MiaFarrow.org |
Humanitarian and Advocacy Information |
Archives
- December 2017
- January 2013
- July 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- September 2007
| August 31, 2010 |
"Kenya will forever tarnish the celebration of its long-awaited constitution if it welcomes an international fugitive to the festivities," said Elise Keppler, senior counsel in the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. "Even worse, hosting al-Bashir would throw into question Kenya's commitment to cooperate with the ICC in its Kenyan investigation."
Al-Bashir is subject to two arrest warrants issued by the ICC for atrocities committed in Darfur in Sudan. The first was issued in March 2009 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The second was issued in July 2010 on charges of genocide.
Kenya is a state party to the ICC. The court's treaty, the Rome Statute, requires states to cooperate with the court, which includes the execution of arrest warrants.
Al-Bashir is subject to two arrest warrants issued by the ICC for atrocities committed in Darfur in Sudan. The first was issued in March 2009 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The second was issued in July 2010 on charges of genocide.
Kenya is a state party to the ICC. The court's treaty, the Rome Statute, requires states to cooperate with the court, which includes the execution of arrest warrants.
"Whether Kenya allows a suspected war criminal into Kenya is a test of the government's commitment to a new chapter in ensuring justice for atrocities," said Keppler. "The Kenyan government should stand with victims, not those accused of horrible crimes, by barring al-Bashir from Kenya or arresting him."
Although the African Union ( AU ) has issued a call for its members not to cooperate in the arrest of al-Bashir, African states - including Botswana and South Africa - have made clear that the call does not trump the obligations of ICC member states to cooperate with the court. An AU decision on the ICC at the union's most recent summit in July itself recognizes the need for ICC members to balance AU obligations with obligations under the court's Rome Statute, Human Rights Watch said.
The most dreaded of the militia is the FDLR- Hutus who were participants in the1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda.
On July 30, accompanied by the Mai Mai-a Congolese rebel group- the FDLR entered Luvung and surrounding villages. They blocked off all routes to and from the cluster. And the rampage began.
Over four unimaginable days there some 200 women and girls were gang-raped. Also four baby boys, aged one month, six months, 18 months and one year.
Some women said they were raped in their homes in front of their children and husbands by three to six men. Others were dragged into the brush.
In North Kivu I met women and little girls who described being gang raped. Some were penetrated with a bayonette and after their insides were destroyed, the rapists pounded the women's legs to pulp with their rifle butts.
The women I spoke with said the most brutal rapes had been perpetrated by the Hutu rebels (FDLR). Tutsi rebels are also a threat, and the Mai-Mai and the Congolese army. According to the UN at least 8,300 rapes were reported last year. In a region where impunity reigns, many people don’t report a rape because there is little chance that anyone will do anything about it, and because the stigma of being raped is very real (many women told me their husbands had left them after they were raped). And some women fear retaliation.
So the people in North Kivu are on the run. A group of displaced people sheltering in a UN supported camp said they had moved 6 or 8 times. They spoke urgently hoping I could do something to help them. At about 5PM they said, every evening militia came to the camp to rape them. They could only describe the rapists as "men in uniform". That same week a one year old baby had been raped. And people were getting sick; cholera had come to the camp. As we spoke, buses were pulling in near the tents, and with the help of UNHCR people were moving yet again-to an area they hoped would be safer. But the front line is also on the move and nowhere is safe in North Kivu.
I visited the UN peacekeeping base where it was wrenching to see as many as 4000 people pressed outside the gates. They had nothing, no food, shelter or water. Parents approached me, pleading with their eyes, holding out their dying children. UN agencies were struggling to meet people's needs but everyone is overwhelmed.
20,000 United Nations peacekeepers are in Congo but they have not been effective in protecting the people.
Civilians believe the peacekeepers are protecting commercial goods but not civilians, which is their primary mandate.
The Congolese government has this year demanded the withdrawal of the U.N. mission, saying it has failed in its primary mandate to protect civilians.
The peacekeeper's mandate is complicated by the fact that they are also required to lend support to the Congolese army, whose troops are often the perpetrators.
After the attack upon the women of Luvungi , communication between the Peacekeepers and the UN offices of Margot Wallstrom, U.N. envoy on sexual violence in conflict, were disgracefully slow. Wallstrom did not receive word of the atrocities until Aug. 21-22, more than a week after the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country learned about the incident and two weeks after the health organization treating the victims reported the incidents to a U.N. humanitarian liaison. That was on Aug. 6.
Six months ago the secretary-general Ban Ki Moon appointed Wallstrom to a two-year term, but insiders say she has rarely been seen at the UN and she has yet to fill four of the six positions in her offices. She is currently in Europe.
Published: August 31, 2010
NAIROBI, Kenya — Rwanda stepped up its threats on Tuesday to withdraw thousands of peacekeepers from Sudan if the United Nations publishes a report that accuses Rwandan forces of massacring civilians and possibly committing genocide in Congo years ago. Rwanda appears to be trying to play hardball with the United Nations and is using the fact that the country plays a linchpin role in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan for maximum leverage. Rwanda has 3,300 peacekeepers in Darfur, and a Rwandan general is in charge of the entire 21,800-strong United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission there.
The United Nations report that Rwanda is trying to block, which was leaked last week to several news organizations in draft form, charges that in the mid-1990s invading troops from Rwanda and their rebel allies killed tens of thousands of members of the Hutu ethnic group, including many civilians. The report presents repeated examples of times when squads of Rwandan soldiers, led by Tutsi commanders, and their Congolese rebel allies lured Hutu refugees with promises they would be repatriated to Rwanda, only to massacre them.
Until recently, Rwanda had been celebrated as one of the most promising success stories in Africa, a nation that had heroically rebuilt itself after a genocide in 1994, boasting impressive economic growth rates, low crime and innovative ways of fighting poverty.
But the perception of Rwanda is beginning to shift. Donor nations have steadily ratcheted up their criticism of Rwanda’s brand of democracy, especially after Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, won re-election earlier this month by 93 percentage points. Even the United States government, one of Rwanda’s most steadfast supporters, said that it was concerned about “a series of disturbing events prior to the election.” Human rights groups have accused Mr. Kagame’s administration of violently cracking down on dissent and jailing or killing opposition leaders and journalists. As the criticism builds, the Rwandan government seems increasingly prickly. Nothing, though, has made the government react like this report. For the past several weeks, Rwandan officials have been assiduously trying to persuade the United Nations, behind closed doors, not to publish the Congo report — or at least take out the most damning accusations. But now it seems the pressure has spilled out into the open.
According to a statement e-mailed to journalists on Tuesday by Jill Rutaremara, a Rwandan military spokesman: “The Rwanda Defense Force [RDF] has finalized a contingency withdraw plan for its peacekeepers deployed in Sudan in response to a government directive in case the UN publishes its outrageous and damaging report. All logistical and personnel resources are in place. The pullout will take the shortest time possible.
Link to complete NYTimes piece
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/world/africa/01rwanda.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
| August 27, 2010 |
Kenya has signed the Rome Statute which requires participating nations to arrest persons on their soil who are wanted by the International Criminal Court. Yet a current guest in Kenya is Sudanese President Omer Al Bashir, who is indicted by the ICC for perpetrating genocide against Sudanese people in the Darfur region.
Recently Chadian President Idris Deby, also a signer of the Rome Statute, welcomed Al Bashir. It is tragic, not only for the millions of Darfuris who suffer and await justice in sordid refugee camps, but for all of Africa's people, that some of its leaders have formed a cozy Impunity Club that offers five star treatment to a perpetrator of the ultimate human crime.
| August 25, 2010 |
24 August 2010 (IRIN) - In parts of Chad acute malnutrition levels far exceed the
international emergency threshold, according to a new study – fallout, partly, from crop failure
hitting already fragile communities where access to basic health services is low and aid agencies
are scarce.
The study, by Action contre la Faim (ACF) along with the government, donors and UN agencies,
showed that in Nokou and Mao in the western Kanem region, acute malnutrition strikes 27.2 percent
and 21 percent of under-five children, respectively. The figures for severe acute malnutrition –
which commonly results in death if untreated – are 6.4 and 4.7 percent.
The highest numbers are in the central-west Barh El Gazel region, where 28.1 percent of children
are acutely malnourished – 10.4 percent severe.
Even in a part of the world where periods of grave hunger are common, the recent survey numbers
shock.
-
Malnutrition rates are higher than in neighboring Niger, another West African country where poor
food and fodder production from 2009 has destabilized agro-pastoralist communities who already
live on next to nothing during lean seasons. In Chad, UNICEF says, under-nutrition is also due to
poor access to health services and safe drinking water, inappropriate infant feeding practices
and a lack of trained staff in hard-hit areas.
Malnutrition has been above the 15 percent threshold in Chad for a decade, according to UNICEF.
=========
Aid groups have been focused on the emergency in eastern Chad, where over 400,000 Darfur
refugees and displaced Chadians live. UNICEF has long pointed to the lack of aid partners as a barrier to tackling acute
malnutrition in Chad.
People in Chad are doing the very best they can, but the terrifying scarcity of water and shrinking of arable land is the cause of new levels of starvation. The first to die are always the small children.
UNITED NATIONS, August 22 -- In South Darfur the Kalma Camp, which the Sudanese government blockaded and starved for two weeks with surprising little said by the UN , is now slated to be closed, officials said over the weekend.
The remaining residents, estimated by the UN at 50,000, will be separated into two camps in Bileel. Some wonder from past practices if the governmental sorting will be along political or ethnic lines, presaging further blockages and attacks on internally displaced persons.
Link here http://www.innercitypress.com/ossg2sudan081810.html
UNITED NATIONS, August 18 -- As in West Darfur UN officials are being expelled for distributing rape detection equipment and collecting signatures on an anti-hunger petition, the UN in New York insists on saying nothing, trying desperately to ingratiate itself to Sudanese authorities.
After a spokesman for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization confirmed the expulsion of its official for circulating the petition on hunger <http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/18/sudan-says-will-deport-foreign-ngo-workers/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter> , Inner City Press asked the Spokesman for Ban Ki-moon about this, and the expulsion of other UN officials for conducting research into rape in Darfur. Video here <http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/pressbriefing/2010/brief100818.rm?start=00:17:41> , from Minute 17:41.
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article36045
By Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman
“-The people of Sudan in Darfur are quite sure that the plot so-called ‘Peace from Inside’ which has been hatched by the National Congress Party (NCP) under the code name of the ‘New Strategy’ is intended to bury the Darfur issue through the dismantling of camps for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as part of its continuing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide-”
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at mahmoud.abaker@gmail.com.
| August 20, 2010 |
Pakistan
GENEVA/NEW YORK/ISLAMABAD, 20 August 2010-"Mothers fleeing flooded homes
with nothing but their babies clinging to their backs; people waving for
help from the top of stranded buses as the waters rise around them;
desperately thirsty children drinking from contaminated water sources. The
humanitarian tragedy in Pakistan has reached tragic proportions. But
serious shortfalls in funding are limiting our ability to save lives as the
crisis worsens.
"The scale of the disaster in Pakistan caused by heavy monsoon rains and
floods is massive. One-fifth of the country is now underwater, and entire
villages have been swept away. Some 900,000 dwellings have been damaged or
destroyed. 15.4 million people have been affected by the floods.
"The consequences of the flooding for Pakistan's poorest and most vulnerable
people are very serious. And the most vulnerable of all, the children, are
at the greatest risk. Unless the world responds immediately, more and more
of the 3.5 million children affected by the floods will be at risk of
contracting deadly water-borne diseases like dysentery, diarrhea and
cholera.
"Together with our partners, UNICEF is currently supplying clean water to
some 1.5 million people every day, and re-uniting separated children with
their families. We are working with WHO to ward off serious health threats
by vaccinating thousands of children in receiving centres and camps, and we
are working alongside WFP to distribute supplementary high energy food to
children under five.
"But these efforts are insufficient to meet even the current needs of
millions of displaced families. With floodwaters rising, evacuations
continuing and more rains expected, the potential for even greater tragedy
grows by the minute.
"The need for greatly increased support could not be more urgent. Once the
most pressing needs are met, significant and sustained support will help to
rebuild schools, restore infrastructure and re-establish child protection
measures. But first, we must save lives.
"UNICEF urges the global donor community to help us protect the children of
Pakistan and to ensure that the floods which have destroyed their homes do
not also destroy their futures."
| August 19, 2010 |
"I am so sad. Mubarak allowed the Darfur story to be told to so many. A quiet hero. "
Jill
So many people have written to pay tribute to this fine man. He was a refugee from Darfur who lived in Chad where he risked his life over and over again to bring journalists and humanitarians to the refugee camps along the anarchic and violent Darfur/Chad borderland so that they could bear witness to the suffering there. Mubarak was all about respect. Here are a few words from the many who love and honor him.
" He broke my heart and I had the daunting task of spreading the news to our family in Sudan and around the world. We miss him: his big heart, his unwavering support to the Darfur cause, and his noble demeanor. May he rest in peace"” Omer
" How tragic, and ironic that after all those trips to dangerous parts, he should die tending his field.
"I will think of him today, and recall his friendliness, to a stranger, his professionalism, and the quiet comforting competence he brought to the most difficult of situations.
"He looked after everybody. The first time I worked with him, -the one during which we were detained as spies. I recall him quietly making the case that I continue to pay our taxi drivers who were actually jailed for a few nights. He didn't have to make much of an argument, I was, of course, willing to pay them, but it is a measure of the man that he brought it to my attention.
"And I will always remember him trying to pull our jeeps out of that wadi. From all I knew of him he was an immensely decent, brave and trustworthy man. A legacy we can all aspire to attain." neil
"For as long as he knew you (me) , and when ever we get together or talk over the phone, I don't recall one time that he forgot to ask about you, or tell me how much he loved you. Once I told him that I haven't talked to you for some time, he said to me " common Omer, you both are in America. How come that you don't ask about your sister all this time?" He always thought about others before thinking of himself, and like my younger brother Khalil, his class-mate since kindergarten put it "he has always been the best among all of us".
He will always be remembered as the one person with a smile that never fades. We will miss him, forever...."
Our brother Omer broke the terrible news to the rest of us.
text SWAT to this number 50555
The United States government is supporting local NGOs as well as Save the Children, among others, and the UN humanitarian agencies such as UNICEF and UNHCR.
I know this effort is real and it's all out because my son, Ronan Farrow, who works with Richard Holbrooke, has been working round the clock, giving it his all.
| August 18, 2010 |
Sudan says it will deport foreign NGO workers
KHARTOUM, Sudan - Sudan says it will expel a number of international aid workers from the restive western region of Darfur, without specifying how many.
Local media reported earlier this week that six foreign staffers, including employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross, had been told to leave the country.
Foreign Ministry spokesman, Muwaia Khaled told the Associated Press on Wednesday that the aid workers were being deported because of individual "violations," not problems with their organizations.
He did not elaborate on the nature of the offenses.
Relations between aid groups and the Sudanese government have been deteriorating since March 2009, when 11 international organizations were expelled from the country.
------
Omer al Bashir has already expelled the heads of some aid agencies. Now the rest are hanging by a thread. Three million people, driven from their land, are dependent on the NGOs .
| August 16, 2010 |
If you have a cell phone, then you have a direct connection to the deadliest war in the world. The conflict in eastern Congo is fueled by a multi-million dollar trade in minerals - tin, tungsten, tantalum (3T's), and gold - which power our cell phones, laptops, and other electronics. Urge the biggest buyers of the 3Ts and gold - major electronics companies -to produce conflict-free products.
Please take two minutes to send an e-mail now to the 21 biggest electronics companies . Here is a sample email or use your own words
Subject: Make our products conflict free
To Whom It May Concern
I am writing today with a pledge to purchase your conflict free electronics product once it becomes available. I want the death, rape and violence in Congo being driven by the illicit trade in conflict minerals to stop. If your company leads to produce a verifiably conflict-free product, I as a consumer will find your product far more attractive. If you take conflict out of your electronics, I will buy it. Sincerely,
We will add your signature from the information you provide.
http://www2.americanprogress.org/t/1659/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6265
Thank you for taking action!
We need your help to increase demand for conflict-free electronics products. As a consumer, you can influence electronics industry leaders as they weigh whether or not to invest in making their supply chains transparent and producing verifiably conflict-free products. Its important to let companies know that if they take conflict out of their products, you'll buy them.
Everyone is using them. Despite recent legislation no one has committed to going conflict free yet. Here is a list of the 21 leading electronics companies on and a way to email them. But they all procure their raw materials in the same way.
These are the top 20 offenders. Again, here is a link to the site.
http://www2.americanprogress.org/t/1684/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6265
| August 15, 2010 |
- Should Naomi Campbell ever wish for some more dodgy diamonds to grace her supermodel limbs, Cindor Reeves knows the right people to call. It is a long way from his new home in Canada to the war-ravaged gem fields of his native West Africa, and a long time since the trade in "blood diamonds" was officially banned, but as long as Ms Campbell sticks to her habit of not asking where they came from, he says a deal could probably be done.
"I tell you, I could get on the phone to people out there tomorrow, and they will fly them to wherever you want," he says, shaking his head. "They are supposed to have brought this trade under control, but it still goes on, and as long as it does, we will have wars in Africa."--
On the subject of illegal gemstones, it is fair to say that Mr Reeves is uniquely well connected, even if many of his best contacts are now either dead, on the run, or in jail. The tall, quietly spoken 38-year-old is the brother-in-law, no less, of Charles Taylor, the Liberian dictator who gave Ms Campbell a gift of uncut diamonds in 1997, according to her recent testimony at his war crimes trial in the Hague. For four turbulent years, he was at the centre of the blood diamonds trade, acting as Taylor's personal envoy in his infamous arms-for-gems deals with the rebels in next door Sierra Leone, whose drug-crazed recruits raped, maimed and slaughtered their way through a war that claimed some 150,000 lives.
As such, he also knows about the appalling price in human misery that was paid so that "the chief", as his brother-in-law was known, could flatter pretty girls at parties. The gifts Taylor used to hand out to the likes of Ms Campbell were the proceeds of dozens of clandestine trips that Mr Reeves made into the Sierra Leone bush, where he would swap truckloads of weapons for tiny but highly valuable packages of stones, many from rebel-held mines being run as virtual slave camps.
--- While he is not expected to give direct evidence to the Hague court, owing partly to a falling-out over the way court officials handled his witness protection provision, he is one of the key sources of information for a trial in which very few people have been brave enough to tell the truth. Among those who have been afraid to do so, he reckons, is Ms Campbell, who denied in court knowing that the stones she got were actually from Mr Taylor. "You could see the fear in her eyes, because she knows who Taylor is now," he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/liberia/7946198/Blood-diamonds-and-Charles-Taylor-the-inside-story.html
Photo—uncut or rough diamonds
| August 13, 2010 |
Sudan:
Source: Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) <http://www.gfbv.de/>
Date: 13 Aug 2010
Sudan: Officials close off camp with 82,000 Refugees from relief workers
The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has accused the Sudanese government of breaking international law with its blockade of the Kalma Refugee Camp in southern Darfur, in which 82,000 people are currently living. "Humanitarian international law forbids the intentional starving of civilians by a government and further prohibits collective punishment of a civilian population," said Ulrich Delius, the consultant for Africa at the STP, on Friday in Göttingen. "Sudanese President Omar Hassan al Bashir, currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for suspicion of genocide, is suspected of committing war crimes as well as crimes against humanity." The STP has appealed to the European Union (EU) to demand an immediate removal of the blockade.
After violent conflicts arose in the camp, as a result of which several people had died by the end of July, the Sudanese authorities, starting August 2nd, 2010, forbade any access to the camp by humanitarian aid organizations. The blockade will not be removed until the UNAMID peace-keeping troops surrender six spokesmen of the refugees who are suspected of inciting the conflict. The UNAMID has so far refused to deliver the six spokesmen, as they will be subject to unfair court proceedings.
"It is not only the Kalma camp that resembles a powder keg," noted Delius. Violent conflicts arose in other camps during July 2010 as well, as hopelessness and anger have spread throughout the camps. These displaced people feel abandoned by the international community because the future of these 2.7 million internally-displaced people remains unknown. Foreign countries provide relief supplies, but there remains no commitment to a strategy for these displaced people to return to their 4,500 destroyed villages. "It is absurd. The EU supports the ICC's warrant of arrest against Bashir, but, apart from emergency aid, there is no support for the surviving victims of his genocide."
The Lord's Resistance Army rebels have abducted 697 people in Central Africa in the past 18 months, killing many of them, according to an investigation by a human rights group released Thursday. The Ugandan rebel group "has killed at least 255 adults and children, often by crushing their skulls with clubs," said Human Rights Watch, whose researchers spent a month gathering evidence on attacks in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. "Nearly one-third of those abducted have been children, many of whom are being forced to serve as soldiers or are being used for sex by the group's fighters," the statement added.
| August 12, 2010 |
http://www.charlestaylortrial.org/trial-background/who-is-charles-taylor/#four
1.· Who is Charles Taylor? From 1989 to 1997, Charles Taylor was leader of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), a rebel group that fought in Liberia to overthrow the government of Samuel K. Doe. From 1997 to 2003, Taylor was the democratic president of Liberia. In August 2003, based on an agreement with African Heads of State, Taylor left office after rebel forces had come close to entering the Liberian capital, Monrovia. He was granted political asylum in Nigeria. In March 2006, Taylor was transferred to the custody of the Special Court for Sierra Leone where he now faces trial.
2.Who is trying Charles Taylor? The Special Court for Sierra Leone is trying Charles Taylor. Although the trial is being held in The Hague, Mr. Taylor is still being tried by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The trial is taking place on the premises of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
3. How and why was the Special Court for Sierra Leone established? The Special Court for Sierra Leone was established on January 16, 2002, under an agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone. It was established to try “those who bear the greatest responsibility” for war crimes, crimes against humanity, other serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law committed in the territory of Sierra Leone since November 30, 1996.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone differs from other international tribunals such as the Ad Hoc International Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Special Court is a hybrid tribunal that makes a blend of international and Sierra Leonean domestic law, as well as a blend of international and domestic Sierra Leonean personnel. Among the eleven judges of the Special Court, seven were appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations while four were appointed by the Government of Sierra Leone. Among these judges, three are Sierra Leoneans, appointed by the Government of Sierra Leone. In like manner, the Prosecutor was appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations while the Deputy Prosecutor, a Sierra Leonean, was appointed by the Government of Sierra Leone.
4. “Why is Charles Taylor being prosecuted and what crimes is he charged with? Charles Taylor is charged with 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Sierra Leone from November 30, 1996, to January 18, 2002. The Prosecutor alleges that Mr. Taylor is responsible for crimes which include murdering and mutilating civilians, including cutting off their limbs; using women and girls as sex slaves; and abducting children adults and forcing them to perform forced labor or become fighters during the conflict in Sierra Leone. Mr. Taylor has pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Taylor is charged on the basis that he allegedly backed Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels fighting in Sierra Leone; that he had links with senior leaders in the RUF—such as Foday Sankoh, Sam Bockarie (a.k.a. Mosquito), Issa Sesay, and others—in addition to a second warring faction, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC); and that he was responsible for Liberian forces fighting in support of the Sierra Leonean rebels.
The specific counts against Mr. Taylor are:
• Five counts of war crimes: terrorizing civilians, murder, outrages on personal dignity, cruel treatment, and looting;
• Five counts of crimes against humanity: murder, rape, sexual slavery, mutilating and beating, and enslavement; and
• One count of other serious violations of international humanitarian law: recruiting and using child soldiers.
Again, much more information can be found on this site. http://www.charlestaylortrial.org/trial-background/who-is-charles-taylor/#four
This is part of Mr Sesay’s account of my testimony.
“First to testify today was Ms. Farrow, who contradicted Ms. Campbell’s account about how Mr. Taylor became associated with the diamond gift. According to Ms. Farrow, it was Ms. Campbell who had informed her that Mr. Taylor sent men to deliver the diamonds to her. Ms. Campbell was excited, Ms. Farrow testified today.
“She [Ms. Campbell] said at night, some men had knocked at her door and there were two men that were sent by Charles Taylor and they had given her a huge diamond and that she was going to donate it to Mr. Mandela’s charity,” Ms. Farrow told the court.
“As I recall it, she was quite excited,” she added.
When asked by prosecutors whether Ms. Campbell had shown her the diamond, Ms. Farrow said, “No, she did not.”
When asked again a direct question as to whether she was the one who had told Ms. Campbell that the diamonds must have been from Mr. Taylor, Ms. Farrow said, “Absolutely not…Naomi Campbell said that diamonds were from Charles Taylor.”
Under cross-examination, defense lawyers tried to establish that Ms. Farrow had difficulty recollecting different things, that her testimony did not only contradict that of Ms. Campbell but also contradicts the statements made by Ms. White to prosecutors, and that as an activist involved in issues relating to Africa, such as Darfur, she had a motive of working against African leaders she perceived to be oppressing their people.
Defense counsel for Mr. Taylor, Morris Anyah, in cross-examining Ms. Farrow pointed out that while she was testifying that the gift given to Ms. Campbell was a “huge diamond,” Ms. Campbell herself who received the said gift had testified that there were “two to three small dirty-looking stones,” and that Ms. White in her statement to prosecutors had said there were about five pieces of diamonds.
In her response to these points, Ms. Farrow said, “I didn’t see the diamond or diamonds, I can only tell you what Naomi Campbell said.”
=====================================================
As it was, the story was strange. Not the sort of incident one is likely to forget. But if Ms. Campbell had said at the time (as her former manager has recently testified), that in the middle of the night, Charles Taylor’s men had in fact presented her with several diamonds-and they were uncut, or rough, that would have been far more strange, and my reaction would have been very different, especially as I learned more about Mr. Taylor and what was happening in Sierra Leone.
The following link is to a PDF of the Prosecution’s Second Amended Indictment from the site of the Special Court for Sierra Leone http://www.sc-sl.org/
http://www.sc-sl.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=lrn0bAAMvYM%3d&tabid=107
| August 11, 2010 |
2 million people are homeless with no where to go. Millions await relief that has not come.
LRA Creates New Safe Haven in Eastern Congo
The Lord's Resistance Army has depopulated a remote corner of northeastern Congo, killing and abducting hundreds of civilians, and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes. In a new report, "'This Is Our Land Now': Lord's Resistance Army Attacks in Bas Uele, Northeastern Congo," field researcher Ledio Cakaj documents 51 attacks by the LRA in Bas Uele, Congo, resulting in at least 105 deaths and 570 abductions during the last 15 months. After signing into law the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act in May, the Obama administration is developing a comprehensive strategy to deal with the LRA. Any viable strategy needs to take into account the importance of Bas Uele to the LRA, in order to better protect civilians and end the LRA's escalating threat across a vast region of central Africa. Read the report at www.enoughproject.org
says that 6 million children have been affected by the floods in Pakistan; some 2.7 million in need of urgent, life-saving assistance.
According to UN estimates, a total of 14 million people have been affected
by the flood crisis. Hundreds of thousands have received humanitarian aid,
but millions more urgently need shelter, food, water, and health care. The
flooding could worsen considerably in the coming days, especially in parts
of Sindh.
"This is the biggest natural disaster to hit Pakistan and this region in
living memory, bigger than the Tsunami or the 2009 earthquake, with
millions of children and women struggling to survive in dire conditions. It
is a race against time as we rush to deliver supplies to affected
populations. The waters are still rising and we are bracing for flood waves
as rivers overflow and the rains continue," said Martin Mogwanja, UNICEF
Representative in Pakistan.
"Shelter is the most urgent need, while food, water, and health care are
also critical. Right now we need to save lives and create temporary living
conditions for the 1.8 million homeless. It is a massive task and we are
not there yet."
| August 10, 2010 |
Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of other people are inaccessible: clinging to rooftops, swept away," Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said. "The rains are continuing," he said, and the Sukkur dam, which holds back the Indus River from the agricultural plains of Sindh province, "is in danger." He added: "If it breaks, the situation will reach an even more catastrophic level."
Holbrooke said the administration is calling on other governments to help and is trying to mobilize the business community while pressing for individual contributions via a text-message system the State Department has set up. But, he said, "I'm concerned that perhaps people think that it's just another one of the endless tragedies that Pakistan endures."
The unprecedented floodwaters that have overtaken villages throughout the northwest part of the country are quickly rising across the southern plains as the Indus, Kabul and Swat rivers overflow their banks.
With the monsoon rain showing no sign of abating, the government estimates that 1,600 people have been killed, 650,00 homes have been destroyed, and more than 50,000 square miles are under water in a disaster still in its early stages.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/09/AR2010080905769.html
Holbrooke said the administration is calling on other governments to help and is trying to mobilize the business community while pressing for individual contributions via a text-message system the State Department has set up. But, he said, "I'm concerned that perhaps people think that it's just another one of the endless tragedies that Pakistan endures."
The unprecedented floodwaters that have overtaken villages throughout the northwest part of the country are quickly rising across the southern plains as the Indus, Kabul and Swat rivers overflow their banks.
With the monsoon rain showing no sign of abating, the government estimates that 1,600 people have been killed, 650,00 homes have been destroyed, and more than 50,000 square miles are under water in a disaster still in its early stages.
link to/quote from this article:
| August 8, 2010 |
Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, has warned the United Nations mission in Darfur and foreign aid organisations to "support government authorities" or face expulsion.
"Any aid group or UN or African Union agency, even Unamid, their mandate is to support government authorities," Bashir told a gathering of Darfuri leaders in Khartoum on Saturday.
Unamid, the joint African Union and United Nations mission in Darfur, has more than 15,000 peacekeepers deployed in the region.
"I tell my brothers, the governors of Darfur, that anyone who exceeds these boundaries or their mandate can be expelled the same day," Bashir said.
Sent from my iPhone
| August 7, 2010 |
Kalma camp, located near Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, is home to over 90,000 people, most of whom are supporters of the Sudan Liberation Movement led by rebel leader Abdel Wahid Al-Nur. Since August 2 authorities have surrounded the camp.
In its daily briefing of Thursday the peacekeeping mission confirmed the blockade saying that “aid groups still await permission to enter the camp.” The UNAMID also reported that the displaced are being exposed to heavy rainfall “increasing fears of health risks”.
Martin Nesirky, Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Friday limply confirmed the denial of humanitarian worker access to the camp on Friday, saying,
“There is still no access. -- Clearly, we would wish that to change.”
People from Kalma reached this week by the Sudan Tribune said residents inside the camp are suffering from lack of food.
| August 5, 2010 |
Violence Rising in Sudan’s Darfur Region
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
UNITED NATIONS — Violence in the turbulent Darfur region of Sudan has spiked over the past several months, Alain Le Roy, the head of United Nations peacekeeping operations, said Wednesday. He attributed the increase to a combination of factors, including fitful peace talks, renewed tribal rivalries and overall tension in Africa’s largest nation as its south prepares for an independence referendum.
Calling the situation a “bleak picture,” Mr. Le Roy told a news conference that security had deteriorated significantly as optimism for a cease-fire in 2009 faded.
Recent United Nations statistics indicated that killings this year already rivaled the 832 violent deaths recorded for all of 2009. May alone, with 400 deaths, was the bloodiest month since peacekeeping forces were deployed in December 2007.
It is difficult to boil down the complicated tapestry of actors in the region, especially as rebel movements have splintered and increasingly well-armed criminals have flourished in the seven years the war has dragged on.
First, in May, the Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM, Darfur’s most powerful rebel group, broke off peace talks that had been taking place in Doha, Qatar, after the Sudanese government rejected its demand that it be the sole negotiator for the rebels at the table. Since then, the group has been trying to reassert itself militarily, and was forced into some confrontations after neighboring Chad improved ties with Khartoum and closed off the group’s usual escape routes over the border.
Second, the conflict was first set off by clashes between nomadic Arab tribes and more sedentary Africans over water supplies. With some two million people, mostly Africans, displaced from their lands, the Arab tribes are now fighting among themselves for the spoils, and water resources are even scarcer.
Third, southern Sudan, which has fought the north for 50 years in a war that has killed about two million people, is expected to vote for independence in a Jan. 9 referendum. The government in the north wants to pacify Darfur before the referendum — both because Darfur will take on added weight in the smaller country that Sudan will probably become and to discourage any Darfuri notions about breaking away.
“They want to reassert their political and military control,” said Fabienne Hara of the International Crisis Group. “They are very scared that Darfur will not be under their control by January 2011.”
The United Nations peacekeepers remain locked in constant confrontation with the government. For example, an Egyptian peacekeeper bled to death in May after the government refused to allow a helicopter flight for his evacuation, United Nations officials said. The Sudanese government regularly professes its full cooperation.
Much of the international attention on Sudan is focused on ensuring that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 between the north and the south does not collapse as it reaches its most critical moment. Just five months away from the independence vote, the commission to supervise the balloting lacks a leader, and knotty questions, including who will be eligible to vote, remain unanswered.
Larger issues like dividing oil resources between the north and south also remain to be negotiated.
Some analysts fault the Obama administration for lacking a clear-cut policy on Sudan, divided between the softer line of Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, President Obama’s Sudan envoy, and the more confrontational approach often voiced by Susan E. Rice, the United States ambassador to the United Nations.
They deny a rift, but one senior State Department official said that Washington was still struggling to define a policy. “There is no sense of urgency that this is a crucial moment and we have to craft it,” said the official, speaking anonymously because of a lack of authorization to speak publicly on the matter.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/world/africa/05sudan.html?_r=1
| August 4, 2010 |
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/04/farrow.africa.future/index.html
I took these photos in a boarding school for traumatized children, most had been abducted by the Lords Resistance Army. The third photo shows older children enacting their abductions. They are wearing signs -LRA, a child. The exercise helps them to overcome their trauma but it is chilling to watch.
| August 3, 2010 |
*Sudan is now China's No.6 oil supplier
By Chen Aizhu
BEIJING, Aug 3 (Reuters) - PetroChina will accelerate an upgrade to a new, southern China refinery so that it can avoid processing oil from Sudan, after Washington said the firm's New York-listed unit should stay clear of Sudanese oil, company sources said on Tuesday.
The United States had imposed economic sanctions on Sudan since 1997, and former President George W. Bush imposed new ones in 2007 while seeking international support for an international arms embargo to end what he said was genocide in Sudan's Darfur region.
Reuters reported in early July that the U.S. government had told PetroChina, Asia's largest oil and gas producer, not to process crude Sudanese crude at the company's the new plant, despite the fact that CNPC, parent of PetroChina, is the largest foreign oil producer in the African state. [ID:nTOE66407I]
The refinery in the southern Guangxi region was designed mostly to handle the type of crude oil from Sudan, which is now China's sixth-largest crude supplier, with daily exports of about 269,000 barrels per day in the first six months of the year.
| August 2, 2010 |
"We collectively as a movement and me personally as a leader have a responsibility to provide for the safety and well being of our people. Should the regime’s forces attempt to enter, the residents will have the right to defend themselves. they will not stand still," said Al-Nur.
"UNAMID and Khartoum must understand that they are playing with fire if they try to make their way into the camp. They have been warned" emphasized Al-Nur stressed from his residence in Paris.