to have received assurances that all charges would be dropped.
'Smear campaign'
The BBC's Martin Plaut, who recently travelled to Darfur, says that many Sudanese believe Western aid workers have given information on alleged human rights abuses in Darfur to the United Nations, which has passed a sealed list of 51 war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court.
On Tuesday, Mr Pronk condemned the "smear campaign" in Sudanese newspapers against aid workers, accusing them of fabricating reports of rape.
Human Rights Watch Africa director Peter Takirambudde said Mr Foreman's arrest was "a perfect illustration of how far the Sudanese government is prepared to go to silence criticism and deny its own responsibility for massive atrocities in Darfur."
Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Kofi Annan Jan Pronk BBC Africa UN
The arrests led to an international outcry, which the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Khartoum says seems to have forced the Sudanese government into a u-turn.
In Khartoum, United Nations special envoy Jan Pronk met both the president and foreign minister. He is said to have received assurances that all charges would be dropped.
'Smear campaign'
The BBC's Martin Plaut, who recently travelled to Darfur, says that many Sudanese believe Western aid workers have given information on alleged human rights abuses in Darfur to the United Nations, which has passed a sealed list of 51 war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court.
On Tuesday, Mr Pronk condemned the "smear campaign" in Sudanese newspapers against aid workers, accusing them of fabricating reports of rape.
Human Rights Watch Africa director Peter Takirambudde said Mr Foreman's arrest was "a perfect illustration of how far the Sudanese government is prepared to go to silence criticism and deny its own responsibility for massive atrocities in Darfur."
Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Kofi Annan Jan Pronk BBC Africa UN
W F Deedes: Not all African woes can be attributed to neglect by the West
An opinion piece in today's Telegraph by W F Deedes jumped out from my screen because it describes my views exactly. It was refreshing for me to finally hear another voice saying the things I have been banging on about in my blogs for the past year. Especially the penultimate paragraph, quote:
A copy of the piece is copied here for future reference [plus a ping to Carine and Bill, following our recent discussions on African leaders - to point out this line from the piece: "There is no sensible way forward for Africa until we recognise the extent to which African rulers rather than the West are so heavily responsible for its plight"]
Don't blame it all on the West
As Bob Geldof and his supporters seek to raise our feelings for Africa with a march on the G8 summit and a second Live Aid concert, it is relevant to recall how he sprang to fame.
He inspired the first concert 20 years ago on behalf of Ethiopians starving to death under the rule of a tyrant.
Ethiopia was an independent state, never a colony, which had been governed in feudal style by Emperor Haile Selassie. It was plundered by Mussolini in 1935-36 and recovered by British and Commonwealth forces early in the Second World War and restored to the emperor. He was deposed and murdered by a Marxist revolutionary, Col Haile Mengistu, under whose harsh rule the people starved.
Why is all this worth recording? Because it is a reminder that not all African woes can be attributed to neglect by the West. That claim raises the temperature, sets people marching to attack greedy nations that misruled Africans in the past and now turn a cold shoulder to their needs. It also falsifies history. I have always conceded that we granted independence to Africa on the tail of Harold Macmillan's "wind of change" too precipitately. No administrative framework was in place. The countries hastily granted independence were up for grabs.
By contrast, Southern Rhodesia was put on the road to freedom by Margaret Thatcher and with an orderly election. And who won? Mugabe, of whose misrule we still read most days of the week. There is no sensible way forward for Africa until we recognise the extent to which African rulers rather than the West are so heavily responsible for its plight.
Have Geldof and his friends any idea how much African nations spend on armies and arms? The total in any one year, if we ever knew it, would astound the world. Guilty men such as Mugabe and those who hold sway over Sudan from Khartoum spend a lot of money defending their backs, against enemies real and imaginary.
Is it any wonder that budgets for health and education suffer? What always distresses me most is that in countries such as Sudan, the Congo, Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Liberia, all of them laid low by internal conflict, restoration will be in the hands of Africans who have been denied education.
Then look towards Kenya, a potentially prosperous country so racked by corruption that it yields a fraction of its potential.
I once asked a leading African why so many of his continent's rulers felt the need to acquire colossal wealth, spend much of it extravagantly and place the remainder in Swiss banks.
"In Africa," he replied, "great wealth is the measurement of a top man. And when he acquires power he is surprised by the number of relatives who expect to share the spoils. Then when he falls to a coup, it is expensive to go into exile with an entourage and guard."
I am as sympathetic as Geldof to the long-suffering African people who endure so much, expect so little and I accept that the West could give a helping hand over trade and debt.
But I also have a clear impression of our limitations and, when I hear President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa defending Mugabe and ticking us off for failing to understand him, I recognise what those limitations are.
It is my conviction that little will change in Africa until its women have a bigger say in running their own lives and Africa's affairs. The dominant male has much to answer for: the proneness to fight, the promiscuity that speeds Aids, the enslavement of so many women.
So have a good concert, Bob, but change that great lyric about Christmas: "Don't they know how much more they must do for themselves?"
Tags: W F Deedes Sudan Ethiopia Geldof Congo Mbeki Uganda Africa Dictators Corruption
"It is my conviction that little will change in Africa until its women have a bigger say in running their own lives and Africa's affairs. The dominant male has much to answer for: the proneness to fight, the promiscuity that speeds Aids, the enslavement of so many women."Here's saying a big warm thank you to Lord Deedes for writing what I have been thinking and saying here all along.
A copy of the piece is copied here for future reference [plus a ping to Carine and Bill, following our recent discussions on African leaders - to point out this line from the piece: "There is no sensible way forward for Africa until we recognise the extent to which African rulers rather than the West are so heavily responsible for its plight"]
Don't blame it all on the West
As Bob Geldof and his supporters seek to raise our feelings for Africa with a march on the G8 summit and a second Live Aid concert, it is relevant to recall how he sprang to fame.
He inspired the first concert 20 years ago on behalf of Ethiopians starving to death under the rule of a tyrant.
Ethiopia was an independent state, never a colony, which had been governed in feudal style by Emperor Haile Selassie. It was plundered by Mussolini in 1935-36 and recovered by British and Commonwealth forces early in the Second World War and restored to the emperor. He was deposed and murdered by a Marxist revolutionary, Col Haile Mengistu, under whose harsh rule the people starved.
Why is all this worth recording? Because it is a reminder that not all African woes can be attributed to neglect by the West. That claim raises the temperature, sets people marching to attack greedy nations that misruled Africans in the past and now turn a cold shoulder to their needs. It also falsifies history. I have always conceded that we granted independence to Africa on the tail of Harold Macmillan's "wind of change" too precipitately. No administrative framework was in place. The countries hastily granted independence were up for grabs.
By contrast, Southern Rhodesia was put on the road to freedom by Margaret Thatcher and with an orderly election. And who won? Mugabe, of whose misrule we still read most days of the week. There is no sensible way forward for Africa until we recognise the extent to which African rulers rather than the West are so heavily responsible for its plight.
Have Geldof and his friends any idea how much African nations spend on armies and arms? The total in any one year, if we ever knew it, would astound the world. Guilty men such as Mugabe and those who hold sway over Sudan from Khartoum spend a lot of money defending their backs, against enemies real and imaginary.
Is it any wonder that budgets for health and education suffer? What always distresses me most is that in countries such as Sudan, the Congo, Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Liberia, all of them laid low by internal conflict, restoration will be in the hands of Africans who have been denied education.
Then look towards Kenya, a potentially prosperous country so racked by corruption that it yields a fraction of its potential.
I once asked a leading African why so many of his continent's rulers felt the need to acquire colossal wealth, spend much of it extravagantly and place the remainder in Swiss banks.
"In Africa," he replied, "great wealth is the measurement of a top man. And when he acquires power he is surprised by the number of relatives who expect to share the spoils. Then when he falls to a coup, it is expensive to go into exile with an entourage and guard."
I am as sympathetic as Geldof to the long-suffering African people who endure so much, expect so little and I accept that the West could give a helping hand over trade and debt.
But I also have a clear impression of our limitations and, when I hear President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa defending Mugabe and ticking us off for failing to understand him, I recognise what those limitations are.
It is my conviction that little will change in Africa until its women have a bigger say in running their own lives and Africa's affairs. The dominant male has much to answer for: the proneness to fight, the promiscuity that speeds Aids, the enslavement of so many women.
So have a good concert, Bob, but change that great lyric about Christmas: "Don't they know how much more they must do for themselves?"
Tags: W F Deedes Sudan Ethiopia Geldof Congo Mbeki Uganda Africa Dictators Corruption
Sudanese opposition leader to boycott interim government - EU is genuine security actor says NATO
Nairobi, Wed 1 Jun 2005 Deutsche Presse Agentur report via ReliefWeb. Excerpt:
A prominent Sudanese opposition leader has said that his party intends to boycott the interim government, which is due to be installed in July as part of the peace agreement between the Khartoum government and the southern former rebels.
Sadiq al-Mahdi, who heads the Umma party, was quoted by the British Broadcasting Corporation Wednesday as saying that the peace agreement was a deal between the Islamic government and the former SPLA rebels headed by John Garang, and neither was not democratically elected or representative of the people.
Representatives of the Umma party had been taking part in discussions on the interim constitution during the past few weeks.
Sadiq al-Mahdi is the last elected prime minister of Sudan. He led a coalition government until he was toppled in a coup in 1989. The man who overthrew him was military officer Omar al-Bashir, who is now Sudans president. Full Story - also at the BBC: Opposition rejects Sudan cabinet.
- - -
Thousands risk starvation in south Sudan
Thousands risk starvation in south Sudan. WFP says donors' failure to honour their pledges is seriously hampering its operation to feed 3.2 million people in Sudan.
Photo: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, right, meets with John Garang, leader of southern Sudan's SPLM rebel group, at the Presidential palace in Cairo Wednesday, June 1, 2005. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) Full Story: Sudan's Garang in Cairo for inclusion of exiled opposition in peace deal.
- - -
EU is genuine security actor says NATO
Latest developments in Darfur underline the need for a 'genuine strategic partnership' between NATO and the European Union, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said yesterday Tuesday, May 31.
"The European Union is a genuine security actor, there is no question about it. This is about making the Union a stronger partner, not a counterweight," he said. Full Story.
Photo: NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (AFP/File/Sven Nackstrand) Tue, May 31, 2005
Tags: Darfur Sudan Egypt Sudan Africa African Union European Union NATO
A prominent Sudanese opposition leader has said that his party intends to boycott the interim government, which is due to be installed in July as part of the peace agreement between the Khartoum government and the southern former rebels.
Sadiq al-Mahdi, who heads the Umma party, was quoted by the British Broadcasting Corporation Wednesday as saying that the peace agreement was a deal between the Islamic government and the former SPLA rebels headed by John Garang, and neither was not democratically elected or representative of the people.
Representatives of the Umma party had been taking part in discussions on the interim constitution during the past few weeks.
Sadiq al-Mahdi is the last elected prime minister of Sudan. He led a coalition government until he was toppled in a coup in 1989. The man who overthrew him was military officer Omar al-Bashir, who is now Sudans president. Full Story - also at the BBC: Opposition rejects Sudan cabinet.
- - -
Thousands risk starvation in south Sudan
Thousands risk starvation in south Sudan. WFP says donors' failure to honour their pledges is seriously hampering its operation to feed 3.2 million people in Sudan.
Photo: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, right, meets with John Garang, leader of southern Sudan's SPLM rebel group, at the Presidential palace in Cairo Wednesday, June 1, 2005. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) Full Story: Sudan's Garang in Cairo for inclusion of exiled opposition in peace deal.
- - -
EU is genuine security actor says NATO
Latest developments in Darfur underline the need for a 'genuine strategic partnership' between NATO and the European Union, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said yesterday Tuesday, May 31.
"The European Union is a genuine security actor, there is no question about it. This is about making the Union a stronger partner, not a counterweight," he said. Full Story.
Photo: NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (AFP/File/Sven Nackstrand) Tue, May 31, 2005
Tags: Darfur Sudan Egypt Sudan Africa African Union European Union NATO
MSF aid worker says Sudan is 'hurting its own people' - Democracy is the answer, says the UN
Last year, Gethin Chamberlain, chief correspondent of the Scotsman was one of the first reporters on the ground in Sudan.
Today, he writes a report that sounds like he has interviewed British aid worker Paul Foreman in Khartoum by telephone.
For sure, the Khartoum regime will have to drop the charges because, like any Western health care organisation, Paul Foreman could never disclose confidential patient information and there is no way he, nor any of his colleagues, would denounce MSF's report on rapes as untrue. So, once again, Khartoum have painted themselves into a corner. They are so unethical they probably can't even imagine the meaning of the word.
Here is a copy of the Scotsman report. Note the report states that Kofi Annan's translator was arrested. [Scroll down here to yesterday's report pointing to two odd versions: first Jan Pronk said the translator was arrested, then he denied it. Mr Pronk is the UN's top envoy in Sudan. It is difficult to imagine experienced diplomats, even if they are from The Netherlands, using words like "arrested" lightly. See below Kofi Annan's off the cuff remarks to reporters where he says he is expecting to hear from Jan Pronk by today]
A BRITISH aid worker arrested by the Sudanese government yesterday accused the Khartoum regime of hurting its own people by threatening to prosecute aid workers.
Paul Foreman was arrested on Monday and spent much of yesterday being questioned by Sudan's attorney-general after being charged with crimes against the state, including spying.
The Foreign Office said it was doing what it could for Mr Foreman, the head of Medecins Sans Frontieres Holland, and added that it had "grave concerns" about the treatment of aid workers in Darfur.
Vince Hoedt, MSF Holland's Darfur co-ordinator, was also arrested yesterday, as was an interpreter who translated for Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary-general, during his visit to Darfur last week.
Mr Foreman, who is originally from Worthing, told The Scotsman that he found the circumstances of his arrest "extraordinary".
The Sudanese government decided to prosecute him after taking exception to an MSF report which highlighted more than 500 rape cases in Darfur that had been documented by MSF medical staff.
Speaking from Khartoum, Mr Foreman said: "What I regret is that this is totally time consuming. All that this is doing is hurting Sudanese people."
He accused the Sudanese government of obstructing the efforts of aid agencies who were attempting to help the victims of the genocide in Darfur.
"Humanitarian access is not good now. I think that the African Union has started to have some effect but there is a long way to go," he said.
"These guys are obliged to give us space to work and they are not doing that, by looting and shooting at us, by demanding that we only go with their consent and with their escort. Wherever the ground is controlled by men with guns they attempt to use us for political ends."
He said the Sudanese government appeared to have been embarrassed by the publication of the rape report and had used whatever means it could find to undermine the agency.
"We have undergone two months of propaganda and war by media," he said.
He said he had been charged with publishing false information, action likely to cause social unrest in Sudan and spying, but had been offered a way out. He said he had declined.
"They said if I would denounce the report as false that would be acceptable, which I'm not going to do because I stand by it. They said I could submit some of the details of the rape survivors but that is covered by the doctor-patient relationship. The other possible exit is that I could drag some of my own staff into court and testify but that is putting MSF and me on trial for crimes committed by Sudanese against Sudanese."
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We have been advocating unrestricted access for agencies operating in Sudan and we are continuing to raise the need for unfettered access and non interference by the government."
She said that Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, had raised the matter with Sudanese ministers and discussions were continuing at an ambassadorial level.
Photo: An injured Sudanese is treated at a Medecins Sans Frontieres clinic in Darfur.
Picture: Nic Bothma/EPA/Scotsman Wed 1 Jun 2005
- - -
Darfur - Gang Rape of a Fourteen year old Girl
London-based Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT) publishes Human Rights Alert re South Darfur May 31. Excerpt:
On 19 May 2005, three men allegedly from the Popular Police Forces attacked and raped a 14 year old girl (name withheld) belonging to the Beni Halba tribe in Nyala. During the attack which took place at Nyala Valley, the victim was beaten with hands all over her body.
On the same day of the attack, the girl was taken to the hospital for medical examination and the medical report confirmed the girl had been raped and had sustained physical injuries. Following the medical examination, the girl's family reported the incident to the police in Nyala and a case was lodged against the perpetrators. On 20 May 2005, the three men from the Popular Police Forces were arrested and were identified by the girl as the perpetrators. Full Report courtesy Sudan Tribune June 1.
- - -
Dutch summon Sudan envoy over aid worker arrest
Amsterdam Wed June 1, 2005 Reuters report:
The Dutch Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned the Sudanese ambassador to complain about the arrest of a Dutch aid worker with Medecins Sans Frontieres over the agency's report about rape in Darfur.
A spokeswoman for the ministry said ambassador Abuelgasim Idris would be told the arrest of Vincent Hoedt and his British superior Paul Foreman was not acceptable. The ambassador will have to report at the ministry to a high-ranking official.
"Aid workers should be able to do their work unhindered. ... There where they encounter abuses, they have to be able to denounce them," Dutch state secretary for foreign aid Agnes van Ardenne said in a statement.
Sudan's attorney-general, Mohamed Farid, said on Monday authorities had opened a criminal case over a report by MSF's Dutch branch in March detailing 500 rapes over 4-1/2 months in Darfur. He said the report was false.
The MSF report said its doctors working in Sudan's western Darfur area, where tens of thousands have been killed and more than two million forced from their homes, had medical evidence of the rapes in the western Sudanese region.
- - -
Secretary-General's press encounter upon arrival at UNHQ
Upon his return from Africa to UN HQ in New York 31 May, Kofi Annan, in an off the cuff meeting with reporters said he thinks the situation in some areas of Sudan has stablised but there is still serious security problems outside camps, and that is one of the reasons why he met with the AU, NATO, the EU and other donor states to provide support to allow the AU to expand its forces in Darfur from the current 2,000-plus to about 8,000. He said he was very satisfied with the $300 million raised in cash and in kind.
On the outcome of the referendum in France, he said: "Obviously, that is a major blow, but not a mortal one. I believe the project -- that is, the European Union, will survive and eventually, thrive."
Here is a copy of the Q&A session on Sudan:
Q: You had a meeting with rape victims, I believe, in Darfur. After your meeting your interpreter was held for a brief period of time. Two individuals from Medecins sans Frontieres who have dealt with the rape report continue to be held. Can you tell us what happened, what you know of the situation, and also what you've learned about the problem of rape?
Secretary-General: Yes, I did have an opportunity to talk to a group of women in Darfur. They discussed with me the insecurity, incidents of rape, and a mother telling me about her daughter, and we had an interpreter there with us. I heard this morning he was not arrested. I just got a report from Mr. Pronk. He was harassed, he was not arrested, and the UN intervened, and the authorities have indicated they will leave him alone. We are also following up on the question of Mr. Foreman who worked with Medecins sans Frontieres - he's also out on bail and we are following up to see what we can do to help him, to clarify the situation. In my discussions with the authorities I urged them to allow humanitarian workers to operate freely without impeding their work or their activities. Obviously I have to get more details of what happened to the Medecins sans Frontieres. But Mr. Pronk, whom I spoke with, is very much on top of things and I expect to hear from him in the next 24 - 48 hours.
Q: Anything else that you've learned on the sense of the scale of the problem of rape that the refugees face?
Secretary-General: I think that what is important is that those in the camps, particularly the women, feel that they are exposing themselves and they are at risk if they move outside the camp perimeters, and so they tend to get stuck in the camp, and were urging for greater security so that they'll able to move around freely without fear of attack or violence.
- - -
Annan confirms Darfur's progress
June 1 Chinese news site Crienglish.com reports the following:
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has confirmed great progress in the security and humanitarian situation in western Sudan's Darfur region.
UN envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk conveyed this message on Tuesday in a written statement by Annan to Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir.
Annan hoped the Sudanese government and Darfur parties go to the Abuja peace talks on June 10 honestly and seriously to realize a political solution by the end of this year.
But Annan said more efforts are needed to restore Darfur to normality and called for international humanitarian and food aid for the residents of Sudan.
- - -
Democracy is the answer, says the UN
Note, re June 1 Independent UK report by Daniel Howden, it is difficult to agree with his statement, 'with exception of Darfur, the landscape of war in Africa has improved'. The death toll and humanitarian crises in DR Congo and Uganda are far worse than Darfur and southern Sudan put together. Scroll through my blogs Congo Watch and Uganda Watch and you will see what I mean.
Here is a copy of Mr Howden's report:
African poverty and stagnation has been described as the greatest tragedy of our time. But it is a shifting story and its causes have shifted significantly in the past two decades. Many of the conflicts that blighted the 1980s have ended or are drawing to a close.
With the exception of the Darfur region of western Sudan, the landscape of war in Africa has improved. From Congo to Uganda and Burundi rebels are abandoning armed struggle in favour of settlement.
The real challenges now are poverty and disease. The spectre of tens of millions dying in biblical famines in the horn of Africa has eased but millions more are at risk in the more fertile south.
Drought, Aids and preventable disease are putting more than 38 million at risk of starvation. In southern Africa, 16.41 million are in need of emergency food aid. In Zimbabwe, five million face death from a combination of hunger and Aids.
Short-term famine relief is not the only priority and political reform is heralded as the only way to achieve stability and the long awaited economic growth.
Democracy, the United Nations says, is the only political regime that guarantees political and civil freedoms and the right to participate - making democratic rule a good in itself.
- - -
Sudanese opposition leader to boycott interim government
Nairobi Wed 1 Jun 2005 Deutsche Presse Agentur report via ReliefWeb. Excerpt:
A prominent Sudanese opposition leader has said that his party intends to boycott the interim government, which is due to be installed in July as part of the peace agreement between the Khartoum government and the southern former rebels.
Sadiq al-Mahdi, who heads the Umma party, was quoted by the British Broadcasting Corporation Wednesday as saying that the peace agreement was a deal between the Islamic government and the former SPLA rebels headed by John Garang, and neither was not democratically elected or representative of the people.
Representatives of the Umma party had been taking part in discussions on the interim constitution during the past few weeks.
Sadiq al-Mahdi is the last elected prime minister of Sudan. He led a coalition government until he was toppled in a coup in 1989. The man who overthrew him was military officer Omar al-Bashir, who is now Sudans president. Full Story.
Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Kofi Annan Jan Pronk Africa UN
Today, he writes a report that sounds like he has interviewed British aid worker Paul Foreman in Khartoum by telephone.
For sure, the Khartoum regime will have to drop the charges because, like any Western health care organisation, Paul Foreman could never disclose confidential patient information and there is no way he, nor any of his colleagues, would denounce MSF's report on rapes as untrue. So, once again, Khartoum have painted themselves into a corner. They are so unethical they probably can't even imagine the meaning of the word.
Here is a copy of the Scotsman report. Note the report states that Kofi Annan's translator was arrested. [Scroll down here to yesterday's report pointing to two odd versions: first Jan Pronk said the translator was arrested, then he denied it. Mr Pronk is the UN's top envoy in Sudan. It is difficult to imagine experienced diplomats, even if they are from The Netherlands, using words like "arrested" lightly. See below Kofi Annan's off the cuff remarks to reporters where he says he is expecting to hear from Jan Pronk by today]
A BRITISH aid worker arrested by the Sudanese government yesterday accused the Khartoum regime of hurting its own people by threatening to prosecute aid workers.
Paul Foreman was arrested on Monday and spent much of yesterday being questioned by Sudan's attorney-general after being charged with crimes against the state, including spying.
The Foreign Office said it was doing what it could for Mr Foreman, the head of Medecins Sans Frontieres Holland, and added that it had "grave concerns" about the treatment of aid workers in Darfur.
Vince Hoedt, MSF Holland's Darfur co-ordinator, was also arrested yesterday, as was an interpreter who translated for Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary-general, during his visit to Darfur last week.
Mr Foreman, who is originally from Worthing, told The Scotsman that he found the circumstances of his arrest "extraordinary".
The Sudanese government decided to prosecute him after taking exception to an MSF report which highlighted more than 500 rape cases in Darfur that had been documented by MSF medical staff.
Speaking from Khartoum, Mr Foreman said: "What I regret is that this is totally time consuming. All that this is doing is hurting Sudanese people."
He accused the Sudanese government of obstructing the efforts of aid agencies who were attempting to help the victims of the genocide in Darfur.
"Humanitarian access is not good now. I think that the African Union has started to have some effect but there is a long way to go," he said.
"These guys are obliged to give us space to work and they are not doing that, by looting and shooting at us, by demanding that we only go with their consent and with their escort. Wherever the ground is controlled by men with guns they attempt to use us for political ends."
He said the Sudanese government appeared to have been embarrassed by the publication of the rape report and had used whatever means it could find to undermine the agency.
"We have undergone two months of propaganda and war by media," he said.
He said he had been charged with publishing false information, action likely to cause social unrest in Sudan and spying, but had been offered a way out. He said he had declined.
"They said if I would denounce the report as false that would be acceptable, which I'm not going to do because I stand by it. They said I could submit some of the details of the rape survivors but that is covered by the doctor-patient relationship. The other possible exit is that I could drag some of my own staff into court and testify but that is putting MSF and me on trial for crimes committed by Sudanese against Sudanese."
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We have been advocating unrestricted access for agencies operating in Sudan and we are continuing to raise the need for unfettered access and non interference by the government."
She said that Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, had raised the matter with Sudanese ministers and discussions were continuing at an ambassadorial level.
Photo: An injured Sudanese is treated at a Medecins Sans Frontieres clinic in Darfur.
Picture: Nic Bothma/EPA/Scotsman Wed 1 Jun 2005
- - -
Darfur - Gang Rape of a Fourteen year old Girl
London-based Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT) publishes Human Rights Alert re South Darfur May 31. Excerpt:
On 19 May 2005, three men allegedly from the Popular Police Forces attacked and raped a 14 year old girl (name withheld) belonging to the Beni Halba tribe in Nyala. During the attack which took place at Nyala Valley, the victim was beaten with hands all over her body.
On the same day of the attack, the girl was taken to the hospital for medical examination and the medical report confirmed the girl had been raped and had sustained physical injuries. Following the medical examination, the girl's family reported the incident to the police in Nyala and a case was lodged against the perpetrators. On 20 May 2005, the three men from the Popular Police Forces were arrested and were identified by the girl as the perpetrators. Full Report courtesy Sudan Tribune June 1.
- - -
Dutch summon Sudan envoy over aid worker arrest
Amsterdam Wed June 1, 2005 Reuters report:
The Dutch Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned the Sudanese ambassador to complain about the arrest of a Dutch aid worker with Medecins Sans Frontieres over the agency's report about rape in Darfur.
A spokeswoman for the ministry said ambassador Abuelgasim Idris would be told the arrest of Vincent Hoedt and his British superior Paul Foreman was not acceptable. The ambassador will have to report at the ministry to a high-ranking official.
"Aid workers should be able to do their work unhindered. ... There where they encounter abuses, they have to be able to denounce them," Dutch state secretary for foreign aid Agnes van Ardenne said in a statement.
Sudan's attorney-general, Mohamed Farid, said on Monday authorities had opened a criminal case over a report by MSF's Dutch branch in March detailing 500 rapes over 4-1/2 months in Darfur. He said the report was false.
The MSF report said its doctors working in Sudan's western Darfur area, where tens of thousands have been killed and more than two million forced from their homes, had medical evidence of the rapes in the western Sudanese region.
- - -
Secretary-General's press encounter upon arrival at UNHQ
Upon his return from Africa to UN HQ in New York 31 May, Kofi Annan, in an off the cuff meeting with reporters said he thinks the situation in some areas of Sudan has stablised but there is still serious security problems outside camps, and that is one of the reasons why he met with the AU, NATO, the EU and other donor states to provide support to allow the AU to expand its forces in Darfur from the current 2,000-plus to about 8,000. He said he was very satisfied with the $300 million raised in cash and in kind.
On the outcome of the referendum in France, he said: "Obviously, that is a major blow, but not a mortal one. I believe the project -- that is, the European Union, will survive and eventually, thrive."
Here is a copy of the Q&A session on Sudan:
Q: You had a meeting with rape victims, I believe, in Darfur. After your meeting your interpreter was held for a brief period of time. Two individuals from Medecins sans Frontieres who have dealt with the rape report continue to be held. Can you tell us what happened, what you know of the situation, and also what you've learned about the problem of rape?
Secretary-General: Yes, I did have an opportunity to talk to a group of women in Darfur. They discussed with me the insecurity, incidents of rape, and a mother telling me about her daughter, and we had an interpreter there with us. I heard this morning he was not arrested. I just got a report from Mr. Pronk. He was harassed, he was not arrested, and the UN intervened, and the authorities have indicated they will leave him alone. We are also following up on the question of Mr. Foreman who worked with Medecins sans Frontieres - he's also out on bail and we are following up to see what we can do to help him, to clarify the situation. In my discussions with the authorities I urged them to allow humanitarian workers to operate freely without impeding their work or their activities. Obviously I have to get more details of what happened to the Medecins sans Frontieres. But Mr. Pronk, whom I spoke with, is very much on top of things and I expect to hear from him in the next 24 - 48 hours.
Q: Anything else that you've learned on the sense of the scale of the problem of rape that the refugees face?
Secretary-General: I think that what is important is that those in the camps, particularly the women, feel that they are exposing themselves and they are at risk if they move outside the camp perimeters, and so they tend to get stuck in the camp, and were urging for greater security so that they'll able to move around freely without fear of attack or violence.
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Annan confirms Darfur's progress
June 1 Chinese news site Crienglish.com reports the following:
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has confirmed great progress in the security and humanitarian situation in western Sudan's Darfur region.
UN envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk conveyed this message on Tuesday in a written statement by Annan to Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir.
Annan hoped the Sudanese government and Darfur parties go to the Abuja peace talks on June 10 honestly and seriously to realize a political solution by the end of this year.
But Annan said more efforts are needed to restore Darfur to normality and called for international humanitarian and food aid for the residents of Sudan.
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Democracy is the answer, says the UN
Note, re June 1 Independent UK report by Daniel Howden, it is difficult to agree with his statement, 'with exception of Darfur, the landscape of war in Africa has improved'. The death toll and humanitarian crises in DR Congo and Uganda are far worse than Darfur and southern Sudan put together. Scroll through my blogs Congo Watch and Uganda Watch and you will see what I mean.
Here is a copy of Mr Howden's report:
African poverty and stagnation has been described as the greatest tragedy of our time. But it is a shifting story and its causes have shifted significantly in the past two decades. Many of the conflicts that blighted the 1980s have ended or are drawing to a close.
With the exception of the Darfur region of western Sudan, the landscape of war in Africa has improved. From Congo to Uganda and Burundi rebels are abandoning armed struggle in favour of settlement.
The real challenges now are poverty and disease. The spectre of tens of millions dying in biblical famines in the horn of Africa has eased but millions more are at risk in the more fertile south.
Drought, Aids and preventable disease are putting more than 38 million at risk of starvation. In southern Africa, 16.41 million are in need of emergency food aid. In Zimbabwe, five million face death from a combination of hunger and Aids.
Short-term famine relief is not the only priority and political reform is heralded as the only way to achieve stability and the long awaited economic growth.
Democracy, the United Nations says, is the only political regime that guarantees political and civil freedoms and the right to participate - making democratic rule a good in itself.
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Sudanese opposition leader to boycott interim government
Nairobi Wed 1 Jun 2005 Deutsche Presse Agentur report via ReliefWeb. Excerpt:
A prominent Sudanese opposition leader has said that his party intends to boycott the interim government, which is due to be installed in July as part of the peace agreement between the Khartoum government and the southern former rebels.
Sadiq al-Mahdi, who heads the Umma party, was quoted by the British Broadcasting Corporation Wednesday as saying that the peace agreement was a deal between the Islamic government and the former SPLA rebels headed by John Garang, and neither was not democratically elected or representative of the people.
Representatives of the Umma party had been taking part in discussions on the interim constitution during the past few weeks.
Sadiq al-Mahdi is the last elected prime minister of Sudan. He led a coalition government until he was toppled in a coup in 1989. The man who overthrew him was military officer Omar al-Bashir, who is now Sudans president. Full Story.
Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Kofi Annan Jan Pronk Africa UN
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Sudan: Another MSF aid worker arrested in Darfur - UN alarmed
The latest news reports posted here over the past 24 hours are really disturbing. The UN Security Council's first resolution last year was to ensure that Khartoum provided unimpeded access for aid and reined in their militias.
As far as I am aware, not a single Janjaweed has been arrested - instead, the genocidal regime in Khartoum is arresting aid workers with MSF aka Doctors Without Borders.
It seems like only a few days ago that Sudanese security forces repeatedly beat a BBC correspondent and carted him off, along with a Reuters photographer and a driver, and detained him for questioning even though he had press credentials.
Arresting aid workers who are there risking their lives to help the people of Sudan is outrageous. Clearly, the regime in Khartoum are not fit to govern and cannot - or will not - work to protect the people of Sudan.
Now, today, a second MSF worker has been arrested. This is simply the last straw.
I've said this many times before: everyone in Sudan ought to simply get up and walk out en masse so aid can be pulled out of Sudan and moved into neighbouring countries. Leave the rebels and Khartoum to slug it out and annihilate each other. There is no development aid without people. If there are no people, there is no development. If there are no displaced people in the Sudan, there is no aid for Sudan. Sounds simplistic but I really cannot see any solution other than assisted migration. If the 191-member states of the United Nations and the world's security forces can't sort out a handful of thugs in Khartoum, what hope is there for the people of Sudan - and Uganda - and DR Congo ...
UN alarmed by arrest of MSF aid worker in Sudan
Geneva, Tue May 31 AFP report via Sudan Tribune. Excerpt:
The UN's human rights chief, Louise Arbour, voiced serious concern Tuesday about the arrest of an international aid worker in Sudan who led damning research on rape in the conflict-ridden Darfur region.
"This is a very disturbing development," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.
Top Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) official Paul Foreman, was detained in Khartoum Monday and accused of crimes against the Sudanese state. He was later released on bail.
The medical aid group told AFP on Tuesday that its regional coordinator in Darfur, Vincent Hoedt, had also been arrested in the western city of Nyala.
MSF was also accused of "espionage, publication of false reports and of underming the Sudanese state," following Foreman's arrest, the group's Dutch branch said in a statement.
Arbour insisted that MSF had done "nothing more than record these horrendous crimes and try to focus critically needed attention on them".
"Rape and sexual violence are very real features of the life of the women of Darfur," she added.
"This is the conclusion of our monitors, of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur and of all serious investigations into the unfolding human rights crisis in the region."
Photo: This undated file photograph released by Medicins Sans Frontieres, (MSF) Amsterdam, Tuesday, May 31, 2005 shows Dutch aid worker Vincent Hoedt. MSF's Darfur coordinator, Vincent Hoedt, was arrested in the western region of Sudan this morning and authorities were taking him to the capital, Susanne Staals, spokeswoman for the Dutch branch of Medicins Sans Frontieres said. The Sudanese government was angered by an MSF report, published in March, that said its doctors working in Darfur had collected medical evidence of 500 rapes over 4 1/2 months. (AP Photo/ MSF)
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Sudan arrests second MSF aid worker for rape report
Khartoum, Tue May 31 Reuters report by Opheera McDoom Khartoum - additional reporting by Niclas Mika in Amsterdam:
Sudan arrested a second aid worker from the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) aid agency on Tuesday over a report on hundreds of rapes in the troubled Darfur region, the agency said.
Vince Hoedt, Darfur coordinator for MSF Holland, said he was under arrest and police were escorting him to Khartoum. It was not clear if he was charged with the same offences as the country director who was arrested and released on bail on Monday.
"I have been officially arrested but there are no official charges as yet," he told Reuters from Darfur. He was at the airport waiting to be transported to Khartoum, where he would meet with the authorities.
An MSF spokesman in the Netherlands told Reuters Hoedt saw his arrest warrant but could not read it because it was in Arabic.
Sudan arrested and later released on bail the country head of MSF Holland, Paul Foreman, who returned to meet authorities on Tuesday. MSF said in a statement the charges against him were spying, publishing false reports and undermining Sudanese society.
The attorney-general told Reuters on Tuesday the maximum penalty for the charges was three years in prison and then permanent expulsion from the country.
MSF Holland published a report in March detailing about 500 cases of rape over a period of 4 1/2 months in Darfur, where a rebellion has raged for more than 2 years.
The violence has killed tens of thousands and forced more than 2 million from their homes.
The report contained anonymous accounts by victims of their ordeals, including being held and raped repeatedly for several days, beaten and even arrested.
Pregnancy out of wedlock is illegal in Sudan, where Islamic sharia law is in force.
Rights group Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Tuesday the Sudanese government should be arresting war criminals in Darfur, not aid workers.
"This attack on the bearer of bad news is another assault on free speech," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director for Human Rights Watch. "There is no conceivable security or military reason for preventing publication of this kind of public health information.
"This is a perfect illustration of how far the Sudanese government is prepared to go to silence criticism and deny its own responsibility for massive atrocities in Darfur."
A U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry found evidence of mass rape during the rebellion in Darfur. The documents are with the International Criminal Court, which has been instructed by the U.N. Security Council to investigate alleged crimes against humanity in the remote west of Sudan, the first such referral.
MSF: 80% of Sudanese rape victims reported attackers were soldiers or members of government-allied militia
London Tue May 31 report by North London Online. Excerpt:
Sudanese authorities have charged a British aid chief with spreading false information in reports by the aid agency about alleged rape cases in Darfur.
Paul Foreman, head of the Dutch branch of Medicins Sans Frontieres, was detained and questioned before being released.
Prosecution lawyer Mohamed Fareed said in a statement that a case had been filed against Foreman and he was asked not to leave the country until interrogations were complete.
The Sudanese government was angered by the MSF report, published in March, that said its doctors working in Darfur had collected medical evidence of 500 rapes over four and a half months. The report said more than 80% of the victims reported that their attackers were soldiers or members of government-allied militia. The government denied the report.
"Upon interrogation, (Foreman) was not able to substantiate the claims nor could he provide any documents to this effect," Fareed said, complaining that the allegations were published on the group's website and quoted by the United Nations.
Fareed said if such crimes had really happened the culprits would be punished by prison and fines.
Geoffrey Prescott, a spokesman for the Dutch branch of MSF, said Foreman was questioned for several hours about the rape report and charged with crimes against the state and asked to report back to police today.
"We are intrigued by the fact that they are charging us, an agency investing millions in the saving of lives, rather than the people responsible for the rape," Prescott said in Amsterdam.
"It's also interesting that they took the report so personally, when we don't even name them as being responsible."
He said the incident had not impaired the work of about 80 MSF employees working in the country for the Dutch mission.
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UN Emergency Relief Coordinator urges Sudan to drop charges against MSF official
United Nations, Mon May 30 UN News Centre report:
The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator today appealed to Sudan to drop charges against a senior official of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) who is apparently being targeted for the agency's publication of a report detailing violence against women in the country.
"I am very concerned about the arrest of Paul Foreman, country director of MSF-Holland, in Khartoum earlier today," Jan Egeland said in a statement.
Mr. Foreman has been released on bail.
Confirming the incident on its own website, MSF said the British national has been charged with crimes against the State. "MSF is being accused of publishing false reports, undermining society in Sudan and spying," said the humanitarian relief agency known for operating under dangerous conditions. It voiced outrage at the charges and rejected an suggestion that the report was false.
Urging Sudan's authorities to drop all charges against Mr. Foreman immediately, Mr. Egeland said MSF-Holland "is a crucial partner in our relief effort in Darfur," the country's war-ravaged western region.
According to MSF, the charges relate to "The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur," which the agency published in March.
"Faced with hundreds of women and girls seeking medical care following rape and sexual violence in Darfur, MSF wrote and published the report in order to raise awareness about the ongoing violence against women," the agency said, noting that the document "does not accuse the Government of Sudan."
Mr. Egeland, a UN Under-Secretary-General, stressed that MSF's work in treating victims of rape and sexual violence, and speaking out about the terrible crimes being committed, has been exemplary.
"It is an incontestable fact that rape and sexual violence are rampant in the ongoing crisis in Darfur," he said. "The Sudanese Government, the UN and international NGOs only recently made substantial progress in addressing this issue, efforts that must continue to ensure that all victims of sexual violence receive assistance and protection."
Photo: Sudanese men wait to see doctors in the Abu Shouk camp near El-Fasher, Sudan. A second Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) aid worker has been arrested in Sudan, a spokesman for the international aid group, Aymeric Peguillan, told AFP. (AFP/File/Salah Omar)
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BBC says charges are part of a drive by Sudan to end western criticism
UK, Tue 31 May BBC report:
An aid official has been detained in Sudan's Darfur region, a day after his director was charged with spying and spreading false information.
Vince Hoedt, Darfur co-ordinator for the Dutch section of Medecins Sans Frontieres has not yet been charged.
MSF Sudan director Paul Foreman was arrested on Monday and later released on bail, over a report on rape.
BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says the charges are part of a drive by Sudan to end western criticism.
The Sudanese authorities deny accusations that they back the Arab Janjaweed militias alleged to have committed widespread atrocities, such as mass killings and mass rape.
They also deny that the scale of the violence is as severe as reported by aid agencies.
The state crime prosecutor said Mr Foreman had failed to hand over evidence on which the report on rape was based.
Mr Foreman said "medical privilege" and patient confidentiality prevented him from handing over documents requested by the authorities.
The BBC's Martin Plaut, who recently travlled to Darfur, says that many Sudanese believe western aid workers have given information on alleged human rights abuses in Darfur to the United Nations, which has passed a sealed list of 51 war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court.
Our correspondent says that in March, aid workers were threatened over their reports of mass rape.
Another reason for respecting the information, was because women "made pregnant as a result of rape outside wedlock can be arrested by the authorities" in Sudan, which operates strict Islamic sharia law, said MSF Holland spokesman Geoff Prescott
He told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that the charity stood by its report, which he described as "accurate and truthful".
Sudan's state crime prosecutor said he had come to conclusion that the report was false.
Mr Foreman could face up to three years in prison if found guilty of falsifying the report.
It is not yet known when he will appear in court.
"We would like to reiterate that we think it's the people who perpetrate rape in Darfur who should be in court, not the people who are trying to bring medical assistance to the victims," Mr Prescott said.
The report - The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur - which came out in March, was based on the treatment of 500 women over a four-and-a-half month period in Darfur.
It details nearly 300 of these cases, with several written up as witness statements, Mr Foreman said.
Human Rights Watch Africa director Peter Takirambudde said Mr Foreman's arrest was "a perfect illustration of how far the Sudanese government is prepared to go to silence criticism and deny its own responsibility for massive atrocities in Darfur."
MSF says it has a significant presence in Darfur, with more than 300 international staff and 3,000 local staff treating some one million patients.
The UN says that about 180,000 people have died in the two-year conflict in Darfur, and more than two million driven from their homes.
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MSF Press Release: Dutch co-ordinator for MSF in Darfur held this morning
Khartoum/Amsterdam, May 31 MSF Press Release [via Eric at Passion of the Present with thanks]:
The international medical humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) expresses its outrage about the arrest of a second representative in Sudan this morning. Dutchman Vincent Hoedt, Regional Co-ordinator for MSF in Darfur, was arrested this morning in Nyala.
Yesterday, May 30, MSF's head of mission Paul Foreman was arrested in Khartoum and later released on bail.
"These arrests are totally unacceptable," said Geoff Prescott, General Director of MSF (Holland). "The government is punishing humanitarian aid workers for doing their job for victims of the conflict in Darfur".
The Sudanese authorities accused MSF of crimes against the state, publishing false reports, spying and undermining Sudanese society. MSF demands that all charges are dropped.
"The arrest of two senior co-ordinators severely undermines our ability to provide humanitarian assistance. The people of Darfur, who have been through so much already, must not be allowed to suffer as a result of these actions," said Geoff Prescott.
MSF has been working for more than 20 years in Sudan providing health care and emergency aid to millions of Sudanese civilians. MSF is the principle partner of the Sudanese Ministry of Health in the battle against the Kala Azar and has treated more than 60.000 Sudanese infected.
MSF works in over 29 locations in Darfur with 180 expatriate and 3000 national staff. In the last 12 months in Darfur alone, MSF has provided almost a million medical consultations and treated more than 50.000 children suffering from malnutrition. MSF is not only working in Darfur but throughout the Sudan, bringing medical care to Sudanese afflicted by epidemics and conflict.
Paul Foreman (45 years old) has worked for MSF since 2002. He has worked as head of mission for MSF in Congo-Brazzaville, Angola and Iraq. Foreman is originally from Carlshalton, United Kingdom.
Vincent Hoedt (35 years old) has worked for MSF since 1996 and was born in Rotterdam, Holland. Vincent Hoedt has worked for MSF in Colombia, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Zambia, Albania and Nigeria. Vincent first worked as a logistician, then later as project co-ordinator and head of mission for MSF.
"These arrests are totally unacceptable," said Geoff Prescott, General Director of MSF (Holland). "The government is punishing humanitarian aid workers for doing their job for victims of the conflict in Darfur".
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MSF wants Sudanese authorities to solve the crisis, instead of shooting the messenger
Nairobi May 31 report by IRIN:
Sudanese authorities have arrested two senior officials of the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) over a report that claimed that hundreds of rapes had taken place in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, MSF said.
Paul Foreman, the head of MSF-Holland was interrogated for three-and-a-half hours, then released on a one million Sudanese dinar [US $4,000] bond on Monday in Khartoum, while Vincent Hoedt, the MSF regional coordinator for Darfur, was ordered to the Sudanese capital for questioning on Tuesday.
"I'm technically arrested and not allowed to leave the country," Foreman told IRIN on Tuesday morning while on his way to a second round of questioning.
"The district attorney charged me with crimes against the state, publishing false information - and they are investigating other areas," he added.
Mohamed Fareed, a prosecuting attorney, said in a statement that "upon interrogation, [Foreman] was not able to substantiate the claims nor could he provide any documents to this effect." If the crimes had really happened, the culprits would be punished, he added.
The charges relate to MSF's report: "The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur", which was published on 8 March, MSF said in a statement released on Monday.
"It was an MSF report based on MSF medical consultations. It was written by MSF, and MSF stands by it," Foreman said.
The Sudanese government was angered by the report, which said that MSF doctors working in Darfur had collected medical evidence of 500 rapes over four-and-a-half months. More than 80 percent of the victims reported that their attackers were soldiers or members of government-allied militia. The report did not accuse the government of Sudan.
Faced with hundreds of women and girls seeking medical care following rape and sexual violence in Darfur, MSF published the report in order to raise awareness about the ongoing violence against women.
In a statement on Monday, Jan Egeland, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General, said: "I urge the Sudanese authorities to drop all charges against Mr. Foreman immediately. MSF-Holland is a crucial partner in our relief effort in Darfur. Their work in treating victims of rape and sexual violence, and speaking out about the terrible crimes being committed has been exemplary."
"They treated me well. It was a relatively straightforward question-and-answer session," Foreman noted with regard to his arrest on Monday.
The MSF head of mission did not think the authorities wanted to put him in jail. "They want me to denounce the report or jeopardise the doctor-patient confidentiality of MSF by releasing the medical dossiers. I'm not going to do either of those."
Foreman said the case against MSF had been building up over the past two-and-a-half months, following discussions about the report with the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC). HAC representatives said they were "extremely unhappy" with the report, while the medical charity insisted on following its humanitarian principles.
"We would like them [the Sudanese authorities] to put their energy in solving the crisis, rather than shooting the messenger," he said.
"As providers of medical assistance and as human beings we find it impossible to stay silent when we are witnessing these abuses - wherever they occur. MSF wants to make people and governments aware of these serious violations so that real action is taken to stop them," Geoff Prescott, General-Director of MSF in Amsterdam, Holland, said in a statement on Monday.
"Everybody who has looked into the situation in Darfur, including the government of Sudan, has concluded that rape is a problem," he added.
Egeland stated that it was an "incontestable fact" that rape and sexual violence were rampant in Darfur.
"The Sudanese government, the UN and international NGOs only recently made substantial progress in addressing this issue, efforts that must continue to ensure that all victims of sexual violence receive assistance and protection," he noted.
Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Paul Foreman Vincent Hoedt Africa UN
As far as I am aware, not a single Janjaweed has been arrested - instead, the genocidal regime in Khartoum is arresting aid workers with MSF aka Doctors Without Borders.
It seems like only a few days ago that Sudanese security forces repeatedly beat a BBC correspondent and carted him off, along with a Reuters photographer and a driver, and detained him for questioning even though he had press credentials.
Arresting aid workers who are there risking their lives to help the people of Sudan is outrageous. Clearly, the regime in Khartoum are not fit to govern and cannot - or will not - work to protect the people of Sudan.
Now, today, a second MSF worker has been arrested. This is simply the last straw.
I've said this many times before: everyone in Sudan ought to simply get up and walk out en masse so aid can be pulled out of Sudan and moved into neighbouring countries. Leave the rebels and Khartoum to slug it out and annihilate each other. There is no development aid without people. If there are no people, there is no development. If there are no displaced people in the Sudan, there is no aid for Sudan. Sounds simplistic but I really cannot see any solution other than assisted migration. If the 191-member states of the United Nations and the world's security forces can't sort out a handful of thugs in Khartoum, what hope is there for the people of Sudan - and Uganda - and DR Congo ...
UN alarmed by arrest of MSF aid worker in Sudan
Geneva, Tue May 31 AFP report via Sudan Tribune. Excerpt:
The UN's human rights chief, Louise Arbour, voiced serious concern Tuesday about the arrest of an international aid worker in Sudan who led damning research on rape in the conflict-ridden Darfur region.
"This is a very disturbing development," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.
Top Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) official Paul Foreman, was detained in Khartoum Monday and accused of crimes against the Sudanese state. He was later released on bail.
The medical aid group told AFP on Tuesday that its regional coordinator in Darfur, Vincent Hoedt, had also been arrested in the western city of Nyala.
MSF was also accused of "espionage, publication of false reports and of underming the Sudanese state," following Foreman's arrest, the group's Dutch branch said in a statement.
Arbour insisted that MSF had done "nothing more than record these horrendous crimes and try to focus critically needed attention on them".
"Rape and sexual violence are very real features of the life of the women of Darfur," she added.
"This is the conclusion of our monitors, of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur and of all serious investigations into the unfolding human rights crisis in the region."
Photo: This undated file photograph released by Medicins Sans Frontieres, (MSF) Amsterdam, Tuesday, May 31, 2005 shows Dutch aid worker Vincent Hoedt. MSF's Darfur coordinator, Vincent Hoedt, was arrested in the western region of Sudan this morning and authorities were taking him to the capital, Susanne Staals, spokeswoman for the Dutch branch of Medicins Sans Frontieres said. The Sudanese government was angered by an MSF report, published in March, that said its doctors working in Darfur had collected medical evidence of 500 rapes over 4 1/2 months. (AP Photo/ MSF)
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Sudan arrests second MSF aid worker for rape report
Khartoum, Tue May 31 Reuters report by Opheera McDoom Khartoum - additional reporting by Niclas Mika in Amsterdam:
Sudan arrested a second aid worker from the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) aid agency on Tuesday over a report on hundreds of rapes in the troubled Darfur region, the agency said.
Vince Hoedt, Darfur coordinator for MSF Holland, said he was under arrest and police were escorting him to Khartoum. It was not clear if he was charged with the same offences as the country director who was arrested and released on bail on Monday.
"I have been officially arrested but there are no official charges as yet," he told Reuters from Darfur. He was at the airport waiting to be transported to Khartoum, where he would meet with the authorities.
An MSF spokesman in the Netherlands told Reuters Hoedt saw his arrest warrant but could not read it because it was in Arabic.
Sudan arrested and later released on bail the country head of MSF Holland, Paul Foreman, who returned to meet authorities on Tuesday. MSF said in a statement the charges against him were spying, publishing false reports and undermining Sudanese society.
The attorney-general told Reuters on Tuesday the maximum penalty for the charges was three years in prison and then permanent expulsion from the country.
MSF Holland published a report in March detailing about 500 cases of rape over a period of 4 1/2 months in Darfur, where a rebellion has raged for more than 2 years.
The violence has killed tens of thousands and forced more than 2 million from their homes.
The report contained anonymous accounts by victims of their ordeals, including being held and raped repeatedly for several days, beaten and even arrested.
Pregnancy out of wedlock is illegal in Sudan, where Islamic sharia law is in force.
Rights group Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Tuesday the Sudanese government should be arresting war criminals in Darfur, not aid workers.
"This attack on the bearer of bad news is another assault on free speech," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director for Human Rights Watch. "There is no conceivable security or military reason for preventing publication of this kind of public health information.
"This is a perfect illustration of how far the Sudanese government is prepared to go to silence criticism and deny its own responsibility for massive atrocities in Darfur."
A U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry found evidence of mass rape during the rebellion in Darfur. The documents are with the International Criminal Court, which has been instructed by the U.N. Security Council to investigate alleged crimes against humanity in the remote west of Sudan, the first such referral.
MSF: 80% of Sudanese rape victims reported attackers were soldiers or members of government-allied militia
London Tue May 31 report by North London Online. Excerpt:
Sudanese authorities have charged a British aid chief with spreading false information in reports by the aid agency about alleged rape cases in Darfur.
Paul Foreman, head of the Dutch branch of Medicins Sans Frontieres, was detained and questioned before being released.
Prosecution lawyer Mohamed Fareed said in a statement that a case had been filed against Foreman and he was asked not to leave the country until interrogations were complete.
The Sudanese government was angered by the MSF report, published in March, that said its doctors working in Darfur had collected medical evidence of 500 rapes over four and a half months. The report said more than 80% of the victims reported that their attackers were soldiers or members of government-allied militia. The government denied the report.
"Upon interrogation, (Foreman) was not able to substantiate the claims nor could he provide any documents to this effect," Fareed said, complaining that the allegations were published on the group's website and quoted by the United Nations.
Fareed said if such crimes had really happened the culprits would be punished by prison and fines.
Geoffrey Prescott, a spokesman for the Dutch branch of MSF, said Foreman was questioned for several hours about the rape report and charged with crimes against the state and asked to report back to police today.
"We are intrigued by the fact that they are charging us, an agency investing millions in the saving of lives, rather than the people responsible for the rape," Prescott said in Amsterdam.
"It's also interesting that they took the report so personally, when we don't even name them as being responsible."
He said the incident had not impaired the work of about 80 MSF employees working in the country for the Dutch mission.
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UN Emergency Relief Coordinator urges Sudan to drop charges against MSF official
United Nations, Mon May 30 UN News Centre report:
The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator today appealed to Sudan to drop charges against a senior official of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) who is apparently being targeted for the agency's publication of a report detailing violence against women in the country.
"I am very concerned about the arrest of Paul Foreman, country director of MSF-Holland, in Khartoum earlier today," Jan Egeland said in a statement.
Mr. Foreman has been released on bail.
Confirming the incident on its own website, MSF said the British national has been charged with crimes against the State. "MSF is being accused of publishing false reports, undermining society in Sudan and spying," said the humanitarian relief agency known for operating under dangerous conditions. It voiced outrage at the charges and rejected an suggestion that the report was false.
Urging Sudan's authorities to drop all charges against Mr. Foreman immediately, Mr. Egeland said MSF-Holland "is a crucial partner in our relief effort in Darfur," the country's war-ravaged western region.
According to MSF, the charges relate to "The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur," which the agency published in March.
"Faced with hundreds of women and girls seeking medical care following rape and sexual violence in Darfur, MSF wrote and published the report in order to raise awareness about the ongoing violence against women," the agency said, noting that the document "does not accuse the Government of Sudan."
Mr. Egeland, a UN Under-Secretary-General, stressed that MSF's work in treating victims of rape and sexual violence, and speaking out about the terrible crimes being committed, has been exemplary.
"It is an incontestable fact that rape and sexual violence are rampant in the ongoing crisis in Darfur," he said. "The Sudanese Government, the UN and international NGOs only recently made substantial progress in addressing this issue, efforts that must continue to ensure that all victims of sexual violence receive assistance and protection."
Photo: Sudanese men wait to see doctors in the Abu Shouk camp near El-Fasher, Sudan. A second Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) aid worker has been arrested in Sudan, a spokesman for the international aid group, Aymeric Peguillan, told AFP. (AFP/File/Salah Omar)
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BBC says charges are part of a drive by Sudan to end western criticism
UK, Tue 31 May BBC report:
An aid official has been detained in Sudan's Darfur region, a day after his director was charged with spying and spreading false information.
Vince Hoedt, Darfur co-ordinator for the Dutch section of Medecins Sans Frontieres has not yet been charged.
MSF Sudan director Paul Foreman was arrested on Monday and later released on bail, over a report on rape.
BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says the charges are part of a drive by Sudan to end western criticism.
The Sudanese authorities deny accusations that they back the Arab Janjaweed militias alleged to have committed widespread atrocities, such as mass killings and mass rape.
They also deny that the scale of the violence is as severe as reported by aid agencies.
The state crime prosecutor said Mr Foreman had failed to hand over evidence on which the report on rape was based.
Mr Foreman said "medical privilege" and patient confidentiality prevented him from handing over documents requested by the authorities.
The BBC's Martin Plaut, who recently travlled to Darfur, says that many Sudanese believe western aid workers have given information on alleged human rights abuses in Darfur to the United Nations, which has passed a sealed list of 51 war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court.
Our correspondent says that in March, aid workers were threatened over their reports of mass rape.
Another reason for respecting the information, was because women "made pregnant as a result of rape outside wedlock can be arrested by the authorities" in Sudan, which operates strict Islamic sharia law, said MSF Holland spokesman Geoff Prescott
He told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that the charity stood by its report, which he described as "accurate and truthful".
Sudan's state crime prosecutor said he had come to conclusion that the report was false.
Mr Foreman could face up to three years in prison if found guilty of falsifying the report.
It is not yet known when he will appear in court.
"We would like to reiterate that we think it's the people who perpetrate rape in Darfur who should be in court, not the people who are trying to bring medical assistance to the victims," Mr Prescott said.
The report - The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur - which came out in March, was based on the treatment of 500 women over a four-and-a-half month period in Darfur.
It details nearly 300 of these cases, with several written up as witness statements, Mr Foreman said.
Human Rights Watch Africa director Peter Takirambudde said Mr Foreman's arrest was "a perfect illustration of how far the Sudanese government is prepared to go to silence criticism and deny its own responsibility for massive atrocities in Darfur."
MSF says it has a significant presence in Darfur, with more than 300 international staff and 3,000 local staff treating some one million patients.
The UN says that about 180,000 people have died in the two-year conflict in Darfur, and more than two million driven from their homes.
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MSF Press Release: Dutch co-ordinator for MSF in Darfur held this morning
Khartoum/Amsterdam, May 31 MSF Press Release [via Eric at Passion of the Present with thanks]:
The international medical humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) expresses its outrage about the arrest of a second representative in Sudan this morning. Dutchman Vincent Hoedt, Regional Co-ordinator for MSF in Darfur, was arrested this morning in Nyala.
Yesterday, May 30, MSF's head of mission Paul Foreman was arrested in Khartoum and later released on bail.
"These arrests are totally unacceptable," said Geoff Prescott, General Director of MSF (Holland). "The government is punishing humanitarian aid workers for doing their job for victims of the conflict in Darfur".
The Sudanese authorities accused MSF of crimes against the state, publishing false reports, spying and undermining Sudanese society. MSF demands that all charges are dropped.
"The arrest of two senior co-ordinators severely undermines our ability to provide humanitarian assistance. The people of Darfur, who have been through so much already, must not be allowed to suffer as a result of these actions," said Geoff Prescott.
MSF has been working for more than 20 years in Sudan providing health care and emergency aid to millions of Sudanese civilians. MSF is the principle partner of the Sudanese Ministry of Health in the battle against the Kala Azar and has treated more than 60.000 Sudanese infected.
MSF works in over 29 locations in Darfur with 180 expatriate and 3000 national staff. In the last 12 months in Darfur alone, MSF has provided almost a million medical consultations and treated more than 50.000 children suffering from malnutrition. MSF is not only working in Darfur but throughout the Sudan, bringing medical care to Sudanese afflicted by epidemics and conflict.
Paul Foreman (45 years old) has worked for MSF since 2002. He has worked as head of mission for MSF in Congo-Brazzaville, Angola and Iraq. Foreman is originally from Carlshalton, United Kingdom.
Vincent Hoedt (35 years old) has worked for MSF since 1996 and was born in Rotterdam, Holland. Vincent Hoedt has worked for MSF in Colombia, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Zambia, Albania and Nigeria. Vincent first worked as a logistician, then later as project co-ordinator and head of mission for MSF.
"These arrests are totally unacceptable," said Geoff Prescott, General Director of MSF (Holland). "The government is punishing humanitarian aid workers for doing their job for victims of the conflict in Darfur".
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MSF wants Sudanese authorities to solve the crisis, instead of shooting the messenger
Nairobi May 31 report by IRIN:
Sudanese authorities have arrested two senior officials of the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) over a report that claimed that hundreds of rapes had taken place in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, MSF said.
Paul Foreman, the head of MSF-Holland was interrogated for three-and-a-half hours, then released on a one million Sudanese dinar [US $4,000] bond on Monday in Khartoum, while Vincent Hoedt, the MSF regional coordinator for Darfur, was ordered to the Sudanese capital for questioning on Tuesday.
"I'm technically arrested and not allowed to leave the country," Foreman told IRIN on Tuesday morning while on his way to a second round of questioning.
"The district attorney charged me with crimes against the state, publishing false information - and they are investigating other areas," he added.
Mohamed Fareed, a prosecuting attorney, said in a statement that "upon interrogation, [Foreman] was not able to substantiate the claims nor could he provide any documents to this effect." If the crimes had really happened, the culprits would be punished, he added.
The charges relate to MSF's report: "The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur", which was published on 8 March, MSF said in a statement released on Monday.
"It was an MSF report based on MSF medical consultations. It was written by MSF, and MSF stands by it," Foreman said.
The Sudanese government was angered by the report, which said that MSF doctors working in Darfur had collected medical evidence of 500 rapes over four-and-a-half months. More than 80 percent of the victims reported that their attackers were soldiers or members of government-allied militia. The report did not accuse the government of Sudan.
Faced with hundreds of women and girls seeking medical care following rape and sexual violence in Darfur, MSF published the report in order to raise awareness about the ongoing violence against women.
In a statement on Monday, Jan Egeland, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General, said: "I urge the Sudanese authorities to drop all charges against Mr. Foreman immediately. MSF-Holland is a crucial partner in our relief effort in Darfur. Their work in treating victims of rape and sexual violence, and speaking out about the terrible crimes being committed has been exemplary."
"They treated me well. It was a relatively straightforward question-and-answer session," Foreman noted with regard to his arrest on Monday.
The MSF head of mission did not think the authorities wanted to put him in jail. "They want me to denounce the report or jeopardise the doctor-patient confidentiality of MSF by releasing the medical dossiers. I'm not going to do either of those."
Foreman said the case against MSF had been building up over the past two-and-a-half months, following discussions about the report with the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC). HAC representatives said they were "extremely unhappy" with the report, while the medical charity insisted on following its humanitarian principles.
"We would like them [the Sudanese authorities] to put their energy in solving the crisis, rather than shooting the messenger," he said.
"As providers of medical assistance and as human beings we find it impossible to stay silent when we are witnessing these abuses - wherever they occur. MSF wants to make people and governments aware of these serious violations so that real action is taken to stop them," Geoff Prescott, General-Director of MSF in Amsterdam, Holland, said in a statement on Monday.
"Everybody who has looked into the situation in Darfur, including the government of Sudan, has concluded that rape is a problem," he added.
Egeland stated that it was an "incontestable fact" that rape and sexual violence were rampant in Darfur.
"The Sudanese government, the UN and international NGOs only recently made substantial progress in addressing this issue, efforts that must continue to ensure that all victims of sexual violence receive assistance and protection," he noted.
Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Paul Foreman Vincent Hoedt Africa UN
Jane Wells: Witness to Darfur at The Huffington Post - New book "The Ambiguous Genocide" by Gerard Prunier
Thanks to Eugene at Coalition for Darfur for this neat find:
Excerpt from Jane Wells' first hand account of her trip to Darfur:
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Darfur Sudan: New book "The Ambiguous Genocide" by Gerard Prunier
Coalition for Darfur blog features a post about a comment left by a reader pointing out a new book "The Ambiguous Genocide" by Gerard Prunier, author of "The Rwanda Crisis". Excerpt from the post:
Tags: Darfur Coalition for Darfur Sudan Huffington Post Gerard Prunier Ambiguous Genocide Africa Janjaweed Jane Wells
Excerpt from Jane Wells' first hand account of her trip to Darfur:
I try to disappear, sliding my hot and sticky body down the back seat of the SUV as it bounces along an unmarked dirt road. I realize for the first time since arriving in Sudan that I am actually terrified. Our cell phones have quit working, and now the VHF radio signal is gone. My companions, part of the relief group, the International Medical Corps (IMC), don't have to tell me that these could be signs of an impending Janjaweed attack...Read the rest of Jane's story at The Huffington Post and follow her five-part series, "Witness to Darfur," at The Huffington Post over the next four days.
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Darfur Sudan: New book "The Ambiguous Genocide" by Gerard Prunier
Coalition for Darfur blog features a post about a comment left by a reader pointing out a new book "The Ambiguous Genocide" by Gerard Prunier, author of "The Rwanda Crisis". Excerpt from the post:
Gerard Prunier sets out the ethnopolitical makeup of the Sudan and explains why the Darfur rebellion is regarded as a key threat to Arab power in the country - much more so than secessionism in the Christian South. This, he argues, accounts for the government's deployment of "exemplary violence" by the Janjaweed militias in order to intimidate other African Muslims into subservience. As the world watches; governments decide if, when, and how to intervene; and international organizations struggle to distribute aid, the knowledge in Prunier's book will provide crucial assistance.The book is due out in September. See Coalition for Darfur's post The Ambiguous Genocide for further details.
Tags: Darfur Coalition for Darfur Sudan Huffington Post Gerard Prunier Ambiguous Genocide Africa Janjaweed Jane Wells
Full text: MSF's Report on Sexual Violence in Sudan
Note MSF's Report on Sexual Violence in Sudan - and keep scrolling down here for latest reports over past 24 hours re British and Dutch MSF aid workers arrested and charged by the genocidal regime in Khartoum for tarnishing the image of Sudan by helping Sudanese rape victims.
BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says the charges are part of a drive by Sudan to end western criticism. Fat chance. They ain't seen nothing yet. Message to Khartoum: hassle, intimidate, beat and arrest international aid workers and news correspondents - especially British nationals and BBC reporters - at your peril, you savage flea brain camel face morons.
Photo: A Sudanese boy walks with his supply of food at a feeding centre run by medical organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres in the village of Paliang, about 160 km northwest of the southern town of Rumbek, May 25, 2005. Sudan arrested a second aid worker over a report on rape in Darfur and is also holding a man who translated for Kofi Annan when the U.N. chief met rape victims in the region, U.N. and aid officials said on May 31 2005. News of the arrests came a day after the authorities detained a senior official from international aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Sudan, whose remote region of Darfur has been plagued by more than two years of bloodshed. Photo by Antony Njuguna/Reuters REUTERS/Antony Njuguna.
P.S. Take a look at some (warning: graphic) pictures of mans handiwork: Congo Watch: UN reports atrocities in Congo. Congo death toll nearing 4m
Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Foreman Hoedt Africa BBC Journalists Plaut Rape Sexual Violence Genocide Aid Workers Carshalton Surrey Britain Holland UN United Nations
BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says the charges are part of a drive by Sudan to end western criticism. Fat chance. They ain't seen nothing yet. Message to Khartoum: hassle, intimidate, beat and arrest international aid workers and news correspondents - especially British nationals and BBC reporters - at your peril, you savage flea brain camel face morons.
Photo: A Sudanese boy walks with his supply of food at a feeding centre run by medical organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres in the village of Paliang, about 160 km northwest of the southern town of Rumbek, May 25, 2005. Sudan arrested a second aid worker over a report on rape in Darfur and is also holding a man who translated for Kofi Annan when the U.N. chief met rape victims in the region, U.N. and aid officials said on May 31 2005. News of the arrests came a day after the authorities detained a senior official from international aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Sudan, whose remote region of Darfur has been plagued by more than two years of bloodshed. Photo by Antony Njuguna/Reuters REUTERS/Antony Njuguna.
P.S. Take a look at some (warning: graphic) pictures of mans handiwork: Congo Watch: UN reports atrocities in Congo. Congo death toll nearing 4m
Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Foreman Hoedt Africa BBC Journalists Plaut Rape Sexual Violence Genocide Aid Workers Carshalton Surrey Britain Holland UN United Nations
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