[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Sudan: Late Response, Limited Focus

[Alfred Kagan]

>To: akagan at uiuc.edu
>Subject: Sudan: Late Response, Limited Focus
>From: africafocus at igc.org
>Sender: World Wide Web Owner <www at africafocus.org>
>Date: Fri, 04 Jun 2004 08:43:50 -0700
>
>
>Sudan: Late Response, Limited Focus
>
>AfricaFocus Bulletin
>Jun 4, 2004 (040604)
>(Reposted from sources cited below)
>
>Editor's Note 
>          
>"We admit we are late - some agencies have been so slow, some
>donors have been so slow, the government restrictions have been so
>many." - Jan Egeland UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian
>Affairs
>
>International agencies and NGOs are accelerating their response to
>what is widely acknowledged to be "the worst humanitarian crisis"
>in the world today. Tellingly, however, yesterday's donor meeting
>to mobilize greater international action rated only a few lines on
>page 20 of the Washington Post and page 6 of the New York Times.
>Despite the scale of the crisis and the testimony to continued
>atrocities, the death and devastation in western Sudan is still on
>the periphery of international attention.
>
>Most significantly, even the welcome attention to stepping up
>humanitarian relief fails to add real pressure on the Sudanese
>government to stop the campaign of slaughter by government-
>sponsored militia. Ironically, the peace process inching towards
>conclusion in the parallel war between the Sudanese government and
>southern rebels (see http://allafrica.com/stories/200406030005.html
>and http://allafrica.com/stories/200405270542.html for latest
>developments) seems only to have added an excuse for looking away
>from Darfur rather than the lesson that more international pressure
>is needed.
>
>Samantha Powers and John Prendergast, writing in the Los Angeles
>Times on June 2, put it this way: "With the specter of forced
>famine looming, the United States and its allies are treating
>symptoms and ignoring causes. They have pressed for humanitarian
>access to Darfur without demanding that the homeless be returned to
>their torched villages and farms. They have supported the
>deployment of international cease-fire monitors but have settled
>for 60 African Union observers to patrol a region the size of
>France. And they have denounced atrocities without attempting to
>create mechanisms for punishing the perpetrators. ... humanitarian
>actions do not solve what are, at base, political problems; only by
>urgently applying high-level and sustained pressure on Khartoum
>will lives in Darfur be saved."
>
>This issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a summary from the UN's
>Integrated Regional Information Service (IRIN) on the donor meeting
>in Geneva, as well as brief statements from Oxfam International,
>Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.
>
>For the Powers/Prendergast op-ed, the latest analytical report from
>the International Crisis Group released on 23 May, and other
>resources, see
>http://www.crisisweb.org
>
>For extensive daily updates from a variety of sources, visit
>http://www.reliefweb.int
>
>For links to additional background and to previous AfricaFocus
>Bulletins on Sudan, see
>http://www.africafocus.org/country/sudan.php
>
>++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>Sudan: Donor Meeting On Darfur Appeals for US $236 Million
>
>UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
>http://www.irinnews.org
>
>June 4, 2004
>
>Geneva
>
>A high-level donor meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday
>appealed for at least US $236 million to help an estimated 2.2
>million victims of war and "forced ethnic displacement" in western
>Sudan's Darfur region, the United Nations reported. In total, about
>$126 million has been pledged for 2004, leaving a deficit of $110
>million, it added.
>
>Representatives of 36 states and institutions, including donor
>governments, Sudan, the Arab League, the African Union (AU) and
>NGOs, were present at the conference.
>
>Addressing journalists midway through the meeting, UN
>Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said
>this was the most important conference in recent history as the
>world's biggest humanitarian crisis was unfolding in Darfur.
>
>Even with humanitarian aid, many lives would be lost, he said. "We
>are late in responding and the Janjawid [militia] attacks [are] so
>harsh that even under the best of circumstances [in terms of donor
>response] it will still be a humanitarian crisis."
>
>A joint statement issued by the UN, US and EU added that hundreds
>of thousands of lives were at risk in Darfur "unless immediate
>protection and relief are provided".
>
>Donors aim to feed, shelter up to a million IDPs in three months
>
>Egeland said the conference participants had agreed to try to meet
>a series of key targets in Darfur over the next 90 days. These
>included:
>
>- feeding up to one million people across the region; - drilling
>new boreholes, and providing water pumps and tanks for camps for
>displaced people and host communities; - providing basic drugs and
>health care for 90 percent of the displaced; - providing basic
>materials to help displaced people and refugees construct temporary
>shelters; - providing seeds and tools to 78,000 families; and -
>deploying human rights and protection staff to the area.
>
>Unanimous concern was expressed at the conference about the
>continuing attacks being perpetrated by the government-allied
>Janjawid militia.
>
>Despite a ceasefire agreement signed by Khartoum and Darfur's two
>rebel groups in the Chadian capital, N'djamena, on 8 April, the
>Janjawid were still very active, with reports from the region
>indicating an increase in attacks and human rights violations, said
>Egeland.
>
>He added that the rainy season would render roads impassable within
>just a few weeks, making the delivery of aid "a race against the
>clock".
>
>New restrictions to access deplored
>
>Andrew Natsios, the head of the US Agency for International
>Development, said too few NGOs were operating in Darfur to deliver
>sufficient quantities of aid. Coupled with this was the fact that
>whereas the Sudanese government had removed permit requirements for
>NGOs, it had imposed new restrictions on vehicles and air
>transport, thereby effectively limiting the movement of NGOs to and
>within Darfur.
>
>James Morris, the executive director of the World Food Programme,
>commented that the government needed to remove administrative
>roadblocks like visas, permits and laborious checks on basic
>necessities such as medical supplies.
>
>Bertrand Ramcharan, the UN acting high commissioner for human
>rights, raised the issue of protection. "Let me say it again: More
>than one million people are utterly vulnerable, living in a state
>of fear and without any means of protection... We know all this, we
>have no excuse for not knowing it: now is the time not to assess
>but to act," Ramcharan said in a statement.
>
>He stressed that the humanitarian crisis was the direct consequence
>of a human rights crisis. "It is not impersonal, unswayable
>elements that are behind this tragedy: this tragedy is entirely
>man-made." It was the government's responsibility to resolve the
>crisis in line with its legal obligations, he added.
>
>No rights mechanisms protect Darfurians - HCHR
>
>A key concern was that there were "no human rights or protection
>mechanisms currently in place" to help Dafurians, he continued. He
>had requested his office to dispatch six human rights officers as
>soon as possible to Darfur to provide support to UN counterparts on
>monitoring ceasefire violations and protecting civilians, he said.
>The officers would also work closely with the AU mission to be sent
>to Darfur.
>
>An "advance team" of 10 AU staff members had been deployed to
>Khartoum on Wednesday to prepare the logistics for a team of 90
>ceasefire monitors, 60 of whom would be soldiers, an AU spokesman,
>Desmond Orjiako, told IRIN. The rest of the observer mission would
>go to Darfur as soon as "conditions" were ready, he added.
>
>Amnesty International noted this week that nearly two months after
>the 8 April ceasefire, the monitors were not yet in place in
>Darfur. "It is not clear how effective 90 monitors - 60 military
>and 30 civilians - will be in an area the size of France where
>daily killings and rapes are still being reported," Amnesty said in
>a statement.
>
>The Sudanese News Agency reported, however, that during meetings
>held on Wednesday and Thursday between the Sudanese government and
>the AU mission, the two sides had expressed "their confidence on
>achievement of a peaceful solution for Darfur".
>
>Government expresses commitment to ceasefire
>
>The Sudanese External Relations Ministry also issued a statement
>this week, affirming "the government's deep resolve" to abide by
>the N'djamena ceasefire accord, and stating that the government was
>keen to provide "more security, tranquillity and trust".
>
>But ceasefire violations are being frequently reported. On 28 May,
>an Antonov aircraft and two helicopter gunships bombed a crowded
>market, killing at least 12 people in a village near Al-Fashir,
>Northern Darfur, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported. "There have
>also been numerous credible reports of continuing attacks on
>civilians in displaced camps and settlements under government
>control," it added.
>
>On 22 May, Janjawid killed at least 40 villagers and burned five
>villages, including Tabaldiyah and Abqarjeh, both south of Nyala,
>Southern Darfur, AI reported. They had reportedly arrived - some in
>army uniform - on horses and camels. "The government is not
>addressing the impunity of the Janjawid; it is integrating them
>into the army," HRW added.
>
>The government has denied the attacks and accused the Darfur rebels
>of violating the ceasefire.
>
>**************************************************************
>
>World Must Boost Aid to Sudan, Chad Humanitarian Crisis - Geneva
>Donors' Meeting a Vital Opportunity
>
>Oxfam International (Boston)
>http://www.oxfam.org / http://www.oxfamamerica.org
>
>PRESS RELEASE
>
>June 2, 2004
>
>International agency Oxfam today urged rich governments to boost
>their contribution to the relief effort in western Sudan and Chad
>on the eve of an emergency meeting in Geneva to discuss the crisis.
>
>The June 3 meeting has been convened by the United Nations to look
>at how to get aid to an estimated two million people affected by
>what the UN describes as "the world's worst humanitarian crisis".
>These include up to one million people who've been forced to leave
>their villages inside Darfur, and another 150,000-200,000 who have
>crossed the border into Chad.
>
>"The scale of the challenge facing us in Darfur and Chad is
>immense," said Oxfam Regional Director Caroline Nursey who will be
>attending the Geneva meeting.
>
>"People have fled their homes with nothing and are struggling to
>survive in desperately harsh desert conditions. Rich-country
>governments must come through with a much greater injection of cash
>to help aid agencies save lives.
>
>"It's very telling that in the first three months of the 2003 Iraq
>appeal, donors mobilized nearly US$2bn, whereas the UN's appeal for
>the whole of Sudan has received less than US$200 million - not even
>a third of what the UN have asked for.
>
>"When a crisis is considered important in western capitals, money
>flows easily. The suffering of people in Africa needs to be given
>equal prominence."
>
>Oxfam has been scaling up its relief work in Darfur since the
>Sudanese government approved extra visas for expert staff last
>month. However, the agency said, this access must be sustained over
>the next three months and beyond if aid workers are to
>significantly improve the health of thousands of displaced people
>and prevent outbreaks of disease.
>
>"No-one's pretending that international humanitarian aid is the
>only thing that's needed to end this crisis," said Oxfam's Caroline
>Nursey. "But if we are going to save lives, aid is needed and it's
>needed now."
>
>Note:
>
>For Sudan as a whole, the UN has appealed for US$644,722,042.
>This includes an extra US$141,067,595 announced in March 2004 to
>cope with increased needs in Darfur. So far, the UN has received
>less than one third of its appeal, US$ 196,616,419.
>
>The UN has received pledges amounting to less than a third
>(US$50m) of the US$171m it appealed for to aid Sudanese refugees
>in Chad.
>
>*************************************************************
>
>Amnesty International
>Date: 3 Jun 2004
>Death and devastation continue in Darfur
>
>AI Index: AFR 54/060/2004 (Public)
>News Service No: 137
>
>For online content and actions on the Darfur crisis, go to:
>http://web.amnesty.org/pages/sdn-index-eng
>
>Amnesty International delegates, who recently returned from a
>research mission among Sudanese refugees in Chad, are calling on
>the international donors' conference on Darfur, meeting in Geneva
>on 3 June, to ensure that the protection of civilians is addressed
>with the same urgency as humanitarian aid.
>
>"The armed militias (Janjawid) supported by the Sudanese government
>armed forces have been responsible for massive human rights
>violations against the civilian population in Darfur," the
>delegates said.
>
>"Our research confirmed again the systematic and well-organized
>pillaging and destruction of villages, which led to the forced
>displacement of the rural population of Darfur," said Amnesty
>International's delegates. "The Janjawid, often in military
>uniform, accompanied by soldiers, attacked each village not once,
>but often three or four times before the population fled. Local
>people gave us more details of the two large-scale extrajudicial
>executions in Murli and Deleij carried out by security forces and
>Janjawid."
>
>The international concern about the horror and devastation in
>Darfur needs to be translated into real changes on the ground, said
>Amnesty International's delegates.
>
>The Sudanese government has so far failed to take concrete and
>prompt measures to stop the horrendous cycle of killings and rape
>committed by the Janjawid militias against the civilian population
>of Darfur.
>
>"While the logic of peace is emerging between the Khartoum
>authorities and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the
>dynamic of war is still well rooted in Darfur."
>
>"The violence against civilians breached not only international
>human rights standards but also appeared often to be an intentional
>attempt to humiliate and destroy the social fabric of the
>communities. We heard accounts of summary and systematic killing of
>civilians including in mosques, rape of women and girls with their
>husbands or parents nearby and the burning of old women in their
>homes," organization's delegates said.
>
>Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forced to abandon
>their devastated villages in Darfur. Some of them have been
>compelled to seek refuge in overpopulated centres in the region.
>These centres face serious scarcity of basic needs such as food,
>water, tents and medical supplies.
>
>Thousands of others have braved serious risks to life to reach
>eastern Chad. A refugee told Amnesty International's delegates: "I
>have lost everything now; I have nothing but the fingers of my two
>hands." Another added: "As long as the safety of my family is not
>guaranteed, I don't wish to return home."
>
>A 13-year old boy told how he was abducted by security forces and
>the Janjawid from a farm and taken to a camp near Khartoum. There,
>he was stripped naked and flogged. Another youth told how he was
>held in a Janjawid camp for three weeks until he escaped.
>
>One of the focuses of the Amnesty International mission was
>violence against women. "They came and took away our wives and
>daughters; they were not ashamed to rape them in the open," a
>village chief said of the violence done to women during the
>conflict.
>
>A woman told how she and a group of girls were taken away by
>attackers wearing civilian clothes and khaki uniforms and raped
>repeatedly over a three-day period. They told them: "next time we
>come, we will exterminate you all, we will not even leave a child
>alive".
>
>"The 8 April cease fire agreement between the Sudanese government
>and the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and Justice and
>Equality Movement (JEM) has not changed the disastrous daily plight
>of civilians in Darfur and in the refugees in eastern Chad," said
>the delegates.
>
>Nearly two months after the ceasefire, signed on 8 April 2004, the
>ceasefire monitors, who are mandated to report on violations, are
>not yet in place. It is not clear how effective 90 monitors, 60
>military and 30 civilian, will be in an area the size of France
>where daily killings and rapes are still being reported.
>
>"The international community should provide the African Union with
>the necessary political and logistical support for them to be
>effective and they must report publicly," the organization urged.
>
>Amnesty International is repeating its call for human rights
>monitors under a mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner
>for Human Rights to closely monitor the human rights situation in
>Darfur. "Given the many cases of rape and accompanying trauma,
>monitors must include a component with expertise in gender and
>sexual violence," it said.
>
>On 22 May, Janjawid violated the ceasefire and killed at least 40
>villagers and burnt five villages including, Tabaldiya and
>Abqarajeh, 15 km south of Nyala. They reportedly arrived, some in
>army uniforms, on horses and camels. On the day the observer
>agreement was signed on 28 May the Sudanese air force bombed the
>village of Tabet on a market day, reportedly killing 12 people. The
>Sudanese authorities have denied these attacks and accused the SLA
>and the JEM of violating the ceasefire.
>
>"The Janjawid who attacked the Tabaldiya villages reportedly came
>from the former army training camp of Dumai, near Nyala," said
>Amnesty International. "The government is not addressing the
>impunity of the Janjawid, it is integrating them into the army."
>
>Delegates stressed the continuing fear of the refugees in the Chad
>border area of attacks by the Janjawid.
>
>"Only if steps are taken to ensure that the militias are no longer
>in a position to abuse human rights will the displaced have any
>confidence in the future," they said. "Consistent reports from
>Sudanese in Chad and Darfur suggest that the Janjawid are actually
>occupying many of the villages left empty by the fleeing
>population."
>
>******************************************************************
>
>Human Rights Watch
>3 Jun 2004
>Darfur needs action on human rights
>
>http://www.hrw.org
>
>(Geneva, June 3, 2004) -- Donor governments meeting in Geneva today
>should address the human rights crisis in Sudan as well as the
>humanitarian crisis, Human Rights Watch said today.
>
>Currently one million people are internally displaced within
>Darfur, an arid region in western Sudan, and another 110,000
>refugees have fled to Chad. All of them desperately need
>humanitarian assistance. The United Nations has called Darfur "the
>worst humanitarian crisis in the world today."
>
>But the root cause of this humanitarian crisis is the Sudanese
>government's campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against civilians of
>three ethnic groups. Only by addressing the human rights crisis can
>donor governments hope to solve the humanitarian disaster, Human
>Rights Watch said.
>
>"The crisis in Darfur is a manmade emergency," said Kenneth Roth,
>executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Humanitarian aid is
>urgently needed, but it is not enough. A political solution is
>necessary: the Sudanese government's ethnic cleansing must not
>stand."
>
>The Sudanese government has armed, trained and deployed militias
>known as Janjaweed who have attacked and burned to the ground
>hundreds of villages, killed thousands of civilians, looted
>hundreds of thousands of animals and destroyed farming supplies and
>water sources. Khartoum has backed up the Janjaweed with Sudanese
>army forces and air support from Antonovs and attack helicopters.
>
>These joint forces are targeting civilians from three ethnic groups
>-- the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa -- from which rebels in Darfur draw
>their recruits. After attacks, the Sudanese government has
>prevented the surviving civilian population from returning to their
>homes.
>
>Roth urged donor governments to insist that the Sudanese government
>disarm, disband and withdraw the Janjaweed from the areas they have
>occupied, as well as assure protection and assistance for the
>displaced so that they may return home voluntarily and in safety.
>
>If the Sudanese government fails to act, Roth said, the U.N.
>Security Council should be prepared to invoke Chapter VII of the
>U.N. Charter, which permits the Security Council to take all
>actions necessary to "maintain or restore international peace and
>security."
>
>On April 8, the Sudanese government signed a ceasefire agreement
>with Darfur's two rebel groups. But attacks against civilians,
>including murder and rape, have continued. The Janjaweed militia
>has continued its campaign of ethnic cleansing in South Darfur,
>burning villages, killing civilians -- as many as 56 in one
>village, according to survivors -- and displacing thousands.
>
>Meanwhile, a Sudanese government Antonov airplane and two
>helicopter gunships bombed a crowded market on Friday, May 28,
>killing at least 12 persons in a village near El Fashir, capital of
>North Darfur. There have also been numerous credible reports of
>continuing attacks on civilians in displaced camps and settlements
>under government control.
>
>In the April 8 ceasefire agreement, the parties tasked the African
>Union with creating a commission to monitor the ceasefire, but the
>accord did not give it a specific mandate to protect civilians.
>
>Donors need to generously fund not only the emergency relief
>program but also human rights monitors to observe that the return
>of the displaced is done in safety and voluntarily. These monitors
>should also investigate the safety of the displaced in camps where
>they are now subjected to Janjaweed looting, rape and murder.
>Monitors also need to watch villages not yet attacked.
>
>If and when the Janjaweed withdraw from Darfur, measures also will
>be necessary to prevent the rebels from taking advantage of a
>government militia pullout.
>
>The Sudanese government took up the campaign in Darfur in early
>2003 in response to surprise rebel attacks on its military garrison
>in El Fashir, the capital of North Darfur. The rebels destroyed at
>least seven military planes on the ground, inflicted casualties and
>held Sudanese military personnel.
>
>Khartoum has obstructed international efforts to set up a relief
>campaign. Although it has recently promised to facilitate visa
>applications for relief workers, the Sudanese government has
>stalled on approving the appointment of a U.N. official to
>coordinate the massive relief operation. Donors must insist that
>the Sudanese government immediately accept the United Nations'
>senior resident representative and allow him to take up his posting
>in Khartoum.
>
>"Humanitarian assistance will save lives, but strong political
>action is also needed to stop the gross human rights abuses causing
>the displacement and starvation of these farmers," Roth said.
>
>*************************************************************
>AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
>providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
>a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
>Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
>
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>
>************************************************************


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu