MiaFarrow.org |
Humanitarian and Advocacy Information |
Archives
| December 31, 2009 |
We live in a world of sorrow. I have posted some of the photos I took over the last couple of years in places where people graciously received me in tents, on mats, in camps, on the desert sands- in times of terror and desperation. The people in the pictures are victims of man made disasters. We have inflicted immeasurable suffering upon each other, and it is the worlds most vulnerable who suffer most. It seems we have learned nothing since we first declared 'never again'.
Of course for me these are not photographs, but people in my life, people of courage, generosity, humor and grace. I am grateful beyond all words for the privilege of spending time with them and for the inspiration they continue to give me. They deserve better.
| December 29, 2009 |
But the people of Gaza are not forgotten. On Tuesday Hedy Epstein, an 85 year old Holocaust survivor, began a hunger strike for Gaza.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-hall/holocaust-survivor-goes-o_b_406655.html>
"There comes a time in one's life when one has to step up and risk one's own body," she said.
Hedy Epstein escaped Hitler's Germany in 1939, when she was 14 years old. Her parents sent her to England on the Kindertransport -- a rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of World War II to evacuate predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany. Epstein's parents remained in Germany and she was never to see them again; they perished in the extermination camp at Auschwitz in 1942. Her extraordinary childhood is one of the reasons Epstein found herself inclined to become involved in the Palestinian solidarity movement.
After World War II, Epstein worked as a research analyst at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi doctors who performed medical experiments on concentration camp inmates. After she moved to the US, Epstein became an activist for peace and social justice causes. It was a particular event though, that triggered Epstein's interest in the Israel-Palestine conflict. <http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2009-12-30-epstein.jpg>
"I think for me the wakeup call came in 1982 with the massacres in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon. Up until then I had not paid that much attention to what was happening in that part of the world. Then I heard about that and questioned what is this all about," she said. "As I learned more and I discovered more, I became increasingly more horrified by the practices of the Israeli government vis-a-vis the Palestinian people. And I began to speak out publicly against those policies," she added.
Epstein acknowledged that she represents somewhat of an anomaly in the American Jewish community. "There is an almost thoughtless, blind support of Israel no matter what it does," she said. Epstein did, however, note a slight change in attitude recently: "Since the massacre in Gaza at the end of last year, I do see a crack in the way people are looking at what Israel is doing, and that crack needs to be broken wide open, so that a change will take place."
Force commander Patrick Nyamvumba told Reuters, "Now the biggest issue is no longer the numbers -- we have the boots on the ground, For us to be able to deliver we don't have to get 100 percent — 77 percent is good enough to make a difference." The biggest problem facing the peacekeepers is the lack of helicopters. UNAMID has been imploring the United Nations member states to provide helicopters but thus far have yet to contribute a single one.
Ethiopia pledged five helicopters, possibly they will arrive next month, but no others have been promised and the commander says he needs at least 18 to do the job and keep his troops safe. "We cannot deliver the mandate without the necessary equipment." he said. "It's like sending somebody to the (boxing) ring and then you tie one of their hands at the back and you expect them to perform at 100 percent capability," he said. "If we all honestly say we do care for Darfurians we would do better."
28 December 2009
In the past 10 months some 1,300 civilians have been murdered in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo by the Lord's Resistance Army, according to latest reports by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The report on the DRC states that at least 1,200 civilians were killed, including women who were raped before they were executed. About 1,400 people were abducted or are missing.
"During their captivity, abductees were subjected to forced labor in fields, forced to carry looted goods or personal effects or recruited into the LRA. Women were forced to marry LRA members, subjected to sexual slavery, or both,"
"Thousands of homes, dozens of shops, at least 30 schools, health centers, hospitals, churches, markets, and traditional seats of chiefdoms, were looted, set on fire and over 200,000 people were also displaced."
Describing harrowing experience from victims, the report called on the international community to co-operate with the ICC in investigating, arresting all LRA leaders accused of international crimes.
The report also accused the DRC army of human rights violation of the displaced persons instead of protecting them.
"Soldiers of the Congolese armed forces, supposed to protect civilians, also committed human rights violations, including executions, rape, arbitrary arrests and detentions and illegal, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and extortion," the report said.
The report states that attacks, systematic and widespread human rights violations carried out since mid-September 2008 against Congolese civilians may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Sudan report on the other hand based on 27 confirmed attacks, reveals that at least 81 civilians were killed in attacks and many others injured.
"The evidence presented in this report suggests that LRA actions may amount to crimes against humanity," The report recommends that the United Nation Mission in Sudan should exercise its protection of civilians since its mandated to prevent further loss of life.
"The international community, including governments, should cooperate with the ICC to search for, arrest and surrender the LRA leaders accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The international community should support meaningful peace efforts between governments in the region and the LRA," the report recommends.
Link to complete article
http://allafrica.com/stories/200912290746.html
| December 27, 2009 |
I took this photo in Sam Ouandja at a camp for Darfuri refugees.
“If Lake Chad dries up, 30 million people will have no means of a livelihood, and that is a big security problem because of growing competition for smaller quantities of water,” said Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, executive secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission.
“Poverty and hunger will increase. When there is no food to eat, there is bound to be violence.”
| December 23, 2009 |
Tue Dec 22, 2009
(Reuters) - The international humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders on Monday released its annual list of the world's 10 worst humanitarian crises.
The following is the list, as provided by the group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres.
1. Violence against civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
2. Violence, civilians cut off from aid in Afghanistan
3. Violence and lack of access to health care in Somalia
4. Violence, lack of aid in northern Yemen
5. Violence, disease, lack of health care in southern Sudan and Darfur
6. Inadequate funding for treatment of childhood malnutrition
7. Civilians trapped in war-torn Sri Lanka
8. Stagnated funding for treatment of AIDS/HIV
9. Violence, civilian neglect in Pakistan
10. Lack of research, treatment of neglected diseases kala azar, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and Buruli ulcer
| December 22, 2009 |
http://inspiredgifts.unicefusa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ig_homepage
China, which has invested more than $9 billion during the past decade in Sudan's oil sector, has provided weapons to the regime and run interference for it at the U.N. Security Council. Major international efforts to pressure Beijing to play a more constructive role have fallen on deaf ears. However, the game could change. If the 2005 peace deal between Sudan's north and south collapses and southerners go back to war, their first targets will be Chinese oil installations in the north. China, therefore, has a vested interest in peace and security. Washington and Beijing could partner in a diplomatic "surge" in Darfur.
Link to full article:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-prendergast_22edi.State.Edition1.2d4a58f.html
Find out more
Www.heifer.org
800 422 0474
| December 21, 2009 |
I initiated the Darfur Archives in order to document the rich cultural traditions and oral history of those Darfur tribes targeted for extinction; the Fur, Zaghawa and the Masalit.
In 2003 Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir and his cabal launched a merciless campaign of destruction upon the non-Arab tribes of Darfur. Al-Bashir is still in office and he is wanted by the ICC for war crimes and crime against humanity including the murder, rape and displacement of millions. Nearly 3 million survivors fled to hastily formed camps scattered across Darfur and eastern Chad.
Today, 80-90 percent of Darfur’s villages are ashes-or occupied by others-Arab tribes not only from Darfur but from Chad and from distant Niger and Mali.
In one refugee camp an Oumda, (tribal leader) explained, “You know us very well. You know we are in mourning. We are suffering. We do not do these celebrations in the camps.”
I made it clear that I understand that they are suffering. And that this project is born of my deepest respect for them, I know something of the atrocities they have endured and the injustices and deprivations they continue to face each day. I also respect what once was theirs; the traditions that were inseparable from their identity, which marked the most important passages in their lives and within their lost communities. The archives must exist for the children who are growing up in deplorable camps and amidst violence. It is for them and for the children of Darfur who otherwise may never know their own heritage. It is true that far too much has been lost. But so many treasures exist today, in the memories of the elderly! Only in their memories.
The livelihood of the Darfurian people was once tied to the land. The Fur and the Masalit people are agriculturalists, the Zaghawa, herders. Young people who know only life in the camps will not know the agricultural methods when peace finally comes and they can return to their land. Nor will they know their own rich cultural traditions. I pledged to the refugees that when, one day peace comes, there will be a museum in the middle of Darfur. A place where the young people can go to reclaim what is theirs.
I then told them I would be at a designated spot at the edge of the camp every day for a month. I would simply operate the camera—they could decide what should be preserved on film. It’s for them, for the children of Darfur -and for the generations to come.
In the thousands they came each day, and they brought forth their treasures. I have filmed some 35 hours of songs and dances, celebrations of coming of age, marriage, planting, harvesting, visiting neighboring villages, children’s stories, mourning and honoring the dead. The elders shared their memories and the stories told to them by their grand parents. We have gone back 300 years!
The refugees took over this project as their own-which of course it is. I spent the month of Feb 2009 in the Oure Cassoni camp. At the end of my stay, the refugees donated some 200 artifacts they had brought with them when they fled their villages, everyday items they had used before their lives were destroyed. The artifacts are photographed, (I can email them to anyone who is interested) and are currently being stored at the US Embassy in Chad. And the old Oumda rewarded me bountifully when he said, “Thank you for reminding us to remember.”
The video footage and sound are of the highest quality. It is currently being edited professionally– divided into tribe.
The Darfur Archives Advisory board;
Historian and Harvard Professor Alex DeWaal, A Short History of A Long War, Famine
Professor Sean O’Fahey (Darfur Sultanate-2009)
Jerome Tubiana-widely published historian and expert on the tribes of the Chad/Darfur region.
The continuing support and advice of the board has been invaluable. Alex DeWaal told me that even in the midst of brutal warfare waged by this same government against the people of southern Sudan, the leaders in the Nuba Mountains 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. It is astonishing that no one had done this for Darfur. Traditions in Darfur have been passed through the generations orally. When the ways of conveying traditions break down completely, the culture is lost.
The project has, in so many ways, exceeded my goals. I could not have anticipated such wholehearted support from the refugees. I did not suppose that it would be possible to acquire artifacts.
But at least one more trip back to the refugee camps will be necessary in order to form a more complete archive. I will need to visit other camps, in another part of eastern Chad, in order to film the people of North Darfur, where the traditions are different.
Until we can have the museum in Darfur, I would like to have everything we have filmed put on the ‘Darfur Archives’ website. The primary importance of the archive is for the Darfuris in the future, but also, at this point in advocacy, it will serve as an important tool to show the world what extraordinary people we have been talking about and how rich and meaningful their customs and traditional way of life once were. I believe seeing the ceremonies and hearing the stories will bring Darfur’s people into focus in a new, very profound way.
| December 18, 2009 |
The oppressive actions taken by the Sudanese forces "undermine political rights and fundamental freedoms. The Center is gravely concerned by the recent action of the security forces in Khartoum to restrict legitimate activity related to the exercise of freedom of assembly, association and speech" responded the election monitoring body.
They also protested the fact that election committees in Darfur did not gain access to all displaced persons' camps in Darfur, including two of the largest IDP camps Kass and Kalma.
The Carter Center noted "checks on the distribution of proof of residency documents appeared weak, and given the widespread view of the partisan nature of local popular committees, this created some perceptions of bias in the process of identifying registrants."
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article33501
| December 17, 2009 |
KHARTOUM — Sudan is heading towards 'violent breakup' due to the lack of implementation of peace deals between Khartoum and the west, south and east of the country, the International Crisis Group warned Thursday.
"Unless the international community, notably the US, the UN, the African Union Peace and Security Council and the Horn of Africa Inter-Government Authority on Development (IGAD), cooperate to support (peace deals), return to north-south war and escalation of conflict in Darfur are likely," the ICG said.
"The main mechanisms to end conflicts between the central government and the peripheries -- the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (with the south), the Darfur Peace Agreement and the East Sudan Peace Agreement -- all suffer from lack of implementation, largely due to intrasigence of the National Congress Party," of President Omar al-Beshir, the report said.
Link to complete article;
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g1ECQoU5jGYx8FP28ZqvGKi36emQ
| December 16, 2009 |
NDJAMENA, Dec 16, 2009 (AFP) - Brazen kidnapping raids targeting aid workers in Chad and Darfur have set UN officials and aid groups on edge, fuelling fears of a violent new trend that could hobble relief work in the lawless area.
Four French aid workers, including two Red Cross employees, have been abducted since October in a string of attacks across a vast triangle straddling eastern Chad, Sudan's war-torn Darfur and the Central African Republic.
Darfur and the wider region have been rocked by dozens of carjackings and attacks on aid groups in 2009, but the latest abduction, which took place deep inside an aid workers' compound in Birao in the CAR, marked a turning point.
"The Birao hostage-taking caught everyone off guard. No one thought there could be a raid like this one," said Victor Angelo, special representative for the UN secretary general in charge of MINURCAT, the 5,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission to Chad and CAR.
"It was a well planned raid by people who knew exactly where to find the workers," Angelo said.
WOLF STATEMENT ON DIRECTION OF U.S. POLICY IN SUDAN
Washington, D.C. - At a press conference today with Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) made remarks on the direction of U.S. policy in Sudan. He prepared the following longer statement for insertion in the Congressional Record:
Madam Speaker earlier today a news conference was held with Congressmen Donald Payne, Chris Smith and myself along with representatives from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), to draw attention to the desperate situation in Sudan. We heard compelling firsthand accounts of what transpired in Khartoum last week. Arrests, detention, tear gas and beatings of peaceful Sudanese protestors including several high-ranking Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) officials. These protestors had gathered in the streets to press Sudan’s President Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP) to demand passage of important laws by the National Assembly.
Khartoum’s actions are inexcusable, but why should we be surprised, given the head of state is an accused war criminal. We also know from widely reported information that the National Congress Party (NCP) is obstructing the establishment of conditions for free and fair elections. The world also still awaits reform of the national security law.
Against this backdrop of violence and intimidation by Khartoum, the NCP and the SPLM entered into intense negotiations over the weekend. While reports indicate that a tentative compromise has been reached, the outcome is still far from assured. And if the coming weeks don’t yield the necessary results, the long-suffering people of Sudan will watch any real prospect of lasting peace and justice slip away. Will the U.S. stand by and allow this to happen?
For years the U.S. has been a leader on the world stage in advocating for the marginalized people of Sudan. This is an issue, unlike many in Washington, which has enjoyed broad, bipartisan support. In January 2005, after two and half years of negotiations, the North and the South signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) bringing about an end to the 21-year-old civil war during which nearly two million people died, most of whom were civilians. I was at the signing of the CPA in Kenya along with Congressman Payne. Hopes were high for a new Sudan.
Sadly those hopes are quickly dimming as President Bashir becomes further entrenched and principled U.S. leadership on Sudan wanes. On the eve of the five-year anniversary of the signing, the CPA hangs in the balance as does Sudan’s future.
President Obama’s special envoy to Sudan, General Scott Gration, was appointed in March of this year. Many in Congress, myself included, had pressed for a special envoy in the hope of elevating the issue of Sudan particularly at this critical juncture in the implementation of the CPA and with genocide in Darfur still ongoing.
While there have been times in the months following that I have been concerned by the direction that this administration appeared to be taking in Sudan, I refrained from any public criticism, not wanting to do anything that could jeopardize peace or progress on these critical issues. But I can be silent no longer.
The time has come for Secretary Clinton and President Obama to personally and actively engage on Sudan.
During the campaign, then candidate Obama said, "Washington must respond to the ongoing genocide and the ongoing failure to implement the CPA with consistency and strong consequences." He went on to say, "The Bush administration should be holding Sudan accountable for failing to implement significant aspects of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), imperiling the prospects for scheduled multiparty elections in 2009."
I could not agree more. Accountability is imperative. The CPA is not up for re-negotiation. But the burden for action, the weight of leadership, now rests with this president and this president alone.
I have consistently received reports from people on the ground that this administration’s posture toward Sudan has only emboldened Bashir and the NCP.
The December 12 Wall Street Journal editorial page put it this way, "As a candidate, Mr. Obama stood with the human rights champions of Darfur and pledged tougher sanctions and a possible no-fly zone if a Sudanese regime infamous for genocide didn't shape up. His tone has changed in office....the preference for diplomacy over pressure has encouraged the hard men in Khartoum to stoke the flames in Darfur, ignoring an arms embargo and challenging the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force there."
Khartoum is savvy in the ways of Washington. This softening in the U.S. posture has not gone unnoticed.
In recent written testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, the top UN investigator said, "In contrast to that leadership of 2004 and 2005, the United States appears to have now joined the group of influential states who sit by quietly and do nothing to ensure that sanctions protect Darfurians."
This administration’s engagement with Sudan to date has failed to recognize the true nature of Bashir and the NCP.
Having been to Sudan five times, I’ve seen the work of their hands with my own eyes. In June 2004 I was part of the first congressional delegation with Senator Sam Brownback to Darfur, soon after the world began hearing about the atrocities being committed against the people of that region. I witnessed the nightmare. I saw the scorched villages and overflowing camps. I heard the stories of murder, rape and displacement. In the summer of 2004, the Congress spoke with one voice in calling what was happening in Darfur genocide.
In addition to the massive human rights abuses perpetrated by the Sudanese government against its own people, it is also important to note that Sudan remains on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. It is well known that the same people currently in control in Khartoum gave safe haven to Osama bin Laden in the early 1990’s. I was troubled by Special Envoy Gration’s comments this summer at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that "there is no evidence in our intelligence community that supports [Sudan] being on the state sponsors of terrorism list..." despite the findings of the 2008 State Department Country Reports on Terrorism that "there have been open source reports that arms were purchased in Sudan's black market and allegedly smuggled northward to Hamas."
Last week marked the anniversary of the adoption of the 1948 Genocide Convention. In the aftermath of the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust the world pledged "Never Again." But these words ring hollow for the woman in the camp in Darfur who has been brutally raped by government-backed janjaweed so that they might, in their own words, make lighter skinned babies. Were these horrors taking place in Europe would the world stand by and watch?
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which sits just blocks from here, bears witness to genocide and related crimes against humanity around the world. The museum’s warning for Sudan stems from "(t)he Sudanese government’s established capacity and willingness to commit genocide and related crimes against humanity. This is evidenced by actions the government has taken in the western region of Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and the South that include:
Use of mass starvation and mass forcible displacement as a weapon of destruction;
Pattern of obstructing humanitarian aid;
Harassment of internally displaced persons;
Bombing of hospitals, clinics, schools, and other civilian sites;
Use of rape as a weapon against targeted groups;
Employing a divide-to-destroy strategy of pitting ethnic groups against each other, with enormous loss of civilian life;
Training and supporting ethnic militias who commit atrocities;
Destroying indigenous cultures;
Enslavement of women and children by government-support militias;
Impeding and failing to fully implement peace agreements.”
These are hardly our partners in peace. And yet, we cannot claim that Khartoum has been unpredictable, that we did not know what they were capable of. Tragically, they have been utterly consistent for nearly 20 years. They have consistently brutalized their own people. They have consistently failed to live up to agreements. And they have consistently responded only to strength and pressure.
And so I say once again, time is running out. The urgency of the situation calls for intervention at the highest levels of the U.S. Government-specifically the secretary of State and the president of the United States. The people of Sudan cry out for nothing less.
Elyse Bauer Anderson
Appropriations Legislative Assistant
Congressman Frank Wolf (VA-10)
202-225-5136
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article33478
The Obama Administration’s unveiling of its official strategy toward Sudan in October was greeted domestically with some hesitation but general approval. Since then, the presidential envoy Scott Gration, who is currently on diplomatic travel, has continued to articulate a defense of his trips to meet with members of Sudan’s senior political leadership.
Secretary Clinton, for her part, in a speech Monday evening suggested that the Administration’s approach to human rights has added a considered dose of realism to US diplomacy, saying "we must be pragmatic and agile in pursuit of our human rights agenda – not compromising on our principles, but doing what is most likely to make them real." In a mention of Sudan, she recommended "we have to continue to press for solutions," without elaboration whereby.
But such voices from within the US Executive Branch were met this week with a broadside of criticism and advice from lawmakers, activists, Sudanese expatriates, and an independent commission established by Congress.
In a move led by Senators Russ Feingold and John McCain, 27 total senators signed a letter calling for the UN Security Council to turn to violations of the UN arms embargo on Darfur. The letter, addressed to Ambassador Susan Rice, the US envoy at the United Nations in New York, asks her to "begin a discussion at the Security Council about pressures that can be brought to bear against belligerents in Darfur in the case that these violations persist."
The senators endorsed recommendations made by a UN Panel of Experts who had concluded research on the abortive arms embargo on Darfur and presented their findings to the UN Secretary General and then this month to the US Congress. Proposed steps include requiring Sudan’s government to submit to the Security Council bimonthly reports on its movement of troops and materiel into and out of Darfur. Other information uncovered by the UN Panel may lead to additional US designations of individuals to be targeted for financial sanctions and travel bans, the senators’ letter suggests.
Another open letter, addressed to President Obama, was released today by 50 leading Sudan advocates and Sudanese expatriates from around the country. It calls for "multilateral asset freezes and travel bans," support of the International Criminal Court cases against Sudanese officials, denial of debt relief, and enforcement of the UN arms embargo.
In the US House of Representatives, three members on Tuesday morning joined two members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) at an "emergency press conference," as it was described by Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey. The event marked the first public criticism of the Sudan policy from Rep. Frank Wolf, a legislator with long-standing involvement with the issue.
USCIRF Commission Chairman Leonard A. Leo, having recently returned from a five day visit to Khartoum, said "it is time for the United States to exercise strength. The policy of engagement – ‘cookies and gold stars’ – is not working. It is emboldening Khartoum to a point where this peace process is perilously close to failure."
The sudden renewed furor over Sudan comes after recent crackdowns on demonstrators in Khartoum who were led in part by politicians of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. The latter party, a signatory to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), objects to major gaps in implementation of the 2005 deal, whose terms are set to expire in January 2011.
Mr. Leo, in a statement taken as he was making his return last Thursday, said that "Leadership will come only from the top, and many of the officials we met were urging the Commission to take home a plea for greater US strength and pressure on recalcitrant signatories. We call upon Secretary Clinton in the next two weeks to send a strong message to the CPA signatory parties, as well as the international community, by personally standing with the peace process and seeking to reestablish a level playing field for free and fair implementation of the CPA."
Also calling for leadership from the top, President of the Save Darfur Coalition Jerry Fowler noted, "With elections rapidly approaching and the atmosphere getting more and more volatile, the situation in Sudan cries out for presidential leadership. In his Nobel address, President Obama recognized that the ’world must stand together as one’ in dealing with recalcitrant regimes like Sudan’s. That will not happen without sustained engagement by President Obama himself."
| December 15, 2009 |
Summit moved to keep Bashir away
The announcement came after Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt met in Paris. The venue was reportedly moved to prevent the Sudanese leader from attending: France has said it would carry out the ICC warrant for his arrest, whereas several African nations, including Egypt, have said they would not.
The ICC accuses him of running a campaign of genocide that killed 35,000 people outright, at least another 100,000 through a "slow death" and of forcing two-and-a-half million to flee their homes in Darfur. Earlier this month, Mr Bashir pulled out of an Islamic summit in Istanbul after Turkey, which is seeking EU membership, reportedly came under pressure from Brussels to drop him from the guest list.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/8414480.stm
The United Nations took the step after an attack, apparently by bandits, left three people dead on a nearby road in the region.
The mission, known by the acronym MINURCAT, added that it was following the situation closely and would reinforce its military presence in Sam Ouandja if necessary.
CAR, especially its northeast, has been plagued by armed rebels and bandits for years, a situation exacerbated by the spill-over of the Darfur conflict. UN officials have repeatedly called for an end to attacks on civilians that have seen scores of thousands of people driven into the bush, with scant means of sustenance, an appeal reiterated on Monday by the mission.
=================================================
I took these pictures in Sam Ouandja, not long after the 4000 refugees came in, on foot from Darfur where their villages had been attacked. Sam Ouandja is right on the Darfur/CAR border. It is a very volatile area-as is all of the north east and the north west of CAR.
| December 13, 2009 |
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
What if breast cancer in the United States has less to do with insurance or mammograms and more to do with contaminants in our water or air -- or in certain plastic containers in our kitchens? What if the surge in asthma and childhood leukemia reflect, in part, the poisons we impose upon ourselves?
‘More than 80,000 new chemicals have been developed since World War II, according to the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai. Even of the major chemicals, fewer than 20 percent have been tested for toxicity to children.
-- avoid microwaving food in plastic or putting plastics in the dishwasher, because heat may cause chemicals to leach out. --
“safer plastics” - those marked (usually at the bottom of a container) 1, 2, 4 or 5.
--plastics to avoid are those numbered 3, 6 and 7 - my weekend project is to go through containers in our house and toss out 3’s, 6’s and 7’s.’
| December 12, 2009 |
Urge your representative and senators to push for passage of the bills. Lists of electronic industry leaders can be found at http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org
Two excellent hospitals in Congo that provide fistula surgeries, and crucial supporting services are Heal Africa <http://www.healafrica.org/cms/> and the Panzi Hospital <http://www.panzihospitalbukavu.org> .
I visited the Heal Africa hospital and was hugely impressed. A surgeon was performing fistula surgeries all day every day—six a day is all he could manage. The youngest patient I spoke with was 14. But the rape of small children and even babies is not uncommon. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have suffered senselessly violent rapes which leaves their insides so damaged that, if they survive, they will be shunned in their communities.
| December 11, 2009 |
UP UP OKAMBO
Down Down AL BASHIR
Luis Moreno Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, is tasked with prosecuting atrocity crimes in Darfur, Northern Uganda, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He and the ICC have become the symbols of justice for millions in the region; the hope that one day justice will come, is what sustains them. Countless babies in Darfur are respectfully being named Okambo.
Here are two of the countless stories told to Luis Moreno-Ocampo during his investigations;
A fourteen-year-old girl in Northern Uganda, was abducted for use as a sex slave. When a baby was born of the rapes, she named her child, What Else Can I Do.
The girl spent three days with Moreno Ocampo and the ICC legal team, sharing the details of all she had endured. After all was told, she wept, and when the lawyers apologized for having raised such painful memories, the girl said she was weeping from happiness - no one had ever taken the time to listen to her.
"You are here! I knew you would come!" a Darfuri survivor cried out, upon meeting Moreno-Ocampo. When the refugee finished telling of how he was forced to watch while his eight year-old daughter was raped and murdered, he said that at last his story was told: "Now I can die."
| December 10, 2009 |
Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide, received the 1982 safety audit of the Bhopal plant which identified 30 major hazards. He used the report to fix some of the problems in the company's twin plant in the U.S. but he chose to do nothing for the Bhopal plant.
On the night of the disaster, December 3, 1984, six safety measures designed to prevent a gas leak either malfunctioned, were turned off or were otherwise inadequate. In addition, the safety siren, intended to alert the community should an incident occur at the plant, was turned off.
After the disaster Indian police arrested Warren Anderson but he jumped bail and was flown by private jet back to the US.
With Anderson in flight from the law, his company abandoned the polluted factory site and refused to disclose the composition of the poisonous gas (the company still claims this is a trade secret), thus hampering medical treatment for the 120,000 people who are still sick. Survivors received between US$300-500 compensation each.
Dow Chemical took over Union Carbide in 2001, and it claims Union Carbide has "settled" the issue of Bhopal. But, twenty five years on, toxic chemicals continue to contaminate the water of Bhopal. Survivors are still demanding a cleanup of the site.
Anderson is wanted in India to face charges of culpable homicide over the deaths of 20,000 people. The Indian Government formally filed an extradition request with the US, but for the last 18 years India, reluctant to damage US trade relations, has not pursued the extradition of Warren Anderson. US authorities claimed they could not find Anderson but last year he was found. Warren Anderson lives in a luxury home in Bridgehampton, Long Island, New York. His yearly golf club membership is four times the average compensation for a Bhopal survivor.
| December 9, 2009 |
Palestinian sources said the delegation had already arrived at Erez crossing point in northern Gaza Strip before Israeli soldiers turned the legislators back.
According to the statement, the Israeli army cited "security concerns" in denying the delegation's entry. This is precisely what I was told when my entry was initially canceled the afternoon before my scheduled trip into Gaza. But perhaps it was my relentless phone calls that caused them to reconsider, and allow me to enter Gaza.
Perhaps Israeli officials didn’t want the delegation to see the hundreds of bombed schools, and hospitals, or the thousands of destroyed homes. Or the destroyed sewage plant and the fact that raw sewage is now pouring into the sea- where the fishermen are permitted to fish just a mile or two from the shore, in the polluted water. Actually, all the water in Gaza is contaminated. The nitrate content in water is 300 times World Health Organization standards. Babies are being born with nitrate poisoning. Doctors told me that they are seeing a rise in babies with deformities. We wonder what was in the bombs that fell on them. Is white phosphorus the cause of the birth defects? The agricultural economy is dying from the contamination and salinated water;.
The UN has proposed two sewerage repair projects but they are awaiting approved by Israel. If the blockade could be lifted just to let these building materials and equipment into Gaza, to let water works begin, it would give many thousands of babies and children a chance.
9 December 2009
Kigali. Non-governmental Organisations and journalists operating in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have revealed that the security situation in South Kivu province is worsening after the FDLR rebels attacked villages where they looted and raped women.
According to Radio Okapi, the villages of Magunga and Mugaja in the territory of Uvira, South Kivu were attacked by FDLR rebels recently. In a separate incident, the rebels are reported to have recently attacked, ransacked as well as set fire to a civilian hospital in the locality of Shabunda, in South Kivu, in addition to abducting several hospital staff.
Hundreds of civilians have fled the areas.
The FDLR, with help from Mai-Mai militias of the Kapopo group, stole cows, goats and sheep as well as money, reports say. Four women were raped.
Recent revelations by a UN group of experts indicate that the FDLR, remnants of perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, have a world-wide network. The UN experts base their findings on evidence gathered after tracking down 240 calls between German-based FDLR leader Ignace Murwanashyaka and his military commanders in DRC.
http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200912090027.html
Copyright © 2009 The New Times.
| December 8, 2009 |
175. The Group has been informed by several international buyers that African
Ventures Ltd. operates as a middleman for Chris Huber. Mr. Huber is a Swiss
businessman who has been widely cited by various government officials and in
public reports as having been involved in the large-scale transport of coltan out of
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda during the period of the
Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma rebel occupation in eastern Democratic Republic of
the Congo during the period 1998-2003. During this time Mr. Huber worked with
Rwanda Metals, a company then managed by Tri-Star Investments, a company
which was in turn set up by RPF.
176. The Group contacted Mr. Huber, who explained in writing that he acts as a
"consultant" for African Ventures Ltd. in Hong Kong, China. The Group has
confirmation that Mr. Huber is also a consultant for a company called Refractory
Metals Mining Company Ltd. (RMMC), which is based at Shing Wan Road in Hong
Kong, China, the same street as African Ventures Ltd. (annex 61), and which is a
known supplier to the Thailand Smelting and Refining Company Ltd. (Thaisarco),
held by Amalgamated Metal Corporation (AMC), a United Kingdom entity. The
director of RMMC is John Crawley, who is also a director of the tantalum
processing company, Niotan Inc., in Nevada, United States. Mr. Crawley confirmed
that Mr. Huber works for RMMC.
CONTACT JOHN CRAWLEY in Nevada 775 246 4480
Tell him to stop dealing in conflict minerals in Congo.
Profits from the plundering of valuable mineral mines, including gold and tin, are financing the armed groups tearing apart eastern Congo.
Niotan Inc., of Mound House, Nevada is the first American company to be identified as a buyer of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is one of several companies cited in a U.N. study on how the illegal trade of the region's vast mineral resources, has kept the war going by enriching both rebels and Congolese army units. Niotan in Nevada is complicit in the suffering and deaths of millions of innocent people.
Phone John Crawley at 1-775-246 0566 or 775 246 4480. Weigh in. It is morally unacceptable to purchase conflict minerals from the Congo.
John Crawley, the CEO of Niotan is denying links to conflict minerals but the truth is evident in the UN Report released yesterday. Here is the link to the report -including all of the annexes with the evidence.
Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo addressed to the
Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1533 (2004)
paragraphs relevant to Niotan / John Crawley 175,176 and paragraphs 215,216
http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=s/2009/603