Limited Edition Boot, Hangtag and T-Shirt Designed by Actor and Boot Company to Drive Awareness and Donations
STRATHAM, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 19, 2005--Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle and The Timberland Company, today announced the creation of a limited edition "Save Darfur" boot to raise awareness of the crisis and inspire civic and political action to help stop the genocide.
The black leather boot, designed by Cheadle, includes a picture of Africa and the words "Stomp Out Genocide" on the boot's sole. One hundred pairs of the limited edition boots were distributed to humanitarian activists, policy makers, journalists and entertainment professionals, who have raised awareness of and championed change in Darfur. Timberland has also designed "Save Darfur" t-shirts and boot hangtags to inspire consumers and generate funds to help create change in the Sudan.
"We are inspired and led by Don's passion to strengthen our global community and bring hope and humanity to the children and families of Darfur. We are honored to join him to raise our voice to build awareness and encourage peace," said Jeffrey Swartz, President and CEO of The Timberland Company. "We are not policy makers, politicians or activists - and so we proceed respectfully, sensitively and humbly - but within our rights and obligation as citizens of this planet."
Available only at Timberland(R) retail and online (www.timberland.com), "Save Darfur" t-shirts and hangtags will be sold for $24 and $5 respectively with one hundred percent of the profits going to AmeriCares. AmeriCares, a longstanding partner of Timberland, is a global leader of humanitarian relief providing life-saving aid in the Sudan. The program also highlights the leadership efforts of the Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of over 100 organizations united in support of Darfur.
Sudan, suffering what some have called the world's worst humanitarian crisis, remains one of the most troubled places on earth. A symptom of civil war, armed bandits called Janjaweed permeate the region resulting in an atmosphere where rape, violence and the burning of entire villages are commonplace. Since February 2003, 2.5 million Sudanese have been displaced from their homes and 400,000 people have died. Seeking relief in neighboring camps, the 200,000 refugees in Chad lack adequate food, sanitation and health care.
Don Cheadle, widely regarded as one of America's finest film actors, took up the cause of Darfur after portraying Paul Rusesabagina, the heroic survivor of a similar genocide, in the acclaimed film "Hotel Rwanda." Because of his activism, Cheadle was asked by a congressional delegation to accompany their fact-finding mission to Darfur in January 2005. He has dedicated himself to build the peace in Darfur through his active leadership in partnership with the Save Darfur Coalition.
"It's shocking to see the kind of devastation that occurred there and to know it's still going on," said Cheadle. "I am working with Timberland -- a company I respect and whose pursuit of social justice I admire -- to inspire others to help bring a halt to these atrocities."
To learn more about AmeriCares' relief efforts in Sudan, or to make a contribution to support these efforts, log onto americares.org or call 1-800-486-HELP (4357). For a daily monitor of news and opportunities to affect change, please visit www.savedarfur.org.
About Timberland
Timberland (NYSE: TBL) is a global leader in the design, engineering and marketing of premium-quality footwear, apparel and accessories for consumers who value the outdoors and their time in it. Timberland(R) products are sold worldwide through leading department and specialty stores as well as Timberland(R) retail stores. Timberland's dedication to making quality products is matched by the company's commitment to "doing well and doing good" - forging powerful partnerships among employees, consumers and service partners to transform the communities in which they live and work. To learn more about Timberland, please visit www.timberland.com.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Police from Sweden sent to Sudan
The Swedish government is to send three police officers to Sudan to join the three Swedes who are already working for the African Union Mission (AMIS) there.
This decision came only a few days after the October 8th killing of three Nigerian peacekeepers and two of the civilian Amis workers.
Since 2004 Amis forces have been working in difficult conditions in a hostile environment, sometimes without protection or the Sudanese government’s cooperation.
On October 10th UN Secretary General condemned the killing of Amis personnel and reminded the parties that Amis was an impartial force deployed to assist the people of the region and the parties to the conflict. He also reminded the Government that it had the ultimate responsibility for the protection of peacekeepers and humanitarian workers.
Sweden is currently contributing a total of six of the fifty police officers that have been pledged in support of Amis.
"Sweden's increased participation on the AU mission underscores our commitment to finding a sustainable solution to the conflict in Sudan,” says Carin Jämtin, Swedish minister for International Development Cooperation.
Since February 2003, government sponsored militias known as the Janjaweed have conducted a calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement in Darfur in what has been declared the worst humanitarian crises in the world today.
The conflict began after a rebel group began attacking government targets, claiming that the region was being neglected by Khartoum. The rebels say the government is oppressing black Africans in favor of Arabs.
So far it is estimated that tens of thousands have died due to violence, starvation and disease. More than 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes and over 200,000 have fled across the border to Chad.
Many now live in camps lacking adequate food, shelter, sanitation, and health care. Peace talks between the Darfur rebels and the government in Khartoum have made little progress while violations have shaken the cease fire in recent weeks.
David Stavrou
source: thelocal.se
This decision came only a few days after the October 8th killing of three Nigerian peacekeepers and two of the civilian Amis workers.
Since 2004 Amis forces have been working in difficult conditions in a hostile environment, sometimes without protection or the Sudanese government’s cooperation.
On October 10th UN Secretary General condemned the killing of Amis personnel and reminded the parties that Amis was an impartial force deployed to assist the people of the region and the parties to the conflict. He also reminded the Government that it had the ultimate responsibility for the protection of peacekeepers and humanitarian workers.
Sweden is currently contributing a total of six of the fifty police officers that have been pledged in support of Amis.
"Sweden's increased participation on the AU mission underscores our commitment to finding a sustainable solution to the conflict in Sudan,” says Carin Jämtin, Swedish minister for International Development Cooperation.
Since February 2003, government sponsored militias known as the Janjaweed have conducted a calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement in Darfur in what has been declared the worst humanitarian crises in the world today.
The conflict began after a rebel group began attacking government targets, claiming that the region was being neglected by Khartoum. The rebels say the government is oppressing black Africans in favor of Arabs.
So far it is estimated that tens of thousands have died due to violence, starvation and disease. More than 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes and over 200,000 have fled across the border to Chad.
Many now live in camps lacking adequate food, shelter, sanitation, and health care. Peace talks between the Darfur rebels and the government in Khartoum have made little progress while violations have shaken the cease fire in recent weeks.
David Stavrou
source: thelocal.se
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
'The world stood by and watched'
Heroic survivor describes saving 1,200 from Rwandan genocide
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
BY RUSSELL BEN-ALI
Aboard a plane from Sudan, Paul Rusesabagina watched a televised memorial to people killed at Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi concentration camp in Poland.
He remembered the words "Never again," proclaimed over and over by Western officials who attended the January ceremony, the 60th anniversary of the death camp's liberation.
The words meant little to Rusesabagina, who was returning from Darfur, a Sudanese province where government-backed Arab militias wiped out entire black villages.
" 'Never' and 'again' are the most ever abused words in the world," he told more than 500 students who jammed the Mary Burch Theater in Essex County College in Newark for his talk on genocide in Africa.
The former hotel manager's successful efforts to shield 1,200 Tutsis and moderate Hutus from certain death during 100 bloody days in Rwanda were immortalized in the film "Hotel Rwanda."
The movie gave him a global platform, and yesterday he used it to appeal to students to speak against the atrocity of genocide.
Without protest, the mass executions of the Holocaust would be repeated, he told the crowd, which jammed the theater's aisles and lined the walls. More than 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda in 1994, while millions died in ethnic fighting in Congo and Sudan in recent years.
"The world stood by and watched what was going on," he said. "No one stands up to ask, 'What's going on?'"
Ethnic tensions between Tutsis and Hutus have lingered for years in Rwanda. But they escalated on April 7, 1994, a day after President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was killed when his plane was shot down.
A mass eradication, aimed at the country's Tutsi minority, was launched, with government soldiers, police and Hutu militia taking part in the murders.
"I saw many of my neighbors with guns and I never knew that many of these guys could handle guns," he told the students. "They seemed so humble, so innocent to me. I'd never seen them in militia uniforms."
Dozens of neighbors sought refuge in his Kigali home, viewing Rusesabagina, general manager of the Hotel des Diplomates, as a man of influence. He eventually moved his family and the refugees to the Hotel des Mille Collines, another Kigali hotel owned by the same company, Sabena Airlines.
The crowds that fled to the hotel to escape Hutu warriors quickly surged to more than 1,000 people. Supplies were running out and water from the hotel swimming pool had to be rationed to the families inside. The hotel's managers had all fled; Rusesabagina said he couldn't.
"I made a decision because if I leave these people and they are killed, I will never be a free man again in my life," he said. "I will be a prisoner of my own conscience."
Using wile and craft, Rusesabagina negotiated with army officers to protect the hotel's occupants from the killings taking place daily in the streets outside. In this terror-filled atmosphere, negotiations took hours, sometimes days, and often came with threats to Rusesabagina's life.
To better negotiate, Rusesabagina appealed to Sabena Airlines to fax a letter from Belgium naming him acting manager of the Mille Collines. The company responded with a letter naming him acting manager of all Sabena properties in Rwanda.
His wife, Tatiana, a Tutsi, was not the hearty woman portrayed in the film, he said. After one near-death experience, she remained in bed for weeks, unable to even turn over on her own.
Tutsi rebel forces eventually stopped the genocide.
But the death threats to Rusesabagina continued, and in 1996, after learning of a plot to kill him, he fled the country with his wife and children. They settled in Brussels, Belgium, where Rusesabagina started a transportation company, now based in Lusaka, Zambia.
The talk was organized by the school's Africana Institute, a resource center for the study of race, culture and history.
Many in the audience were African natives exposed to violent conflicts in their birth nations.
Second-year student Lafayette Moore, 21, of East Orange, told of being raised in Liberia, a country that his father, a government worker, was forced to flee as rebels approached the capital, Monrovia. At age 7, he said, he was forced to watch the repeated rape of his mother by rebels.
First-year student Fatmata Mansaray, 17, of Newark, a Sierra Leone native whose family fled fighting for the Ivory Coast, now Cote d'Ivoire, found the talk moving.
"It was sad," Mansaray said of Rusesabagina's account. "I was crying."
© 2005 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
BY RUSSELL BEN-ALI
Aboard a plane from Sudan, Paul Rusesabagina watched a televised memorial to people killed at Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi concentration camp in Poland.
He remembered the words "Never again," proclaimed over and over by Western officials who attended the January ceremony, the 60th anniversary of the death camp's liberation.
The words meant little to Rusesabagina, who was returning from Darfur, a Sudanese province where government-backed Arab militias wiped out entire black villages.
" 'Never' and 'again' are the most ever abused words in the world," he told more than 500 students who jammed the Mary Burch Theater in Essex County College in Newark for his talk on genocide in Africa.
The former hotel manager's successful efforts to shield 1,200 Tutsis and moderate Hutus from certain death during 100 bloody days in Rwanda were immortalized in the film "Hotel Rwanda."
The movie gave him a global platform, and yesterday he used it to appeal to students to speak against the atrocity of genocide.
Without protest, the mass executions of the Holocaust would be repeated, he told the crowd, which jammed the theater's aisles and lined the walls. More than 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda in 1994, while millions died in ethnic fighting in Congo and Sudan in recent years.
"The world stood by and watched what was going on," he said. "No one stands up to ask, 'What's going on?'"
Ethnic tensions between Tutsis and Hutus have lingered for years in Rwanda. But they escalated on April 7, 1994, a day after President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was killed when his plane was shot down.
A mass eradication, aimed at the country's Tutsi minority, was launched, with government soldiers, police and Hutu militia taking part in the murders.
"I saw many of my neighbors with guns and I never knew that many of these guys could handle guns," he told the students. "They seemed so humble, so innocent to me. I'd never seen them in militia uniforms."
Dozens of neighbors sought refuge in his Kigali home, viewing Rusesabagina, general manager of the Hotel des Diplomates, as a man of influence. He eventually moved his family and the refugees to the Hotel des Mille Collines, another Kigali hotel owned by the same company, Sabena Airlines.
The crowds that fled to the hotel to escape Hutu warriors quickly surged to more than 1,000 people. Supplies were running out and water from the hotel swimming pool had to be rationed to the families inside. The hotel's managers had all fled; Rusesabagina said he couldn't.
"I made a decision because if I leave these people and they are killed, I will never be a free man again in my life," he said. "I will be a prisoner of my own conscience."
Using wile and craft, Rusesabagina negotiated with army officers to protect the hotel's occupants from the killings taking place daily in the streets outside. In this terror-filled atmosphere, negotiations took hours, sometimes days, and often came with threats to Rusesabagina's life.
To better negotiate, Rusesabagina appealed to Sabena Airlines to fax a letter from Belgium naming him acting manager of the Mille Collines. The company responded with a letter naming him acting manager of all Sabena properties in Rwanda.
His wife, Tatiana, a Tutsi, was not the hearty woman portrayed in the film, he said. After one near-death experience, she remained in bed for weeks, unable to even turn over on her own.
Tutsi rebel forces eventually stopped the genocide.
But the death threats to Rusesabagina continued, and in 1996, after learning of a plot to kill him, he fled the country with his wife and children. They settled in Brussels, Belgium, where Rusesabagina started a transportation company, now based in Lusaka, Zambia.
The talk was organized by the school's Africana Institute, a resource center for the study of race, culture and history.
Many in the audience were African natives exposed to violent conflicts in their birth nations.
Second-year student Lafayette Moore, 21, of East Orange, told of being raised in Liberia, a country that his father, a government worker, was forced to flee as rebels approached the capital, Monrovia. At age 7, he said, he was forced to watch the repeated rape of his mother by rebels.
First-year student Fatmata Mansaray, 17, of Newark, a Sierra Leone native whose family fled fighting for the Ivory Coast, now Cote d'Ivoire, found the talk moving.
"It was sad," Mansaray said of Rusesabagina's account. "I was crying."
© 2005 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
Time for action: Sudan must be forced to cooperate
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
(KRT) - The following editorial appeared in The Dallas Morning News on Sunday, October 16:
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, caused quite a little dust-up the other day by expressing uninterest in hearing a parade of reports on the deteriorating situation in Darfur. His point, he said, was not that the U.S. doesn't care, but that it cares enough to insist that it's time for action, not just talk.
Recent events in Darfur show how terribly right he is.
In the past week, both sides - the Sudanese government and its Arab militia proxies on one hand, black rebel groups on the other - launched deadly attacks on villages and even refugee camps. Several African Union peacekeepers were killed trying to shield civilians. Dozens of peacekeepers were kidnapped and held hostage.
Peace talks designed to find a stable political solution are hamstrung by the refusal of some rebel splinter groups even to come to the table. Meanwhile, Sudan is effectively thumbing its nose at the African Union.
The Khartoum government has refused to let 70 of the 105 armored personnel carriers needed by African Union troops into the country. Last Tuesday, a government statement derided the organization's reports of spiraling violence in Darfur, saying the African Union is "not in a position to give moral lessons to a founding member of the African Union."
"The AU's mission of forging an 'African solution to an African crisis' has not achieved the intended outcome," concluded the World Markets Research Centre, a spin-off of Global Insight, a company that tracks international developments for major corporations. "Unless the international community bolsters the presence and capabilities of the AU mission and considers an expanded international input in Darfur, it will be all the more difficult to reverse the recent renewed violence and lawlessness."
Bolton suggests that the U.N. crack down even further on the flow of arms into Sudan. That sounds like a good idea. Other nations emphasize forcing Sudan to cooperate with investigations by the International Criminal Court. Despite U.S. reservations about the court, our government should not short-circuit any action designed to bring the perpetrators of these atrocities to heel.
"Action," that's the key. An action is worth a million words.
© 2005, The Dallas Morning News.
(KRT) - The following editorial appeared in The Dallas Morning News on Sunday, October 16:
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, caused quite a little dust-up the other day by expressing uninterest in hearing a parade of reports on the deteriorating situation in Darfur. His point, he said, was not that the U.S. doesn't care, but that it cares enough to insist that it's time for action, not just talk.
Recent events in Darfur show how terribly right he is.
In the past week, both sides - the Sudanese government and its Arab militia proxies on one hand, black rebel groups on the other - launched deadly attacks on villages and even refugee camps. Several African Union peacekeepers were killed trying to shield civilians. Dozens of peacekeepers were kidnapped and held hostage.
Peace talks designed to find a stable political solution are hamstrung by the refusal of some rebel splinter groups even to come to the table. Meanwhile, Sudan is effectively thumbing its nose at the African Union.
The Khartoum government has refused to let 70 of the 105 armored personnel carriers needed by African Union troops into the country. Last Tuesday, a government statement derided the organization's reports of spiraling violence in Darfur, saying the African Union is "not in a position to give moral lessons to a founding member of the African Union."
"The AU's mission of forging an 'African solution to an African crisis' has not achieved the intended outcome," concluded the World Markets Research Centre, a spin-off of Global Insight, a company that tracks international developments for major corporations. "Unless the international community bolsters the presence and capabilities of the AU mission and considers an expanded international input in Darfur, it will be all the more difficult to reverse the recent renewed violence and lawlessness."
Bolton suggests that the U.N. crack down even further on the flow of arms into Sudan. That sounds like a good idea. Other nations emphasize forcing Sudan to cooperate with investigations by the International Criminal Court. Despite U.S. reservations about the court, our government should not short-circuit any action designed to bring the perpetrators of these atrocities to heel.
"Action," that's the key. An action is worth a million words.
© 2005, The Dallas Morning News.
From Stan, our man in Sudan: Every drop counts
By Stan Stalla
DARFUR, SUDAN (Oct 18): Now that I spend most of my time in Darfur, I’ve become accustomed to the unexpected.
Take my daily shower, for example. The cold drip, drip, drip from a metal pipe bounces water off my head onto my shoulders. From there, it trickles down front and back, eventually joining the rivulets that find their way to the hole in the cement floor that leads out of the compound. Sometimes, right in the middle of a quick shampoo, everything stops. Once soaped up, I hurry through the rinse process, all the time wondering if each drip, drip, drip will be the last drops of the day.
In many places in Darfur, the water used for showers or toilets or washing dishes is delivered by donkey cart. Every drop truly counts — nothing like the unlimited supply that flows through the pipes of my house in Maine.
On my way out to an IDP camp the other day, I watched a parade of horse and donkey carts rumbling over a sandy track, up a hill and then out of sight. Most animals pulled a cart with two 80-gallon metal drums welded together, fixed to a wooden platform supported by two sturdy iron wheels. Each cart had its owner, many dressed in a long, white jalabiyeh and white turban or skullcap, seated next to the tank with whip in hand.
“Let’s see where they’re going,” I said to Youssef, my driver.
The queue of men and animals led to muddy area. To the left, a well gushed water into two large holding pens made of concrete. Animals and carts were backed up to the holding pens, where their owners used plastic containers called gerkan to scoop up water and pour it into the metal drums. Gerkan is an Arabization of the phrase “jerry can,” each holding five gallons of water.
Bend, scoop, lift and pour; bend, scoop, lift and pour. If efficient, a fellow standing in the mud next to the well repeated this sequence 32 times to fill his tank.
After taking a couple of photos, I walked to a shady spot under a tree, where the owner of the well collected his fee: 300 Sudanese Dinars ($1.20) to fill up the metal drums; SD 50 for the small-timers who only had a donkey with two 20-gallon water bladders hanging on each side. Around him lounged a dozen or more men, waiting for their turn at the well.
Curious about the economics of this operation, I asked some questions. Each man was an entrepreneur — his capital being horse, metal tank and wooden cart, or donkey and two rubber water bladders.
The larger water peddlers cleared SD 500 ($2) per tank, while the small-timers made SD 150. Besides paying for the water, the other cost would be feeding the draft animal. I’ve often seen women on donkey back, mostly hidden by large bundles of fodder cut from the countryside. Some of these bundles sell for SD 300 in the market. Next time, I’ll have to ask how much fodder it takes to feed a donkey that delivers water all day long to the shops and houses of El Fasher.
Meanwhile, Mohammed the well owner was warming to my line of questioning. He told me that his grandfather had dug his well in 1952. Of the six wells in the neighborhood, he assured me that, from a depth of 47 meters, his water was the cleanest and best tasting. “I have 14 children,” he boasted, “and each has grown up drinking water from this well.”
I was trying to get a handle on his profit margin — always a difficult task to ask a businessman to open his books. Mohammed’s well is powered by city power, when it works (he proudly showed me an electricity meter that spun as the water continued to flow into the holding pen). He also has a back-up system -- a gasoline-powered generator that consumes three gallons a day, if the electricity isn’t on.
At some point, I stopped doing calculations in my head — there just wasn’t enough information about costs and numbers of customers. The bottom line always is: A fellow like Mohammed doesn’t keep pumping water if there is no money to be made. Nor do the donkey owners deliver it, if they too don’t come out ahead.
After this half-hour diversion, Youssef and I continued on our way to Abu Shouk — a camp of 51,000 IDPs on the outskirts of El Fasher.
A food distribution was scheduled for that day, and I wanted to watch the operations of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society — a local NGO that distributes some of the food. As we neared Abu Shouk, I saw some children walking through a millet field toward the camp. On their heads, they balanced bundles of wood.
They were on the way back to their homes, where their mothers or older sisters would burn this wood to cook the daily staple aseeda — made by boiling flour and water. It disturbed me to think that young children were being sent outside the camp into the open spaces with the dangers that sometimes lurk there.
When I asked him about it that evening, a U.N. protection officer said that children, gathering firewood without adults, are a recent phenomenon. His thought was that, with the frequent violence against men and women who venture outside the camps, parents were beginning to gamble that their children would be less-desirable targets.
Just before reaching Abu Shouk, Youssef and I came upon a tiny village of fewer than 100 mud huts, many of them with crosses of sticks at the peak of their roofs.
Youssef explained, “That’s a village of Christians from southern Sudan, who fled the civil war 15 or more years ago. They sought refuge in Darfur.”
I talked to some of the villagers who gathered around when we stopped the car. They proudly pointed out a church that had been built for them by African Union soldiers, garrisoned nearby.
As is always the case when I talk with southern Sudanese, they speak of leaving the parched North and returning one day to the green lands of their dreams. When their children shyly joined us, I took a photo of them leaning against a mud hut.
After witnessing the Abu Shouk food distribution and talking to some of the beneficiaries, it was time to return to town, where a meeting was scheduled with the NGOs and U.N. agencies in charge of water and sanitation services for IDPs.
When the discussions about hand pumps and bore holes and water yards became too technical for me, I found myself thinking about the drip, drip of my daily shower, about the bend, scoop, lift and pour of 32 gerkans, about the kids who carried firewood to mothers lucky to have even three gerkans of water a day, and about the Christian villagers who hoped to return to their green homeland in the south, with its unlimited water.
Stan Stalla and his family are residents of Northport. Maureen and Stan and their children have lived in Third World countries for almost 25 years. Stan is on a humanitarian assignment to Darfur, Sudan, where he is responsible for the emergency food aid donated by the United States. He may be reached at stanstalla@stanfordalumni.org.
DARFUR, SUDAN (Oct 18): Now that I spend most of my time in Darfur, I’ve become accustomed to the unexpected.
Take my daily shower, for example. The cold drip, drip, drip from a metal pipe bounces water off my head onto my shoulders. From there, it trickles down front and back, eventually joining the rivulets that find their way to the hole in the cement floor that leads out of the compound. Sometimes, right in the middle of a quick shampoo, everything stops. Once soaped up, I hurry through the rinse process, all the time wondering if each drip, drip, drip will be the last drops of the day.
In many places in Darfur, the water used for showers or toilets or washing dishes is delivered by donkey cart. Every drop truly counts — nothing like the unlimited supply that flows through the pipes of my house in Maine.
On my way out to an IDP camp the other day, I watched a parade of horse and donkey carts rumbling over a sandy track, up a hill and then out of sight. Most animals pulled a cart with two 80-gallon metal drums welded together, fixed to a wooden platform supported by two sturdy iron wheels. Each cart had its owner, many dressed in a long, white jalabiyeh and white turban or skullcap, seated next to the tank with whip in hand.
“Let’s see where they’re going,” I said to Youssef, my driver.
The queue of men and animals led to muddy area. To the left, a well gushed water into two large holding pens made of concrete. Animals and carts were backed up to the holding pens, where their owners used plastic containers called gerkan to scoop up water and pour it into the metal drums. Gerkan is an Arabization of the phrase “jerry can,” each holding five gallons of water.
Bend, scoop, lift and pour; bend, scoop, lift and pour. If efficient, a fellow standing in the mud next to the well repeated this sequence 32 times to fill his tank.
After taking a couple of photos, I walked to a shady spot under a tree, where the owner of the well collected his fee: 300 Sudanese Dinars ($1.20) to fill up the metal drums; SD 50 for the small-timers who only had a donkey with two 20-gallon water bladders hanging on each side. Around him lounged a dozen or more men, waiting for their turn at the well.
Curious about the economics of this operation, I asked some questions. Each man was an entrepreneur — his capital being horse, metal tank and wooden cart, or donkey and two rubber water bladders.
The larger water peddlers cleared SD 500 ($2) per tank, while the small-timers made SD 150. Besides paying for the water, the other cost would be feeding the draft animal. I’ve often seen women on donkey back, mostly hidden by large bundles of fodder cut from the countryside. Some of these bundles sell for SD 300 in the market. Next time, I’ll have to ask how much fodder it takes to feed a donkey that delivers water all day long to the shops and houses of El Fasher.
Meanwhile, Mohammed the well owner was warming to my line of questioning. He told me that his grandfather had dug his well in 1952. Of the six wells in the neighborhood, he assured me that, from a depth of 47 meters, his water was the cleanest and best tasting. “I have 14 children,” he boasted, “and each has grown up drinking water from this well.”
I was trying to get a handle on his profit margin — always a difficult task to ask a businessman to open his books. Mohammed’s well is powered by city power, when it works (he proudly showed me an electricity meter that spun as the water continued to flow into the holding pen). He also has a back-up system -- a gasoline-powered generator that consumes three gallons a day, if the electricity isn’t on.
At some point, I stopped doing calculations in my head — there just wasn’t enough information about costs and numbers of customers. The bottom line always is: A fellow like Mohammed doesn’t keep pumping water if there is no money to be made. Nor do the donkey owners deliver it, if they too don’t come out ahead.
After this half-hour diversion, Youssef and I continued on our way to Abu Shouk — a camp of 51,000 IDPs on the outskirts of El Fasher.
A food distribution was scheduled for that day, and I wanted to watch the operations of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society — a local NGO that distributes some of the food. As we neared Abu Shouk, I saw some children walking through a millet field toward the camp. On their heads, they balanced bundles of wood.
They were on the way back to their homes, where their mothers or older sisters would burn this wood to cook the daily staple aseeda — made by boiling flour and water. It disturbed me to think that young children were being sent outside the camp into the open spaces with the dangers that sometimes lurk there.
When I asked him about it that evening, a U.N. protection officer said that children, gathering firewood without adults, are a recent phenomenon. His thought was that, with the frequent violence against men and women who venture outside the camps, parents were beginning to gamble that their children would be less-desirable targets.
Just before reaching Abu Shouk, Youssef and I came upon a tiny village of fewer than 100 mud huts, many of them with crosses of sticks at the peak of their roofs.
Youssef explained, “That’s a village of Christians from southern Sudan, who fled the civil war 15 or more years ago. They sought refuge in Darfur.”
I talked to some of the villagers who gathered around when we stopped the car. They proudly pointed out a church that had been built for them by African Union soldiers, garrisoned nearby.
As is always the case when I talk with southern Sudanese, they speak of leaving the parched North and returning one day to the green lands of their dreams. When their children shyly joined us, I took a photo of them leaning against a mud hut.
After witnessing the Abu Shouk food distribution and talking to some of the beneficiaries, it was time to return to town, where a meeting was scheduled with the NGOs and U.N. agencies in charge of water and sanitation services for IDPs.
When the discussions about hand pumps and bore holes and water yards became too technical for me, I found myself thinking about the drip, drip of my daily shower, about the bend, scoop, lift and pour of 32 gerkans, about the kids who carried firewood to mothers lucky to have even three gerkans of water a day, and about the Christian villagers who hoped to return to their green homeland in the south, with its unlimited water.
Stan Stalla and his family are residents of Northport. Maureen and Stan and their children have lived in Third World countries for almost 25 years. Stan is on a humanitarian assignment to Darfur, Sudan, where he is responsible for the emergency food aid donated by the United States. He may be reached at stanstalla@stanfordalumni.org.
Chaos Grows in Darfur Conflict as Militias Turn on Government
By MARC LACEY
ZAM ZAM, Sudan, Oct. 17 - The outlaws who rode into Geneina on camelback one recent afternoon represent the latest grim chapter in the desert war in western Sudan.
Janjaweed militias have focused their wrath on innocent villagers for most of the two and a half years of the conflict in the Darfur region. But on Sept. 18, in a scene that aid workers described as something out of a Hollywood western, the militiamen surrounded the police station along Sudan's border with Chad, roughed up the chief and freed several of their members from jail.
The fact that militias trained and armed by the government are now emboldened enough to turn their guns on the government is a sign of trouble. It was government support of the janjaweed at the outset that ignited the fighting in Darfur that killed tens of thousands of people and displaced two million villagers.
The standoff in Geneina, which together with other incidents prompted the United Nations to evacuate many of its personnel, is part of an overall deterioration in Darfur. The conflict has grown even more confused and chaotic in recent months. Now, rebels fight other rebels, the ties between some janjaweed fighters and the government have frayed, and the African Union troops charged with quelling the conflict find themselves targets as well.
"Darfur is no longer under control," said Eltayeb Hag Ateya, head of the Peace Studies Institute at the University of Khartoum. "It's not just the government against the rebels anymore. There's this armed group and that armed group. It's getting more complicated by the day."
The war here was never a straightforward one. It was part Arab versus African, part government versus rebel, part nomad versus farmer. But two rebel forces have now grown to five or more, with some fighters from neighboring Chad adding to what one aid worker in Darfur called "a cocktail of armed actors."
Some janjaweed fighters have put on government uniforms. Others maraud through the countryside taking orders from no one. With peace talks at a critical stage, the number of fighting forces jockeying for power seems to grow by the day.
Zam Zam, a former village in northern Darfur that has been transformed into a sprawling camp of people on the run from war, is one place that illustrates the new Darfur.
Things in Darfur can be deceptively calm at times - until hundreds of men on camelback come loping through the sand with their guns blazing. Or until rebels leap out from their cover in a surprise attack on government troops. Or until a government aircraft swoops in low.
Darfur's war began when two rebel groups opened attacks on the government in early 2003, accusing it of ignoring African tribes of Darfur. The Islamist government struck back, enlisting the aid of Darfur's Arab tribes. The militias destroyed hundreds of villages throughout Darfur, raping and pillaging as they sought to root out rebels and punish sympathizers.
Zam Zam, created in 2003, grew into one of Darfur's largest camps for internally displaced people. It has always been an insecure place, situated strategically near government and rebel strongholds. But something happened earlier this year that gave aid workers hope that Darfur might be changing for the better.
The population of the camp, which has crept higher and higher since the fighting started, finally began to drop. In May and June, hundreds and then thousands of people in Zam Zam and other camps around Darfur began returning home to cultivate their crops, a sign that normal life was returning to this desperate place.
But the hopeful signs did not last long. Just last month, after the villagers had hoed their plots and planted their vegetables and groundnuts and other crops, the militias attacked again.
"They came with cars, with horses and with camels," said Ali Mohamed Fadu, a sheik from Jabein, a village that was overrun on Sept. 17 for the second time in two years. "They all had guns, and they shot at us and killed some of us."
The accounts offered by villagers are remarkably similar to the ones heard at the start of the conflict, when people across Darfur were terrorized in attacks that the United States government said amounted to genocide.
With villagers on the run again, the population of Zam Zam is back on the rise, with thousands of new arrivals in the past three weeks.
Ismail Abduraman, 25, lost his father, who was a shopkeeper, in the recent attacks. After robbing him and shooting him, the militiamen looted his shop. In all the confusion, Mr. Abduraman became separated from 17 of his brothers and sisters.
While most people in Darfur contend that the countryside is far too dangerous for them these days, Mr. Abduraman is planning to return in search of his missing family members. He plans to take a donkey along and walk seven hours to the west, across the scorching sand.
"I have to go," he said. "I can't just sit here when my family is out there. My father would go, but he can't. I'm the elder now."
Farther east, in Tawila, the situation is similarly grim. African villagers congregate on the south side of the main road together with some fighters from the Sudan Liberation Army, the main rebel movement in Darfur. To the north is a police station where many of the officers are former militia fighters.
It is an explosive mix that has led to a series of shooting incidents in recent weeks. Terrified people from the area now huddle next to the African Union camp overlooking the town.
But the African soldiers are hamstrung by their rules of engagement, their lack of equipment and their inexperience in the field. When the police recently raided Tawila, shooting at suspected rebels and burning structures in the market, African Union soldiers watched from their hilltop perch but did not intervene.
It is impossible for them, however, to remain entirely on the sidelines. An African Union convoy was ambushed on Oct. 8 in the Khorabashi area in South Darfur. During an exchange of fire, four Nigerian soldiers and two civilian contractors were killed.
A day later, a renegade group of rebels abducted 38 African Union soldiers in the border town of Tine, warning the African Union not to tread in its territory. The soldiers were rescued after a battle between rival factions of the Justice and Equality Movement, which is one of the rebel groups opposed to the Sudanese government in Darfur.
Baba Gana Kingibe, the African Union's special representative in Sudan, said recently that there was "neither good faith nor commitment on the part of any of the parties."
Perhaps the most horrifying incident in the new Darfur occurred along the Chadian border at the Aro Sharow camp. On Sept. 28, several hundred janjaweed fighters raided the camp, killing 35 people and wounding 10 more. Most attacks occur for a reason here, and this one is believed to be tied to the killing of a janjaweed leader's children days before or, in another version, the theft of hundreds of camels from Arab tribesmen by rebel fighters.
If there is a hopeful sign in Darfur, it is this: Violence typically spikes in such conflicts when peace talks reach a critical phase. The negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, are in their sixth round, bogged down but not broken. The recent brutalities are seen as efforts by various fighting forces in Darfur to win a seat at the table or at least get access to some of the spoils.
But with the reality on the ground so grim, the traumatized people of Darfur seem to be growing almost numb. As Mr. Abduraman set off from the relative safety of the Zam Zam camp to the lawless interior, he had no weapon, little food and no real plan. He said he left his fate to God. "If the janjaweed find me, they will kill me," he said matter-of-factly as he crouched in the sand. "I will join my father."
source new york times
ZAM ZAM, Sudan, Oct. 17 - The outlaws who rode into Geneina on camelback one recent afternoon represent the latest grim chapter in the desert war in western Sudan.
Janjaweed militias have focused their wrath on innocent villagers for most of the two and a half years of the conflict in the Darfur region. But on Sept. 18, in a scene that aid workers described as something out of a Hollywood western, the militiamen surrounded the police station along Sudan's border with Chad, roughed up the chief and freed several of their members from jail.
The fact that militias trained and armed by the government are now emboldened enough to turn their guns on the government is a sign of trouble. It was government support of the janjaweed at the outset that ignited the fighting in Darfur that killed tens of thousands of people and displaced two million villagers.
The standoff in Geneina, which together with other incidents prompted the United Nations to evacuate many of its personnel, is part of an overall deterioration in Darfur. The conflict has grown even more confused and chaotic in recent months. Now, rebels fight other rebels, the ties between some janjaweed fighters and the government have frayed, and the African Union troops charged with quelling the conflict find themselves targets as well.
"Darfur is no longer under control," said Eltayeb Hag Ateya, head of the Peace Studies Institute at the University of Khartoum. "It's not just the government against the rebels anymore. There's this armed group and that armed group. It's getting more complicated by the day."
The war here was never a straightforward one. It was part Arab versus African, part government versus rebel, part nomad versus farmer. But two rebel forces have now grown to five or more, with some fighters from neighboring Chad adding to what one aid worker in Darfur called "a cocktail of armed actors."
Some janjaweed fighters have put on government uniforms. Others maraud through the countryside taking orders from no one. With peace talks at a critical stage, the number of fighting forces jockeying for power seems to grow by the day.
Zam Zam, a former village in northern Darfur that has been transformed into a sprawling camp of people on the run from war, is one place that illustrates the new Darfur.
Things in Darfur can be deceptively calm at times - until hundreds of men on camelback come loping through the sand with their guns blazing. Or until rebels leap out from their cover in a surprise attack on government troops. Or until a government aircraft swoops in low.
Darfur's war began when two rebel groups opened attacks on the government in early 2003, accusing it of ignoring African tribes of Darfur. The Islamist government struck back, enlisting the aid of Darfur's Arab tribes. The militias destroyed hundreds of villages throughout Darfur, raping and pillaging as they sought to root out rebels and punish sympathizers.
Zam Zam, created in 2003, grew into one of Darfur's largest camps for internally displaced people. It has always been an insecure place, situated strategically near government and rebel strongholds. But something happened earlier this year that gave aid workers hope that Darfur might be changing for the better.
The population of the camp, which has crept higher and higher since the fighting started, finally began to drop. In May and June, hundreds and then thousands of people in Zam Zam and other camps around Darfur began returning home to cultivate their crops, a sign that normal life was returning to this desperate place.
But the hopeful signs did not last long. Just last month, after the villagers had hoed their plots and planted their vegetables and groundnuts and other crops, the militias attacked again.
"They came with cars, with horses and with camels," said Ali Mohamed Fadu, a sheik from Jabein, a village that was overrun on Sept. 17 for the second time in two years. "They all had guns, and they shot at us and killed some of us."
The accounts offered by villagers are remarkably similar to the ones heard at the start of the conflict, when people across Darfur were terrorized in attacks that the United States government said amounted to genocide.
With villagers on the run again, the population of Zam Zam is back on the rise, with thousands of new arrivals in the past three weeks.
Ismail Abduraman, 25, lost his father, who was a shopkeeper, in the recent attacks. After robbing him and shooting him, the militiamen looted his shop. In all the confusion, Mr. Abduraman became separated from 17 of his brothers and sisters.
While most people in Darfur contend that the countryside is far too dangerous for them these days, Mr. Abduraman is planning to return in search of his missing family members. He plans to take a donkey along and walk seven hours to the west, across the scorching sand.
"I have to go," he said. "I can't just sit here when my family is out there. My father would go, but he can't. I'm the elder now."
Farther east, in Tawila, the situation is similarly grim. African villagers congregate on the south side of the main road together with some fighters from the Sudan Liberation Army, the main rebel movement in Darfur. To the north is a police station where many of the officers are former militia fighters.
It is an explosive mix that has led to a series of shooting incidents in recent weeks. Terrified people from the area now huddle next to the African Union camp overlooking the town.
But the African soldiers are hamstrung by their rules of engagement, their lack of equipment and their inexperience in the field. When the police recently raided Tawila, shooting at suspected rebels and burning structures in the market, African Union soldiers watched from their hilltop perch but did not intervene.
It is impossible for them, however, to remain entirely on the sidelines. An African Union convoy was ambushed on Oct. 8 in the Khorabashi area in South Darfur. During an exchange of fire, four Nigerian soldiers and two civilian contractors were killed.
A day later, a renegade group of rebels abducted 38 African Union soldiers in the border town of Tine, warning the African Union not to tread in its territory. The soldiers were rescued after a battle between rival factions of the Justice and Equality Movement, which is one of the rebel groups opposed to the Sudanese government in Darfur.
Baba Gana Kingibe, the African Union's special representative in Sudan, said recently that there was "neither good faith nor commitment on the part of any of the parties."
Perhaps the most horrifying incident in the new Darfur occurred along the Chadian border at the Aro Sharow camp. On Sept. 28, several hundred janjaweed fighters raided the camp, killing 35 people and wounding 10 more. Most attacks occur for a reason here, and this one is believed to be tied to the killing of a janjaweed leader's children days before or, in another version, the theft of hundreds of camels from Arab tribesmen by rebel fighters.
If there is a hopeful sign in Darfur, it is this: Violence typically spikes in such conflicts when peace talks reach a critical phase. The negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, are in their sixth round, bogged down but not broken. The recent brutalities are seen as efforts by various fighting forces in Darfur to win a seat at the table or at least get access to some of the spoils.
But with the reality on the ground so grim, the traumatized people of Darfur seem to be growing almost numb. As Mr. Abduraman set off from the relative safety of the Zam Zam camp to the lawless interior, he had no weapon, little food and no real plan. He said he left his fate to God. "If the janjaweed find me, they will kill me," he said matter-of-factly as he crouched in the sand. "I will join my father."
source new york times
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Darfur: What is going on?
The atrocities in Darfur continues today. When is somebody going to do something?
The atrocities in Darfur are today well known after the world's media circus decided to consider the region as worthy of a visit in the light of horrendous atrocities perpetrated by Janjaweed Arab militia against Negroes.
The sheer scale of the problem is witnessed by the numbers of those affected: two and a half million people displaced and tens of thousands shot dead, burnt alive, raped or hacked to pieces.
The story was true to its two-week slot in the media, complete with front-page photographs of starving children and the TV images showing mothers cradling skeletal babies. The world grunted, said "How sad", shrugged its shoulders and moved on, to the start of the soccer season, the build-up to FIFA 2006 and the atrocities in Iraq.
Yet Darfur never went away. Today, the 11,000 humanitarian aid workers in the region are unable to fulfill their duties because of attacks on a daily basis. They are being robbed, they are being attacked, they are being threatened and they are being abducted. Civilians are being raped and killed. Every day.
Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General of the UNO for Humanitarian Affairs, declared on Thursday in Geneva that the 5,000 troops supplied by the African Union are not enough, and that three times this number is required to stop the violence.
He referred to the need of the international community to apply pressure on the government of Khartoum to force the Janjaweed to cease their atrocities. In recent days, there has been what the UN refugee agency describes as "an unprecedented attack" on thousands of refugees by Janjaweed militia, resulting in 29 deaths and 10 serious injuries.
Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, declared on Thursday that "As long as this insecurity continues, the international community cannot provide the assistance that is so desperately needed by hundreds of thousands of people".
What does the international community do? Nothing. Certain countries spend five hundred thousand million USD on weapons systems every single year, preferring to slaughter civilians than to help them.
The history book will judge Mankind for its callousness at this moment in time when words speak louder than actions. How much more suffering must the people of Darfur endure?
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
The atrocities in Darfur are today well known after the world's media circus decided to consider the region as worthy of a visit in the light of horrendous atrocities perpetrated by Janjaweed Arab militia against Negroes.
The sheer scale of the problem is witnessed by the numbers of those affected: two and a half million people displaced and tens of thousands shot dead, burnt alive, raped or hacked to pieces.
The story was true to its two-week slot in the media, complete with front-page photographs of starving children and the TV images showing mothers cradling skeletal babies. The world grunted, said "How sad", shrugged its shoulders and moved on, to the start of the soccer season, the build-up to FIFA 2006 and the atrocities in Iraq.
Yet Darfur never went away. Today, the 11,000 humanitarian aid workers in the region are unable to fulfill their duties because of attacks on a daily basis. They are being robbed, they are being attacked, they are being threatened and they are being abducted. Civilians are being raped and killed. Every day.
Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General of the UNO for Humanitarian Affairs, declared on Thursday in Geneva that the 5,000 troops supplied by the African Union are not enough, and that three times this number is required to stop the violence.
He referred to the need of the international community to apply pressure on the government of Khartoum to force the Janjaweed to cease their atrocities. In recent days, there has been what the UN refugee agency describes as "an unprecedented attack" on thousands of refugees by Janjaweed militia, resulting in 29 deaths and 10 serious injuries.
Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, declared on Thursday that "As long as this insecurity continues, the international community cannot provide the assistance that is so desperately needed by hundreds of thousands of people".
What does the international community do? Nothing. Certain countries spend five hundred thousand million USD on weapons systems every single year, preferring to slaughter civilians than to help them.
The history book will judge Mankind for its callousness at this moment in time when words speak louder than actions. How much more suffering must the people of Darfur endure?
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
Time for Action: Sudan must be forced to cooperate
Sunday, October 16, 2005
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, caused quite a little dust-up the other day by expressing disinterest in hearing a parade of reports on the deteriorating situation in Darfur. His point, he said, was not that the U.S. doesn't care, but that it cares enough to insist that it's time for action, not just talk.
Recent events in Darfur show how terribly right he is.
In the past week, both sides – the Sudanese government and its Arab militia proxies on one hand, black rebel groups on the other – launched deadly attacks on villages and even refugee camps. Several African Union peacekeepers were killed trying to shield civilians. Dozens of peacekeepers were kidnapped and held hostage.
Peace talks designed to find a stable political solution are hamstrung by the refusal of some rebel splinter groups even to come to the table. Meanwhile, Sudan is effectively thumbing its nose at the African Union.
The Khartoum government has refused to let 70 of the 105 armored personnel carriers needed by African Union troops into the country. On Tuesday, a government statement derided the organization's reports of spiraling violence in Darfur, saying the African Union is "not in a position to give moral lessons to a founding member of the African Union."
"The AU's mission of forging an 'African solution to an African crisis' has not achieved the intended outcome," concluded the World Markets Research Centre, a spinoff of Global Insight, a company that tracks international developments for major corporations. "Unless the international community bolsters the presence and capabilities of the AU mission and considers an expanded international input in Darfur, it will be all the more difficult to reverse the recent renewed violence and lawlessness."
Mr. Bolton suggests that the U.N. crack down even further on the flow of arms into Sudan. That sounds like a good idea. Other nations emphasize forcing Sudan to cooperate with investigations by the International Criminal Court. Despite U.S. reservations about the court, our government should not short-circuit any action designed to bring the perpetrators of these atrocities to heel.
"Action," that's the key. An action is worth a million words.
source: dallasnews.com
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, caused quite a little dust-up the other day by expressing disinterest in hearing a parade of reports on the deteriorating situation in Darfur. His point, he said, was not that the U.S. doesn't care, but that it cares enough to insist that it's time for action, not just talk.
Recent events in Darfur show how terribly right he is.
In the past week, both sides – the Sudanese government and its Arab militia proxies on one hand, black rebel groups on the other – launched deadly attacks on villages and even refugee camps. Several African Union peacekeepers were killed trying to shield civilians. Dozens of peacekeepers were kidnapped and held hostage.
Peace talks designed to find a stable political solution are hamstrung by the refusal of some rebel splinter groups even to come to the table. Meanwhile, Sudan is effectively thumbing its nose at the African Union.
The Khartoum government has refused to let 70 of the 105 armored personnel carriers needed by African Union troops into the country. On Tuesday, a government statement derided the organization's reports of spiraling violence in Darfur, saying the African Union is "not in a position to give moral lessons to a founding member of the African Union."
"The AU's mission of forging an 'African solution to an African crisis' has not achieved the intended outcome," concluded the World Markets Research Centre, a spinoff of Global Insight, a company that tracks international developments for major corporations. "Unless the international community bolsters the presence and capabilities of the AU mission and considers an expanded international input in Darfur, it will be all the more difficult to reverse the recent renewed violence and lawlessness."
Mr. Bolton suggests that the U.N. crack down even further on the flow of arms into Sudan. That sounds like a good idea. Other nations emphasize forcing Sudan to cooperate with investigations by the International Criminal Court. Despite U.S. reservations about the court, our government should not short-circuit any action designed to bring the perpetrators of these atrocities to heel.
"Action," that's the key. An action is worth a million words.
source: dallasnews.com
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Church World Services Celebrates World Food Day with Call for " Dear Sudan" Campaign
Just 24 hours before World Food Day celebrations begin, Church World Service has called on the world to fight against global hunger by joining in the "Dear Sudan" campaign.
Posted: Saturday, October 15 , 2005, 11:34 (UK)
As World Food Day approaches, Church World Service has called on people around the world to help in the fight against world hunger by joining in the “Dear Sudan” Campaign. World Food Day is a global event held on October 16 across 150 countries to mark the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in 1945, and which aims to highlight the plight of the world’s hungry and malnourished and to encourage people to engage in action against hunger. The “Dear Sudan” started out as a small local-level initiative in Petaluma, California, but soon grew into a national, interfaith campaign backed by the CWS and several of its member denominations, including the United Church of Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and The United Methodist Church. The American Jewish World Service also sponsors the campaign. “I really feel in my heart that we are going to be able to save thousands of lives,” said Tim Nonn, a Petaluma, California-based editor and father of a six-year old son, who responded to watching the pain of starving children in Sudan dying in the arms of their parents by writing a letter, beginning “Dear Sudan”. In it, he pledged his community, Petaluma, would raise enough funds to feed for one day the number of Sudanese refugees equivalent to the town’s population of around 55,000. The grassroots campaign was so successful that it managed to surpass its original goal by around US$4,000, before growing into a nationwide campaign. “We applaud this creative, grassroots effort and urge communities across the country to join in,” says Rev. John L. McCullough, Executive Director of Church World Service. Now the campaign has expanded its goals to raise enough money for food and medicine for displaced Sudanese and as raise awareness of the situation in Sudan The campaign also calls upon individuals to write letters to their representatives in Congress urging them to take action to stop the government-sponsored attacks in the Darfur region of western Sudan. CWS, in a press release earlier this week, has appealed to people across the globe to observe World Food Day by joining in the “Dear Sudan” campaign and by supporting their local CWS Crop Walks, the community fundraising appeal of CWS that helps alleviate hunger and poverty locally and globally. The CWS press release also stressed that joining in the “Dear Sudan” campaign would also help contribute to the fulfilment of the UN Millenium Development Goals to reduce the nearly 11 million children who die each year from preventable causes, mainly malnutrition. Around 4 million Sudanese have been left displaced following a peace accord to settle Sudan’s 21-year-long North-South war and are now travelling from camps in the North to the South. Church World Service has already began an aid programme to provide these refugees with food, medicines, water and sanitation, agricultural inputs and tools, as well as counselling for the most traumatised.
Maria Mackaymmackay@christiantoday.com
Posted: Saturday, October 15 , 2005, 11:34 (UK)
As World Food Day approaches, Church World Service has called on people around the world to help in the fight against world hunger by joining in the “Dear Sudan” Campaign. World Food Day is a global event held on October 16 across 150 countries to mark the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in 1945, and which aims to highlight the plight of the world’s hungry and malnourished and to encourage people to engage in action against hunger. The “Dear Sudan” started out as a small local-level initiative in Petaluma, California, but soon grew into a national, interfaith campaign backed by the CWS and several of its member denominations, including the United Church of Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and The United Methodist Church. The American Jewish World Service also sponsors the campaign. “I really feel in my heart that we are going to be able to save thousands of lives,” said Tim Nonn, a Petaluma, California-based editor and father of a six-year old son, who responded to watching the pain of starving children in Sudan dying in the arms of their parents by writing a letter, beginning “Dear Sudan”. In it, he pledged his community, Petaluma, would raise enough funds to feed for one day the number of Sudanese refugees equivalent to the town’s population of around 55,000. The grassroots campaign was so successful that it managed to surpass its original goal by around US$4,000, before growing into a nationwide campaign. “We applaud this creative, grassroots effort and urge communities across the country to join in,” says Rev. John L. McCullough, Executive Director of Church World Service. Now the campaign has expanded its goals to raise enough money for food and medicine for displaced Sudanese and as raise awareness of the situation in Sudan The campaign also calls upon individuals to write letters to their representatives in Congress urging them to take action to stop the government-sponsored attacks in the Darfur region of western Sudan. CWS, in a press release earlier this week, has appealed to people across the globe to observe World Food Day by joining in the “Dear Sudan” campaign and by supporting their local CWS Crop Walks, the community fundraising appeal of CWS that helps alleviate hunger and poverty locally and globally. The CWS press release also stressed that joining in the “Dear Sudan” campaign would also help contribute to the fulfilment of the UN Millenium Development Goals to reduce the nearly 11 million children who die each year from preventable causes, mainly malnutrition. Around 4 million Sudanese have been left displaced following a peace accord to settle Sudan’s 21-year-long North-South war and are now travelling from camps in the North to the South. Church World Service has already began an aid programme to provide these refugees with food, medicines, water and sanitation, agricultural inputs and tools, as well as counselling for the most traumatised.
Maria Mackaymmackay@christiantoday.com
A Test in Darfur
To the Editor:NY Times
Re "Walking the Talk," by Nicholas D. Kristof (column, Oct. 9):
With 2.5 million lives at stake, Americans should be concerned. The United States government and the American media have ignored this crisis long enough.
The situation in Darfur is dire, and the choice is simple: Act now and save lives, or watch the region deteriorate into chaos as the agents of genocide continue their deadly trade.
With the diplomatic weight of our government and coverage by our media, this moral and humanitarian crisis can be brought to an end. This is one of the "culture of life" issues that our generation will be judged by.
When Congress and the president recognized the atrocities as genocide last year and proceeded to do nothing to stop it, something in our national soul died. We must revive that by refusing to rest until a sustainable peace agreement is signed that guarantees full citizenship and protections for the people of Darfur.
Eric McFadden
Director
Catholics for Faithful Citizenship
Dublin, Ohio, Oct. 11, 2005
Re "Walking the Talk," by Nicholas D. Kristof (column, Oct. 9):
With 2.5 million lives at stake, Americans should be concerned. The United States government and the American media have ignored this crisis long enough.
The situation in Darfur is dire, and the choice is simple: Act now and save lives, or watch the region deteriorate into chaos as the agents of genocide continue their deadly trade.
With the diplomatic weight of our government and coverage by our media, this moral and humanitarian crisis can be brought to an end. This is one of the "culture of life" issues that our generation will be judged by.
When Congress and the president recognized the atrocities as genocide last year and proceeded to do nothing to stop it, something in our national soul died. We must revive that by refusing to rest until a sustainable peace agreement is signed that guarantees full citizenship and protections for the people of Darfur.
Eric McFadden
Director
Catholics for Faithful Citizenship
Dublin, Ohio, Oct. 11, 2005
Friday, October 14, 2005
At 50 Years, World Press Photo Looks Back And Ahead
By Holly Stuart Hughes
Published: October 13, 2005 7:17 PM ET
AMSTERDAM (PDN ) David Burnett, Nick Ut, Larry Towell, Co Rentmeester, Eric Refner, Georges Merillon, and Anthony Suau were among the more than two-dozen World Press Photo winners who stood together and received a standing ovation in Amsterdam Saturday night. The gathering of past winners of the World Press Photo of the Year capped a two-day conference in Amsterdam to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the international photo competition.
Since 1955, when a group of Dutch press photographers decided to open their photo contest to foreign photographers and hold a public exhibition of the winners, the non-profit World Press Photo competition has expanded to include a traveling exhibition, an annual master class, and a series of seminars to foster free and objective photojournalism around the globe.
On Oct. 7 and 8, past World Press Photo winners, jurors, and organizers gathered for speeches and a panel discussion that grappled with the future of photojournalism at a time of falling newspaper readership, limited space for long-form documentary work in magazines, and increased competition from television news crews and amateur bystanders using cell phones or low-resolution digital cameras and the Internet to deliver news images to the media world wide.
"I fear that many magazines won't survive because they will have lost their purpose," said Christian Caujolle, head of the French photo agency Agence Vu and a member of World Press Photo's international advisory board, during a panel made up of former contest judges and winners.
Caujolle said photo editors and photographers should not try to compete with television or the Internet on breaking news fast, but should strive to provide more depth and analysis. Caujolle, a former photo editor for La Liberation in Paris, said, "If I saw tomorrow on the front page of my favorite newspaper a photo that had appeared 12 hours earlier on television, it would increase my doubts" about the goal of print publications.
Danish photographer Eric Refner noted however, "Taking strong pictures takes time. It's difficult to find economic support to do the job I really love." In Denmark, many photojournalists have turned to shooting advertising or fashion, he said, "because they can't take the chance of spending two weeks on a story without [payment] guarantees."
The panelists noted that there is strong public interest in serious documentary photography that is not currently being served by magazines or newspapers. American-born photographer Anthony Suau noted, for example, that his photo essay "Fear This," about the divisions in U.S. society after the invasion of Iraq, has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors since it appeared on Time.com.
Caujolle says this year, close to 30% of Agence Vu's income will come from its gallery. "When I see how many prints and books are sold, I really become frustrated with publishers" who don't think there's a market for photojournalism.
During the two-day conference, speakers and panelists often referred to the growing use of cell phone images to illustrate news stories -- from the London subway bombing to the tsunami -- despite their poor quality. "These are artifacts, not photographs," said Caujolle, echoing the common sentiment among the photo professionals at the gathering.
In the most widely discussed program, however, Shahidul Alam, founder of the Drik photo agency in Bangladesh, took a different view of "citizen journalism." To Alam, expanding access to the Internet and the tools of picture making can empower individuals often portrayed in the press as anonymous masses to tell their own stories to the world.
During the late 1980s, Alam was one of many journalists documenting the political demonstrations to drive the country's military dictatorship from power. With the Bengla press controlled by the state, photographers tried get their images published overseas, but he says, "these photos didn't sell. Trying to bring down a military dictatorship in Bangladesh wasn't sexy."
Once the dictator was forced out of office in 1990, he organized a photo exhibition that drew hundreds of thousands of visitors eager to see photos of their political struggles. That year, Bangladesh suffered one of the worst cyclones in its history, and suddenly hundreds of foreign press descended on the country, again portraying local citizens as victims of circumstance.
Alam, who helped establish e-mail and the first electronic bulletin board in his country, believes the mainstream media, which has been published by and for what he called a "literate elite," can be enriched by encouraging greater interactivity.
At the closing ceremony on Saturday evening, more testimony to the power of the still image came from Dr. Jan Pronk, U.N. Special Representative to the Sudan. Pronk said that in the Darfur region, militia have for years carried out acts of genocide without international outcry, he says, because there have been no photographers there. He encouraged photographers not only to serve as witnesses, but also to use their cameras to fight for the rights of the victims. "Objectivity," Pronk said, "is indifference."
Holly Stuart Hughes (hhughes@pdnonline.com) is editor of Photo District News, a sister publication of E&P.
Published: October 13, 2005 7:17 PM ET
AMSTERDAM (PDN ) David Burnett, Nick Ut, Larry Towell, Co Rentmeester, Eric Refner, Georges Merillon, and Anthony Suau were among the more than two-dozen World Press Photo winners who stood together and received a standing ovation in Amsterdam Saturday night. The gathering of past winners of the World Press Photo of the Year capped a two-day conference in Amsterdam to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the international photo competition.
Since 1955, when a group of Dutch press photographers decided to open their photo contest to foreign photographers and hold a public exhibition of the winners, the non-profit World Press Photo competition has expanded to include a traveling exhibition, an annual master class, and a series of seminars to foster free and objective photojournalism around the globe.
On Oct. 7 and 8, past World Press Photo winners, jurors, and organizers gathered for speeches and a panel discussion that grappled with the future of photojournalism at a time of falling newspaper readership, limited space for long-form documentary work in magazines, and increased competition from television news crews and amateur bystanders using cell phones or low-resolution digital cameras and the Internet to deliver news images to the media world wide.
"I fear that many magazines won't survive because they will have lost their purpose," said Christian Caujolle, head of the French photo agency Agence Vu and a member of World Press Photo's international advisory board, during a panel made up of former contest judges and winners.
Caujolle said photo editors and photographers should not try to compete with television or the Internet on breaking news fast, but should strive to provide more depth and analysis. Caujolle, a former photo editor for La Liberation in Paris, said, "If I saw tomorrow on the front page of my favorite newspaper a photo that had appeared 12 hours earlier on television, it would increase my doubts" about the goal of print publications.
Danish photographer Eric Refner noted however, "Taking strong pictures takes time. It's difficult to find economic support to do the job I really love." In Denmark, many photojournalists have turned to shooting advertising or fashion, he said, "because they can't take the chance of spending two weeks on a story without [payment] guarantees."
The panelists noted that there is strong public interest in serious documentary photography that is not currently being served by magazines or newspapers. American-born photographer Anthony Suau noted, for example, that his photo essay "Fear This," about the divisions in U.S. society after the invasion of Iraq, has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors since it appeared on Time.com.
Caujolle says this year, close to 30% of Agence Vu's income will come from its gallery. "When I see how many prints and books are sold, I really become frustrated with publishers" who don't think there's a market for photojournalism.
During the two-day conference, speakers and panelists often referred to the growing use of cell phone images to illustrate news stories -- from the London subway bombing to the tsunami -- despite their poor quality. "These are artifacts, not photographs," said Caujolle, echoing the common sentiment among the photo professionals at the gathering.
In the most widely discussed program, however, Shahidul Alam, founder of the Drik photo agency in Bangladesh, took a different view of "citizen journalism." To Alam, expanding access to the Internet and the tools of picture making can empower individuals often portrayed in the press as anonymous masses to tell their own stories to the world.
During the late 1980s, Alam was one of many journalists documenting the political demonstrations to drive the country's military dictatorship from power. With the Bengla press controlled by the state, photographers tried get their images published overseas, but he says, "these photos didn't sell. Trying to bring down a military dictatorship in Bangladesh wasn't sexy."
Once the dictator was forced out of office in 1990, he organized a photo exhibition that drew hundreds of thousands of visitors eager to see photos of their political struggles. That year, Bangladesh suffered one of the worst cyclones in its history, and suddenly hundreds of foreign press descended on the country, again portraying local citizens as victims of circumstance.
Alam, who helped establish e-mail and the first electronic bulletin board in his country, believes the mainstream media, which has been published by and for what he called a "literate elite," can be enriched by encouraging greater interactivity.
At the closing ceremony on Saturday evening, more testimony to the power of the still image came from Dr. Jan Pronk, U.N. Special Representative to the Sudan. Pronk said that in the Darfur region, militia have for years carried out acts of genocide without international outcry, he says, because there have been no photographers there. He encouraged photographers not only to serve as witnesses, but also to use their cameras to fight for the rights of the victims. "Objectivity," Pronk said, "is indifference."
Holly Stuart Hughes (hhughes@pdnonline.com) is editor of Photo District News, a sister publication of E&P.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Face time with Susan Sarandon
October 13, 2005
BY BILL ZWECKER STAFF REPORTER
Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon was in Chicago last week to pick up a career achievement award from the 41st Chicago International Film Festival. Beforehand, the veteran actress sat down with us to reflect on a wide range of topics -- from her enduring popularity to her controversial political stands to still being sexy at age 59 to her new film, "Elizabethtown," which opened the film festival's two-week run and opens nationally on Friday.
Q. You and your partner, Tim Robbins, have never been secretive about your political beliefs. Has there ever been an issue you've refused to speak out about?
A. Not that I can remember. If it's something I think needs attention, you'll hear from me. Or if it's something that infuriates me because it's evil or causing harm to people, I'm going to let people know it. ...
While we're on this subject, I want to mention something. It really blows my mind how the media is using language these days. When Renee Zellweger married Kenny Chesney after only knowing him briefly, I couldn't believe how many people said they were "stunned" she would do something that impulsive. Stunned! I'll tell you what I find stunning: how many thousands, if not millions, of people are dying in Darfur [in the Sudan] and there's barely any press coverage of that carnage. Now that's stunning.
Q. In "Elizabethtown," you play a woman dealing with the unexpected death of her husband. You and Tim have been together for a long time. How do you think you would react if you lost him without warning?
A. You don't even know. I was just reading Joan Didion's new book about grief. I don't know if you know how you'll react. In my life, I don't go by plans. My life is pretty chaotic. So if that happened, I don't think it would be as obvious as it seems in my character Hollie's life [in "Elizabethtown"] because she thinks she knows how her life is going to unfold over the next few decades. She has a plan. She has their vacations, her husband's retirement -- the whole thing figured out. Then, bam! The whole thing is rewritten in an instant when he drops dead. I don't live my life that way. My life is kind of improvisational.
Q. You just turned 59, and in many of your films you bring strong sensuality to your performances. What do you find sexy in others?
A. Humor and intelligence are the big ones. Someone who makes me laugh -- a lot of coupons for that. And someone who's smart and has something of a twinkle in their eye. For me, age, gender, physical stuff doesn't weigh in, until those things happen first. And I also like someone who has some kind of passion about something and some kind of strength of character. Also, if someone says, "Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it" -- I'm there!
Q. Sounds like a description of Tim Robbins!
A. [Laughs.] You got it. One-stop shopping.
Copyright © The Sun-Times Company
BY BILL ZWECKER STAFF REPORTER
Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon was in Chicago last week to pick up a career achievement award from the 41st Chicago International Film Festival. Beforehand, the veteran actress sat down with us to reflect on a wide range of topics -- from her enduring popularity to her controversial political stands to still being sexy at age 59 to her new film, "Elizabethtown," which opened the film festival's two-week run and opens nationally on Friday.
Q. You and your partner, Tim Robbins, have never been secretive about your political beliefs. Has there ever been an issue you've refused to speak out about?
A. Not that I can remember. If it's something I think needs attention, you'll hear from me. Or if it's something that infuriates me because it's evil or causing harm to people, I'm going to let people know it. ...
While we're on this subject, I want to mention something. It really blows my mind how the media is using language these days. When Renee Zellweger married Kenny Chesney after only knowing him briefly, I couldn't believe how many people said they were "stunned" she would do something that impulsive. Stunned! I'll tell you what I find stunning: how many thousands, if not millions, of people are dying in Darfur [in the Sudan] and there's barely any press coverage of that carnage. Now that's stunning.
Q. In "Elizabethtown," you play a woman dealing with the unexpected death of her husband. You and Tim have been together for a long time. How do you think you would react if you lost him without warning?
A. You don't even know. I was just reading Joan Didion's new book about grief. I don't know if you know how you'll react. In my life, I don't go by plans. My life is pretty chaotic. So if that happened, I don't think it would be as obvious as it seems in my character Hollie's life [in "Elizabethtown"] because she thinks she knows how her life is going to unfold over the next few decades. She has a plan. She has their vacations, her husband's retirement -- the whole thing figured out. Then, bam! The whole thing is rewritten in an instant when he drops dead. I don't live my life that way. My life is kind of improvisational.
Q. You just turned 59, and in many of your films you bring strong sensuality to your performances. What do you find sexy in others?
A. Humor and intelligence are the big ones. Someone who makes me laugh -- a lot of coupons for that. And someone who's smart and has something of a twinkle in their eye. For me, age, gender, physical stuff doesn't weigh in, until those things happen first. And I also like someone who has some kind of passion about something and some kind of strength of character. Also, if someone says, "Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it" -- I'm there!
Q. Sounds like a description of Tim Robbins!
A. [Laughs.] You got it. One-stop shopping.
Copyright © The Sun-Times Company
Universities need to divest from Sudan and save refugees
The Heights - Opinions
Issue: 10/13/05
By Don Cheadle and John Prendergast
Washington, D.C. - For the past two and a half years, the world has watched in horror as the Sudanese government and its proxy Janjaweed militias have laid waste to Darfur. At least 200,000 people have died as a result of Khartoum's scorched-earth counterinsurgency tactics. Systematic assaults on civilians and their livelihoods have driven more than 2 million people off their lands and into squalid camps for the internally displaced. Today, security is fleeting at best, and recent evidence suggests that violence against women, including rape, savage beatings, and forced humiliation is actually getting worse in and around the camps.
Outrage in the United States has been widespread, and activist groups - students, African-Americans, Christians, Jews - have answered the call. Suffering in Darfur, however, is gradually becoming tolerable to the international community. The media is not following Darfur as closely as it was a year ago - not that it received much play then - and politicians aren't feeling the heat. As Darfur deteriorates off camera, it is up to the American public to maintain pressure on the administration to end the nightmare.
In April, the International Crisis Group sent a letter to the presidents, student body leaders, and student newspapers of 100 universities to urge schools to review their investment portfolios for stock in companies that operate in Sudan. While the U.S. government maintains tight sanctions against Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism, many multinational corporations do business with the regime. The money that Khartoum makes from these arrangements - especially in the growing oil sector - funds the government's appetite for weapons to arm the troops and militias that terrorize civilians in Darfur.
Following Harvard's April decision to divest from PetroChina Company Ltd., a firm with extensive oil holdings in Sudan, Stanford University's Board of Trustees voted unanimously to divest from PetroChina and three additional companies: Sinopec, Tatneft, and ABB. The divestment ball has started rolling, but it needs momentum.
This fall, universities should make it a priority to review their portfolios and divest themselves of any holdings in companies that act as patrons to human rights violators and war criminals. The divestment should also be made publicly to generate media coverage and send a clear message that the actions of the Sudanese government and the companies that support it are intolerable.
It is unlikely that universities will take on this task without some encouragement from students. At Stanford and Harvard, student pressure was instrumental, and student-led activist groups such as Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) and the Genocide Intervention Fund (GIF) have made their voices heard throughout the country.
Now is the time to build upon the success of these groups to push university divestment to the next level. University administrations need to hear directly from students and alumni that investments in companies whose partnership with the Sudanese government funds ethnic cleansing are unacceptable, and that universities who fail to take the simple step of reviewing their portfolios have chosen to be bystanders to what President Bush has clearly defined as genocide.
For more information on divestment, visit the International Crisis Group's Darfur advocacy page at www.crisisgroup.org
Don Cheadle was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Hotel Rwanda. John Prendergast is special advisor on Africa to the International Crisis Group, a conflict prevention organization based in Brussels.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue: 10/13/05
By Don Cheadle and John Prendergast
Washington, D.C. - For the past two and a half years, the world has watched in horror as the Sudanese government and its proxy Janjaweed militias have laid waste to Darfur. At least 200,000 people have died as a result of Khartoum's scorched-earth counterinsurgency tactics. Systematic assaults on civilians and their livelihoods have driven more than 2 million people off their lands and into squalid camps for the internally displaced. Today, security is fleeting at best, and recent evidence suggests that violence against women, including rape, savage beatings, and forced humiliation is actually getting worse in and around the camps.
Outrage in the United States has been widespread, and activist groups - students, African-Americans, Christians, Jews - have answered the call. Suffering in Darfur, however, is gradually becoming tolerable to the international community. The media is not following Darfur as closely as it was a year ago - not that it received much play then - and politicians aren't feeling the heat. As Darfur deteriorates off camera, it is up to the American public to maintain pressure on the administration to end the nightmare.
In April, the International Crisis Group sent a letter to the presidents, student body leaders, and student newspapers of 100 universities to urge schools to review their investment portfolios for stock in companies that operate in Sudan. While the U.S. government maintains tight sanctions against Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism, many multinational corporations do business with the regime. The money that Khartoum makes from these arrangements - especially in the growing oil sector - funds the government's appetite for weapons to arm the troops and militias that terrorize civilians in Darfur.
Following Harvard's April decision to divest from PetroChina Company Ltd., a firm with extensive oil holdings in Sudan, Stanford University's Board of Trustees voted unanimously to divest from PetroChina and three additional companies: Sinopec, Tatneft, and ABB. The divestment ball has started rolling, but it needs momentum.
This fall, universities should make it a priority to review their portfolios and divest themselves of any holdings in companies that act as patrons to human rights violators and war criminals. The divestment should also be made publicly to generate media coverage and send a clear message that the actions of the Sudanese government and the companies that support it are intolerable.
It is unlikely that universities will take on this task without some encouragement from students. At Stanford and Harvard, student pressure was instrumental, and student-led activist groups such as Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) and the Genocide Intervention Fund (GIF) have made their voices heard throughout the country.
Now is the time to build upon the success of these groups to push university divestment to the next level. University administrations need to hear directly from students and alumni that investments in companies whose partnership with the Sudanese government funds ethnic cleansing are unacceptable, and that universities who fail to take the simple step of reviewing their portfolios have chosen to be bystanders to what President Bush has clearly defined as genocide.
For more information on divestment, visit the International Crisis Group's Darfur advocacy page at www.crisisgroup.org
Don Cheadle was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Hotel Rwanda. John Prendergast is special advisor on Africa to the International Crisis Group, a conflict prevention organization based in Brussels.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PSC Adopts Decision On Deteriorating Darfur Security Situation
October 13, 2005
Posted to the web October 13, 2005
By Ena
Addis Ababa
The Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) has adopted decision on the deteriorating security situation in Darfur at its 41st meeting.
According to the communiqué of the 41st meeting of PSC sent to ENA Tuesday, the council has expressed deep concern over the deteriorating security situation throughout Darfur since late August 2005, including the killings, wounding and abduction of the African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS) personnel.
It also expressed deep concern over the recent trend whereby civilians and IDPs are deliberately targeted and effective delivery of humanitarian assistance impeded as well as the shoot-to-kill policy against the AMIS personnel and others.
The PSC has unreservedly condemned the killing of two members of the Nigerian contingent serving with AMIS in Sector 2, Nyala and two civilian drivers, employees of an AMIS contractor, PAE as well as the abduction of 38 AMIS personnel in Sector 5, Tine and the seizure of their equipment and vehicles.
The council has expressed concern that these incidents, unless brought to an immediate end, could adversely affect the ongoing efforts to bring about a comprehensive peace agreement in Darfur.
The PSC has demanded that all the parties fully respect their commitments under the N'djamena Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement of April 2005 and the related Abuja Protocols on Humanitarian and Security issues, and avoid acts that could undermine the AU efforts in Darfur.
The council has requested the GOs to cooperate fully with AMIS, particularly as it concerns the deployment of equipment necessary to enhance the effectiveness of the Mission.
It also urged all the parties to fully participate in the Joint Commission meeting scheduled to be held in N'djamena on the 13th October 2005.
The PSC has supported to the decision of the Chairperson of the Commission to dispatch a high level military team to Darfur to assess the situation and make recommendations on how to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in the future.
The council has decided to bring to the attention of the United Nations Security Council the prevailing situation in Darfur.
Canada also condemns the recent attacks on the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) by armed groups in Darfur which have resulted in the deaths and abduction of AMIS personnel and civilian contract staff, the Embassy of Canada to Ethiopia said Tuesday.
According to a statement the embassy sent to ENA, Canada calls on all parties to the conflict to live up to their responsibilities under the cease-fire agreement.
The statement said "Canada remains committed to working with the African Union to assist its efforts to resolve this crisis and to promote an effective and successful peace process."
"Canada's package of assistance is designed to assist the African Union mission in enhancing its operational effectiveness, including through the provision of armoured personnel carriers."
"We call upon the government of Sudan to work with the African Union to move quickly to ensure the entry of all required equipment and material support for AMIS, so that it is best able to carry out its crucial mission in support of the people of Darfur."
Canada continues to work for peace in Darfur. On May 12,2005, in support of international efforts toward peace and stability in Darfur, Prime Minister Paul Martin announced up to 170 million USD for the peace process, for peacebuilding and for increased assistance for AMIS, the statement said.
Posted to the web October 13, 2005
By Ena
Addis Ababa
The Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) has adopted decision on the deteriorating security situation in Darfur at its 41st meeting.
According to the communiqué of the 41st meeting of PSC sent to ENA Tuesday, the council has expressed deep concern over the deteriorating security situation throughout Darfur since late August 2005, including the killings, wounding and abduction of the African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS) personnel.
It also expressed deep concern over the recent trend whereby civilians and IDPs are deliberately targeted and effective delivery of humanitarian assistance impeded as well as the shoot-to-kill policy against the AMIS personnel and others.
The PSC has unreservedly condemned the killing of two members of the Nigerian contingent serving with AMIS in Sector 2, Nyala and two civilian drivers, employees of an AMIS contractor, PAE as well as the abduction of 38 AMIS personnel in Sector 5, Tine and the seizure of their equipment and vehicles.
The council has expressed concern that these incidents, unless brought to an immediate end, could adversely affect the ongoing efforts to bring about a comprehensive peace agreement in Darfur.
The PSC has demanded that all the parties fully respect their commitments under the N'djamena Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement of April 2005 and the related Abuja Protocols on Humanitarian and Security issues, and avoid acts that could undermine the AU efforts in Darfur.
The council has requested the GOs to cooperate fully with AMIS, particularly as it concerns the deployment of equipment necessary to enhance the effectiveness of the Mission.
It also urged all the parties to fully participate in the Joint Commission meeting scheduled to be held in N'djamena on the 13th October 2005.
The PSC has supported to the decision of the Chairperson of the Commission to dispatch a high level military team to Darfur to assess the situation and make recommendations on how to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in the future.
The council has decided to bring to the attention of the United Nations Security Council the prevailing situation in Darfur.
Canada also condemns the recent attacks on the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) by armed groups in Darfur which have resulted in the deaths and abduction of AMIS personnel and civilian contract staff, the Embassy of Canada to Ethiopia said Tuesday.
According to a statement the embassy sent to ENA, Canada calls on all parties to the conflict to live up to their responsibilities under the cease-fire agreement.
The statement said "Canada remains committed to working with the African Union to assist its efforts to resolve this crisis and to promote an effective and successful peace process."
"Canada's package of assistance is designed to assist the African Union mission in enhancing its operational effectiveness, including through the provision of armoured personnel carriers."
"We call upon the government of Sudan to work with the African Union to move quickly to ensure the entry of all required equipment and material support for AMIS, so that it is best able to carry out its crucial mission in support of the people of Darfur."
Canada continues to work for peace in Darfur. On May 12,2005, in support of international efforts toward peace and stability in Darfur, Prime Minister Paul Martin announced up to 170 million USD for the peace process, for peacebuilding and for increased assistance for AMIS, the statement said.
U.N. to evacuate some staff from Sudan's Darfur
13.10.2005 - 18:12
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The United Nations is to evacuate some staff from Sudan's West Darfur state because of an increase in violence, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.
It was not clear how many people would initially be evacuated. But U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said only core staff would remain in the main town el-Geneina.
"It's a precautionary measure because of the violence," she said.
Aid workers were already confined to el-Geneina as all roads out have been closed to travel because of banditry and clashes throughout the state, she said.
U.N. officials said on Wednesday the violence had hindered aid access to 650,000 refugees in South and West Darfur states, two of Darfur's three states.
On Saturday, a 6,000-strong African Union force deployed to monitor a shaky cease-fire in Darfur suffered its first casualties in the region in an ambush in South Darfur.
The AU said on Thursday it had found the bodies of two soldiers missing after the attack, bringing the total killed in the ambush to six.
British aid agency Oxfam said it could not access any of its West Darfur camps by road and were concerned fuel for water pumps could run out, leaving tens of thousands of refugees without access to water.
Non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing Khartoum of neglect and of monopolising power and wealth.
Khartoum responded by mobilising mostly Arab militias, who stand accused of a campaign of rape, killing and looting.
Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2 million forced from their homes in the Darfur violence, which the United States called genocide.
Khartoum denies genocide but the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes there.
TWO BODIES FOUND
AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni said the bodies of two Nigerian soldiers missing in Saturday's ambush had been found.
It brought the death toll to six -- four Nigerian AU soldiers and two civilian contractors.
"We found the bodies of the two missing and we have two other soldiers killed in the attack and two civilian workers," Mezni told Reuters.
Four soldiers were injured in the attack, which the AU blamed on the main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).
The AU had previously said one of them had died from his injuries, but on Thursday said that report was incorrect.
A day after the attack, 38 AU personnel were abducted in the Chadian-Sudanese border town of Tine. They were rescued after a battle between rival rebel factions, but the rebels warned the AU not to enter their areas.
The rebel factions are demanding a seat at AU-sponsored peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
Two main rebel groups, the SLA and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) are represented at the talks, which have been plagued by fighting on the ground and rebel divisions.
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The United Nations is to evacuate some staff from Sudan's West Darfur state because of an increase in violence, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.
It was not clear how many people would initially be evacuated. But U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said only core staff would remain in the main town el-Geneina.
"It's a precautionary measure because of the violence," she said.
Aid workers were already confined to el-Geneina as all roads out have been closed to travel because of banditry and clashes throughout the state, she said.
U.N. officials said on Wednesday the violence had hindered aid access to 650,000 refugees in South and West Darfur states, two of Darfur's three states.
On Saturday, a 6,000-strong African Union force deployed to monitor a shaky cease-fire in Darfur suffered its first casualties in the region in an ambush in South Darfur.
The AU said on Thursday it had found the bodies of two soldiers missing after the attack, bringing the total killed in the ambush to six.
British aid agency Oxfam said it could not access any of its West Darfur camps by road and were concerned fuel for water pumps could run out, leaving tens of thousands of refugees without access to water.
Non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing Khartoum of neglect and of monopolising power and wealth.
Khartoum responded by mobilising mostly Arab militias, who stand accused of a campaign of rape, killing and looting.
Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2 million forced from their homes in the Darfur violence, which the United States called genocide.
Khartoum denies genocide but the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes there.
TWO BODIES FOUND
AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni said the bodies of two Nigerian soldiers missing in Saturday's ambush had been found.
It brought the death toll to six -- four Nigerian AU soldiers and two civilian contractors.
"We found the bodies of the two missing and we have two other soldiers killed in the attack and two civilian workers," Mezni told Reuters.
Four soldiers were injured in the attack, which the AU blamed on the main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).
The AU had previously said one of them had died from his injuries, but on Thursday said that report was incorrect.
A day after the attack, 38 AU personnel were abducted in the Chadian-Sudanese border town of Tine. They were rescued after a battle between rival rebel factions, but the rebels warned the AU not to enter their areas.
The rebel factions are demanding a seat at AU-sponsored peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
Two main rebel groups, the SLA and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) are represented at the talks, which have been plagued by fighting on the ground and rebel divisions.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
UN: Darfur too unsafe for relief work
Wednesday 12 October 2005 6:46 PM GMT
Violence continues despite the AU military presence
The United Nations mission in Sudan has declared much of the war-torn western region of Darfur unsafe for humanitarian operations.
According to a UN spokeswoman in Khartoum on Wednesday, the recent upsurge in violence that left three African Union (AU) soldiers dead and the brief abduction of nearly 40 other AU personnel by rebel forces are major causes for concern.
"Almost two-thirds of the area of operation of the humanitarian community in South Darfur is considered hazardous for the safety of humanitarian personnel and has been declared no-go areas," Radhia Achouri said.
She added that tensions in and around Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, had led to a deterioration in security conditions, prompting the United Nations to issue a travel warning for aid workers.
The United Nations mission "has declared all roads leading out of the town to be restricted in view of armed clashes north, west and south of the town, in addition to increased banditry along all roads", Achouri said.
She added that only North Darfur state appeared to be relatively safe.
Humanitarian access to North Darfur, she said, "has been less affected and most areas of operation are accessible".
Rebel disruption
The United Nations said it continued to receive reports from the Darfur region on incidents of banditry, looting and robbery that sometimes involve firearms and result in casualties.
The UN mission said there have been reports of attacks by nomadic tribesmen on villages in Darfur that the AU was investigating.
"Thousands of civilians are fleeing to IDP [internally displaced persons] camps throughout the region" due to the violence, Achouri noted.
An estimated 180,000 to 300,000 people have died in Darfur since a civil conflict between rebels and government-backed nomadic militias erupted in February 2003, with 2.6 million civilians left homeless.
Violence continues despite the AU military presence
The United Nations mission in Sudan has declared much of the war-torn western region of Darfur unsafe for humanitarian operations.
According to a UN spokeswoman in Khartoum on Wednesday, the recent upsurge in violence that left three African Union (AU) soldiers dead and the brief abduction of nearly 40 other AU personnel by rebel forces are major causes for concern.
"Almost two-thirds of the area of operation of the humanitarian community in South Darfur is considered hazardous for the safety of humanitarian personnel and has been declared no-go areas," Radhia Achouri said.
She added that tensions in and around Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, had led to a deterioration in security conditions, prompting the United Nations to issue a travel warning for aid workers.
The United Nations mission "has declared all roads leading out of the town to be restricted in view of armed clashes north, west and south of the town, in addition to increased banditry along all roads", Achouri said.
She added that only North Darfur state appeared to be relatively safe.
Humanitarian access to North Darfur, she said, "has been less affected and most areas of operation are accessible".
Rebel disruption
The United Nations said it continued to receive reports from the Darfur region on incidents of banditry, looting and robbery that sometimes involve firearms and result in casualties.
The UN mission said there have been reports of attacks by nomadic tribesmen on villages in Darfur that the AU was investigating.
"Thousands of civilians are fleeing to IDP [internally displaced persons] camps throughout the region" due to the violence, Achouri noted.
An estimated 180,000 to 300,000 people have died in Darfur since a civil conflict between rebels and government-backed nomadic militias erupted in February 2003, with 2.6 million civilians left homeless.
Solana discusses EU-Africa ties with AU chief Brussels, Oct 12,
IRNA
EU-Africa
European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana met the Chairman of the African Union Commission Alpha Oumar Konare in Brussels Tuesday evening and discussed developments in Sudan, Darfur and EU-Africa relations.
Both leaders praised the further deepening of EU-Africa relations notably in the quest to consolidate peace, prosperity and stability throughout the African continent.
Solana and Konare expressed concern over the recent deterioration in the situation of Darfur and underscored the need to stop this trend, said a statement issued by Solana's office.
With specific reference to the Darfur conflict, they appealed to the Sudanese government of Sudan and to the rebel forces in the region to respect previous commitments to terminate hostilities, urging both to reach a negotiated political solution in Abuja without which, they said, there will be no lasting peace in Darfur.
Solana told reporters after the meeting that all the parties in the Darfur conflict must be made to understand that there was no military solution to the conflict.
The EU is giving financial, logistic and technical assistance to the AU peace-monitoring mission in Darfur.
The two sides also reviewed the situation in the Great Lakes, Somalia, the Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Liberia.
EU-Africa
European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana met the Chairman of the African Union Commission Alpha Oumar Konare in Brussels Tuesday evening and discussed developments in Sudan, Darfur and EU-Africa relations.
Both leaders praised the further deepening of EU-Africa relations notably in the quest to consolidate peace, prosperity and stability throughout the African continent.
Solana and Konare expressed concern over the recent deterioration in the situation of Darfur and underscored the need to stop this trend, said a statement issued by Solana's office.
With specific reference to the Darfur conflict, they appealed to the Sudanese government of Sudan and to the rebel forces in the region to respect previous commitments to terminate hostilities, urging both to reach a negotiated political solution in Abuja without which, they said, there will be no lasting peace in Darfur.
Solana told reporters after the meeting that all the parties in the Darfur conflict must be made to understand that there was no military solution to the conflict.
The EU is giving financial, logistic and technical assistance to the AU peace-monitoring mission in Darfur.
The two sides also reviewed the situation in the Great Lakes, Somalia, the Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Liberia.
Conference to focus on Darfur situation
Some of North America’s most notable scholars will gather in London, Ont., at the end of the month to inform the public about the genocide in Darfur.
The University of Western Ontario will host the weekend-long conference from Oct. 28 to 30 in hopes that those who learn about the issue will become active in raising awareness.
The genocide scholars who are scheduled to lecture include Dr. Gerald Caplan, a leading Canadian authority on genocide and genocide prevention, and an internationally recognized expert on the Rwandan Genocide.
Also speaking at the conference is Dr. Norman Epstein,who is the co-founder of Canadians Against Slavery and Torture in Sudan.
The conference was organized by the Holocaust Literature Research Institute as well as scholarly centres, student groups, and community and not-for-profit organizations.
For more information, visit www.freewebs.com/crisisindarfur
The University of Western Ontario will host the weekend-long conference from Oct. 28 to 30 in hopes that those who learn about the issue will become active in raising awareness.
The genocide scholars who are scheduled to lecture include Dr. Gerald Caplan, a leading Canadian authority on genocide and genocide prevention, and an internationally recognized expert on the Rwandan Genocide.
Also speaking at the conference is Dr. Norman Epstein,who is the co-founder of Canadians Against Slavery and Torture in Sudan.
The conference was organized by the Holocaust Literature Research Institute as well as scholarly centres, student groups, and community and not-for-profit organizations.
For more information, visit www.freewebs.com/crisisindarfur
Darfur in the Pan, Unity On the Call
The New Times (Kigali)
Posted to the web October 12, 2005
Kenneth Kimathi
Kigali
More than two years into the crisis, the western Sudanese region of Darfur is acknowledged to be a humanitarian and human rights tragedy of the first order: as many as 10,000 people, overwhelmingly civilians, are dying every month. The humanitarian, security and political situations continue to deteriorate: atrocity crimes are continuing, people are still dying in large numbers of malnutrition and disease, and a new famine is feared. The international community is failing to protect civilians itself or influence the Sudanese government to do so.
The UN Commission of Inquiry on Darfur described as massive, the scope of atrocities carried out in the territory, primarily by the government and its allied Janjaweed militias. And the situation on the ground shows a number of negative trends, which have been developing since the last quarter of 2004. They include deteriorating security, including the targeting of humanitarian workers, a credible threat of famine, mounting civilian casualties, the ceasefire in shambles, the negotiation process at a standstill, the rebel movements beginning to splinter and new armed movements appearing in Darfur and neighbouring states. Chaos and a culture of impunity are taking root in the region. Peacekeeping missions, though, have done their best to try and contain the situation. The RDF and other disciplined armed forces who've done splendid work in this region deserve credit.
Nevertheless, insecurity in Darfur remains pervasive despite a decline in direct, large-scale fighting between the government and the two main rebel movements, the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Maintaining the present uneasy status quo is not the answer. The Khartoum government continues to flout its numerous commitments to neutralize its allied proxy militia, the Janjaweed, and more than two million civilians displaced by the conflict will not return home without a comprehensive political settlement including security guarantees. But the problem is not just on the government side: discord within and between the rebel movements also needs to be resolved if there is to be a chance for lasting peace.
The SLA, the dominant rebel force on the ground, is increasingly an obstacle to peace. Internal divisions, particularly among its political leadership, attacks against humanitarian convoys, and armed clashes with JEM have undermined the peace talks and raised questions about its legitimacy. JEM, while less important militarily and suspect among many Darfurians for its more national and Islamist agenda, has similar problems.
As long as the rebels, the SLA in particular, remain divided and the fighting in Darfur continues, there is little hope for real success sought by the African Union (AU)-sponsored peace talks in Abuja, since the government is likely to exploit and exacerbate rebel weaknesses. SLA and JEM fragmentation may contribute to a limited settlement in which the government regains a semblance of authority in Darfur through local deals with tribal leaders and insurgent factions, while the rebel movements find themselves increasingly isolated and irrelevant. Frustrated as it is, the international community would, nevertheless, make a mistake if it chose an appearance of stability over a comprehensive solution since that would leave the root causes of the conflict untouched, despite hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of displacements.
A lasting political solution is still within reach but the AU, Sudan's neighbours, the UN, the U.S. and the European Union (EU) need to press for more comprehensive steps to resolve rebel disunity. The political leadership of the SLA, especially, but also the JEM, should return to Darfur as soon as possible and organize broad-based conferences of their memberships. The SLA conference must be inclusive in representation and participation (including women) and provide a forum for the rebels to solve their leadership problems, forge a consensus on the movement's structure, restore command and control end banditry and define a negotiating position for its delegation at peace talks. Likewise, the SLA and JEM must make continuous efforts to unify their negotiating positions, both to facilitate political talks and to help solidify the ceasefire agreement between the two movements. Last but not least, the international community must improve on coordinating messages to prevent the rebel movements and factions from playing external actors against each other and should support the conferences of the two movements by helping with transport, food aid and security. Such strategies will go a long way in helping the warring factions arrive at a mutual agreement. Consensus is the key word, anything less or to the contrary, will amount to downloading a peace software to an infected computor. It will seldom open, leave alone read. All efforts, first and foremost, should be geared towards achieving peace within, not blowing trumpets on volatile and temporary ceasefires.
Posted to the web October 12, 2005
Kenneth Kimathi
Kigali
More than two years into the crisis, the western Sudanese region of Darfur is acknowledged to be a humanitarian and human rights tragedy of the first order: as many as 10,000 people, overwhelmingly civilians, are dying every month. The humanitarian, security and political situations continue to deteriorate: atrocity crimes are continuing, people are still dying in large numbers of malnutrition and disease, and a new famine is feared. The international community is failing to protect civilians itself or influence the Sudanese government to do so.
The UN Commission of Inquiry on Darfur described as massive, the scope of atrocities carried out in the territory, primarily by the government and its allied Janjaweed militias. And the situation on the ground shows a number of negative trends, which have been developing since the last quarter of 2004. They include deteriorating security, including the targeting of humanitarian workers, a credible threat of famine, mounting civilian casualties, the ceasefire in shambles, the negotiation process at a standstill, the rebel movements beginning to splinter and new armed movements appearing in Darfur and neighbouring states. Chaos and a culture of impunity are taking root in the region. Peacekeeping missions, though, have done their best to try and contain the situation. The RDF and other disciplined armed forces who've done splendid work in this region deserve credit.
Nevertheless, insecurity in Darfur remains pervasive despite a decline in direct, large-scale fighting between the government and the two main rebel movements, the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Maintaining the present uneasy status quo is not the answer. The Khartoum government continues to flout its numerous commitments to neutralize its allied proxy militia, the Janjaweed, and more than two million civilians displaced by the conflict will not return home without a comprehensive political settlement including security guarantees. But the problem is not just on the government side: discord within and between the rebel movements also needs to be resolved if there is to be a chance for lasting peace.
The SLA, the dominant rebel force on the ground, is increasingly an obstacle to peace. Internal divisions, particularly among its political leadership, attacks against humanitarian convoys, and armed clashes with JEM have undermined the peace talks and raised questions about its legitimacy. JEM, while less important militarily and suspect among many Darfurians for its more national and Islamist agenda, has similar problems.
As long as the rebels, the SLA in particular, remain divided and the fighting in Darfur continues, there is little hope for real success sought by the African Union (AU)-sponsored peace talks in Abuja, since the government is likely to exploit and exacerbate rebel weaknesses. SLA and JEM fragmentation may contribute to a limited settlement in which the government regains a semblance of authority in Darfur through local deals with tribal leaders and insurgent factions, while the rebel movements find themselves increasingly isolated and irrelevant. Frustrated as it is, the international community would, nevertheless, make a mistake if it chose an appearance of stability over a comprehensive solution since that would leave the root causes of the conflict untouched, despite hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of displacements.
A lasting political solution is still within reach but the AU, Sudan's neighbours, the UN, the U.S. and the European Union (EU) need to press for more comprehensive steps to resolve rebel disunity. The political leadership of the SLA, especially, but also the JEM, should return to Darfur as soon as possible and organize broad-based conferences of their memberships. The SLA conference must be inclusive in representation and participation (including women) and provide a forum for the rebels to solve their leadership problems, forge a consensus on the movement's structure, restore command and control end banditry and define a negotiating position for its delegation at peace talks. Likewise, the SLA and JEM must make continuous efforts to unify their negotiating positions, both to facilitate political talks and to help solidify the ceasefire agreement between the two movements. Last but not least, the international community must improve on coordinating messages to prevent the rebel movements and factions from playing external actors against each other and should support the conferences of the two movements by helping with transport, food aid and security. Such strategies will go a long way in helping the warring factions arrive at a mutual agreement. Consensus is the key word, anything less or to the contrary, will amount to downloading a peace software to an infected computor. It will seldom open, leave alone read. All efforts, first and foremost, should be geared towards achieving peace within, not blowing trumpets on volatile and temporary ceasefires.
France calls for peace in Darfur
Sudan-France, Politics, 10/12/2005
France has persistently urged all sides in Darfur to halt attacks on the soldiers of the mission of the African Union for peace keeping and to honor cease fire in the district.
The spokesman for the French foreign ministry Jan Patsit Mattie deplored the kidnapping of soldiers from the mission of the African Union on Sunday in North Darfur by one rebel group. He also deplored the attack which targeted on Saturday members of the African Union mission and resulted in killing two Nigerian soldiers as well as two civilians working with these forces.
The African Union announced on Tuesday that a faction that split from al-Adel Wal-Musawat rebel groups in Darfur released 36 members of the African Union force who were kidnapped in the area but kept two hostages, the leader of the Union's team and the translator besides keeping the cars of the peace forces with the kidnappers.
However, Baher Idris Abu Qirdah, deputy chairman of the rebel al-Adel Wal-Musawat movement in Darfur said in a statement from Abuja, Nigeria that a force from his movement freed the two last members held by what he described as an armed gang, noting that the kidnappers fled to Chad but this was not confirmed by the African Union.
France has persistently urged all sides in Darfur to halt attacks on the soldiers of the mission of the African Union for peace keeping and to honor cease fire in the district.
The spokesman for the French foreign ministry Jan Patsit Mattie deplored the kidnapping of soldiers from the mission of the African Union on Sunday in North Darfur by one rebel group. He also deplored the attack which targeted on Saturday members of the African Union mission and resulted in killing two Nigerian soldiers as well as two civilians working with these forces.
The African Union announced on Tuesday that a faction that split from al-Adel Wal-Musawat rebel groups in Darfur released 36 members of the African Union force who were kidnapped in the area but kept two hostages, the leader of the Union's team and the translator besides keeping the cars of the peace forces with the kidnappers.
However, Baher Idris Abu Qirdah, deputy chairman of the rebel al-Adel Wal-Musawat movement in Darfur said in a statement from Abuja, Nigeria that a force from his movement freed the two last members held by what he described as an armed gang, noting that the kidnappers fled to Chad but this was not confirmed by the African Union.
Stolen Innocence
A New Canadian led campaign contends the Security Council ignores child soldiers, doesn't use 'untested' R2P to protect children avoiding capture.
A campaign to bring attention to the plight of children abducted by rebels in northern Uganda is set to kick-off on Oct.18 at the United Nations in New York. Dubbed Act for Stolen Children in Northern Uganda, the Canadian-led campaign aims to create awareness and increase emergency response to the crisis in northern Uganda.
An estimated 20, 000 children have been abducted by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), who have been fighting the Ugandan government for almost 20 years. The LRA says it wants to create a nation ruled by the Ten Commandments. LRA rebels have been responsible for gross human rights violations in northern Uganda, their main theatre of operations. Ninety per cent of the population--about 1.6 million--in Uganda's northern districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader have been displaced and now live in camps because of the LRA's activities. The rebels frequently target these camps.
Eighty per cent of LRA soldiers are mostly children; many of them abducted from their villages and forced to join the rebels. Every night thousands of others in rural areas leave their homes and walk an average of 25 km seeking safety in big towns.
Erin Baines, who started the campaign after spending three years conducting research in northern Uganda, says some of these children are as young as five years old. Those unfortunate not to find space in shelters end up sleeping in bus parks, alleys or out in the bush, where they are often abused and exploited.
"They are known as the night commuters," says Ms. Baines, who's also the director of the Conflict and Development Program at the University of British Columbia.
In the morning, the children--estimated to be 40,000--return to their villages to attend school and do other chores, says Ms. Baines.
She also says the Ugandan government has not been able to protect people in the camps and the international community has been mostly silent about the situation, hence the need to bring the campaign to the doorsteps of the UN.
"The Security Council is stubborn in keeping it out of the agenda," says Ms. Bains, adding that this is mostly because Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni is considered a prime example by the West of economic reforms in Africa and is rarely criticized. The aim of bringing the campaign to the UN is to remind world leaders of the Responsibility to Protect resolution (R2P) which calls on nations to collectively intervene to prevent genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
"[This resolution's] never been tested," says Ms. Baines. "And what better case than northern Uganda where 90 per cent of the population is internally displaced and live in camps?"
Pamela Smith, a spokesperson for the campaign, says the international community has ignored the situation in northern Uganda while all the attention is focused on Darfur and Congo.
"This is known as the forgotten war and we want action on that resolution for the women and children of northern Uganda," says Ms. Smith, adding that there is a great discrepancy between what is being reported and the real situation on the ground in northern Uganda.
"Both sides in the conflict abuse children, and the figures might actually be higher."
A report released by Human Rights Watch last month accused the Ugandan army and the LRA of gross human rights violations in northern Uganda. Titled Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda, the report accuses the LRA of crimes including torture, mutilation, sexual violence, abduction, forced recruitment and killing of people considered government supporters.
The report also documents cases of rape, arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as extra-judicial killings of civilians in the camps by members of the Ugandan army. The report also says the Ugandan government has failed to prosecute military officers before courts to dissuade others from committing crimes, an allegation denied by the government.
But the campaign is not limited to the UN. Ms. Smith says walkathons in 40 cities around the world including Gulu in northern Uganda, Kampala, London (UK), New York, Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal and Los Angeles will start on Oct. 22 to sensitize ordinary citizens of the situation of children in northern Uganda, and also to recreate the walk that thousands of children take every night to escape abduction by the LRA. About 25, 000 people, including celebrities, politicians and representatives of local communities, are expected to participate in the walk.
Named GuluWalk for Stolen Children of Northern Uganda, the walkathon is being organized with the collaboration of university organizations, the Ugandan Diaspora, and NGOs. Ms. Smith says the campaign will continue until a peaceful resolution to the conflict is attained.
Several efforts to broker a deal between the LRA and the Ugandan government have failed. Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted LRA leader Joseph Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti for crimes against humanity.
Ms. Baines says such a move is detrimental to achieving peace in northern Uganda, stressing that traditional tribal methods of peace making and reconciliation should take precedence and be incorporated into attempts to find a solution.
"If the ICC issues arrest warrants, there will be a massacre--Kony is a crazy person--and hopes of peace talks will be dashed," says Ms. Baines.
A campaign to bring attention to the plight of children abducted by rebels in northern Uganda is set to kick-off on Oct.18 at the United Nations in New York. Dubbed Act for Stolen Children in Northern Uganda, the Canadian-led campaign aims to create awareness and increase emergency response to the crisis in northern Uganda.
An estimated 20, 000 children have been abducted by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), who have been fighting the Ugandan government for almost 20 years. The LRA says it wants to create a nation ruled by the Ten Commandments. LRA rebels have been responsible for gross human rights violations in northern Uganda, their main theatre of operations. Ninety per cent of the population--about 1.6 million--in Uganda's northern districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader have been displaced and now live in camps because of the LRA's activities. The rebels frequently target these camps.
Eighty per cent of LRA soldiers are mostly children; many of them abducted from their villages and forced to join the rebels. Every night thousands of others in rural areas leave their homes and walk an average of 25 km seeking safety in big towns.
Erin Baines, who started the campaign after spending three years conducting research in northern Uganda, says some of these children are as young as five years old. Those unfortunate not to find space in shelters end up sleeping in bus parks, alleys or out in the bush, where they are often abused and exploited.
"They are known as the night commuters," says Ms. Baines, who's also the director of the Conflict and Development Program at the University of British Columbia.
In the morning, the children--estimated to be 40,000--return to their villages to attend school and do other chores, says Ms. Baines.
She also says the Ugandan government has not been able to protect people in the camps and the international community has been mostly silent about the situation, hence the need to bring the campaign to the doorsteps of the UN.
"The Security Council is stubborn in keeping it out of the agenda," says Ms. Bains, adding that this is mostly because Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni is considered a prime example by the West of economic reforms in Africa and is rarely criticized. The aim of bringing the campaign to the UN is to remind world leaders of the Responsibility to Protect resolution (R2P) which calls on nations to collectively intervene to prevent genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
"[This resolution's] never been tested," says Ms. Baines. "And what better case than northern Uganda where 90 per cent of the population is internally displaced and live in camps?"
Pamela Smith, a spokesperson for the campaign, says the international community has ignored the situation in northern Uganda while all the attention is focused on Darfur and Congo.
"This is known as the forgotten war and we want action on that resolution for the women and children of northern Uganda," says Ms. Smith, adding that there is a great discrepancy between what is being reported and the real situation on the ground in northern Uganda.
"Both sides in the conflict abuse children, and the figures might actually be higher."
A report released by Human Rights Watch last month accused the Ugandan army and the LRA of gross human rights violations in northern Uganda. Titled Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda, the report accuses the LRA of crimes including torture, mutilation, sexual violence, abduction, forced recruitment and killing of people considered government supporters.
The report also documents cases of rape, arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as extra-judicial killings of civilians in the camps by members of the Ugandan army. The report also says the Ugandan government has failed to prosecute military officers before courts to dissuade others from committing crimes, an allegation denied by the government.
But the campaign is not limited to the UN. Ms. Smith says walkathons in 40 cities around the world including Gulu in northern Uganda, Kampala, London (UK), New York, Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal and Los Angeles will start on Oct. 22 to sensitize ordinary citizens of the situation of children in northern Uganda, and also to recreate the walk that thousands of children take every night to escape abduction by the LRA. About 25, 000 people, including celebrities, politicians and representatives of local communities, are expected to participate in the walk.
Named GuluWalk for Stolen Children of Northern Uganda, the walkathon is being organized with the collaboration of university organizations, the Ugandan Diaspora, and NGOs. Ms. Smith says the campaign will continue until a peaceful resolution to the conflict is attained.
Several efforts to broker a deal between the LRA and the Ugandan government have failed. Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted LRA leader Joseph Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti for crimes against humanity.
Ms. Baines says such a move is detrimental to achieving peace in northern Uganda, stressing that traditional tribal methods of peace making and reconciliation should take precedence and be incorporated into attempts to find a solution.
"If the ICC issues arrest warrants, there will be a massacre--Kony is a crazy person--and hopes of peace talks will be dashed," says Ms. Baines.
Can the Weak Protect the Weak?
During my first trip to Darfur in April 2005, I visited three Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps, ZamZam, Tuwela and Abu-Shuko. On Sept. 24 I returned to Abu-Shuko. The situation hasn't changed much. Living condition have not improved, and there has only been a slight increase in food distribution. The population has increased from 230,000 to 270,000 IDPs due to the insecurity around Al-Fasher. This is especially true in the Tuwela camp, where fighting has occurred between rebels SLA/M and government forces.
I did not travel to Tuwela this time, because of the military activities around Tuwela camps. Most of the IDPs are fleeing the Tuwela region to nearby towns.
Due to insecurity and logistical problems there are parts of Darfur that NGOs and the UNHCR cannot reach. The situation around Jebel Al-Mara is particularly bad and the IDPs there cannot be reached by outside agencies. Ironically, even with the worsening situation, the IDPs in Abu-Shuko may be better off than those who are in Jebel Al-Mara.
The increasing violence is keeping IDPs from returning home and making them completely dependant on foreign aid. Those who do try to return to their villages to tend to crops are attacked and killed or driven back to the camps.
Despite the fact that Abu-Shuko is supposed to be under the control of African Union forces (whose mandate prevents them from carrying weapons) there were no AU troops on the ground when I visited this camp.
In a terrifying example of foxes guarding the chicken coop, the Sudanese soldiers who have, in many well-documented cases, openly supported the atrocities committed by the janjaweed control the camp's main entrance.[...]
Sept 24, 2005, a bus traveling from Al-Fasher, via Zam Zam, to Nyiala City was attacked. One person was killed and seven other were injured. I went to the hospital to witness the wounded for myself. This incident could have been prevented if the AU troops had been armed. All AU troops in Darfur are without guns, and they patrol the areas unarmed. "It is ridicules to patrol without guns," an Egyptian police officer told me.
If this insecurity continues, the international community and NGOs will not be able to provide the assistance that is so desperately needed by hundreds of thousands of people in the Darfur region. This is a direct result of the extremely weak mandate of the AU, the continual refusal by African leaders to request international support from the international community, and the absence of intervention by the UN and NATO. [...]
Without a change in the AU mandate, the IDPs will not feel safe and the Janjaweed will continue to attack, rape and kill civilians as long as the AU soldiers remain unarmed. The mandate to fight back, arrest and detain must be applied as soon as possible in order to save lives of innocent men, women and children in the Darfur region.
In addition, the living conditions of the AU troops on the ground are very poor: there are no sports facilities; the stress level is very high; there is a lack of clinical psychologists; no air conditioning; salaries are not paid on time; and the food is low in required nutrients. All these factors will not assist AU troops in carrying out duties in an effective and timely manner.
Two AU soldiers died of HIV/AIDS, so there is also need for medical check ups for AU soldiers before their deployment to Darfur. The only two countries that give HIV/AIDS tests to their troops are South Africa and Canada. (Currently, there are two Canadian logistical officers in Darfur assisting the AU). The danger is that HIV/AIDS will spread in Darfur because of the contact with AU troops, and could lead to a serious health problem.
Justin Laku
Founder of the group Canadian Friends of Sudan
Ottawa, ON.
I did not travel to Tuwela this time, because of the military activities around Tuwela camps. Most of the IDPs are fleeing the Tuwela region to nearby towns.
Due to insecurity and logistical problems there are parts of Darfur that NGOs and the UNHCR cannot reach. The situation around Jebel Al-Mara is particularly bad and the IDPs there cannot be reached by outside agencies. Ironically, even with the worsening situation, the IDPs in Abu-Shuko may be better off than those who are in Jebel Al-Mara.
The increasing violence is keeping IDPs from returning home and making them completely dependant on foreign aid. Those who do try to return to their villages to tend to crops are attacked and killed or driven back to the camps.
Despite the fact that Abu-Shuko is supposed to be under the control of African Union forces (whose mandate prevents them from carrying weapons) there were no AU troops on the ground when I visited this camp.
In a terrifying example of foxes guarding the chicken coop, the Sudanese soldiers who have, in many well-documented cases, openly supported the atrocities committed by the janjaweed control the camp's main entrance.[...]
Sept 24, 2005, a bus traveling from Al-Fasher, via Zam Zam, to Nyiala City was attacked. One person was killed and seven other were injured. I went to the hospital to witness the wounded for myself. This incident could have been prevented if the AU troops had been armed. All AU troops in Darfur are without guns, and they patrol the areas unarmed. "It is ridicules to patrol without guns," an Egyptian police officer told me.
If this insecurity continues, the international community and NGOs will not be able to provide the assistance that is so desperately needed by hundreds of thousands of people in the Darfur region. This is a direct result of the extremely weak mandate of the AU, the continual refusal by African leaders to request international support from the international community, and the absence of intervention by the UN and NATO. [...]
Without a change in the AU mandate, the IDPs will not feel safe and the Janjaweed will continue to attack, rape and kill civilians as long as the AU soldiers remain unarmed. The mandate to fight back, arrest and detain must be applied as soon as possible in order to save lives of innocent men, women and children in the Darfur region.
In addition, the living conditions of the AU troops on the ground are very poor: there are no sports facilities; the stress level is very high; there is a lack of clinical psychologists; no air conditioning; salaries are not paid on time; and the food is low in required nutrients. All these factors will not assist AU troops in carrying out duties in an effective and timely manner.
Two AU soldiers died of HIV/AIDS, so there is also need for medical check ups for AU soldiers before their deployment to Darfur. The only two countries that give HIV/AIDS tests to their troops are South Africa and Canada. (Currently, there are two Canadian logistical officers in Darfur assisting the AU). The danger is that HIV/AIDS will spread in Darfur because of the contact with AU troops, and could lead to a serious health problem.
Justin Laku
Founder of the group Canadian Friends of Sudan
Ottawa, ON.
Reform Jewish Leader Calls on U.N. Ambassador John Bolton to Clarify his Decision to Block a Security Council Briefing on Darfur
Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement calling on U.N. Ambassador John Bolton to clarify his decision to block a security council briefing on Darfur, "Ambassador Bolton is clearly right that the U.N’s response to Darfur has been too much talk and not enough action; we commend him for saying so. But it does not in any way follow that the Security Council should be denied the most current and accurate information about the situation on the ground in Darfur."
Saperstein: Ambassador Bolton is clearly right that the U.N’s response to Darfur has been too much talk and not enough action; we commend him for saying so. But it does not in any way follow that the Security Council should be denied the most current and accurate information about the situation on the ground in Darfur.
Contact: Alexis Rice or Sarah Burrows 202.387.2800
Washington, October 12, 2005 - Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement:
This past Monday, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, joined by China, Algeria and Russia, blocked a United Nation’s envoy from briefing the Security Council on human rights violations witnessed first hand during the envoy’s recent visit to Sudan’s western region of Darfur. Bolton kept Juan Mendez, Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Special Advisor for the Prevention of Genocide, from speaking, stating that the U.N. should focus on taking action against these atrocities instead of continuing to talk about them.
I know first-hand Ambassador Bolton’s commitment to addressing human rights abuses in Sudan. Ambassador Bolton is clearly right that the U.N’s response to Darfur has been too much talk and not enough action; we commend him for saying so. But it does not in any way follow that the Security Council should be denied the most current and accurate information about the situation on the ground in Darfur. Indeed, it is hard to reconcile the tactic with the goal. The fact that the U.S. found itself allied in this effort with three nations who have until now been unwilling to attack head on the issue of genocide in Darfur dramatizes the contradiction.
We urge Ambassador Bolton to clarify how he saw this decision as serving the goal of encouraging the U.N. to take urgent and informed action. Until then, we remain deeply disappointed that the Security Council was prevented from hearing potentially important testimony in regard to the human rights abuses being perpetrated by the Sudanese government and urge the U.S. to reverse this decision.
###
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism , whose more than 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews , and the Central Conference of American Rabbis , whose membership includes more than 1800 Reform rabbis.
Saperstein: Ambassador Bolton is clearly right that the U.N’s response to Darfur has been too much talk and not enough action; we commend him for saying so. But it does not in any way follow that the Security Council should be denied the most current and accurate information about the situation on the ground in Darfur.
Contact: Alexis Rice or Sarah Burrows 202.387.2800
Washington, October 12, 2005 - Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement:
This past Monday, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, joined by China, Algeria and Russia, blocked a United Nation’s envoy from briefing the Security Council on human rights violations witnessed first hand during the envoy’s recent visit to Sudan’s western region of Darfur. Bolton kept Juan Mendez, Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Special Advisor for the Prevention of Genocide, from speaking, stating that the U.N. should focus on taking action against these atrocities instead of continuing to talk about them.
I know first-hand Ambassador Bolton’s commitment to addressing human rights abuses in Sudan. Ambassador Bolton is clearly right that the U.N’s response to Darfur has been too much talk and not enough action; we commend him for saying so. But it does not in any way follow that the Security Council should be denied the most current and accurate information about the situation on the ground in Darfur. Indeed, it is hard to reconcile the tactic with the goal. The fact that the U.S. found itself allied in this effort with three nations who have until now been unwilling to attack head on the issue of genocide in Darfur dramatizes the contradiction.
We urge Ambassador Bolton to clarify how he saw this decision as serving the goal of encouraging the U.N. to take urgent and informed action. Until then, we remain deeply disappointed that the Security Council was prevented from hearing potentially important testimony in regard to the human rights abuses being perpetrated by the Sudanese government and urge the U.S. to reverse this decision.
###
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism , whose more than 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews , and the Central Conference of American Rabbis , whose membership includes more than 1800 Reform rabbis.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Save Sudan: AU to refer Darfur situation to UN Security Council
Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
Date: 11 Oct 2005
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
ADDIS ABABA, 11 October (IRIN) - The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council has decided that the issue of the "deteriorating security situation" in the western Sudanese region of Darfur be refered to the UN Security Council.
The decision, taken at the end of an emergency meeting on Monday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, came after the killing and kidnapping of AU peacekeepers in the region.
Togolese ambassador Esaw Koffi told journalists the AU unreservedly condemned the weekend violence against its personnel.
The AU also asked the Sudanese government to process the paperwork for the delivery of 105 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) "necessary for the protection of our personnel" in Darfur, which were currently sitting in Dakar, Senegal, Koffi said.
"These APCs would probably have avoided these deaths. The AU forces should be enabled to protect themselves and the others," he added.
The AU special representative to Darfur, Baba Gana Kingibe, told reporters in Addis Ababa the 53-nation bloc was "deeply concerned" about the violence, which he said had been increasing since August.
"The international community should be very alarmed by these events because the situation is getting out of hand and we are sliding backwards," he said ahead of the crunch meeting.
"The situation is spiralling. We have a highly aggravated, deteriorating security situation. We have had some very terrible tragedies, but this is one of the lowest points - if not the lowest - that we have had," he added.
Two Nigerian peacekeepers and two contractors were killed on Saturday after rebels opened fire on them, while another soldier died from his injuries on Sunday. Three other troops were wounded in the gun battle.
It was the first time the AU had suffered fatalities in the region, where it has over 6,200 troops monitoring a fragile ceasefire between rebels and government-backed militias.
Fighting in Darfur began when the rebels took up arms in February 2003, complaining of discrimination and oppression of the western region by the Sudanese government. The government is accused of unleashing militia - known as the Janjawid - on civilians in an attempt to fight the rebellion.
The latest killings happened as the warring parties were in the midst of a sixth round of stop-start peace talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on 15 September. The AU called on all sides to abide by a ceasefire agreement established to end the violence.
On Sunday, 38 African Union peacekeepers were seized in a separate incident, including a 20-strong rescue team sent in to secure their release.
The hostages included military observers, civilian police and an official from one of Darfur's two main rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement. However, all the hostages had been freed by Monday evening.
The Sudanese government denied on Tuesday that the security situation in Darfur had deteriorated. It described the AU statement as "erratic and hasty" and said Kingibe had violated diplomatic norms and rules of procedure.
"He is not in position to give moral lessons to a founding member of the African Union or to judge, without verification, whether the government of the Sudan is acting in good faith or respecting its commitments," a statement issued from the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, said.
"All the allegations in the form of findings which Ambassador Kingibe has pronounced require proof, especially those relating to the use of aircrafts and what he described as the unethical practice of the Sudanese Army of using the same colours of the African Union Forces by way of camouflage in the recent attacks on Tawila," it added.
[ENDS]
Date: 11 Oct 2005
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
ADDIS ABABA, 11 October (IRIN) - The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council has decided that the issue of the "deteriorating security situation" in the western Sudanese region of Darfur be refered to the UN Security Council.
The decision, taken at the end of an emergency meeting on Monday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, came after the killing and kidnapping of AU peacekeepers in the region.
Togolese ambassador Esaw Koffi told journalists the AU unreservedly condemned the weekend violence against its personnel.
The AU also asked the Sudanese government to process the paperwork for the delivery of 105 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) "necessary for the protection of our personnel" in Darfur, which were currently sitting in Dakar, Senegal, Koffi said.
"These APCs would probably have avoided these deaths. The AU forces should be enabled to protect themselves and the others," he added.
The AU special representative to Darfur, Baba Gana Kingibe, told reporters in Addis Ababa the 53-nation bloc was "deeply concerned" about the violence, which he said had been increasing since August.
"The international community should be very alarmed by these events because the situation is getting out of hand and we are sliding backwards," he said ahead of the crunch meeting.
"The situation is spiralling. We have a highly aggravated, deteriorating security situation. We have had some very terrible tragedies, but this is one of the lowest points - if not the lowest - that we have had," he added.
Two Nigerian peacekeepers and two contractors were killed on Saturday after rebels opened fire on them, while another soldier died from his injuries on Sunday. Three other troops were wounded in the gun battle.
It was the first time the AU had suffered fatalities in the region, where it has over 6,200 troops monitoring a fragile ceasefire between rebels and government-backed militias.
Fighting in Darfur began when the rebels took up arms in February 2003, complaining of discrimination and oppression of the western region by the Sudanese government. The government is accused of unleashing militia - known as the Janjawid - on civilians in an attempt to fight the rebellion.
The latest killings happened as the warring parties were in the midst of a sixth round of stop-start peace talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on 15 September. The AU called on all sides to abide by a ceasefire agreement established to end the violence.
On Sunday, 38 African Union peacekeepers were seized in a separate incident, including a 20-strong rescue team sent in to secure their release.
The hostages included military observers, civilian police and an official from one of Darfur's two main rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement. However, all the hostages had been freed by Monday evening.
The Sudanese government denied on Tuesday that the security situation in Darfur had deteriorated. It described the AU statement as "erratic and hasty" and said Kingibe had violated diplomatic norms and rules of procedure.
"He is not in position to give moral lessons to a founding member of the African Union or to judge, without verification, whether the government of the Sudan is acting in good faith or respecting its commitments," a statement issued from the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, said.
"All the allegations in the form of findings which Ambassador Kingibe has pronounced require proof, especially those relating to the use of aircrafts and what he described as the unethical practice of the Sudanese Army of using the same colours of the African Union Forces by way of camouflage in the recent attacks on Tawila," it added.
[ENDS]
SUDAN: Violence forces many to flee North Darfur
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
© Derk Segaar/IRIN
Hawa Wadi Kogere.
EL FASHER, 11 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - Hawa Wadi Kogere arrived in Zam Zam camp for internally displaced persons' (IDPs), on the outskirts of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, on 20 September after her village was attacked.
Since then, the 75-year-old woman from the Zaghawa community has lived beneath a tree, without enough food or any other shelter.
"We were chased, some of us killed and we lost all our property," Kogere told IRIN at Zam Zam. "Those who survived had nothing left and came here."
She was in the fields when the attack on Dugumare village - about 50 km south west of El Fasher - took place. She managed to get away, but her son and grandson were killed. Her house was torched.
During an offensive that lasted from 18 to 20 September, local Sheikhs claim that government soldiers and Janjawid fighters - Arab militia aligned to the government - attacked more than 20 villages.
The villages included Tarni, Soraj, Amar Jadid, Jabaien and Korofola. The attacks were possibly the largest ceasefire violations in Darfur since the beginning of 2005.
"There were people on camels and a number of Land Cruisers [all-terrain vehicles]. They had heavy weapons on vehicles and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]. Then they started shooting," Ali Mohamed Fadul, a local Sheik who oversees 45 villages, told IRIN.
"When the Janjawid and soldiers arrived, they took all our property. They shot the men and abducted women and girls. We ran with only the clothes on our bodies," he recounted.
"Some elderly men couldn't run. They [the attackers] put a rope around their necks and dragged them around with horses until they died," he added.
According to Fadul, 35 people were killed during the attacks and 10 were still missing. He stressed, however, that it was hard to give an exact number of casualties as everybody had dispersed.
African Union (AU) observers in the region put the preliminary number of fatalities at 27.
Fadul claimed the reason behind the recent spate of attacks was that the government was using the Janjawid as a proxy force to chase them out of their area.
Although land in Darfur was traditionally divided among the local people, Fadul claimed the government had made a contrary declaration. Now it was using the Janjawid to terrorise people and take control over their land.
The Janjawid were predominantly interested in looting their animals and most of the villagers' livestock was taken. He said from the villages in his area, approximately 250 head of cattle were taken, as well as 500 camels, 700 donkeys, 1,000 goats and 1,600 sheep.
Escalation of conflict
IDPs who recently arrived in ZamZam camp, North Darfur
Observers have expressed concern that the attacks on the villages, as well as the numerous incidents that followed, mark a standoff between the government and the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) - in particular its Zaghawa faction - that constitutes a substantial threat to the region's security.
Many members of the Zaghawa community have received professional military training in the Chadian and Sudanese armies and provide the bulk of SLM/A's military strength, while the Fur tend to dominate the political leadership of the movement, the International Crisis Group noted in a 6 October report.
Growing rifts between both political leaders and military commanders as well as between Zaghawa and Fur factions of the SLM/A have led to a breakdown in the movement's command structure and a disconnect between political aspirations at the peace talks and military operations on the ground.
An observer in the region noted that the most recent scorched earth campaign by government-aligned forces had been targeting Zaghawa villages in particular. This followed considerable SLM/A activity by rebels loyal to SLM/A's Zaghawa commander, Minni Arko Minawi.
At the beginning of September, rebels looted several thousand animals from Arab nomads near Malam. This was followed by at least three SLM/A attacks on government towns, resulting in the brief take-over of the Sudanese garrison town of Shearia on 19 September, the observer added.
"If the GOS [Government of Sudan] forces claim that their latest acts of ceasefire violations are in retaliation for earlier acts of provocation by the SL[M/]A, this cannot be justified given the deliberately calculated destruction wreaked by the disproportionate use of force on innocent civilians and IDPs in their camps," Baba Gana Kingibe, head of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), told reporters on 1 October in Khartoum.
Unconfirmed reports said there were more government attacks on villages southwest of El Fasher on 3 October, leading to the destruction of Kapka village and possibly Abu Zereiga.
Large troop movements of both SLM/A and the Sudanese armed forces in the area did not bode well for a cessation of hostilities in the near future, the observer warned. He expressed concern that a potential breakdown of the ongoing Darfur peace talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, would spark a new SLM/A offensive.
"How many razed villages still constitute a ceasefire violation and when is it simply the end of the ceasefire?" he asked.
Tawilla
On 29 September, a government convoy of 41 trucks and nine all-terrain vehicles stopped on the outskirts of Tawilla, a town west of El Fasher, and numerous soldiers entered the town. Many shops and houses were burnt to the ground, forcing thousands of inhabitants to flee to the nearby camp of the AMIS military observers.
Tawilla is a government-controlled town, but many residents are of Zaghawa origin. An AMIS officer in Tawilla told IRIN that the Sudanese armed forces suspected many of its inhabitants of being SLM/A sympathisers.
Government soldiers said the 29 September violence erupted when they were attacked by SLM/A rebels, but the AMIS officer insisted "it was a premeditated attack".
"Four elderly men were killed at close range - execution style - and seven people were injured," the AU officer noted. "The armaments used varied from small arms to heavy 12.7 mm machine guns and RPGs."
During an earlier outbreak of fighting in Tawilla on 9 September, five people died and between 30 and 40 were injured. On 7 October, a Sudanese army convoy of 16 vehicles stopped near Tawilla and 15 minutes of sustained firing with heavy weapons took place outside the town. The result is still under investigation.
The 29 September attack led to the reported displacement of about 2,500 individuals who erected makeshift shelters near the AMIS group site camp in Tawilla.
Although two international NGOs withdrew from the area as a result of the attacks, the IDPs were receiving some emergency assistance from the AMIS forces.
A woman who had fled Tawilla and had been staying near the AMIS compound for the last 10 days said the insecurity was continuing. "I don't expect to go home anytime soon," she said.
However, as the immediate threat dissipated, most people returned to town or to their fields during the day in order to cultivate their fields or access some basic live-sustaining services, including food and water.
People felt far from secure, however, and a man whose house had been burnt told IRIN that every night Tawilla town emptied as its inhabitants moved to the outskirts of the AMIS compound to spend the night. "Nobody stays in town at night," he noted.
Impact on IDP population
Recently burnt homes in Tawilla, Darfur.
Humanitarian agencies estimate that some 5,223 IDPs had fled to Zam Zam IDP camp following the September attacks on the villages. More people were continuing to arrive.
Non-food items and food had thus far been provided to 700 families who arrived immediately following the attacks, but Sheikhs were insisting that the current figure of recently displaced people was as high as 22,900.
Various humanitarian agencies were planning a verification exercise to obtain correct figures in order to provide appropriate assistance.
"The days following the attacks on the villages, about 4,000 directly affected individuals came to Zam Zam for support," one aid worker said.
"But people continued to trickle in, some who fled into the mountains first, and are arriving now; others who arrived following the most recent attacks on villages south of El Fasher as well as on Tawilla town itself," he added.
Aid workers were crosschecking registration lists from the areas where the violence erupted in order to try to establish whether people were really coming from the affected areas.
"With so many IDPs in nearby camps, it is next to impossible to establish whether an IDP is coming from Abu Shouk [a large IDP camp next to El Fasher] to try to get a double ration or a genuine new arrival who needs immediate assistance," the aid worker noted, adding that the agencies wanted to start a new distribution as soon as possible.
"We have cultivated a lot of millet, but with the insecurity, we are afraid to go back to harvest," Fadul said.
Humanitarian agencies had predicted a bumper harvest in the region this year, but fear it may be of little benefit to most of the recently displaced.
Nama Abdellah Saleh, a 45-year-old Zaghawa woman with eight children, arrived in Zam Zam on 22 September from Tawilla when the Janjawid and government soldiers attacked the area south of the town on 18 September and took most of her animals.
"I was in the cattle camp when the attack took place. The Janjawid came on horses and camels and the soldiers arrived in Land Cruisers with heavy weapons. They took women, children and men and killed them. The majority of our animals were taken," Saleh explained.
"This is the third time an attack like this happened around Tawilla. Each time we ran away and came back again. Now we lost hope, and we are here," Saleh said.
"We cannot go back. The Janjawid will kill us. I lost my two sisters," she added, before breaking into tears.
[ENDS]
© Derk Segaar/IRIN
Hawa Wadi Kogere.
EL FASHER, 11 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - Hawa Wadi Kogere arrived in Zam Zam camp for internally displaced persons' (IDPs), on the outskirts of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, on 20 September after her village was attacked.
Since then, the 75-year-old woman from the Zaghawa community has lived beneath a tree, without enough food or any other shelter.
"We were chased, some of us killed and we lost all our property," Kogere told IRIN at Zam Zam. "Those who survived had nothing left and came here."
She was in the fields when the attack on Dugumare village - about 50 km south west of El Fasher - took place. She managed to get away, but her son and grandson were killed. Her house was torched.
During an offensive that lasted from 18 to 20 September, local Sheikhs claim that government soldiers and Janjawid fighters - Arab militia aligned to the government - attacked more than 20 villages.
The villages included Tarni, Soraj, Amar Jadid, Jabaien and Korofola. The attacks were possibly the largest ceasefire violations in Darfur since the beginning of 2005.
"There were people on camels and a number of Land Cruisers [all-terrain vehicles]. They had heavy weapons on vehicles and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]. Then they started shooting," Ali Mohamed Fadul, a local Sheik who oversees 45 villages, told IRIN.
"When the Janjawid and soldiers arrived, they took all our property. They shot the men and abducted women and girls. We ran with only the clothes on our bodies," he recounted.
"Some elderly men couldn't run. They [the attackers] put a rope around their necks and dragged them around with horses until they died," he added.
According to Fadul, 35 people were killed during the attacks and 10 were still missing. He stressed, however, that it was hard to give an exact number of casualties as everybody had dispersed.
African Union (AU) observers in the region put the preliminary number of fatalities at 27.
Fadul claimed the reason behind the recent spate of attacks was that the government was using the Janjawid as a proxy force to chase them out of their area.
Although land in Darfur was traditionally divided among the local people, Fadul claimed the government had made a contrary declaration. Now it was using the Janjawid to terrorise people and take control over their land.
The Janjawid were predominantly interested in looting their animals and most of the villagers' livestock was taken. He said from the villages in his area, approximately 250 head of cattle were taken, as well as 500 camels, 700 donkeys, 1,000 goats and 1,600 sheep.
Escalation of conflict
IDPs who recently arrived in ZamZam camp, North Darfur
Observers have expressed concern that the attacks on the villages, as well as the numerous incidents that followed, mark a standoff between the government and the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) - in particular its Zaghawa faction - that constitutes a substantial threat to the region's security.
Many members of the Zaghawa community have received professional military training in the Chadian and Sudanese armies and provide the bulk of SLM/A's military strength, while the Fur tend to dominate the political leadership of the movement, the International Crisis Group noted in a 6 October report.
Growing rifts between both political leaders and military commanders as well as between Zaghawa and Fur factions of the SLM/A have led to a breakdown in the movement's command structure and a disconnect between political aspirations at the peace talks and military operations on the ground.
An observer in the region noted that the most recent scorched earth campaign by government-aligned forces had been targeting Zaghawa villages in particular. This followed considerable SLM/A activity by rebels loyal to SLM/A's Zaghawa commander, Minni Arko Minawi.
At the beginning of September, rebels looted several thousand animals from Arab nomads near Malam. This was followed by at least three SLM/A attacks on government towns, resulting in the brief take-over of the Sudanese garrison town of Shearia on 19 September, the observer added.
"If the GOS [Government of Sudan] forces claim that their latest acts of ceasefire violations are in retaliation for earlier acts of provocation by the SL[M/]A, this cannot be justified given the deliberately calculated destruction wreaked by the disproportionate use of force on innocent civilians and IDPs in their camps," Baba Gana Kingibe, head of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), told reporters on 1 October in Khartoum.
Unconfirmed reports said there were more government attacks on villages southwest of El Fasher on 3 October, leading to the destruction of Kapka village and possibly Abu Zereiga.
Large troop movements of both SLM/A and the Sudanese armed forces in the area did not bode well for a cessation of hostilities in the near future, the observer warned. He expressed concern that a potential breakdown of the ongoing Darfur peace talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, would spark a new SLM/A offensive.
"How many razed villages still constitute a ceasefire violation and when is it simply the end of the ceasefire?" he asked.
Tawilla
On 29 September, a government convoy of 41 trucks and nine all-terrain vehicles stopped on the outskirts of Tawilla, a town west of El Fasher, and numerous soldiers entered the town. Many shops and houses were burnt to the ground, forcing thousands of inhabitants to flee to the nearby camp of the AMIS military observers.
Tawilla is a government-controlled town, but many residents are of Zaghawa origin. An AMIS officer in Tawilla told IRIN that the Sudanese armed forces suspected many of its inhabitants of being SLM/A sympathisers.
Government soldiers said the 29 September violence erupted when they were attacked by SLM/A rebels, but the AMIS officer insisted "it was a premeditated attack".
"Four elderly men were killed at close range - execution style - and seven people were injured," the AU officer noted. "The armaments used varied from small arms to heavy 12.7 mm machine guns and RPGs."
During an earlier outbreak of fighting in Tawilla on 9 September, five people died and between 30 and 40 were injured. On 7 October, a Sudanese army convoy of 16 vehicles stopped near Tawilla and 15 minutes of sustained firing with heavy weapons took place outside the town. The result is still under investigation.
The 29 September attack led to the reported displacement of about 2,500 individuals who erected makeshift shelters near the AMIS group site camp in Tawilla.
Although two international NGOs withdrew from the area as a result of the attacks, the IDPs were receiving some emergency assistance from the AMIS forces.
A woman who had fled Tawilla and had been staying near the AMIS compound for the last 10 days said the insecurity was continuing. "I don't expect to go home anytime soon," she said.
However, as the immediate threat dissipated, most people returned to town or to their fields during the day in order to cultivate their fields or access some basic live-sustaining services, including food and water.
People felt far from secure, however, and a man whose house had been burnt told IRIN that every night Tawilla town emptied as its inhabitants moved to the outskirts of the AMIS compound to spend the night. "Nobody stays in town at night," he noted.
Impact on IDP population
Recently burnt homes in Tawilla, Darfur.
Humanitarian agencies estimate that some 5,223 IDPs had fled to Zam Zam IDP camp following the September attacks on the villages. More people were continuing to arrive.
Non-food items and food had thus far been provided to 700 families who arrived immediately following the attacks, but Sheikhs were insisting that the current figure of recently displaced people was as high as 22,900.
Various humanitarian agencies were planning a verification exercise to obtain correct figures in order to provide appropriate assistance.
"The days following the attacks on the villages, about 4,000 directly affected individuals came to Zam Zam for support," one aid worker said.
"But people continued to trickle in, some who fled into the mountains first, and are arriving now; others who arrived following the most recent attacks on villages south of El Fasher as well as on Tawilla town itself," he added.
Aid workers were crosschecking registration lists from the areas where the violence erupted in order to try to establish whether people were really coming from the affected areas.
"With so many IDPs in nearby camps, it is next to impossible to establish whether an IDP is coming from Abu Shouk [a large IDP camp next to El Fasher] to try to get a double ration or a genuine new arrival who needs immediate assistance," the aid worker noted, adding that the agencies wanted to start a new distribution as soon as possible.
"We have cultivated a lot of millet, but with the insecurity, we are afraid to go back to harvest," Fadul said.
Humanitarian agencies had predicted a bumper harvest in the region this year, but fear it may be of little benefit to most of the recently displaced.
Nama Abdellah Saleh, a 45-year-old Zaghawa woman with eight children, arrived in Zam Zam on 22 September from Tawilla when the Janjawid and government soldiers attacked the area south of the town on 18 September and took most of her animals.
"I was in the cattle camp when the attack took place. The Janjawid came on horses and camels and the soldiers arrived in Land Cruisers with heavy weapons. They took women, children and men and killed them. The majority of our animals were taken," Saleh explained.
"This is the third time an attack like this happened around Tawilla. Each time we ran away and came back again. Now we lost hope, and we are here," Saleh said.
"We cannot go back. The Janjawid will kill us. I lost my two sisters," she added, before breaking into tears.
[ENDS]
Darfur and the UN
Posted by: McQ on Tuesday, October 11, 2005
A Reuters report says that John Bolton is calling for action against Sudan, not just talk:
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton blocked a U.N. envoy on Monday from briefing the Security Council on grave human rights violations in Sudan's Darfur region, saying the council had to act against atrocities and not just talk about them.
My first reaction to the lead was, "now wait, don't you have to know what's going on to know how to act?"
Reading further into the article answered that question. Bolton asked:
"How many officials from the secretariat does it take to give a briefing?" he said, noting the council had just concluded a briefing on Darfur from Hedi Annabi, the assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations.
Or said more succinctly: "less talk, more action".
Of course the UN has been talking, and dithering, about Darfur for years. Lately they've been trying to pass off the fact that the African Union is monitoring the situation as being an effective solution to the problem. Let me ask you, does this give you the feeling that the AU has the situation in hand?
The Security Council met for a briefing on the latest developments in Darfur after rebels in the western Sudanese region abducted a number of African Union peacekeeping troops and killed some of them.
Kofi Annan's threatened response to the event?
The incident prompted Annan to warn in Geneva on Monday that a surge of violence in the region may force the world body to suspend some aid to Darfur.
There you go. Keep it up and the UN will punish the victims.
Meanwhile the whining in the UN continues:
Council diplomats who wanted to hear from Mendez said it was a council tradition to give the envoy a platform when Annan called for a briefing from his adviser on genocide.
France was highly incensed:
France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, said he "strongly regrets" that Mendez was "not authorized" to speak to the council despite a personal appeal on Friday from Annan: "The majority of delegations wished to hear what Mendez had to say, but four delegations were opposed."
But Bolton, who stuck to his guns, said:
U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton said the Security Council, which received a briefing about Darfur from a senior U.N. peacekeeping official Monday, has sufficient evidence of abuse to take action. He said another briefing on the matter would distract the 15-nation council from making decisions needed to halt the violence.
"We should talk about next steps, not about how to arrange the furniture in the Security Council," Bolton said.
Well I have to agree with Bolton, how many briefings do you need to know a situation needs remedying? And I'd also point out that the UN determined some time ago that what was happening in Darfur wasn't "genocide". That saved them from having to act. So I'm not sure what the "advisor on genocide" would add to the body of information already available.
A Reuters report says that John Bolton is calling for action against Sudan, not just talk:
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton blocked a U.N. envoy on Monday from briefing the Security Council on grave human rights violations in Sudan's Darfur region, saying the council had to act against atrocities and not just talk about them.
My first reaction to the lead was, "now wait, don't you have to know what's going on to know how to act?"
Reading further into the article answered that question. Bolton asked:
"How many officials from the secretariat does it take to give a briefing?" he said, noting the council had just concluded a briefing on Darfur from Hedi Annabi, the assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations.
Or said more succinctly: "less talk, more action".
Of course the UN has been talking, and dithering, about Darfur for years. Lately they've been trying to pass off the fact that the African Union is monitoring the situation as being an effective solution to the problem. Let me ask you, does this give you the feeling that the AU has the situation in hand?
The Security Council met for a briefing on the latest developments in Darfur after rebels in the western Sudanese region abducted a number of African Union peacekeeping troops and killed some of them.
Kofi Annan's threatened response to the event?
The incident prompted Annan to warn in Geneva on Monday that a surge of violence in the region may force the world body to suspend some aid to Darfur.
There you go. Keep it up and the UN will punish the victims.
Meanwhile the whining in the UN continues:
Council diplomats who wanted to hear from Mendez said it was a council tradition to give the envoy a platform when Annan called for a briefing from his adviser on genocide.
France was highly incensed:
France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, said he "strongly regrets" that Mendez was "not authorized" to speak to the council despite a personal appeal on Friday from Annan: "The majority of delegations wished to hear what Mendez had to say, but four delegations were opposed."
But Bolton, who stuck to his guns, said:
U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton said the Security Council, which received a briefing about Darfur from a senior U.N. peacekeeping official Monday, has sufficient evidence of abuse to take action. He said another briefing on the matter would distract the 15-nation council from making decisions needed to halt the violence.
"We should talk about next steps, not about how to arrange the furniture in the Security Council," Bolton said.
Well I have to agree with Bolton, how many briefings do you need to know a situation needs remedying? And I'd also point out that the UN determined some time ago that what was happening in Darfur wasn't "genocide". That saved them from having to act. So I'm not sure what the "advisor on genocide" would add to the body of information already available.
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