By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Frustrated by the world's failure to end the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region, some advocacy groups have turned on the new U.S. envoy, accusing him of helping Khartoum thwart peace.
The unusual public censure highlights a growing divide on Darfur. One side are those who feel more engagement with -- and less criticism of -- Khartoum is needed to end the suffering in Darfur. On the other are those who support more pressure, more sanctions and possibly military action if Sudan blocks efforts to secure peace in the region.
The Darfur conflict has been going on for more than six years. The United Nations says as many as 300,000 people have died since 2003, compared to Khartoum's official death toll of 10,000. The world body also says some 4.7 million people in Darfur rely on aid to survive.
In an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama's special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force General Scott Gration, actress Mia Farrow and other activists said that Gration's strategy with Sudan was prolonging the crisis.
"We believe that your conciliatory stance and reluctance to criticize (Khartoum) both excuses and emboldens (it), thereby facilitating its ongoing reign of terror and well-known strategy of 'divide and rule,'" the letter said.
[Reuters - read more]
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
UN chief demands halt to sexual violence
[Associated Press - read more]
I am not sure of whether I can post even paragraphs of an entry, because the Associated Press is now charging 2.50$ per word. I will continue to post links, however, if they deal with various crises.
I am not sure of whether I can post even paragraphs of an entry, because the Associated Press is now charging 2.50$ per word. I will continue to post links, however, if they deal with various crises.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Marchers Challenge Abyei Verdict, US Darfur Policy
By Howard Lesser
23 July 2009
The Hague's remedy, adjusts Abyei's borders to favor oil rights for Sudan’s northern-based national government. It raised concerns as a coalition of Sudanese and American demonstrators marched from Lafayette Park to the State Department. The rally was organized to spur stronger action by the Obama administration on Darfur.
Marchers handed U.S. officials letters urging enforcement of the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and support for the return of humanitarian aid workers expelled from Darfur by Mr. Bashir last March.
The rally was timed to coincide with an upcoming trip to Sudan by U.S. Special Envoy Scott Gration. Protesters expressed concern the issue of Abyei will draw attention away from the crisis in Darfur.
“Darfuris especially feel like the Obama Administration is supporting CPA (the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement for southern Sudan) more than Darfur. It’s a matter of serious concern for all of us,” said Darfur native Mohamed Yahya, Executive Director, Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy.
[Voice of America - read more]
23 July 2009
The Hague's remedy, adjusts Abyei's borders to favor oil rights for Sudan’s northern-based national government. It raised concerns as a coalition of Sudanese and American demonstrators marched from Lafayette Park to the State Department. The rally was organized to spur stronger action by the Obama administration on Darfur.
Marchers handed U.S. officials letters urging enforcement of the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and support for the return of humanitarian aid workers expelled from Darfur by Mr. Bashir last March.
The rally was timed to coincide with an upcoming trip to Sudan by U.S. Special Envoy Scott Gration. Protesters expressed concern the issue of Abyei will draw attention away from the crisis in Darfur.
“Darfuris especially feel like the Obama Administration is supporting CPA (the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement for southern Sudan) more than Darfur. It’s a matter of serious concern for all of us,” said Darfur native Mohamed Yahya, Executive Director, Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy.
[Voice of America - read more]
Monday, July 6, 2009
Over 140 killed in ethnic unrest in China
Story Highlights
*At least 140 people killed and over 800 others injured after violence
*Ethnic Uyghur residents in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang region, took to the streets
*Protest prompts a police lockdown of the city
*Protest may be a reaction to racial violence in southern Guangdong province
From Jaime FlorCruz
CNN Beijing Bureau Chief
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- At least 140 people were dead and more than 800 others injured after weekend violence in China's far west Xinjiang region, the officials said Monday, according to state-run media.
The death toll was expected to climb, according to a regional government spokesman, as reported by China's official Xinhua news agency.
Ethnic Uyghur residents in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, took to the streets Sunday afternoon in a rare public protest that prompted a police lock-down of the city.
By Monday, police had arrested several hundred participants, the Xinjiang Public Security Department said, according to Xinhua. Police were searching for about 90 other key figures.
"Traffic control was partially lifted Monday morning in parts of Urumqi ... but tension still exists in the city," Xinhua said. "Debris has been cleared from the roads and normal traffic has resumed. Workers are still pulling away damaged vehicles from the worst-affected roads in the city."
Most businesses in the area where the violence took place remained closed on Monday, Xinhua said.
[CNN - read more]
*At least 140 people killed and over 800 others injured after violence
*Ethnic Uyghur residents in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang region, took to the streets
*Protest prompts a police lockdown of the city
*Protest may be a reaction to racial violence in southern Guangdong province
From Jaime FlorCruz
CNN Beijing Bureau Chief
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- At least 140 people were dead and more than 800 others injured after weekend violence in China's far west Xinjiang region, the officials said Monday, according to state-run media.
The death toll was expected to climb, according to a regional government spokesman, as reported by China's official Xinhua news agency.
Ethnic Uyghur residents in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, took to the streets Sunday afternoon in a rare public protest that prompted a police lock-down of the city.
By Monday, police had arrested several hundred participants, the Xinjiang Public Security Department said, according to Xinhua. Police were searching for about 90 other key figures.
"Traffic control was partially lifted Monday morning in parts of Urumqi ... but tension still exists in the city," Xinhua said. "Debris has been cleared from the roads and normal traffic has resumed. Workers are still pulling away damaged vehicles from the worst-affected roads in the city."
Most businesses in the area where the violence took place remained closed on Monday, Xinhua said.
[CNN - read more]
Saturday, June 6, 2009
The Case Against Omar al-Bashir
By Angelina Jolie
Friday is a defining moment in the history of justice. The members of the United Nations Security Council will be presented with the results of the International Criminal Court's Darfur investigation — an investigation that they requested. Their response will determine whether there is going to be an international standard of justice that holds perpetrators accountable for the worst crimes in the world.
The evidence the prosecutor has presented is clear and compelling. Millions of people have been displaced; hundreds of thousands have been killed; and at the center of it all stands Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has been indicted on seven counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity. (See pictures of Darfur in crisis.)
Bashir's response to the indictments was an insult to the international community and the hundreds of thousands who have died in Darfur. He kicked out of his country 16 international aid groups who were desperately trying to save his citizens. He even appointed one of the suspects, Ahmed Haroun, to a committee supposedly investigating human-rights abuses in Darfur. You'll struggle to find a better illustration of the culture of impunity that reigns in Khartoum.
Darfur has almost disappeared from the news, and experts now call it a "low-intensity" conflict. But the intensity of the crisis has not lessened for those who are struggling to survive. More than 250,000 people from Darfur have lived destitute lives in refugee camps in Chad for six years now. Camps with more than 2 million internally displaced persons inside Darfur are even worse. Thirty percent of those displaced are school-age children. Girls leaving the camps are raped; boys leaving the camps are killed. They want an education; they want to go back to their villages, to their land; they want peace. But they also want justice. (Read TIME's 2004 cover story "The Tragedy of Sudan.")
I first went to Chad to visit refugees from Darfur in 2004. On that trip — more than five years ago — the refugees I met told me that the government was organizing the violence. About a year later, the international community came to the same conclusion. Some began to call the violence "mass atrocities." Others ramped up the rhetoric and called it "crimes against humanity." Nothing changed, so as the death toll mounted, activists pushed the Bush Administration to label it "genocide" — hoping somehow that term would arouse fear and horror.
But none of those words compelled us to intervene.
Today the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court will stand in front of the U.N. Security Council. With painstaking detail he will report that Omar al-Bashir — a man who should protect his citizens — has attacked Darfuris relentlessly and methodically for five years and continues to do so.
According to the U.N. Charter, the Security Council exists "to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security." If the results of the Darfur investigation, which they ordered, don't merit their active engagement, what does?
Today the Security Council member states will be faced with a simple decision: to embrace impunity or to end it.
As they are considering Bashir's fate they are also considering their own.
Jolie is co-chair of the Jolie-Pitt Foundation and a refugee advocate.
-----
[Time]
Friday is a defining moment in the history of justice. The members of the United Nations Security Council will be presented with the results of the International Criminal Court's Darfur investigation — an investigation that they requested. Their response will determine whether there is going to be an international standard of justice that holds perpetrators accountable for the worst crimes in the world.
The evidence the prosecutor has presented is clear and compelling. Millions of people have been displaced; hundreds of thousands have been killed; and at the center of it all stands Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has been indicted on seven counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity. (See pictures of Darfur in crisis.)
Bashir's response to the indictments was an insult to the international community and the hundreds of thousands who have died in Darfur. He kicked out of his country 16 international aid groups who were desperately trying to save his citizens. He even appointed one of the suspects, Ahmed Haroun, to a committee supposedly investigating human-rights abuses in Darfur. You'll struggle to find a better illustration of the culture of impunity that reigns in Khartoum.
Darfur has almost disappeared from the news, and experts now call it a "low-intensity" conflict. But the intensity of the crisis has not lessened for those who are struggling to survive. More than 250,000 people from Darfur have lived destitute lives in refugee camps in Chad for six years now. Camps with more than 2 million internally displaced persons inside Darfur are even worse. Thirty percent of those displaced are school-age children. Girls leaving the camps are raped; boys leaving the camps are killed. They want an education; they want to go back to their villages, to their land; they want peace. But they also want justice. (Read TIME's 2004 cover story "The Tragedy of Sudan.")
I first went to Chad to visit refugees from Darfur in 2004. On that trip — more than five years ago — the refugees I met told me that the government was organizing the violence. About a year later, the international community came to the same conclusion. Some began to call the violence "mass atrocities." Others ramped up the rhetoric and called it "crimes against humanity." Nothing changed, so as the death toll mounted, activists pushed the Bush Administration to label it "genocide" — hoping somehow that term would arouse fear and horror.
But none of those words compelled us to intervene.
Today the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court will stand in front of the U.N. Security Council. With painstaking detail he will report that Omar al-Bashir — a man who should protect his citizens — has attacked Darfuris relentlessly and methodically for five years and continues to do so.
According to the U.N. Charter, the Security Council exists "to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security." If the results of the Darfur investigation, which they ordered, don't merit their active engagement, what does?
Today the Security Council member states will be faced with a simple decision: to embrace impunity or to end it.
As they are considering Bashir's fate they are also considering their own.
Jolie is co-chair of the Jolie-Pitt Foundation and a refugee advocate.
-----
[Time]
Monday, June 1, 2009
Bangladeshi children ill after eating UN biscuits
DHAKA (AFP) — At least 250 school children in southwestern Bangladesh became violently ill Monday soon after eating protein biscuits distributed by the UN's World Food Programme, police said.
Army ambulances were called in to the remote Khagrachari region of the Chittagong Hill Tracts after the pupils, aged between seven and nine, complained of severe stomach pain, local police chief Belayet Hossain said.
"As many as 250 students fell sick as soon as they ate the WFP's high-protein biscuits. We took 180 children to hospitals and most are fine now," Hossain said.
"We have checked the high-protein biscuits and found that their packets did not mention any manufacturing or expiry dates," he said.
Emamul Haque, WFP spokesman in Dhaka, told AFP the agency ordered the biscuits to be tested as soon as reports surfaced of the sudden illness.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.
[AFP/Google News - read more]
-------
Just thought this was an interesting story, due to the fact that it includes the WFP and their food program.
Army ambulances were called in to the remote Khagrachari region of the Chittagong Hill Tracts after the pupils, aged between seven and nine, complained of severe stomach pain, local police chief Belayet Hossain said.
"As many as 250 students fell sick as soon as they ate the WFP's high-protein biscuits. We took 180 children to hospitals and most are fine now," Hossain said.
"We have checked the high-protein biscuits and found that their packets did not mention any manufacturing or expiry dates," he said.
Emamul Haque, WFP spokesman in Dhaka, told AFP the agency ordered the biscuits to be tested as soon as reports surfaced of the sudden illness.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.
[AFP/Google News - read more]
-------
Just thought this was an interesting story, due to the fact that it includes the WFP and their food program.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Sudan Says 244 Have Died in Clashes This Week
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
KHARTOUM, Sudan (Agence France-Presse) — Clashes between major Arab nomadic tribes this week in the South Kordofan region of Sudan have killed 244 people, including police officers, Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamad said Thursday.
Mr. Hamad said at a cabinet meeting that 75 police officers were killed in the fighting, along with 169 members of the two tribes, the official Suna news agency reported.
Those responsible will be brought to justice and the authorities will take steps to disarm civilians, he also said.
Members of the tribes — the Misseriya and Rizeyqat — clashed last weekend near the village of Meiram, near the border between South Kordofan and Darfur, more than 500 miles southwest of Khartoum, the capital.
When Sudanese police officers interceded on Tuesday to break up the fighting, they were attacked by 3,000 horsemen from the Rizeyqat tribe.
That attack led to many of the deaths of police officers and civilians, the minister said.
Members of the two tribes said that at least 100 people had died in the fighting, while local newspapers reported that more than 150 people had been killed.
The tribes live on either side of the border dividing South Kordofan and Darfur, and they have clashed in the past over access to drinking water for their horses and livestock.
This week, the authorities called on both sides to pull back to avoid additional fighting.
“The situation worries us a lot, because the incidents took place in a sensitive sector,” said Kouider Zerrouk, a spokesman of the United Nations Advance Mission in Sudan.
South Kordofan, which lies between Darfur and South Sudan, is one of the most unstable parts of the country.
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
[New York Times]
[AP/Google News - read more]
KHARTOUM, Sudan (Agence France-Presse) — Clashes between major Arab nomadic tribes this week in the South Kordofan region of Sudan have killed 244 people, including police officers, Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamad said Thursday.
Mr. Hamad said at a cabinet meeting that 75 police officers were killed in the fighting, along with 169 members of the two tribes, the official Suna news agency reported.
Those responsible will be brought to justice and the authorities will take steps to disarm civilians, he also said.
Members of the tribes — the Misseriya and Rizeyqat — clashed last weekend near the village of Meiram, near the border between South Kordofan and Darfur, more than 500 miles southwest of Khartoum, the capital.
When Sudanese police officers interceded on Tuesday to break up the fighting, they were attacked by 3,000 horsemen from the Rizeyqat tribe.
That attack led to many of the deaths of police officers and civilians, the minister said.
Members of the two tribes said that at least 100 people had died in the fighting, while local newspapers reported that more than 150 people had been killed.
The tribes live on either side of the border dividing South Kordofan and Darfur, and they have clashed in the past over access to drinking water for their horses and livestock.
This week, the authorities called on both sides to pull back to avoid additional fighting.
“The situation worries us a lot, because the incidents took place in a sensitive sector,” said Kouider Zerrouk, a spokesman of the United Nations Advance Mission in Sudan.
South Kordofan, which lies between Darfur and South Sudan, is one of the most unstable parts of the country.
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
[New York Times]
[AP/Google News - read more]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
