Former rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) of Minni Minawi, which is signatory of Abuja agreement, expressed willingness to cooperate with the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
Gen Martin Luther Agwai Minawi troops had very bad relations with the African troops who are replaced since the beginning of this year by the Hybrid Mission. Minawi forces clashed with AMIS in different positions in Darfur and killed several AU peacekeepers. In a meeting with UANMID Force Commander, Gen. Martin Luther Agwai, the Director of the General Command Office of SLA/M- Minawi, Majid Wadi, said, "We understand UNAMID is here to establish peace in Darfur. We want to open a new chapter of cooperation that focuses on the protection of civilians and access to humanitarians."
Minawi field Commanders,told the UNAMID that they want to improve the security situation and offer a safer environment for humanitarians to do their work in the war-torn region.
The meeting comes in the context of UNAMID's continued efforts to engage parties to the conflict in Darfur in an ongoing dialogue around peace, security and the protection of the civilian population.
Past months witnessed an unprecedented number of attacks against humanitarian workers in Darfur. Ameerah Haq, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, said that the attacks are putting Darfur humanitarian operation in jeopardy. Since the start of the year, three aid workers and one truck driver have been killed, while nearly 90 people working on behalf of aid groups or U.N. agencies have been abducted. Following the meeting, General Agwai said, "The deteriorating security conditions have made our efforts to engage the Movements increasingly difficult. Today's meeting represents a significant step towards re-establishing cooperation with commanders of Movements on the ground. We hope this helps us create safer conditions for humanitarians and peacekeepers to do their work." Leaders of the SLA/M assured UNAMID that the Movement denounces all acts of violence and banditry against humanitarians, emphasizing that the civilian population needs the help of relief agencies to alleviate the consequences of the war in Darfur. They agreed that if humanitarian agencies were to end their operations due to the attacks, it is civilians who will bear the cost. The Movement also called upon UNAMID to increase the number of its troops in the town of Muhajeria in North Darfur, where tensions between warring parties are on the rise.
Last October The Sudanese army backed janjaweed militia attacked the twon, killing dozens, including ethnic African tribal leaders who were pulled out of a mosque and executed. The assailants went on to burn down half the town.
The attack came after the nearby town of Haskanita was burned to the ground after coming under government control last week in the wake of a rebel raid on the nearby AU base that killed 10 peacekeepers.
General Agwai assured that the peacekeeping force plans to expand its operations, once the additional forces pledged to UNAMID deploy. The Egyptian battalion, whose advance party has started arriving, is planned to complete deployment within the next weeks, to be followed by the Ethiopian battalion.
3/11/08
Darfur rebel says Sudanese army painting tanks with UN colour
Darfur rebel movement has accused the Sudanese army of painting tanks of UN Hybrid force saying it plans to attack its position in West Darfur. Ali Wafi, the Military Spokesperson of the Rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) claimed that his movement is in receipt of eye witness's accounts in Al-Fasher speaking of Sudanese armed forces actively engaged in painting nine (9) military tanks white. Wafi described the move as "an apparent breach and violation of applicable norms of International Humanitarian law and agreements."
He further spoke about huge military build-up of troops arriving from Northern State (Shimalyia), and deployment of forces from El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, in a bid to storm Jebel Moon.
Since February 8, 2008, Sudanese government troops and "Janjaweed" militia backed by Antonov bombers and helicopter gunships have carried out a series of attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the ongoing bombardments, which are also preventing life-saving humanitarian assistance from reaching some of the worst-affected areas.
The February offensive was the largest in many months and aid agencies say it affected 50,000-60,000 people, less than initial rebel estimates of up to 200,000. Up to 12,000 refugees fled into neighbouring eastern Chad, the U.N. refugee agency said.
He further spoke about huge military build-up of troops arriving from Northern State (Shimalyia), and deployment of forces from El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, in a bid to storm Jebel Moon.
Since February 8, 2008, Sudanese government troops and "Janjaweed" militia backed by Antonov bombers and helicopter gunships have carried out a series of attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the ongoing bombardments, which are also preventing life-saving humanitarian assistance from reaching some of the worst-affected areas.
The February offensive was the largest in many months and aid agencies say it affected 50,000-60,000 people, less than initial rebel estimates of up to 200,000. Up to 12,000 refugees fled into neighbouring eastern Chad, the U.N. refugee agency said.
1/30/08
Darfur bandits threaten food deliveries
The UN World Food Programme warned on Wednesday that banditry in the conflict-stricken Darfur region threatened the distribution of food to more than two million people there. "So far this year, bandits have stolen 23 WFP-contracted trucks and abducted their drivers -- 19 drivers are still missing," it said in a statement. "We're extremely worried about the impact of vulnerable people of Darfur," WFP representative Kenro Oshidari said. He said that the main trucking companies now refuse to send in more vehicles, forcing the organisation to "deliver about half our monthly food relief requirement." "If the situtation continues, we'll be forced to cut rations in parts of Darfur by mid-February," Oshidari said, urging Sudanese authorities to ensure the safety of the main routes.
A lack of security in the western Sudanese region continues to hamper aid operations. Between September and December last year, three WFP contracted drivers were killed and 13 trucks stolen or attacked. A total of 106,000 people could not be reached with food assistance in December, the WFP said, adding that some 40,000 metric tons of food are needed to feed the most vulnerable people in Darfur. "Without these deliveries, WFP faces a rapid depletion of stocks and the inablity to pre-position food ahead of the rainy season which is due to start in May," Oshidari said. At least 200,000 people have died from war, famine and disease in Darfur and more than two million have fled their homes since rebels took up arms against Khartoum in 2003, complaining of the region's political and economic marginalisation, according to the UN.
A lack of security in the western Sudanese region continues to hamper aid operations. Between September and December last year, three WFP contracted drivers were killed and 13 trucks stolen or attacked. A total of 106,000 people could not be reached with food assistance in December, the WFP said, adding that some 40,000 metric tons of food are needed to feed the most vulnerable people in Darfur. "Without these deliveries, WFP faces a rapid depletion of stocks and the inablity to pre-position food ahead of the rainy season which is due to start in May," Oshidari said. At least 200,000 people have died from war, famine and disease in Darfur and more than two million have fled their homes since rebels took up arms against Khartoum in 2003, complaining of the region's political and economic marginalisation, according to the UN.
1/4/08
Darfur rebel Arabs under Sudan assault
Towards the end of the Abuja talks, an Arabintellectual sympathetic to the Darfur rebels remarked: 'Ninety percent ofthe Arabs of Darfur are neutral so far. We cannot continue like this ifthere is no agreement. We may take a role.' Eighteen months later they are,slowly but surely, in many ways. In recent weeks the Sudan government hasbegun responding with predictable force-aerial bombardment, ground attack,arrests of family members. Alex has drawn attention to how the Arabs ofDarfur feel abandoned by the international community, collectively demonizedfor the sins of the government and the Janjawiid. (Re-Visiting North Darfur's Arabs, 29 November 2007). But there is a new problem today, and one thatneeds addressing urgently: how are the growing number of Arabs who havechosen to stand against the government to be protected as the governmentturns its guns on them, in their turn?
The Arab challenge is absolutely critical. Without Arab support, Khartoumcould not prosecute its war in Darfur as it is. The regular army is poorlymotivated, poorly trained and demoralized by a series of crushing defeats.Much of its officer class dislikes the enforced partnership with theJanjawiid and the abuses that have characterized it, for which theInternational Criminal Court is now pressing charges.
At the centre of the latest storm is a 31-year-old Arab called Anwar AhmadKhater, the founder of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) that took uparms against the government last year and a member of the Mahamid tribe(Awlad Zeid section) from which most of Musa Hilal's forces are drawn. Atleast 26 of his men were killed last week when government forces attackedone of his camps in the Jebel Kengo area north-east of Zalingei. Someescaped on donkeys after their cars were destroyed and were given refuge bylocal farmers who offered them water, not caring that they were Arabs. As anSRF militant said in reporting the attack: 'You see how wonderful Darfur is,but for this mess of government policy and individuals spreading hatred.'
A number of Anwar's relatives have been arrested, including several of hisbrothers, and children in the family have been interrogated about hiswhereabouts. A security officer told one of them: 'We should have killed himwhen we had the chance. He is more dangerous to us than Abdel Wahid [Mohamedal Nur, the leader of the original Sudan Liberation Army] because he isworking in our zone'. In other words, he is active among Arabs-seeking aboveall to neutralize them, to prevent the government using them for its ownnefarious purposes.
Many Darfurians-including Abdel Wahid, who puts great emphasis on goodrelations with Arab tribes-believe that Anwar Khater is the personbest-equipped to unite the Arabs of Darfur. He is educated (a computerengineer) and free of any suspicion of Janjawiidism (unlike the other Arab'rebel' making news at the moment, Mohamed Hamdan Dogolo 'Hemeti'). The fewforeigners who have met him say he has enormous charisma. Most importantly,perhaps, Anwar Khater has cachet among the Mahamid: his father, AhmadKhater, was an advisor to Hilal Abdalla, the late sheikh of the Mahamid whois as much revered among the Arabs of Darfur as his son, Musa Hilal, iscontroversial.
Offered a scholarship to the U.S. on completing his studies, but notpermitted by the government to take it up, Anwar Khater returned to Darfurfrom Khartoum in 2004 and immediately began rallying Arabs against thegovernment. He was detained by Security twice in 2004, once afterdistributing pamphlets in Zalingei denouncing the political and economicmarginalization of Darfur. In 2005, he was detained for a month after asimilar protest in Geneina. In 2006, as his influence grew, especially amongyoung Arabs, he was detained by Musa Hilal and flown to Khartoum, where hewas imprisoned for more than three months. Security chief Salah Gosh toldhim: 'The UN [peacekeepers] will fight you as Arabs. If you do not join usyou will never survive in Darfur. The international community's war will beimposed on Darfur.'
Upon his release, Anwar Khater returned to Darfur once more and began tomake contacts with internationals to explain the program of the SudaneseRevolutionary Front-a name recently hijacked by Hemeti, with whom AnwarKhater has refused to cooperate, saying 'I can never put my hand in the handof anyone accused of killing innocent people'. His main concern, he said atthe time, was to combat the government's efforts to isolate Darfur's Arabsand make them voiceless. Since then, he has been working, quietly, to bringArab dissidents from different tribes together in a single, united body. Hehas forged good relations with several SLA factions including that of AbdelWahid.
The SRF's rebellion is just one example of a new mood among the Arabs ofDarfur. Another is the mutiny of Hemeti, whom U.S. officials consider one ofthe most abusive government-supported militia leaders of Darfur, responsiblefor much burning, killing and rape. When Hemeti mutinied in October, hecited the double betrayal of Darfur's Arabs: broken promises to providetheir nomadic communities with health and veterinary services, and schoolsand water, and unfulfilled commitments to pay militia salaries and givecompensation for war dead. He said he took up arms to defend his tribe afterthousands of camels were stolen and scores of his relatives were abducted bySLA Zaghawa rebels. That was then. Today the Zaghawa SLA leader, MinniMinawi, is Senior Assistant to President Omar Bashir-with power, on paper,over reforming Arab militias after becoming the only rebel leader to signthe Darfur Peace Agreement in May 2006.
The significance of Hemeti's revolt is very different to that of AnwarKhater's. His record makes him a problematic figure, both for theinternational community and the rebel movements. But while Anwar Khatar hascredibility as a young and educated Arab leader with clean hands, Hemeti hasguns. The government gave Hemeti brand-new vehicles, Thuraya telephones,heavy weapons and, reportedly, millions of dollars as the price ofparticipation in an offensive against the rebels after they tried to takethe war to Kordofan three months ago. But Hemeti double-crossed them,withdrew with his forces to Jebel Marra, and announced his opposition toKhartoum. In response, the government unleashed its air force and groundforces against him.
Both Abdel Wahid's SLA and Khalil Ibrahim's Justice and Equality Movementhave signed non-aggression pacts with Hemeti and his militia. Abdel Wahidtold me in Paris a month ago, 'There is no UN force to stop the Janjawiidkilling my people and I have no force to stop them, so I have to bring themon my side or neutralize them.' Neutralization may be as far as he is wilingto go with Hemeti, but he wants Anwar Khater on his side. Anwar, for hispart, does not rule out eventual unity, but not until political programmesare clarified and the SLA has put its chaotic house in order.
With only a few hundred armed men, the strategy of the SRF thus far has beento target those responsible for recruiting Arabs into the Janjawiid. 'Arabs,' Anwar Khater said last year, 'do not access humanitarian aid because theinternational community considers that the Arabs are the perpetrators of allthe crimes committed in Darfur. This is not true.'
The SRC believes that Khartoum plans a 'comprehensive attack' on its men inthe coming days, 'to finish Anwar during the holidays when UN staff will beon holiday'-and before the UNAMID force becomes operational. Anwar, theysay, 'can be the bridge between Arabs and the international community' - ifhe survives.
* Julie Flint is independent journalist who led a Human Rights Watch trip toSudan. Her report for Human Rights Watch, "Darfur Destroyed". She is theco-author of "Darfur: A Short History of a Long War."
The Arab challenge is absolutely critical. Without Arab support, Khartoumcould not prosecute its war in Darfur as it is. The regular army is poorlymotivated, poorly trained and demoralized by a series of crushing defeats.Much of its officer class dislikes the enforced partnership with theJanjawiid and the abuses that have characterized it, for which theInternational Criminal Court is now pressing charges.
At the centre of the latest storm is a 31-year-old Arab called Anwar AhmadKhater, the founder of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) that took uparms against the government last year and a member of the Mahamid tribe(Awlad Zeid section) from which most of Musa Hilal's forces are drawn. Atleast 26 of his men were killed last week when government forces attackedone of his camps in the Jebel Kengo area north-east of Zalingei. Someescaped on donkeys after their cars were destroyed and were given refuge bylocal farmers who offered them water, not caring that they were Arabs. As anSRF militant said in reporting the attack: 'You see how wonderful Darfur is,but for this mess of government policy and individuals spreading hatred.'
A number of Anwar's relatives have been arrested, including several of hisbrothers, and children in the family have been interrogated about hiswhereabouts. A security officer told one of them: 'We should have killed himwhen we had the chance. He is more dangerous to us than Abdel Wahid [Mohamedal Nur, the leader of the original Sudan Liberation Army] because he isworking in our zone'. In other words, he is active among Arabs-seeking aboveall to neutralize them, to prevent the government using them for its ownnefarious purposes.
Many Darfurians-including Abdel Wahid, who puts great emphasis on goodrelations with Arab tribes-believe that Anwar Khater is the personbest-equipped to unite the Arabs of Darfur. He is educated (a computerengineer) and free of any suspicion of Janjawiidism (unlike the other Arab'rebel' making news at the moment, Mohamed Hamdan Dogolo 'Hemeti'). The fewforeigners who have met him say he has enormous charisma. Most importantly,perhaps, Anwar Khater has cachet among the Mahamid: his father, AhmadKhater, was an advisor to Hilal Abdalla, the late sheikh of the Mahamid whois as much revered among the Arabs of Darfur as his son, Musa Hilal, iscontroversial.
Offered a scholarship to the U.S. on completing his studies, but notpermitted by the government to take it up, Anwar Khater returned to Darfurfrom Khartoum in 2004 and immediately began rallying Arabs against thegovernment. He was detained by Security twice in 2004, once afterdistributing pamphlets in Zalingei denouncing the political and economicmarginalization of Darfur. In 2005, he was detained for a month after asimilar protest in Geneina. In 2006, as his influence grew, especially amongyoung Arabs, he was detained by Musa Hilal and flown to Khartoum, where hewas imprisoned for more than three months. Security chief Salah Gosh toldhim: 'The UN [peacekeepers] will fight you as Arabs. If you do not join usyou will never survive in Darfur. The international community's war will beimposed on Darfur.'
Upon his release, Anwar Khater returned to Darfur once more and began tomake contacts with internationals to explain the program of the SudaneseRevolutionary Front-a name recently hijacked by Hemeti, with whom AnwarKhater has refused to cooperate, saying 'I can never put my hand in the handof anyone accused of killing innocent people'. His main concern, he said atthe time, was to combat the government's efforts to isolate Darfur's Arabsand make them voiceless. Since then, he has been working, quietly, to bringArab dissidents from different tribes together in a single, united body. Hehas forged good relations with several SLA factions including that of AbdelWahid.
The SRF's rebellion is just one example of a new mood among the Arabs ofDarfur. Another is the mutiny of Hemeti, whom U.S. officials consider one ofthe most abusive government-supported militia leaders of Darfur, responsiblefor much burning, killing and rape. When Hemeti mutinied in October, hecited the double betrayal of Darfur's Arabs: broken promises to providetheir nomadic communities with health and veterinary services, and schoolsand water, and unfulfilled commitments to pay militia salaries and givecompensation for war dead. He said he took up arms to defend his tribe afterthousands of camels were stolen and scores of his relatives were abducted bySLA Zaghawa rebels. That was then. Today the Zaghawa SLA leader, MinniMinawi, is Senior Assistant to President Omar Bashir-with power, on paper,over reforming Arab militias after becoming the only rebel leader to signthe Darfur Peace Agreement in May 2006.
The significance of Hemeti's revolt is very different to that of AnwarKhater's. His record makes him a problematic figure, both for theinternational community and the rebel movements. But while Anwar Khatar hascredibility as a young and educated Arab leader with clean hands, Hemeti hasguns. The government gave Hemeti brand-new vehicles, Thuraya telephones,heavy weapons and, reportedly, millions of dollars as the price ofparticipation in an offensive against the rebels after they tried to takethe war to Kordofan three months ago. But Hemeti double-crossed them,withdrew with his forces to Jebel Marra, and announced his opposition toKhartoum. In response, the government unleashed its air force and groundforces against him.
Both Abdel Wahid's SLA and Khalil Ibrahim's Justice and Equality Movementhave signed non-aggression pacts with Hemeti and his militia. Abdel Wahidtold me in Paris a month ago, 'There is no UN force to stop the Janjawiidkilling my people and I have no force to stop them, so I have to bring themon my side or neutralize them.' Neutralization may be as far as he is wilingto go with Hemeti, but he wants Anwar Khater on his side. Anwar, for hispart, does not rule out eventual unity, but not until political programmesare clarified and the SLA has put its chaotic house in order.
With only a few hundred armed men, the strategy of the SRF thus far has beento target those responsible for recruiting Arabs into the Janjawiid. 'Arabs,' Anwar Khater said last year, 'do not access humanitarian aid because theinternational community considers that the Arabs are the perpetrators of allthe crimes committed in Darfur. This is not true.'
The SRC believes that Khartoum plans a 'comprehensive attack' on its men inthe coming days, 'to finish Anwar during the holidays when UN staff will beon holiday'-and before the UNAMID force becomes operational. Anwar, theysay, 'can be the bridge between Arabs and the international community' - ifhe survives.
* Julie Flint is independent journalist who led a Human Rights Watch trip toSudan. Her report for Human Rights Watch, "Darfur Destroyed". She is theco-author of "Darfur: A Short History of a Long War."
12/11/07
Delay, Obstruction & Darfur
Dec 10, 2007 - New York Times
The world’s leaders say they care desperately about Darfur’s suffering, until they get distracted. It took years of international hand-wringing before the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution to send in 26,000 peacekeepers to replace a current force of 7,000, to try to halt the killing. With the deployment now set for Jan. 1, major countries are ignoring the U.N.’s appeals for essential aircraft, and Sudan’s government — which unleashed the genocide — is again reneging on its promises to cooperate.
Khartoum is now refusing to accept some non-African peacekeeping units — including a Thai infantry battalion and a Nepalese special forces unit — in what is intended to be a joint United Nations-African Union force. It is also trying to limit the peacekeepers’ use of helicopters, refusing to provide land for a peacekeeping base and insisting on other untenable restrictions, including advance notice of all troop movements.
Khartoum never seems to run out of ways to demonstrate its contempt for the United Nations.
After the International Criminal Court indicted Ahmad Harun, Sudan’s minister of state for humanitarian affairs, for war crimes in Darfur, Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, refused to turn him over for prosecution. Instead, Mr. Bashir put Mr. Harun on a committee overseeing deployment of the new peacekeeping mission.
President Bashir and his henchmen may be the worst problem, but not the only one.
There are serious questions about whether the United Nations can manage such a large peacekeeping operation. Meanwhile, major players — including South Africa, Russia, China, Ukraine and NATO — have not heeded a direct appeal from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to provide the helicopters and planes that the force will need to do its job, or even defend itself, in a region the size of France.
The United States has already flown in troops for the new force, promised $40 million in equipment and offered to pay 26 percent of the total cost of the operation. If others don’t step in quickly, Washington will need to twist their arms or do even more itself.
By some accounts, deaths in Darfur are down, but the region remains in severe crisis. People who flocked to refugee camps as a temporary escape from the government-backed janjaweed militias have been trapped there for nearly five years. Life inside the camps, where crime is rampant, is only slightly better than life outside. The rebel groups who claim to be Darfur’s defenders are increasingly fragmented and adding to the violence.
Darfuris have high hopes that the new United Nations-African Union mission will save them, but so far there is no peace to keep.
Sudan has showed time and again that it does not care about the suffering in Darfur. Without a lot more international pressure, Sudan will continue to obstruct the peacekeeping mission and spread ever more suffering and mayhem. China, one of Sudan’s major trading partners, and the Arab League must bring on that pressure. And the U.N. and other envoys must work full time for the resumption of peace talks.
The credibility of the Security Council is on the line. So are the lives of 2.5 million Darfuris.
Lack of helicopters threatens Darfur mission
United Nations, Dec 6/2007 (AFP News)
The success of the planned UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region is in peril for a lack of equipment such as crucial helicopters, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday. "We must absolutely have an effective, robust force. Without it, there can be no security," the secretary general told reporters. "But for this we need on-the-ground capability -- specifically helicopters. We're not getting them. Because of that the entire mission is at risk," he said, pleading with member states to supply 24 helicopters still not provided. The joint force of 26,000 mainly African troops (UNAMID) is to replace the under-funded and ill-equipped 7,000-strong African Union force known as AMIS which has served trying to stem the bloodshed in Darfur since 2004. But UNAMID still lacks crucial components, including a ground transport unit, 18 transport helicopters and six light tactical helicopters meant to provide air mobility and firepower to protect civilians and peacekeepers. "We are at a critical point. Time is running out," Ban said, two days before he was to fly to Bali, Indonesia for a key international conference on climate change. "We have only three weeks to go before the transfer of authority from AMIS to UNAMID." The secretary general said he had personally contacted "every possible contributor ... to no avail." And he announced that he had just sent a letter to the UN Security Council in which he also complained that despite his repeated appeals, "no member state has come forward to provide these vital assets."
In his letter, Ban said outsourcing the transport helicopters to civilian contractors had been considered but that it was "determined that, given the non-permissive security environment in Darfur, a civilian contractor would not be able to transport troops who would be required to respond to emergency security situations." He called on Security Council members to "live up to their responsibility to deliver" on implementation of their resolution on the establishment of UNAMID, noting: "It is time for them to walk their talk."
Diplomats have said several Western countries in a position to provide the helicopters are reluctant to do so because of a lack of confidence in the effectiveness of UNAMID's command and control structure. Ban said he was sending two senior advisers to the European Union-African Union summit in Lisbon this weekend "to directly engage with as many key leaders as possible on the subject." The two aides, UN Assistant Secretary General for peacekeeping operations Edmond Mulet and Ban's deputy chief of staff Kim Won-soo, were also to try to iron out remaining logistical issues with Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir and his delegation, including acquisition of land for UNAMID peacekeepers and permission for night flights.
Ban said his aides would also try to get formal confirmation that Khartoum, as suggested by Sudan's UN envoy Abdalmahmood Mohamad, had lifted its objections to UN plans to include contingents from Nepal and Thailand in UNAMID. UN planners also want to assign a Scandinavian engineering unit to the joint force. The UN chief warned that without an effective, robustly equipped UNAMID, there could be "no credible progress" in the deadlocked peace talks between Khartoum and Darfur rebels. "Rebel leaders will simply not join the process without an effective peacekeeping force in place," he noted.
On Wednesday UN and AU mediators held a fresh meeting in Sudan with Darfur rebel leaders who had boycotted peace talks with Khartoum in Libya last October, to coax them into forging "common ground" for the next round of bargaining in the Libyan city of Sirte. UNAMID is tasked with ending more than four years of bloodshed in which more than 200,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease in the western Sudanese region, while 2.2 million others have been left homeless. War in Darfur pits black ethnic groups against government troops backed by Arab militias.
12/4/07
"High risk" of Arab insurgency in Darfur
Nairobi - IRIN News (Nov 26/07)
The International Crisis Group (ICG) has cautioned that new dynamics in Sudan's Darfur crisis could result in an Arab insurgency and a possible spillover of the conflict into neighbouring Kordofan.
"Inter-Arab dissension has added new volatility to the situation on the ground," ICG states in a report, Darfur's New Security Reality, launched on 26 November in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. "Some tribes are trying to solidify land claims before the UN/AU [UN-African Union] hybrid peacekeeping operation in Darfur (UNAMID) arrives."
This, ICG said, had led to fighting with other Arab tribes, which have realised that the Khartoum-based central government "is not a guarantor of their long-term interests and have started to take protection into their own hands".
"There is now a high risk of an Arab insurgency, as well as potential for alliances with the predominantly non-Arab rebel groups," ICG added.
ICG noted that the Darfur conflict had changed radically in the past year and "not for the better". The conflict has caused the deaths of at least 200,000 civilians and the displacement of more than two million others.
"While there are many fewer deaths than during the high period of fighting in 2003-2004, [the conflict] has mutated, the parties have splintered, and the confrontations have multiplied," ICG stated. "Violence is again increasing, access for humanitarian agencies is decreasing, international peacekeeping is not yet effective and a political settlement remains far off."
Among other recommendations, ICG said the new realities in Darfur underscore the need to broaden UN-AU mediated peace talks that began on 27 October in Sirte, Libya. It said the talks should include the "full range of actors and constituencies involved in the conflict, including its primary victims, such as women, but also Arab tribes.
"Core issues that drive the conflict, among them land tenure and use, including grazing rights, and the role and reform of local government and administrative structures, were not addressed in the DPA [Darfur Peace Agreement, signed in May 2006] but left to the Darfur-Darfur Dialogue and Consultation process that was supposed to follow the negotiations," ICG stated. "They need to be on the agenda of the new negotiations if an eventual agreement is to gain the wide support the DPA has lacked."
Sally Chin, ICG's Nairobi-based Horn of Africa analyst, said the DPA, signed between the government and a single rebel faction, had failed because it was limited in scope and in signatories, which had hurt the ongoing peace process.
She said the central government's strategy in Darfur was one of "chaos, divide-and-rule and demographic manipulation".
"The NCP [National Congress Party] wants Darfur in chaos to limit the room for an opposition to emerge, while resettling key allies on cleared land and defying [UN] Security Council resolutions by integrating its Janjaweed irregulars into official security structures instead of disarming them," according to the ICG.
It added that the ruling party was pursuing "destructive policies" in Darfur while at the same time resisting key provisions in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the North-South war, "thus triggering a crisis in that process".
François Grignon, ICG's Africa programme director, said the priority was to end fighting in Darfur and this could be done with the negotiation of a ceasefire that includes a penalty for violations.
"A ceasefire without costs means no commitment from the parties involved," Grignon said. "Political will is one of the commodities that is in rare supply in such a situation and putting costs to violation of the commitment the parties make is one way of ensuring progress in the peace process."
Previous ceasefire declarations, the last one made by the Sudanese government during the start of the Darfur peace talks in Sirte, have largely been ignored by the parties involved in the Darfur conflict.
UNAMID is expected to be deployed in Darfur in early 2008, but ICG said that when it is on the ground, the force must be more active in protecting civilians and responding to ceasefire violations.
UNAMID must prioritise protection of camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), humanitarian assistance and key transportation routes, "including by working with all parties to set up demilitarized zones around camps and humanitarian supply routes".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)