Sudan's Darfur and donkeys - CIDI & GlobalGiving's Livestock Support Programme for Sudanese Families

Photo: Donkey Carcass near Geneina: Donkeys are essential to the livelihoods of the people of Darfur. Many donkeys are dying due to lack of fodder or abandonment during civilians' flight to safety. (USAID photo gallery)

14 Feb 2006 blog entry at Based On A True Story:

"Just last night when I was driving home from work I got to thinking about Sudan. I was thinking about writing to my congressmen (who routinely ignore me anyway) and suggesting more help in the region. Then I started wondering how to support that region. I couldn't come up with any good answers.

Today I saw this link on Trey's site.

This project will provide food and medicine to save donkeys' lives in Darfur as they are vital to the population's survival and a key component of household wealth.

That's perfect for me. Darfur and donkeys. The day before I was thinking about Darfur I was talking at work about how much I love donkeys. I can only give a small amount right now but every little bit helps."

Photo: A young girl on a donkey with jerry cans of water which she has collected from the nearby pump. Her name is Isra and she is 7 years old - an Internally Displaced Person - forced from her home with her family when the fighting came too close for comfort. (Islamic Relief Darfur Photo Diary)

Help the people of Sudan restore their lives

Through CIDI and GlobalGiving, you can direct your contribution to Livestock Support Programme for Sudanese Families.

3.4 million people in Darfur depend on aid for survival

Oxfam report Feb 17, 2006 says the UN estimates nearly 3.4 million people in Darfur -- about half the region's total population -- are now dependent on international aid for their survival. Excerpt:

- About 13,500 aid workers are in the region struggling to meet the needs of this vast group.

- Estimates of the number of people who have lost their lives in the conflict range from 180,000 to 400,000.

- An African Union mission, sent to monitor a ceasefire that is now nearly two years old, is still significantly below its planned deployment of 7,757 troops and police officers. Even at full strength, the mission would not be large enough to adequately patrol an area the size of Texas.

For people stranded in the camps, often far from their villages, fields, and pastureland, life has become one long wait - for food rations, for limited amounts of water, for peace.

Oxfam is now providing critical water supplies and sanitation facilities for about 400,000 people in Darfur.

[via Coalition for Darfur with thanks]

July 2004 Q&A Interview: Sudan President Omar al-Bashir

On checking through my blog archives, I found Q&A: Sudan President Omar al-Bashir by Khalid Tigani for UPI dated 26 July 2004 and am cross-posting it to Sudan Watch for future reference.


Q&A: Sudan President Omar al-Bashir (UPI Science Report)
UPI Perspectives July 26, 2004
Tigani, Khalid | Copyright

Byline: KHALID TIGANI
KHARTOUM, Sudan, July 26 (UPI) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said Monday international pressure and military intervention would not solve the problem in the western region of Darfur where Amnesty International has charged that Arab militias, the Janjaweed, committed systematic, mass rapes.

Al-Bashir called for enough time to implement a joint plan with the United Nations to achieve security and stability in the troubled province.

He was speaking during an interview with United Press International at the Presidential Palace in Khartoum.
The Sudanese president appeared calm and refuted accusations that his ...

Sudan, AU agree Darfur should remain African Union issue

Darfur peace talks are deadlocked over power sharing. Chad says the African Union should impose a solution.

Feb 16 AFP report says US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said "genocide" was continuing in Darfur, but moves to bolster security with a UN force were held up pending a request from the African Union.

On Feb 15 Sudan's President and the Chairman of the African Union Commission agreed at a meeting held in Khartoum that resolving Darfur should remain an "African" initiative. In a press statement to the state-run SUNA at the end of the meeting, Foreign Minister Lam Akol said that the meeting reviewed situation in Darfur and the steps required on the ground as well as the Abuja peace negotiations.

Meanwhile, there appears to be no news of the Arab League's concern over Darfur. Where do the Arabs stand on the "African" issue in Darfur? Why are the Arab tribal leaders in charge of the Janjaweed not present at the Darfur peace talks?

Note the Arab League is scheduled to hold its summit in March in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, putting the US government in a tough spot.

Darfur chronic insecurity has led MSF to redefine activities

Dr Pauline Horrill, MSF's program manager for Sudan, and Fabrice Weissman, head of MSF's Darfur mission, offer an update report 16 Feb 2006.

[via Sudan Tribune 17 Feb 2006 with thanks]

US says "genocide" continues in Darfur and UN must act - UN demands US to shut down Guantanamo prison camp

The timing of these news reports, published today, is interesting:

(Reuters) Rice says genocide continues in Darfur, UN must act - "It is our view that genocide was committed and in fact it continues in Darfur," she said adding, "We are doing everything we can to deal with the impact of the situation in Darfur."

[Note, 16 Feb 2006 AFP report says US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said "genocide" was continuing in Darfur, but moves to bolster security with a UN force were held up pending a request from the African Union]

(BBC) Annan backs UN Guantanamo demand - The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has said the United States must shut down Guantanamo Bay prison camp "as soon as is possible". The White House has dismissed the UN report as "a discredit to the UN."
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Further reading:

June 30, 2004 No genocide in Darfur: US government

Sep 9, 2004 BBC Powell declares genocide in Sudan - The BBC's state department correspondent Jill McGivering says the use of the word genocide does not legally oblige the US to act, but it does increase the moral and political pressure.

Sep 9, 2004 US Mission to the UN in Geneva Press Release on The Crisis in Darfur - Text of Secretary Colin L Powell Testimony Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Washington DC, Sep 9. 2004: "Mr Chairman, as I have said, the evidence leads us to the conclusion, the United States to the conclusion; that genocide has occurred and may still be occurring in Darfur. We believe the evidence corroborates the specific intent of the perpetrators to destroy "a group in whole or in part," the words of the Convention. This intent may be inferred from their deliberate conduct. We believe other elements of the convention have been met as well."

Jan 31, 2005 BBC UN 'rules out' genocide in Darfur.

July 3, 2005 BBC Panorama The New Killing Fields transcript: Chris Mullin MP (Foreign Office minister): "What we think is not an effective way of stopping the killings is the way that some people... is the suggestion that some people are urging upon us, that somehow there's some western force that could come riding over the hills and everything will be alright again, but it's not like that. And the odds are that if any western force did intervene it would become bogged down and that some new cause for all the Jihadists in the world would emerge and we'd find ourselves very quickly being shot at by all sides. Plus we would probably destabilise the whole of Sudan which is the size of Western Europe and the last thing we want is a failed state the size of Western Europe on our hands in Africa."

Feb 4, 2006 Eric Reeves says violence still displaces Daruris while US decides genocide no longer exist.

Feb 9, 2006 Eric Reeves asks why has the Bush administration chosen this moment to suggest that genocide is no longer taking place - read US State Department Dishonesty on Darfur.

Feb 16. 2006 UK Conservative Party Speech to the Johns Hopkins SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations in Washington DC by former leader William Hague mentions the words Genocide in Darfur ...

USAID distributing 50,000 radios throughout South Sudan

Sudan Man notes USAID's distribution of radios throughout southern Sudan:

50,000 solar- and hand crank-powered radios are being distributed; USAID is helping to organize listening groups; regional resource centers are being set up in six areas to host the groups and provide meeting space and resources for civil society organizations.

USAID is also developing radio-based educational resources, such as classes and teacher trainings, that the listening groups can access.

Note the BBC's new lifeline service Darfur Salaam.
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Note Geekcorps Bottlenet and rugged computers for desert conditions.

Wanted: Superdiplomat and manager for 181 countries

No application form is needed and no interview is held for the position of secretary general of the United Nations. So how do you get the job - and who's in the running? Anne Penketh reports at the Independent UK.

Britain's PM Tony Blair is listed in the report as one of the front runners.

Darfur peace talks deadlocked over power sharing - Chad says AU should impose solution

AU Mission in Sudan said that Sudanese parties in Darfur peace talks have realised significant progress in the wealth sharing and security arrangements,. But it seems that the negotiations are deadlocked on the question of Power sharing.



Photo: Chad's Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmad Allam-mi speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in N'djamena, Chad Thursday, Feb. 16, 2006.

The Sudanese government and rebel groups in the Darfur conflict holding peace talks in neighboring Nigeria have taken too long to agree on a solution so the African Union should impose one, Allam-mi said Thursday. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

Darfur: Stop the killing, or pay the price warns Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw

Outspoken article in the International Herald Tribune by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw published 16 February 2006 is similar to the stern warnings in the text he read out in person this week at the Darfur peace talks.

Ramstein airmen helping airlift Rwandan soldiers into Darfur

Stars & Stripes reports today about 15 airmen from Ramstein Air Base are in Rwanda helping transport peacekeeping troops to Darfur.

The airmen from the base's 86th Contingency Response Group arrived in the Rwanda capital of Kigali last weekend to help airlift 1,200 troops from two Rwandan battalions and their personal equipment from Kigali International Airport to Darfur.

An equal number is expected to rotate back to their home country, so it's not a case of additional troops for Darfur. More on this news at allAfrica.com.
- - -

Russian peacekeepers to be in South Sudan next April

Up to 200 soldiers, four Mi-8 transport and combat helicopters and 15 vehicles will be sent to peacekeep in South Sudan (not Darfur which is a separate conflict in western Sudan). An-124 Ruslan, An-22 Antei and Il-76 planes will make over 40 flights to airlift the personnel, hardware and 200 tonnes of various cargoes.



Photo: President al-Bashir reviews the Honor Guard during the arrival ceremony at Rumbek Airport, on his left First Vice President Salva Kiir Feb 14, 2006. It was the first time al-Bashir visited Rumbek since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 9 Jan 2005. (Manyang Mayom/Sudan Tribune article 16 Feb 2006)

US Secretary of State Rice speaks of "genocide in Darfur" - Sudan measure puts administration in tough spot

Note how US Department of State Secretary Condoleezza Rice, in a prepared statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington, DC on February 15, 2006, uses the words "genocide in Darfur".

See excerpt from section in statement entitled "Building State Capacity":

"Our efforts to build state capacity continue in Sudan. The need for security is of the utmost importance to this effort, and the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) points the way forward. The CPA, which ended 22 years of North-South civil war in Sudan, is the framework for resolution of conflict throughout Sudan. The CPA created a Government of National Unity that shares power and wealth, and establishes elections at every level by 2009.

Implementing the CPA is essential to ending the genocide in Darfur. The United States is appalled by the ongoing atrocities that have persisted in Darfur, and we continue to lead the ongoing international effort to aid the region's displaced people, assisting over 1.8 million internally-displaced persons and over 200,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad. I ask for your full support of the President's upcoming supplemental request, which will include support for the African Union and for transition to a UN Peacekeeping Mission to bring peace to this war-torn area. We are requesting $1.1 billion in the FY 2007 budget to transition to peace in Sudan, meet humanitarian needs, lay the foundations for economic development, and strengthen sustainable democratic institutions."

[Via Coalition for Darfur with thanks]



Photo: On Monday, UN chief Kofi Annan met with President Bush get support for peacekeepers in Darfur. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP via CSM report Urgent calls for more troops to Darfur)
- - -

Sudan measure puts Bush administration in tough spot

A bipartisan resolution denouncing both Sudan and the Arab League may place the White House in the difficult position of choosing between strategic and humanitarian interests. The resolution denounces Arab League for scheduling its March summit in Khartoum.

The White House will face tremendous pressure to support the measure, which expresses disapproval for the Arab League's holding its annual summit in Sudan, to bring attention to what has been deemed by many as genocide in the country's Darfur region. However, such support may undermine U.S. intelligence-sharing with Sudan as well as diplomatic efforts in Darfur and Iraq.

Full story by David Mikhail at The Hill, 16 February 2006.
- - -

Further reading:

June 30, 2004 No genocide in Darfur: US government

Sep 9, 2004 BBC Powell declares genocide in Sudan - The BBC's state department correspondent Jill McGivering says the use of the word genocide does not legally oblige the US to act, but it does increase the moral and political pressure.

Sep 9, 2004 US Mission to the UN in Geneva Press Release on The Crisis in Darfur - Text of Secretary Colin L Powell Testimony Before the Senate Foreign Relations CommitteeWashington DC Sep 9. 2004: "Mr. Chairman, as I have said, the evidence leads us to the conclusion, the United States to the conclusion; that genocide has occurred and may still be occurring in Darfur. We believe the evidence corroborates the specific intent of the perpetrators to destroy "a group in whole or in part," the words of the Convention. This intent may be inferred from their deliberate conduct. We believe other elements of the convention have been met as well."

Jan 31, 2005 BBC UN 'rules out' genocide in Darfur.

July 3, 2005 BBC Panorama The New Killing Fields transcript: CHRIS MULLIN MP (Foreign Office minister): "What we think is not an effective way of stopping the killings is the way that some people... is the suggestion that some people are urging upon us, that somehow there's some western force that could come riding over the hills and everything will be alright again, but it's not like that. And the odds are that if any western force did intervene it would become bogged down and that some new cause for all the Jihadists in the world would emerge and we'd find ourselves very quickly being shot at by all sides. Plus we would probably destabilise the whole of Sudan which is the size of Western Europe and the last thing we want is a failed state the size of Western Europe on our hands in Africa."

Feb 4, 2006 Eric Reeves - As violence still displaces Daruris, US decides genocide no longer exist.

Feb 16. 2006 UK Conservative Party Speech to the Johns Hopkins SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations in Washington DC by former leader William Hague mentions the words Genocide in Darfur ...

TEXT: UK Foreign Secretary's speech to Darfur peace talks

"Meanwhile the people of Darfur continue to suffer. Two million or so are now in camps. Many more are homeless or displaced. Innocent people are still being killed. Women and girls are being raped. Children - the children of those represented here - are dying.

This has to stop. And the people who must stop it - indeed the only people who can stop it - are you, the representatives of the parties to the conflict.

What the international community now wants to see is an end to the haggling and posturing and the start of real action by you to put Darfur back together again. So as a first step I call on you today to take five specific and immediate actions:

First: Declare your positions and deployments as you are committed to doing.

Second: Respect and observe the ceasefire in Darfur, which you signed up to and begin to rebuild security there. The Government of Sudan bears primary responsibility for the events in Darfur and for the failure to ensure the security of its citizens there. It needs to cease its own offensive operations and rein in the janjaweed militias. But at the moment it is the rebel Movements who have been most guilty of late in launching new attacks: they have got to stop and rein in their fighters.

Third: attacks on the AU force and humanitarian convoys has to stop;

Fourth: facilitate the work of the humanitarian agencies not undermine;

And fifth: the perpetrators of atrocities have to be brought to justice not hidden.

So much for action on the ground. We need to see action here in Abuja too. That means an agreement reached here that stops the conflict for good and provides the basis for lasting peace, prosperity and justice in Darfur."

Full text (Sudan Tribune) 14 Feb 2006.

Sudan Blankets of Love - Children's project shines spotlight on war-torn Sudan

On Valentine's Day, when most people were thinking of the person closest to their hearts, a group of local home-schooled children - and parents - tried to draw attention to the suffering people of war-torn Sudan, reports Julia Pecquet Staff Writer for Tallahassee Democrat:

About 20 children gathered Tuesday to share their research on the country's people; they also brought blankets for the inhabitants of Sudan. They hope their actions will bring some comfort to the Sudanese.

"I thought it was good to give blankets," said Andrea Hatler, 12. "I didn't really know about where they lived, how they lived."

"A simple blanket is a night's rest. It is shade by day. It is a way to carry their infant or their few possessions, as well as a powerful reminder that someone in America loved them enough to send a blanket - just for them."

As the home-schooled children found out looking at the ongoing conflict in Darfur, what's going on is complicated.

"I was surprised they were burning down the buildings," said Malachi Hatler, 12. "I thought they would keep them and move some of their people there. I was also surprised that they were burning the food. . . . I thought that they would haul off the food to wherever they lived."

Since 1998 "Sudan Blankets of Love" project has collected more than a quarter of a million blankets. Teresa Hatler will be collecting blankets for another two weeks. Contact her at 212-5783, or hatler77@yahoo.com. For more information visit Voice of the Martyrs online: www.persecution.com.



Photo: Baby at ZamZam camp for internally displaced people near El-Fashir, northern Darfur, Sudan by journalist Andrew Heavens

Dr James Moore, one of America's top bloggers, put the world's spotlight on Darfur, Sudan

Photo: Dr James F Moore

Considering today's communication technology, the Internet and free blogging tools, Jim Moore, author of The Second Superpower, comments on the blogging of Darfur and, as insightful as ever, concludes:

"The bad news--very bad--is that we learned a great deal about the limits of public opinion to change history, at least this history. We really did believe that we might be able to stop a genocide. As Ingrid reports, when we started the death toll was reported to be 10,000. Now it is at least 400,000. Probably more. The only thing that limits the actual death toll is that the victims are spread widely across a large geographical area, so they are difficult to completely exterminate. On the other hand, this same dispersal makes keeping an accurate count very diffcult, and terrible things can happen where no one but the victims and the criminals witness.

The good news is that many of us have concluded that we cannot stop particular genocides, but perhaps we can stop genocide. The Genocide Intervention Network has been born of this idea."

Photo: An African Union soldier from Kenya at ZamZam camp for internally displaced people near El-Fashir in northern Darfur, Sudan (by journalist Andrew Heavens at Meskel Square blog)

Sudan oil output to double by end 2006

Sudan's oil output is expected to double from current levels of around 330,000 barrels a day by the end of this year, Oil Ministry and oil executives has said Today, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

The increase in oil production capacity will come with the completion of the Petrodar project in blocks three and seven in southeast Sudan, originally scheduled to come on stream but subject to delays.
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Olympic champion Cheek donates prize money to Darfur

US speedskater Joey Cheek will donate the 25,000 dollars he will receive from the US Olympic Committee for his victory to "Right to Play", an athlete-driven charity organization, with the money earmarked for Darfur.



"I knew if I ever did something like this, I wanted to be able to give something back," Cheek said. "The best way I can say thanks is to donate my money to help somebody else."

Cheek's role model is former Norwegian speedskater Johan-Olaf Koss, who made a similar contribution in 1994 when the program was called Olympic Aid.

"The things he has done for other people have been an inspiration for me," Cheek said. "It's my hope that I can assist some people and walk in his large shoes."

AFP photo via Yahoo news 14 Feb 2006.

Glimmers of democracy breaking out in the Sudan?

Today, Reuters confirms Sudan withdraws controversial presidental decrees:

"I consider this as a victory for all, as a victory for the democratic transformation and the new system," Yasir Arman, the head of the SPLM parliamentary bloc said on Wednesday. He said the decrees were now to be debated as bills, which parliament could amend.

One of the decrees gave police and army officers immunity if they used deadly force against civilians and allowed any of Sudan's tens of thousands of largely uneducated police rank and file to use live fire at their own discretion.

Another decree regulated the work of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Sudan, requiring them to place their funds in accounts run by the government and allowing them to be ejected or shut down if they publicly disagreed with government policy.

I say, things are looking up. Sudan has so much going for it, apart from being beautiful. It is capable of pulling itself out of the dark ages, if only they'd all pull together and use their brains instead of fighting.

SLA shot down gov't helicopter in Shearia, South Darfur

Today, while Darfur rebel groups SLA and JEM negotiate peace with the Sudanese government at talks in Abuja, Minni Minnawi, the leader of a SLA faction, says his group shot down a government helicopter and captured one surviving crew member, named as Captain Muawiya Zubeir.

What are government helicopters doing flying over Shearia, South Darfur? Why are the Janjaweed still attacking rebel held areas? Where are the African Union troops in all of this? It's always the same when the Darfur peace talks are in session. Why aren't the Janajaweed leaders at the peace talks?

Note Sudan Watch entry April 3, 2005 Oil found in South Darfur - Oil issues threaten to derail Sudan hopes for peace

Further reading:

Feb 7, 2006 Controlled anarchy at Kalma camp in South Darfur

Feb 4, 2006 South Darfur: Mershing's entire population of 55,000 fled to Menawashi after raids by Janjaweed

Feb 3, 2006 AU says SLA attacks in Shearia and Golo provoked Sudanese forces and prompted reprisal attacks by Janjaweed

Feb 1, 2006 South Darfur: Janjaweed attack IDP camps Kele, Silo, Tege, Um Gozein, Ton Kittir - Mass exodus from Mershing - Joint Sudan/AU forces to patrol?

Jan 29, 2006 Major escalation of violence in Jebel Marra Darfur forces aid agencies to evacuate - UN condemns attack by SLA on Golo

Jan 19. 2006 Firewood patrols for IDPs at Kalma Camp, South Darfur

Britain's top diplomat Jack Straw at Darfur peace talks - Warns of sanctions

"Progress in the talks has been far too slow," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told delegates on a visit to the Darfur peace talks in Abuja, adding that neither side had done enough to observe a ceasefire in Darfur, reports Reuters today:

He said Britain would add names to a list of people from both sides already before the U.N. Security Council's Sanctions Committee for consideration. "Nor do we rule out additional U.N. sanctions against either the government of Sudan or the (rebel) movements if they fail to make progress," Straw said.

Darfur rebels have been most guilty of recent attacks

Britain believes that, while the Sudanese government bears responsibility for the security of its citizens there, it is the rebels who have been most guilty of recent attacks. "Our patience is not unlimited," Straw said, adding that if no agreement is reached soon, Britain and other countries will start looking at alternatives.

"You may well find that such alternatives leave some of the parties here and the absent leaders with a smaller role to play," he said, referring to the rebel commanders who were not present at the talks.

Straw also announced that Britain will give a further 1 million pounds ($1.74 million) to the African Union for its work in supporting the peace process.

AU top mediator hails UK efforts to bring peace in Darfur

TEXT - AU top mediator hails UK efforts to bring peace in Darfur. Excerpt:

"The fighting, the banditry and the level of violence on the ground in Darfur, is impacting negatively on our Talks, which is why we need once more to call upon the Parties, particularly, those who feel that they can fight and talk peace at the same time, to immediately put an end to all offensive actions on the ground in Darfur, as a mark of their commitment to a negotiated settlement of the conflict."