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| January 30, 2009 |
Some interesting articles
Darfur: Fasher, thousands of refugees in MuhajeriyaReliefWeb (press release) - Geneva,Switzerland
The renewed tensions in Darfur have also re-ignited a latent crisis between Chad and Sudan, which, despite various attempts to mediate by the neighboring ...
Obama's Envoy Voices Support for International Court
Bloomberg - USA
The court's prosecutor last July sought the arrest of Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir for war crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan. .
Sudan: Darfur Rebels 101
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA
Washington, DC - It is conventional wisdom among diplomats, journalists, and analysts that Darfur's rebel groups are hopelessly fractured into scores of ...
Humanitarian Action in Darfur Weekly Bulletin No.04
Sudan Tribune - Sudan
In 2009, WFP plans to support 3.8 million conflict-affected people in Darfur with approximately 516000 mt of food assistance. The bulk of this assistance ...
Sudan accuses Chad of supplying Darfur rebels
Reuters South Africa - Johannesburg,South Africa
By Andrew Heavens KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan accused Chadian forces on Wednesday of entering its Darfur region to ferry supplies to rebels involved in a ...
Darfur ( Chad will be dragged in the conflict
militarily at ICC announcement):
1- High ranking GoS officials are in Darfur through
the past 2 days:
a- Head of Security and Intelligence Salah Gosh.
b- Defense Minister Abdul Rahim M. Hussein.
c - Interior Minister ( Police and Security) I.
Mahmoud
2- Chadian rebels in Sudan stating openly in the media
that they are ready for the final push to N'Djamena.
People in the area of the rebels base around Gebel
Marfaein has seen alot of movements of new vehicles.
3- People in Chad saw convoys of Chadian Army travel
East towards Abeche.
4- Open accusations flaring in the media since
yesterday between the two capitals ( each one accuses
the other of supporting the counter rebels).
5- Chadian rebels announces formation of broad
coalition ( many suspect GoS is behind it).
Goz Amir refugee camp
Goz AmirKoukou
Jan 30
Today we met a man who is 109 years old! He wore an astonishing hat, played his stringed instrument and sang ancient songs of marriage, birth and the land. Also a love song.
We also interviewed a 90 year old woman who has renamed herself "ColinPowell"-- she is known today by that name in the camp. Others in Goz Amir camp are; "Condoleezza", "Moreno-Occampo" (of course), and now there are lots of baby "Obamas". In fact, after greeting us yesterday, the very first thing the Oumddas did was to congratulate us (most heartily) on our new President OBAMA.
"ColinPowell" told us some of the stories told to her when she was a child, by her grandmother; of a time when elephants, lions and tigers filled the forests. People hunted them for food -they ate elephants and antelope,not tigers, and they lived in fear of being eaten. In the days of Colinpowell's childhood they grew cotton in her village and picked it to weave cloth, the children learned to repeat the songs of all the birds, they picked flowers and they searched deep in the bushes where they found odd things to wear around their necks. They never thought of another kind of future--they never thought there would be terrible times such as these.
Colinpowell spoke of the first time she heard about cars--things made of iron "with 4 legs" that could run very fast. She declared she would run after it and was told she could run after it but she couldn't catch it.
Years later, a car actually approached her village. The people were terrified. They ran and hid from the loud noise which was unlike anything they'd ever heard. She said they thought it would cut them up.
When, much later, someone told her there was an iron thing -called a "plane" that could actually fly in the sky, she refused to believe it. Eventually she made her husband take her to Nyala to see if such a really thing existed. After she saw a "plane" she said she now believes anything can happen.
There is much talk of an imminent attack (Chadian rebels looting their way toward Nd'Jamena for another coup attempt) so there is an emergency evacuation plan for the aid workers here in Koukou and we keep our bags packed.
| January 29, 2009 |
From Koukou
Today, at Goz Amir camp, thanks to the amazing Gaele of Hias, all the Oumdas were waiting for us- sitting on a large mat. . Even the head Oumda, Al-Fatih (whom I wrote about in a piece for the WSJ called "No Hopes for Us" ) -- appeared when we arrived. They were SO enthusiastic and after they heard what we are doing they realized it is really THEIR project and so they began making suggestions as to what songs we MUST film, and which people we MUST talk with and which ceremonies we HAVE to hear about. It was just GREAT. Then we scouted out a spot in the shade where there weren't too many kids or animals or the sound of a generator. Oumda Al Fatih himself picked the three men we taped today and he did the translating himself (an honor) We heard in wonderful detail about life in a land of peace and beauty. We heard parables and jokes. We heard about traditions we had not even known to ask about. Tomorrow we will hear the traditional singers - elderly people with AMAZING hats and with drums and a beautiful, crude wooden, two-stringed instrument. I can't wait!!The past several days in Goz Beida were also productive-we averaged 3 good interviews a day. But we had to shhlep around the camp, trying to meet with camp leaders, explaining over and over in each block whom we were looking for. Koukou will be much easier.
At this moment I'm at the UNHCR compound because they have internet. We don't have electricity at Hias. And at least for the next few days, NO WATER. I just took a shower at the Intersos compound as UNHCR is also without water. A day in the camp, sitting in the dirt leaves one longing for a shower.
Its getting dark and I have to get back to Hias.
| January 28, 2009 |
Still in Goz Beida-Koukou tomorrow
We are making progress. We've been successful in finding several elderly men and one woman who can sing the old songs, we were told the stories the children were told when it gets dark, stories that described traditional marriage, methods of settling disputes, the old justice system ('dia'- example; in the days before the violence, if a man killed another man, the killer had to pay the family of the dead man between 15 and 30 camels - a woman's life is worth exactly half of a man's-so that's between 7 and 15 camels) , agricultural methods, trade, circumcision ceremonies, death. There was a traditional method of doing everything-the whole village would have been involved in all the main rites of passage. Of course not everyone is a story teller, and for us, so much is about finding the right ways to phrase the question (we are improving).It's very HOT here. Eastern Chad is a new experience every day. UN vehicles travel the 40 kilometers to Koukou in armed convoys. Almost every aid compound in G.B. has been attacked in the past month. The word here is the next big rebel attack on NDJamena will be at the full moon. That's two weeks away. I will be in a different part of eastern Chad-near Farchana.
Goz Beida
I've been in Goz Beida with little access to internet. Right now I'm sitting in the Oxfam compount-wireless heaven. We had a GREAT day in Djabal refugee camp - we got lucky and found some wonderful elderly people who the songs of their youth in Darfur sang and told their stories. Great characters. Tomorrow we fly to Koukou.| January 25, 2009 |
If the Pope had come to Kigali, gone on the (hate) airwaves, the radio, the TV, walked the blood drenched streets, met with the perpetrators and the orchestrators of the genocide and demanded they lay down their machetes or damn their immortal souls, there is a good chance the Pope could have stopped the Rwandan genocide that left a million people dead.
And why is it that in the ensuing 15 years, no Pope has visited Rwanda to comfort that anguished flock? Even today, as those same Hutus and Tutsis war in neighboring Congo, murdering, raping, plundering-destroying the lives of millions, there is one man who might make a difference. But the Pope will not go to Congo. Or Somalia, or Darfur.
The Darfuris are not Catholic but they are human beings. They are God's children.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has visited Darfur. I don't even know which church he is the Archbishop of, yet I know that he is one of the few, constant, courageous moral voices in this world. Thank you Desmond Tutu.
However I might try to extract myself, I am rooted in Catholicism. So, when my yelling becomes a scream, I invariably turn to the God of my childhood. I believe again - for the duration of the scream. And then, I am again beyond disappointed, faithless. I am furious because my God, as represented by my church, again has failed to step up and do the right thing.
Reporting from Abece-January 25 (corrected copy)
This year there are more humanitarians than ever before headquartered in Abece. They serve all of eastern Chad. Unfortunately that means there is more crime than ever before in Abece. For the most part, aid workers use land cruisers to get around. When leaving town they travel in convoys of no less than three vehicles. In an atmosphere of impunity, hijacking is the norm. The thieves cut the roof off the rear of the cars and then they can fill them with men and weapons. Its a crazy, dangerous place.
In an attempt to stem the overall violence in Chad, the government recently engaged in a bold arms seizure initiative. In N'djamena in late December, all cell networks were cut, road blocks were set up, Hadjerai Generals were arrested and gendarmes went from house to house, searching and seizing weapons. By most accounts the operation was professional and successful.
In Abece, seizures occurred in January. There are some reports of rape and robbery but perhaps by criminals, not the gendarmes. It is impossible to know who is committing crimes since every armed thug wears a uniform here. You can buy them for about 5 (US) dollars in the marketplace.
David and I have received three briefings from disparate officials in N"Djamena and in Abece. Yesterday, we were assured that aside from the everyday crimes, in the big picture (rebel activity) things are relatively quiet. This morning there is another story afloat; that the Chadian rebel groups have finally united under Tima Erdimi, (nephew of Chadian President Deby) and an attack upon N'Djamena is expected. The rebels are currently across the border, in Darfur. If the rumor is true, they would pass through Goz Beida, heading for N'Djamena or about Feb 2. We have cannot confirm this. But this is Chad. Layers upon layers.
In the meantime, the weather is ideal here. Had dinner last night at a new, very nice restaurant where I was able to meet some EUFOR soldiers who had just arrived. They will be here for 3 months. They were from Belgium, Finland, Poland, France Romania, Sweden—the Irish are stationed in Goz Beida. We will be flying there tomorrow.
My old friend Ettie Higgins is here! We met in Darfur in 2004, and again in 2006. We stayed in touch while Ettie transferred to CAR. I traveled there with her last year. And now she is here. EXCELLENT to see her again.
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IMG_1682.JPG copy
A special friend; Darfuri lady at Oure Cassoni refugee camp here in Chad
| January 23, 2009 |
Chad
David Buchbinder (of Human Rights Watch) and I arrived in NDjamena last night. We spent the day interviewing two rebel commanders, Abdul Rahim and Mohammed Adam Savi (now retired) and Adam Ali Shogar for our Darfur Archive project. We all met at the home of Suleiman Jamous --it was great to see him and he translated for us but put off being interviewed and then we lost the sunlight. Hopefully we'll meet up with him in the east .We leave at 6am tomorrow for the flight to Abece. Will be there for 2 days then on to Goz Beida and Koukou.
People here express anxiety about what will happen next. There is a lot of rebel activity along the border and across, in Darfur.
| January 20, 2009 |
Tomorrow I will be returning to the Chad/Darfur borderland where I will be traveling for four weeks. My goal this time is to seek out the elders, men and women from the three tribes targeted by the Sudanese regime (Fur, Zaghawa, Masalit) as well as one or two of the Arab tribes. I hope to document the oral history of Darfuris in the camps.
I will be accompanied by David Buchbinder (Human Rights Watch, Chad expert) We will go from camp to camp, finding the elderly story tellers,. I will invite them to tell the stories and sing the songs passed to them from their grandparents. I have spoken to people who can go back 200 years.
From the elders we will hear about life as it was before so much was destroyed; rites of passage, the ways people celebrated, and the why; methods of resolving disputes, methods of agriculture and trade, of education- everything that was important to Darfur's people.
The rich culture and traditions of Darfur are transmitted orally. Alex DeWaal told me that even in the midst of brutal warfare, the leaders in the Nuba Mountains of Southern Sudan had the foresight to summon the elders; the body-painters, the storytellers, the singers and dancers-- and they filmed them, so that their traditions would not be lost. No one is doing this for Darfur or for the (same) tribes in eastern Chad.
Alex has put me in touch with the world's foremost Darfur scholar, Prof Sean O'Fahey. He has many old photographs. I hope I can one day build a small museum in the middle of Darfur - El Fasher probably-- where the young who grew up in camps and amidst violence, can go to reclaim their heritage. The museum will contain the tapes and also display artifacts, old photographs and the written history, as archived by Prof Fahey, Jerome Tubiana and Alex DeWaal.
Darfur's culture can survive only because of what is transmitted orally.
This from Professor O' Fahey
"Non-material culture is essentially oral;
there is very little visual art. Exceptions are
very high levels of basket-weaving and carpet
making (in some areas introduced by the British
as a prison trade). Other than these there is
little in the way of visual culture.
Oral culture is a very different matter;
here, the peoples of the region have a very rich
range of story-telling."
I have come to this project out of respect for the people of the Darfur region.
I will blog whenever possible
The world hasn't stopped to celebrate with us. Rwandan military enters CongoKIBATI, Congo (Reuters) - Rwandan troops crossed into eastern Congo on Tuesday in a joint military operation by the Great Lakes neighbors to disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels seen as a root cause of more than a decade of conflict. While both countries presented the operation as part of internationally-backed efforts to end conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo, analysts said allowing the Rwandan army in posed political risks for Congolese President Joseph Kabila. The presence of the Rwandan Hutu FDLR fighters, who finance themselves by exploiting illegal mines in the mineral-rich east, triggered two previous Rwandan invasions of Congo that led to a wider 1998-2003 conflict. It also helped cause a 2004 rebellion by Congo Tutsi rebels who went on the offensive late last year.
Diplomats and U.N. peacekeepers said that up to 2,000 Rwandan troops entered Congo's eastern North Kivu province on Tuesday under a December joint accord to act against the mostly Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
The FDLR's strength is estimated at around 6,000 fighters, spread across North and South Kivu.
A Reuters reporter saw hundreds of Rwandan troops, wearing Rwandan flag patches on their uniforms and carrying mortars, rocket launchers and AK-47s, moving into Congo in the Kibati area north of the North Kivu provincial capital Goma.
"This morning between 1,500 and 2,000 RDF (Rwanda Defense Forces) crossed the border in the Munigi-Kibati zone," Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, military spokesman for the U.N. force, MONUC, said. MONUC, the biggest U.N. peace force, said it had not been involved in planning the operation.
Congolese army forces were on the move with tanks, armored personnel carriers and mobile rocket launchers, Dietrich said.
FEARS OF ESCALATION
Analysts said the latest entry of Rwandan troops into Congo, at the same time as a Ugandan-led offensive against Ugandan LRA rebels further north in Orientale, were an acknowledgement by Kabila that he had failed to pacify his country.
"Look where we are, two years after elections, the Rwandan army back in Congo and the Ugandans are back in Congo ... and the Congolese get screwed again," one veteran foreign Congo analyst, who asked not be named, said. The analyst recalled Congo's 1998-2003 war, when Rwanda and Uganda backed rival rebel groups.
"It's a confirmation of what everybody knows -- the DRC army has no control over its own territory," said a foreign diplomat.
The presence in eastern Congo of Rwandan Hutu FDLR rebels, many of whom participated in Rwanda's 1994 genocide, has been at the heart of more than a decade of bloodshed. The 1998-2003 war sucked in the armies of half a dozen nearby countries, and triggered a conflict-driven humanitarian catastrophe that killed an estimated 5.4 million people.
Rwanda and Congo have agreed on several past occasions to cooperate to tackle the Hutu rebels, but have failed to carry this out amid accusations that ill-disciplined Congolese government forces have sided with the FDLR Hutu fighters. Fighting flared again in North Kivu last October, when the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a Congolese Tutsi rebel group led by renegade General Laurent Nkunda ended a cease-fire and launched an offensive against Goma. The fighting, which killed hundreds and displaced around 250,000 people, prompted fears of a fresh regional war.
-----
On a personal note:
During my visit to Congo last month I spoke with many people-victims of the violence in and around Goma in North Kivu. Perpetrators are the Congolese Army, The Mai Mai (supporters of the former) The Tutsi rebel group, and the Hutu rebel group- both from originally Rwanda. While all 4 armed groups have been murdering, plundering, raping and stealing children, it is the Hutus, butchers of the Rwandan genocide who fled into Congo in 2004, who are committing the most barbaric atrocities and sexual violence. I spoke with women and girls who were gang raped, raped with bayonets-some also had had their legs smashed with rifle butts. If the Hutu militia, the FDLR, could be taken out of the equation, the Tutsi's stated raison d'etres, -to protect the Tutsi population in Congo, would vanish.
YAY!!!!
| January 19, 2009 |
Pres Harry truman 1947
Hubert Humphrey 1948
Pres John F. Kennedy 1963
Rep.John Lewis
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr 1965
Malcolm X 1964
Fannie Lou Hammer 1964
Pres. Lyndon Johnson1964
Stokely Carmichael 1966
Sen Robert F. Kennedy 1968
Rep. Barbara Jordan 1978
Rev. Jesse Jackson 1984
So Martin could walk,
Martin walked
So Obama could run
Obama ran
So our children can fly.
and unhelpful interlocutor. But going over his disagreeable head
directly to Beijing by a senior member of the new Obama Administration might yield a more favorable return"
| January 18, 2009 |
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfur fighters who signed a peace deal with Sudan's government are poised to attack a strategic town, putting the lives of 30,000 civilians at risk, peacekeepers said on Sunday. Forces loyal to Minni Arcua Minnawi, a former rebel leader who is now a presidential assistant, were preparing a counter-attack on Muhajiriya after losing it to rival rebels last week, said the joint U.N./African Union mission (UNAMID). The threat of a new wave of violence raised tensions ahead of a decision by the International Criminal Court on whether to issue an arrest warrant against Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
More than 20 people were injured when Minnawi's wing of the Sudan Liberation Army clashed with the insurgent Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on Thursday on the outskirts of the town in south Darfur. JEM at the time said it had taken control of Muhajiriya, seen as a stronghold of Minnawi who was the only Darfur rebel leader to sign a peace deal with the government in 2006. Officials from Minnawi's movement denied losing the town. UNAMID on Sunday released a statement confirming JEM was now in control of the settlement, 80 km (50 Miles) from Nyala, the capital of south Darfur.
It added it had reports Minnawi's forces were regrouping for a counter-attack to regain control of Muhajiriya and that it had grave concern for the civilian population.
| January 16, 2009 |
Rice asserted that the U.S. would take a leading role at the United Nations in addressing the “thorny challenges of peacekeeping in the context of Darfur and Congo and the autocracy in the context of Zimbabwe.”
Rice cited two main challenges the international community faces with regard to ending the conflicts in Darfur and Congo: Lack of capacity among U.N. member states to deploy well-trained and equipped peacekeeping troops on a timely basis; and lack of political will on behalf of member states to commit the resources necessary to make U.N.-peacekeeping missions successful. Rice pledged her commitment to “work to strengthen international will to take on Darfur, Congo, and Zimbabwe,” clearly showing her intent to engage with key allies who can bring pressure to bear on hostile regimes such as Khartoum.
Later in the hearing, Rice said the “lack of an underlying peace” is at the root of problems in Darfur and throughout Sudan. The incoming Obama administration is already demonstrating their commitment, as Rice put it, “to do more to end the genocide in Darfur.”
Sudan opposition leader in solitary confinement
KHARTOUM, Jan 16 (Reuters) - An influential Sudanese opposition leader is being held in solitary confinement after calling on the president to hand himself in to the International Criminal Court, family members said on Friday.Hassan al-Turabi was arrested on Wednesday, days after urging President Omar al-Bashir to surrender to the Hague-based global court, whose judges are considering whether to indict him on charges of orchestrating war crimes in Darfur.
Family members said they had not managed to see or speak to Turabi, 76, and were increasingly worried about his health.
"He is in solitary confinement...We are very concerned about his health. He had to be hospitalised five times the last time he was imprisoned and that was three years ago," said Siddig al-Turabi, his son.
Tension has been growing in Sudan since the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in July asked judges to issue an arrest warrant for President Bashir, their first against a sitting head of state. The judges are widely expected to announce their decision in coming weeks.
Turabi, a key player in Sudan for decades, was the first party leader to break ranks by saying the president should surrender himself to save Sudan from sanctions and political turmoil that would follow if he continued to defy the court.
There have been signs of a crackdown in Sudan on people seen as supporting the International Criminal Court.
| January 15, 2009 |
Mr Ahmed has a story worth hearing.
The Guardian Weekly, Thursday January 15th 2009http://www.guardianweekly.co.
Muhammed Ahmed was speaking to Susan Schulman in NertiHow
From my home I can see in the distance the military camp of the
government of Sudan. Originally, I am from a village near here, but my family and I had to flee when it was attacked and burned. We are now displaced people, IDPs.
I want to tell you about what happened on October 12, 2008. It was a Sunday.
On that day my two sons, one is 13, the other 15, went to the river in the valley to swim. While they were there, two soldiers found them and asked them what they were doing. They said: "We are students; we are just here to refresh ourselves." But the soldiers said: "No, you are not. You are tora bora." When someone says that, they mean rebels, the
Sudan Liberation Army [SLA]. The boys said: "No no, we are students - look, here are our identity cards to prove it." But the soldiers beat
the boys anyway. And after they had beaten them they dragged them back to the checkpoint near our house.
Several people saw them and shouted to the soldiers: "Why are you taking our boys? They're not trouble, they're students." But the soldiers refused to let them go.
At this time, my daughter was in the house and could hear the commotion. She came out and stood by the fence looking towards the shouting. On the
other side of the fence, some soldiers were standing around, watching the situation. One of them took his machine gun and fired at her. He hit her right in the heart. She fell down dead. She was eight years old. Well nearly; she was still seven.
Some of the soldiers saw what had happened and rushed over; they picked up her dead body and took it away.
I was in the town of Zalingei at the time, on Unamid business. I got a telephone call.
Some of my relatives went to the soldiers and asked them to please give back the dead body, but they refused. They asked where the father was. My relatives had to say that I wasn't there.
They kept her body at the checkpoint for two days, then they took it to Kass, a town about 40km from here. My relatives kept asking for her body, but the soldiers refused. Sometime after that my relatives went to the police station and explained that they had to take the body to the
hospital; they had to make a medical report. So eventually it was agreed and the body was returned to us.
At the hospital, the doctor said: "This girl died from a gunshot wound."And that was it.
My relatives went back to the police station to file a report, but the police refused. They said that they couldn't make a report. Later I went myself and eventually they agreed to take down the information. They
filed it under the number 1516. Yes, 1516.
The police told me the name of the soldier who killed my daughter. He is a lance corporal. He wasn't arrested. I see him around the place, like normal, sitting on the back of vehicles, moving around Kass with his commanders.
I told the Unamid officers. They made a report, too.
So, you see, the situation here is very bad for us. We can't do
anything. Someone can take your daughter from you and you can't say anything; you can't do anything. If I were to say something, they might send someone to my house to kill me, to keep me quiet. The situation here is very terrible.
We moved here from our home village because of insecurity, but now we are facing the same problem. What can we do?
Hero Congolese doctor accepts "African of the Year" award.
"I am pleased to accept this award if it will highlight the situation of women in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo," Dr Mukwege told the BBC French service after accepting the award at a ceremony in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.All sides have "declared women their common enemy", Congo doctor says.
A doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo who treats women raped by combatants in the war-torn country has been named "African of the Year". Denis Mukwege, 53, who runs a clinic in Bukavu, has said all sides have "declared women their common enemy".Women saved.
Troops from the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur foiled an attempted abduction of several women who had been gathering firewood outside a camp for displaced people.| January 14, 2009 |
Reuters UK - UK
By Andrew Heavens KHARTOUM, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Sudan's army said on Wednesday it had bombed rebel positions in Darfur, a rare admission of air attacks in ..
| January 13, 2009 |
· 2100-2500 fully armed troops reported involved (6-7 men per vehicle, fully loaded with ammunition).
· Source is claiming force was led by the JEM's Leader Khalil Ibrahim and that there was another force consisting of 150 vehicles led by Sulayman Sandal.
· Source indicates attack on Al-Fashir pending while intercepting convoys coming from Omdurman. Attacks on oil production sites are also planned.
Analysis: There are no outside sources to confirm this report and given Khalil Ibrahim's involvement in the operation, the source probably is exaggerating JEM's numbers and plans. It is unlikely that the JEM is capable of mustering and coordinating such large numbers, nor will it be able to sustain a concerted attack beyond 48-72 hours at maximum. While they probably are planning an attack in the Al-Fashir area, they will focus on low-risk targets as opportunities arise, and then fade back into the desert to capitalize on the publicity the attacks will garner. They will avoid engaging Sudanese troops wherever possible unless they can establish an ambush. However, the JEM threat to aid workers, westerners, and oil personnel in and around Al-Fashir will remain high throughout January or until the JEM's planned assault runs its course.
| January 12, 2009 |
Find attached an interesting letter written from Monim Elgak who was among the three Sudanese human rights advocates detained, tortured and subsequently released in November-December 2008. The letter as reprinted here is long. With great reluctance I have taken out two paragraphs as it would have been too long to post in its entirity. Feel free to share as appropriate. For background information on his arrest, see: http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=19513.
An Open Letter from Monim Elgak to Salah Goush: regarding my arrest, torture and the International Criminal Court (ICC)
19th December 2008
Subject: regarding my arrest, torture and the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Dear Sir Salah Abdullah (Gosh), Director General of Sudanese Security and Intelligence
I am writing to you a little later than would be expected. The torture and interrogation by your officers at the national security service has left me weak. This is an open letter, addressed to you personally equally as it is addressed to your colleagues, both at the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and your ruling party, the National Congress Party (NCP). Although the letter recounts my own personal experience it also echoes I believe the reactions of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of people who were horrified at my arrest and torture.
I and my colleagues Amir Suleiman and Osman Hummaida were arrested at midday on Monday 24th November 2008 on the basis of the “accusation” that we had been cooperating with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its case on Darfur. It is only now that have I managed to gather some of my energies, as part of a gradual recovery, to take my pen and to write to you while I still feel the wounds and find myself reliving the memories of this incident that may have changed me irrevocably. At the same time, what I suffered with your thugs in the NISS is millions of times less than what millions of my people in South Sudan suffered during the time of your ideological obsession and the fire of war and torture rained upon them. It is also less than what is now being faced by millions of my people in Darfur, that land which you raped forcibly after you lost your direction. What I have suffered is a thousand times less than that endured by the true lovers of this country in your ghost houses during the 90s. What I have suffered is so much less than that this good country has borne, with its good men and women, since your bloody night of darkness on 30th July 1989.
I address this letter to you Mr. Salah Gosh, while I am forced to stay a while outside the reach of your ruling oppressive institutions. Once again, more than a decade later, I am compelled by terror to leave my country. The first time was after the killing by your colleagues of the martyr and defender of student rights, a student of law at that time in Khartoum University, my friend and follower in the leadership of the Medani Students Association, Mohamed Abdelssalam.
Mr. Gosh, more than ten years later your security body is still practising torture and killing, and violating rights. There will be no statute of limitations on these crimes: the loss of Mohamed Abdelssalam left sorrow and pain which is still felt. Once again your security body is practising the same with me and trying to push me from my homeland. But you will not succeed.
You might be surprised, and in your arrogance, questioning where am I going with this discourse? What might be the motivation and interest of my letter? This letter is driven by, and addresses, a range of interests. One of them is to ensure that I, and we, will never forget what happened. You may also consider it as a complaint, to you and against you. In addition the letter is an attempt to inform people in this country about my experience and to make them listen to the sounds of the torture and terror that I suffered at the hands of your thugs, stained with shame and blood. I want them to hear the message that you were trying to send through my body, a message of terror and threat to the real life-blood that maintains the heart of this country, the civil society organisations, the democrats and enlightened forces—although you will not succeed in your intended effect.
When I first thought about addressing you Mr Gosh, I remembered a similar letter written in the early times of your dark period, a letter from the well known and respected Professor Faroug Mohamed Ibrahim, published eighteen years ago. He was complaining of his torture under the supervision of his colleague at the university at that time, Mr Nafie Ali Nafie, the one in whose chair you now sit at the NISS and who is now an assistant to the President. Do you not find it strange Mr Gosh that two persons find themselves drafting almost the same letter in substance, with a span of almost 18 years between the incidents? There is complete stagnation in the river of your regime Mr Gosh despite the many agreements promising movement. It is as a fetid lake with a permanent odour changing only the colour of its algae bloom. I am drafting this open letter, therefore, in an attempt to oxygenate this water in which for two decades, skulking at its rotten sedges, you have conducted your conspiracy, torture and killing.
My writing to you is to air publically some of the issues you raised in your interrogation of me, in addition to some analysis of your torture practices. It is not only on my own behalf that I should break the silence as these issues concern thousands. It is also a unique opportunity to express my unlimited appreciation thanks and love to my close and extended family, to my friends, colleagues, and hundreds of others I have not yet had the honour of knowing in person, and tens of others with whom I had lost communication for years, in addition to institutions, organisations, political parties and individuals from my country and all over the world. While your officers were intent on violating my dignity, my body and my privacy these people were crying out in solidarity with Osman, Amir and I, expressing our pain, and drafting documents urging our release, in a confirmation of the existence of true humanity. Even after leaving your den of torture these people continued their care, salving my body, providing protection and balsam for my spirit. They of course are not waiting for thanks from me but do you not agree that these honourable people deserve a letter acknowledging their generous humanity in as much as this one which counterpoints your animalism? A letter that soothes their pure hearts and consciousness against all things that violate dignity, justice and law?
Your security agents, Sir, Director General of the Security, just as they violated my dignity and my body, have also continuously violated justice and the rule of law since your coming to power 1989. I have drafted this letter therefore to address the public on some of the implications of my arrest and torture. It is both a right and a duty of mine. Permit me then in what remains of this letter to reflect on some observations and lessons made and learned in your den of torture, in addition to some of the issues which were raised by your officials during my interrogation, and which may be of interest to the public.
I will first reflect on some of the circumstances surrounding my arrest and torture.
Let me begin, Mister Director of the Security and Intelligence Apparatus, with an educational comparison between the practices of your agents in arresting and torturing me, and the practices of the ICC, the institution which was consistently mentioned with opprobrium during my interrogation. The Statute of the ICC sets out in article 55 the rights of those questioned by the ICC:
“In respect of an investigation under this Statute, a person (a) shall not be compelled to incriminate himself or herself or to confess guilt; and (b) shall not be subjected to any form of coercion, duress or threat, to torture or to any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.
It goes without saying that what your agents did to me violated to the letter each provision of this article. But I hope that this exposition on the Statute has given confidence to the members of your ruling regime—those accused and potential accused persons—that any engagement they have with the ICC will ensure the protection of their personal and physical dignity and the inviolability of their bodies. They will never be exposed to what I have.
In this context therefore to what do you refer when you speak of the ICC as posing “a threat to Sudanese sovereignty and dignity”? Did you see pictures of my torture? The officer in charge of my interrogation ironically questioned how I had managed to get blood on my face, legs, shirt and left hand, asserting that it was likely due to my getting drunk and quarrelling with other drunks. With what sovereignty and dignity were your security officials concerned when that same officer gave orders to the four men in that small room in the third floor, pointing to where precisely on my body they should direct their blows, and with what instrument, spilling water on my head, kicking my face with his shoe and pointing his cigarette at my eye, saying he would blind me. In attempting to terrorize me about the work of the ICC this officer of yours confirmed that you had reached the very bottom of degradation, when he tried to threaten me by ordering his soldiers to rape me. The response came in the coarsest of language, however, that I was a “fag” already and would only enjoy it. So by God, can I be exaggerating if I say that you and your regime have eroded your own dignity in your attempt to compel me to incriminate myself which respect to illusory crimes which do not exist but in the imagination of your confused and analysis-weak “intelligence” service.
There were seven individuals who participated in arresting, interrogating and torturing me, two of whom clearly gave the orders and provided the supervision of the others. There were the ‘white-collar’ officers, as we define them in social science and both were of Arab Northern appearance. The rest of the group, to whom was delegated the sweaty work of beating, torture and terrorizing, carried the characteristics of those from what you would term the “African” or non Northern parts of Sudan. Pardon me Mister Lieutenant General Director of the Security Apparatus, but cultural analysis and observation is my specialization in Anthropology—and incidentally a point of amusement for your agents during my interrogation—hence my more detailed focus on this point which could be the theme for an interesting research on “The ‘Racialisation of the Politics of Torture in Sudan”!
I now wish to turn to the issue which was at the core of my interrogation: the ICC and the case of Darfur.
Thank you, Mister Lieutenant General Salah Abdullah Gosh, for your patience in reading this long letter. I do believe that the details it includes are important, not just for your attention, but for others to hear, especially matters which would not have come to light if I and my colleagues Amir Suleiman and Osman Hummaida had not been arrested, interrogated and tortured. I will not address the details of my interrogation and the “allegations” about my relationship to the ICC, my alleged cooperation in providing information and documents, and the threats under torture to disclose this “information”. I will not dignify these illusory scenarios, and the charges of treason, espionage and disloyalty with which your soldiers threatened and insulted me, with further exposition. Suffice to say that your interrogation techniques were irrelevant to both the subject and object of your perceived “traitor”. Let me simply characterise the interrogation process as unskilled, the questions as prosaic and empty, questions which, while having the capacity to wound, only revealed a scandalous ignorance of the reality of the Court, its processes and the situation of Darfur. Ironically one of the officers seemed to view himself as a true intellectual. Let me give you an example of the sophistication of his analysis: “What is happening in Darfur is part of the Zionist conspiracy against us” he said. “The ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ assert that.” Hundreds of thousands of victims and thousands of raped women in our territory, and the Zionists and the foreign conspirators are the guilty ones! Others of your men were also sure they had unshakeable proof of my treachery when they found three hundred dollars in my wallet! I wonder how many millions of oil rich dollars you have Mr Gosh and why these dollars are not considered evidence of your own betrayal of our country.
It is clear to me now that without doubt the ICC terrifies your regime very much, Mr Lieutenant General. You are confused as to whether to pursue a strategy of cooperation or confrontation. While you prevaricate I shall use the opportunity Mr Gosh to raise awareness about human rights, international humanitarian law and the work of ICC. Human rights advocate will continue to be my profession, as before, during and now after my interrogation and torture. In this regard I would like to thank you for you help in this mission: as a result of your treatment of me many more people will read this letter. As you know I have written frequently about this Court, human rights, and about Darfur, but the majority of these writings could not find the light as a result of your war on freedom of expression and exertions of your petty censorship officials.
Mr Gosh, I am puzzled by the chaotic approach of your regime to the simple issue of justice, a bewilderment only deepened by my arrest. You should be the first to understand that justice and accountability are essential factors for the revitalization of Darfur and that the policy of searching for pretexts to buy time will only bring failure. Since 2004, the centrality of accountability was clear to you in the National Congress Party. You sent a national fact-finding commission to Darfur, formed special courts, and appointed public prosecutors for Darfur. Your efforts were not genuine but it was not possible to blind everyone to your intent. Your government, for example, did not deny that crimes took place in Darfur but determined the number of dead in a manner which was not only factually incorrect but lacked basic human and political sensitivity. Your colleagues, including the Head of the State, confessed that there were “only” 10,000 victims in Darfur. Do you know that the war crimes trials which took place in the former Yugoslavia were conducted on the basis of a lesser number of bodies? Such insensitive logic cannot fathom the concepts of war crime victims, crimes against humanity, International humanitarian law and Human Rights law!
Your confusion is manifest elsewhere: you cooperated with the United Nations Commission on Enquiry in 2004 and were quietly happy with its findings which you interpreted as determining you innocent of genocide. At the same time you were confused with how to respond to Resolution 1593 (the referral of the situation in the Darfur to the ICC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court> ) subsequently cooperating in the initial period, meeting its staff and submitting documents, even permitting the interrogation of some of your officials. In fact Mr. Gosh, the cooperation of your regime with the process of international justice is much greater than that with which you “accused” us three innocent citizens, and on which basis you subjected us to terror, and through us, the terrorization of millions. Your government was until lately a signatory to the Statute of the ICC since September 2000 and to bilateral agreements concluded under its provisions. You also participated as observers at the ICC Assembly of State Parties until last year.
Mister General Director of the Intelligence and Security Apparatus, the position of Sudan vis a vis the ICC must be consistent, as the Statute of the Court consists of principles, systems and mechanisms that humanity has developed for its own progress in order to prevent and punish the most atrocious crimes, and in which task consistency is a vital principle. Based on my belief and chosen profession, I have steadfastly advocated for and spread awareness about the principles of this mechanism of international justice. I reveal no secrets when I mention that since 2004 I have been advocating for the referral of the Darfur case to the ICC as opposed to the activation of the Genocide Convention or the mechanisms of humanitarian intervention. Mister Lieutenant General Director of the Security and Intelligence Apparatus, if your tactic now is to confront, arrest, torture and assassinate everyone who cooperates with the ICC, then logic and consistency dictate that you should begin inside your own home and those of the members of your dominant regime, rather than confronting innocent individuals like ourselves. I would not, however, advise this confrontation as you are likely to be on the losing side.
Mr Gosh, I have not failed to hear the message you have been trying to send through arresting and torturing me and my colleagues. But you know better than I that these messages will not have the intended effect. Your intensified harassment of journalists and war of freedom of expression through the censorship, arrest and interrogation of independent writers, have not worked. These actions have produced only isolation and critique as they make testament to the lack of seriousness of your regime’s commitment to democratic transition and transparency in this country. I think you know, Mister Lieutenant General, to what extent the commitment of your regime and party to protection of freedom of expression is an important criterion in measuring your credibility with respect to expressed commitments to tackling other obligations such as building peace and justice in Darfur.
This brings me to a second message which you wanted to send through our arrests, this time to members of Sudanese civil society and the human rights movement. I am sorry to say that this effort will also fail. The timing of your current attack on three well known human rights defenders (both nationally and internationally) was an attempt to exploit the ICC as a pretext to found a new wave of harassment of civil society, an opportunity to fissure elements within the independent human rights movement. The history of the Sudanese human rights movement is well known to you as it has paralleled your own ascendancy from the battle for civil and political rights, to the dark time of the ghost houses, the efforts to promote women’s rights and crack the walls of racism, to our struggle to unveil the massive violations of human rights in Darfur.
Our arrest and torture also sends another message: your desire to impose your unconstitutional law, a law inconsistent with the web of international conventions to which your regime has committed itself. If you neither fear God nor respect the people of this country, you must at least fear for your survival in the face of these obligations. Resisting will be your doom.
Mr Gosh, I would like to offer some advice, and indeed not only to you but to the Sudanese society and international community and all those concerned with the issue of peace, justice and democracy in Sudan. I think that I am now in a position to offer advice after you raised my profile, a profile which I had always intended to keep low as I prefer to work quietly. My advice does not differ from that from your partners in Government, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which is to positively cooperate with the ICC, to engage legally with the Court and its Statute on its own terms. I also urge that you generate the genuine political will to implement the following package of measures and commitments:
Ø achieve a fair political solution that responds practically to the demands of the Darfur people, with clear international and regional participation in the guarantee of its implementation;
Ø reverse the slow suffocation of the spirit of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement through the full and active implementation of its provisions;
Ø amend the legislation essential for the democratisation process, particularly the laws regulating the security services and the media in order also to ensure conformity with the Interim National Constitution and international conventions;
Ø ratify and domesticate the relevant international conventions on human rights;
Ø guarantee free and fair national elections, safe from any trace of conspiracy, elections with which ensure equal and full geographic representation to all parts of the country, including Darfur;
Ø strive unceasingly to make unity an attractive option for the people of Southern Sudan, making the issue of development in the South a national priority and firmly shutting the door on the war option, in particular calling a halt to your efforts to destabilise and exacerbate internal tensions;
Ø revive the suggestion of the SPLM at the Naivasha talks—a suggestion that you had strongly rejected at the time—to begin a comprehensive national process of transitional justice, benefiting from international experience and paying attention to the differences in the Sudanese contexts, in particular the diverse nature of the violations and grievances suffered respectively in the West, South, East, far North and at the Centre, ensuring that this process does not become a pretext for amnesties or the consolidation of impunity, and aiming at the goal of reparation and healing for ongoing historical injustices, especially that of the rampant social and institutional racism that is crippling our national body.
Mister Lieutenant General, this is a package of advice that must be taken as a whole – as we say in the human rights literature: indivisible and interdependent and interrelated.
Finally, in conclusion Lieutenant General Gosh, the day after I was tortured I talked to the BBC. At that time I was unable to move without extreme pain as a result of your torture. The presenter asked me, and it was live, if I would make a formal complaint against the NISS for my loss. My answer was simple: a summary of the package of changes needed in Sudan, the advice I have just offered you, and in the heart of which, you must understand, is implied my right of redress. What might be your answer?
Monim Elgak
monster in the dock
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - War crimes prosecutors have accused former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba of using systematic rape to terrorize civilians during a bloody power struggle in neighboring Central Africa Republic. Bemba is accused of eight counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and rape. Because the number of rapes exceeded the number murdered, ICC prosecutors decided to focus on rape as a weapon of war.Bemba is the most senior political figure to be brought to trial since the ICC began in 2002.
| January 11, 2009 |
New Year resolution
One way to take an active role in helping to end the genocide in Darfur is to call 1800-GENOCIDE. We will connect you with your state legislators or the White House. You don't need to be an expert. Just leave your message that you want our leaders to end the suffering in Darfur. Also, visit www.investorsagainstgenocide.| January 10, 2009 |
Today, in southern Israel, scores of children have been terrorized by a barrage of Hamas rockets. In the Gaza Strip, children are dying; of the nearly 700 killed there, more than 100 are children. Countless others have been injured. Thousands of children are suffering from a lack of food, safe housing, clean water and medical care.
| January 9, 2009 |
like an
untimely frost
Upon the sweetest
flower of all
the field
Jemma Nunu Kumba, governor of south Sudan's Western Equatoria state, said thousands of civilians had fled the area fearing more attacks by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters. "They have caused unprecedented havoc, killing almost 40 people between December 24 and January 1," Kumba told Reuters. "We are now a target area."
The LRA's elusive commander Joseph Kony and two of his top deputies are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Attacks by his fighters in Sudan's Western Equatoria have been particularly brutal. Dozens of people were hacked to death with axes and machetes, Kumba said, pregnant women had been disemboweled and a baby was smashed against a tree.
South Sudanese troops were doing all they could to stop the guerrillas entering from Congo. "But they are breaking through because the border is vast," Kumba said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/world/middleeast/09redcross.html?th&emc=th
By ALAN COWELL
Published: January 8, 2009
PARIS — The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it had discovered “shocking” scenes — including small children next to their mothers’ corpses — when its representatives gained access for the first time to parts of Gaza battered by Israeli shelling. It accused Israel of failing to meet obligations to care for the wounded in areas of combat.
In an unusually blunt criticism, the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross said it had been seeking access to shell-damaged areas in Zeitoun in the east of Gaza City since Saturday but the Israeli authorities granted permission only on Wednesday — the first day that Israel allowed a three-hour lull in the attacks on Gaza on humanitarian grounds. The statement said a team of four Palestine Red Crescent ambulances accompanied by Red Cross representatives made its way to Zeitoun Wednesday where it “found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses.”
In another house, the statement said, the rescue team “found 15 other survivors of this attack including several wounded. In yet another house, they found an additional three corpses. Israeli soldiers posted at a military position some 80 meters away from this house ordered the rescue team to leave the area which they refused to do. There were several other positions of the Israeli Defense Forces nearby as well as two tanks.”
Because of berms built by Israeli forces, the ambulances could not enter the area so “the children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart,” the statement said.
The statement quoted Pierre Wettach, an International Red Cross representative for Israel and the Palestinian areas, as calling the incident “shocking.” “The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded,” he was quoted as saying.
The statement said the international Red Cross “believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded. It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable.”
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/world/middleeast/09mideast.html?th&emc=th
JERUSALEM — International aid groups lashed out at Israel on Thursday over the war in Gaza, saying that access to civilians in need is poor, relief workers are being hurt and killed, and Israel is woefully neglecting its obligations to Palestinians who are trapped, some among rotting corpses in a nightmarish landscape of deprivation.
The International Committee of the Red Cross reported finding what it called shocking scenes on Wednesday, including four emaciated children next to the bodies of their dead mothers. In a rare and sharply critical statement, it said it believed that “the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded.”
| January 8, 2009 |
Investors Against Genocide
PETROCHINA ACCUSED OF COMPLICITY IN GENOCIDE BY OVER 80 CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONSGroups ask UN Global Compact to remove PetroChina as a participant unless it acts to help end genocide.
PetroChina, the publicly traded arm of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), is Sudan's largest oil industry partner and has financial links to the regime perpetuating the six-year humanitarian crisis in Darfur which many consider to be genocide.
The UN Global Compact's founding principles call for businesses to support and respect human rights, and its "Integrity Measures" define steps to safeguard the reputation, integrity and good efforts of the Global Compact and its participants. The complaint, which was submitted under these Integrity Measures, asks the UNGC to use its "good offices" to influence PetroChina to engage with the government of Sudan on behalf of the Darfuri people. If, after three months, there is no satisfactory resolution of the issues raised, the group requests that the Global Compact "consider PetroChina's participation to be detrimental to the reputation and integrity of the Global Compact and remove the company from the list of participants."
Investors Against Genocide is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending investment in genocide. The organization works to build awareness of this problem and to advocate for investment firms and companies to change. The ultimate goals are that the Government of Sudan ends its deadly genocide in Darfur and that companies and investment firms avoid investing in genocide. For more information, visit <http://www.
| January 6, 2009 |
VOA
On Bush's administration statement that it will waive a requirement to notify Congress 15 days in advance of undertaking an airlift of equipment for UN/African Union peacekeepers in Sudan: Analyst Eric Reeves, says the airlift proposal is not new."This is really extraordinary that they are billing this as a new initiative. The question is not the US ability to use its enormous airlift capacity. It has made that offer publicly. Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, travelling to Khartoum in early November, declaring then, over two months ago, that the US was willing to use its airlift capacity to move troops and equipment. This is not new. I think it's really a question of what there is to move in. Most of the time since the passage of UN resolution 1769, which authorized UNAMID (the joint United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur), there has been insufficient equipment or manpower that is ready or that Khartoum will permit to deploy," he said.
Reeves says that the US airlift is not likely to lead to a deeper American military commitment. "There is no practicable no-fly zone, no place to base it. There's no way to distinguish Antonov cargo aircraft that are dropping bombs and those that are delivering humanitarian aid and supplies. Khartoum is notorious for disguising its aircraft, both fixed wing and helicopters. I think it is simply unreasonable to think that just short of a robust force on the ground that would disable planes that would have attacked civilians, disabling them subsequently, there is no way to enforce a no-fly zone," he said.
Reeves adds that over five years, the United States has not contributed a single helicopter to the UNAMID effort. He also suggests that a US-imposed naval blockade is unlikely to meet approval from China, which has strong maritime dealings with Khartoum, and could raise tensions in the region rather than lower them.
A more immediate issue that could determine the next moves between Washington and Khartoum is whether the 10-count war crimes indictment of President Bashir by the International Criminal Court (ICC) will result in a warrant for his arrest. Eric Reeves says that President Bush needs to address that issue during Tuesday's meeting with the UN secretary general because Khartoum has shown wanton disregard for the protection and safety of UN personnel operating in the country and has flouted attempts by the international community to bring several war crime suspects to justice.
"Quite explicit threats have been made by various members of the regime and have been reported by the UN, indicating that UN personnel, both peacekeepers and humanitarians, would become targets if the ICC issues an arrest warrant for General Omar al-Bashir, President and field marshal. These threats have gone unrebuked, which is quite extraordinary. Never in the history of the UN has a government threatened UN troops," he noted.
Although the impending Gaza crisis is expected to occupy a good deal of the US - UN discussions, Professor Reeves says he believes that President Bush and Secretary General Ban in their talks on Darfur will try to address urgent calls for the UN to bring pressure on Khartoum to stop trying to "blackmail" the world body and live up to its international commitments.
Martin Luther King
| January 5, 2009 |
By Shankar Vedantam
Monday, January 5, 2009; Page A08
When President-elect Barack Obama, an early opponent of the Iraq war, asked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton -- who helped to authorize the war -- to be his secretary of state, many liberals scratched their heads. When Obama asked Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates -- a Republican who has run the Iraq war for more than two years -- to stay on in his new administration, the scratching grew fierce.
But no one needs to read the tea leaves on one particular aspect of Obama's foreign policy: Obama, Clinton and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. have all called for aggressive American action against humanitarian crises and genocide. Susan E. Rice, Obama's nominee for U.N. ambassador, has said that if a Rwanda-style genocide began again, she "would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required." Samantha Power, a leading proponent for an interventionist American policy in humanitarian crises, was a senior Obama adviser during the presidential campaign.
"Look empirically at the kind of people who will populate the decision-making positions in the new administration and compare them with the principals" in the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, said John Prendergast, co-chairman of the Enough Project, an advocacy group that fights genocide. "What we will get, possibly for the first time in my life, is leadership from the top in these crises."
Obama might want to include a scientist named Paul Slovic in his team. Slovic, a professor at the University of Oregon, has conducted experiments that provide an unusual window into why the United States has often failed to intervene in humanitarian crises -- and why it is likely to remain slow to do so in the future. Slovic's research suggests that the central reason the United States has not responded forcefully -- and quickly -- to crises ranging from the Holocaust to the Rwandan genocide, from the ethnic cleaning that occurred in the 1990s Balkan conflict to the present-day crisis in Sudan's Darfur region, is not that presidents are uncaring, or that Americans only value American lives, but that the human mind has been unintentionally designed to respond in perverse ways to large-scale suffering.
In a rational world, we should care twice as much about a tragedy affecting 100 people as about one affecting 50. We ought to care 80,000 times as much when a tragedy involves 4 million lives rather than 50. But Slovic has proved in experiments that this is not how the mind works.
When a tragedy claims many lives, we often care less than if a tragedy claims only a few lives. When there are many victims, we find it easier to look the other way.
Virtually by definition, the central feature of humanitarian disasters and genocide is that there are a large number of victims.
"The first life lost is very precious, but we don't react very much to the difference between 88 deaths and 87 deaths," Slovic said in an interview. "You don't feel worse about 88 than you do about 87."
Slovic did one experiment shortly after the Rwandan genocide. He asked volunteers whether they were willing to spend precious resources getting water to a refugee camp in Zaire, now called Congo. There were many pressing demands for the money, but Slovic told the volunteers that the water could save 4,500 lives. Without the volunteers' awareness, however, the researcher told some people the refugee camp had 11,000 people while telling others that the camp had 100,000 people. The number of lives that could be saved was the same in both cases -- 4,500 -- but Slovic found that people were reluctant to divert resources to save lives in a large camp rather than the same number of lives in a small camp.
Slovic has also shown that the amount of compassion humans feel can diminish as the number of victims increases: In an experiment in Israel, Slovic asked volunteers whether they would help raise $300,000 to save eight children who were dying of cancer. Those in another group were told only about one child with cancer and asked how much they were willing to donate to save the life of that child. Slovic found that people were willing to give more money to save one life than to save eight.
"When we trust our feelings in these cases, we are led down the path of turning our backs on the suffering of many people," Slovic said. "Even though we don't think of ourselves as uncaring, if we trust our moral intuition, it is not designed by evolution to respond accurately to these types of situations of mass tragedy."
Slovic's work showing people's tendency to intervene in situations in which they can save all or most of the victims, but to turn away from situations in which they cannot help most of the victims, has important ramifications for the new administration. "It is often the case we can do something even if we can't do everything, and we ought not do nothing just because we can't do everything," Prendergast said.
The move is intended to help a joint African Union-United Nations team save lives by improving the delivery of humanitarian aid. The 26,000-strong peacekeeping force in Darfur has struggled with a lack of troops and transport.
Sitting with Sudan's first vice president, Salva Kiir, in the Oval Office, Bush said he waived State Department requirements in order to launch the airlift right away.
Rebels who claim they have been neglected and marginalized by Sudan's central government took up arms in the Darfur region in early 2003. Attempts to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table or to broker cease-fires have failed, and so far up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their homes.
International mediators pushing for new negotiations on Darfur are being hampered by divisions among Darfur's rebels and by some rebels' hopes that genocide charges will bring down Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir. Bush said Kiir, the southern Sudan leader, is ''taking the lead in helping the rebels come together, so that there would be a more unified voice in negotiating -- hopefully negotiating -- a peace with the Bashir government.''
Meanwhile, the ICC indictment of Sudanese Pres. Omer Al-Bashir is said to be imminent. In South Darfur there was a mock evacuation for NGO’s —600 people in less than one hour. Planes are standing by in both Addis and Angola to airlift aid workers out of Darfur-probably to Entibbe.
Part of today's email to me from General Romeo Dallaire. Posted with Gen Dallaire's permission.
"--With Col Bagasora (former highest authority in Rwanda's Defense Ministry who ordered the murders of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and the 10 Belgian UN peacekeepers who had been guarding the Prime Minister. He is also guilty of the mass murder of Tutsis in Kigali and Gisenyi. He was finally convicted of genocide on Dec 18th by the ICCR-international Criminal court of Rwanda) found guilty, in part, and going off to jail for the rest of his life, there is a certain closure finally. This being the 15th anniversay year of the genocide, his going to jail does ease the memories that come back nearly daily as I walk through the pre-genocide events and keep reliving too many of them in slow motion and digitally clear after all this time.I have just listened to the tape of the Munk Debate that you participated in with Gareth (Evans) and others. Although the "con" side did raise reality facts about what is actually going on in national capitals and the UN Sec Council, they miserably failed to articulate an argument why we should accept this state of affairs and simply stay home. They themselves projected no desire to sort things out to ultimatly prevent mass atrocities and genocide.
Yes in the end some people die doing the tasks of advancing peace, conflict resolution, intervention and maybe even prevention, humanitarian relief and human rights. So! Is it not the responsibility of nation states that have the capability to resolve these crises to do so and is it not the price that we must be prepared to pay, not only cash, but blood also at times for the protection and security and advancement of other human beings like us. Yes like us, equal as human beings on this earth. The argument of any action dependent on self-interest of nation states and individual citizens is a gross abandonment of all the human rights initiatives over the decades since at least WW2. Nation states with power have the responsibility to make it available to other states and their citizens to advance their plight from poverty reduction, to solving pandemics, to conflict resolution, to the establishment of rule of law and democracy adopted to their differences. When we were worried about our security in the Cold War, we found the troops, by the millions, to protect our hides. Where have they all gone? Is the result of the Peace Dividend the lack of capability to advance peace, good governance, and conflict prevention in imploding nations around the world. Have we remained at this basic level of self-preservation only? If one looks at the continued modernization of nuclear weapons and the failure to prevent proliferation let alone attempts at disarmament, one might believe so. Hillier (General Rick Hillier-the highest ranking position in the Canadian forces.) may be right that I might have needed more than 5,000 troops to stop the genocide in its tracks. However, just being able to tell the Rwandans that my contingency plans were being put into formal plans for implementation in countries like yours and mine, would have thrown off the extremists and put enough doubt in many of them that would have assuredly saved tens of thousands of lives. Black human lives that yes count just as much as white lives in the developed world.
You were right on when you said that you must continue at the grass roots level to summon the political will to intervene by all possible means, including, in extremus, force. The under 30 in the developed world seem far more prepared to be activists and go beyond self-interest than their elders. All they need is a vision and a focus I assure you --"
| January 3, 2009 |
We see acuter quite
Than by a wick that stays.
There's something in the flight
That clarifies the sight
And decks the rays.
Emily Dickenson
A woman asked the cloud: please enfold my loved one
My clothes are soaked with his blood
If you shall not be rain, my love
Be trees
Saturated with fertility, be trees
And if you shall not be trees, my love
Be a stone
Saturated with humidity, be a stone
And if you shall not be a stone, my love
Be a moon