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| August 30, 2008 |
" I spent all day working at one of the clinics in the slums, taking vital signs and doing data entry. I miss you. "
Ronan is overseeing a study of the children who are experiencing trauma as a result of the opst-election violence that tore apart the Kibera slums and Kenya itself. I'm very proud of him.
| August 28, 2008 |
The whole world should fortify UNAMID. Whatever it takes. We should override Bashir and provide a force that can protect people. I know that won't happen but shame on everyone.
| August 26, 2008 |
Yesterday Khartoum ordered an attack on Kalma camp. Dozens of residents were killed, and more than a hundred were wounded. Most are women and children. Kalma is home to 90,000 people displaced by government/janjaweed attacks upon their villages. Government forces are again massing outside the camp today. Residents fear a second assault.
Although humanitarian aid groups have withdrawn from the camp, Medecins Sans Frontires managed to evacuated 49 wounded civilians to a hospital in nearby Nyala, where one person has died. Many more of the wounded remain in the camp.
Where are you, Unamid?? Where are you ,world??? Khartoum is attacking a camp for displaced people!! Where do we draw the line?? If not now, under what circumstances would we respond? I'd really like to know. Can it be that there is no line ???
| August 25, 2008 |
Kalma IDP camp attacked
The Sudanese army, using at least 60 armored vehicles, has invaded Kalma camp, which shelters some 90,000 displaced Darfuris. As of this morning, my sources on the ground report 30 displaced persons have been killed and (according to MSF)at least 65 wounded. Most are women and children. Homes are on fire and heavy shooting is ripping through the camp. All aid agencies have withdrawn from the camp as UNHCR is trying to negotiate access to evacuate the wounded.The UN MUST speak out now!
UNAMID is NOWHERE to be seen.
| August 24, 2008 |
Bakit Oumar is seven years old. He lives with his grandmother and his 8 year old brother in Koubigou, a camp for displaced people near Goz Beida. Their village was destroyed by Janjaweed. They have no father. More recently their mother abandoned them. They have nothing. They have never seen a toy.In January, 2008 things got a whole lot worse. While the boys were playing near their home they came upon something unusual. It was a rocket propelled grenade. Goz Beida has been attacked many times. The surrounding area is littered with the stuff of war. The grenade exploded tearing off Bakit hands, most of one arm and part of his face including his eye.
Unicef was notified and they evacuated the child to the capital hospital where they saved his ilfe and did what they could. Bakit continues to fight infections. He told us, "I want my hands". Little Bakit does not smile any more. Ever.
| August 20, 2008 |
It was 'food distribution day' at Oure Cassoni. As I sat waiting with the women, Kaltum was sitting next to me, began to tell me her story. She was unusually detailed in her account and clear about the dates and the events that changed her life."In January, 2003 aircraft first flew over Karnoi. On Saturday they came -- not bombing, just circling low over our shopping market. But then, on June 3, 2003, they started to bomb. The first bombing was the water point. It killed five people. The people were afraid. Half of the town's population left their homes. The planes came again and they bombed part of Karnoi. On June 22,23,24 there was no bombing. On the 24th it rained heavily. Some of the people who had left the town came back. We wanted to farm the fields. But we took all of our children out of our houses because we were afraid. On June 29-30th the planes returned and bombed the whole area. There were two Antonovs. There were 16 bombings on Karnoi. One was right in front of my house. I was injured. My relatives took me to the wadi. I thought I was going to die but God saved me.
In August the town of Karnoi was empty because everywhere was bombed. The people were hiding in the wadi. The wadi was full but there was no choice.
In November/December there were very huge bombings everywhere in Darfur. People fleeing other villages arrived at our wadi and we asked them what is happening. They said 'everything is destroyed.' They said 'don't stay here, janjaweeed are coming.' But some people did stay. My husband and I decided to take the children far away. Because we had only one donkey he took the children first, then he returned for me and for my elderly father who could not walk. We arrived at the place where the children were and then we saw the Janjaweed coming. They caught my husband and they killed him. I was sick so they beat me and left me there. They took one of my children, my 14-year-old son -- the other children ran away. At night I heard people coming. I shouted, 'Please, take me, I don't have the strength to walk.' They brought me on their donkey. They helped me and found the children, except for my son who was taken. I still don't know anything about him. During that time I cried so much. I think he was killed.'
| August 18, 2008 |
The delegation sat down to meetings at African Union headquarters with high-ranking officials including Commissioner Jean Ping, Senior Political Advisor Nakaha Stanislas, and Commissioner for Peace and Security Ramteme Lamamra.The delegation heard calls for help: "We do not have sufficient means to sustain our troops...Everybody knows we need external assistance."
http://www.viddler.com/
August 5, 2008 (WASHINGTON) -- China has been the "most egregious violator" of a worldwide arms embargo, providing Sudan with the vast majority of its small arms and weapons used for mass murder in Darfur province, a private study group is charging.
The arms and also political support are being swapped for access to the African country’s oil reserves, according to a report issued on the eve of the Summer Olympics in Beijing.
A copy of the report, due to be released on Wednesday, was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.
In 2004, the U.N. Security Council imposed an arms embargo on all groups operating in Darfur. The next year, the Council extended the ban to the government. The United States and several European countries have tried unsuccessfully to expand the sanctions.
About $150 million in weapons had been provided by China to Sudan in the last decade or so. The majority of the weapons were small arms, much of which found their way to Janjaweed, a notorious militia accused by human rights groups of killing and expelling hundreds of thousands of Darfur’s indigenous population.
According to a U.N. data bank, China is responsible for providing 90 percent of Sudan’s small arms between 2004 and 2006, he said.
Through its state-owned companies, China controls almost all of Sudan’s oil potential, the report said.
As "the supplier of last resort for dictators and human rights abusers," China is also a major weapons exporter to Zimbabwe, Myanmar and rebel groups in Congo, the report said.
Many of these exports have included Chinese assault rifles and Chinese sales also have involved such heavy weapons as tanks and fighter aircraft, the study said.
| August 17, 2008 |
Even as it receives desperately needed food aid from international donors, Sudan is growing and selling vast quantities of its own crops to other countries. The Khartoum regime is capitalising on high global food prices at a time when millions of people in its war-riddled region of Darfur barely have enough to eat.
In the bone-dry desert, where desiccated donkey carcasses line the road, huge green fields suddenly materialise. Beans. Wheat. Sorghum. Melons. Peanuts. Pumpkins. Aubergines. They are all grown here, part of an ambitious government plan for Sudanese self-sufficiency, creating giant mechanised farms that rise out of the sand.
But how much of the bonanza is getting back to the hungry Sudanese, like the 2.5 million driven into camps in Darfur? And why is a country that exports so many of its own crops receiving more free food than anywhere else in the world, especially when the Sudanese government is blamed for creating the crisis in the first place?
African countries that rely on donated food usually cannot produce enough on their own. Somalia, Ethiopia, Niger and Zimbabwe are all recent examples of how war, natural disasters or gross mismanagement can cut deep into food production, pushing millions of people to the brink of starvation.
But in Sudan, there seem to be plenty of calories to go around. The country is already growing wheat for Saudi Arabia, sorghum for camels in the United Arab Emirates and vine-ripened tomatoes for the Jordanian army. Now the government is ploughing £2.5bn into new agribusiness projects, many of them to produce food for export.
Take sorghum, a staple of the Sudanese diet, typically eaten in flat, spongy bread. Last year, the US government, as part of its response to the emergency in Darfur, shipped in 283,000 tons of sorghum, at high cost, from as far away as Houston. Oddly enough, that is about the same amount that Sudan exported, according to UN officials. This year, Sudanese companies, including many that are linked to the government in Khartoum, are on track to ship out twice that amount, even as the United Nations is being forced to cut rations to Darfur.
Aid groups gave up long ago on the Sudanese government helping the people of Darfur. The nation's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has been accused of masterminding genocide in Darfur. UN officials have said that if they do not bring food into the region, the government surely will not.
That leaves the United Nations and western aid groups feeding more than three million residents of Darfur. But the lifeline is fraying. Security is deteriorating. Aid trucks are getting hijacked nearly every day and deliveries are being made less frequently. The result: less food and soaring malnutrition rates, particularly among children.
"Sudan could be self-sufficient," said Kenro Oshidari, the director of the UN World Food Programme in Sudan. "It does have the potential to be the breadbasket of Africa.
The last time the government gave the World Food Programme any food for Darfur was in 2006. It was 22,000 tons of Sudanese-grown sorghum. It was a fraction of what the people needed, UN officials said, and some of the grain was rancid and infested with weevils.
| August 16, 2008 |
It will take weeks to deploy more peacekeepers to Darfur even once reinforcements arrive because of the difficulties Darfur Peacekeeping Force commander Martin Luther Agwai told Reuters that even once troops arrive, there was a problem moving vast quantities of weapons, ammunition, vehicles and generators across thousands of kilometres of hostile terrain from Sudan's only port.
"It cannot be anything less than eight weeks to move one container to Darfur," he said, adding that the equipment had to move from Darfur's main towns to the force's remote bases.gwai, a Nigerian, said 335 Egyptian engineers just deployed had brought 1,000 containers of equipment with them.
Those engineers will help build barracks for the soldiers in the northern Darfur sector. Chinese engineers will build barracks for the south and UNAMID is awaiting a Pakistani engineering company for West Darfur.
Agwai said each battalion for UNAMID needed 26 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and 80 trucks. An Egyptian battalion of 800 soldiers was ready to deploy, he added, but could not come to Darfur without its equipment or barracks.
Agwai said Sudan's government could help by expediting customs clearances at Port Sudan, in the east, and by providing armed escorts for the convoys into Darfur, in the west of Africa's biggest country. UNAMID has no mandate outside Darfur.
| August 15, 2008 |
Suleiman Jamous, SLA/Unity. Humanitarian coordinator.
| August 14, 2008 |
HIAS-a great humanitarian organization
My hosts in Koukou have been the amazing Intersos (THANK YOU Emilie) My journey here and the meetings at the camps have been facilitated by HIAS - (THANK YOU Gaele and all at HIAS).This is a description of the invaluable work of HIAS:
HIAS is the international migration agency of the American Jewish community, dedicated to providing rescue and refuge for persecuted and oppressed people around the world. Every year, HIAS helps thousands of refugees and immigrants on a non-sectarian basis to reunite with their families and resettle in the United States. We also advocate for fair and effective policies affecting refugees and immigrants. Since 1881, HIAS has assisted more than 4,500,000 people worldwide.
HIAS is currently working in Chad, providing trauma counseling and social services in five of that country's camps for refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan. Our corps of highly skilled professionals is specially trained to work with those at risk in areas of high conflict. To help HIAS help others, please visit and donate online at www.hias.org, or call (866) 871-9681.
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The Sudanese government has launched a massive assault in rebel-held areas in north Darfur, near the Libyan border in and around the town of Wadi Atron. Suleman Marajan, n SLA (Unity) commander in the field said the attackers came with more than 300 armed vehicles, hundreds of horses and camels and were accompanied by full air support, including warplanes and attack helicopters.
"The situation now in North Darfur, is very terrible," he said. "Because the government is moved all its troops from different directions. The situation from today it is going very very very difficult."
Khartoum had not commented on the attacks and the AU has no presence in the far north but the SLA/Unity, a rebel group which has expressed willingness to participate in a piece process and which has been providing protection for civilians in this remote area, claims the assault is intended 'to clear way for Chinese oil hunt' in north Darfur."
Indeed, state owned Chinese oil companies have been negotiating with the Khartoum regime to exploit the oil reserves believed to lie beneath the sands of north Darfur.
This is precisely the strategy used by this same regime (then calling themselves the National Islamic Front) when they cleared the oilfields in Southern Sudan of their 'troublesome' inhabitants. Two million people met their deaths as a result.
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People were tending their fields, kids were going to school.
Sudanese government troops, launhed and assault in rebel-held areas in remote north Darfur. An SLA commander in the field said the attackers had some 100 armed vehicles, horses and camels accompanied by full air support including warplanes and attack helicopters.
Khartoum denies the attacks and the Au has no presence in the far north but the rebels claim the assault is intended 'to clear way for Chinese oil hunt' in north Darfur.
| August 13, 2008 |
Sudan Tribune - Sudan
August 10, 2008 (WASHINGTON)
Met with Suleiman Jamous last evening! Of course he is wonderful. He is now doing his best to unify Darfur's rebel groups.I will post more photos soon.
| August 10, 2008 |
The Oumda Al-Fathi and the other Oumdas (Leaders) of the refugees in the camp presented me with a document. It is in Arabic but this is the translation;
1. We agree with the decision of the International Criminal Court.
2. The refugees have no link to the International community. But they must listen to our voices,
not the voice of Omar Al-Bashir.
3. Arrest all the guilty people immediately.
a We are connected to the IDP community in Darfur. They do not have the freedom to speak.
b We do not like African forces.We do not like the AU.
4. Disarm the Janjaweed and the military.
5. Those who occupied our land and homes must leave. Our homes must be returned to us, and our belongings.
6. We refuse to accept Government of Sudan in any humanitarian agency.
7. Stop infiltration of camps. People are entering, representing themselves as Chadians but they are Sudanese spies.
8. We need secondary schools. Our children are only given schooling up to 8th grade. If they are uneducated this means there will be more war in the future. (Education is the way for people to find things in common other than their ethnicity.)
9. We are requesting (demanding) other return of our belongings which have been taken from us. Compensation
10. They must arrest Omar Al-Bashir as quickly as possible or he will kill more. Just now we have heard many people are being killed.
Those who refused to celebrate Omar Al-Bashir during his visit to Darfur, he has killed them.
We are saying to the Chinese and the Russians: Please stop your guns.
We are very poor Darfuri people. We are trying to survive. This is our right. Our right must be before other things.
To the African people. Where have they gone? Where were they when we were being killed, when we have been violated? They have to see things with our eyes. Today it is the Darfurian people but tomorrow it could be them.
| August 9, 2008 |
Today we made it to Koukou! No small feat in the rainy season. We drove about an hour to the the first of two major wadis -- swollen, fast flowing , muddy rivers. Awaiting us at the wadi's edge were two 200 gallon oil drums, loosely roped together. We piled our stuff and a load of supplies for the camps onto the drums and two people dragged it (with a rope) across the wadi. It took several trips. It was hot and Bec couldn't resist taking a swim. She helped the guys pull the ropes.Once across we walked for about 4 kilometers then hitched a ride on a donkey cart for the remaining 2 until we arrived at 'the big wadi'. It is dauntingly wide but the sight of two humanitarian vehicles waiting on the other side was cheering. Again there were barrels but with planks on them this time so we loaded our supplies on board and made fewer crossings.
I have just returned from Goz Amir refugee camp -- its about 45 mins drive from Koukou. The terraine is beautiful -- lushly wooded, monkeys scampering here and there, kids herding goats and cows but also swimming in muddy rivers, we shared the tracks with lots of people, mostly riding donkeys.
At Goz Amir we met with the camp leadership, both male and female (separately) . They had been waiting all day. The ICC call for the arrest of Omar Al-Bashir is just HUGE with the refugees. It is the first thing they bring up -- and their last words as we depart. Their faith in the ICC and their HOPE that Bashir's brutal reign will finally end is heartbreaking. They asked me to "implore the international community to arrest Omar Al-Bashir so that we can go home." Over and over in each of the camps I have visited the refugees are demanding the arrest of Bashir. They believe their voices should be heard. They are the victims. They don't believe that there can possibly be genuine peace or security as long as Bashir in power. He is still "hunting us" they told me. This camp has been attacked 3 times by Janjaweed. The camp leadership told me they are in constant contact with IDPs , their brothers and sisters in Darfur. They say the IDPs cannot speak out or they will be killed but they speak for them.
I feel we havn't been vigorous enough in pushing for the ICC indictment. We cannot be intimidated by the AU or by "experts" ,such as Alex De Waal. They are WRONG.
It was also interesting to hear how vehemently the refugees oppose the AU. They don't trust them. They told me the AU is allied with Al-Bashir. They say the AU has never protected them and never will. They don't want more of them or the all-African hybrid . That is not the answer, they told me. They want 'Europeans'. They are thrilled with EUFOR. "Eufor 100%!!" they say. And they do feel safer with Eufor here. YAY Eufor!! They listen to BBC news all day and at night too since the ICC announcement. They are so VERY hopeful that the arrest will happen and then peace will follow, and the JJwd will be disarmed and maybe part of the oil money could be used to help them rebuild what was destroyed.
Another problem they spoke of is that Arabs are now living on their land, including Arabs from Niger. They know this because they have sent family members back for news. I will write more tomorrow. Generator being turned off.
BTW-the refugees told me that those Darfuris who refused to join in the (compulsory) celebrations of Al-Bashir (when he was in Darfur ) are now being killed.
| August 7, 2008 |
We loved our people. Then we heard that the Janjaweed killed them.
One day I was sitting in my kitchen, making food for my children. A woman ran into my home and said janjaweed were surrounding the village. I ran out and saw men all around us shooting guns. I was terrified. Then Antonov planes came, three of them, one was camouflage another was painted white. Janjaweed controlled the area. They killed the men and took the animals.
Terrible times. I cannot explain.
Some women and children ran away into the hills. We had to leave the wounded. All the men and half of the children were killed.
After this we walked at night to Ablaha (sp?) but that village too was destroyed, burned. Bodies everywhere. We went to Karnoye but it was not safe. So we went to Chad. On our journey to Chad we used donkeys. You can always find donkeys. We had just a little bit of sorghum.. We found water in the wadis. There were 25 of us. We walked at night and hid in the bush during the days. It took us nine days.
In our village there were more than 100. From this village there are no men alive. All the children are orphaned.
Now we are living here, in Zone A. But I don't have any children. All my children were boys and they were killed. The women cry for their children and their lost ones.
If Omar Al-Bashir were killed we would go back to our homelands. If he goes to court we will be able to return. I heard about the court taking him but Bashir is strong. I think it is just talk.
We ask the world community to send Omar Al-bashir to Court. Then take money from the oil to pay for our lost homes and our animals. But what can pay for our lost families?
To those who say there should be peace before justice, I disagree. There can be no peace with Bashir. He should pay for what he did to us."
“There were 16 bombings on Kornoye. Very huge bombings. I was injured. My family took me to the wadi.. I thought I was going to die but the Gods saved me. My life is this, with my injuries (kaltum’s face and arm is scarred. The scars beneath her gown she only gestured to) My husband is killed by knife. I still don’t know anything about my son who was taken by the Janjaweed. During that time I cried so much. “
I told Kaltum I hoped she will find her child. She said, “I don’t think so. I think he was killed.”
Today was ‘Food Distribution Day at Oure Cassoni camp for Darfuri refugees.
Food rations have been cut. What used to feed a family of four now must be stretched to sustain 6 people.
Listed below are the rations given out today at Oure Casssoni -- to each person. They must make their supply last for one month. They will also share their rations with newly arrived, unregistered refugees. The camp quota cannot exceed 27,000 people. The aid agencies do not have the capacity to sustain more.
Each person receives;
2.65 oz of cooking oil
1.59 oz of sugar
0.55 oz’s of salt (for the first time in months salt has been available)
3.3 pounds of lentils
22 lbs cereal
3.3 lbs sorghum
soap—but none has been available for months
The goal is to give each refugee 2100 calories. But for months they have been receiving 1800 calories-less than the minimum requirement. Suggested calorie consumption in the US is about 2500 calories a day. Conservatively.
I have heard that Chadians, the 250,000 also displaced by Janjaweed attacks, receive 40% of what the Darfuri refugees are given, but I have not yet been able to confirm this.
The World Food Programme representative here told me that “US dollars cannot buy what they could before. “ The WFP is running out of money. As you know, food rations to the more than 2. 5 million people in the camps of Darfur have been halved (as of last May) Insecurity on the ground has forced food to be delivered by air. This is unsustainably expensive yet we cannot let people starve. It is the children under five who die first. Anyone wishing to help should donate to the WFP.
The cost of grain has risen dramatically. And the cost of transportation is, as we all know, is sky high. The people here have been asking for new jerry-cans, the plastic containers they need to carry water from the water-point to their dwellings. But the cost of getting the containers to the camp now exceeds the cost of manufacturing and purchasing them. All supplies come here by road through libya and Cameroon. When the roads are impassible-which is OFTEN in the rainy reason, supplies cannot get through. It is a precarious situation.
Olympics: Activists Barred From Games By Chinese Government
Washington Post - United States
WASHINGTON - DECEMBER 10: Actress Mia Farrow and Olympic gold medal winner Joey Cheek (R) hold torches during a rally to protest against the genocide in Darfur... read
President G.W.Bush could still reconsider his deplorable decision to attend the opening ceremonies of the genocide Olympics.
If you do not want him to be there, representing the American people, call him at the White House-202 456 1111
Mia
(in eastern Chad)
“As you have probably already seen, yesterday around 5pm, the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC revoked the visa of Olympic Gold Medalist Joey Cheek to travel to Beijing for the Olympic Games. The Chinese government official who called Cheek stated simply that he was "not required to give a reason" for revoking visas. Joey had planned to attend the Games to support the 72-plus athletes who will be competing in Beijing who have signed onto Team Darfur. We learned today that Team Darfur athlete Chris Boyles <http://www.chrisboyles.com/> , a decathlete headed to Beijing to support a doctor, had a similar experience and had his visa revoked. Earlier this month, Team Darfur athlete Kendra Zanotto <http://origin.mercurynews.com/news/ci_9968123> , who was planning to report on synchronized swimming in Beijing, was denied entry into to China.
For Joey, having his visa revoked is a minor inconvenience compared to the daily tragedy experienced by Darfurians. That is where he wants the focus - on ending the violence in Darfur. It is Team Darfur's hope that ultimately this attention will encourage citizens, officials, and countries to take actions to bring about peace in Darfur. Many of you have already sent us statements of support, or sent your statements directly to the US government. We greatly appreciate that, and hope you will continue to support the Team Darfur athletes competing in Beijing, and those who were not allowed in to cheer them on.
Government officials have also taken notice of this event. Senator Feingold of Wisconsin, who introduced the Senate Resolution calling for an Olympic Truce for Darfur, said: "China's decision to revoke Joey Cheek's visa undermines the spirit of the Olympic Games and China's role as host. As a world leader deeply engaged in Africa, and as host of the Olympic Games, China has a responsibility and an opportunity to help bring peace to Darfur. I call on the Chinese government to use the Olympic Games to push for an end to the conflicts in Sudan and I call on President Bush to raise this issue specifically with the Chinese government during his visit."
Please keep the Team Darfur athletes, and the people of Darfur, in your thoughts as we continue our efforts for peace in Darfur. “
| August 6, 2008 |
The Olympic host should not be able to control what information reporters can seek outside China’s borders.
We believe this matter is urgent – and one of basic fairness.
I ask both the USOC and the IOC to address this issue immediately. dreamfordarfur.org> and www.darfurolympics.org <http://www.darfurolympics.o We ask the Olympic host to make www.dreamfordarfur.org <http://www.dre rg> available to foreign journalists.
Watch the Darfur Olympics at www.darfurolympics.org
To keep the spotlight on Darfur during the Beijing Games, the Dream for Darfur organization is webcasting the Darfur Olympics from August 8 - 15. You'll be able to watch daily alternative programming: exclusive video footage and reports by me from a Darfurian refugee camp, highlighting the desperate need for action. You'll be able to access educational materials about the Darfur crisis -- and take action online.
Watch the Darfur Olympics at www.darfurolympics.org
To kick off the week of action, Dream for Darfur is airing an "Alternative Opening Ceremony" on August 8 featuring musicians like R.E.M., Talib Kweli, Carly Simon, and many more who have donated music videos to Darfur.
Please join me August 8 - 15 for this alternative programming and send a message to China and the Olympic corporate sponsors that the people of Darfur must not be forgotten.
_____________________________________
| August 5, 2008 |
On Luis Moreno-Ocampo- Chief Prosecutor of the ICC ( referring to Moreno-Ocampo's request for the indictment of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir)
"God help him more and more.
This is all our hopes.
He has done a good decision.
He has done a strong decision.
He is a strong guy."
Mohamed Baharadin
Refugee
Former resident of the village of Omboro
| August 4, 2008 |
listening to the refugees at Oure Cassoni --on the Chad/Darfur border
Refugee, on the subject of postponing the ICC indictment of Omar Al-Bashir:
"Why should they give Bashir 12 months of grace when in 5 years we have not known one day of peace?" (make that 22 years for Southern Sudan.)
Woman Refugee
"My hope for the future is that there will be peace in Darfur so that we can go home.. For there to be peace, the president of Sudan must be arrested and taken to court . He has caused so much suffering. Omar Al-Bashir has killed children, he has bombed us and terrified us. He should be taken and executed."
The entire group of woman cheered.
Woman Refugee
"The rebels formed when people of Darfur began to understand they have no rights. Al-Bashir is trying to kill the people, not just the rebels. He is bombing civilians."
Woman Refugee
"Not only Al-Bashir but 52 more should be taken to court.."
Woman Refugee
"We want two things: peace in Sudan and punishment for Al-Bashir and all the criminals who have done this to us."
Youths of Oure Cassoni
"We need Security and peace. Security cannot be delivered by the AU. They have watched us die for 5 years. And we need not the Hybrid but an international peacekeeping force. We need compensation. Representation in government. Punishment for Al-Bashir."
One young man held up his hand and, pointing to his palm, said "this side is the government of Sudan" then pointing to the back of his hand said "this side is the AU."
Adre is being attacked by the JEM
The trip to Bahai
The two and half hour flight from N'Djamena to Abece took us over an expanse of land so dry and unyielding that the sighting of an occasional village inspires disbelief that human beings can survive in such an inhospitable lunarscape. Because of the rains there is a light mist of green and the land is dotted with scrubby bushes. The cracks in the earth are now filled with muddy water or just mud.
The Abece airport- is like nothing Ive ever seen-- and I've landed there 7 or 8 times before. The tiny airport is literally clogged with military aircraft; at least a dozen- the Chadian army, EUFOR helicopters and planes of all kinds and sizes alongside humanitarian planes: WFP, UN, MSF unloading supplies as troops- scores of troops- stand by. The bunkers are new as are the barracks under construction, and the newly extended runway. Eastern Chad is officially a war zone.
We were met by a UNHCR security officer who gave us the news that the JEM rebel group is attacking Adre.
After the plane refueled, we flew another hour and a half to Bahai . Here the green mist ends and the desert makes its own powerful statement.
We have spent the afternoon in Oure Cassni refugee camp. I will send this now and write more later
| August 3, 2008 |
Farrow's Darfur Olympics & Our Olympic Shame http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-j-finlay/farrows-darfur-olympics-o_b_116529.html
Interesting perspective, although Mr Finlay got one thing wrong-- I have never called for an Olympic boycott or even thought for one second that would be an effective or viable idea. I DID call for world leaders to take a pass on the opening propaganda ceremony. President George W. Bush's decision to attend the opening ceremonies came in the wake of brutal crackdowns in Tibet, and during a week when seven peacekeepers were murdered in the Darfur region of Sudan, where China continues to underwrite the carnage and deal arms to its perpetrators.
A rising tide of US and international politicians have taken a stand by eschewing the opening ceremonies -- the lone component of the games geared not at celebrating the athletes, but at burnishing the Beijing regime's political image; British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper were joined yesterday by EU Parliamentary President Hans-Gert Poettering. Both Barack Obama and John McCain have indicated that absent significant improvement in China's human rights record, they would choose not to attend.
The President's squandered potential for influence has seldom been more apparent. Beijing has been notoriously indifferent to traditional diplomatic pressure, but they have leapt into action to protect the Beijing Games. Early efforts to link Darfur to the Games prompted Beijing's hasty appointment of an envoy, the softening of veto threats on the UN Security Council and most significantly, the signing of last year's UN resolution authorizing a protection force for Darfur. A boycott of the opening ceremonies might have proved to be a powerful, additional point of leverage with an otherwise intractable regime.
A boycott isolated to the opening ceremony avoids targeting the athletes. It would have sent a strong symbolic statement to Beijing at little substantive cost to US-Chinese relations.
Instead, Bush has made a powerful statement of tacit approval. His decision is regrettable. It was a missed opportunity for the United States of America to stand strong for the anguished people of Darfur and Burma as well as for the Tibetans in their long struggle. It was an opportunity to express solidarity with those Chinese citizens whose human rights are being denied, and for the US to demonstrate moral leadership and represent the values and principles our nation was founded on. It was a golden opportunity now lost.
Miafarrow.org
Farrow's Darfur Olympics & Our Olympic Shame
Christoper Finlay
Posted August 2, 2008 | 02:34 PM (EST)
Read More: 2008 Beijing Olympics, Beijing Olympics, China Darfur, Darfur, Mia Farrow, Mia Farrow Darfur, Olympics, Olympics Boycott, Politics News
With less than a week to go before the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Beijing, Mia Farrow is on her way to a refugee camp in Darfur to host The Darfur Olympics, a week-long web broadcast that will be timed to coincide with the first week of the Olympic Games. Although the majority of Farrow's Olympics-related activism, such as her now almost completely moribund calls for major world leaders to boycott the Beijing Games, have been misguided and would have likely hurt her cause had they been taken more seriously, it is important to recognize just how cannily she was able to use the Beijing Olympic Spotlight to promote her agenda. While many might welcome the Olympic Spotlight as a powerful tool for activists, this tool ought to be seen as a source of great shame for us all. This is because the Olympic Spotlight plays a dual role. It both focuses Western attention on neglected causes as well as demonstrating how fickle and disengaged this same audience is with global issues in the absence of major media events like the Olympics.
Appeals to some form of global morality are central in the majority of the Olympic-related anti-China/pro-human rights rhetoric (it continues to be increasingly difficult to distinguish between the two). It is claimed that the abuse of human rights by the Chinese government at home and their abuse of human rights by proxy in Darfur are clear violations of a universal moral code. Western activists use of the Olympic Spotlight has attempted to highlight China's amorality. If China is to 'graduate' into world power status, the argument goes, then the Chinese government must develop a moral code and that code must be in line with the one we profess to have in the West. Quite frankly, if China were to adopt a new moral code (they may be immoral by some standards, but the country certainly isn't without a moral code), they could find a much better model than ours.
In highlighting the West's capricious appetite for stories of genocide in Africa and political and religious intolerance and killings in Asia, the Olympic spotlight has, in fact, inadvertently revealed our own moral bankruptcy. It is reprehensible that activists such as Farrow must patiently wait for global media events to coincide with their causes in order to have an audience. We shouldn't need two weeks of sports and ceremony to learn that something terribly evil is happening in Africa or to realize that we should be fighting to stop it. The fact that we do indicates that our own morals are as transient, trend-oriented and, I fear, temporary as fashion. Summer 2008's style is Darfur. What's the style going to be next season?
While it could certainly be argued that the temporary interest generated by the Olympic Spotlight is better than the complete absence of interest that a Games-free summer may have generated, we have to ask ourselves whether reliance on the Olympics as a tool for generating debate about human rights is ultimately a form of our own moral acquiescence. During the Olympic Torch Relay protests this spring, The Globe and Mail reported that Phil Fontaine, the head of the Assembly of First Nations, an organization representing Aboriginal Canadians, suggested that "the Vancouver [2010 Winter] Olympics are a potential target for First Nations protest much like Beijing has been a flash point for Tibet supporters" and that Canadians ought to be "'outraged' by abysmal native conditions in their own country". Why wait until 2010? Are we to wait until the London 2012 Olympics to address growing Islamophobia in Britain and Europe? Must we wait until the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games to examine corruption and human rights abuse allegations in Russia? Should we wait until next year, when the host of the 2016 Olympics is announced, for the IOC to inadvertently direct the eyes of Western activists to where and what the future fashionable causes will be?
Today, the Olympic Spotlight is so powerful precisely because it connects a mainstream event to subjects and places that are typically absent in Western media and political debate. Surely, we can do better than this. If the West were to have the moral rectitude and the global purview that Farrow and friends are demanding that China acquire, the Olympic spotlight would not be such a powerful tool for activists. We wouldn't need a spectacular global media event to tell us where global crises are occurring and whether or not to care. So, if record audiences tune into Farrow's web broadcasts from refugee camps next week, the power of the Olympic spotlight will once again be demonstrated. Even if these web broadcasts do some good and even if they manage to thoughtfully engage with the diplomatic complexities of the Beijing Games, they will also operate as a shameful reflection of our own highly-touted but ultimately bankrupt and event-oriented morality.
| August 2, 2008 |
We leave southern Sudan today-on our way to eastern Chad (via Addis Ababa)
The women I am traveling with are beyond amazing. The finest companions imaginable. Amazing too are the women we have been meeting with. They traveled from all over Sudan-- from Khartoum, eastern Sudan, Darfur and southern Sudan. They are courageous, deeply committed, strong , smart women who have been doing important work within their various communities -- on issues of women's rights, education for girls, equal representation in government etc etc. Here in south Sudan following decades of war, with a new government and an election on the horizon, this is a time for struggle, networking, women empowering other women --and it is a time for hope.
| August 1, 2008 |
www.darfurolympics.org is the website for the broadcasts.
Maybe this site too
Press release-Nobel Women's Initiative. juba
Nobel Women Peace Laureates Call for Immediate Cessation of Violence in Darfur and Support for the Full Implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
--August 1, 2008. (Juba, Southern Sudan)
A delegation of the Nobel Women's Initiative, including Nobel Peace Laureates Wangari Maathai of Kenya and Jody Williams of the United States, and award-winning American actress-activist Mia Farrow met in Juba this week with Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Government of Southern Sudan, three women ministers and with representatives of more than 30 Sudanese women's non-governmental groups from across the country. The delegation is meeting with women's groups in South Sudan to listen to their strategies for creating sustainable peace throughout Sudan and to express solidarity with those who are working tirelessly to strengthen and preserve the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The delegation traveled to Juba from Addis where meetings were held with Jean Ping, Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, and where the delegation also called for an immediate cessation of violence in Sudan's Darfur region.
Of paramount concern is the on-going, systematic violence against women and children, including the use of rape as a weapon of war. Sudan is also host to one of the world's largest number of internally displaced persons, a tremendous hardship for women and children. War in Darfur and political upheaval throughout Sudan are crushing the survival and health of all Sudanese women and girls. Sudan today is known as the country with the single highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Over her lifetime, experts working in the region estimate that a Sudanese woman is 150 times more likely to die in childbirth than her sisters in the United States or Europe. Almost all of these deaths are preventable if peace is sustained.
Delegates refuted the notion that Darfur is an exclusively African problem, as violence has spilled well beyond Sudan's borders into neighboring countries, including Chad and the Central African Republic, threatening security in those countries. To secure a lasting peace, strong leadership is required from all African countries, with the support of the African Union and the international community. The onus is on the entire international community to bring an end to the horrors in Darfur and other parts of Sudan. The delegation is calling upon all governments in the region to prioritize the protection of people in Darfur and those living in refugee camps in Eastern Chad and on other borders as well.
Specifically, the delegation called for the international community to fully implement UN Resolution 1769 and immediately fully deploy UN peacekeepers in Darfur. The delegation is appealing to the leadership in Sudan to allow the resolution to be fully and rapidly implemented for the sake of the people of Sudan, particularly the people of Darfur. Delegates reminded the international community of its responsibility to protect the people of Darfur, as agreed to by the Government of Sudan and the rest of the international community at the 2005 UN World Summit.
The delegation is concerned about the practice of extracting resources from Sudan and all of Africa in exchange for weapons that fuel conflicts and promote suffering. The delegation is calling upon countries that do business with Sudan and indeed all of Africa to support these countries to promote good governance that respects human rights and protects its people. Those who consider themselves friends of Africa should support the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. These same countries must persuade Khartoum to cease ongoing bombardments and ground attacks on civilians and cease to obstruct the full deployment of peacekeepers.
Representatives of the women's delegation explained the goals of their trip as follows:
1. To spotlight and raise awareness of the massive violations to women's human rights;
2. To reinforce efforts to bring about participatory governance in Sudan and Burma (and throughout the world); and
3. To call upon citizens around the world to take individual and collective action to build sustainable peace and to insist that the international community implement existing commitments for peace, justice and equality in Burma and Sudan.
A spineless Security Council caves in to Khartoum yet again
Juba, Southern SudanIn the wake of their shameful refusal to take a stand on Zimbabwe, the Security Council continues its alarming slide down the human rights slope.
The ICC recommendation to indict Al-Bashir sends a message to brutal regimes around the globe that they can no longer enjoy complete impunity. Whatever they might be saying publicly, Khartoum is surely reeling. And there are 52 thugs beneath Bashir who might be next. Everywhere we (the Nobel Women's delegation) travel, the first question asked by the press is what we think about the indictment. Here in Southern Sudan many feel it presents an opportunity for the SPLM to step in and play a major role.
UN reauthorizes Darfur peacekeeping
UNITED NATIONS (AP) The U.N. Security Council has approved another year of peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region despite sharp divisions over genocide charges against the Sudanese president.
The United States supports the mission but abstained from the council's 14-0 vote Thursday night.
It objects to language in the resolution that notes that the African Union wants the council to freeze the International Criminal Court's prosecution of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
U.S. spokesman Richard Grenell says that language sends the wrong signal to a man who presided over genocide.