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| November 30, 2008 |
Congo update
Four million people have died in Congo's two civil wars, most of them from disease and starvation.A quarter of a million people have fled the fighting and atrocities in the region. Unable to access their fields, civilians rely on humanitarian aid in refugee camps. Congolese Tutsi rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda threatened war on Saturday unless Congo's government entered a new round of talks with him, "If there is no negotiation, let us say then there is war", Nkunda declared yesterday. Nkunda, whose forces have routed government troops, has gained swathes of territory in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo since launching a new offensive in August.
| November 29, 2008 |
Affirm that justice is a vital component of both sustainable peace and security in Sudan,
Express your commitment to the independence of the ICC and rejecting any attempt to invoke article 16 of the Rome Statute to defer investigation or prosecution of crimes in Darfur by the ICC,
Call upon Sudan to comply with its obligation to cooperate with the ICC in accordance with Resolution 1593, including by arresting and surrendering any individual subject to outstanding arrest warrants,
Call on all parties to the conflict to refrain from committing violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and
Emphasize that the Security Council will not tolerate threats or retaliation against peacekeepers, humanitarian workers or civilians in Darfur for any reason, including in response to the ICC’s investigations in Darfur.
Ending the environment of impunity in Darfur is not only in the interests of the victims there, but of the entire international community. We urge you to demonstrate your support of the ICC’s vital efforts as well as the Council’s resolve to ensure justice for the victims of these heinous crimes.
| November 27, 2008 |
| November 26, 2008 |
| November 25, 2008 |
Congo's people urgently need protection as their country slides toward mass atrocities
The leader of Congo's Tutsi rebels staged his first public rally over the weekend in newly conquered territory.Laurent Nkunda told the crowd not to be afraid. But two former high ranking United Nations officials are warning that the conditions look frighteningly similar to those before the Rwanda genocide in 1994.
UN officials are calling on the British Government to support a deployment of European forces to protect the Congolese population. The current conflict owes its origins to the Rwandan genocide. The mass murder of General Nkunda's fellow Tutsis by Hutu militias allows him to claim he is defending a minority.
Jean-Marie Guehenno, the former chief of UN peacekeeping, believes that the extra UN troops being sent to the Congo need to be elite soldiers from Europe.
| November 24, 2008 |
Listen UP-- This is really EXCELLENT!!!! Meet the XO-the perfect gift for a child or two
Thanks to Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child, there are now 500,000 laptops in the hands of children in 31 countries. It will soon be one million. The laptops are being send to all the right places: Rwanda, Haiti, Afghanistan, Palestine, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Mongolia. Give One Get One is launched with Amazon as a partner. The little lap tops are TOTALLY COOL- perfect for kids 6-12 --they are virtually indestructible.-- you can actually drop them and at $199.00 they are miraculously inexpensive. Best of all we can give them to the world's poorest children.Here's what the Amazon page says:
"Why give a laptop to a child in the emerging world? If you replace the word "laptop" with "education" the answer becomes clear. You don't wait to educate until all other challenges are resolved. You educate at the same time because it's such an important part of all the other solutions.
The XO laptop was designed especially for children. So no matter who they are or where they live, this computer has the perfect features and software to get them excited about learning. Just imagine how the world would change if every child had the tools to unleash their full potential."
So you can go to http://www.amazon.com/xo> and get one the next day or just give one. You buy it and they get it into the hands of a child in one of the world's poorest countries-- for $199.00. Or you can give a laptop AND buy one for the child in your own world for $399.000 . If you have the ability, you could give 100 or 1000 and even specify where they are to go! For example, somebody can buy 100 for a refugee camp or buy 1000 for a small town. The pricing varies if it is Darfur, Bogota or New York, with the developed world subsidizing the poorest countries of the world.
Here's a link to the video about the laptop
http://www.amazon.com/gp/
| November 23, 2008 |
Christian Science Monitor - Boston,MA,USA
Translation: Seek to arrest our president and we'll unleash further hell on the aid personnel who protect Darfur's vulnerable civilian populations-
Boston Globe - United States
By Jonathan M. Katz AP / November 23, 2008 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The 5-year-old teetered on broomstick legs - he weighed less than 20 pounds, ...
| November 22, 2008 |
Best and Worst African Countries for Children to Live in
NAIROBI (AFP) . Mauritius and Namibia are the best African nations for children to live in, while Guinea Bissau and Eritrea are the worst, according to a report released in Nairobi on Thursday.
The report, "The African Report on Child Wellbeing: How child-friendly are African governments," surveyed 52 African nations except lawless Somalia and Western Sahara, which is still fighting for independence from Morocco.
The top 10 were Mauritius, Namibia, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Kenya, South Africa, Malawi, Algeria and Cape Verde.
"These countries have put in place child-friendly laws and policies, use a large share of their resources to provide for the basic needs of children and have improved the use of health and education services," the report said.
Least child-friendly countries are: Guinea Bissau, Eritrea, Central African Republic, Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe, Liberia, Chad, Swaziland, Comoros and Guinea.
"Many of these countries have not ratified the relevant child rights treaties, do not have adequate legal provisions to protect children against abuse and harmful traditional practices like early marriage, do not have juvenile justice systems, do not prohibit corporal punishment and do not exert the maximum effort to provide for children's basic needs," the report said.
Officials said that children in Africa, a poor continent notorious for using child soldiers, are still suffering at the hands of care-free governments.
"Life for millions of Africa's children remains short, poor, insecure and violent. We hope this report will ensure that children are put at the forefront of governments' attention," said Stefan van der Swaluw, Africa's director for International Child Support.
| November 21, 2008 |
Four and a half million people live in Central African Republic-and just 2,916 medical personnel ( and only about 5 doctors outside of the capital of Bangui.) One in ten babies dies at birth. Of those who survive, one in five will die before their fifth birthday.
Twice as many women die in pregnancy than a decade ago and in districts such as Nana Gribizi – an area the size of Wales – there are just two midwives. They don't even have the minimum level of healthcare any more.
| November 20, 2008 |
ICC calls for arrest warrants for rebel splinter faction responsible for Haskanita murders of peacekeepers.
Today the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, applied for an arrest warrant for war crimes against several members of a splinter rebel faction in Darfur related to the September 29, 2007 attack on African Union peacekeepers in Haskanita. The Chief Prosecutor's actions are a powerful reminder that the Court will pursue justice with an even hand and follow the chain of evidence with regard to crimes against humanity wherever it leads.Efforts by parties, including the Sudanese Government, to build support for invoking Article 16 will not be taken seriously until there is a peace to keep in Darfur.
| November 17, 2008 |
"This is just to explain to them our vision on the peaceful solution and to hear more from them on the issue."
The Arab League asked Qatar to sponsor new peace talks weeks after the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) made moves to indict Sudan's president for orchestrating war crimes in Darfur in July. A high-level Qatari delegation met JEM's leader Khalil Ibrahim on the Sudan-Chad border earlier this month to try to persuade him to attend.
Experts agree that both the Qatari initiative and the recent declaration by Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir of a unilateral cease-fire represent efforts by the Al-Bashir to persuade the U.N.'s Security Council to use its powers to postpone the ICC's proceedings.
But rebels say Sudanese troops broke the ceasefire within days of Al-Bashir’s announcement by attacking their positions on Friday and Saturday.
| November 16, 2008 |
Shedding light
http://www.sudantribune.com/This is huge. Shihab would not make such a statement without green light from Mubarak. It sheds some light on the closed meeting between Bashir and Mubarak this week. Bear in mind that it was Shihab himself who kept making statement after statement- since July (all documented) that ICC has no jurisdiction and that Bashir enjoys immunity. Today he has made a 360 degree turn. Very interesting.
| November 15, 2008 |
Understanding the situation in Congo today
The current crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the recruitment of children, the killing of civilians and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people is but the latest in an unbroken chain of human suffering. The UN peacekeeping force in Congo, the largest in the world, has proved incapable of protecting ordinary Congolese from the region's political and military leaders.This latest surge of violence is the result of the ambitions of Tutsi rebel leader, Laurent Nkunda, to seize power in North Kivu, a province in eastern Congo. Nkunda is partly supported by neighboring Rwanda, which has twice invaded Congo since 1996. He is opposed by Congo's President, Joseph Kabila, whose undisciplined, incompetent and by current reports from the region, drunken army is allied to Rwandan Hutu rebels linked to the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
Congo's history is rooted in suffering and exploitation, first by Belgium in the 19th century, under the greedy and brutal King Leopold II. For a detailed look at Congo's colonial history read the brilliant, King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (Houghton-Mifflin, 1998), by Adam Hochschild. Rubber was then the Congo's most desired resource. Today it is gold, diamonds and other minerals, but the link between the plundering of natural resources and massive human suffering remains the same.
An interesting piece by Anneke Van Woudenberg (a senior researcher on the Democratic Republic of Congo at Human Rights Watch in England ) points out that "there's an inspiring message, too, in Hochschild's book: the power of individuals to bring change by naming and shaming those responsible for perpetuating a corrupt and brutal system. Long before the emergence of professional human rights organizations, dedicated individuals such as Edmund Morel and Roger Casement helped to bring an end to the worst of King Leopold's abuses through tireless documentation and campaigning".
Ms Van Woudenberg also recommends Michela Wrong's In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, which she describes as a riviting account of one of Africas most extraordinary dictators, Mobutu Sese Seko, who came to power after the Belgians withdrew from Congo in 1960. The dictator's manipulation of ethnic conflicts and his encouragement of massive corruption kept the majority of Congolese in dire poverty and set the stage for the implosion of the country in the 1990s. He was ousted by Rwandan backed rebel militia. Wrong's book helps to explain the regional politics that made the 1994 Rwandan genocide the trigger for the regional war that swept Mobutu from power and unleashed a maelstrom of conflict that continues to this day.
Of course anyone interested in Africa has almost certainly read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which Ms Wrongs references in her title.
By the way, Michela Wrong also wrote I Didn't Do it For You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation, a gripping story of colonialism itself, told through the abuses against Eritrea.
Another book which helps us to understand today's Congo is, The Rebels' Hour, a work of meticulously researched fiction by Dutch writer Lieve Joris. We see a young man forced to chose between becoming a victim or predator in a sea of ethnic violence.
For anyone wanting to read about recent events, there is Bryan Mealer's excellent All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo which focuses on events in the Congo from 2003 to 2006 .
The Congolese people have been victim to violence for too long.
The ICC's possible indictment of Sudan's president continues to provide leverage for a peace process . But many remain skeptical.
In July, the chief prosecutor of the ICC sought an arrest warrant for Omar Al-Bashir on 10 counts of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Sudan, not surprisingly, wants the UN Security Council to suspend any proceedings for a year. ( China, Arab and African countries have sided with Al-Bashir.)After more than 5 years of relentless bombings and attacks resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions, Al-Bashir declared:
""I hereby announce our immediate unconditional ceasefire between the armed forces and warring factions provided that an effective monitoring mechanism be put into action and be observed by all involved parties."
Just like that.
Ban Ki Moon welcomed Al-Bashir's declaration of an immediate ceasefire as well as the intention by the government of Sudan to disarm all the militias, but added a note of caution, saying the world expects "concrete progress".
But a Western diplomat said the government had to meet a set of criteria in order to seek a deferral of the indictment:
1. Faster deployment of the UN-African Union force (UNAMID),
2. cessation of hostilities,
3. a better environment for displaced people and humanitarian aid workers,
4. uninterrupted implementation of the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement.
This ceasefire, if it held, would satisfy only one of those criteria. What is more, the president announced the ceasefire with a caveat
"provided that an effective monitoring mechanism be put into action and be observed by all involved parties".
And what "effective monitoring system" could that be? "There are no forces that can monitor the ceasefire," said Foreign Minister Deng Alor of the SPLM. "The decision to call for a ceasefire is a positive thing, but then it has to be made to work."
Ali Hassan, the head of UNAMID in southern Darfur, said "The government has put something concrete on the table for discussion. It puts on the table ... almost all the issues the rebels have demanded." (AP)
But Darfur's rebel leader, Abdul Wahid, the leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, said the rebels will not accept any ceasefire until the janjaweed are disarmed.
"We need action not words from them, It's not a matter of the ceasefire, it's a matter of stopping the genocide ... We don't trust these people."(AP)
Darfur's rebels have split into some 12 different groups. This ceasefire by Al-Bashir has tossed the ball squarely in their court. They will now be under pressure from outside players, including the US and even the government of Chad. This week the Chadian and Sudanese governments normalized relations by once again exchanging ambassadors.
Darfur activists in the US are pushing President-elect Barack Obama to make Darfur a top tier issue when he takes office in January. Obama has called the crisis "a collective stain on our national and human conscience" and said he would make ending it a priority on "day one". He has promised to appoint a special envoy to deal with the Darfur issue and to implement the now disintegrating Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005, which ended 22 years of a bloody war between the North and South in which more than 2 million people were killed.
When I visited southern Sudan (twice) this year, it was clear the people are braced for a possible return to fighting. Al-Bashir and his cabal in Khartoum have not lived up to their part of the agreement. The attack this year by Sudanese forces on town of Abeyei, in the oil rich borderland of the south, signaled the precariousness of the north/south relations.
As for Darfur's refugees, they do not believe any peace process can take place while Omar Al-Bashir is in power.
| November 13, 2008 |
What about Al-Bashir's announcement of a ceasefire.
It seems that Alex De Waal is already celebrating:"The most important reality today [with announcement of ceasefire] is that the denial and self-imposed political paralysis that have marked the Sudanese political establishment's approach to Darfur have been decisively overcome.. There's a glimmer of hope."
"Decisively overcome"? What am I not seeing?
But Sudanese insiders are more circumspect. Pagan Amum, secretary-general of the Southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), a partner in a government of national unity following the 2005 peace deal, said the ceasefire was a good start.
"[But] declarations are not enough. Implementation is what is needed." Amum said this ceasefire alone would not be enough to convince the international community to suspend Bashir's likely indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, but rather, "a peace process, giving results and serious commitment".
Rebels have responded with complete scepticism.
So, while Alex DeWaal's "glimmer of hope" is tempting to see, at this point the ceasefire smacks of pure PR. Until there are major changes on the ground in Darfur: security for civilians and humanitarians, a much more robust deployment of UNAMID, and an inclusive, comprehensive peace agreement implimented - all talk of UN Security Council action vis-a-vis the ICC is premature. And this is certainly true for Article 16 of the Rome Statute, which comes into the ambit of UN SC authority only by means of the 'intl peace and security' responsibilities clause. In other words, Al-Bashir is not even close to warranting Article 16 consideration...but he certainly knows what he has to do.
Tension mounts as foreign troops enter Congo fighting. This is a good, informative piece with a "who's who" list of combatants.
Foreign troops 'drawn into Congo' <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/BBC News - UK
... and no one doubts that foreign troops played a key role in that conflict. Forces from Chad and Central African Republic were also involved in that conflict.
| November 12, 2008 |
Who attacked Sam Ouandja and why.
A well informed friend told me this: "Those who attacked Sam Ouandja ( a remote Central African Republic village on the Darfur border)are part of a breakaway faction of Damane Zakaria's UFDR (the union of rebel groups). Damane has signed a peace accord with the government and that accord is still holding. The breakaway group attacked the FACA (the CAR armed forces)in Sam Ouandja in an attempt to steal arms andammunition. (There are indications of an ethnic split within the
UFDR.) The peace between the FACA and the UFDR held and they were jointly able to repel the attackers by daybreak.
The attackers ignored the refugees who remain in place.
Sadly, 3/4 of the village of Sam Ouandja are reported to have fled."
Heartbreaking to contemplate people fleeing - I can scarcely imagine the level of terror that people experience as they try to gather their children and run-run away from their their homes.
The refugees, we are told, did not flee. But they know the terror all to well. Their own village was attacked and they fled -walking for 10 days across the desert to Sam Ouandja.
They did not flee this time. Perhaps this is why; A Darfuri refugee in eastern Chad described the first attack on his village, and the long flight into Chad. And then the next attacks-i this time upon the refugee camp. He said the refugees didn't run away because they didn't know the terraine, or where there might be water. They didn't know where to run and they feared they would die if they tried. So they sat on the ground and held their children "and we were thinking, 'no hopes for us, no hopes for us'.
I posted a blog a few days ago about Sam Ouandja and the fact that EUFOR evacuated a group of aid workers.
My friend writes" There is general optimism that the government
is at last moving in good faith. The bad news is an APRD attack into a
new area of the Southwest and an attack on the FACA that left 10-14 dead between the Chadian border and the town of Kabo."
Al-Bashir's new 'peace'tactic is a sham, designed to sideline ICC indictment.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is obviously feeling the heat. In an effort to sideline the impending ICC indictment against him for mass atrocity crimes including genocide, al-Bashir announced a ceasefire by government forces in the devastated Darfur region. He is now calling for rebels to join in peace negotiations. But Darfur's rebel groups have good reason to dismiss al-Bashir's overtures for peace. At least 300,000 have died and nearly 3 million have been displaced as a result of al-Bashir's assaults upon civilians in the Darfur region.No one should be fooled by these new "peace' tactics which Human Right Watch described as "window dressing. ". . <http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/
| November 11, 2008 |
"I have regrets about Darfur, real regrets."
Congo slipping toward war. All prevention measures must be taken by the international community without delay
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda said Monday he was ready to fight regional peacekeepers if they entered eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and supported the Congolese army and its allies. Fighting in eastern Congo has uprooted hundreds of thousands of people, caused international alarm and prompted a warning from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that it could engulf other countries in central Africa.Southern African countries said Sunday they were willing to send peacekeepers to try to help stabilise eastern Congo, where Nkunda's Tutsi rebels are fighting Congolese government soldiers (FARDC) and Hutu rebels (FDLR).
"If they are coming in to support peace, there is no problem. If they are supporting operations against the FDLR (Hutu's) , there is no problem," Nkunda told Reuters by telephone from eastern Congo.
"If they come in and fight alongside the FARDC (government) and the FDLR(Hutu's) , they will be weakened, they will share the same shame as the DRC government. If South African Development Community(SADC engages like this, they will have made a mistake," he said. "I am ready to fight them."
Tomaz Salamao, executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said Sunday a team of military experts should be deployed immediately to assess the situation and provide assistance to Congo's army.
| November 9, 2008 |
Washington Post - United States
... sending some 250000 people fleeing their homes and reviving fears that this vast Central African nation could slip into all-out war once again. ...
See all stories on this topic <http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ncl=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/09/AR2008110902127.html>
Sam Ouandja, a remote village on the Darfur border received some unexpected guests in May of 2007 when the first group refugees arrived from Darfur. Over the days that followed, hundreds more, nearly 3000 in all, arrived on foot after walking for more than ten days when their village (Daffak) in South Darfur was attacked by Sudanese militia. The population of Sam Ouandja generously welcomed the refugees and gave them land to settle on and to cultivate. This despite the fact that the local population had itself sufferered from attacks in 2006 and early 2007.
The area is difficult to reach and during the rainy season it is cut off from CAR’s capital of Bangui. UNHRC, UNICEF and WFP responded quickly to meet the urgent needs of the refugees who were suffering from dehydration, anemia, malnutrition and diarrhea.
When I visited Sam Ouandja earlier this year, the refugees told me they live in fear of attacks from Sudan. Coincidentally, EUFOR was there then too. They were heading towards Chad as they had had news of a janjaweed massing. It was great to see them patrolling that volatile border, providing a measure of security for the people there.
Now, two helicopters from EUFOR’s headquarters in Abece (in neighboring Chad), airlifted the aid workers to safety, but I have no news of what is happening to the refugees and the local populations.
EUFOR began a year-long United Nations-mandated mission in March. I cannot adequately convey how happy the people –refugees and local populations are to have them there. I WISH they could stay at least one more year—or better still, until peace comes to the region.
| November 8, 2008 |
Prendergast: The DPA didn’t address the fundamental issues in Darfur. The DPA was a deeply, deeply flawed document that didn’t deal with the dismantling of the Janjaweed structures, didn’t adequately address the core demand of Darfurians from all walks of life that there would be substantial individual compensation—which is really what they’re seeking—and there was inadequate power-sharing and wealth-sharing terms. So until those issues are on the table and really being negotiated, there won’t be any peace in Darfur.
ST: You believe that peace-making in Sudan would be cost-effective. In what way?
Prendergast: What we’re doing now is we’re sending billions of dollars in humanitarian assistance and in support for observer forces—I can’t even say peacekeeping forces because they’re not keeping any peace—and we’re sending this money without any strategy for addressing the core problem, without any strategy of ending the problems. With these billions of dollars, we are simply managing the symptoms of the crisis in Darfur, not addressing the root causes.
Now we’ve got a chance, because the new administration is coming in, to re-focus the lense and say, instead of continuing with this sort of status quo working around the edges, let’s go at the core. Let’s deal with the crisis directly with a diplomatic strategy to try to end the war, which costs very little, and hopefully save over the next decade billions of dollars for humanitarian assistance and the peace observer mission and those kinds of forces.
ST: Is there anything that would justify deferring the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, who is indicted on ten counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity?
Prendergast: The charter of the ICC says that the Security Council can suspend, one year at a time, the proceedings of the case in the interests of peace and justice. If the Sudanese government signed a peace deal with the Darfurian rebels—a serious, significant peace deal that would address the concerns, that wasn’t a DPA-like document but actually was a real peace agreement like we have with the southern Sudanese, then we would be the first ones to argue for a suspension—for a year. And then if they don’t implement the agreement you let the case proceed.
But there are no adequate local mechanisms right now to deal with the enormity of the crimes. In a judicial sense I don’t think you can say that.
ST: The letter to the next president says that US should work with the European Union to bring sanctions against Sudan for leverage. But how will the US work with its partners in the Arab world?
Prendergast: It’s becoming an embarrassment for Arab countries to continuously back this government when this crisis simply sustains itself and nothing happens to diminish it. And the more that they have to defend this government from the rest of the world’s condemnations, the more irritating it becomes for some of these governments. So they have mounted behind Qatar in this effort, but the Qataris didn’t coordinate well with the Egyptians. So that’s a problem within the Arab world—I’m sure that this process is structurally not yet sufficient to even begin to address the problems of Darfur, but you don’t want to dismiss things before they get started. The point is, a comprehensive approach to the problem in Darfur requires deep, serious and sustained engagement of the key countries in the Arab world, starting with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, working with them closely every step of the way.
ST: The letter to the next president states that the U.S. and the UN must not allow Khartoum to decide the size, national composition and timeframe for deployment of the UNAMID peacekeeping mission in Darfur. What mechanism is there to make this happen?
Prendergast: One of the main reasons countries are not supporting UNAMID is that there is no strategy for ending this thing, for ameliorating the conflict. So countries are not sending their forces to do traditional peacekeeping or peace observation, they’re going into a full-scale war that has no prospects for resolution. Very few countries want to send their troops into harm’s way. But if suddenly there is a political strategy and peace process that potentially could end this thing and deal with the serious challenges that Darfur presents, I am sure more countries would get on board. We have got to get at the roots of resistance, the reason why these countries are not owning up is that this is a loser mission, because the war is going to continue in Darfur.
ST: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer was in Khartoum on Monday. She was in Juba too. Is that the equivalent of the “peace surge” you advocate, or is it different?
Prendergast: The internal divisions alone within the Bush administration have made that impossible. Bickering and undermining of Special Envoy Williamson ensures that the US efforts are divided and largely impotent in addressing the core problems of Darfur. And she has been a major part of the problem—the last envoy, Natsios, and this envoy—there are continuous problems between them and her. It appears she is just concerned about turf, who controls Sudan policy. Sadly, this is one of the obsessions of bureaucrats over the last century. And Jendayi Frazer appears to be no exception to that: controlling the policy appears more important than getting real progress on addressing the fundamental objectives.
And what have we seen? We’ve seen no progress on rapid deployment of UNAMID, we’ve seen no progress in the peace process, we’ve seen very little support for real justice there, and the US isn’t supporting the ICC, we’re just sort of standing on the sidelines. So we’re doing very little to address the reasons that caused the problems there in Darfur.
ST: What leverage is there to bring rebel movements into negotiations? This administration has clearly failed to unite them, the UN has failed to unite them—is that the wrong approach?
Prendergast: The rebels will not be united in any significant way until there is a serious, sustained peace process that begins to lay out the core issues of concern to the people of Darfur. As long as there is no process, there is a vacuum in which individual assertion of control and inter-communal and inter-organizational divisions are hastening the dissolution of the social fabric of Darfur. The rebels just have not had anybody to seriously deal with yet and until they do they are going to continue to play their games. And I think that’s really been the big failing of our international effort—we haven’t given these guys anything to buy into.
Again, the DPA was the antithesis of what needs to be a comprehensive peace deal.
ST: Obama and his team have spoken favorably of a no-fly zone in Darfur. If there is a no-fly zone, isn’t there potential for escalation of conflict with Sudan?
Prendergast: I think that a no-fly zone is one of these things that should only be deployed if necessary, after we’ve begun a process of dealing with these guys in a more serious way, with multilateral leverage, and if that doesn’t work you go to the next level.
The no-fly zone would entail, most likely, the capacity to bomb individual planes in the Sudanese airfields that have carried out offensive operations. In other words, if there’s an offensive bombing or military attack of a civilian target, then that plane would then be shot at. Probably destroyed on the tarmac. It would not be a simple thing because it would be an act of war and the Sudanese would potentially respond by cutting off all airspace for humanitarian flights. And then we’d have to be prepared to do much more than that, than what we had done just bombing one plane. So it should only be employed if there is a commitment to doing much more in case the Sudanese reaction is destructive towards humanitarian operations.
ST: How influential do you think the activist movement will be on the next administration?
Prendergast: Both candidates in the run-up to the election were responsive and sensitive to the concerns of the Sudan advocates and pledged to do much more than the current administration did on Sudan. I believe that there is a bipartisan commitment in capital hill and within the Obama camp to really make this concept of “Never Again” more meaningful than it has been.
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article29186
Ulrich Delius: We think it is a very positive development that the British and French foreign secretaries traveled to the region and showed to all participants in this conflict, especially the governments of Rwanda and the Congo, that the EU has a vital interest in stabilizing peace in Central Africa. I think, politically, that is a very important message. Another question is would it be helpful for the EU to send military support to MONUC, the UN mission, or to have a humanitarian mission of its own military forces. This is a completely different point. We are quite reluctant when it comes to such an involvement because we had to analyze it in a practical way. Who might be able to send these soldiers on a very urgent mission to central Africa? It could only be France at the present time, and France has had an extremely difficult relationship with the Rwandan government for a long time due to its implication in its involvement in the genocide in 1994 in Rwanda. So sending French soldiers on behalf of the European Union would incite more problems than it would solve.
Q;There are currently 17,000 UN troops based in the Congo, which is the largest peace keeping force in the world, despite the fact that the Congo has a land area that is roughly the same size as western Europe. Do we need new troops sent in and should they be UN troops?
A. Certainly most experts think that we need new troops and there have been very concrete demands by the former MONUC leader Alan Doss. He presented a list of what he has been looking for months and months and nobody reacted. They only reacted at the last moment when they saw the peace process was collapsing in central Africa. But I think it's not only necessary to discuss new troops, but we also need to discuss the mandate of these troops and why these 17,000 UN peace keepers are unable to protect the civilian population and preserve peace. That's a really important question and nobody on the UN Security Council seems to be talking about this matter.
Q.The EU foreign ministers will gather in Brussels on Monday, November 10th. If sending French troops is such a problem what could they do to battle that?
A. Rebel forces are being led by Laurent Nkunda That would certainly be a positive step to finance more involvement of foreign troops in a MONUC mission. To encourage an open debate in the Security Council about the mandate of these MONUC troops and why they still have been unable to fulfill their mission. And to encourage all of the conflict's parties, especially the governments of the Congo and Rwanda and other African countries who have troops involved, to stick to this peace again there and to fulfill all the promises that were made during the peace conferences that have taken place over the last two years.
Q.Which European governments are considered to be friendly towards the Democratic Republic of Congo and why can't they send soldiers?
A.It's difficult to decide on a European level because we had this discussion in regard to Sudan and the mission there before. We heard about the difficulties of European countries to send any troops and have a larger involvement in the mission to Africa. Most of this is due to technical problems. Many are heavily involved in Iraq, Afghanistan and other peace keeping missions in Europe. We had this discussion for many months in regard to Sudan. European countries have been unable to support the UN there so why should we start this discussion about European involvement in the Congo? Let's focus on more realistic points, specifically putting more pressure on the Rwandan government. Many countries, especially Germany, have a very positive and intensive relationship with Rwanda. So why aren't they using their influence on [Rwandan President Paul Kagame] to push him to stop his support of General Nkunda and why aren't they talking about the inefficiency of the European programs to stabilize the Congo? In 2005 the European Union decided to start the EUSEC mission to improve the security sector in the Congo, especially for the police and the national army. Now the national army is the most prolific violator of human rights in the Congo so we need to talk about why we are spending so much money on these programs which really aren't that efficient.
Q.There talking about Nkunda's troops killing people as well, so can we really just blame the government?
A.No, we shouldn't blame just the government and we shouldn't blame just Nkunda. What we have seen is that over the past few weeks nearly 80 percent of all the human rights violations in the eastern Congo were not committed by rebels, but rather by the regular Congolese army. Just two days ago we got news about an incident where rebels murdered at least 12 civilians, and we have to criticize Nkunda over these killings, that's for sure. However, when we discuss who is responsible for protecting human rights and the civilian populations on both sides we need to ask ourselves what is the Congolese government doing to improve the human rights commitment of its own army and police force? And the answer is nothing.
Q.There was talk a while back about the African Union controlling a force or African countries sending troops into Darfur, why isn't it that the EU is working closer with the AU to try and solve this problem in the Congo?
A.There are certainly many foreign ministries in the European Union which might favor broader involvement of the African Union in the Congo conflict. But on the other hand they're also aware that the Congo conflict is also an African conflict involving many countries, not just the Congo and Rwanda. So many countries are involved militarily or politically in this struggle at the moment. But it's extremely difficult to get the African Union involved as a neutral party, and right now only neutral parties can be effective. Regarding the inefficiency of the African Union and its peace commitment in Darfur, it's really not a good idea to invite the AU to be more involved in the Congo because the Congo conflict is much more complex and much more difficult to solve than the Darfur conflict. They are failing in Darfur and they would be guaranteed to fail in the Congo.
| November 7, 2008 |
By Emmanuel Braun and Hereward Holland
KIBATI, Congo, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Thousands of frightened civilians fled fighting near a refugee camp in eastern Congo on Friday, as renewed clashes between rebels and government troops added urgency to a regional peace summit being held in Kenya.
Carrying infants, bundles, pots and even domestic animals, refugees streamed south away from the camp at Kibati at the base of the Nyiragongo volcano in Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern North Kivu province.
The sound of machine-gun, mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire echoed from the surrounding hills as Tutsi rebels loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda fought government troops dug in near Kibati, 7 km (4 miles) north of the North Kivu regional capital Goma. The clash occurred as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met African leaders at a summit at Nairobi in Kenya on Friday to try to end the conflict in eastern Congo.
A recent upsurge in fighting in North Kivu between Nkunda's rebels and government troops backed by militia allies has raised fears of a repeat of a wider 1998-2003 war in the vast, mineral-rich former Belgian colony. United Nations relief agencies, which run the Kibati camp, said the fighting had interrupted the distribution of aid and caused panic among the camp population.
"All our programmes in Kibati have been suspended as a result of the shooting, the whole camp is emptying," Jaya Murthy, spokesperson for the U.N. children's agency UNICEF in Goma, told Reuters.
A spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo (MONUC) said the fighting at Kibati broke out when rebel fighters advanced from their positions and fired into the air, drawing return fire from Congolese army (FARDC) troops.
"The FARDC soldiers were provoked to such a point by the (rebels) that they started to shoot," he said.
Witnesses said heavier firing broke out later, sending people running for cover and fleeing down the road. No details of casualties were immediately available.
CIVILIANS BEING KILLED
Witnesses saw a column of Congolese army troops heading north towards frontline positions occupied by Nkunda's rebels, who had suspended an offensive on Goma last week.
The UNHCR said it was worried about the risk of innocent civilians being caught in the crossfire of fighting.
"We are again appealing to all sides in the conflict to respect the civilian character of the camps, to respect humanitarian principles and to ensure the safety of civilians and those trying to help them," UNHCR chief spokesman Ron Redmond said in Geneva.
Refugees and aid workers have been clamouring for more protection by the 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo, whose commanders say they are thinly stretched across a country the size of Western Europe which has few paved roads.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Nkunda's rebels and government-backed Mai-Mai militias of deliberately killing civilians in fighting this week at Kiwanja, north of Goma.
"U.N. peacekeepers in the eastern Congo are simply unable to protect civilians who are being deliberately attacked," said HRW senior researcher Anneke Van Woudenberg. She called on the international community to reinforce the U.N. force.
The number of people displaced by fighting in North Kivu province since September is now estimated at 250,000, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. This was in addition to 800,000 who had fled previous hostilities in the province bordering Rwanda.
"The humanitarian situation is deteriorating," OCHA spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Additional reporting by Henrique Almeida in Luanda; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; editing by Ralph Boulton)
© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved. | Learn more about Reuters
November 6, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese army is building up troops in the three states of Darfur and started crackdown against displaced people who urge the international community to provide them with protection. Militias are gathered amd mobilized outside the towns.
Hussein Abu Sharati, Darfur IDPs and refugees’ spokesperson warned that the Sudanese army is building troops around the camps and mobilizes militias out side the towns. He further said more than 4000 vehicles full of troops arrived yesterday.
The displaced spokesperson also accused the Sudanese authorities of hindering the activities of International NGOs and indiscriminately arresting the IPDs when they leave their camps and come into the towns.
He urged the international community to protect them with a robust, capable force.
Mr Sharati believes that authorities are preparing new attacks similar to that on Kalma.
New York Times - United States
...hundreds of thousands displaced by intense fighting between rebels and government forces, threatening to plunge a broader swathe of central Africa back into war. ...
| November 6, 2008 |
Congressman John lewis stood beside Dr Martin luther King Jr. -a hero of the civil rights movement. Asked about the election of Barack Obama, Congressman Lewis replied:
"I was thinking about Martin Luther King Jr and the days that we marched on Washington in 1963; the time that we marched in Selma for the right to vote; when we stood in those unmovable lines when people had to pass a so called 'literacy test'. People were asked to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap, the number of jelly beans in a jar. And there were hundreds and thousands of black Americans in the heart of the deep south that never had an opportunity to register and to vote.""To me it (the campaign) was very spiritual. It was something about this man and it was something about the movement he was leading. It was more than a political movement. And I felt that Barack Obama had been tracked down by history and was allowing himself to be used for the common good. "
| November 5, 2008 |
Dr Martin Luther King
1963
| November 4, 2008 |
Now is the Time for Action on Darfur
By Anne Bartlett
November 3, 2008 — There has never been a more important time in the history of the Darfur conflict than the present one. Never before has there been an alignment of forces that are likely to be hostile to the interests of the Sudanese regime and that have the potential to bring about a rapid change of policy from the NCP. Change can occur and occur quickly if leverage is used in an intelligent way to ensure that Al-Bashir’s alternatives are closed down. However for this to occur, all areas of pressure must align themselves and work in a concerted manner to generate the leverage needed.
On the political and diplomatic front, the likely installation of an Obama/Biden presidency in the US could have significant impacts on the ability of the Sudanese government to operate. Known to be a hawk on Darfur, Biden has repeatedly stressed the need for tough action, including his view that military intervention should not be taken off the table. The fact is however that military intervention in Darfur is not necessary, provided the US uses its diplomatic credentials to weaken the Sudanese government’s position. Since Obama/Biden’s goal is to resolve pressing foreign policy concerns so that they can concentrate on issues at home, there will be a willingness to engage regional superpowers to lessen the support for conflict. In particular, this means an active engagement with the Chinese and Russians to take away their military and logistical support for the Sudanese regime. Intelligent negotiations over the situation in Georgia and the escalating tensions round the Caspian region over access to oil and gas will encourage the Russians to step back from aggressive posturing against the West through dictators such as Al-Bashir. Where Chinese support is concerned, this can similarly be scaled back with active support of the ICC process. An indicted Bashir is an imperiled China and this is evidenced by China’s attempts to back off from its public support of Al-Bashir in the last few days, in order to ensure that future supplies of oil remain constant.
For activists on Darfur, it is important to make Biden aware that Darfur is a top priority and that it should be treated as such on the U.S. foreign policy agenda. During the first 100 days of a new presidency, the foreign policy agenda of the government will be re-worked and decisions will be made that can have ramifications for the next 4-8 years. It is important to remind the new incumbent that Darfur can produce a significant foreign policy win (in a way that entrenched wars like Iraq and Afghanistan cannot), if the right leverage is applied at this time. A foreign policy win on Darfur brought about on the back of a concerted effort at this point can not only produce a helpful dynamic for Sudan and its immediate neighbors, but also elsewhere in the region. Serious attempts to solve a major conflict in Africa, coupled with the election of an African American with a lineage from within the continent, will make it much harder for authoritarian forces to line themselves up in the kind of damaging way that they have in recent history.
For the movements in Darfur, now is the time to approach the incoming US government with a view to seeking an expedited settlement. Early face to face meetings with the incoming team members can produce fruitful results. In particular this means producing a workable interim security plan from the movements’ side detailing exactly what is needed to secure the lives of local people in the short term. This plan needs to address security in the camps and elsewhere where there are significant numbers of displaced Darfurians. This will then give the international community leverage which they can use in tandem with the ICC process to press the NCP for concessions and to enforce pre-existing UN resolutions. Once security has been resolved, the larger issue of power sharing and the peace process can be addressed later in a meaningful way.
With the removal of the Bush administration, the international community must take their own responsibility on Darfur seriously. This means a concerted effort to move away from the geopolitical realities brought about by the Bush doctrine — particularly where the “war on terror” is concerned. It is highly unlikely that the intelligence gained from the likes of Salah Ghosh is worth the price that Darfurians, Southerners and Easterners have had to pay to pay for it. The Sudanese government, as instigators of jihadist policy are unlikely to be first in line to stop the war on terror and this point needs to be borne in mind at all times in any negotiations going forward.
Finally the peacekeeping force in Darfur must be radically overhauled. It is manifestly preposterous that the architects of genocide are being allowed to dictate which forces will prevent the slaughter of innocent civilians in Darfur. Resources and logistical support are urgently needed if protection is to mean anything. It was stunning today that David Millband, Bernard Kouchner and others have stepped up to the plate in Congo and yet singularly failed to do so in Darfur. It is not as simple as saying that Kabila is more cooperative than Al-Bashir, even if superficially at least, that is true. Britain in particular bears significant responsibility for the inequitable distribution of power in post-colonial Sudan and should take that responsibility seriously. It is not enough to offer to host peace talks when the world is watching and then withdraw the offer at a later date. Sudan listens only to those who are serious and the international community needs to take a much tougher stance with the regime if change is to occur.
Today, it is more than 5 years since the start of military hostilities on the ground and those living through this nightmare deserve better. The people of Darfur have been left to believe that the international community has abandoned them to their fate and no longer cares about their survival. In the 21st century this is an appalling position which threatens the credibility of the international community and its allied institutions. At this historic moment we must seize the day, use our considerable power for good so that we can change the trajectory of the Darfur crisis once and for all.
* Anne Bartlett is a Director of the Darfur Centre for Human Rights and Development and a Professor of Sociology at the University of San Francisco. She can be reached at albartle@uchicago.edu
| November 3, 2008 |
"Responsibility to protect" means the international community must "react" when states are unable or unwilling to protect those living within their borders. The international action can be political, diplomatic, economic or military. The latter should be at the ready in "extreme and exceptional cases," which it defines as "cases of violence which ... shock the conscience of mankind."
The responsibility to protect has redefined the concept of sovereignty by clearly stating that it involves not only the rights of nation states, but the responsibilities of civilian protection they bear. The responsibility to protect marks the end of centuries of inviolate borders and impunity within them. In principle.
The reality is something else. Over my 10 trips to the Darfur region since 2004, I have seen men, women and children fleeing for their lives. In terror they fled their burning homes, in terror they endured the rapes and unthinkable atrocities. In terror and dread they await the next attacks. In terror they have waited for more than five unthinkable years for protection that has not come.
"Everybody is hungry, everybody," said Jean Bizy, 25, a teacher, who watched with envy as the U.N. convoy stopped to deliver a sack of potatoes to U.N. troops in Rugari. Bizy said he has been surviving on wild bananas for days.
Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda went on the offensive Aug. 28 and brought his fighters to the edge of Goma last week before declaring a unilateral cease-fire.
The conflict is fueled by festering ethnic hatred left over from Rwanda's 1994 genocide and Congo's civil wars from 1996-2002. Nkunda claims the Congolese government has not protected ethnic Tutsis from the Rwandan Hutu militia that escaped to Congo after helping slaughter a half-million Rwandan Tutsis. All sides are believed to fund fighters by illegally mining Congo's vast mineral riches, giving them no financial interest in stopping the fighting.
Tens of thousands of people in Kibati have received little food aid since they fled their homes a week ago. Fernandez said families here have been forced to move four or five times in the past 10 days. "They go around in circles ... fleeing the movement of troops and the lines of combat," she said. Since Thursday, streams of refugees have thronged the roads around Goma trying to get home, lugging babies and bundles of belongings, guiding children, pigs and goats. To ease food shortages, rebels on Monday allowed farmers to reach Goma in trucks packed with cabbages, onions and spinach.
Nkunda began a low-level insurgency in 2004, claiming Congo's transition to democracy had excluded the Tutsi ethnic group. Despite agreeing in January to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, he resumed fighting in August.
Nkunda wants direct talks with the government. He has especially complained about a $9 billion agreement in which China gets access to Congo's valuable minerals in return for building a highway and railroad.
Nkunda's rebellion has threatened to re-ignite the back-to-back wars that afflicted Congo from 1996 to 2002, drawing in a half dozen African nations. Congo President Joseph Kabila, elected in 2006 in Congo's first election in 40 years, has struggled to contain the violence in the east.
Congo has charged Nkunda with involvement in war crimes, and Human Rights Watch says it has documented summary executions, torture and rape committed by soldiers under Nkunda's command in 2002 and 2004. Yet rights groups have also accused government forces of atrocities and widespread looting.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo is its largest in the world, yet only 6,000 peacekeepers of the 17,000-strong U.N. mission in Congo are in the east because of unrest in other provinces.
| November 2, 2008 |
A delegation from the SPLM led by Secretary General Pagan Amum held a two-day meeting with JEM chairman Khalil Ibrahim in Darfur near the Chadian border. The meeting was "historical, constructive and successful" said Ahmed Hussein Adam, the spokesperson of the rebel group. The SPLM -JEM leadership meeting of the two political movements could intervene very soon Ahmed added without further details. Salva Kiir and Khalil Ibrahim will discuss the peace process to reach a common ground also they would discuss the bilateral relationship between the two parties.
Pagan Amum, his deputy Yasir Arman and the head of southern Sudan office in Washington, Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, are in Chad for talks with the Chadian officials and Darfur rebel movements in a bid to mend Sudan-Chad tension and discuss Darfur peace efforts.
In a meeting that lasted two days the two delegations discussed "ways to preserve the unity of Sudan, reach a fair and lasting peace in Darfur and to achieve full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement" Adam told Sudan Tribune.
(ST)
Tall, urbane and charming, he is rarely seen out of his sharply-dressed green fatigues and mirror-shine black 18-eyelet boots, unless he is posing in a cowboy hat and dark sunglasses. His softly-spoken English occasionally hardens as he lists the litany of violence he says has been meted out against his Tutsi people, by Hutu hardliners who fled over the border after carrying out the genocide in neighboring Rwanda.
Mr. Nkunda claims the militia known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), is bent on carrying out a fresh genocide against Congo's Tutsis, (who make up three per cent of the population of the country's east-- Hutus are roughly 40%.) Stamping out the FDLR is his stated mission. In reality, his agenda is less clear. He is close to Rwanda, which denies officially supporting his offensive. Also at stake is the control of Eastern Congo's vast mineral wealth, which includes gold and tin and almost all of the world's coltan, a metal crucial to the manufacture of every mobile phone in the world. Perhaps, this accomplished strategist is simply a typical African warlord thirsting for land and power. This he denies, repeating his mantra of saving Congo's people from tyranny.
But it is tyranny that he's unleashed. Thousands have fled from his troops. His soldiers are accused of murder and rape.
Now, he says he is ready to talk peace.
The current conflict in the DRC has its roots in the genocide 14 years ago in neighboring Rwanda. At that time, more than a million people were killed when Hutu extremists turned on their Tutsi neighbors. In the last three weeks, a ceasefire brokered by the UN disintegrated in an explosion of violence that has caused as many as 300,000 thousand people to flee their homes. Rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda has said he returned to battle in order to protect his Tutsi community from Rwandan Hutus (who fled to DRC after carrying out the genocide of 1994.)
But after DRC government troops fled –on the outskirts of the regional capital Goma, rebel troops are accused of murder, rape and looting.
The Rwandans have been accused of supporting rebel leader Nkunda - a claim they deny . The rebels accuse the Congolese government of backing the Hutu militias.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband, in a joint statement with with French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, said the Congolese government needs to take "proper command" of its forces. The politicians, who traveled to DRC to try to help find a diplomatic solution to the renewed conflict between rebel and government forces, added: "There is no excuse for turning away."
The envoys said the current ceasefire must be bolstered and routes must be secured for the delivery of aid. "The international community must support humanitarian delivery, strengthen the United Nations force, and help promote and enforce agreements."
At the same time, they added that the Rwandan government needed to take "active steps" to help end the crisis.
Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown has already disclosed that contingency plans were being drawn up for the deployment of a European Union force - including UK troops - to support the UN.