UNITED NATIONS,
April 17 — An unpublished United Nations report says the
government of Sudan is flying arms and heavy military equipment
into
Darfur in
violation of Security Council resolutions and painting Sudanese
military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or
African Union
aircraft.
In one
case, which the report illustrates with close-up pictures, the
letters “U.N.” have been stenciled onto the wing of a
white-washed Sudanese armed forces plane that is parked on a
military apron at a Darfur airport. Bombs guarded by uniformed
soldiers are laid out in rows by its side.
The
report says that contrary to Sudanese government denials, the
freshly white planes are being operated out of all three of
Darfur’s principal airports and used for aerial surveillance and
bombardments of villages in addition to cargo transport.
The
report was compiled by a five-person panel responsible for
assisting the sanctions committee of the Security Council in
monitoring compliance with resolutions on Darfur. It was made
available by a diplomat from one of the 15 Security Council
nations, which believes the findings should be made public.
While
the report focuses much of its attention on the Sudanese
government, it asserts that rebel groups fighting the Khartoum
government are also guilty of violating Security Council
resolutions, peace treaty agreements and humanitarian standards.
It
recommends a tightening of the arms embargo and other
restrictions on all activities involving illicit weapons,
regardless of who is responsible.
The
report covers the period from September 2006 to March 12, 2007
and it emerges a day after Sudan announced it was dropping its
objections to large-scale United Nations assistance to the
overwhelmed African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.
The
Khartoum government said Monday that it would agree to a force
of 3,000 military police officers along with six attack
helicopters and other aviation and logistics support. Left
uncertain is whether Sudan will ultimately drop its resistance
to a proposed 21,000-member joint African Union-United Nations
force to replace the 7,000-member African Union force that has
said it cannot curb the continuing violence.
The
Sudanese government signaled its willingness to accept the
interim force at a moment when at least two countries on the
Security Council, Britain and the United States, are threatening
tough new sanctions because of Khartoum’s stalling tactics.
Those
measures reportedly include ending all traffic in illegal arms,
broadening measures against individuals identified as taking
actions that undermine the peace efforts and imposing a no-fly
zone that would put an end to the government’s aerial campaign
against its citizens.
Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon
asked last week for Security Council members to hold off
considering further sanctions to give diplomacy a chance to
proceed. But both Margaret Beckett, the British foreign
secretary, and Alejandro D. Wolff, the acting American
ambassador to the United Nations, held out the possibility on
Monday that tougher measures might have to be adopted at some
point.
Ms. Beckett, visiting the United Nations to lead a Security
Council debate on
climate change
today, told reporters that defying the United Nations was “not a
pain-free course.”
Mr.
Wolff expressed doubts about whether Sudan would carry out the
agreement announced Monday. He said he sensed a rising
frustration and a diminished tolerance toward Sudan among
Council members that could cause them to “consider the need for
other measures.”
Gerard
McHugh of Ireland, who has been the coordinator of the
five-person panel since its creation in June 2005, said in an
interview that he could not comment on the specific findings of
the unpublished United Nations reported since they were still
confidential. But he said they ought to be published now.
“There
is no doubt that this is a sensitive time on certain ongoing
political and diplomatic initiatives; however, we’re looking at
certain Security Council mechanisms and measures that can and
should be applied,” he said.
“It’s
actually the view of the panel that certain actions could be
taken that would actually enhance the peace process rather than
holding them back,” he said.
All 15
Security Council member would have to agree to make the report a
public document.
Asked
for comment today, Marcello Spatafora, the ambassador of Italy,
which heads s the sanctions committee, said he had already
circulated a letter among the other 14 members asking if there
were any objections to releasing the document.
Barring
objections, he would be free to make the report public in 48
hours, he said.
In the
past, China has objected to tough actions against Sudan, and in
a closed meeting on Darfur on Monday, China was adamant that
talk of sanctions would set back the peace efforts and lessen
the chances of Sudanese compliance with the Security Council.
The
panel report said the Khartoum government had done little to
disband armed groups — in particular, the government-supported
Janjaweed militia, which the report said still carried out
attacks on civilians across Darfur.
It
described a nighttime attack by men wearing Sudanese armed
forces uniforms and traveling in 60 Land Cruisers mounted with
rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns on a village that
they torched. An 105-year-old man was burned alive and three
girls were abducted, raped and sent home naked, the report said.
Also,
officials were not enforcing the travel ban and assets freeze
imposed by the Security Council last year on four individuals,
the report said. “The panel believes that any undue delay in the
implementation of the resolution could embolden the designated
individuals to carry on their acts and could also encourage
others to commit violations without any fear of sanctions from
the United Nations,” it said.
The
report said the Sudanese government was shipping small arms,
heavy weapons, artillery pieces, ammunition and other military
equipment into Darfur on cargo planes, using airports at El
Geneina, Nyala and El Fasher.
It
reported that one of the planes crash-landed on Feb. 24 during a
trip from Khartoum to El Geneina, and Sudanese army officials
guarded it on the ground for a week while soldiers unloaded
howitzers and up to 50 wooden boxes painted in olive drab that
were suspected of containing arms and ammunition.
Commenting on the painting of the planes, report said, “The
panel believes the use of white aircraft by the government of
the Sudan constitutes a deliberate attempt to conceal the
identity of these aircraft such that from a moderate distance
they resemble United Nations or AMIS Mi-8 helicopters used in
Darfur.” The African Mission in Sudan is referred to by its
initials.
The
panel said the Sudanese government was refusing to give advance
word, as it was directed to do by the Security Council, of any
introduction of weapons and related equipment into Darfur. When
challenged to explain its action, the government said “it does
not feel obliged to request permission in advance from the
Security Council,” the report said.
The
report said various rebel groups fighting the government were
also illegally shipping weapons, regularly violating border
controls between Sudan and Chad, and extending lawlessness
throughout the immediate region and attacking peacekeepers and
aid workers.
“Organized crime and acts of banditry have now become a source
of livelihood for the many groups operating in Darfur and in
other neighboring states,” the report said.
It said
that in addition to jeopardizing the work of the United Nations
and African Union by disguising its aircraft, the government was
permitting and sometimes aiding attacks and harassment of people
from the two organizations.
“The
prevailing insecurity in Darfur and the raised level of
harassment of humanitarian personnel have conspired to seriously
curtail humanitarian operations through Darfur,” the report
said.
Some
2.5 million people have been displaced by the violence in
Darfur, which has resulted in the loss of more than 200,000
lives.
April 10, 2007
GOOD NEWS:
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Google Join in
Online Darfur Mapping Initiative
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum today joined with
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to unveil an unprecedented online
mapping initiative aimed at furthering awareness and
action in the Darfur region of Sudan. Crisis in
Darfur, enables more than 200 million Google Earth™
mapping service users worldwide to visualize and better
understand the genocide currently unfolding in Darfur.
The Museum has assembled content—photographs, data and
eyewitness testimony—from a number of sources that are
brought together for the first time in Google Earth.
This information will appear as a Global Awareness layer
in Google Earth starting today.
Google Earth’s Elliot Schrage,
Vice President, Global Communications and Public
Affairs, joined Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield and
Darfurian Daowd Salih at the launch.
Crisis in Darfur is the
first project of the Museum’s Genocide Prevention
Mapping Initiative that will over time include
information on potential genocides allowing citizens,
governments and institutions to access information on
atrocities in their nascent stages and respond.
"Educating today’s generation
about the atrocities of the past and present can be
enhanced by technologies such as Google Earth," says
Bloomfield. "When it comes to responding to genocide,
the world’s record is terrible. We hope this important
initiative with Google will make it that much harder for
the world to ignore those who need us the most."
"At Google, we believe
technology can be a catalyst for education and action,"
said Elliot Schrage, Google Vice President, Global
Communications and Public Affairs. "Crisis in Darfur
will enable Google Earth users to visualize and learn
about the destruction in Darfur as never before and join
the Museum’s efforts in responding to this continuing
international catastrophe."
Crisis in Darfur content
comes from a range of sources—the U.S. State Department,
non-governmental organizations, the United Nations,
individual photographers, and the Museum. The
high-resolution imagery in Google Earth enables users to
zoom into the region to view more than 1,600 damaged and
destroyed villages, providing visual, compelling
evidence of the scope of destruction. The remnants of
more than 100,000 homes, schools, mosques and other
structures destroyed by the janjaweed militia and
Sudanese forces are clearly visible. Humanitarian
organizations and others now have a readily accessible
tool for better understanding the situation on the
ground in Darfur.
With this release, the Museum
also announced the creation of a similar mapping project
on Holocaust history available on the Museum’s website:
www.ushmm.org/googleearth.
The Holocaust took place across the entire European
continent, and for all of Europe’s Jews, as well as
other victims of Nazism, geography played a major role
in determining their fate. The Museum is using Google
Earth to map key Holocaust sites with historic content
from its collections, powerfully illustrating the
enormous scope and impact of the Holocaust. Further
information on Holocaust-era sites can be accessed
through the Museum’s online Holocaust Encyclopedia at
www.ushmm.org.
To find Crisis in Darfur
on Google Earth, users must download the Google Earth
application at no cost from
http://earth.google.com.
Once downloaded, users will find Crisis in Darfur
by flying over Africa. Information on the Museum’s
Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative and the Holocaust
mapping layer can be accessed from the Museum's Web site
at
www.ushmm.org/googleearth.
March 27, 2007
Darfur Call In Week Action
Urge your Representative and Senators to tell China (the
leading investor in Sudan), to use its influence to get a
hybrid AU/UN peacekeeping force on the ground in Darfur.
We need
your help to call your Representative and Senators on Darfur.
Urge your Rep and Senators to tell China (the leading investor
in Sudan), to use its influence to get a hybrid AU/UN
peacekeeping force on the ground in Darfur.
Use our elected officials search to
find your elected officials.
You can
reach your Representative and both of your Senators via the
Capitol Hill Switchboard.
Once connected, you can ask to leave a message for the staffer
who handles human rights in Sudan. Call: 202 224-3121
Talking
points
1. I am a member of Amnesty International, a Nobel Peace Prize
winning human rights movement with over 2.2 million members
worldwide. I am calling to ask for the Representative/Senator's
help in encouraging the Government of China to use its influence
with the Government of Sudan to address human rights concerns in
Darfur. China is currently Sudan's largest investor. In the
past several years, China has developed a number of oil fields,
built a 900 plus mile pipeline, as well as a refinery and a
port. As my representative, I urge you to call
Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong of China and raise concerns about
China's role in Sudan.
2.
Civilians in Darfur and eastern Chad continue to be killed,
raped and forcibly displaced in large numbers. Some 2.5 million
Darfuris have been driven from their homes and from places where
they have sought safety since the beginning of 2006. Since 2003,
the Sudanese government, instead of protecting the people of
Darfur, has armed, funded and supported the Janjawid militia
that have been responsible for the majority of the crimes
against civilians.
3.
Although the introduction of African Union peacekeepers in Sudan
has prevented some abuses, after the signing of the Darfur Peace
Agreement in May 2006 abuses actually increased on a wide scale.
The peace agreement was signed by the Sudanese government and
one faction of the armed opposition group, the Sudanese
Liberation Army, but was rejected by other armed groups.
4. The
African Union peacekeepers were due to transition to a joint
peacekeeping operation with a UN force, with expanded capacity,
but the Government of Sudan continues to block even an AU/UN
hybrid force. China could use its influence with the Government
of Sudan to help get this hybrid peacekeeping force into Darfur.
5. As
your constituent, I encourage you to put pressure on the
international community, and China in particular, to ensure that
the hybrid AU/UN peacekeepers are in place to protect civilians
in the Darfur region. Please let me know how you intend to
address this issue.
Background
China is the leading foreign investor in Sudan, with an annual
trade value of roughly $1 billion. In the past several years,
China has developed a number of oil fields, built a 900 plus
mile pipeline, as well as a refinery and a port. Sudan
represents China's largest overseas investment, worth at least
$3 billion, and Sudan is the third largest supplier of oil to
China.
Many of
the helicopter gunships used by Khartoum were purchased from
China using expected revenues from oil extracted in South Sudan.
Amnesty International has documented the effect of China's arms
exports to Sudan, noting that Chinese equipment has been used by
the Government of Sudan and Janjawid in operations in Darfur.
In
addition to the effects of China's arms deals with Sudan, China,
as the leading economic partner with Sudan, is in a unique
position to stop the atrocities in Darfur. UN Security Council
Resolution 1706, which called for the deployment of UN
peacekeepers to replace the African Union Mission in Sudan
(AMIS) was not supported by China which, along with fellow
permanent member Russia and rotating member Qatar, abstained
from the vote. The result was a mixed message to Khartoum about
the international community's commitment to finding a viable
security arrangement for the people of Darfur and eastern Chad.
With the UN, the international community is now calling for a
hybrid African Union/United Nations peacekeeping force.
It is
incumbent upon China, as much or more than any other
international actor, to do all it can to address the tragedy in
Darfur and now eastern Chad. As a key supplier of arms and funds
to the Khartoum government, China is especially responsible for
the continued violence in Darfur at the hands of the Government
of Sudan and the Janjawid. Furthermore, by virtue of its close
relationship with the Government of Sudan, China is one of only
a few actors that can exert pressure to end the targeting of
civilians in Darfur, and fulfill commitments Khartoum has made
to disarm the Janjawid and adhere to its responsibility to
protect civilians in Sudan.
Talking
points
for
elected officials to use when contacting Ambassador Zhou
Wenzhong of China.
(You might provide these talking points for your Representative
or Senator to use when calling Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong)
• At
the urging of my constituents in ___ district/state, I am
calling to request that your country exert all diplomatic
pressure on the Government of Sudan to admit UN peacekeepers
into Darfur immediately. Already hundreds of thousands of
Darfuri civilians have died and more than 2.5 million have been
forcibly displaced as a result of this devastating conflict.
• There are already some 10,000 peacekeepers in Southern Sudan
under the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS)—peacekeepers the
Government of Sudan has welcomed.
• African Union Mission (AMIS) peacekeepers do not have the
mandate or the capacity to fulfill their mission to protect
civilians and monitor a ceasefire in Darfur. It is therefore
essential that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir admit UN
peacekeepers to join the AU to create a robust AU-UN hybrid
peacekeeping force with the troop numbers and mandate to protect
civilians in Darfur.
• Despite UNSC Resolution 1706 authorizing UN peacekeepers in
Darfur (a resolution that China failed to support) and more
recent agreements brokered by the UN, the Government of Sudan
has not only thwarted the will of the international community
but has increased its military activity and support for Janjawid
militias in North and West Darfur.
• The same humanitarain catastrophe of Darfur is now being
repeated in eastern Chad and the Central African Republic as
conflict and refugees have flowed over the borders.
• My constituents are enraged by the gross atrocities against
Darfuri civilians committed by their own government.
• I therefore strongly urge you to act to save thousands of
lives by pressing Khartoum to ensure that UN peacekeepers are
admitted into Darfur to form a UN/AU hybrid peacekeeping force
as soon as possible.
DERIBAT, Sudan, March 25 —
It was supposed to be a top
United Nations
official’s first visit to a camp for
Darfur
residents chased from their homes by the grim
conflict here, but it did not begin or end well.
An armed man in Deribat, a
rebel-held town in Darfur on Monday.
John Holmes, a United Nations aid
official, was turned back from
visiting a refugee camp in the area.
“I am quite frustrated and angry,”
he said.
John Holmes, the under secretary general for
humanitarian affairs, had come to Darfur to see
the world’s largest aid effort in action — a
nearly $1 billion-a-year operation involving
about 14,000 aid workers helping 3.8 million
people dependent on handouts of food, medicine
and water.
But he did not get very far. He was turned back
by soldiers at a military checkpoint on the road
to the Kassab refugee camp in North Darfur,
despite high-level assurances from the Sudanese
government that he would be given unimpeded
access to Darfur’s dispossessed.
“I find this quite extraordinary,” Mr. Holmes
said as he stood on the dusty spot of his
rejection. “We’ve come to visit a camp where the
U.N. system is keeping people alive and we are
not allowed access. It is quite an incredible
event and I am quite frustrated and angry.”
Violence and bureaucracy are threatening to
derail what has been perhaps the only success of
the Darfur conflict: the humanitarian effort.
For the past four years, Darfur has been a place
of bloodshed and banishment, with at least
200,000 killed and more than 10 times as many
pushed from their villages into camps and the
wilderness by soldiers, pro-government militias
and, more recently, clashes between rebel
groups.
These people have been kept from dying in the
arid moonscapes of Darfur by the aid effort —
thousands of workers for dozens of agencies from
Sudan and abroad who swiftly set up camps, dug
wells and latrines, and handed out food. Those
actions helped to slash death and malnutrition
rates among the displaced, put hundreds of
thousands of children in classrooms and give
millions basic health care.
But now that effort is in peril, aid officials
in Darfur say. In the past year, a dozen aid
workers have been killed, dozens of vehicles
stolen, compounds robbed and workers beaten,
harassed and sexually assaulted. A United
Nations map of a no-go area, where conditions
are too dangerous for workers, shows a shrinking
arena of operations, with wide swaths of
territory off limits. More than 900,000 people
are living or hiding in those areas.
Here in Deribat, a rebel-held town in the Jebel
Marra mountains, help can arrive only by
helicopter because government officials have
closed off the road.
“They are strangling us,” said Ali Adam, a
medical assistant who runs a clinic in Deribat,
adding that 21 children have died here in the
past three weeks of pneumonia because they have
no antibiotics. “We are under siege.”
In other places, like Gereida, a vast camp of
130,000 people in a rebel-controlled area,
violence has forced almost all aid workers to
retreat. In December, armed men raided an aid
organization compound, raping two women and
stealing cars, satellite phones and computers.
Even in the areas supposedly within reach of
relief organizations, like Kassab, bureaucratic
stonewalling by the government keeps aid workers
out much of the time. Aid agencies say their
operations are tied in endless ribbons of red
tape. Rather than being chased from the country
by violence they are more likely to lose heart
from the endless bureaucracy — a slow death by a
thousand paper cuts.
“Many organizations are saying that the
bureaucratic obstacles are the No. 1 problem and
may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,”
said one senior aid official, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity for fear of government
retaliation.
The mountains of paperwork — including trips to
government ministries to obtain official stamps
and permissions for visas, travel permits and
import tax exemptions — take up so much time
that one large aid organization with operations
across Darfur employs five full-time workers
whose only job is to navigate the bureaucratic
maze.
The government signed an agreement with the
United Nations in 2004 that eliminated most
restrictions on aid workers. But that agreement
has been repeatedly violated: a United Nations
list of incidents compiled in the first two
months of the year cited more than two dozen
cases of workers being forced off aid flights,
turned back at checkpoints or denied paperwork
and visas.
Visas are issued for a few months at a time, if
at all. Exit visas are required for workers
staying more than a month, but these, too, can
take weeks to come through and cost $120 each.
The cost of a single worker’s paperwork can add
up to $1,000 a year.
Government officials say they are not
obstructing aid workers and have lived up to the
agreement to allow free access.
“The procedures are created so as to make it
easy, not make it difficult,” said Kosti Manibe,
Sudan’s humanitarian affairs commissioner.
In the case of Mr. Holmes, government officials
later apologized and said the episode, which
escalated to include the seizure of a videotape
from a United Nations cameraman, was a
misunderstanding. But the symbolism was
inescapable.
“It is clearly a reflection of the difficulties
ordinary aid workers face every day,” Mr. Holmes
said. “If there were one big incident, the
humanitarian effort could collapse, and if that
happened, you would have a serious humanitarian
catastrophe.”
2/12/07
U.S. Envoy Natsios Denies Genocide in
Darfur! Act Now!
At the end of last week, in a
presentation at Georgetown University,
U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Andrew
Natsios claimed that the crisis in
Darfur no longer constitutes “genocide”.
This represents a blatant attempt to
shift U.S. policy on Darfur and rule out
the necessity of new U.S. action to
protect the people.
Please take action today!
Write Mr. Natsios and his boss President
Bush and let them know that there are
consequences for denying genocide.
We will not stand idly by as genocide
escalates in Darfur, and we will not
allow the Bush Administration to
undermine the urgency of the crisis and
the imperative for U.S. action. Despite the fact that he spent the
majority of his speech giving personal
witness to several of the violent acts
described in the Genocide Convention,
Natsios concluded, “The term genocide is counter to the
facts of what is really occurring in
Darfur.”
This statement contradicts Natsios’ own
testimony, numerous statements from the
White House and State Department over
the past two years, and recent reports
coming out of Darfur. As recently as
last week, reports from the United
Nations, the African Union and human
rights groups confirm that the Sudanese
government continues its attacks on
civilians. Even in the same Georgetown
speech where he denies the genocide in
Darfur, Natsios said, “The place is littered with mass
graves.”
After describing how the Sudanese
government-sponsored Janjaweed militia
has destroyed homes, and confiscated
land and animals, Natsios acknowledged,
“Without property in Darfur, you will
die…You cannot go back to your homes
because you have nothing to live off
of.”
The definition of “genocide” laid out in
the 1948 Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
continues to describe the realities in
Darfur. The “intent”
of the Sudanese government to destroy,
in whole or in part, specific African
communities in Darfur is clear from
documentary evidence, from the pattern
of attacks and from the testimony of
witnesses in the region. Furthermore,
the five types of violent acts
described in the Convention continue to
be visited upon the people of Darfur,
including widespread killings, the
infliction of bodily and mental harm
through rape and other crimes, and the
deliberate destruction of livelihoods
throughout Darfur. Click here for a
fact sheet
further describing the definition of
“genocide” as it applies to Darfur and
for Africa Action’s
latest press release
on this subject.
The real danger in Natsios’ denial of
genocide is that it enables the Bush
Administration to deprioritize its
efforts to address the situation in
Darfur.
The U.S. continues to have
unique leverage
with Sudan and the rest of the
international community that could stop
the genocide. We must build the
political will to ensure that Darfur
becomes a key concern for the Bush
Administration, yet Natsios’ statement
threatens to further sideline Darfur in
U.S. foreign policy priorities.
Join us by taking action today, and
invite ten friends to do the same.
Together in the Struggle,
The Staff of Africa Action
1/10/07
From David Rubenstein
The SAVE DARFUR Coalition
I
want to share some important news from Khartoum. New
Mexico Governor Bill Richardson just released a joint
statement with Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir that, if
implemented, would bring some immediate security and relief
to the people of Darfur as well as provide a clear path
forward to long-term peace in the region.
We asked
Governor Richardson to travel to Sudan to discuss ways to
secure peace in Darfur and to end the genocide. The Governor
was accompanied by Save Darfur Senior International
Coordinator Ambassador (ret.) Lawrence Rossin, Refugees
International Executive Director Kenneth Bacon, and Public and International Law and Policy Group senior
attorney Amjad Atallah. Since Sunday, when they arrived
in Khartoum, Governor Richardson and the delegation have
visited Darfur and participated in a variety of meetings
with government officials, rebel leaders, humanitarian
officials, AU commanders and UN officials.
The
promises from President Bashir in this agreement are
encouraging. They include commitments to:
A 60-day ceasefire with an
international peace summit to be held before March 15,
2007.
Sudan's cooperation to
work with the African Union and United Nations on the
deployment of a hybrid peacekeeping force in Darfur.
Ensuring "zero tolerance"
policies for gender-based violence in Darfur.
Free access for
humanitarian aid workers and journalists.
Your
concerns for the people of Darfur were voiced directly to
President Bashir by Governor Richardson and Ambassador
Rossin. We believe that today's agreement offers a
promising step forward to end this four-year nightmare for
the people of Darfur. By no means, however, has the genocide
ended.
We call
urgently upon Sudan, the United Nations, the African Union,
and the Bush Administration to make these promises become a
reality for the long-suffering people of Darfur.
We
must demand that the international community take advantage
of this dramatic progress. Your help in this effort will be
vital in the months ahead.
Thank
you for your contribution to these new developments.
