Rebels reject Darfur deal, Sudan breaks apart

[Al-khiyal]

The U.N. Security Council, visiting Sudan Monday, assured the wary government that the United Nations has no intention of taking over the country and sees Khartoum as a partner in promoting peace.

The government has been very reluctant to allow a U.N. peacekeeping force to take over from the 7,000-strong African Union force in conflict-wracked Darfur that has largely been unable to stop the violence there. Fears of U.N. intervention were fueled last month when a council resolution to spur planning for a handover was adopted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which allows military action.

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, who is leading the council mission, said shortly after the delegation arrived in Khartoum that he recognized some Sudanese "took amiss" the last council resolution, which they had hoped would pay tribute to the government for signing a peace agreement with the largest rebel faction in Darfur.

The United Nations has become increasingly involved in Sudan since November 2003 following the eruption of the Darfur conflict. It is running a massive humanitarian operation in the vast western region as well as a 10,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping operation to monitor the January 2005 peace agreement that ended a separate 21-year civil war in southern Sudan between the government and rebels.

Nearly 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced in Darfur since rebel groups made up of ethnic Africans rose up against the Arab-led Khartoum government in early 2003. The government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab militias known as the Janjaweed who have been accused of some of the worst atrocities but it denies any involvement.

The AU force in Darfur now has been temporarily charged with helping implement a May 25 peace deal between the Sudanese government and the main rebel group there. In March, the African Union's Peace and Security Council decided in principle to keep the AU force in Darfur until Sept. 30, when the U.N. would then take control. The transfer would require approval from the U.N. Security Council.....

Continue reading..... UN Security Council arrives in wary Sudan

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The U.S. role in Darfur, Sudan

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The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said his office had documented massacres with hundreds of victims in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region as well as hundreds of rape cases.

In a report to the UN Security Council, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the office had documented "thousands of alleged direct killings of civilians by parties to the conflict," including "a significant number of large-scale massacres, with hundreds of victims in each incident."

Ocampo told the council that his office was investigating allegations that some of the groups implicated in the Darfur crimes "did so with specific genocidal intent".

He said identifying those with the greatest responsibility for the most serious crimes in Darfur was a key challenge for his probe but said he would not draw any conclusions pending the completion of a "full and impartial investigation".

He said the ICC would need the "full support of the Security Council and the unfettered cooperation of the international community, in particular the government of Sudan".

Ocampo said interviews of victims and witnesses reported that men perceived to be from the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups were "deliberately targeted".

Evidence cited eyewitness accounts that "the perpetrators made statements reinforcing the targeted nature of the attacks, such as 'we will kill all the blacks' and 'we will drive you out of this land'."

The report also cited a "significant amount of information indicating that thousands of civilians have died since 2003" as a result of lack of shelter and basic necessities for survival after their homes and food stocks were destroyed and their property looted.

Ocampo's office also recorded "hundreds of alleged cases of rape", which the report said was indicative of an endemic practice among some groups involved in the conflict.

It highlighted a "widespread pattern of displacement of civilians, with recent estimates of some two million displaced persons and refugees from Darfur".

"Destruction of property and looting is a prevalent feature of the crimes in Darfur, with reports of destruction and looting in up to 2,000 villages throughout the three Darfur states," it said.

The study covering the October 2002-May 2006 period, also referred to continued reports of direct attacks on humanitarian workers and peacekeepers, including the killing of African Union peacekeepers in 2005 and 2006.

"These attacks are not only grave examples of the potential warcrimes, they also have an impact on the delivery of vital services that exacerbates the suffering of the most vulnerable groups in Darfur," it said.

Meanwhile Sudan's UN envoy Omar Manis said his government had set up a special criminal court to deal with the Darfur crimes.

But New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it was aware of only 13 cases that had been brought before that special court to date.

"The cases have involved low-ranking individuals accused of relatively minor offenses. No senior commanders or superiors have been charged for their part in the atrocities," HRW said.

"The cases before the court so far involve ordinary crimes like theft and receiving stolen goods, which don't begin to reflect the massive scale of the destruction in Darfur," Sara Darehshori, senior counsel to the International Justice Program at HRW, said in a statement.

"The Sudanese government must do more than pay lip service to the idea of justice," she added.

The ICC, based in The Hague, is mandated to try genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It can also try crimes of aggression although member states have not yet agreed on the legal definition for such crimes....

War crimes court finds multiple Darfur massacres

[Al-khiyal]

AS the peace talks for the Darfur region of Sudan drew to a close last month, the United States took over the task of defining the solution. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick flew into Abuja, Nigeria, where the talks were being held, on May 2 and three days later the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed. The only trouble is, the United States is backing the most abusive rebel leader in Darfur.

The response to the peace agreement was tepid in Abuja. But it was far cooler in Darfur, where the agreement is widely viewed as a peace between two criminal elements: the Sudanese government and Minni Arcua Minnawi, the leader of the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army that is drawn mainly from the Zaghawa tribe.

Mr. Minnawi's group is one of three rebel groups in Darfur — the two others rejected the agreement — where the Zaghawas make up less than 8 percent of the population. The wealth and influence they have gained because of their energy, drive and capacity for strategic action have caused tensions with other tribes for years.

But since the rebellion began, the abusive behavior of Mr. Minnawi's forces — often hundreds of miles outside their home area — has awakened old fears that the tribe has a hidden agenda: the creation of a new Zaghawa homeland carved out of the more fertile lands of others. Mr. Minnawi's acceptance of the peace agreement is reason enough for most Darfurians to reject it.

The tragedy of the people's rejection is that the agreement has some virtue. There is, for the first time, a timetable for the disarmament of the janjaweed, the Arab militias that with government backing are destroying everything that makes life possible in Darfur. In three years' time, Darfurians will have elections to choose their own representatives. Until then, a nominee of the rebel movements will occupy the fourth-highest position in the presidency and will control a new regional authority with a first-year budget for security, resettlement, reconstruction and development of more than a half-billion dollars.

But the agreement also has a number of critical weaknesses. Most important, it is excessively reliant on the cooperation of a government that has not honored a single commitment made since it unleashed its forces against the rebels, and the marginalized tribes from which they are drawn, early in 2003.

In addition, Mr. Minnawi's behavior in the month since he signed the agreement has not been promising. In peace as in war, Mr. Minnawi is wedded to force. On May 20, his men seized one of his most visible critics, Suliman Gamous. Mr. Gamous has been held in solitary, without charge, ever since. As humanitarian coordinator of the Sudan Liberation Army, Mr. Gamous made it possible for the United Nations and many nongovernmental groups to work in rebel areas. He helped hundreds of foreign journalists move safely around Darfur and document the plight of its people.

But Mr. Minnawi denied senior United Nations officials access to Mr. Gamous for nearly a month. When concerned Zaghawas sought a meeting to ask why Mr. Gamous had been arrested, Mr. Minnawi's chief of staff told them, "I can shoot Gamous and sodomize you." They were stripped, bound, pistol-whipped and burned with cigarettes.

African Union officials have verified the events and have rebutted Mr. Minnawi's claim that Chadian mercenaries were the perpetrators. But nobody involved in the peace plan has criticized him publicly. Once again, his abuses have been passed over in silence.

If the Darfur Peace Agreement is to have any hope of succeeding, the United States must stop empowering criminals and antagonizing those who are unconvinced. Rather, the peace brokers should assist rebel commanders critical of Mr. Minnawi to convene a conference and elect a leadership that would cross tribal lines and have popular support. Darfurians must be convinced that this peace is their peace and not, as many call it, the "Ila Digen peace," the peace of Mr. Minnawi's small clan.

The United States must increase confidence in the peace agreement by fiercely rebuking the Khartoum government — and Mr. Minnawi — for every violation of the agreement and every deadline they fail to meet. All Darfur's tribes must be brought into the peace process — most important, the Arab tribes that had no place at the Abuja table, even though the vast majority of them did not join the janjaweed. And no regional dialogue would be complete without the involvement of the janjaweed themselves, who despite their atrocities are one of the keys to a lasting settlement.

Last, the United States must make clear that there is no peace without justice. It must provide the International Criminal Court with intelligence on the conflict to ensure that nobody, government official or rebel, gets away with murder in Darfur. A first step would be to distance itself from its new favorite son. Minni Minnawi is not the guarantor of peace; he is one of the obstacles to it.

Dealing with the Devil in Darfur

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Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has opposed the deployment of international troops in his country, saying Sudan would not be "re-colonised".

The UN is considering sending peacekeepers to Sudan's Darfur region to supplement African Union troops.

Conflict in Darfur between rebels and pro-government forces has killed about 300,000 people in three years.

A report by the International Crisis Group on Monday said a UN peace force was urgently needed in Darfur.

But Mr Bashir said there would be no such force in Sudan, according to reports in state media.

"I swear that there will not be any international military intervention in Darfur as long as I am in power," Mr Bashir was quoted as telling a meeting of his ruling National Congress late on Monday.

"Sudan, which was the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence, cannot now be the first country to be re-colonised," he said.

South African President Thabo Mbeki is currently in Sudan on a one-day visit, with peace moves in Darfur on the agenda.

The ICG warned that the current peace agreement over Darfur had little chance of bringing stability "unless the parties comply strictly and the international community acts decisively to support the peacekeeping mission".

The peace plan was signed by the government and one rebel faction in Nigeria in May.

"There is a very real danger that the international community, in its eagerness to get a deal, has brokered one that is structurally weak," the ICG report said.

"The document has serious flaws, and two of the three rebel delegations did not accept it," it added.

BBC world affairs correspondent Mark Doyle says Mr Mbeki will be told that the current peace agreement, which was pushed through by African and western mediators, may have made the situation worse rather than better.

The rebel movement which signed the peace agreement is from the minority Zaghawa group, while the movement representing Darfur's majority Fur group did not take part, our correspondent says.

The AU-brokered deal has failed to end the violence in Darfur, where more than 2m million people have fled their homes.

The 7,000-strong AU force in Darfur, which operates with th approval of the Sudanese government, has been hampered by a lack of funding and resources.

Sudan rejects 'colonial' troops

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United Nations, Jun 23 (Prensa Latina) UN Secretary General Kofi Annan admitted Friday that the United Nations lacks authorization from the Sudanese government to display UN troops in Darfur, and that the dialogue with the authorities in Khartoum still continues.

In a meeting with the press in the UN host building, Annan said a mission headed by Sub-Secretary General Jean-Marie Guehenno is in Sudan and met Sudanese President Omar al Bashir, with whom Annan talked on the phone.

Annan insisted on the fact that he has tried to transfer all Sudanese citizens as possible, including residents in Darfur, and reasserted UN will help Sudan and its people.

"If they had been protected, display of troops would not have been necessary," Annan said.

He also added that there are much more things to do, as for instance, to make pressure on the rebel groups, which have not signed the peace agreement in Darfur.

Finally, Annan said there is a need to ensure a substantial response to humanitarian work in Sudan, and keep the conversations with the government of Khartoum to send the UN force, comprised by 20,000 members.

UN lacks authorization for troops in Darfur

Top peacekeeping official says internally displaced in Sudan want UN force in Darfur

[Al-khiyal]

KHARTOUM, June 25 (Reuters) - Sudan has suspended the work of a U.N. mission in its violent Darfur region after accusing the world body of transporting a rebel leader who opposes a recent peace deal, a Sudanese official said on Sunday.

"The suspension applies for all of Darfur and this will continue until we get an explanation," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jamal Ibrahim.

He said the ban, which excludes two bodies affiliated to the U.N. mission, the World Food Programme and the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF), was imposed because a U.N. helicopter had moved rebel leader Suleiman Adam Jamous, who rejects a peace deal signed on May 5.

Sudan suspends all U.N. mission work in Darfur