Before Rockets training camp, a refugee camp

It all seemed so innocent at first. Last week — just a few weeks before the Rockets training camp begins — we got off a plane in a sleepy town called Goz Beida in the eastern part of Chad, a country in Central Africa that borders the Sudanese region of Darfur. It was during what they call the "rainy season" in that part of the world, so the hills surrounding the town were a deep shade of green.
By: By TRACY MCGRADY and JOHN PRENDERGAST

The first signs that things weren't completely normal in the place we visited were the makeshift huts made out of sticks, mud and plastic sheets that we saw right outside of town — literally thousands of the flimsy structures.

But it wasn't until we started talking to the people living inside those huts that we had — without realizing it — entered the gates of hell on Earth.

Let us introduce you to Isaac, a young man whom we met sitting on a mat in a humble community center in a refugee camp for people escaping the genocide being committed in Darfur. Genocide is defined as the attempt to destroy a group of people on the basis of their race, ethnicity or religion. Isaac happens to be from one of the non-Arab ethnic groups the government of Sudan has targeted for extinction. We listened closely to his story to understand why a government would try to wipe out entire groups of its own people. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The gloom over Darfur

By: Joel Brinkley

As Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, works to convene a Darfur peace conference in Libya next month, the history of the last few years holds such a stench of failure that I fear his effort is doomed before it begins.

In fact, looking at the facts as they stand today, my advice to the secretary-general: Cancel the whole enterprise!

The Darfur conflict began in early 2003, but it was not until two years later that foreign leaders began trying to mediate a settlement. The story of one of these efforts, in November 2005, may well foretell the outcome of next month's event.

Robert Zoellick, who was deputy secretary of state at the time, took on the Darfur portfolio because his boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, simply didn't want it. She preferred to spend her time on higher priority issues, like North Korea and Iran. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>

Darfur: South Africa supports a killer regime

South Africa and Darfur

The position of the government of South Africa vis-à-vis the situation in Darfur is characterised by indifference to the suffering of the victims of this human tragedy. Although South Africa participated in the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS), and has sent some military and police forces to Darfur, the effectiveness of its contribution remains disproportionate to the role of political leadership that it actively pursues in relation to the Dafurian situation.

Out of the total AMIS authorised troops of 6,171 military and 1,560 police personnel, South Africa has contributed some 600 individuals. Recently, we have observed that the government of South Africa increasingly supports the Khartoum government in its handling of Darfur. South Africa continues to use its membership of the AU Peace and Security Council to back the position assumed by Sudan and its north and east African allies within AU institutions. At the international level the country follows a similar policy. On no less than a dozen occasions, South Africa has used its membership of the UN Security Council and the Human Rights Council to oppose and water down projects and resolutions which could have helped provide the victims of the armed conflict in Darfur with protection and relief. Below are some examples of South Africa's callous position on Darfur.

On 12 July 2007, three members of the UN Security Council, Britain, France and Ghana, submitted a draft resolution for consideration and action by other members of the council. Because of the gravity of the situation on the ground, the resolution was tabled under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The draft text approved the 'hybrid' African Union-United Nations force. Although the text was reasonably prepared, it ran into strong opposition from some council members, in particular China and South Africa took the lead. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

France urges EU allies to sent troops to Chad, CAR force

BANGUI, September 29 -- French Defence Minister Herve Morin urged his EU counterparts Friday to contribute troops to a new peacekeeping force for Chad and the Central African Republic.

"What we want is a truly European mission," said Morin, whose country is expected to provide 1,000-1,500 troops to the UN-mandated operation expected to deploy up to 4,000 soldiers.

"The Irish said yesterday (Thursday) that they would send 300 men," he said, ahead of two days of informal talks with his EU counterparts in Evora, central Portugal.

Belgium and Poland have pledged more than 100 troops each to the force while other countries like militarily neutral Austria are also considering a role. The mission is aimed at protecting civilians from the effects of the Darfur conflict.

"For the Austrians, as well as the other contributions, the more numerous they are, the bigger they will be, and the better this (force) will be," said Morin. Read more >>>>>>

Letter: Join Darfur Torch Relay

As the world prepares for the 2008 Summer Olympics, an event that stands for peace and brotherhood, the games are being hosted by a country facilitating the suffering and destruction in Darfur.
Through its economic, political, and military support of the government of Sudan, China is the most influential nation allowing the Sudanese government to continue to commit mass atrocities.
For years, China ignored this responsibility altogether. Now, due to pressure by activists’ influence from around the world, it has begun to at last pay some public heed to its role in helping to end the genocide. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>

U.N. Must Fight in Darfur

If we learned anything from the Rwandan genocide, it is that when the U.N. peacekeepers hands are tied, people die. The new hybrid of a United Nations/African Union force is due to deploy in Darfur soon. But if they cannot shoot their weapons, they might as well not have them.

The former U.N. Relief coordinator Jan Egeland told Reuters the peacekeepers must be ready to "fight to protect civilians from armed militias" in Darfur. Finally! It's about time someone starts talking some sense here!

"There is no peace to keep and that is why the mandate has to be to build peace locally and robustly defend civilians," Egeland said.

"That means that, when the humanitarians or the refugees themselves say they are threatened, the force has to deploy protectively and defend. And fight, if necessary."

Will that prompt the Janjaweed to become more heavily armed? Egeland doesn't think so. He said he thinks the militia won't put up that much of a fight if seriously challenged. Can a few guys on camels really think he can beat a truck load of peacekeepers who are ready, willing and able to fight him? Read further >>>>>>>>>>>

UN actions to end Darfur 'genocide' too little, too late – Saint Vincent leader

The killings and violence that have engulfed the Sudanese region of Darfur for the past four years constitute genocide, the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines told the General Assembly today, calling the planned hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force insufficient and too late.

Ralph Gonsalves told the Assembly's annual high-level debate that the actions of the UN in recent years "have caused the world to wonder about the relative worth of a Sudanese or Rwandan life, versus an Israeli, Chinese, American or European life."

He accused the UN of showing "heartless neglect, in practical terms, of the genocidal campaign being waged in Darfur."

More than 200,000 people have been killed across Darfur, and at least 2.2 million others forced to flee their homes, since rebels began fighting Government forces and allied Janjaweed militia in 2003.

Mr. Gonsalves said today that "what is happening in Darfur is genocide – let us call it what it is. The United Nations must remain committed to alleviating the suffering of the men, women and children of Darfur." Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Darfur: Refugees left in constant fear as violence infiltrates ‘safe’ camps

The narrow, dusty alleyways and cramped stick-built huts once offered a haven to the people of Darfur as they fled a conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives.

Then the women found themselves prisoners in Abu Shouk aid camp, unable to venture out for firewood or water for fear of being harassed, raped or murdered.

Now not even the camp is safe. Tribes loyal to the Khartoum Government are being supplied with arms and ammunition in a cynical ploy to force out opponents of the regime, according to aid officials familiar with Abu Shouk. Read more >>>>>>>

Darfur: Sudanese government is supplying weaponry to tribes

KHARTOUM, , 26 (UPI) -- Areas that were once considered safe for people in Sudan's troubled Darfur region are becoming increasingly dangerous, a report says.

Aid officials said the Sudanese government is supplying weaponry to tribes loyal to the regime in an attempt to rid the area of tribes that oppose the country's leadership, The Times of London said Wednesday.

Women in aid camps are also being forced to remain out of view for fear of being harassed, raped or murdered while searching for firewood or water.

“We live in fear because there is no security. In the evening – after 8 – no one will be outside their house. It is too dangerous,” said Fatima Adam Yaoub, a mother of ten who resides at the Abu Shouk aid camp.

U.N. security officials have warned aid agencies that Abu Shouk and two other aid camps, Zam Zam and al-Salaam, have become powder kegs of violent activity.

“The government is providing guns to two tribes here and causes many problems,” Yaoub said. “The government says it’s a tribal problem but they are the ones causing it.” Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

PM demands action over Darfur

The Prime Minister has called for further action to end one of the "great tragedies of our time" - the genocide in Darfur.

In a wide ranging question and answer session, Mr Brown told Labour's conference that resolutions condemning the situation had been passed by the world's developed nations, but they had not been followed up.

"I don't want to look back a few years from now and say we should have acted, we could have acted but we didn't act."

Mr Brown said the UN resolutions had to be backed up by a force on the ground.

"It's got to be the biggest force that's ever been put into Africa. Then we've got to start the political talks. Then we've got to get a ceasefire on the ground." Read more >>>>>>

Please, demand an end to genocide in Darfur

Cheyenne Owens


Thousands of people have died as a direct result of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. The Darfur Genocide has been occurring for four years, and the end doesn't seem to be in sight.

Janjaweed, the government-supported militias in Sudan, have wrought atrocities on the civilians of Darfur. These civilians have been beaten and tortured, often at gunpoint. Large numbers of people have been imprisoned in small spaces and then denied food and restrooms.

Innocent Darfurians have been enslaved and even slain when trying to escape.

The Janjaweed are most notorious for raping women and young children. Often, the Janjaweed will torture innocent Darfurians while naked and use them as sexual slaves. They perform all these ghastly and monstrous activities with the approval of the Sudanese government.

But why have these horrendous atrocities been inflicted upon the innocent civilians of Darfur? Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Verhagen hekelt benoeming Soedanese oorlogsmisdadiger

NEW YORK - Minister Verhagen van Buitenlandse Zaken heeft maandag zijn Soedanese collega aangesproken op de benoeming van Ahmed Haroun in de Soedanese mensenrechtencommissie.

UitlegAhmed Haroun wordt door het Internationaal Strafhof in Den Haag gezocht wegens oorlogsmisdaden in Darfur. Hij is momenteel staatssecretaris voor Humanitaire Zaken en werd onlangs benoemd in de mensenrechtencommissie.

Volgens Verhagen is dat de laatste plaats waar Haroun thuishoort; hij hoort in Den Haag om berecht te worden. Haroun was voorheen bewindsman belast met Darfur. In die regio zijn de afgelopen jaren meer dan 200.000 mensen om het leven gekomen. Meer dan twee miljoen mensen sloegen op de vlucht voor moord en verkrachting.

Verhagen heeft tegen zijn Soedanese collega Lam Akol zijn zorgen uitgesproken en aangedrongen op de uitlevering van Haroun. Het Internationaal Strafhof vaardigde in april arrestatiebevelen uit tegen hem. Lees verder >>>>>>>>

Justice urged as topic for Darfur talks

UNITED NATIONS -- -- The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court challenged world leaders Thursday to not leave criminal justice off the agenda as they convene at the U.N. to discuss Darfur.

Sudan has refused to hand over a government minister and a militia leader accused by the Hague-based world court in May of orchestrating mass killings in Darfur. Months later, prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo says, he is more frustrated by the refusal of top United Nations officials and others to push for the arrests because they fear it would jeopardize pending peace talks and the deployment of peacekeepers. Read more >>>>

Darfur Remains Adrift: A Skeptical Assessment of Resolution 1769

By: Eric Reeves

The chances for effective deployment of civilian police and well-trained military forces to Darfur continue to be compromised by excessive international accommodation of the National Islamic Front (National Congress Party) regime in Khartoum. A key actor forcing this compromised diplomatic response to massive ongoing atrocity crimes, as well as to the continuing threat of humanitarian collapse, is the African Union---and most particularly African Union Commissioner Alpha Oumar Konaré. If there is to be any chance for expeditious and meaningful deployment of the force specified by UN Security Council Resolution 1769, then there must be very near term and consequential pressure on both Khartoum and Addis Ababa. The latter serves as headquarters for the still-nascent African organization that is fast squandering its meager political and military credibility in Darfur.

Moreover, it remains the case that China has only begun to use its singularly powerful leverage with Khartoum to produce changes in the regime’s military behavior on the ground in Darfur, and to adopt a reasonable negotiating posture. This is so despite glib optimism in some reporting quarters on the “genocide Olympics” campaign, which despite significant successes in compelling China’s attention has yet to exert enough pressure to force the needed changes in diplomatic, political, and economic policies toward Sudan.
Nor can this stubborn fact be changed simply with expedient assertions that somehow Beijing has been especially helpful on Darfur. Here, Ban Ki-moon, head of UN peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno, US Special Envoy for Sudan Andrew Natsios, British officials, and others are all guilty. They would encourage the international community to believe what is so far conspicuously and mainly an international public relations effort is actually a major Chinese policy change toward Sudan. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Curse of the Janjaweed

By: Ann McFerran

A s soon as she saw the two darkly clad men riding towards her on camels, their heads and faces swathed in scarves, Nafisa Mohamed knew what she must do. “I told my son and my daughter to run as fast as they could.” The men were the Janjaweed, nomadic Arab bandits who have been slaughtering Darfuri men and raping women, in a military offensive engineered by the Sudanese government. Jinn is Arabic for demon and jawad means horse. Darfuri people will tell you that the Janjaweed are indeed devils on horseback. Nafisa had been living for a year in Kalma camp, which houses about 120,000 Darfuri people who have had their homes destroyed by the Janjaweed.

On this day she walked several miles away from the camp with two of her children to collect firewood. When the men approached, she feared they would try to kill her 13-year-old son and rape her 11-year-old daughter, but thought that if she surrendered herself and submitted they wouldn’t bother chasing her children. She knew they might kill her. Certainly they’d rape her. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Echoes of genocide in Darfur, eastern Chad

By JOHN PENDERGAST and COLIN THOMAS-JENSEN

Is the genocide in Darfur over? Reports in major news outlets suggest that genocidal attacks by Khartoum-sponsored militia are a thing of the past and that Darfur’s agony today is born 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-authorised AU-UN peacekeeping force and upcoming peace negotiations to be successful, that reality must be understood.

Various writers in the Western capitals have missed the broader context of the process that is underway in Darfur. Beginning in mid-2003, Sudan’s government set forth to destroy and displace the civilian support base for Darfur’s rebel groups. The promotion of anarchy and inter-communal (or, popularly, “inter-tribal”) fighting is part and parcel of Khartoum’s genocidal counter-insurgency campaign. The conditions in Darfur and eastern Chad today are not evidence of an end to genocide and the onset of an entirely new and different war — they are the echoes of genocide.

The regime’s behaviour is unswerving. Khartoum employed a similar divide-and-destroy strategy during its war with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army(SPLA) during the 1990s. Having sown the seeds of divisions between various Southern Sudanese ethnic groups, government officials in Khartoum sat back and watched as inter-communal violence tore southern communities to pieces.

Some of the worst violence occurred when Dinka and Nuer commanders in the SPLA fought in Upper Nile, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Only when the SPLA reunified and communities began to work toward reconciliation did a peace deal for Southern Sudan become possible.

Who is primarily responsible? In Darfur, the same government officials lit the match to ignite the genocide and fuel the chaos we are witnessing today. As the government’s divide-and-destroy policy envisioned, there is indeed increased fighting between and among communities, including among Arab groups that had previously worked together to destroy non-Arab villages. Follow the full picture >>>>

More nations need to help ease slaughter in Darfur

The crisis playing out in Darfur is one of the greatest human tragedies of our time. More than 200,000 innocent people have been murdered and nearly 2.5 million have been driven from their villages and separated from their families.

As a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I recently traveled to Darfur to assess the extent of the crisis and the role that the United States is playing in alleviating it. I was accompanied on this fact-finding mission by two other members of Congress, Reps. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) and Adrian Smith (R-Neb.).

From the capital city of Khartoum, we traveled aboard a humanitarian flight to Abu Shouk, a refugee camp in northern Darfur. Abu Shouk is one of the largest refugee camps in Sudan, accommodating more than 54,000 displaced persons. There, we heard personal accounts of the brutality and violence suffered by these innocent people.


Most of the refugees were driven from their homes when their villages were attacked by Sudanese planes or helicopters, followed within hours by Arab militias - known as the Janjaweed - who swept into the villages on horses and camels, killing, raping and pillaging. Those fortunate enough to have survived fled to camps such as Abu Shouk, or across the border into the neighboring country of Chad.

The refugees we spoke with described harrowing experiences of escape from the Janjaweed. Yet, even in the refugee camps, women and children do not feel safe. Children are awakened at night by gunfire. Women are particularly vulnerable when they leave the camp to gather firewood for their families. The Janjaweed lurk in the countryside, making abduction and rape a real and constant threat. Read more >>>>>>>>>

'Genocide Olympics'

President Bush's recent decision to attend the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games looks as unwise as his May 2004 appearance on an aircraft carrier to proclaim "mission accomplished" in Iraq. Human rights activists have labeled the games the "Genocide Olympics," highlighting the Chinese government's support for genocide in Darfur, in western Sudan.

Just as Adolf Hitler used the 1936 Berlin Olympics to present Nazi society as a model of orderly virtue, they argue, Beijing will use the Games as an international coming out party, casting itself as an economic power, technological innovator and diplomatic leader of the first rank. An international campaign joined by the US Save Darfur Coalition - comprised of organizations as diverse as B'nai B'rith International, the Arab American Anti-Discrimination League, and the NAACP - aims to reverse this image unless China fundamentally changes policy on Darfur. This "Olympic Dream for Darfur" ( www.dreamfordarfur.org), along with more action by the U.S. government and rising public outcry in Europe and elsewhere, could help end the first genocide of the 21st century. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>

ICC Prosecutor on Darfur: “Justice must be at the top of our agenda”

(New York) As world leaders prepare to convene at the United Nations, ICC Prosecutor, Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, is meeting key actors at the UN to discuss why justice must be a priority for Darfur.

“We must break the silence,” he said at a press briefing at the UN. “This week and next, when world leaders are meeting here at the UN, justice in Darfur must be on the agenda, at the top of the agenda. In Darfur today, there can be no political solution, no security solution, and no humanitarian solution as long as the alleged war criminals remain free in the Sudan”

On Friday at the UN, the Second High Level Consultation on Darfur will take place. The meeting involves Ministers from more than 25 countries, as well as high-level officials from the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union and the League of Arab States. Just three days later, on Tuesday 25 September, the UN General Assembly begins its general debate and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will chair a UN Security Council meeting with Heads of State on peace and security in Africa. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>

Darfur genocide as seen through one man's eyes

"I thought, 'If I were looking through a scope instead of a camera lens, I could end this right now.' "

There's a point during the shattering documentary "The Devil Came on Horseback" in which the film's subject, a former U.S. Marine captain turned unarmed observer named Brian Steidle, expresses his deep frustration watching the ease with which genocide unfolds daily in Darfur.

A trained warrior with an instinct to protect others, Steidle — who left the military in 2004 to take a six-month stint as a monitor in Sudan for the African Union — encountered many a moment (some caught on film) in which he knew that a gun in his hand could save hundreds from an unspeakable death.

But Steidle could only watch helplessly as notorious Janjaweed militias rode unobstructed in trucks and on horseback into one village after another, bludgeoning children, raping women and burning everyone and everything in sight.

"Devil," directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern, is very much a dynamic, shockingly graphic story of the horrors of Darfur, massive crimes that the rest of the world has not been able to stop. The film has the urgency of a house on fire, partially built around Steidle's enormous catalog of photographs (and eyewitness reports ignored by the African Union), leaving no doubt that the slaughter of black Sudanese by the country's Arab-controlled government is systematic evil. Read more >>>>>>