The Sudanese government must be convinced to accept the deployment of a United Nations force in its war-torn western region of Darfur, South Africa said on Thursday.
"All efforts must continue to be made to try to convince the government of Sudan that it is in the interests of everybody that we blue-hat the African Union forces," Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told reporters in Cape Town.
"A major contingent can be Africa, but without it becoming a UN force we believe that the necessary support and even the technological assistance will not be forthcoming."
Pahad said few countries would be willing to commit troops to a UN force that did not have the Sudanese government's consent, "because that would mean, as some groups had warned, that they will then declare war against the UN forces that are there". Read more >>>
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Rebels, Sudan forces clash in Darfur
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU Associated Press Writer
KUTUM, Sudan — Intense fighting has erupted in the northern part of Darfur with hundreds of rebels and Sudanese government troops wounded or captured in clashes this week near the border with Chad, international observers said Tuesday.
The Sudanese air force is bombing villages in rebel-controlled areas north of the regional capital of El Fasher, the international groups said. The number of civilian casualties in these bombings is not known, the United Nations mission in Sudan said. The Sudanese military on Tuesday denied the bombings were continuing. Read more >>>
KUTUM, Sudan — Intense fighting has erupted in the northern part of Darfur with hundreds of rebels and Sudanese government troops wounded or captured in clashes this week near the border with Chad, international observers said Tuesday.
The Sudanese air force is bombing villages in rebel-controlled areas north of the regional capital of El Fasher, the international groups said. The number of civilian casualties in these bombings is not known, the United Nations mission in Sudan said. The Sudanese military on Tuesday denied the bombings were continuing. Read more >>>
UN Condemns Massive Upsurge in Rape in Darfur
New York
Violence against women and children by warring groups in Darfur is reaching alarming levels. Extreme violence has been a feature of the civil conflict since it erupted in 2003. However, in the past months, attacks on women and girls, both within and outside camps for the displaced, have soared. Read more >>>
Violence against women and children by warring groups in Darfur is reaching alarming levels. Extreme violence has been a feature of the civil conflict since it erupted in 2003. However, in the past months, attacks on women and girls, both within and outside camps for the displaced, have soared. Read more >>>
Nigeria's Obasanjo warns of Darfur genocide
By Tsegaye Tadesse
ADDIS ABABA, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo warned of a possible genocide in the Darfur region on Tuesday, as cash-strapped African peacekeepers struggle to stem the violence in Sudan's remote west.
Nigeria is the largest troop contributing nation to the African Union (AU) force in Darfur, which is caught in an international diplomatic tug-of-war over a U.N. takeover of the peacekeeping mission.
"It is not in the interest of Sudan nor in the interest of Africa nor indeed in the interest of the world for us all to stand by and see genocide being developed in Darfur," Obasanjo said in a speech at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The AU has been a diplomatic ally to Sudan, at odds with the United Nations over the past two years because of the rape, murder and pillage in its remote Darfur region which has forced 2.5 million people from their homes into wretched camps. Read more >>>
ADDIS ABABA, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo warned of a possible genocide in the Darfur region on Tuesday, as cash-strapped African peacekeepers struggle to stem the violence in Sudan's remote west.
Nigeria is the largest troop contributing nation to the African Union (AU) force in Darfur, which is caught in an international diplomatic tug-of-war over a U.N. takeover of the peacekeeping mission.
"It is not in the interest of Sudan nor in the interest of Africa nor indeed in the interest of the world for us all to stand by and see genocide being developed in Darfur," Obasanjo said in a speech at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The AU has been a diplomatic ally to Sudan, at odds with the United Nations over the past two years because of the rape, murder and pillage in its remote Darfur region which has forced 2.5 million people from their homes into wretched camps. Read more >>>
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Rwanda, UN discuss bolstering AU forces in Darfur
(KIGALI) —
The Rwandan president discussed with a UN envoy ways to boost African Union peacekeeping forces in Sudan war-torn Darfur region. The envoy said he still optimist that Sudan would accept UN takeover.
Paul Kagame and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s special advisor on genocide prevention, Juan Mendez, Wednesday discussed how to bolster the African Union (AU) forces in Darfur, reported the Rwandan newspaper the New Times. Read more >>>
The Rwandan president discussed with a UN envoy ways to boost African Union peacekeeping forces in Sudan war-torn Darfur region. The envoy said he still optimist that Sudan would accept UN takeover.
Paul Kagame and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s special advisor on genocide prevention, Juan Mendez, Wednesday discussed how to bolster the African Union (AU) forces in Darfur, reported the Rwandan newspaper the New Times. Read more >>>
Background on the Genocide in Darfur, Sudan
History of the conflict with recent updates and developments
The conflict in the Darfur Region of Sudan began in February of 2003. At least 400,000 people have been killed; more than 2.5 million civilians are displaced. They now live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad; and more than 3.5 million men, women, and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival, some of which isn’t able to reach areas in Darfur. Women are raped and tortured and innocent civillians lack the most basic protection.
The Sudanese armed forces and Sudanese government-backed militia known as “Janjaweed” have been fighting two rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The stated political aim of the rebels has been to compel the government of Sudan to address underdevelopment and the political marginalization of the region. In response, the Sudanese government’s regular armed forces and the Janjaweed – largely composed of fighters of Arab nomadic background – have targeted civilian populations and ethnic group from which the rebels primarily draw their support – the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa. Read more >>>
The conflict in the Darfur Region of Sudan began in February of 2003. At least 400,000 people have been killed; more than 2.5 million civilians are displaced. They now live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad; and more than 3.5 million men, women, and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival, some of which isn’t able to reach areas in Darfur. Women are raped and tortured and innocent civillians lack the most basic protection.
The Sudanese armed forces and Sudanese government-backed militia known as “Janjaweed” have been fighting two rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The stated political aim of the rebels has been to compel the government of Sudan to address underdevelopment and the political marginalization of the region. In response, the Sudanese government’s regular armed forces and the Janjaweed – largely composed of fighters of Arab nomadic background – have targeted civilian populations and ethnic group from which the rebels primarily draw their support – the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa. Read more >>>
Jailed for 34 days, Tribune reporter writes: What I saw in Darfur
By Paul Salopek
Jailed for 34 days, Tribune reporter writes: What I saw in Darfur
Humanitarian catastrophe poised to grow worse in weeks ahead
One cloudless Sunday morning in early August, while traveling on a desert road in the remote Darfur region of western Sudan, a teenager sporting dreadlocks and an AK-47 rifle stopped my vehicle. My translator, Suleiman Abakar Moussa, stepped out and offered the youth a cigarette--standard etiquette in African war zones. But Moussa immediately returned to the car, frowning.
In this incidental way, I learned that we had just lost our freedom.
The young gunman belonged to a pro-government militia. And his patrol, after beating us and stealing our car and equipment, handed us over to Sudanese military intelligence. Moussa, my driver, Idriss Abdulrahman Anu, and I spent the next 34 days behind bars in Darfur, ending up hostage to a regime accused of mass murder. The government in Khartoum charged us with espionage, spreading "false news" and entering Africa's latest killing field without a visa.
It was hard not to feel, however, that our real crime was unspoken: reporting on a humanitarian catastrophe that is largely invisible to the outside world, and that is poised to grow worse in the weeks ahead. Read more >>>
Jailed for 34 days, Tribune reporter writes: What I saw in Darfur
Humanitarian catastrophe poised to grow worse in weeks ahead
One cloudless Sunday morning in early August, while traveling on a desert road in the remote Darfur region of western Sudan, a teenager sporting dreadlocks and an AK-47 rifle stopped my vehicle. My translator, Suleiman Abakar Moussa, stepped out and offered the youth a cigarette--standard etiquette in African war zones. But Moussa immediately returned to the car, frowning.
In this incidental way, I learned that we had just lost our freedom.
The young gunman belonged to a pro-government militia. And his patrol, after beating us and stealing our car and equipment, handed us over to Sudanese military intelligence. Moussa, my driver, Idriss Abdulrahman Anu, and I spent the next 34 days behind bars in Darfur, ending up hostage to a regime accused of mass murder. The government in Khartoum charged us with espionage, spreading "false news" and entering Africa's latest killing field without a visa.
It was hard not to feel, however, that our real crime was unspoken: reporting on a humanitarian catastrophe that is largely invisible to the outside world, and that is poised to grow worse in the weeks ahead. Read more >>>
Friday, October 06, 2006
More than 80 infants die each day in Darfur: UN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MELLIT, Sudan — Myriam Ibrahim does not like to talk about her daughter Fawzia.
The smallest of triplet girls born in May, the infant died last month in Darfur. Now, the 29-year-old mother has just a week of powdered milk for her two remaining babies — and no idea how she will feed them afterward.
"Fawzia started having fever, then diarrhea, and then she died. It was a month ago," Ibrahim said with the soft, sad smile so common to Darfurian women as they recount their survival.
Each day in Darfur, 80 children under age five die because of malnutrition, disease and generally poor living conditions created by violence in this barren region of western Sudan, the UN Children's Fund estimates.
When Ibrahim gave birth to her triplets in May, stress and lack of food left her with no milk of her own for her daughters. Read more >>>
MELLIT, Sudan — Myriam Ibrahim does not like to talk about her daughter Fawzia.
The smallest of triplet girls born in May, the infant died last month in Darfur. Now, the 29-year-old mother has just a week of powdered milk for her two remaining babies — and no idea how she will feed them afterward.
"Fawzia started having fever, then diarrhea, and then she died. It was a month ago," Ibrahim said with the soft, sad smile so common to Darfurian women as they recount their survival.
Each day in Darfur, 80 children under age five die because of malnutrition, disease and generally poor living conditions created by violence in this barren region of western Sudan, the UN Children's Fund estimates.
When Ibrahim gave birth to her triplets in May, stress and lack of food left her with no milk of her own for her daughters. Read more >>>
UNHCR Deeply Concerned About Plight of IDP's in Darfur
Geneva --
There are about 24 million internally displaced people around the world. More than two million are in Sudan's conflict-ridden province of Darfur.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, says the people of Darfur have no protection under international law, because they are not refugees who have crossed international borders. He says, as internally displaced, they are under the authority of the State, and this limits what international aid agencies can do.
"How terrible it is for us, humanitarian workers, not to be able to deliver effective protection to internally displaced people in Darfur because of the prevailing security circumstances and the massive violations of human rights," he said. Read more >>>
There are about 24 million internally displaced people around the world. More than two million are in Sudan's conflict-ridden province of Darfur.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, says the people of Darfur have no protection under international law, because they are not refugees who have crossed international borders. He says, as internally displaced, they are under the authority of the State, and this limits what international aid agencies can do.
"How terrible it is for us, humanitarian workers, not to be able to deliver effective protection to internally displaced people in Darfur because of the prevailing security circumstances and the massive violations of human rights," he said. Read more >>>
Sudan tries to intimidate UN troop contributors
(UNITED NATIONS) — The United States demanded on Thursday that the U.N. Security Council respond to Sudan’s warning that any nation pledging U.N. troops for Darfur was committing a "hostile act" and a "prelude to an invasion."
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, who called for a special closed-door council session, said he expected the 15-member body to react later in the day to what he called Khartoum’s attempt to intimidate potential troop contributors.
Sudan’s U.N. mission sent an unsigned letter to dozens of states, many of whom attended a meeting on Sept. 25 on troop and police contributions to a future U.N. force in Darfur. Sudan has rejected such a force. Read more >>>
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, who called for a special closed-door council session, said he expected the 15-member body to react later in the day to what he called Khartoum’s attempt to intimidate potential troop contributors.
Sudan’s U.N. mission sent an unsigned letter to dozens of states, many of whom attended a meeting on Sept. 25 on troop and police contributions to a future U.N. force in Darfur. Sudan has rejected such a force. Read more >>>
Darfur's Aid Operations in Jeopardy, Warns Annan
Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur has reached a critical stage, with humanitarian groups at risk of withdrawing or drastically reducing their operations unless security conditions improve rapidly, Secretary-General Kofi Annan warns in his latest report to the Security Council.
Reviewing events during August, Mr. Annan says the months since the striking of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) in May have been disastrous, with signatories and non-signatories breaching their obligations under that and other accords. Read more >>>
Reviewing events during August, Mr. Annan says the months since the striking of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) in May have been disastrous, with signatories and non-signatories breaching their obligations under that and other accords. Read more >>>
Annan Sounds Alarm Over Crisis in Darfur
By NICK WADHAMS
Darfur is creeping ever closer to catastrophe, with rape and violence on the rise, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report Thursday, as the country warned that any nation offering troops for a future peacekeeping force would be committing a "hostile act."
In the report to the Security Council, Annan said a May peace deal was not being followed, and that humanitarian access is at its lowest level since 2004. Sudan's armed forces, as well as rebel factions and the militias, continue to violate international human rights law and humanitarian law with impunity, he said.
"It has now been three months since the Darfur peace agreement was signed," Annan wrote. "However, instead of reconciliation and building of trust, we are witnessing intensified violence and deeper polarization. The region is again on the brink of a catastrophic situation." Read more >>>
Darfur is creeping ever closer to catastrophe, with rape and violence on the rise, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report Thursday, as the country warned that any nation offering troops for a future peacekeeping force would be committing a "hostile act."
In the report to the Security Council, Annan said a May peace deal was not being followed, and that humanitarian access is at its lowest level since 2004. Sudan's armed forces, as well as rebel factions and the militias, continue to violate international human rights law and humanitarian law with impunity, he said.
"It has now been three months since the Darfur peace agreement was signed," Annan wrote. "However, instead of reconciliation and building of trust, we are witnessing intensified violence and deeper polarization. The region is again on the brink of a catastrophic situation." Read more >>>
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Crying out for safety
1. Introduction
The people of Darfur are crying out for security. Thousands of civilians have been killed, tortured and raped, and hundreds of thousands have been forcibly displaced since 2003. Even as the government of Sudan resists the deployment of international peacekeepers in Darfur, it has launched a new military offensive in the region. Civilians are being killed in aerial bombardments and ground attacks by government forces and Janjawid militia.
The government of Sudan has recently launched a major military offensive, the scale of which Darfur has not witnessed for over a year. The Darfur Peace Agreement of May 2006 was supposed to herald a new era of peace. Instead it has opened up a new conflict, pitting the government and its allies against the non-signatories. Signed by only the government of Sudan, one faction of the opposition Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by Minni Minawi, and a few individual commanders from other factions, it was not signed by key opposition groups and factions. Read more >>>
The people of Darfur are crying out for security. Thousands of civilians have been killed, tortured and raped, and hundreds of thousands have been forcibly displaced since 2003. Even as the government of Sudan resists the deployment of international peacekeepers in Darfur, it has launched a new military offensive in the region. Civilians are being killed in aerial bombardments and ground attacks by government forces and Janjawid militia.
The government of Sudan has recently launched a major military offensive, the scale of which Darfur has not witnessed for over a year. The Darfur Peace Agreement of May 2006 was supposed to herald a new era of peace. Instead it has opened up a new conflict, pitting the government and its allies against the non-signatories. Signed by only the government of Sudan, one faction of the opposition Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by Minni Minawi, and a few individual commanders from other factions, it was not signed by key opposition groups and factions. Read more >>>
Aid workers in Darfur persevere against violence and suspicion
EL SALLAM CAMP, Sudan Tribal leaders gathered in tense silence in a straw hut at Darfur's El Sallam camp, facing international aid workers who'd come to broker an agreement between the refugees and a Sudanese aid group that residents wanted to bar from the camp.
Clad in flowing white cotton robes and turbans, the tribal leaders gave a long list of reasons to prevent aid workers from Siha, a Sudanese non-governmental organization, from coming anywhere near the camp.
"How can we trust that they aren't spies for the government," said one representative of the refugees Wednesday, recalling that the Sudanese army had chased his people from their villages more than two years ago.
Some 80,000 refugees survive in El Sallam and the nearby camp of Abu Shouk, a cluster of huts, mud brick houses and tents that sprawls on the outskirts of the capital of North Darfur state, El Fasher. They are among 2.5 million people made homeless by three years of fighting between Khartoum and rebel groups in the vast, arid Darfur region of western Sudan. Read more >>>
Clad in flowing white cotton robes and turbans, the tribal leaders gave a long list of reasons to prevent aid workers from Siha, a Sudanese non-governmental organization, from coming anywhere near the camp.
"How can we trust that they aren't spies for the government," said one representative of the refugees Wednesday, recalling that the Sudanese army had chased his people from their villages more than two years ago.
Some 80,000 refugees survive in El Sallam and the nearby camp of Abu Shouk, a cluster of huts, mud brick houses and tents that sprawls on the outskirts of the capital of North Darfur state, El Fasher. They are among 2.5 million people made homeless by three years of fighting between Khartoum and rebel groups in the vast, arid Darfur region of western Sudan. Read more >>>
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Darfur: if not now, when?
By NORMAN L. EPSTEIN
The world is teetering shamefully toward a diminished humanity unless we stop the senseless slaughter in Sudan. For more than three years in Darfur, the government of Sudan and its proxy militias have attacked African villages with impunity, causing the death of some 400,000 people and leaving almost three million languishing in internally displaced persons camps.
Despite the government’s adamant denial, there is a credible paper trail indicting many in the upper echelons of the Khartoum regime for orchestrating this genocide. In fact, last year, a UN fact-finding mission found many of these influential government members should be tried for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Perversely, we continue to negotiate with the Sudanese government for an international force to intervene, as though they are part of the solution, when in fact, they are the source of the problem. Read more >>>
The world is teetering shamefully toward a diminished humanity unless we stop the senseless slaughter in Sudan. For more than three years in Darfur, the government of Sudan and its proxy militias have attacked African villages with impunity, causing the death of some 400,000 people and leaving almost three million languishing in internally displaced persons camps.
Despite the government’s adamant denial, there is a credible paper trail indicting many in the upper echelons of the Khartoum regime for orchestrating this genocide. In fact, last year, a UN fact-finding mission found many of these influential government members should be tried for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Perversely, we continue to negotiate with the Sudanese government for an international force to intervene, as though they are part of the solution, when in fact, they are the source of the problem. Read more >>>
Rape risk spirals for Darfur women
By Karen Allen
BBC News, Kutum
Hawa was raped in broad daylight, the way it often happens here in northern Darfur.
Daily tasks, like collecting firewood, have become dangerous for women
Clutching a baby to her breast, she relived her ordeal from Kassab camp which is sanctuary to more than 20,000 people displaced by Darfur's bloody conflict.
"I left the camp with two other girls, to get grass for the donkeys," she remembers.
"Along the way we met more than four men with guns. One of them grabbed my arms and another one grabbed my legs. They said they would kill me if I didn't co-operate." Read more >>>
BBC News, Kutum
Hawa was raped in broad daylight, the way it often happens here in northern Darfur.
Daily tasks, like collecting firewood, have become dangerous for women
Clutching a baby to her breast, she relived her ordeal from Kassab camp which is sanctuary to more than 20,000 people displaced by Darfur's bloody conflict.
"I left the camp with two other girls, to get grass for the donkeys," she remembers.
"Along the way we met more than four men with guns. One of them grabbed my arms and another one grabbed my legs. They said they would kill me if I didn't co-operate." Read more >>>
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Saving Darfur with force
There's only one language Khartoum understands and that is the credible threat of force, write a trio of U.S. foreign policy experts in a commentary for The Washington Post.
Susan Rice of the Brookings Institution, former U.S. national security adviser Anthony Lake and Democratic representative Donald Payne urge military action against Khartoum if Sudan fails to allow the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers. If Washington doesn't secure U.N. support for this action, it should act alone, just as it did in Kosovo in 1999, they say.
"Will we use force to save Africans in Darfur as we did to save Europeans in Kosovo?" Rice, Lake and Payne ask. Read more >>>
Susan Rice of the Brookings Institution, former U.S. national security adviser Anthony Lake and Democratic representative Donald Payne urge military action against Khartoum if Sudan fails to allow the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers. If Washington doesn't secure U.N. support for this action, it should act alone, just as it did in Kosovo in 1999, they say.
"Will we use force to save Africans in Darfur as we did to save Europeans in Kosovo?" Rice, Lake and Payne ask. Read more >>>
Monday, October 02, 2006
Rescue the life of prominent Darfur peace negotiator
Abulgasem Ahmad Abulgasem, a political opponent of the Sudanese government, prominent figure in Abuja Peace Negotiations and member of a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, was arrested by the Saudi Arabian security forces on 26 September at his home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he lived for 28 years.
The reason for his arrest is unclear but is believed to be connected to a speech in which he criticized the Sudanese government at the Sudanese Embassy prior to his arrest.
According to our source, Abulgasim was already deported on Saudi Arabia Airlines flight 453 from Jeddah to Kartoum, at 18:50 local time. His life is at imminent risk of torture and unfair trial if not at great danger of being sentenced to death.
- Name: Abulgasem Ahmed Abulgasem
- Date and place of birth: Kutum, Darfur 1950
- Social status: Married with four children
- Occupation: Engineer
- Place of current residence: Jeddah Saudi Arabia, for 28 Years
- Date and place of arrest: Jeddah, Tuesday September 26, 2006
- Photo: see attachemenet
The people of Darfur are deeply concerned about the life of Abulgasem and are confident that EU, UN, Human Rights Watch and other rights groups will exert maximum effort to help the release of Abulgasem.
Bush Says U.N. Should Not Wait on Darfur
By The Associated Press
MORE FROM SECTION WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Monday the United Nations should send a peacekeeping force to the troubled Darfur region of Sudan as soon as possible without further delay.
"The United Nations can play an important role in helping us achieve our objective, which is to end human suffering and deprivation," Bush said as he dispatched special envoy Andrew Natsios to the region. "In my view, the United Nations should not wait any longer ... ."
The Sudanese government has thus far resisted mounting international pressure to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur. Bush contends the U.N. should deploy such a force anyway.
Natsios said he had been going to Sudan for 17 years and "I know leaders in all regions of the country and I'm going to use those contacts and that history to move this process along." Read more >>>
MORE FROM SECTION WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Monday the United Nations should send a peacekeeping force to the troubled Darfur region of Sudan as soon as possible without further delay.
"The United Nations can play an important role in helping us achieve our objective, which is to end human suffering and deprivation," Bush said as he dispatched special envoy Andrew Natsios to the region. "In my view, the United Nations should not wait any longer ... ."
The Sudanese government has thus far resisted mounting international pressure to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur. Bush contends the U.N. should deploy such a force anyway.
Natsios said he had been going to Sudan for 17 years and "I know leaders in all regions of the country and I'm going to use those contacts and that history to move this process along." Read more >>>
US military action urged against Sudan
From correspondents in Washington
TWO former senior US officials and a sitting congressman called today for the US to lead military strikes against Sudan if Khartoum persists in its refusal to allow UN peacekeepers into its Darfur region.
"It's time to get tough with Sudan," Anthony Lake, who served as president Bill Clinton's National Security Adviser, former assistant secretary of state for Africa Susan Rice and Democratic representative Donald Payne wrote in an opinion piece in today's Washington Post.
The three said Sudan President Omar al-Beshir's Arab-led government had launched a major new offensive against rebels in Darfur, threatening to unleash a "second wave of genocide" against the region's ethnic African population.
"After three years of fruitless negotiation and feckless rhetoric, it's time to go beyond unenforced UN resolutions to a new kind of resolution: the firm resolve to act," they said. Read more >>>
TWO former senior US officials and a sitting congressman called today for the US to lead military strikes against Sudan if Khartoum persists in its refusal to allow UN peacekeepers into its Darfur region.
"It's time to get tough with Sudan," Anthony Lake, who served as president Bill Clinton's National Security Adviser, former assistant secretary of state for Africa Susan Rice and Democratic representative Donald Payne wrote in an opinion piece in today's Washington Post.
The three said Sudan President Omar al-Beshir's Arab-led government had launched a major new offensive against rebels in Darfur, threatening to unleash a "second wave of genocide" against the region's ethnic African population.
"After three years of fruitless negotiation and feckless rhetoric, it's time to go beyond unenforced UN resolutions to a new kind of resolution: the firm resolve to act," they said. Read more >>>
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