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| September 30, 2008 |
Here is my article from my Haiti trip with UNICEF, as published on CNN.com. I have added a link to the photos I took there.
I have just returned from my latest trip as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Once again I found myself in one of the world's poorest countries; once again I held children with stick limbs and distended bellies. http://www.miafarrow.org/images/galleries/haiti/index.htm
I have just returned from my latest trip as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Once again I found myself in one of the world's poorest countries; once again I held children with stick limbs and distended bellies. http://www.miafarrow.org/
Again, most of these children are without clean water, adequate food, basic health care and the opportunity for an education. Again, before they reach the age of five, many will die from preventable diseases.
But this visit was not to Africa. These are the grim realities for the people of Haiti, just one hour from the shores of the United States.
Haiti is shattered by decades of poverty, violence, bad governance and neglect. There is little infrastructure, no jobs for 75% of the population, child trafficking is common, there are countless orphans and street children.
Then a few weeks ago, things got a whole lot worse for the people of Haiti, when the first of four hurricanes pounded their shores.
The damage wrought by Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike is beyond imagining or describing. Whole cities and villages are devastated, fields and crops lie beneath water. Roads and bridges are washed out. Many areas remain inaccessible to relief workers. We cannot yet know how many have perished.
During that first week of September, water, some nine feet high, tore through the coastal city of Gonaives, sweeping people and their possessions away, shredding houses and shops. Gonaives was home to more than 350,000 people.
Today, thousands are still stranded on rooftops, more have crowded into schools and churches. Although the water has begun to recede, the city is choked with mud.
The hills behind Gonaives slid down and churned the broken things and people too into a thick, terrible soup. I have never seen or imagined there could be so much mud.
Still, here and there I saw people wading though the mud in search of belongings, or washing their clothes in the putrid water. I saw a man doing his best with a single bucket to haul the mountain of mud out of his house.
"We need food and water," an old woman cried with her arms outstretched. "Our children are sick," said another. The light streamed through the high windows of the cathedral in Gonaives. It was an eerie sight.
The pews had been tossed aside like matchsticks clearing a vast open space where a child, waist-high in mud, moved toward me with large, unsmiling eyes.
In the crowded, sweltering choirloft where hundreds of families had taken refuge, there is no water, no toilets, no food. Infants were sprawled on a dirty floor, and emotions were raw from fatigue, hunger and desperation.
I visited an orphanage where the children had been huddled on the second floor for these long three weeks. (The ground floor was filled with mud) There I met a little boy named Watson, who greeted me with a smile and a fist pump. As I was leaving, he said: "Stay with us." I told him that I couldn't but promised I would come back. Watson said. "I will pray for you."
I know as I write this, Watson and the other orphans are still on the upper floor of the orphanage, the babies are still sleeping on the church floor, the man with his bucket is still hauling mud, families are still stranded on rooftops and they are still hungry in sweltering makeshift shelters.
While the tsunami prompted a generous and immediate response from the international community, the situation in Haiti has largely gone unnoticed. Haiti and its people urgently need our help - especially the most vulnerable, the children.
The enormity of this catastrophe has overwhelmed the impoverished Haitian government and the UN agencies that are struggling to sustain human life there.
International and local aid workers on the ground have made a remarkable commitment to provide humanitarian assistance. But they cannot do it alone. I realize these are not easy times for Americans. But a small donation goes a very long way. For many of these families, who are, after all, our neighbors, it will mean the difference between life and death.
| September 26, 2008 |
No surprise-The Arab league opposes an indictment of Omar al-Bashir
Abdel Wahid Al-Nur, the head of the Sudan Liberation Movement, urged the International community not to delay the International Criminal Court's probable indictment of Sudanese president Omar al-Basir ."For the thousands of victims and the millions of displaced and refugees, Moreno-Ocampo remains the sole hope for justice. Instead of trying people who committed crimes, they ask victims to accept rape and killing" he said.
But the Arab League has aligned itself with Al-Bashir and is seeking a suspension of the indictment. From New York this week, the Prime Minister of Qatar ( Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani ) said, "We hope a resolution would be issued for a freeze in accordance with Article 16 (of the Rome Statute) and on the basis of that we will start to work into looking into the remaining issues."
Given their position, it is an outrage Qatar intends to host peace talks between Khartoum and Darfur rebels. The resistance movements are understandably reluctant to accept the mediation because of the entire Arab League's alliance with and support for Khartoum.
The forgotten voices of Darfuris
While the United Nations Security Council and diplomats at the UN General Assembly were discussing Darfur this week, they forgot to listen to the voices of Darfurians – who are the most important voices to be heard in this crisis. Darfurians feel that they are being left behind, and that their voices should be considered that is why we decided to meet with Mr Luis Moreno Ocampo. On September 24, myself and a group of about 150 Darfurians and Sudanese from different parts of the United States gathered in Brooklyn, New York to meet with Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and have a Ramadan Iftar with him. They wanted to stand with him and support his work – and make sure that he knows that they are the ones whose voices need to be heard.
When Ocampo entered the room, we as Darfurians stood up and showed our appreciation to him with one voice. We clapped and welcomed him with chants of support for over 10 minutes. People shouted things like, “Thank you” and “Justice for Darfur Now.” We as Darfurians said that we are there to show our unanimous support of the ICC to continue its work and indict Bashir – because at this critical moment we feel like we have been left behind. So many African and other international leaders have come to New York to figure out how to protect al-Bashir, who has committed genocide against our people. They have not, instead, thought of how to protect the IDPs and refugees and the Darfuri people who have suffered over the last six years.
He greeted us warmly and stood up and looked at every ones face carefully, and then he asked, how many of you were in Darfur when the crises started? The majority raised their hands up, and then followed by another question: how many of you who lost a family member or friend? All of us raised our hands up; he responded that this is why we do our work. All spoke in one voice said Mr. Ocampo you are making history, we must all stand together to make it happened, we have faith in what you are doing, because it’s a legal process and the law must be above all. We all admired him, a man with less speech and great deeds.
I heard my fellow Darfuians and Sudanese at the meeting express passionately their support for Mr. Ocampo’s bold efforts. For example, Motasim Adam - who spoke on behalf of the Darfur Peoples Association of NY - stated that we are here today to support your effort and to let the world know that perpetrators of genocide should held accountable. Brothers and sisters let us rally ourselves and unite behind our people’s right to justice. Omer Ismail - who came with the Darfuri and Sudanese group living in the Washington metropolitan, Virginia and Maryland area - stated: “Mr. Luis, what you have done is great work and we cannot allow others to let you down. We believe that this is the most important moment for Darfur and that we should stand for our people and voice our support for your work loudly.” And then there was Hisham from New Jersey - a Sudanese human rights activist from New York who attended with members of his community. He said, “Mr. Ocampo, Sudanese have long suffered under this regime and now Darfurians are currently suffering. We believe al-Bashir and all those who have committed crimes in Darfur should be held accountable. On behalf of many Sudanese human rights organizations, we are fully supporting you. Justice must be achieved in Darfur. We are against any delay or suspension of al-Bashir’s indictment.”
A Darfuri leader who has spoken out about the crimes committed in Darfur since 2003, Mohamed Yahya, spoke emotionally: “For those speaking about a suspension of the ICC’s work in Darfur, do they not believe that the murder of 21 members of my family are not enough to bring al-Bashir to justice?” He added, “Let us know whatever obstacles are facing you. We will do whatever we can to help you achieve justice in Darfur.” Abdou Abdalla, a young Darfuri leader who arrived with five others from Des Moines after an eighteen hour drive to New York, said, “We came 18 hours because we believe that the work you have done is most important to our people, and that it will help bring peace to our people. This is why we wanted to come and show our appreciation and support to you. And to speak out on behalf of victims who are currently suffering.”
Another Sudanese leader, Nouraddin Abdulmannan, from rescue Nubia - the Sudanese organization based in Washington DC, advocating for the right of the marginalized people of Sudan - spoke on behalf of the millions of marginalized people in Sudan. He said, “All marginalized people in Sudan support the indictment of al-Bashir and they believe that justice should be implemented in our country. No one will accept al-Bashir receiving another year to continue his crimes against the people of Darfur.” Amira who currently lives in Philadelphia, but just recently returned from a trip to Sudan, mentioned that “while she was in al-Fashir, she saw Bashir come to the town.” His supporters said that unless people support the government they will lose their jobs. He also threatened IDPs and refugees to return to their homes. She reported that the situation is worsening in the camps and throughout Darfur. With tears in her eyes, she pleaded, “How! I have just seen people suffering in the camps. But how are people considering delaying the indictment of al-Bashir to allow him to continue committing crimes against our people. I appeal to you Mr. Ocampo, please do not allow anyone to stop your work and stop your prosecution of the people who committed these crimes against our people.”
Samira Karar, a Sudanese woman from Khartoum who represents the Ramadan Family Martyrs organization, spoke by telephone from New Hampshire. She said, “I am one of the people who have suffered the most from this regime which killed 28 martyrs who were slaughtered during the holy month of Ramadan and buried in mass graves in 1990. The regime left family members like myself suffering until this day. I thank you for your historical stand with the people of Darfur. I support you, and I appeal to you and the entire international community to bring this genocidal criminal to justice. Justice must be implemented without any delay we the Sudanese people of Sudan who are eager to see these dictators brought to justice”
Finally, I was given a chance to speak and this was my message to Mr. Ocampo: “With the magnitude of the crisis in Darfur, the most who have suffered are the women. I am speaking on their behalf today. We stand for justice for those in the IDPS camps, and women like myself who have been repeatedly rape and subjected to different kinds of violence on a daily basis. No one should ask them to compromise their rights to justice. All Darfuri women believe that the perpetrators should be held accountable and that the indictment should not be delayed for one day or even one hour. My message to those African leaders: we are the African victims; the ICC is working to protect us. We hope that a day will come when African leaders can take care of us – instead of protecting al-Bashir who continues to commit crimes. We should be given a chance to make our voices heard and given a chance to give the opinions of the people inside Darfur, the refugee camps, and the diaspora. All of us unanimously support the indictment of al-Bashir. As we have received letters and other messages from the people living in the camps in Darfur and other Sudanese like organizations of the Ramadan martyrs. They all call for the indictment of al-Bashir without any delay.”
I believe you fulfilled your part, the UNSC must live up to its responsibility and do its part, they should say if al-Bashir will react against the people of Darfur and the humanitarian organizations, the court must proceed and we will protect the civilians and move forward.
You can view a letter sent to the UN Security Council two days ago from 120 representatives of Darfuri and Sudanese organizations and human rights activist that urged world leaders not to consider any delay or suspension of the decision by the ICC to indict al-Bashir. The letter is here: www.savedarfur.org/pages/sudanese_voices.
Photo credit: Meryl Tihanyi
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Tags: humanitiarian aid, ICC, Justice, Security Council, UN
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Adventures
| September 24, 2008 |
The arrest of Sudan’s Bashir should proceed
By Richard Holbrooke
Published: September 21 2008 17:57 |
The request from the International Criminal Court prosecutor for an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s president, caused much hand-wringing by diplomats and others who say the search for justice will derail peace negotiations or endanger humanitarian relief workers. Fearing that the crisis in Darfur will worsen if the prosecutor is allowed to proceed, they have launched an ill-considered campaign at the United Nations Security Council to delay the court’s proceedings, perhaps for a year. The very nations that created the ICC appear to be afraid to let it do its work. A vote for deferral might come as early as next month.
For me, this is familiar terrain. When Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb leaders, were indicted by the Yugoslav tribunal in July 1995 for orchestrating atrocities in Bosnia, the media and many diplomats lamented that we would be unable to negotiate peace for Bosnia. Less than five months later, an agreement was reached in Dayton to end the war.
What had seemed an insurmountable obstacle turned out to be an unexpected opportunity. Before the indictments, we had already decided to marginalise Gen Mladic and Mr Karadzic and force Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian president, to take full responsibility for the war. Our negotiating team met them only once – in a hunting villa just outside Belgrade in September 1995 – but only with a prior understanding that Mr Milosevic would be responsible for their conduct, and only to lift the three-year siege of Sarajevo, which we accomplished that night. Later, when Mr Milosevic insisted that to achieve peace the two men had to participate in negotiations, I offered to arrest them personally if they set foot in the US.
Their removal from negotiations helped greatly in our success even though Mr Karadzic, forced by Mr Milosevic to sign the Dayton agreement, must have known it would end his political career. After he stepped down he invented a fable that I – and later Madeleine Albright – made deals with him that Nato would not pursue him. This wholly fabricated story, coming from a war criminal who also said the Muslims bombed their own marketplace in Sarajevo to lure Nato into war, is grotesque.
The key point is that the pariah status created by the indictment contributed to resolving the conflict and creating a more stable situation in Bosnia. The tragedy was not that these evil men were indicted; it was that it took almost 13 years to arrest Mr Karadzic and that Gen Mladic is still at large.
The US and the European Union confront a similar issue with Darfur. In 2005, the Security Council determined that offering impunity was a threat to peace. It referred the situation to the ICC prosecutor, who announced that the evidence pointed to the top of Sudan’s government. Suddenly, some Council members backed away from their earlier stance. In a routine resolution to extend the mandate of the Darfur peacekeeping mission, they added a statement of “concern” about the prosecutor’s request and promised to raise the issue again.
The US abstained, neither wishing to veto the mission nor wanting to support anything leading to a delay in the prosecution of Mr Bashir. China, Russia and others argued that an arrest warrant against Mr Bashir would frustrate peace prospects and jeopardise humanitarian workers. In October, these countries plan to ask the Security Council to defer the ICC’s investigations for a renewable 12-month period.
Those advocating this step argue that it would give negotiators leverage to produce results in Darfur. Yet they have never produced evidence for this, nor defined what the benchmark for success would be at the end of the 12 months. Mr Bashir is simply playing for time, offering nothing. Mr Milosevic did the same. Give Mr Bashir a year and he will take it – and ask for more.
The US and the EU must resist efforts to suspend ICC prosecutions. Peace negotiations have been stalled for nearly a year for reasons unrelated to a possible warrant against Mr Bashir. Suspension may seem a safer course to follow in the short run, but it will embolden him and other future suspected war criminals.
Bringing perpetrators of international crimes to justice is undeniably difficult when trying simultaneously to end a conflict, but it is the right choice. War criminals should know that they can run but – as the evil Mr Karadzic ultimately learnt – sooner or later they will be brought to justice.
The writer is former special envoy for the Balkans, former US ambassador at the United Nations and is a supporter of Barack Obama
| September 19, 2008 |
Haiti
Dear FriendsTomorrow morning I leave for Haiti.
Since 16 August, four successive hurricanes have pounded Haiti, killing more than 500 and leaving at least 800,000 people stranded and in dire need of aid.
Haiti is uniquely ill-prepared to cope with a disaster of this magnitude. It is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and has been plagued by political violence for most of its history, although it has been stable through 2008.
I will do my best to blog from there.
Update
On 17 Sept 08 fighting took place close to Tawila approx 50 km west of El-Fasher between GOSMilitary forces and SLA/AW,SLA/MM troops. Thousand of civilians are reported to have fled recent fighting.
| September 18, 2008 |
"There is bombing both at Khazan Tungur and near Tawila with Antonov planes," Abu Bakr Kadu, a commander from the SLA-Unity faction, said from Darfur. The bombing has intensified over the past two weeks despite the fact that all offensive flying in Darfur is banned under the 2005 UN Security Council resolution.
Rebels on Wednesday said about 100 government vehicles packed with troops launched an attack, but were beaten back when separate SLA factions joined together in a unified force. "The bombing has continued again after Wednesday, but there are no government soldiers now," Kadu said, a report backed by other rebels.
"The ground forces are not here now, but the Antonovs are moving across the area," said Ibrahim al-Hillo, a commander from the SLA faction led by Paris-based exile Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur.
The joint UN-African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said peacekeepers at Tawila had witnessed a heavy troop presence. A UNAMID helicopter was also fired at but not hit in the Birmaza area of north Darfur on Wednesday, the fourth attack on a peacekeeping helicopter. The movement of UNAMID is heavily restricted with barely a third of the planned force deployed, and peacekeepers calling repeatedly for more helicopters.
Thousands of civilians are reported to have fled fighting in the past week, with their villages looted and burnt by government-supported militias, the Janjaweed.
Food rations from the World Food Programme were cut again this month for the 3.3 million people it feeds across Darfur .
More than 100 vehicles carrying aid from the World Food Programme have been hijacked in Darfur this year, with 43 drivers and 63 trucks still missing. Many more have been shot at and robbed, the WFP says.
The recent clashes have come amid mounting pressure on Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir as he seeks to head off potential charges from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and genocide in Darfur.
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| September 16, 2008 |
These pictures are not for children. It is your choice whether to view them or not. They are photographs of some of the victims of the attack on Kalma camp. The photographs are horriffic and very difficult to look at. But I place them here because I feel it should not be easy to turn away. Levels of knowing. Welcome to another level. The images may return in your nightmares, but this is the reality for Darfur's people. The Kalma attack is described in this article I wrote with Eric Reeves, for the Wall St Journal -- click here to read the editorial. Since then, a second camp has been attacked-Zamzam. When will the world DO SOMETHING to stop this???
Again, you will find these images disturbing and beyond human comprehension.
| September 15, 2008 |
Sudan Tribune - Sudan
Taha was the top official in charge of handling the Darfur crisis during 2003-2005. He secured the release of Hilal from prison to help mobilize Arab tribes ..
| September 14, 2008 |
Monday 15 September 2008.
SUDAN TRIBUNE
By Wasil Ali
September 14, 2008 (WASHINGTON) – Sudan 2nd Vice president Ali Osman Taha played a key role in mobilizing the notorious Janjaweed militias during the Darfur conflict, according to International Criminal Court (ICC) documents seen by Sudan Tribune over the weekend.
The ICC released a 113-page heavily redacted version of the application containing the request for an arrest warrant for Sudan president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir which was submitted under seal meaning it would not be released to the public in its original form. Per ICC rules any application submitted by the prosecutor could be under seal in terms of its mere existence, content or both.
The ICC prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced in mid-July that he requested an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir. Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder and accused Al-Bashir of masterminding a campaign to get rid of the African tribes in Darfur; Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.
Even though the prosecutor did not file charges against Taha, the application highlights his role during the violent conflict in Western Sudan. Ali Osman Taha “played an important role in implementing Al-Bashir’s plan, in particular by assisting in the mobilization of Militia/Janjaweed” the application says. Taha was the top official in charge of handling the Darfur crisis during 2003-2005.
Taha was quoted in the ICC application as telling 15 Janjaweed commanders that the war in Darfur “had been imposed upon them and that, as Arabs, they should preserve the unity of their land and religion”.
“We are willing to supply weapons, ammunition, camels, salary and horses. Martyrs will get money. For every wounded personnel, we are ready to transport them to Khartoum and even send them abroad for medical treatment. Please also accept greetings from the President Omer Al Bashir.” Taha also said, “I don’t want one single village of Zurgas in Darfur. All the Zurga lands are yours”. Zurga is a derogatory term used to describe members of the African tribes in Darfur.
Throughout the application the prosecutor provides numerous examples of the direct link between the Janjaweed and the government. - Ocampo alleged that Al-Bashir was maintained contact with Janjaweed leaders such as Ali Kushayb, Hamid Duwa’i, Musa Hilal and Mohammed Hamdan Himeiti.
In asserting Al-Bashir’s responsibility for the Darfur crimes the ICC showed how the Sudanese president had ultimate control over the progress of operations in Darfur. Al-Bashir told the Sudanese army that he “didn’t want any villages or prisoners, only scorched earth”, the prosecution said. “Speaking on national television in 2004, Al-Bashir told the Sudanese public that he had given the Armed Forces a carte blanche (in Arabic "atlakto yad al-jaysh") in Darfur not to take “asra” (war prisoners) or inflict injuries”. The ICC prosecutor also said that Al-Bashir dismissed a number of officials who opposed using the Janjaweed militias in Darfur because it would lead to crimes.
In January 2008 Musa Hilal was appointed by Al-Bashir to hold the post of an adviser for the ministry of federal government despite his criminal background, drawing heavy criticisms from Western countries and human right groups.
The prosecution said that Al-Bashir used the government agencies and the media to conceal crimes and to emphasize that the situation Darfur is stable and under control.
The ICC application said that Al-Bashir blocked humanitarian aid for months after the eruption of the armed conflict despite the rising mortality rates among the displaced Darfuris. “Between October 2003 and January 2004 the GoS almost entirely obstructed international assistance to displaced civilians and provided no aid of its own” the prosecution said.
The ICC cited numerous examples of brutalities conducted by the Sudanese army and the militias throughout the conflict in Darfur. In one example of Kyla village in South Darfur inhabited by the Fur tribe in August 2003, Sudanese forces and Janjaweed militias “encircled the village as villagers fled to the mosque or the local school” according to an eye witness who visited the area from Nyala right after the attack. The witness visited the village in the aftermath of the government attack where he and other locals “saw numerous dead bodies as they walked through the village, including that of his uncle and of two local women”.
“A baby had also been killed and was lying on his back with his penis cut off and stuffed in his mouth” the witness said in a testimony that withheld the names of the victims he encountered. The group discovered and buried a total of 67 bodies in the village.
The prosecution gave examples of specific incidents that crimes inflicted upon the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa satisfied the definition of genocide under the 1948 convention.
He also gave percentages of villages predominantly inhabited by the African tribes that were destroyed and/or abandoned as compared to those of the Arabs; Fur villages 81% (165 villages) were destroyed and abandoned, and 16% (33 villages) were abandoned but not destroyed; Masalit villages 57% (62 villages) were destroyed and 28% (31 villages) were abandoned but not destroyed; Arab villages - Fewer than 1% percent (1 village) were destroyed. Not a single village inhabited predominantly by Arabs was abandoned.
Moreover the application alleges that Sudanese forces targeted civilians in the villages despite the lack of presence by rebels in it.
“Al-Bashir’s forces singled out for attack those villages and small towns inhabited mainly by members of the target groups. The attackers went out of their way to spare from attack villages inhabited predominantly by so called “Arab” tribes aligned with Al-Bashir, even where they were located very near villages and towns inhabited predominantly by members of the target groups” the prosecutor said.
“Forces controlled by Al-Bashir consistently targeted not rebel forces, but civilians from the target groups. Attacks were typically launched against civilian targets, and did not cease until the town or village, as an entirety, had been victimized and its population forcibly displaced”.
The prosecutor then goes on to explain to the judges the issue of motive vs. intent in committing genocide using legal precedents and its application in the case of Darfur using the pattern of destruction and crimes that hit primarily the African tribes in Darfur.
At the conclusion of the application Ocampo made four requests of the judges including entering a finding “that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Al-Bashir committed the crimes charged in this application” and issuing an arrest warrant.
| September 12, 2008 |
More attacks across Darfur. Disaster for civilians
UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 11 September 2008 -- With fighting once again spreading across Darfur, UN officials are worried about not only the fate of the millions of people in the area, including hundreds of thousands who had to flee their homes, but also about the future of humanitarian operations given the recent spate of violence against aid vehicles.John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, yesterday discussed the renewed conflict in northern part of western Sudan and attacks by Sudanese government troops.
There have also been accounts of bombing of villages in North Darfur by government planes. This is especially disquieting because the two villages reported to have been targets, Birmaza and Disa are centers for the access to medical supplies and treatment, water, and many other necessities and are a crossroads for trade.
However, Sudan's government has told UN-African Union peacekeepers from UNAMID that it is not conducting operations in the area but this has been belied by sightings of troops with extensive weaponry, army vehicles, and other military provisions. UNAMID says there have also been more helicopters and planes belonging to the Sudanese armed forces seen in the region than usual.
Already unrest has spread through not only North Darfur but also the Jebel Marra area, which is part of several different states in Darfur , and has impeded, and forced the suspension of, the delivery of international assistances in some cases. As a result, some 450,000 people are negatively impacted.
Operations in Western Sudan may meet the same fate if attacks on UN vehicles transporting vital food and other supplies continue. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and other UN agencies have had more than 100 trucks seized so far in 2008 and an even larger number have been attacked and had the provisions they were carrying stolen. Around 70 of the vehicles have not yet been found and 43 of the drivers.
Currently, more than three million people receive food through these initiatives each month. But with few drivers willing to take the risk, it has become difficult for the WFP to get food and provisions to those who need them and rations have been reduced since May because of shortages in available food. The reduction in aid will become a total cessation if the violence is not curbed and some security reestablished.
Monika Midel, WFP Deputy Representative in Sudan, told the international community yesterday, "Repeated and targeted attacks on food convoys are making it extraordinarily difficult and dangerous for us to feed hungry people" and "Should these attacks continue, the situation will become intolerable- to the point that we will have to suspend operations in some areas of Darfur ."
The severity of the situation is shown by the fact that just last week the NGO German Agro Action (GAA) stopped giving out food to 450,000 people in North Darfur due to the unstable and dangerous environment. September is already a time in which humanitarian food assistance is critical because the supplies from the previous year's harvest have been exhausted.
Another consequence was shown by the outbreak of a food riot near an internally displaced persons camp last week that left one person dead and six hurt. It was precipitated by a shortage of sorghum due to problems and risk in bringing in supplies.
The WFP has also said that it "urges groups who have seized trucks and drivers to release them, unharmed. At stake are thousands of people in Darfur , who are reliant on the food lifeline."
| September 11, 2008 |
Khartoum is attacking another camp
At 6:30pm yesterday, Janjaweed attacked Zamzam camp, killed five and displaced and wounded dozens of others.The recent series of attacks is directed against displaced people in an effort to
dismantle camps and force their residents to flee. They cannot return to their villages because their homes and fields were burned and now Arab tribes from as far as Chad, Mali and Niger have occupied the lands.
Zamzam is located on the outskirts of El Fasher, where the headquarters of UNAMID, the UN/AU hybrid peacekeeping mission is located. Needless to say they are not protecting civilians .
A JEM spokesperson said UNAMID is "betraying Darfur people because
it failed to expose the criminality of the regime" adding it should
assume its historical responsibility. He also urged the UN Security
Council to hold an emergency session to discuss government violence
against Darfur IDPs camps.
They also said that this attack comes in line with President Omar
Al-Bashir statements that displaced persons should forcibly quit the camps, believing that
the closure of the camps will erase traces of Darfur crimes.
Just weeks ago Sudanese troops killed more than thirty IDPs in Kalma camp, in South Darfur.
IN YET ANOTHER ASSAULT
Sudanese military attack helicopters and Antonov planes today bombed Amar Jadid and Tarni
locations in eastern Jebel Mara,. The numbers of dead and wounded casualties are not yet available but a school was destroyed.
Civilians suffered casualties and figures will be available soon.
| September 10, 2008 |
Khartoum now attacking another camp
Sudanese government forces and Janjaweed militia are attacking Zamzam camp (south of El Fasher in North Darfur).GoS troops in 8 armored vehicles attacked the camp, and the
attack is on-going as I write.
I was told many refugees were killed and injured,
others are fleeing for their lives, and some have reached El Fasher
| September 8, 2008 |
WFP to suspend food deliveries in Darfur
The World Food Programme announced today that it will halt the food aid that sustains 3 million people unless humanitarian convoys can proceed safely. More than 100 WFP vehicles have been hijacked just this year alone. 43 drivers and 69 trucks remain missing.The 9000 UNAMID troops are not providing protection for the convoys or the aid workers. Of course, Khartoum has channeled billions of Chinese bucks into its armed forces. IF they wanted to, the Sudanese government could easily insure safe passage for humanitarians -as they agreed to do in UN Resolution 1769. They are exporting huge amounts of food. They could feed the displaced people of the Darfur region. But of course, that would not be consistent with their (genocidal) plan.
| September 6, 2008 |
Now Sudan
Is Attacking
Refugee Camps
By MIA FARROW and ERIC REEVES
September 6, 2008; Page A9
At 6 a.m. on the morning of Aug. 25, Kalma camp, home to 90,000 displaced Darfuris, was surrounded by Sudanese government forces. By 7 a.m., 60 heavily armed military vehicles had entered the camp, shooting and setting straw huts ablaze. Terrified civilians -- who had previously fled their burning villages when they were attacked by this same government and its proxy killers the Janjaweed -- hastily armed themselves with sticks, spears and knives. Of course, these were no match for machine guns and automatic weapons. By 9 a.m., the worst of the brutal assault was over. The vehicles rolled out leaving scores dead and over 100 wounded. Most were women and children.
The early morning attack ensured that no aid workers were present as witnesses. Doctors Without Borders did manage to negotiate the transportation of 49 of the most severely wounded to a hospital in the nearby town of Nyala. But beyond this, aid workers have been blocked from entering the camp. Military vehicles have now increased in number and massed around Kalma. They have permitted no humanitarian assistance to reach the wounded. People already hard hit by recent floods and deteriorating sanitary conditions have received no food, water or medicine since Monday. The dead cannot even be buried with the white shrouds requested by the families of the victims.
How can such brazen cruelty be inflicted upon our fellow human beings? How is it that a military assault on displaced civilians in a refugee camp creates barely a ripple in the news cycle? How does such outrageous human destruction prompt so little outrage? How is it that those who have been tasked with protecting the world's most vulnerable population have failed -- and failed, and then failed yet again -- in their central responsibility? What does this say about the United Nations and the powerful member states? How have we come to such a moment?
Such questions can be answered by looking at our response to Darfur's agony over the past six years. Any honest assessment would be as shocking and dispiriting as the assault on Kalma itself. The international response to massive crimes by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his cabal has been simply this: We accommodate and acquiesce, with the contrived hope that these tyrants might grow weary of their task, or that paper agreements can somehow have meaning without a sustained and powerful international commitment backing them.
The Kalma massacre is a part of Khartoum's larger genocidal campaign. Since 2003, 80%-90% of Darfur's African villages have been destroyed, and more than 2.5 million survivors have fled to squalid camps across Darfur, eastern Chad and the Central African Republic. Hundreds of thousands have died. Khartoum's next goal is to shut down camps in Darfur, and force people out into the desert where they cannot survive. The homes and fields that once sustained so many of Darfur's people are ashes now, or they have new occupants -- Arab tribes from Darfur and as far away as Chad, Niger and Mali.
The message of the Kalma massacre is chillingly clear for Darfuris. But this assault on civilians in full view of the international community raises the question of what the massacre says about the rest of us. The only message we have sent to the Sudanese government is that they can now attack the camps and the world will watch and do nothing.
Ms. Farrow has just returned from her 10th trip to the Darfur region. Mr. Reeves is author of "A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide" (The Key Publishing House, 2007).
| September 3, 2008 |
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