Tuesday, February 19, 2008

New Attacks in West Darfur

Christina Hueschen

On the ground – Sudan’s armed forces launched an offensive in West Darfur on February 8 with the supposed aim of clearing out rebel fighters from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). But residents of the targeted towns Abu Surouj, Suleia and Sirba, and surrounding villages, say the rebels had left days before the attacks.  The violence was the region’s worst in months and affected up to 60,000 Darfuris, 12,000 of whom fled into Chad.  Locals say more than 100 civilians were killed.

Today, Sudan’s army clashed again with Darfur rebels in the mountainous Jabel Moun area.  The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) withdrew a team caring for refugees from the Chad/Darfur border after today’s fresh aerial bombing.

In diplomacy – American President George W. Bush paid somber homage today to the estimated 800,000 killed in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.  President Bush, who is currently on a five-country Africa tour, urged global action to end the bloodshed in Sudan’s Darfur region “once and for all.” He called again for a “robust” UN/African Union peacekeeping force Darfur, and insisted that China must act “collaboratively” on efforts to end violence there.

The president of Chad declared a 15-day nationwide state of emergency on Thursday.  President Idriss Deby said the emergency powers, which include a night-time curfew and controls on the movement of vehicles, are needed to restore order after the recent coup attempt in the capital.

In the activist movement – US film director Steven Spielberg withdrew last week as an artistic adviser for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.  In a statement, he accused China of not doing enough to pressure Sudan to end the “continuing human suffering” in western Darfur.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Update: Fighting in Chad Slows, Problems Still Persist

Simon Warren

On the ground—Fighting between rebels and government forces has stopped in Chad’s capital, Ndjamena, the New York Times reports. Rebel forces had made their way to the capital, but over the past two days, the government had claimed to put down the fighting in the city. Problems still face the region, as Chad’s government accuses its neighbor Sudan of supporting the rebels, and Sudan accuses Chad of supporting Darfuri rebels. Both countries have long histories of intervening in each other’s affairs, as initial janjaweed militia men were from Chad, and Chad has allowed a European peacekeeping force to enter , against the wishes of Sudan. Conditions still are quite bad in Chad after the fighting has been stablized, with injured people only receiving treatment now, and with food shortages in the country.

In diplomacy-- Ethiopia and Bangladesh have promised helicopters to the beleagured UNAMID force. Ethiopia told UN ambassadors that they would give 3 transport helicopters and 2 attack helicopters. Bangladesh’s contribution promise is more vague. The force has had a great need for helicopters to patrol the Darfur area, and has issued a plan for 18 attack and 6 transport helicopters. The force is still undermanned, at 9,000 soldiers from 26,000 planned. Thai and Nepalese soldiers are scheduled to arrive soon, but Sudan is still demanding that as much of the force be African as possible.

The Dutch say that they are willing to host peace talks between Sudanese officials and rebel groups. The statement comes after Dutch Development Minister Bert Koenders met with a representative of the Sudan Liberation Movement/ Army (SLM/A) rebel group, SLM/A commander Ahmed Abdel Shafi has been quoted as saying: “The Netherlands would be a good option for peace talks.” and “Last October we gave a letter to the Dutch ambassador in Khartoum, with a request for peace talks in the Netherlands.” Talks in Libya in October stalled as SLM/A and other major rebel groups boycotted the talks.

UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon says that many of the problems in the beleagured region are caused by water shortages. In an address to the General Assembly, Ban stated “Water shortages are at the core of many of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), one of which is to reduce by half the number of people without safe access to water by 2015. When you consider the health and development challenges facing the poorest of the world’s population - diseases like malaria or TB [tuberculosis], rising food prices, environmental degradation - the common denominator often seems to be water.”

In the activist movement-- Activist and actor Mia Farrow has criticized director Stephen Spielberg of complicity in supporting a Darfur-China connection. The director, while being donating money to many anti-genocidal organizations and activities, has continued to be an artistic advisor for the opening and closing ceremonies in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. China has over $2 billion invested in Sudanese oil interests, and the Olympic games are targeted as a key issue in both China’s emergence in international affluence and as a key demonstration of the country’s involvement in the genocide in Darfur.