The Darfur Centre for Human Righ

Sudan reiterates refusal of UN force for Darfur under chapter seven

Monday 12 June 2006.

Jun 11, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan on Sunday reiterated refusal of the deployment of international peacekeepers in its troubled western Darfur region under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which allows UN-approved military intervention without the consent of the concerned state.

Majzoub al-Khalifa

Sudanese Presidential Advisor Majzoub al-Khalifa told reporters that he had reiterated the government’s position during a meeting with a joint assessment team of the United Nations and the African Union (AU), which is visiting Sudan to study the possibility of a UN takeover of the peacekeeping mission in Darfur from the AU.

"We clarified to them that we had not authorized the AU to transfer its mandate to any other party," the Sudanese official said.

Al-Khalifa added, "We also expressed our definite refusal of deploying international forces in Darfur under Chapter Seven, and the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) does not include any role for theUN in the region."

On May 5, the Sudanese government signed the peace deal with a main Darfur rebel faction in the Nigerian capital Abuja in order to put an end to the conflict in Darfur, which has waged for the past three years.

"We asked the assessment team to concentrate their mission on the implementation of the DPA and the reinforcement of the AU forces in Darfur," al-Khalifa said, adding that the UN ought to provide assistance in the humanitarian field and observe the signatories of the DPA to be committed to the agreement.

He stressed that all the parties concerned should double their efforts to achieve the main aim, which was to realize peace in Darfur.

Regarding an al-Qaida announcement to move activities to Darfur in case that international forces are deployed there in the name of defending the Sudanese people, al-Khalifa said the Sudanese people did not need any one from the outside to defend them because the Sudanese people "can defend their belief and sovereignty by themselves." The joint UN-AU assessment team was formed according to a UN Security Council resolution adopted on May 16.

The Sudanese government agreed to let the team in after talks with a Security Council delegation in Khartoum last Tuesday.

The team arrived in the Sudanese capital on Friday.

During its two-week visit, the team will evaluate how to reinforce the 7,800-strong AU forces in Darfur in the next few months and prepare for a possible transfer of the peacekeeping mission from the AU to the UN.

Besides having meetings with Sudanese officials in Khartoum, the assessment team will also visit Darfur to inspect the situation there.

(ST/Xinhua)

China’s arms exports are fueling conflicts in Sudan, elsewhere

Monday 12 June 2006.

June 11, 2006 (BEIJING) — China’s sales of military vehicles and weapons to Sudan, Nepal and Myanmar have aggravated conflicts and abetted violence and repressive rule in those countries, Amnesty International said in a report released Sunday.

The London-based rights group’s report sheds light on an area of Chinese foreign policy its government doesn’t disclose: assistance to regimes embroiled in internal conflicts and often shunned by the West. In particular, the report said China had shipped hundreds of military trucks to Sudan and the Myanmar military and rifles and grenades to Nepal’s security forces.

"China has used the phrase ’cautious and responsible’ to describe its arms export licensing, however its record of trading arms in conflict-ridden countries like Sudan and Myanmar show their actions are anything but," Colby Goodman of Amnesty International’s arms control campaign said in a prepared statement.

A duty officer in the spokesman’s office of the Foreign Ministry who refused to give his name said Sunday they would look into the assertion but had no immediate comment.

China rarely confirms sales of weapons and military equipment abroad, a secrecy that is compounding U.S. concerns about how Beijing is using its rapidly rising economic and diplomatic power abroad. Senior Bush administration officials have publicly taken China to task for a robust military buildup at home and a lack of transparency in its defense policies.

The Amnesty report said a U.N. investigation in August 2005 showed China shipped more than 200 military trucks to Sudan, where large-scale violence in the Darfur region has claimed at least 180,000 lives and forced more than 2 million people from their homes since 2003.

The trucks were exported by Hubei Dong Feng Motor Industry Import and Export Co., a company based in the central Chinese province of Hubei, Amnesty said.

Amnesty also expressed concern that an American company may be involved. The report said the model of military trucks exported by Hubei Dong Feng Motor Industry Import and Export Co. to Sudan were likely fitted with engines manufactured by Cummins Inc., a Columbus, Indiana-based maker of diesel engines with several ventures in China.

In a letter Amnesty provided to The Associated Press, Cummins said that particular truck model was powered by engines produced by a joint venture between Cummins and a Chinese company.

Cummins was unaware that its engines would be installed in vehicles to be sold to Sudan for military use, the company’s president of engine business, Jim Kelly, said in the letter.

While the Amnesty statement did not say exactly how that batch of trucks was being used in Sudan, the rights group said that in 2004 when massacres were widespread in Darfur, the Sudanese military and Arab militias known as Janjaweed traveled in military trucks. In some cases, the trucks also transported people for executions, the report said.

China was also regularly supplying Myanmar’s military junta with equipment, the report said, including an August 2005 shipment of 400 army trucks, despite the military’s involvement in the "torture, killing and forced eviction of hundreds of thousands of civilians," Amnesty said.

The military in Myanmar, a Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma, has been in power since 1962. The current junta came to power in 1988 after brutally crushing a pro-democracy movement. In April, Myanmar troops uprooted more than 11,000 ethnic minority civilians, often employing torture, killings and the burning of villages, according to reports from inside Burma.

China also exported nearly 25,000 Chinese-made rifles and 18,000 grenades to Nepal’s security forces early this year, who were at the time fighting thousands of anti-monarchy demonstrators with tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition, the statement said.

Amnesty also said illicit trade in Chinese-made pistols in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and particularly, South Africa, was growing. The pistols are commonly used for robbery, rape and other crimes in South Africa, the statement said.

Norwegian Refugee Council returns to Darfur

Tuesday 6 June 2006.

June 5, 2006 (NAIROBI) — The international humanitarian organisation Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) resumed its relief operations in the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur over the weekend, following the lifting of a ban on its work.

The NRC was forced to suspend its work in the region after being evicted on 5 April. On Thursday, the relief agency finalised its negotiations with Sudanese authorities and regained access to the volatile region.

"Our staff has started to return to Darfur the end of last week and they restarted their operations over the weekend," Astrid Sehl, NRC press adviser said by telephone from Norway. "All our staff has been waiting in Khartoum [Sudan’s capital] over the last 2 months."

The ban has hindered the distribution of food to 50,000 people and disrupted coordination in the largest camp for internally displaced people in Darfur - Kalma, near the South Darfur capital of Nyala, which shelters approximately 100,000 people.

"The condition for IDPs [internally displaced persons] in Kalma camp has worsened during the forced suspension of our activities. The rates of murder, rape and random imprisonment have increased. The tense situation has led to a number of demonstrations and riots," said Tomas Archer, the organisation’s secretary-general.

According to UN sources, two people at Kalma died on 29 May after being shot by unknown men in an incident that seemed to be related to cattle theft. In a separate incident, heavy shooting was reported inside the camp on 24 May.

The atmosphere in Kalma and other camps across Darfur has become more volatile and unpredictable since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) on 5 May between the Sudanese government and the main faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army. Many IDPs have staged demonstrations against the peace deal.

In a statement on 1 June, the chairman of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, deplored the distortions and misrepresentations of the agreement by those oppose who oppose it and urged all Darfurians, especially those in camps, to remain calm and maintain peace.

"This will facilitate the resumption of the delivery of humanitarian assistance as well as the activities of the AMIS [African Union Mission in Sudan] civilian police relating to protection services," Konare said.

(IRIN)

UN Security Council visit arouses different reactions in Sudan

Tuesday 6 June 2006.

June 5, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — With the arrival of a UN Security Council delegation in Khartoum on Monday evening, the council’s visit has aroused different reactions in Kharrtoum.

A Darfur refugee waits with her malnourished infant at a feeding centre at the Gaga refugee camp in eastern Chad in this January 26, 2006 (Reuters)

The delegation, comprising permanent representative of all its 15 member states, is to hold meetings with Sudanese officials on Tuesday on the UN role to stabilize the situation in Sudan’s western region of Darfur and to help implement a peace agreement signed by the government and Darfur rebel movements last month.

According to an official arrangement, after talks with Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir, Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and other senior officials on Tuesday, a press conference is to be held in the evening.

On Thursday, the delegation is scheduled to pay a visit to Juba, capital of south Sudan, where its members are going to have talks with First Sudanese Vice President and President of the Government of the South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit as well as local senior officials.

The delegation will travel on Friday to Darfur, where they will meet in the al-Fashir city with Osman Mohammed Yousuf Kibr, Governor of the North Darfur state, and officials of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS).

The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed the government welcome to the UN delegation’s visit, saying that the visit was "generally positive".

It stressed that "the Security Council does not have a certain agenda," a diplomatic term which is usually used to describe a scheme or conspiracy of harming a country’s interests.

Meanwhile, Presidential Advisor Mustafa Osman Ismail hoped that the visit would enable the UN council to get acquainted with the situations on the ground by their own eyes and ears instead of depending on media or diplomatic reports.

"The visit will give the Security Council members the chance of getting acquainted with the general climate and the successive positive developments, which are taking place in the peace process in the country at both the levels of the north-south peace process and the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA)," said Ismail.

He noted that 18 resolutions have been adopted by the UN Security Council since Sudan’s present regime came to power in 1989, adding that the number of wars are far more than Security Council resolutions concerning other dangerous issues in the world.

The recent UN resolutions against Sudan were exaggerated and politically motivated by certain forces, especially the United States, he said.

During the past week, local mass media issued a number of articles analyzing the nature of the Security Council delegation’s visit and relating it with the council’s resolution 1679, which calls for a quick deployment of international peacekeepers in Darfur.

On May 16, the resolution 1679 was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council, only one day after the African Union Peace and Security Council passed a resolution declaring "the need for concrete steps to effect the transition in Darfur from the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) to a UN operation".

In a statement issued hours before its delegation’s arrival in Khartoum, the Security Council called for a transition of the peacekeeping mission in Darfur to the UN from the AU "as soon as possible".

Fathi Khalil, Dean of the Sudanese Bar Association, warned that an intervention of the UN forces would change Darfur into a more serious threat for the international peace and security, adding that the intervention would be considered as occupation.

Mohammed Aud al-Barudi, an expert on international relations, has said that the Security Council would very probably endorse a resolution stipulating the UN peacekeepers deployment in Darfur no matter whether the government would agree.

Trying to placate the public opinion, the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the visit of the Security Council delegation had nothing to do with the resolution 1679, and the UN council did not have any intention to impose sanctions on Sudan.

The visit was decided before a long time in the framework of a travel program, which also includes other African countries, stressed the ministry.

(Xinhua/ST)

UN Security Council heads to Sudan in first-time visit

Monday 5 June 2006.

June 4, 2006 (FRANKFURT) — The United Nations Security Council descends on Sudan for the first time on Monday to try to convince the Khartoum government that a U.N. peacekeeping operation in Darfur was not tantamount to an invasion force.

Sudanese rally on the National Mall in Washington, April 30, 2006.

At the same time, several of the 15 council members intend to tell Sudanese leaders that they have not done enough to protect their own people, regardless of who started the conflict, which has cost tens of thousands of lives.

Sudan signed a peace agreement with the main Darfur rebel faction on May 5. Since then international efforts have intensified to persuade Khartoum to allow the United Nations to take over peacekeeping in Darfur from 7,000 badly equipped and under-funded African Union troops.

Sudan has agreed to allow a U.N. military planning team to go to Darfur, probably this week, but ruling parties are divided over whether the United Nations should take over from the AU.

Greek Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, during a stopover in Frankfurt on the flight to Khartoum, said Sudanese leaders felt they needed more time to pull together their government, following a power-sharing agreement last year with former southern rebels.

"We have to be a little bit understanding — not soft, but understanding," he told Reuters.

China’s U.N. ambassador Wang Guangya agreed, saying a recent council resolution ordering Sudan to allow in the U.N. planning teams disappointed the Arab-dominated Khartoum government.

Instead they had expected to be complimented for their flexibility in negotiations with Darfur rebels, not all of whom have signed the accord.

Some Sudanese fear NATO soldiers among the U.N. force and believe any mandate under enforcement provisions in Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter constitutes an invasion. Chapter 7 is cited in nearly all U.N. peacekeeping operations.

"Those who speak about the U.S. invasion of Iraq should speak about the U.S. invasion of Iraq," special U.N. envy Lakhdar Brahimi, told a recent news conference in Khartoum.

"But when you speak about the United Nations, then please talk about the U.N. as you know it (and not) as if it is coming to invade," he said.

The world body, in addition to organizing humanitarian aid, has a peacekeeping force of 10,000 in southern Sudan.

If there is a force in Darfur, another 10,000 troops and military observers are anticipated, including some of the African Union troops, U.N. officials say. The U.N. mandate is also expected to be tougher than the one in the south but will need Khartoum’s agreement.

Since 2003, at least 200,000 people in Darfur have died by bullets, hunger or disease, 2.5 million have been thrown out of their homes, many burned to the ground, and hundreds of women have been raped, mainly by Arab militia after a rebellion broke out. The Sudan military had armed militia although it is no longer certain if they control their allies.

The Security Council’s 10-day trip begins Monday and includes Khartoum, southern Sudan, refugee camps in Darfur and Chad, as well as African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa. The trip ends in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The head of the tour is British U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry.

(Reuters)

Midnight deadline passes with no new Darfur signatories

Thursday 1 June 2006.

May 31, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — A midnight African Union deadline for holdout Darfur rebels to agree to a peace deal for the troubled western Sudanese region passed with no new signatories, AU officials said.

Sudanese tribal leaders attend the Darfur talks at the venue of the Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria,Tuesday, May 2, 2006. (AP)

Despite intense pressure and threats of sanctions on the two rebel groups that have thus far rejected the pact and signs that dissident factions might sign on at the last minute, AU officials said no such overtures had been made.

At the same time, they said the pan-African body might be willing to accept signatures to the May 5 agreement on Thursday, considering logistical problems would-be signers may have had in meeting the May 31 deadline.

"No one has called to say they will sign but they know how to reach us," a senior AU official said at the bloc’s headquarters in Addis Ababa after the 2100 GMT deadline passed. "We’ll see what happens (Thursday) morning and consider it", AFP reported.

Noureddine Mezni, a spokesman for the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS), said in Khartoum that AU commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare Konare would on Thursday "indicate the next steps to be taken."

The holdout groups have refused to sign the accord aimed at ending three years of conflict in Darfur, which has left some 300,000 people dead and 2.4 million homeless.

While the main wing of the region’s Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) did sign the AU-brokered deal, a splinter faction and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have refused, saying it fails to address their concerns.

Shortly before the deadline expired, Mezni said efforts were still underway by southern Sudan ex-rebel chief, now Sudanese First Vice-President, Salva Kiir to "persuade those who did not sign" the pact to do so.

A source close to the negotiations said Kiir had received a delegation led by Konare’s Sudan envoy, Baba Gana Kingibe, and that he would himself soon host talks between the AU and holdout rebels in the south of the country.

On Wednesday, AU officials in Addis Ababa said a group claiming to represent a JEM splinter faction had arrived there to meet officials just hours before the deadline.

"We have been approached by a certain number of groups who are favorable to the DPA," AU Peace and Security Council commissioner Said Djinnit told reporters, referring to the Darfur Peace Agreement.

Diplomats in the Ethiopian capital said the alleged JEM dissidents were prepared to sign the deal even after a spokesman for the group said it could not agree unless substantial changes were made.

Mezni said AU officials were drawing up a new document that would allow dissident factions and commanders to escape sanctions.

"We are finalising a different document, a mechanism will be put in place to receive the signatures of groups and individuals who have chosen the path of peace," he said.

A source close to the AU said seven field commanders from Abdelwahid Mohamed al-Nur’s holdout SLM faction had arrived in Addis Ababa to join the peace process "and before that many others did the same."

Nur himself has said he will not sign unless Khartoum agrees to pay compensation and give his SLM wing a greater security role and a say in local and federal government.

Officials involved in the peace effort have warned Nur he risks becoming "irrelevant" if he does not sign, but his group’s absence from the accord will likely plunge Darfur into further violence.

The SLM founder represents the Fur tribe, Darfur’s largest, and has insisted on more concessions from the Sudanese government, which stands accused by Washington of perpetrating genocide in Darfur.

The SLM’s other faction, led by Minni Minnawi, is the only group to have signed up to the deal.

The Abuja accord, signed on May 5, provides for a more equitable distribution of power and wealth, the disarming of the pro-government Janjaweed militias and a referendum on the future of Darfur.

(ST)

Sudan says Janjaweed disarmament is a matter of time

Thursday 1 June 2006.

May 31, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese army assured that the disarmament of Janjaweed militias will be implemented soon saying it is a matter of time. Sudan also said it will be implemented in two stages

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) chief-of-staff, Gen Ismat said that the implementation of the disarmament of Janjaweed militias was a matter of time which will take place in accordance with the prevalent international customs and norms on disarmament of the militias, such as providing them with work chances, security and protection and guarantees.

According to the Darfur Peace Agreement, complete, verifiable disarmament of Janjaweed militia must be done by mid-October, 2006. It also stipulates measures such as the containment of Janjaweed and other armed militias into specific restricted areas prior to disarmament, removal of heavy weapons.

The spokesman’s office said that the disarmament of Janjaweed militias will take place in two stages, the first one is voluntary and in which the militia men will be provided with financial compensations when they hand over their arms, while the second stage of the disarmament will be compulsory for these militias.

The SAF spokesman’s office referred to the possibility of conducting the disarmament process at the first voluntary stage.

The office of the SAF’s spokesman said that the peace agreement did not give a certain definition to the term of Janjaweed, adding that they regard this word as meaning, the outlaws, while “other circles” define this term as referring to Arab tribes.

He said that the definition of Janjaweed as meaning Arab tribes is erroneous because the outlaws were men and groups, but not whole tribes, adding that these outlaws can be belonging to any tribe regardless of its affiliation to Arab or other ethnicity.

The holdout rebel groups and the main faction of the SLM which signed the DPA with the Sudanese government ask for mechanism of verification on this sensitive issue. They also demand to oversee this disarmament besides the international force.

The signed peace deal says Janjaweed and other armed militia will be disarmed before rebel forces assemble and prepare for their own disarmament and demobilization. So any manipulation on the disarmament process may lead to the failure of the peace process in Darfur.

(ST)

Sudan gives mixed signals on UN peacekeepers

Tuesday 30 May 2006.

May 29, 2006 (DARFUR) — As more than two million refugees from the fighting in Darfur endure triple-digit temperatures under the blazing African sun, the Sudanese government is sending mixed messages about whether it is willing to allow international peacekeepers to take up positions in the strife-torn region.

A peace deal that the Sudanese government signed recently envisions a United Nations force replacing the 7,000 African troops now deployed in Darfur. But the Sudanese government official who signed the agreement now insists UN peacekeepers should stay out of the country.

A Rwandan UN Peacekeeper waits to board a UN plane at Kigali Airport in November 2005 to be dispatched to Sudan’s capital Khartoum.

The Darfur peace agreement notwithstanding, the refugees just keep coming. In the first four months of this year alone, the size of the refugee camp at Gereida in southern Darfur tripled. It is now home to more than 100,000 people and there is nothing here for them. No tents, no plastic sheeting and no shelter from temperatures that top 115 degrees by the mid-afternoon.

The latest arrivals tell of fresh violence, some of it perpetrated by the government-backed Janjaweed militia. But some of it is now the result of infighting between the rebel groups here that are seeking a fairer shake from the government in Khartoum.

The only force protecting innocent civilians: 7,000 troops deployed here by the African Union. They patrol an area the size of France, and UN official

Jan Egeland says they are vastly outmanned and outgunned. "These are our hope, these African Union forces. But they are too few. And they have too little ability to move quickly and proactively to crisis areas. They need to be better-resourced and need, I believe, a more proactive mandate."

With the peace agreement signed, the African Union says it wants the United Nations to take over peacekeeping responsibilities in Darfur. And so does the United States - the Bush administration wants an initial force of 14,000 UN peacekeepers to take up positions in Darfur. But in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, some government officials are saying not so fast. And they include the man who actually signed the peace agreement on the government’s behalf.

Mazjoub Al Khalifa Ahmed says the only force bringing peace to Darfur should be an African one. "Let us come up with something workable and practical that will not jeopardize the sovereignty of the country, and will maintain peace on the ground. There is no need to fail the AU and make a transition from the AU to the UN."

It is not only the Sudanese government that is claiming UN peacekeepers might breach Sudan’s sovereignty. Al Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, is urging his followers to wage a jihad against any UN force that is deployed in Sudan a country that granted him refuge back in the 1990s.

The man who invited him to Sudan, is now rejecting that threat from the Al Qaeda leader. Dr. Hassan Al Turabi says UN peacekeepers will be safe in Sudan. "For the moment, I, as a matter of need and necessity, I welcome any interference. It doesn’t have to come from any particular countries who are suspect of having ulterior motives."

And the UN is indicating some willingness to compromise on the force’s composition, to avoid the prospect of an overwhelmingly white force moving in to resolve an African problem.

Egeland says "We believe it is in the interests of Sudan, in the interests of the people, in the interests of all Sudanese and certainly the government that there is such a force in the future. Well funded, with African, Arab, Asian, European and other forces. And that it will have regular budget funding from the UN, and therefore be more securely resourced.

Even if the government in Khartoum laid out the welcome mat immediately, it would take at least 6 months of planning and pre-positioning before the UN operation could get underway. That is at least another six months of fear and uncertainty for the refugees of Darfur.

(VOA)

Darfur conflict has reached new level of violence - UN

Tuesday 23 May 2006.

May 23, 2006 (GENEVA) — The conflict in Sudan’s embattled Darfur region has reached a new level of violence, both in intensity and frequency, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan visits one of the burned out mud huts the town of Labado, Sudan, in south Darfur, Saturday, May 28, 2005. The town was abandoned by its 60,000 inhabitants when it was attacked in December, 2004. (AP).

Sudan’s government is falling far short of its human rights commitments and is failing to protect civilians from attacks, including sexual violence, said the report by the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"As a result of the fighting, Darfur’s civilian population suffered from indiscriminate attacks, loss of property, and massive displacement," said the report. "In many cases, people fled violence only to arrive at a place where they were subjected to more violence and again had to flee."

The report, which reviewed the situation in the whole of Sudan between December and April, said that those responsible for human rights abuses must be held accountable, regardless of where and when the crimes took place, or who committed them.

"In Darfur, the government and rebels should immediately respect the governing cease-fire agreement," the report said. "The government should also disarm the militia and protect the physical security of all Darfurians by putting in place a credible, capable and professional police force and judiciary."

Fighting in Darfur has not abated since a May 5 deal to end the conflict. The fighting, which has left more than 180,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced in the arid western region, began when Darfur’s African ethnic groups rose in revolt in early 2003, provoking a counterinsurgency in which pro-government militia conducted widespread killings and destruction.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a separate report released this week, accused Sudan’s government of violating international humanitarian law by barring fuel, food and relief aid to civilians in Darfur.

"Particularly alarming is that the government reverted to using helicopter gunships on various occasions," the U.N. human rights report said. "In attacks by militia where there was no clear government involvement, the government repeatedly failed in its obligations under international law to prevent them."

The report also said that isolated incidents of civilians being killed, physically abused, sexually assaulted and harassed by militia continued daily. Humanitarian access also deteriorated because of insecurity and blockades on civilian populations.

"Sudan’s security apparatus continued to arbitrarily arrest people and abuse detainees for assumed rebel affiliation," it added.

(ST/AP)

Sudan must agree UN peacekeepers into Darfur - AU

Tuesday 23 May 2006.

May 23, 2006 (KHARTOUM/LONDON) — Sudan must agree to let a U.N. peacekeeping force into Darfur within weeks to make sure a peace agreement is applied, African Union commission chief Alpha Konare said on Tuesday.

Alpha Oumar Konare

"In two months’ time the rainy season starts. If confidence does not rule again to improve the security situation by then, it could be very bad," he told reporters after a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"The credibility of the agreement lies in making sure the undertakings are applied. We must lose no more time. If there is any doubt, everything comes into question," he added.

He was speaking as senior U.N. diplomats began talks in Khartoum to try to persuade Sudan to agree to the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to replace a cash-strapped and ill-equipped African Union (AU) force.

Khartoum initially resisted the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers, saying this would cause an Iraq-like quagmire that would attract Islamist militants into attacking the U.N. troops.

But since the government and the main Darfur rebel group signed a peace deal on May 5, Khartoum has softened its stance.

It says it does not reject a U.N. force but wants to be consulted about its mandate in Darfur — an ethnically mixed region the size of France, whose people have been swept up by a wave of violence since the rebellion began in 2003.

Despite the peace deal, dozens have since been killed in clashes between rebels and government-armed Arab militias.

Veteran troubleshooter Lakhdar Brahimi and U.N. peacekeeping head Hedi Annabi were to hold several days of talks with Sudanese government leaders, including President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to discuss the deployment of U.N. troops.

"We are hoping that we can work out an agreement with the government because ... this should not be done without the agreement of the government," said U.N. deputy spokesman Bahaa Elkoussy.

The two U.N. diplomats met deputy foreign minister Al-Samani al-Wasiyla and AU mission head Baba Gana Kingibe and were expected to meet Bashir on Thursday, Elkoussy said. They were not expected to make any comment on their visit on Tuesday.

The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution this month that envisages U.N. peacekeepers taking over from 7,000 AU troops.

ANNAN REPORT

The AU force has been monitoring a widely ignored truce in Darfur, but since the May 5 deal Arab Janjaweed militias have grown bolder and attacked towns where the AU has bases.

More than 250,000 people have fled their homes since the beginning of the year because of the conflict. Frustrated Darfuris have begun to attack the AU force, killing an interpreter earlier this month.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned the Sudanese government that its restrictions on supplies and relief workers in Darfur is a violation of international humanitarian law.

He said in a report to the U.N. Security Council on Monday that atrocities, including rape and pillaging, were swelling the population in squalid camps, now about 2.5 million.

Rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing the Arab-dominated central government of neglecting Darfur. Khartoum armed mostly Arab tribes to crush the rebels.

Despite intense international pressure two of the three rebel Darfur groups involved in peace negotiations refused to sign the May 5 deal, saying it was unfair.

The AU said on Monday Janjaweed militiamen were massing in North and South Darfur and attacking villages and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) accused the government of violating the accord by attacking SLA bases in Dar el-Salaam in North Darfur and flying Antonov planes over rebel areas.

The government denied the accusation.

(Reuters)

60 killed in recent Darfur clashes - UN, AU

Monday 22 May 2006.

May 21, 2006 (CAIRO) — A new surge of interethnic and militia violence has killed at least 60 people in separate attacks in Darfur over the past few days, the African Union and the United Nations said Sunday.

A Sudanese army soldier sits next to weapons and ammunition at an outpost in Sudan’s northern Darfur town of Tawilla May 17, 2006. (Reuters)

The killings came ahead of an expected visit by top U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi next Tuesday. A former envoy to Afghanistan and Iraq, Brahimi is due in Khartoum to push for the government to accept a U.N. resolution voted last week that plans for U.N. peacekeepers to take over operations in this vast region of western Sudan, the U.N. said.

Most of the recent attacks were launched by the so-called Janjaweed, a disparate group of Arab militiamen who are blamed for much of the atrocities in a conflict that has killed more than 180,000 people and displaced 2.5 million since 2003.

The Janjaweed are allegedly backed by the Sudanese government, which pledged to disarm them in the May 5 peace agreement signed in Abuja, Nigeria.

The U.N. said in a statement Sunday it received unconfirmed reports that the Sudanese army had fought a Janjaweed group in southern Darfur on May 18, killing six and arresting two. Sudanese authorities were not available to comment on the incident.

The U.N. said the Sudanese army and police had stated they would disarm armed bandits in the zone. Nazir Tigani, a local militia leader, warned he would resist such a move, the U.N. said.

Anticipating a possible increase in violence, the U.N.’s security assessment office in Sudan advised U.N. workers and international non-governmental organizations to limit their movement in the area and to update possible evacuation plans.

Darfur rebel groups affiliated to leaders who refused the May 5 peace agreement have also executed some of the latest deadly raids, the U.N. and the AU said.

"We’ve been witnessing a stiff raise of attacks over the last week," said Moussa Hamani, the chief information officer for the 7,300-strong AU mission to Darfur.

"The problem seems to be that everyone wants to maximize their territory before the truce and disarmament actually come into effect," he told The Associated Press on the telephone from Khartoum.

Some 150 people took up arms in the southern Darfur village of Kalaka to attack the nearby Arab militia position in Defeis on May 19, the AU and U.N. said. Eleven villagers died and eight were wounded during the assault that killed eight militiamen and wounded eight, the two international organizations said.

The U.N. statement said the raid was in retaliation for a previous militia attack during which the brother of Minni Minnawi, the main leader of the Darfur rebellion, was killed on May 5 - the very day Minnawi signed the peace agreement.

On the telephone from neighboring Chad, Minnawi said his brother Yussef was a civilian who was not involved in the Darfur rebellion.

"The Janjaweed could still have targeted him on purpose, they have been known to do that," he told the AP.

Minnawi stated his troops were not involved in Friday’s attack, and said he had heard reports the villagers had taken arms because Janjaweed were looting the area.

Hamani also said the AU was investigating a Janjaweed raid near Natiqa in South Darfur that left 29 people dead and five wounded on May 19.

In a separate attack in South Darfur on May 19, a group of Janjaweed from Niteaga raided the village of Baja Baju, controlled by a faction of the Darfur rebels, and killed six civilians, the AU and the U.N. said.

The U.N. and AU also said that a large group of about 1,000 Janjaweed on horseback were reported to be gathering near the town of Kutum in North Darfur, where deadly raids occurred earlier this month.

"This comes from local sources and cannot be fully confirmed," U.N. spokesman in Sudan Baha Elkoussy said on the telephone.

"The problem is there are so many incidents taking place over such a large area that it is hard to investigate everything," he said from Khartoum.

(ST/AP)

Annan says timing critical for Darfur aid

Monday 15 May 2006.

May 15, 2006 (LONDON) — Rich nations must provide immediate funding for the African Union mission in Darfur to ensure the success of a peace deal to end three years of war in western Sudan, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday.

One of three Darfur rebel factions and the Sudanese government signed a peace agreement on May 5 in Abuja, Nigeria, to end the conflict responsible for what Annan called "the world’s worst humanitarian crisis".

But news of the agreement has sparked violent protests in Sudan by refugees who say it does not go far enough to protect them, and opposition and government critics who say parties were forced to sign an ill-considered deal under pressure.

In an editorial in Monday’s Financial Times, Annan said peace in Darfur was fragile and there was "no time to lose". He said the only guarantor of security there, the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), needed immediate help.

"Right now, there is only one force on the ground that can even begin to provide protection: AMIS. Therefore, our immediate priority must be to strengthen that force, so that it can move ahead with implementing the agreement and providing real security for the displaced people," he wrote.

The African Union Peace and Security Council was to meet in Addis Ababa on Monday to discuss the next step in Darfur. The United Nations and western nations want the AU to turn over the Darfur peacekeeping operation to U.N. troops.

Sudan had rejected the proposal saying until there was a peace agreement for Darfur it would not allow in U.N. troops. European Union officials said last week in Brussels it now seemed Sudan was reconsidering allowing U.N. troops at all.

Annan said the AU mission should be turned over to the United Nations as soon as possible. But until then, he said the AU troops needed extra resources to implement the Abuja deal.

The United Nations would likely hold a pledging conference in Brussels in early June, Annan said.

"But I appeal to donors not to wait for that conference. They need to be very generous, starting now. We cannot afford to lose a single day," he wrote.

Rebels took up arms against the government in early 2003 accusing Khartoum of neglecting the arid region. Khartoum responded by arming Arab militias known locally as Janjaweed to put down the rebellion.

Tens of thousands of people have died and more than 2 million have fled their homes to refugee camps in Sudan and neighbouring Chad to escape the violence. Aid workers have said despite the pressing need, donor funding has diminished.

"Right now the region is facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Without massive and immediate support, relief agencies will be unable to continue their work and hundreds of thousands of people will die from hunger," Annan said.

The text of the Editorial : Darfur: The next urgent steps

(Reuters)

Sudanese government rejects Darfur SLM-Nur demands

Monday 15 May 2006.

May 15, 2006 (ABUJA) — The Sudanese government has rebuffed an overture from a Darfur rebel leader, preventing him from joining a peace agreement by Monday’s deadline despite intense pressure to sign, an adviser to the rebel chief said.

Abdelwahed Nur of (SLA), second right, together with members of his group walks out of the peace talks meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, Friday, May, 5 2006.

However, Abdelwahid Mohamed al-Nur of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) wants to keep trying to make a deal with Khartoum and talks look set to continue beyond the deadline because diplomats are desperate to gain wider support for the peace accord.

Nur rejected the peace settlement signed on May 5 by the Sudanese government and rival SLA factional leader Minni Arcua Minnawi to end a conflict that has killed tens of thousands.

News of the accord sparked violence in Darfur, where many feel it lacks legitimacy because only one rebel faction signed. The international community fears the agreement, the result of close to two years of painstaking talks, will not stop the war.

"We received a response from the Sudanese government and it was not positive enough for us to go ahead and sign," said Ibrahim Madibo, a close adviser to Nur who is still in the Nigerian capital Abuja, where the peace talks took place.

Nur wanted the government to meet his key demands in an annex accord, after which he would sign the broader peace deal.

"They (the government) do not approve the memorandum of understanding because they say the peace agreement is final," Madibo told Reuters.

Nur’s demands include greater compensation from Khartoum to Darfur war victims, more political posts for the SLA and greater SLA involvement in the security of internal refugees returning home and in the disarmament of pro-government militias.

DEADLINE SEEN SLIPPING

The SLA and smaller rebel group the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) took up arms in early 2003 accusing the Arab-dominated central government of neglecting Darfur, an ethnically mixed region the size of France in western Sudan.

Khartoum backed militias known as Janjaweed, drawn from Arab tribes, to crush the rebellion. The ensuing campaign of murder, looting, rape and arson has driven more than 2 million from their homes into refugee camps in Darfur and neighbouring Chad.

Nur is weak militarily but his endorsement of the agreement is important because he is a member of the Fur tribe, Darfur’s largest. His rival Minnawi has more fighters but he is from the smaller Zaghawa ethnic group.

The JEM has also rejected the peace accord, but observers say this is less of a problem because the group has few fighters left in Darfur and its constituency is small.

The African Union (AU), which brokered the accord, had set a meeting of its Peace and Security Council in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Monday as a deadline for any new signature.

Nur has written a letter to the AU asking for further help in trying to bridge the gap between him and the government. Diplomats said the AU was likely to accept as it did not want to give up hope of seeing Nur sign the accord.

Refugees have rioted against the agreement in several Darfur camps and students from the region have protested in the capital Khartoum. The violence has killed at least two people and heightened fears the war would continue despite the accord.

Nur’s next move will depend on the communique that will be released at the end of the AU meeting, Madibo said.

(Reuters)

SLM’s Nur urges African Union to consider its demands

Monday 15 May 2006.

May 15, 2006 (ABUJA) — In a letter addressed to the head of the African Union executive body, the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLM) of Abdelwahid al -Nur urged the Pan African body to intervene to bridge gap between them and the Sudanese government, and to consider its three demands.

SLM leader Abdelwahed Mohamed A-Nur

In a letter sent yesterday to the Chairperson of African Union Commission Oumar Konare, the leader of a faction of the main rebel SLM Abdelwahid al-Nur called the African Union to put pressure on the Sudanese government to sign a supplementary document related to their demands.

Abdelwahid also indicated the three demands of the faction:

“We have consistently made three important demands. One is our demand for adequate compensation for the individuals and families who have suffered losses during the conflict. The second is full involvement of SLM/A in key aspects of security arrangements including ensuring the protection of civilians as they return to their original places and the mechanisms for monitoring the disarmament of the Janjaweed. The third is the question of political representation both at the center and at the State and local levels”, said the letter.

The African Union Peace and Security Council holds a meeting today to discuss the Darfur Peace Agreement signed Friday 5 May between the Sudanese government and the SLM-Minni Minawi faction.

Al- Nur wants the African Union to consider his demands before endorsing the signed deal.

Following the text of the al-Nur’s letter:

Sudan Liberation Movement/Army

Date: May 14, 2006

President Oumar Alpha Konare Chairperson African Union Commission

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Dear President Konare,

Let me commend the African Union for its commitment to achieving peace in Darfur and providing protection for the people of Darfur. We appreciate the sustained effort of your Special Envoy, Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, and his Mediation team in Abuja over the last six months. We recognize that much hard work has gone into the Darfur Peace Agreement and there is much in the text that we find worthy and which we can agree with.

However, as you will be aware, the position of the SLM/A remains that the Darfur Peace Agreement, despite its many virtues, fails to address several important fundamental demands of the people of Darfur. We have consistently made three important demands. One is our demand for adequate compensation for the individuals and families who have suffered losses during the conflict. The second is full involvement of SLM/A in key aspects of security arrangements including ensuring the protection of civilians as they return to their original places and the mechanisms for monitoring the disarmament of the Janjaweed. The third is the question of political representation both at the center and at the State and local levels. We have been asking for a supplementary document that addresses these specific concerns to be attached to the Darfur Peace Agreement. When I am assured that the supplementary document has addressed our demands and been attached to the Agreement, I shall then attach my signature to the Darfur Peace Agreement.

The situation in Darfur today is grave and dangerous. The people of Darfur have expressed their views clearly. There have been massive demonstrations across the country for more than ten days. These demonstrations have taken place in Khartoum, Wad Madani, Port Sudan, Elgadarif, and in Darfur in particular in cities like, Nyala, Elfashir, Kass, Elginainah, Zalengei, and all IDPs camps. As the result of these demonstrations, many people have lost their lives as the result. All these demonstrations have rejected the Darfur Peace Agreement. We would like to take this opportunity and appeal to the AU Peace and Security Council to seriously take note of these latest developments. The aim of a peace agreement is to bring peace and tranquility in Darfur, and not chaos.

I am dismayed and saddened by the killings of people in Kass and Alfashir during today’s demonstrations, as well as the destruction of some of AU’s properties in Darfur. I am calling on my people to show restraint and to remain calm during these times. In the coming days, I propose that our urgent priority is for all participants in the Darfur peace process to work together to calm the situation and prevent further loss of lives.

Therefore, Mr. President, on behalf of the people of Darfur, I appeal to you to help us bridge the gap between us and the GoS with the ultimate goal of reaching a comprehensive and sustainable peace in Darfur.

Best regards,

Abdulwahid Mohamed Ahmed Elnur, Chairman and Commander in Chief Sudan Liberation Movement/Army

Cc./
  H.E. President Olusegun Obasanjo, President of Nigeria
  H.E. President Sasou-Nguesso, President of the Congo Republic and current President of the African Union
  H.E. Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations
  Mr. Robert B.Zoellick, Deputy Secretary of State of the USA
  The Honorable Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for International Development of the United Kingdom

Contact:- Dr. Nouri Abdalla, SLM/A
  Email: nouriabdalla@yahoo.com
  GSM, Abuja- +234-806-811-1656

(ST)

Darfur rebel SLA-Minawi, Sudan govt agree peace deal

Friday 5 May 2006.

May 5, 2006 (ABUJA) — The biggest of three Darfur rebel factions and the Sudanese government accepted a peace settlement on Friday but two other rebel factions rejected the deal, casting doubt on whether it would be workable.

Both the government and a Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction said they accepted the peace terms with reservations but did so to end three years of fighting and suffering in Sudan’s arid west.

"I accept the document with some reservations concerning the power sharing," SLA faction leader Minni Arcua Minawi told Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick and a host of senior diplomats meeting at Obasanjo’s Abuja compound.

A spokesman for Minnawi’s group said the main reservation was what they saw as insufficient representation in parliament.

The agreement Minawi’s SLA faction accepted was an amended version of an African Union (AU) drafted document produced after two years of talks. Western diplomats reworked parts that draft to win the support of rebels.

These amendments included stronger guarantees for the rebels in the security arrangement. In particular, provisions for rebel fighters to join the Sudanese armed forces were strengthened, as was a requirement Sudan disarm its proxy Janjaweed militias.

The government delegation, which had earlier accepted the AU draft, told a meeting of African heads of state and Western diplomats they would also accept the new terms.

"They have great misgivings about the amendments and they say practical problems will arise in the implementation ... but they don’t want to give anybody grounds to continue the war," said Sam Ibok, head of the AU mediation team.

Ibok said the government’s main misgiving was the integration of rebels into security forces. Khartoum representatives said the numbers of rebels to be absorbed into government security forces were too high.

"BIG DAY FOR DARFUR"

Mediators clapped and embraced at the end of the session with the government delegation and everyone in the room had a wide smile on their faces despite the all-night marathon talks.

AU chief mediator Salim Ahmed Salim said he would have been happier if all rebel factions had signed but this was nevertheless "a big day for the people of Darfur".

"In realistic terms the agreement between the government and the SLA Minni is a major development. The two of them working together can make a major contribution to a return to peace and normalcy in Darfur," Salim told Reuters.

Ibok said: "We are hoping those who are outside the agreements now will not do anything to impede the implementation because if they do there will be a robust response from the AU and the U.N. Security Council."

A rival faction of the SLA and the smaller Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) earlier rejected the deal citing a wide range of objections.

AU negotiators said they would bring rival SLA faction leader Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur back to the talks to ask him if he would reconsider and accept the deal.

Minnawi has more support among SLA fighters than Nur, observers say, and JEM is marginal in terms of forces on the ground. But it is unclear how useful an agreement signed by only one of the three factions would be.

"JEM frankly doesn’t matter but Abdel Wahed does. There are provisions in the agreement for armed groups that are not signatory to be made to observe the agreement," said a Western diplomat, who has been involved in the crafting the blueprint.

He said these provisions could offer an avenue to include Nur’s faction during the implementation process and he also added there would likely be U.N. sanctions against those who blocked the agreement.

Three deadlines for a peace deal had passed since Sunday despite intensive efforts to end a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and driven more than 2 million from home.

The SLA and the JEM took up arms in early 2003 in ethnically mixed Darfur, a region the size of France, over what they saw as neglect by the Arab-dominated central government.

Khartoum used militias, drawn from Arab tribes, to crush the rebellion. A campaign of arson, looting and rape has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur and the United States labels the violence there "genocide".

(Reuters)

US pushes for Darfur deal before third deadline

Thursday 4 May 2006.

May 4, 2006 (ABUJA) — The warring parties from Sudan’s Darfur region face a third deadline to make peace on Thursday with uncertainty surrounding U.S. attempts to wrangle a few last-ditch concessions from the government and the rebels.

Minni Arcua Minnawi (L) leader of a faction of the rebel SLA and Ibrahim Khalil, leader of the rebel JEM participate in Abuja talks. (Reuters)

The government of Sudan has accepted a peace plan on security, power-sharing and wealth-sharing drafted by African Union (AU) mediators, but three Darfur rebel factions refuse to sign, citing objections to many provisions of the proposed deal.

The AU has twice put back by 48 hours a deadline for an agreement to allow last-gasp diplomatic efforts which are now being led by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.

Rebels took up arms in early 2003 in ethnically mixed Darfur, an arid region the size of France, over what they saw as neglect by the Arab-dominated central government.

Khartoum used militias, known as Janjaweed and drawn from Arab tribes, to crush the rebellion. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people while a campaign of arson, looting and rape has driven more than 2 million from their homes into refugee camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad.

Zoellick has held several rounds of talks in the past two days with the Sudanese government delegation to try and obtain a few cherries for the rebels that could persuade them to sign.

Meetings went on late into Wednesday night, and a U.S. diplomat said early on Thursday that Zoellick’s team was preparing to present to the rebels the result of discussions with the government.

"They’re streamlining some language to shuttle over to the rebels," the U.S. diplomat said.

JANJAWEED DISARMAMENT

No details filtered out on what exactly the government may have agreed to give. The thrust of the U.S. proposal was that Khartoum should accept a detailed plan for rebel fighters to integrate the Sudanese armed forces, a key rebel demand.

In exchange, a part of the draft deal that says Khartoum must disarm its proxy militias before the rebels lay down their weapons would be amended to better suit the government.

It is still unclear whether the rebels could be persuaded to sign.

They are split into two movements and three factions with complex internal politics and a history of infighting, making it hard for them to agree on any major decision. So far, they have insisted they were dissatisfied with many aspects of the draft.

For example, they want a post of Sudanese vice-president, a new regional government, greater representation in both national and local institutions, and individual compensation for victims of war. Mediators say they have been inflexible on these points.

Peace talks have dragged on for two years in the Nigerian capital Abuja while violence has escalated in Darfur to the point that aid workers cannot reach tens of thousands of displaced people.

The AU’s top two officials, Chairman Denis Sassou Nguesso, the president of Congo Republic, and commission head Alpha Oumar Konare, were due to join the fray in Abuja on Thursday.

Diplomats said they could help because Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir wants to be AU chairman next year, which could give the AU bosses some leverage over Khartoum. Bashir lost out to Sassou this year because of the Darfur conflict.

In addition, several African heads of state were due to arrive for a health conference and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo suggested to the AU chief mediator that they too could get involved in the Darfur talks to ratchet up the pressure.

(Reuters)

US Rice sees AU mission in Darfur not enough

Friday 28 April 2006.

April 27, 2006 (SOFIA) — The African Union (AU) mission in Sudan’s Darfur region is not enough and should be taken over by the United Nations, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.

Condoleezza Rice

"The AU mission, while it has been successful thus far, is not robust enough to deal with the continued violence in Darfur," Ricetold reporters in Sofia after the first day of an informal meetingof NATO foreign ministers.

She said NATO has to provide support for the AU mission as the first order of business. "But also, there needs to be a UN blue-hatted mission which is more sustainable and can be more robust," she said.

NATO is ready to work with the UN and the AU to try to bring about that more robust mission, she added.

NATO can provide support for either an AU mission, or a UN mission, she said.

"I would hope that everyone would put aside whatever constraints there are so that we can respond to what is a really quite difficult humanitarian and security situation in Darfur."

(Xinhua/ST)

WFP halving Darfur rations on funds shortage

Friday 28 April 2006.

April 28, 2006 (GENEVA) — The U.N. food agency said Friday it is halving rations to more than 3 million people in Sudan’s embattled Darfur region because of a shortage of funds.

Teams of women carefully brush up grains of cereals that spilled from bags air dropped by the World Food Programme, August 15, 2004.

The World Food Program will cut rations from 2,100 calories a person to 1,050, spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said.

"WFP has to cut the food rations to millions of vulnerable people in Sudan," Berthiaume told reporters. "It’s scandalous that people don’t have enough to eat."

Donor governments have given WFP only $238 million of the $746 million it appealed for this year for the whole of Sudan, Berthiaume said.

(ST/AP)

Adding insult to injury? Sharp ration cuts leave Darfur on a diet

KHARTOUM/GENEVA - Despite the horrific suffering of millions of vulnerable people across Sudan, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today that a severe shortage of funds has forced it to make drastic cuts in food rations from May.

By reducing the daily rations to as little as 1,050 kilocalories — half the minimum daily requirement of 2,100 kilocalories per person — WFP says its limited food stocks will last longer during the ’hunger season,’ the annual period from July to September when needs are the greatest before the next harvest.

"This is one of the hardest decisions I have ever made. Haven’t the people of Darfur suffered enough? Aren’t we adding insult to injury? It’s so hard to understand this funding shortfall because last year official development assistance climbed all the way to US$107 billion — double what it was just a few years ago. Donors are being incredibly generous — but they are not putting victims of humanitarian crises like Darfur first on their list," said James Morris, WFP Executive Director.

"Food must come first — we cannot put families who have lost their homes and loved ones to violence on a 1000 calorie a day diet. But we have been pushed into this last resort of ration cuts in Sudan so we can provide the needy with at least some food during the lean season. This is a measure we should simply never have to take. Our donors were really supportive in 2005 — they cannot be less so in 2006," Morris added.

Despite repeated appeals to donors, WFP has received just US$238 million or 32 percent of the US$746 million required to provide food assistance to 6.1 million people in Sudan this year in Darfur, the South, Central, East and the Three Areas (formerly the Transitional Areas of Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile). WFP is particularly concerned about the effect of reduced rations in Darfur, where rampant insecurity continues to cause enormous suffering.

People in Darfur will receive half the usual amount (in weight) of cereals, blended fortified food and oil, and one quarter of the usual pulses, sugar and salt. The energy content of the food ration will fall from the minimum daily requirement of 2,100 kilocalories per person per day to 1,050 kilocalories per person.

Similar cuts will be made in the East, where WFP assists Eritrean refugees and displaced families.

"What is deeply disturbing is that these funding shortages threaten the gains made last year by humanitarian agencies in Darfur, where malnutrition levels went down by half. We were making great progress. A nutrition survey in September 2005 showed that four families in five were still dependent on food aid. We’re very concerned now because UNICEF is reporting increased malnutrition rates already this year," Morris said.

In March, WFP announced a first reduction in pulses, sugar and salt rations by half in weight terms for up to 3.5 million people across Sudan because of the slow donor response. Toward the end of February, WFP had just four percent of the contributions it needs for Sudan in 2006. While some funds have arrived since then, they were too little and too late to avert the new round of cuts.

It has also been impossible for WFP to procure and pre-position enough food for full rations for hundreds of thousands of people in areas that will be inaccessible by road during the June-September rainy season. It can take four months or more for a pledge to appear as food on the ground in Sudan.

The South, recovering from two decades of civil war, will not be affected by the cuts because most people receive 50-75 percent of a full ration in general food distributions from WFP. Distributions in the South take into account the fact that people are able to grow at least part of the food they need.

Returnees, internally displaced people and refugees receive full WFP rations in the South - as do school children and malnourished children and mothers through supplementary and institutional feeding. The Three Areas will be affected by the cuts but to a lesser extent than Darfur and the East.

Hundreds of thousands of returnees and vulnerable host communities in the South and Three Areas need food aid to help get them through the first difficult months until they can become self-sufficient.

"Throughout this critical year for Sudan, when peace must be allowed to take hold, WFP urgently needs donors to come forward so that we can guarantee food aid to the millions of Sudanese who so desperately need our help," said Morris.

Donors to WFP’s 2006 Sudan emergency operation are: the United States (US$188 million); United Nations Common Humanitarian Fund (US$16.6 million); Libya (US$4.5 million); Canada (US$3.9 million); Norway (US$1.8 million); Ireland (US$1.2 million); Italy (US$1.2 million); Switzerland (US$757,600); Belgium (US$604,600); Private (US$20,000).

For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):

Arms still pouring into Sudan’s Darfur - UN

Friday 28 April 2006.

April 28, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — Arms are still pouring into Sudan’s embattled Darfur region in violation of a U.N. arms ban, U.N. experts said on Thursday.

A rebel of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), fighting Sudanese troops, mans a post in the northern part of the western Sudanese Darfur..

The arms come from neighboring countries as well as nations outside the African continent, the panel of four experts said. They urged the Security Council to strengthen the embargo and better enforce it.

Their latest report mentioned by name only Chad as an arms source, but earlier reports have also cited Eritrea and Libya.

The council imposed an arms embargo on all non-government forces in Darfur in July 2004, to help end a civil war that has raged in the region since February 2003.

The conflict has pitted Sudanese rebels against government forces and allied militias, who have killed tens of thousands and driven 2 million people from their homes into miserable camps in Sudan and neighboring Chad.

The region has been further inflamed by a wave of cross-border attacks by Darfur-based Chadian rebels trying to topple Chadian President Idriss Deby ahead of a May 3 presidential election.

The experts said Sudan’s government in Khartoum has failed to live up to its responsibility to ensure that weapons it buys from legitimate suppliers do not end up in the hands of non-government forces in Darfur.

Instead, it transfers equipment and weapons into Darfur from other parts of the country to supply the mostly Arab militia groups that act as its proxy fighters. It also provides support to militia groups in their attacks on Darfur villages and rebel groups, the report said.

The Sudanese insist they have transferred weapons and additional troops to Darfur since 2005 "to address the conflict between Sudan and Chad."

African Union forces in the region are looking into allegations Khartoum helped sponsor an April 13 attack by Chadian insurgents on Chad’s capital N’Djamena.

The experts’ accused Sudanese government forces of working hand-in-hand with militias in "perpetrating attacks on villages and to engage in armed conflict with rebel groups."

The panel recommended that the council extend the arms embargo to all of Sudan, with the exception of the south, where a joint government-rebel coalition now governs as part of a peace agreement ending a separate civil war in that area.

It also called for a stronger mechanism to monitor compliance with the embargo, and said all U.N. member-nations should do their part to stem the flow of illicit weapons.

It said the council also should consider imposing unspecified sanctions on the government and rebel Sudan Liberation Army "as collective entities rather than on individuals for their actions that impede the peace process."

The council this week slapped asset and travel freezes on four individuals it accused of impeding the peace process or violating international human rights law in Darfur but has not authorized such measures against "collective entities."

Security Council expected to vote Sudan sanctions

Tuesday 25 April 2006.

April 24, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — China’s UN envoy Wang Guangya, the council’s president for April, said the US side wanted a vote on its draft to coincide with adoption of a Tanzanian non-binding statement reiterating the council’s full support for African Union-mediated inter-Sudanese peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria.

Musa Hilal

Musa Hilal top list of suspected leaders of the Janjaweed.

"My concern is that the draft proposed by the United States might in a way have some negative implications for the negotiations in Abuja," Wang said.

The African Union (AU) and the international community have set a Sunday deadline for the Sudanese rival sides to wrap up their talks in Abuja.

"Regardless we are moving ahead," Benjamin Chang, a spokesman for the US UN mission said. "I would hope they don’t veto it."

"I think we’re hopeful that it will pass," said a US official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Asked whether China or Russia would block the measure, he said, "I haven’t heard veto. I haven’t heard the ’v’ word."

A UN diplomat here meanwhile provided some background on the four Sudanese officials named in the resolution.

  Sheikh Musa Hilal, a paramount chief of the Jalul tribe in north Darfur, was described as "a notorious leader of the (Khartoum-backed) Janjaweed (Arab) militia and as such responsible for some of the worst atrocities in Darfur."

His militia has been blamed for pillaging, rape, and scorching of villages, and directly contributed to the Darfur mayhem.

Hilal was jailed in 1997 for killing 17 people in Darfur, the diplomat said.

  Gaffar Mohamed Elhassan, a former commander of the Western Military Region for the Sudanese Air Force, had direct operational command of Sudanese government forces in Darfur from 2004 to this year and coordinated operations between the Janjaweed and government forces. He was also responsible for supplying arms to the region.

  Adam Yacub Shant, a commander of Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA), violated a ceasefire agreement in July 2005 when he ordered SLA soldiers to attack government forces which resulted in the deaths of three government soldiers.

  Gabril Abdul Kareem Badr, a commander for the National Movement for Reform and Development, kidnapped African Union peacekeeping personnel last October and a month later threatened to shoot down an AU helicopter.

The Security Council vote will come more than a year after it authorized sanctions against those held responsible for the bloodshed in Darfur, where rebels and government-backed militias have been battling since February 2003.

Washington has branded as genocide the violence in Sudan’s western region. The conflict has left up to 300,000 people dead from violence or disease and more than 2.4 million homeless.

Meanwhile Wang said the council’s three African members — Congo, Ghana and Tanzania — have prepared a non-binding statement voicing concern about the deteriorating relations between Sudan and its neighbor Chad.

The text urged the two countries to abide by their obligations under a February 8 agreement signed in Libya and urged them to start implementing agreed confidence-building measures.

Chad broke off diplomatic relations with Sudan 10 days ago, accusing it of arming rebels who tried to storm the capital N’Djamena in an attack that killed 400 people.

Washington has also expressed frustration at delays in proposals to bolster security in Darfur by replacing an AU peacekeeping contingent with a larger UN force and giving it greater NATO support.

NATO currently provides air transport for the 7,000-strong AU force. Foreign ministers of the 26-member alliance were expected to discuss a larger logistical role at their meeting in Sofia on Thursday and Friday.

But deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli played down expectations of progress at the talks to be attended by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her NATO counterparts.

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir is strongly opposed to the UN mission.

(ST)

UN dismisses bin Laden call to oppose Darfur force

Tuesday 25 April 2006.

April 24, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — U.N. diplomats brushed aside on Monday a call by Osama bin Laden for Muslims to rise up against the West in Sudan, and vowed to go ahead with plans to send peacekeepers to the embattled Darfur region.

"The comments made by this guy (are) always, always negative. We should not be influenced by whatever comments he made," said Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya, the Security Council president for April.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said: "That’s a mark of bin Laden’s desperation and certainly won’t affect our planning."

The al Qaeda leader, in an audio tape broadcast on Al Jazeera television, said the United States and Britain, by pushing for a U.N. force in Darfur, were plotting to dismember Sudan. He urged his followers to rise up against them.

"I call on the mujahideen and their supporters in Sudan ... and the Arabian peninsula to prepare all that is necessary to wage a long-term war against the Crusaders in western Sudan," bin Laden said.

He called the United Nations an "infidel body" and "a tool to implement Crusader-Zionist resolutions" including measures aimed at dividing and occupying Muslim lands.

The Sudanese government, which hosted bin Laden in the 1990s before expelling him, is resisting pressure for U.N. peacekeepers to deploy in Darfur later this year. The U.N. mission would take over from an underfunded African Union force that has failed to end violence and protect civilians there.

The fighting in Darfur pits Muslim against Muslim. It began in 2003 when mostly non-Arab tribes rose up against the government, accusing it of neglect.

The Sudanese government retaliated by arming Arab Janjaweed militia, which unleashed a campaign of murder, rape, arson and plunder that drove more than 2 million villagers from their homes into squalid camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad. Khartoum denies responsibility.

U.N. chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the world body felt no need to respond to bin Laden’s comments but would do whatever was required to ensure its staff’s safety in Sudan.

"The people in Darfur are clearly in need of protection and of humanitarian assistance, and the international community’s efforts are aimed at that," he told reporters.

About 250 U.N. international staffers are now in Darfur, all of them civilians. Planning for the peacekeeping force is taking place mainly in New York as Sudan’s government last week refused to issue visas to a U.N. military planning mission.

(Reuters)

AU to end Darfur peace talks if no agreement by end of April

Monday 24 April 2006.

April 24, 2006 (ABUJA) — The African Union will end talks among warring parties in Sudan’s Darfur region by April 30 if the Khartoum government and rebel factions fail to agree to a peace deal, a senior mediator said Sunday.

Salih Bashirtya, a Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel, attends the opening of the Sudan peace thalks in Abuja, Nigeria, Thursday, Sept.15,2005.(AP).

Sam Ibok, head of the African Union team mediating peace negotiations between the Sudan government and rebels fighting in Darfur, said his team was still working toward a United Nations-backed deadline to achieve a final peace agreement by the end of the month.

"We will respect the deadline and if there are no indications that a deal is possible, we will wind up" talks by April 30, Ibok told reporters at the talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Representatives of the Sudanese government and the two Darfur rebel movements will be presented with the final draft agreement this week, Ibok said.

The document will represent a "just and acceptable compromise" to end the Darfur conflict if indeed the warring sides are interested in peace, the chief mediator said.

Decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water in Darfur erupted into large-scale violence in early 2003 when some ethnic groups took up arms, accusing the east African nation’s Arab-dominated central government of neglect.

The central government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab tribal militias known as Janjaweed to murder and rape civilians and lay waste to villages. Sudan denies backing the Janjaweed.

More than 180,000 people have died in the conflict and more than three million have been driven from their homes.

Nearly two years of African Union-mediated peace negotiations in Abuja between the Sudan government and the two main rebel groups — the Sudanese Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement — have failed to yield a deal to end a conflict the UN said has caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

The UN Security Council earlier in the month gave its backing to the deadline set by the African Union for a Darfur peace deal. The Security Council also said it will hold accountable those responsible for blocking the Darfur peace process and violating human rights there.

(ST/AP)

Bin Laden call for Darfur jihad clouds UN mission - analysts

Monday 24 April 2006.

April 24, 2006 (LONDON) — For now, there may be more symbol than substance in Osama bin Laden’s call for jihad in Darfur, but that could change if U.N. peacekeepers go to Sudan’s troubled western region, al Qaeda experts said on Monday.

Osama bin Laden

Most doubted the Saudi-born militant had any direct links with Arab militias involved in the Darfur conflict, but said his appeal, in an audiotape broadcast on Sunday, could inspire violent resistance to any U.N. military mission there.

"I don’t believe it will have an impact until there are U.N. troops in Darfur," said Kamil al-Tawil, an expert on Islamist groups who writes for London’s al-Hayat newspaper.

"If Darfur becomes a U.N. mandate in spite of the Sudanese government’s opposition, people will flock there. I fear it could be another Iraq," he said.

The Darfur conflict erupted in 2003 when mostly non-Arab tribes took up arms, accusing Khartoum of neglect.

The government retaliated by arming Arab Janjaweed militia, who unleashed a campaign of murder, rape, arson and plunder that drove more than 2 million villagers into squalid camps in Darfur and in neighbouring Chad. Khartoum denies responsibility.

Bin Laden said the United States and Britain were seeking to dismember Sudan and urged his followers to fight them in Darfur, calling the United Nations an "infidel body" and a U.S. tool.

"I call on the mujahideen and their supporters in Sudan ... and the Arabian peninsula to prepare ... to wage a long-term war against the Crusaders in western Sudan," bin Laden said.

Sudan is resisting pressure for U.N. peacekeepers to deploy in Darfur. It has said it fears the presence of international troops would make Darfur a magnet for foreign jihadists.

Bin Laden resided in Sudan in the early 1990s, building his militant network and investing in roads and farming projects for the Islamist government there, until U.S. and Saudi pressure prompted Khartoum to expel him. Afghanistan was his next haven.

After militants blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the United States bombed al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a medicine factory in Khartoum that it said was an al Qaeda chemical weapons venture — a charge Sudan denied.

Bin Laden has rarely spoken publicly about Sudan from hiding, but his audiotape acknowledged rifts with Khartoum.

He criticised President Omar al-Bashir for signing an "unjust agreement" that could let the south secede and for failing to enforce Islamic sharia law across the country.

ECHOES OF SOMALIA?

"He senses Sudan will soon become a failed state that will be dismantled," said bin Laden biographer Abdel-Bari Atwan.

He said the Qaeda leader had once told him in an interview that he had sent militants to Somalia shortly before U.S. troops joined an ill-fated U.N. military operation there in 1992.

"Now he is preparing his fighters to combat any U.N. troops sent to Darfur to replace African ones there," Atwan said.

Bin Laden appears to have become an embarrassment for the Sudanese government that once hosted him and a Foreign Ministry spokesman rejected his call for jihad in western Sudan.

"We are not concerned with any mujahideen or any crusade or any war with the international community. We are keen on reaching a peaceful solution to the crisis in Darfur," he said.

Alani said bin Laden was trying to project Darfur as an issue for the whole Islamic world, not just a local conflict.

"This undermines Khartoum’s authority when they are already under pressure and on the international community’s radar. They feel bin Laden is trying to hijack the Darfur issue," he said.

Alani said Arab militias, needing legitimacy after being publicly disowned by Khartoum, might respond to bin Laden. Any guerrilla attacks could sow doubts in Western capitals about the wisdom of committing troops to a U.N. operation in Darfur.

Bin Laden, on the run since Washington ousted his Taliban allies in Afghanistan in 2003 after the Sept. 11 attacks, wanted to burnish his pan-Islamic credentials, Alani said.

"He wants to show that al Qaeda has responsibility for every part of the Islamic world, to reinforce the universal nature of the jihad idea and of al Qaeda’s role," he argued.

Bin Laden bitterly criticised a peace deal signed last year that ended a 20-year war between north and south Sudan.

"Let Bashir and (U.S. President George W.) Bush know that this agreement is not worth the ink it was written with," he said, accusing the Americans of seeking to steal Sudan’s oil.

The war broadly pitted the Islamist Khartoum government against southern rebels, made up mainly of Christians and followers of traditional African religions. About 2 million people died during the war and 4 million were made homeless.

Some U.N. troops have arrived in southern Sudan, the first of an expected 10,000 peacekeepers to be sent there.

(Reuters)

AU mediators present security arrangement for Darfur peace

Monday 24 April 2006.

April 23, 2006 (ABUJA) — African mediators presented yesterday night the draft of security agreement to the Sudanese parties saying that it reflects the concerns and positions expressed during the talks.

AU Chief Mediators, Salim Ahmed Salim (L) and Head of the AU Mediation Team, Sam Ibok (ST)

The AU Mediation, yesterday, presented to the Sudanese Parties - GoS, SLM/A and JEM - the “Final Status Security Agreement for Darfur”, at a late night Plenary Session of the Security Arrangements Commission chaired by Ambassador Sam B. Ibok.

In presenting the Document to the parties, Ambassador Ibok indicated that the proposed text reflects a careful balance of the concerns and positions expressed by the different parties, and concludes the proposals of the Mediation on the “Enhanced Ceasefire Agreement” previously submitted to the Parties on 6 April 2006.

He appealed to all sides to seriously consider the Document in all serenity and to submit written and oral reaction to the Mediation by Monday 24 April 2006, to facilitate the negotiations on a final peace package that would incorporate the proposals on Power and Wealth Sharing.

In the interim, Ambassador Ibok strongly urged the Sudanese parties to exercise maximum restraint and to refrain from making statements in the media which do not help the negotiations.

He acknowledged that the ongoing consultations between the Sudanese Vice-President and the rebel movements have the potential to facilitate an early agreement in Abuja, said the AU spokesperson for the talks Noureddine Mezni.

He however, warned that time was of the essence as the AU mediation would strive to meet the deadline of 30 April set by the AU Peace and Security Council for the negotiations to conclude a Comprehensive Peace Package.

Earlier, the Coordinator of the Security Arrangements Commission General Chris Garuba, made a brief presentation on the Document which provides for the disarmament of the Janjaweed; the Integration of former rebels into the Sudan Armed Forces and other National Security Institutions; their Assembly, Disarmament and Demobilization; and their Social and Economic Reintegration, among others issues..

(ST)

Sudan openly supports Chad rebels - observers

Wednesday 19 April 2006.

April 18, 2006 (N’DJAMENA) — Chadian rebels who advanced on the capital in a fleet of brand new Toyotas had clear support from Sudan which wants to replace President Idriss Deby Itno with a pro-Sudanese leader, diplomats and human rights groups here said on Tuesday.

Mohamat Nour

International observers alleged logistical and political support by Sudan for the rebels of the Chadian United Front for Change (FUC), a day after the United States branded such support "unacceptable".

"The FUC rebels are Chadians, but they are clearly supported by Sudan," said Olivier Bercault, regional specialist for the global rights group Human Rights Watch.

"An armed movement from the east of Chad cannot arrive in N’djamena in a few days without logistical support from Khartoum," he said, referring to the FUC forces that travelled some 800km to fight forces loyal to Déby around the capital last week.

The rebels were equipped with "dozens of new Toyotas", he added.

Chad’s government accused Sudan of backing the coup attempt, though the FUC has denied receiving support from Sudan. On Monday Chad further accused Sudan of forming a new rebel army to attack the country.

A French diplomatic source said Khartoum supports FUC leader Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim with a view to toppling Deby, who is accused of supporting a rebellion in Sudan’s Darfur region against the Khartoum government.

After repelling last week’s coup attempt, Chadian authorities displayed what they said were captured Sudanese mercenary fighters as well as arms and other materials it said were evidence of Sudanese involvement. International observers say Nour’s forces receive support from Darfur, which borders eastern Chad. One such source said Chadian rebels had bases in El-Geneina, the capital of the Sudanese state of West Darfur.

"They benefit from the open support of auxiliary militias from Khartoum. Logistical support, in arms and provisions," the observer said.

Shortly after the founding of the FUC, one of the group’s chiefs, Abdelwahit About, told Radio France Internationale that the FUC had "close and friendly" ties with Khartoum.

Talks on founding the FUC were held in El-Geneina in December, according to sources close to the rebels.

But the allegations of Sudan’s involvement were supported on Tuesday, even by the opposition to the government in Chad.

"Sudan aids the FUC materially. It’s plain to see," said Ngarleji Yorongar, a fierce opponent of Deby. The leadership of "Mahamat Nour is a creation of the Sudanese, and today he is sufficiently armed and supported to take power in N’djamena".

Sources formerly close to Nour also say he fought alongside the Sudanese army against rebels in Darfur.

The US suggested on Monday that Sudan may have been involved in the failed rebel offensive in Chad, and said it warned Khartoum such action was "unacceptable". Washington stopped short of officially endorsing Chad’s allegations that the Sudanese had armed the rebels.

But a senior state department official, who asked not to be named, told reporters: "I’m not going to wave you off that there was some involvement" by the regime of President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum.

Chad said on Sunday its delegation had withdrawn from the African Union-brokered peace talks on Sudan’s troubled Darfur region because of "Sudanese aggression".

Humanitarian groups have warned that the fate of 200 000 refugees from Darfur is hanging in the balance because of the escalating crisis between Chad and Sudan.

Despite the allegations against Sudan, Deby on Monday withdrew a threat to expel the refugees who are sheltering in eastern Chad.

(ST)

US draft urges UN sanctions against Sudan officials

Wednesday 19 April 2006.

April 19, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — The United States submitted a draft resolution in the UN Security Council urging targeted sanctions against four Sudanese officials blamed for the bloodshed in Darfur.