SUDAN WATCH

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Darfur insurgent's LJM will sign a framework agreement with Sudanese gov't next week

LJM Insists That Darfur Negotiations Are Continuing in Doha
Report from Sudan Radio Service - SRS, Thursday, 11 March 2010:

(Khartoum) - The coalition of Darfur anti-government movements, the Liberation and Justice Movement, has denied allegations that negotiations between the government and the group have stalled.

Speaking to SRS on Wednesday from Doha, the deputy chairman of the LJM, Abdulaziz Abu Namusha, said that they will sign a framework agreement with the government next week.

Abu Namusha also criticized JEM’s move to exclude other movements from the Framework Agreement signed between the government and JEM.

He said that the Darfur conflict can only be solved if all the anti-government groups are involved in the peace process.

[Abdulaziz Abu Namusha]: “If we need to solve Darfur’s problems permanently we will need only one agreement. This is what we are seeking but there is a suggestion by JEM to fellow groups and automatically the differences appeared and the people have insisted on signing the agreement. JEM has decided that the agreement be signed on 15 March. But for us we have suggested that we have to go and discuss all the issues and we are trying to get the support from the Darfur people on what we have agreed upon.”

The deputy chairman of the LJM Abdulaziz Abu Namusha spoke to SRS from Doha on Wednesday.

- - -

ULJM Darfur Coalition Forms Executive Body
Report from Sudan Radio Service - SRS, 03 February 2010:

(Darfur)– The recently-formed coalition of Darfur anti-government groups, the United Liberation and Justice Movement, announced the formation of its executive body in Doha, Qatar on Tuesday.

The group is to be headed by Doctor El-Tigani El-Sissi, with Abdel Aziz Abu Namousha as vice-chairman.

Abdel Aziz Abu Namousha spoke to SRS from Doha on Tuesday.

[Abdel Aziz Abu Namousha]: “We think unity is the first step towards resolving the Darfur issue because the stance of separate movements greatly affects our people. An agreement was reached that the group should be lead by Dr. El-Tigani El-Sissi with two deputies Abdel Aziz Abu Namousha and Haider Qalokuma Atim. We formed a presidential council, now consisting of six people, but it’s open to others who might join later and increase the council’s number.”

Abdel Aziz went on to express his disappointment that JEM signed a ceasefire agreement with the Government of National Unity but refuse to include other Darfur movements in the peace deal.

[Abdel Aziz Abu Namousha]: “I think unity can’t be achieved unless some people abandon their positions. And since these brothers in LJM have committed themselves to the principles of abandoning their political quest, I think real unity that will lead to peace will be achieved. Unity that will be able to deliver all the rights to Darfurians. But the unity of the movement is not enough. To achieve the rights of Darfurians, we need all Darfurians to come together in order to recover the power from the central government.”

The United Liberation and Justice Movement is composed of ten Darfur anti-government factions and is expected to sign a framework agreement with the government before entering into negotiations.

- - -

Other news from Sudan Radio Service - SRS:

11-Mar-2010

10-Mar-2010

09-Mar-2010

05-Mar-2010

04-Mar-2010

03-Mar-2010

02-Mar-2010

FULL TEXT Doha accord: Framework Agreement to Resolve Darfur Conflict between Sudanese gov't and JEM

Click here for full text of the Framework Agreement to Resolve the conflict in Darfur between the Government of Sudan (Gos) and the JEM.
- - -

AU Panel on Darfur recommended a comprehensive solution, and that recommendation was adopted by the AUPSC and endorsed by the UNSC

Thabo Mbeki is the only senior international who refused to dignify this NCP-JEM charade and who stayed away from the signing ceremony in Doha. He is reportedly standing by the recommendations of the AU Panel on Darfur report which called for inclusive negotiations that include all issues, including those notably absent from the Doha accords, such as justice and reconciliation.

Source: Extract from Alex de Waal's blog Making Sense of Sudan
Doha: A New Beginning or Another False Hope?
By Julie Flint
Thursday, February 25, 2010

"[...] For most Darfurians, the exclusive nature of the deal is ominous. The Addis Ababa and Tripoli groups have coalesced over recent days and chosen the former governor of Darfur, Tijani Sese Ateem, as their leader. He is a widely respected Fur politician from a leading family, but has lived abroad for twenty years. Dr. Tijani has been noticeably absent from the celebrations. Darfur’s Arabs, many of whom form the backbone of the NCP in the region, gave Ghazi Salah el Din a difficult reception when he returned from N’Djamena, seeing a repeat of the 2006 DPA that rewarded a Zaghawa leader (and an Islamist to boot, this time) with little support outside his own tribe.

Darfurians see another parallel with Abuja. After signing the DPA, Minni Minawi and the Sudanese Government both labeled their critics as enemies of peace and used the agreement as a pretext to crack down. Today government forces are attacking Jebel Marra, and JEM is silent. In Nyala, the NISS has roamed the city, closing the offices of civil society organizations and locking up several activists accusing them of possessing subversive material. This has not escalated into a full-scale clampdown, but the warning signs are there.

Thabo Mbeki is the only senior international who refused to dignify this NCP-JEM charade and who stayed away from the signing ceremony in Doha. He is reportedly standing by the recommendations of the AU Panel on Darfur report which called for inclusive negotiations that include all issues, including those notably absent from the Doha accords, such as justice and reconciliation. On that he is surely right, but what is his plan now?

Note this comment by Alex de Waal:

Alex de Waal:
February 26th, 2010 at 2:06 am
Julie asks of Pres. Mbeki, “what is his plan now?” One defining feature of Pres. Mbeki’s approach in Sudan is consistency. The Panel made an analysis of the Sudanese crisis in Darfur and recommended a comprehensive solution, and that recommendation was adopted by the AUPSC and endorsed by the UNSC. Why should that change?

Monday, March 08, 2010

Obama allows internet tech exports to Iran, Cuba and Sudan

WASHINGTON will allow technology companies to export Internet services to Iran, Cuba and Sudan in a bid to exploit their libertarian potential, The New York Times reported late Sunday.

Full story here below, plus photos of Mia Farrow's recent visit to a refugee camp in Goz Beida, eastern Chad.

Photo: Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) militants in Jebel Marra in 2005. The United States called Thursday, 4 March 2010, for all Darfur rebel groups to play a role in talks on a peace agreement and said that people in the war-torn region needed to see concrete improvements in security. (AFP/File/Salah Omar Thu 4 Mar 2010 6:02 PM ET)

US to allow web service exports to strict nations
From AFP via The Age.com.au Monday, 8 March 2010:

Washington will allow technology companies to export Internet services to Iran, Cuba and Sudan in a bid to exploit their libertarian potential, The New York Times reported late Sunday.

"The more people have access to a range of Internet technology and services, the harder it's going to be for the Iranian government to clamp down on their speech and free expression," a senior administration official told the paper.

The Treasury Department will issue a general license Monday for exports of free personal Internet services such as instant messaging, chat and photo sharing as well as software to all three countries, said the unnamed official.

The move will allow Microsoft, Yahoo and other Internet services providers to get around strict export restrictions, the report said.

Until now they had resisted offering such services for fear of violating existing sanctions.

But there have been growing calls in Congress and elsewhere to lift the restrictions, particularly after Iran's post-election protests illustrated the power of Internet-based services such as Facebook and Twitter, The Times said.

- - -

Mia Farrow visits refugee camp in Goz Beida, eastern Chad

Photo: UNICEF goodwill ambassador U.S. actress Mia Farrow addresses a group of internally displaced people on polio vaccination at a camp in Goz Beida, eastern Chad, near the border with Darfur, 02 March 2010. Farrow is on a week long visit to Chad to highlight the start of a nationwide polio vaccination campaign that it being launched at the end of this week. Chad had 65 cases of polio diagnosed last year amongst children and there is fear that it could spread. Picture taken March 2, 2010. (Reuters/Kate Holt/UNICEF/Handout)

Photo: A woman listens to UNICEF goodwill ambassador U.S. actress Mia Farrow, (not in the picture) talking about polio eradication at a community meeting in Goz Beida, eastern Chad, near the border with Darfur, 02 March 2010. Picture taken March 2, 2010. (Reuters/Kate Holt/UNICEF/Handout)

World Bank Releases 125 Million USD for Development in Southern Sudan

The World Bank office in Juba has been assigned to manage grants from thirteen other donors in southern Sudan under the Multi-Donor Trust Fund signed in 2006 in Oslo, Norway.

World Bank Releases 125 Million USD for Development in Southern Sudan
Report from Sudan Radio Service - SRS, Thursday, 04 March 2010:

(Juba) – The World Bank and the GOSS Ministry of Finance signed a deal on Wednesday in Juba to provide 125 million USD for development in southern Sudan.

The World Bank's communication officer in Juba, Albino Okeny Olak, spoke to SRS on Thursday.

[Albino Okeny Olak]: “These projects were planned since 2009. You know there are processes. The government formulates the project documents, we evaluate the impact of the projects on the people, and then the donors have to agree. So when it is approved like that, then the ministry implementing the project will have a program of work. And the priorities of these projects are decided by the government of southern Sudan. And all the donors and the World Bank have to comply with the priorities of the government.”

Albino Okeny Olak added that 63 million USD will be allocated to the health services, while 40 million USD will be devoted to transport and agriculture.

Twenty million dollars will finance training of police and prison personnel while the remaining 1.7 million USD will be directed to life-skills training for adolescent girls in the region.

The World Bank office in Juba has been assigned to manage grants from thirteen other donors in southern Sudan under the Multi-Donor Trust Fund signed in 2006 in Oslo, Norway.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

"War in Darfur is over," says Sudanese president

Photo: Agreement ... Omar al-Bashir, centre, embraces Khalil Ibrahim of the Justice and Equality Movement. (Reuters) See Reuters video and report by Robert Tuttle (Bloomberg; Telegraph, London) 25 February 2010: Darfur rebels win government posts in ceasefire deal

"War in Darfur is over," says Sudanese president
Ashraf Shazly, Agence France-Presse
Published: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 (via National Post)

EL-FASHER -- "The war in Darfur is over," Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir said on Wednesday in a speech in the war-torn region, adding that 57 members of a key rebel group, 50 on death row, had been freed.

Speaking in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, Mr. Beshir made the announcement a day after his government and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) signed a ceasefire and agreed to work towards a full peace agreement.

"The crisis in Darfur is finished; the war in Darfur is over. Darfur is now at peace," he said of the seven-year conflict that devastated the region.

"The combat of arms is over, and the one of development now begins," added Mr. Beshir, the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

"We need to make more efforts to develop Sudan and Darfur," he said.

The prisoners freed on Wednesday represented half of JEM's members in jail, Justice Minister Abdel Basit Sabdarat said outside Kober prison on the outskirts of Khartoum.

"Today we free 57 people: 50 had been condemned to death, five to prison terms and two who were being investigated," he said.

In El-Fasher, Beshir confirmed the releases, saying: "We have just freed 50% of those detained" in connection with an unprecedented rebel attack on the capital's twin city of Omdurman in May 2008.

The fighting resulted in the deaths of 220 people and the capture of a large number of rebels. Special courts later condemned 105 to death.

Beshir had said the death sentences would be quashed and that 30% of JEM's militants would be freed after the ceasefire deal, which was signed on Tuesday in Doha.

Sudan and the JEM, Darfur's main rebel group, signed the agreement and a framework accord in the Qatari capital with a final peace deal due to be signed by March 15.

Mr. Beshir on Tuesday called the Doha agreement "an important step toward ending war and the conflict in Darfur."

On Saturday, government and JEM representatives inked a framework agreement in Chad proclaiming a "ceasefire" in the seven-year-old conflict.

The 12-point provisional deal offered the JEM, long seen as Darfur's most heavily armed rebel group, a power-sharing role in Sudan, where presidential and legislative polls are due in April.

Article three stated that Khartoum and the JEM agreed on "the participation of the JEM at all levels of power (executive, legislative...)," according to a copy of the accord seen by AFP.

The two sides also agreed on Saturday that the JEM would become "a political party as soon as the final agreement is signed between the two parties" by March 15.

JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim on Wednesday again urged that the April elections be put back, however, saying that thousands of displaced people would be unable to vote.

"Our position is to ask for a delay in these elections because there are numerous citizens of Darfur and (the western states of North, South and West) Kordofan who will not be able to take part because they are displaced."

The Darfur conflict has claimed about 300,000 lives and displaced 2.7 million people, according to UN figures, since it erupted in February 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.

Ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Khartoum and state-backed Arab militias, demanding greater access to resources and power.

The conflict also saw a splintering into small factions of rebel groups, making efforts to seal lasting peace a massive task.

The ceasefire with the JEM closed the most active front in Darfur, but smaller rebel groups such as the Sudanese Liberation Army of France-based exile Abdelwahid Nur have refused to talk to Khartoum.

Nur on Wednesday blasted the truce.

"What peace is it? A ceremonial peace... a struggle to get government posts, but one not interested in fundamentals: guaranteeing the security of the population."

The ceasefire accord "totally ignores the security of the Darfur population," Nur, who lives in exile in France, told AFP by phone.

One of the smaller factions, the JEM-Democracy, also rejected the accord, calling it biased.

However, on Tuesday four of the smaller groups announced they were merging to form the Liberation Movement for Justice and also hoped to agree a deal with Khartoum.

On Monday, Beshir said this year will "mark a new Sudan, stable and peaceful, a united Sudan, by the will of its people."

EU, Russia and USA at the signing ceremony of a framework agreement by the Sudanese government and rebel JEM in Doha, on Feb 23, 2010

Photo: Representatives from the EU, Russia and USA at the signing ceremony of a framework agreement by the Sudanese government and rebel JEM in Doha, Qatar on Tuesday, 23 February 2010 (QNA) (Source: Sudan Tribune report)

Latest news from SRS - Sudan Radio Service:

24-Feb-2010

23-Feb-2010

Sunday, February 21, 2010

JEM & Sudanese gov't agreed on March 15 deadline - JEM said deal would be formally signed Tuesday in Qatar, Doha

HERE below is a historic photo of Darfur's rebel JEM Kordofan Sector chief Ahmed Wadiay being welcomed on arrival at Khartoum Airport on Saturday, 20 February 2010 to sign a peace agreement with the Sudanese government.

Reportedly, JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein said the peace deal would be formally signed in Qatar's capital, Doha, on Tuesday, 23 February 2010.

According to a report today at Sudan Tribune (see copy here below) Sudanese Presidential adviser in charge of Darfur dossier said yesterday they agreed with the JEM on March 15 as deadline for the signing of final peace agreement to end Darfur conflict in Doha.

Read more here below.

Photo: Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Kordofan Sector chief Ahmed Wadiay is welcomed on arrival to sign peace agreement with government at Khartoum Airport, February 20, 2010. Sudan's government signed an agreement with Darfur's rebel JEM on Saturday that would help resolve the conflict in the western region, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said. (Credit: Reuters)
- - -

JEM said peace deal would be formally signed in Doha on Tuesday

JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein said the deal would be formally signed in Qatar's capital, Doha, on Tuesday, 23 February 2010.

Source: BBC News online report at 00:03 GMT, Sunday, 21 February 2010 - Key Darfur rebels sign ceasefire deal - excerpt:

Jem spokesman Ahmed Hussein said the deal would be formally signed in Qatar's capital, Doha, on Tuesday.

"It's a significant step for peace in Darfur," he told the Associated Press. "It is a considerable achievement for both parties."

The BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum says the Jem is the most significant of the many rebel groups taking part in peace talks in Qatar, which aim to reach a final agreement by 15 March.

The Sudanese official in charge of the Darfur peace process, Ghazi Saleh al-Din, said other groups could also be included.

"It does not exclude other movements," he said. "I think we can try to emulate the agreement which we signed with Jem and try to speed up the process so that we can try to a final agreement as soon as possible."

- - -

March 15 deadline for signing of final peace agreement in Doha

Sudanese Presidential adviser in charge of Darfur dossier said yesterday (Saturday, 20 Feb 2010) they agreed with the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on March 15 as deadline for the signing of final peace agreement to end Darfur conflict in Doha.

Source: Sudan Tribune, Sunday, 21 February 2010 - Sudan, JEM to sign Darfur peace deal within three weeks - official - copy in full:

February 20, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese Presidential adviser in charge of Darfur dossier said today they agreed with the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on March 15 as deadline for the signing of final peace agreement to end Darfur conflict in Doha.

Ghazi Salah Al-Deen Attabani and Khalil Ibrahim, JEM leader, signed a preliminary framework agreement in Ndjamena including a temporary ceasefire, considered by Khartoum as most important issue in the deal. The framework agreement which should be developed in Doha outlined issues related to the power and wealth sharing and displaced and refugees.

A signing ceremony will be held in Doha likely a symbolic gesture to acknowledge the role of Qatar which hosted the talks between the two sides since last year.

Speaking at Khartoum airport following his return from Ndjamena, Ghazi said the two parties agreed complete negotiations and reach a final peace agreement on or before the 15th of March. The government had expressed keenness to sign a peace agreement before the general election scheduled for April 10.

The presidential adviser also stressed that Ndjamena agreement does not mean to exclude the other rebel groups in Doha who are expected to engage direct talks in addition to JEM with the government on Monday 22 February.

Gathered since January 24, the rebel groups — JEM, Sudan Liberation Movement Revolutionary Forces (SLM-RF) and Addis Ababa Group – failed to agree on the formation of a unified delegation to start talks with the government.

JEM which had signed a goodwill agreement with Khartoum on February 17, 2009, said the other two groups should merge under its leadership to avoid "chaos" and complications as it had been in Abuja where the rebel groups coordinated their positions. But the others rejected the proposition saying coordination is what they can offer to the powerful group.

Ndjamena breakthrough will allow holding peace negotiations in Doha as JEM reaffirmed its ascendancy over the two other groups supported by Libya and the US envoy to Sudan.

Ghazi told reporters that Ndjamena deal, which was secretly negotiated, does not mean to exclude the other rebel groups. He also said that the Joint Chief Mediator and the host country Qatar were aware of the talks in the Chadian capital. (ST)

Photo: JEM has been fighting the Sudanese government for seven years [File: EPA] Source: Aljazeera.net, Saturday 21 February 2010 - Darfur truce ahead of Sudan poll