Help Darfur

Elkaar bevechtende gewapende groepen die zich - soms met steun van de autoriteiten - uitleven in wetteloze plunderingen, liquidaties en verkrachtingen.
Honderdduizenden doden. Miljoenen van huis en haard verdreven mannen, vrouwen en kinderen.
Kapotgeschoten en platgebrande dorpen, onveilige vluchtelingenkampen, ziekte-epidemieën. Gebrek aan tenten, eten, drinken en medicijnen. Vermoorde hulpverleners. Dat is het drama van Darfur. Lees meer >>>>>>>>>>>

Darfur: Make Some Noise

'Don't Look Away Now'.

On Sunday September 16th, thousands of activists will come together in cities around the world to send off their country's delegations to the United Nations General Assembly in New York with a united message: 'Don't Look Away Now'.

This will be the 4th 'Day for Darfur' celebrated across the globe, with hundreds of events having taken place in more than 200 cities since the campaign began in September 2006. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Internal forces unable to lead Darfur

By: Mahmood Mamdani

Significant changes are currently taking place on the ground in Darfur. The peacekeeping forces of the African Union (AU) are being replaced by a hybrid AU-UN force under overall UN control. The assumption is that the change will be for the better, but this is questionable.

The balance between the military and political dimensions of peacekeeping is crucial.

Once it had overcome its teething problems – and before it ran into major funding difficulties – the AU got this relationship right: it privileged the politics, where the UN has tended to privilege the military dimension, which is why the UN-controlled hybrid force runs the risk of becoming an occupation force.

What is the solution? I asked General Anyidoho, who has recently been appointed joint deputy special representative for the hybrid force. “Threefold,” he replied, military fashion. “First, a complete ceasefire.”

(This would require a political agreement among all the fighting forces.) ‘“Second, talks involving a cross-section of Darfurians. They must agree. And third, the government has a big role to play.

This is not a failed state; there is a sitting government.’ What about the Janjawiid? ‘They are nomadic forces on horseback; they have always been there. They are spread across Sahelian Africa: Niger, Sudan, Chad, the Central African Republic.

The problem is that the AK-47 has replaced the bow and arrow. The Janjawiid should be disarmed before the rebels turn in their arms.” “The camps are becoming militarised. Women go out to collect firewood and they are raped. Rape has become a weapon of war. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hollywood new documentary puts spotlight on Darfur

DARFUR, Sudan, September 12 -- A major Hollywood studio and top US screen star unveil a new documentary addressing the bloody conflict that has raged without resolution for four years in in Sudan's Darfur region.

Darfur won a prominent place at this year's Toronto film festival, with the debut of the politically-minded documentary produced by studio giant Warner Brothers and featuring actor Don Cheadle.

In "Darfur Now," US director Ted Braun chooses not to focus on the constant violence in western Sudan, but instead on the efforts of six people trying to find an end to the war that the United Nations says has killed 200,000 people and displaced two million.

The goal of the production was not to go to the front line but "to show the hope" embodied by those trying to end the bloodshed, said Braun, who spent four months filming in Sudan.

Along with Cheadle, star of "Hotel Rwanda," Braun's team follows a prosecutor with the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, an American activist, and a Darfur woman who joined rebel forces after the death of her son. Read more >>>>>>>

Secretary-General alarmed by deadly air, ground attack on South Darfur town

Secretary-General alarmed by deadly air, ground attack on South Darfur town
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today expressed deep concern at the Sudanese Government’s “brutal aerial and ground attack” on a South Darfur town that has left at least 25 civilians dead and took place just days after the United Nations chief visited the war-torn region.

Mr. Ban told the Security Council that the attack indicated that “we must all renew our strong appeals to the parties to show restraint in the lead-up to political negotiations in October” that are being held to try to resolve the conflict that has engulfed Darfur since 2003. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Libya: An honest broker in Darfur?

By Anne Bartlett

So the idiocy continues. First the Genocide Olympics, now peace talks hosted by Colonel Gadaafi one of the major architects of strife in the region. For the uninitiated at least, peace negotiations deserve a neutral third party whose interest in the outcome is benevolent. Yet what we have instead is an attempt to put the fox in charge of the chickens. A fox who is neither interested in the welfare of the people of Darfur or Chad, nor interested in taking care of the natural resources of the region – an issue that is apparently now dear to Mr. Ban’s heart.

For the sake of a little clarity here, let’s examine Col. Gadaafi’s qualifications for the role of peacemaker in chief. To do this, why not start with his relations with rebels? Far from trying to reduce conflict between rebel groups, Col. Gadaafi has actually worked hard to create them. Running his own rebel school he has created such luminaries as Charles Taylor and Foday Sankoh. Then of course he has hosted the Taureg rebels from Mali, other criminal elements from Niger and elsewhere. Let’s also not forget his support for the Red Army Faction, the IRA, ETA and a variety of other terrorist operations together with his interference in Cote d’Ivoire, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. The list goes on.

Then of course, we could look at his “honest broker” role in the Darfur Crisis, which itself has a long history. Starting with his neighbors in Chad and his designs on the Aouzou strip, Gadaafi struck a deal with the then Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi to use Darfur as an arms cache. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Darfur rebels disappointed by Ban's visit

By Abigail Hauslohner

(Reuters) - Darfur rebel leaders on Friday expressed disappointment with the U.N. Secretary General's visit to Sudan over the last three days and said they had low expectations for peace talks next month.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the Sudanese government on Thursday set a date and venue for talks between Khartoum and Darfur rebels to push for peace ahead of the deployment of 26,000 peacekeepers in Darfur.


But some rebel leaders said Ban, who visited a Darfur refugee camp during his trip and later met Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, had failed to pressure Sudan to acknowledge key Darfur grievances, which they said would be necessary for the October 27 talks in Libya to succeed.

"(Ban) has not met the expectation of the people of Darfur," a leader of the Sudan Liberation Army, Ahmed Abdel Shafie, told Reuters by telephone from Uganda.

"The U.N. needs to put pressure on Sudan to stop the settlement that is taking place in Darfur. There are new Arab tribes that the government brought from Niger and Chad and the government is settling them in Darfur to change the demography of the region before elections," he said.

"I was shocked the UN did not condemn the government for that behavior ... We expected Ban to take measures to put pressure on Sudan for this issue," he added. Read more >>>>

Stop China from enabling mass murder in Darfur

By: Errol Louis

If everyone reading this column takes one action to end the genocide going on in Darfur, the world will be many steps closer to stopping the slaughter. Right now, there's a window of opportunity in which small acts of protest can have a huge impact.

The window has opened because China - which provides weapons, financing and diplomatic support to the murderous military dictator of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir - is unusually vulnerable to international pressure these days.

China, desperate to improve its image in advance of next year's summer Olympics in Beijing, has been working overtime in recent weeks to shine up its image, which has been hammered by reports of the country's mass export of tainted drugs, poisoned pet food and defective products - including children's toys contaminated with lead paint currently being recalled by American companies like Mattel.

The Communist bosses in Beijing have reacted with a round of deadly scapegoating: In July, the regime announced the execution of Zheng Xiaoyu, who once ran the country's food and drug safety agency.

But that hasn't quieted global outrage. Now China has another headache on its hands: Beijing is drawing condemnation all over the world for supporting Sudan, where Bashir's regime has killed an estimated 400,000 Darfuris and chased more than 2 million off their land. Read more >>>>>>>>>>

Save us from hell of Darfur, say refugees

Women who have fled the violence of Sudan are facing discrimination in a culture which fails to distinguish between adultery and rape

There are some stories you instantly want to forget, but they are often the ones that remain with you forever. In a hushed and claustrophobically hot room in eastern Chad, sitting on a hard mud floor scattered with rush mats, my own worst nightmares were brought to life by another woman's story.
You will have read about the conflict in Darfur, of the rapes and mutilations, of an estimated 200,000 people dead and 2.5 million forced to flee their homes in search of safety for themselves and their families. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Sudanese government forces resumed air strikes in Darfur

By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - Sudanese government forces resumed air strikes in Darfur on Monday with an attack on a town that killed more than a dozen civilians, African Union peacekeepers and rebels said.

Air raids on Darfur are banned by the United Nations and in breach of several cease-fire agreements. Despite frequent accusations by the international community, Sudan's military regularly denies it conducts air strikes, as was the case Monday.

The attack comes days after U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Sudan and announced new peace talks between the government and rebel groups to end four years of fighting that have killed more than 200,000 people in Darfur.

The raid on the small town of Haskanita in northern Darfur started at about 9 a.m. local time with heavy bombardments by Sudanese army planes and helicopter gunships, said Abdelazziz Ushar, a commander from the Justice and Equality rebel group in the area.

"We just finished the fighting, there are many casualties," Ushar told The Associated Press by satellite phone from Haskanita. Read more >>>>>>>>>

ECHOES OF GENOCIDE IN DARFUR AND EASTERN CHAD

Is the genocide in Darfur over? Is what is happening now in Darfur and eastern Chad a matter of anarchy, chaos, and "inter-tribal" warfare?

Reports in major news outlets suggest that genocidal attacks by Khartoum-sponsored militia are a thing of the past and that Darfur's agony is borne of anarchy. Clearly, the violence in Darfur has escalated—but suggesting that the crisis there is now a free-for-all, with the moral equivalency that phrase implies, ignores the political logic driving a catastrophe that appears, on the surface, to be defined by armed chaos. The reality is far different—and for the recently-authorized AU-UN peacekeeping force and upcoming peace negotiations to be successful, that reality must be understood. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>

Don't let Darfur genocide continue

Why does the genocide in Darfur continue to escalate? Why are the U.N. peacekeepers not allowed into Darfur where the Sudanese government has displaced millions of refugees seeking shelter in camps? Might China's alliance with Sudan be responsible? Have China's huge financial donations to the Sudanese government, its excessive dependence on Sudan's oil, and its U.N. voting in support of Sudan have anything to do with the inability to bring some sanity to the ravages of Darfur in southern Sudan?

Will the Chinese government mask its alliance with Sudan by hosting the Olympics in 2008? Can we stand by and allow China and Sudan to perpetuate the atrocities in Darfur? Read more >>>>>>>>>>>

Darfur war crimes suspect leads Sudan rights probe

Darfur war crimes suspect leads Sudan rights probe


KHARTOUM, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Rights activists on Wednesday criticised a move by Sudan's government and its main political partner to authorise a committee headed by a Darfur war crimes suspect to investigate human rights complaints.

The committee was initially set up by the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) of former southern rebels to monitor the security situation between the country's north and south. Read more >>>>>>>

.N. official: Darfur a 'ticking bomb'

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- The United Nations' special envoy to Sudan's embattled Darfur region said in Khartoum that land-grabbing has created a "a ticking bomb."

Envoy Jan Eliasson told Voice of America frustration, tension and anger were mounting in refugee camps. He said tribal clashes are more frequent and deadly than fighting between government-backed militia and separatist rebel groups

"Also due to the fact that many of the villages are being reoccupied by people who do not own that land ... this is like a ticking bomb," Eliasson said. "We need to stop that process and instead move to the political talks, which in turn would mean the beginning of normalization of the situation on the ground." Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>

UN must pressure Sudan on Darfur suspects: ICC prosecutor

THE HAGUE (AFP) — The UN must pressure Sudan to bring to justice two suspects wanted over atrocities committed in Darfur, the International Criminal Court's prosecutor said in an interview with AFP Monday.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo made the comments as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Khartoum ahead of a massive joint UN-African Union peacekeeping operation in the strife-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.

Moreno-Ocampo met Ban on Wednesday in New York.

"I asked him to bring up the arrest warrants," he said.

Countries that are members of the ICC must also do more on the issue, he said.

"This is the law ... The state parties have to assume their responsibilities," he said. "In four years, the court has become operational, more mature. We want to go farther, we have to get more support. We need consistency." Read more >>>>>>>>>

Government of Sudan continues repopulating Darfur with aliens

By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times | September 2, 2007

TULUS, Sudan - Three years after it was burned to the ground, the village of Tulus in Darfur is springing back to life.

Corn and sesame sprout from fertile fields. Children play around newly built huts. Smoke from cooking fires again rises from the land.

Problem is, those rebuilding Tulus are not the original inhabitants, who were chased away by pro-government Sudanese militias in 2004 and are afraid to return. Instead, their place has been taken by Arabs from Chad, who recently crossed the border to flee violence in their own country.

"It's comfortable here," said Sheik Algooni Mohammed Zeean, 42, leader of 150 Chadian Arabs who in March settled on a grassy plain not far from the ruins of the village's abandoned houses and school. Gesturing toward the fields bearing their first harvest in Sudan, he smiled. "I feel like this is my home now."

Over the past six months, nearly 30,000 Chadian Arabs have crossed into Sudan, many of them settling on land owned by Darfur's pastoral tribes that were driven into displacement camps, aid groups say.

This migration has become the latest obstacle to peace in Western Sudan, drawing protests from those displaced from Darfur, who accuse the Sudanese government of orchestrating an "Arabization" scheme by repopulating burned-out villages with foreigners.

"This is a government plot to give our land to Chadian Arabs," said Mohammed Abakar Mohammed Adam, 27, a farmer from the village of Bechabecha, which was abandoned after armed nomadic tribes known as janjaweed, believed to be backed by the government, attacked in 2003. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Could prosecutors use images by Darfur’s children showing civilians under attack as evidence in a future war crimes trial?

By Rebekah Heil in London and Katy Glassborow in The Hague (AR No. 126, 14-Aug-07)

Anna Schmitt was in eastern Chad interviewing Sudanese refugees from the Darfur region when the women at a displacement camp gave her some advice.
“If you want information, you should ask the children.”

So she did just that. During her research for the non-government organisation Waging Peace, Schmitt sat in a classroom with the camp’s children, many of whom had been forced from their homes three or four years ago.

Through interpreters who spoke Arabic and the languages of Darfur, she asked the children about their hopes and dreams. Many answered that they wanted to be doctors or teachers or join the civil service.

One 16-year-old boy said, “I don’t want to become a rebel. I want to be educated and continue school, so I can help my people.”

When he was 14, his father had been killed in front of him in Darfur.

Schmitt asked the children to write down their memories when one of them asked, ‘Would we be allowed to draw instead?’

The children, between the ages of five and 18, drew pictures showing their villages full of tanks and armed men on horseback, houses ablaze and helicopters circling the skies. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>

Global Darfur campaigners announce September 16 as day to ‘send off’ world leaders to U.N. General Assembly

Darfur activists from around the world have marked September 16 as the day to "send off" their respective world leaders to the U.N. General Assembly with a call to "not look away" from the Darfur atrocities. Advocates in dozens of countries will host local events urging their leaders to help end the ongoing crisis in the western region of Sudan.

September 16th marks the formal opening of the UN General Assembly and the second anniversary of the ‘responsibility to protect agreement,' when governments agreed to act to stop genocide and mass atrocities. Two years following that declaration, campaigners will draw attention to the international community's failure to fulfill their promises in Darfur where over 200,000 have been killed.

The events follow the U.N. Security Council's passing of Resolution 1769, authorizing a hybrid U.N. - AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur and calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities. Globe for Darfur, an international group of non-governmental organizations organizing this fourth global day of action, is warning that despite the welcome passing of the resolution nothing has changed on the ground and that if governments look away now, thousands of lives will be put at risk. Read more >>>>>>>>>>

Malnutrition in Darfur reaching emergency levels

Malnutrition in Darfur reaching emergency levels


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Malnutrition is on the rise in Darfur as a surge in violence prevents aid workers from reaching more people in need, a senior U.N. official said.

Eighteen spot surveys by U.N. agencies and independent humanitarian groups in three Darfur provinces indicated the emergency threshold of 15 per cent of the population suffering from malnutrition had increased to more than 17 percent in some areas, the U.N. deputy emergency relief coordinator, Margareta Wahlstrom, said on Friday. Read more >>>>>>>>>