Africa

Bostwana

washingtonpost.com 3 June 2005 A Culture Vanishes in Kalahari Dust Bushmen Elders Resist Relocation in Botswana By Craig Timberg Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, June 3, 2005; A01 MALAPO, Botswana -- In the Kalahari Desert, where the landscape stretches brown and dusty in every direction, water is power. So when the truckloads of men from the government rumbled up to this ancient Bushmen village three years ago, they found the steel drums that held the community's precious reserves. Then, said villagers, the men tipped the drums over, spilling the water into the sand. Mongwegi Thabogwelo, a lean, hard-working woman who appeared to be in her forties, recalls their cruel words that day: " 'It's the water,' they said, 'that is keeping you from relocating.' " The forced removal of the Bushmen was the culmination of what the Botswana government said was years of effort to bring development to southern Africa's most traditional people. The Bushmen have resisted at every turn, defying hunting restrictions, refusing to abandon their villages and battling the government in a court challenge they hope will reverse policies that, they say, have pushed them to the edge of extinction. At the center of the court case has been testimony about the destruction of such villages as Malapo, which proceeded with an efficiency the Bushmen found terrifying. The men from the government dismantled dozens of huts made of branches and brush, villagers said. Then they ordered the Bushmen -- descendants of people who have survived the harsh conditions of the Kalahari for tens of thousands of years -- to board the trucks for an arduous, six-hour drive to the government camp that was to be their new home. It was a patch of scrubby land far from their traditional sources of game and water-rich plants and, worse still, far from their ancestors' graves, which encircle Malapo. The displeasure of the ancestors, who Bushmen believe provide guidance and protection, was soon apparent, said Thabogwelo. " 'You have lost us,' " her great-grandparents told her in recurrent dreams, she said. " 'Why are you not next to us?' " The Bushmen once roamed most of southern Africa as hunter-gatherers, wearing animal skins and surviving on the abundant wildlife and edible plants throughout the region. But over the past several hundred years, their territory and numbers have been steadily shrinking. First Bantu African farmers moved south; then European settlers expanded north from Cape Town. Both groups historically regarded the Bushmen with disdain, treating them inhumanely and pushing them into ever smaller and less hospitable corners of the region. Slaughters of Bushmen were once common. More recently, assimilation has undermined the Bushmen as a culturally distinct group, with growing numbers in their twenties and thirties choosing to live and work outside the game reserve, where steady supplies of water and other government services are available. By the time the government began its forced relocations with the razing of the village of Xade in 1997, only about 2,000 Bushmen remained in the heart of the Kalahari, in a game reserve larger than Switzerland. The residents of Xade were forced beyond the western border of the reserve into a settlement the government dubbed New Xade. But many Bushmen regard it as a dismal and terrifying place where they are estranged from their ancestors and therefore subject to mysterious diseases and even death. The second sweep came in 2002, when Malapo and other remaining villages were destroyed and inhabitants such as Thabogwelo were trucked to New Xade. Many had never been on a truck and had no idea where they were being taken. "We were really scared that we were going to die that day," Gabolowe Rathotato, a thin, animated woman of about 70, said in a recent interview. "We were not even given a chance to think if we wanted to move or not. It was really painful." The Bushmen say they remain puzzled by the relocations, though many suspect that the government wants easy access to the rich veins of diamonds in the eastern portion of the game reserve. Officials counter that while mining the diamonds in the reserve is not commercially viable, protecting the game there is a national priority. Sydney Pilane, the government's lead attorney in the case, said that as the Bushmen gradually moved into permanent villages, they began keeping domesticated animals, growing crops and hunting the reserve's plentiful game with guns. Left unchecked, he said, they would have transformed the pristine wildlife reserve into a series of villages and towns. He also said that most Bushmen preferred to live outside the reserve and that the government was eager to provide them with the services found in most of Botswana, one of Africa's most prosperous and stable nations, with 1.6 million people. There are an estimated 48,000 Bushmen in Botswana and twice that many in southern Africa overall, though few still live in traditional villages such as Malapo. Bushmen elders trace their problems to the 1980s, when the government began sharply limiting hunting, which not only deprived villagers of a source of protein but also undercut the rituals crucial to each boy's passage to manhood. Young Bushmen were required to go to government schools outside the game reserve, where they were taught in English and Setswana rather than their native tongues. During those years, the government began providing regular deliveries of water to Bushmen. Though they were grateful for the help, the deliveries undermined centuries of knowledge about how to survive by extracting moisture from melons, berries or fibrous roots from among the hundreds of plants Bushmen traditionally learn to recognize. "If they did not bring us the water, we would not be used to it," said the Malapo village chief, Molathwe Mokalaka, who appeared to be in his seventies and is the father-in-law of Thabogwelo. The water deliveries ended the day of the relocations in 2002. And hunting restrictions turned into outright prohibitions, even for such small game as rabbits. Bushmen acknowledge occasionally breaking the law in their quest for food despite penalties that can include prison. New Xade, meanwhile, has grown from a relocation camp into a town, complete with a school, a medical clinic and a popular bar. There are also communal water taps and modest government payments to the old and indigent. But residents complain that they do not know which local plants are safe to eat and that there are few jobs. Many Bushmen have fallen into alcoholism, idleness and despair. Others such as Thabogwelo have returned home. In those first painful days after the relocation, she and her husband decided they would make the journey as soon as possible, they recalled in recent interviews. They pooled the family's life savings to buy a used Toyota truck, then they traveled the 120 miles home to Malapo, driving gingerly on the soft and shifting sand tracks. Others traveled by foot or donkey. When Thabogwelo first saw Malapo again after six months in New Xade, she said it was like being freed from jail. "It was just like I was in the darkness and the light opened up on me," she recalled. She now spends her days collecting roots with other villagers and cooking. She slices large green melons into wedges that, over a fire, release a sweet juice into a cast-iron pot. And as often as she can, Thabogwelo visits the graves of her ancestors. "I have come back," she has told her great-grandparents at their unmarked gravesites. "You have to forgive me." But most Kalahari Bushmen have been unwilling to return, at least not with the court case unresolved. Despite the complaints about New Xade, it exerts a persistent pull on the Bushmen because of its ready supply of water, government handouts and other services. By most estimates, there are 10 times as many Bushmen living in New Xade as inside the game reserve. The imbalance is most pronounced among younger Bushmen, from schoolchildren through adults in their twenties and thirties. Even Thabogwelo's only child, a 6-year-old son, is attending the government school in New Xade. But Thabogwelo has no plans to move back, even if the government wins the court case, even if the men come again with their trucks. "I will sit down here," she said. "If they want to shoot me, they can shoot me."

Burundi

BBC 15 June 2005 'Forced' return of Hutus slammed Burundian and Rwandan officials tried to persuade the Hutus to return The United Nations and the United States have strongly condemned the "forced" repatriation of several thousand Rwandan Hutus from Burundi. UN chief Kofi Annan said sending the asylum-seekers back home against their will was against international laws. The Hutus have fled into Burundi since April saying they face persecution by village courts over the 1994 genocide. Burundi says the camp where they were staying was now empty but said the Hutus had left "voluntarily". At a meeting over the weekend, Rwanda and Burundi declared that the Rwandans were "illegal immigrants" and not refugees. Legality But the UN refugee agency disputes this. "Therefore UNHCR cannot consider their return as voluntary and hence it constitutes a violation of the principle of non-refoulement [forced repatriation] enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention," UNHCR chief spokesman Ron Redmond told the Reuters news agency. "The United States deplores the involuntary return of 10,000 Rwandan asylum-seekers from Burundi, which is in violation of both the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and the 1969 Organization of African Union Convention on Refugees to which Rwanda and Burundi are parties," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "Nothing justifies the presence of these people in Burundi. Rwanda is at peace and there is no persecution," said Burundian Interior Minister Jean Marie Ngendahayo. The Gacaca courts have recently begun trying suspected killers from Rwanda's 1994 Hutu-led genocide that killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Some 12,000 courts are operating based on traditional systems of justice, in which the victims confront their alleged attackers in front of other villagers. "All the Hutus are guilty to them," a 45-year-old man in the camp had said shortly after arriving in Burundi.

Côte d'Ivoire

BBC 1 June 2005 Scores killed in Ivory Coast west Duekoue has been tense for several months At least 41 people are dead and many other wounded after renewed fighting in western Ivory Coast, the army says. The fighting took place near Duekoue, in a cocoa-producing region near the Liberian border. Local officials and witnesses spoke of shootings and stabbings, and said homes had been set on fire. Last month, at least 25 people died in ethnic clashes in the area. Ivory Coast has been in crisis since rebels launched an insurgency in 2002. Thousands of peacekeepers have been patrolling a buffer zone between the rebel-held north and the government-controlled south, under an agreement to try to end the civil war. Burnt alive The BBC's James Copnall in Abidjan says the west of the country is the region which most threatens the peace process. An Ivorian army spokesman told the BBC that at least 11 of the dead had been burnt alive. A Duekoue resident said he had seen as many as 100 wounded people at the town's hospital. Many people have taken refuge in a Catholic mission in the town. Duekoue is situated just to the south of the so-called confidence zone - a UN-patrolled zone between the army and the former rebels known as the New Forces. The west is also home to several militias who support President Laurent Gbagbo and describe themselves as self-defence units. Last week they agreed to disarm but the process has stalled. More than 10,00 French and UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast are charged with maintaining a fragile peace.

Reuters 2 June 2005 Witnesses describe Ivory Coast massacre GUITROZON, Ivory Coast (Reuters) -- Charred corpses, including children, lay in a village in western Ivory Coast after attackers with machetes and guns went on a killing spree on Wednesday. In one burned-out hut were the bodies of three children and four adults with machete cuts to the head. Nearby, a woman who villagers said had given birth the day before the overnight attack had been hacked to death with her newborn baby. A little girl in a pale blue dress lay outside a house, her throat slit. The body of her father was a few feet away. At least 41 people were killed in the attack on Guitrozon, on the outskirts of Duekoue town. The raid inflamed ethnic tensions, sent thousands fleeing and threatened to derail efforts to end a simmering civil war in the West African nation. The stench of rotting corpses drifted across the misty morning air on Thursday. There was no sign of life in the village after most of its 3,000 inhabitants fled. The few residents who stayed behind blamed the raid on traditional hunters from the north of Ivory Coast, which has been split in two since war erupted in 2002. They said the attackers wore brown hunting clothes. "There were many of them, 200 or 300 people. I don't know for sure. They opened fire and set the huts ablaze. They killed people with machetes and guns," said Justin Ghoni Bonain, 23. "We tried to escape. My mother was killed as she was trying to run towards the house," he said. The hunters, known as Dozos, are regarded by supporters of the government, which controls the south of the country, as sympathetic to rebels holding the northern half. Those killed in Wednesday's attack were from the Guere local tribe, seen as generally close to President Laurent Gbagbo. Residents said on Thursday that between six and 11 people from the rival Dioula ethnic group of northern Ivorians had been killed overnight during revenge attacks in Duekoue. Hundreds of people -- men pushing bicycles or hefting hastily packed suitcases and barefoot children balancing bundles of clothes on their heads -- thronged the roads out of Duekoue on Thursday, desperate to get away before nightfall. The civil war was declared over in 2003, but fighting has flared since and tribal violence, often rooted in land disputes, has continued in the west despite the presence of peacekeepers. There are 10,000 French and United Nations troops in the country under a U.N. mandate which allows them to intervene to protect civilians. They patrol a no-weapons buffer zone that roughly cuts the country in half, separating the civil war foes. One villager said rumors of a rebel attack on Guitrozon, which is in the government-held south, had swirled for days and a local Dozo chief had warned of reprisals after accusing people in the village of being responsible for an attack on his kin. "It was the Dozo, we saw their chief," said Sylvain Goulehi, a 39-year-old farmer. "It's the government zone here and we can see the (U.N.) blue helmets, we don't understand how we can be attacked like this," he said.

DR Congo see Australia

BBC 3 June 2005 DR Congo militia kill peacekeeper Ishbel Matheson BBC News UN peacekeepers are struggling to keep a lid on the violence in the east A United Nations soldier who came under fire in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has died of his injuries. The UN mission was attacked on Thursday in Ituri, an area renowned for its lawlessness and violence. Meanwhile, two employees from the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres have been kidnapped by armed men in Ituri. Despite attempts to disarm Ituri's various militia, the region remains awash with weapons; some 50,000 people have died in clashes since 1999. Anarchy prevails The UN peacekeepers had been accompanying a human rights investigation team to the village of Lugo in the north of Ituri. The wild east The team was following up allegations of the mass rape of local women by militiamen in March. As the mission prepared to leave the village the helicopters they were travelling in came under heavy fire. Four UN peacekeepers were injured, one Nepalese soldier later died of his injuries. The UN has more than 15,000 peacekeepers in the country, but has struggled to keep a lid on violence in the east where anarchy prevails and has cost the lives of tens of thousands of Congolese civilians. Aid workers are also at risk. On Thursday, two MSF employees were kidnapped on their way to a camp for displaced people. According to eyewitnesses, their car was stopped by armed men. The French aid worker and Congolese driver were taken out of the vehicle and led into the bush. MSF is demanding their immediate and unconditional release.

Liberia see Nigeria

NYT editorial 9 June 2005 Prosecuting Charles Taylor Charles Taylor has done for West Africa what Slobodan Milosevic did for the former Yugoslavia. Yet while Mr. Milosevic is on trial in The Hague on charges including genocide, Mr. Taylor, Liberia's former president, is enjoying the lush life in a Nigerian government guesthouse. When Mr. Taylor was under siege by rebel forces in 2003, the United States, Britain and Nigeria arranged for him to get asylum in Nigeria, figuring that his quick exile would cut down on the bloodshed. So Nigeria gave Mr. Taylor a safe harbor on the condition that he stop behaving as West Africa's warlord in chief. It was not a perfect solution. The Nigerians interpreted the deal as preventing them from turning Mr. Taylor over to a United Nations-backed war crimes court, where Mr. Taylor is wanted on 17 counts of crimes against humanity. A new report by the Coalition for International Justice, however, supports the argument that Mr. Taylor can be prosecuted because his crimes are continuing. He is using cellphones, computers and the visits of his many lieutenants to destabilize Liberia, influence the coming elections there and build a regional army. He is even accused of attempting to assassinate the president of Guinea. Nigeria now must do what American troops should have done in 2003: turn him over to the Special Court. African leaders, mindful that their hands are less than clean, are nervous about turning over a former fellow president to a serious tribunal. The United States had also not pushed Nigeria until recently. Late last month, Washington endorsed surrendering Mr. Taylor, based on the new information that he is still an active threat. Washington has spent some $800 million on the Special Court and on attempts to rebuild Liberia. Neither effort will fully succeed until Charles Taylor is behind bars.

Namibia

New Era (Windhoek) 6 June 2005 Genocide Centenary Captured in Picture By Wezi Tjaronda PEOPLE who did not attend the historic centenary commemoration of the war between Hereros and German colonial forces at the Okakarara Community and Tourism Centre near Ohamakari can relive the moment through a picturesque exhibition that was opened last week. The hall was opened last Friday, together with the exhibition hall that forms part of the Okakarara Community Cultural and Tourism Centre. More than 5 000 people flocked to the centre last year on August 16, 2004 to commemorate the decisive battle of Ohamakari. It was at this event that German Minister of Economic Cooperation, Heide-marie Wieckzoreck Zeul offered a public apology on behalf of her government to Namibians over the atrocities that were committed by her country's then colonial forces. As German Ambassador to Namibia Dr Wolfgang Massing put it, "We witnessed a picturesque audience with participants of all ages, groups of women in colourful traditional dresses, men in uniforms, reminiscent of those of the colonial war, children's groups, horsemen, brass bands. "All in all, the scene presented an impressive mixture of painful history, proud resistance and the cultural assertion of the Herero community." The exhibition captures in pictures, different activities that were held in the run up to the commemoration and the activities of the commemoration itself. It however lacks images of one hundred years ago, which Minister without Portfolio Ngarikutuke Tjiriange said could have made the history complete. The exhibition has pictures from the night vigil at Oruua-no church in Katutura, the arrival of dignitaries at the commemoration, troops on horseback, Hereros in chains, income-generating activities at the commemoration, troops on parade, laying of wreaths and the opening of the centre. It also displays different construction works done on the centre, remains of the first initiative to build a community centre, and a memorial site at the community centre, among others. "I really wish that the exhibition hall will be well utilised and thus also enhance the attraction of the centre as a meeting point not only for the local community but also between various communities of Namibia, and last but not least between Namibians and Germans," said Massing.

Rwanda

www.internews.org 31 May 2005 Newsreels Help Rwandans Confront Genocide and its Aftermath Internews Rwanda Rwandans looking in through the windows at an Internews screening in Kibungo. (May 31, 2005) "Justice in Rwanda," an Internews project that has been producing and showing newsreel films about the process of justice for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, has improved Rwandans' understanding of what happened and how the perpetrators are being tried, according to a recent report. The report, produced by the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and funded by the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda, found, "The qualitative research with officials who have worked with Internews and with prisoners and other people who have watched the newsreels is extremely positive . . . People told us that the films helped them to understand that the genocide actually happened and that it happened throughout the country." Internews' documentary newsreels cover the three-part justice system for the Rwandan genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed. This system includes the United Nations International War Crimes Tribunal, the national courts and the community-based system called gacaca. By touring the country and organizing free showings in villages and prisons around the country, Internews has shown these documentaries to more than 200,000 Rwandans over the last four years, including over 80,000 prisoners accused of war crimes. The ICTJ report said, "People said that they had never had an opportunity to see the actual functioning of the courts and that seeing that the important officials in the former government were on trial had a big impact on them. Some people also cited examples of how the films helped to deal with community problems." The vice mayor for social affairs in Karaba, Gikongoro told ICTJ, “I can say that the population is happy to have watched the film and that it helps them get ready for gacaca . . . . The population is ready to tell the truth and to speak. Your film helped to affirm that the genocide happened in Rwandan and that everyone was there.” An employee of a survivors’ organization said, “The films encourage people to discuss how they can contribute to unity and reconciliation.” Internews produces an average of one newsreel per month, which consists of three news segments of ten to fifteen minutes each. Each story deals with a different topic related to justice and reconciliation in Rwanda, such as the progress of the gacaca process, the facts related to one of the accused at the ICTR, debate over the death penalty in Rwanda, and relations between survivors and released prisoners. These films are screened for national leaders in Kigali and in public screenings in rural areas throughout the country and in all of the country’s prisons. Screenings are followed by open discussions led by an Internews moderator, often with participation by local and regional officials. In addition to the screenings, copies of the films in Kinyarwanda and English are widely distributed to government officials, non-governmental organizations, Rwandan and international judicial officials, and the international community. Showing the newsreels in prisons is especially important as prisoners lack regular access to news. The films help prisoners understand their situation and their legal rights, as well as the ramifications of their actions. One prisoner in Gikongoro said, “There were things [in the film] that reminded me of what happened in 1994. That made me ashamed, and I don’t want this to repeat itself ever again.” In one case in Rushaki, Byumba, showing the newsreel helped to defuse a conflict that was brewing among secondary school students. Rushaki is in a region that was controlled by the Rwandan Patriotic Front and therefore did not experience the genocide. According to the vice-mayor for youth, there were conflicts among students in the school between those who were paying their own way, those who had scholarships as genocide survivors, and those who had scholarships because they had been refugees. Those who paid their own way criticized those who were on scholarship. “The survivors said, but your parents killed ours. People in our district didn’t know enough about the genocide. When they saw this film, they said, “What has been said on the radio is true.” They saw people who had admitted that they had done wrong and confessed. This is why the mayor decided to show the film here. That helped to diminish the conflict. The students were able to talk about what really happened.” The newsreels can be viewed on the Internews Rwanda web site. The project has been funded by grants to Internews Europe and Internews Network from, the European Union, The Royal Embassy of the Netherlands, the US Agency for International Development, and the Samuel Rubin Foundation. This project, which began showing newsreels to Rwandans in 2001, will be closed down at the end of July 2005 when funding runs out. From 1998 to 2002, Internews supplied the only regular English-language print news coverage of the International Criminal Tribunal in Arusha, distributing stories to international media on the political complexities and often precedent-setting legal decisions of this unusual institution. FOR MORE INFORMATION: Angela Nicoara, Internews Rwanda Country Director

www.aegistrust.org 10 June 2005 Bashir in Rwanda: genocidal dictator commemorates genocide 10 June 05 Sudanese Dictator Omar Bashir visited the Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda, Friday 3 June, during an African economic summit being held in the capital. He was accompanied by Mustafa Osman Ismail, his Foreign Minister, together with other officials. Bashir, whose government is presiding over an ongoing genocide against black Africans in Darfur that credible independent estimates indicate has already claimed the lives of 200,000 – 400,000 people, viewed a memorial to the hundreds of thousands of children killed in the 1994 genocide, and laid a wreath on mass graves containing the remains of 250,000 victims of the genocide killed in Kigali alone. “We followed closely the painful events of 1994,” he stated during his visit. “We are very glad to see that the Rwandan people have overcome this tragedy. We hope that in the future the Rwandan people will reconcile and live in peace and stability.” In conjunction with Kigali City Council, the Kigali Memorial Centre was established by genocide prevention agency the Aegis Trust. Aegis is also responsible for the Protect Darfur Campaign, launched at the House of Commons in London just over two months ago. “We often express our hope that the Kigali Memorial Centre will serve not only as a reminder of Rwanda’s tragedy but also as a lesson for the future,” says Centre Director and Aegis Chief Executive Dr James Smith. “Bashir and Ismail seem to have learned another lesson from Rwanda: that states have the sovereign right to commit genocide, and that the members of the UN Security Council will merely observe the destruction. “The AU monitoring force is doing sterling work, and it is no coincidence that Rwanda’s current government was quick to send its soldiers. They understand more than anyone about the need to protect in these situations. However, the AU force lacks the authority and resources to protect Darfur’s African population effectively. For that it needs a peace enforcement mandate, which the UN could provide. Only when the Janjaweed militia is neutralized will people be safe. By its ongoing failure to protect Darfur, the international community, in particular the members of the UN Security Council, show they are not yet serious about prevention."

Somalia

BBC 13 June, 2005 Somalia's president returns home President Yusuf fears for his life in Mogadishu The new Somali president has returned home from exile in Kenya, hoping to set up the lawless country's first effective authority for 14 years. The move has been delayed for nine months amid concerns over security in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Some have called for UN peacekeepers to be deployed in Somalia to stop armed militias disrupting the transition. President Abdullahi Yusuf arrived in Jowhar in central Somalia where he was welcomed by hundreds of locals. Kenya's president hosted a farewell party, though a deep rift remains over where the government will be based. Secrecy Because of security concerns, officials said until the last minute that Somali was first flying to Qatar and not going directly to Somalia. He left in a small plane accompanied by half a dozen advisors. BBC East Africa correspondent Ishbel Matheson says the secrecy surrounding Mr Yusuf's travel plans highlights the problems faced by the new government. Jowhar is one of the towns where he wants to base the government, because he fears his life may be under threat in Mogadishu, where he does not have a strong support base. Mr Yusuf also wants the government to be based in Baidoa but the town is controlled by a warlord who does not support the idea. Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi and other ministers remained in Kenya. Failed The speaker of parliament and some 100 MPs, including the warlords who control most of the capital, insist that the government must set up in Mogadishu. Let us be brave and go home President Abdullahi Yusuf Because of the deep splits, some analysts are already saying that this peace process, like 14 others before it, has failed. Last week, warlords began a process of dismantling roadblocks run by their gunmen in Mogadishu to help to make the city safer. Earlier this year, a bomb blast went off in the city at a rally being addressed by Mr Ghedi. "Let us be brave and go home," transitional President Yusuf told Somali lawmakers on Sunday, before announcing a two-month break for MPs. The speaker immediately said that this recess was unconstitutional. 'Pleased' Many ministers and MPs are going first to their home regions or abroad, officials say. Facts and figures about life in Somalia At-a-glance After hosting Somali peace talks since 2002, Kenya was keen for the MPs to return home. "I am pleased to note that the transitional federal president of the republic of Somalia and his government... have finalised plans to relocate and are now ready to go back home," Kenyan minister John Koech told the Associated Press. A spokesman for Mr Yusuf said some government departments would initially be distributed around all three towns, AP reports. After 14 years of anarchy, nearly all government buildings have to be rebuilt - many are occupied by refugees who have fled fighting around the country. The UN should lift an arms embargo on Somalia to allow the deployment of African peacekeepers, East African development group IGAD has said. Concerns remain over militia groups who still roam Mogadishu The African Union has promised to send peacekeepers to Somalia - however only when it is safe to do so. Mogadishu's warlords and some Islamic groups do not want any foreign troops to be deployed. Meanwhile, some 7,000 Somali refugees have entered Kenya since last week following fighting in Bur Hache town, close to the border. Reports say more than 20 people have been killed in clashes between the rival Marehan and Garre clans for control of the town.

South Africa

PolitInfo.com 1 June 2005 Mbeki Defends South Africa's Darfur Stand Jun 1, 2005 Washington South African President Thabo Mbeki today defended his government's hesitation to define the conflict in the Sudan's Darfur region as genocide, saying to do so would jeopardize his nation's ability to help promote a permanent settlement there. Speaking to a small group of journalists, Mbeki said the U.S. was able to label the Darfur tragedy genocide because its role in finding a solution is different than South Africa's. "We have to work with the Sudanese government so that it becomes part of the solution," Mbeki said. "We have to work with the rebel movements in Darfur so that they become party to the solution...so that the outcome we get is a stable political settlement. "In the end if you denounce the government of Sudan as genocidal, what next? Then don't you have to arrest the president? We are looking for the solution, and it does not lie in making radical statements, not for us as Africans." Mbeki noted that talks between the Sudanese government and rebel movements will resume in Nigeria, and he said he hopes those negotiations will provide a political settlement for Darfur. Regarding his visit with President Bush, Mbeki said he was looking for indications of which African issues might arise at the upcoming G-8 Summit in Scotland. He quoted Bush as agreeing that G-8 leaders should press for strategies that will spur real development in Africa. When asked about the situation in Zimbabwe, Mbeki urged the ruling party and the opposition to focus on solving constitutional issues so that an electoral system includes an independent electoral commission. This article uses material from VOA.

Sudan

www.csrwire.com 1 June 2005 SRI News from SocialFunds.com Students and States Seek to End Genocide in Sudan Through Divestment Campaigns by William Baue Students urge Stanford University to follow in the footsteps of Harvard University by divesting, and urge California senators to pass legislation like Illinois did. (SocialFunds.com) - "I found a man groaning under a tree. He had been shot in the neck and jaw and left for dead in a pile of corpses," wrote Johann Hari in a November 2004 article entitled "How Some of the World's Biggest Corporations are Fuelling the Genocide in Darfur." "And under the tree next to that was a woman whose husband had been killed, along with her seven- and four-year old sons, before she was gang-raped and mutilated." Such testimonials prove convincing in campaigns to divest from companies doing business that supports the genocide of black Sudanese carried out by the Islamic Janjaweed (which means "devils on horses") with the help of the Sudanese government. This quotation leads a report submitted by Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) asking the Stanford University Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility (APIR) to review investment in four companies. The panel, which is charged with gauging the university community's opinions on social and environmental issues as they pertain to investment, voted last week to recommend divestment from ABB (ticker: ABB), PetroChina (PTR), Sinopec (SNP), and Tatneft (TNT). "The panel's role is totally advisory--it's the eyes and ears of the campus--but the locus of the decision resides with the Board of Directors Subcommittee on Investment Responsibility, which makes its own recommendation to the full Board," APIR Chair and Finance Professor George Parker told SocialFunds.com. The Board is expected to address this recommendation when it meets on June 8. STAND confirmed that Stanford's $12 billion endowment holds at least $1 million in PetroChina, a subsidiary of the Chinese National Petroleum Company (CPNC) that is owned by the People's Republic of China. The STAND report cites Human Rights Watch research that China and Sudan engage in "guns for oil" exchanges that fuel the genocide, as Sudanese military typically bomb villages before Janjaweed militia on the ground rape and murder surviving villagers. "According to Sudan's former Transportation Minister Lam Akol, 80 percent of these oil revenues are used to buy weapons," said Ben Elberger, a Stanford junior majoring in public policy who co-authored the report with Seth Silverman, a Stanford freshman. "These weapons have, in turn, been documented as being used against Darfurian civilians." "These companies know that they are fueling a genocidal regime, but have done nothing to pressure this regime," Mr. Elberger told SocialFunds.com. In early April, Harvard University divested its 67,200 shares (worth $4.4 million of its $23 billion endowment) of PetroChina on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), though the university may hold more on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (SEHK). "Harvard's decision, which followed months of patient student activism, got the divestment ball rolling, and offers an inspiring example of the role that universities can play in the fight against terrorism," said Cassidy DeLine, a Stanford freshman and STAND's public relations director. "However, even Harvard's actions are incomplete: PetroChina is just one corporation that is profiting from and promulgating genocide in Darfur." Just yesterday, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich applauded the General Assembly for passing Senate Bill 23 to make it the first state to prohibit investing in foreign companies doing business with Sudan. "Illinois's decision to divest proves the role that states can play in stopping genocide," Ms. DeLine told SocialFunds.com. "It shows an alternative to passive inertia, and helps to build momentum--both Harvard and Illinois's decisions are commendable and hopfully will be echoed across the country." STAND members spent yesterday lobbying all 40 California senators to support Assembly Concurrent Resolution #11. ACR11 urges the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) to encourage their portfolio companies doing business in Sudan "to act responsibly and not take actions that promote or otherwise enable human rights violations in the Sudan." At its May 16 meeting, the CalPERS board found no reason to oppose the resolution and issued a neutral recommendation on it. On May 18, the resolution received a supporting vote of 64 to 7 on the Assembly Floor, sending it to the Senate. As with the report to Stanford's APIR, which narrowed its focus on four specific foreign companies and documented their connections to the genocide, STAND members focused their advocacy with California Senators on a limited number of companies as well. In addition to the abovementioned four, STAND has identified three other companies with links to the Sudanese government: Lundin Petroleum (LNDNF.PK), Total SA (TOT), and Marathon Oil (MRO). "In many cases, we got the sense that California senators wanted to take a stand, but didn't really know what to do at the state level," said Ms. DeLine. "Instead of pushing for broad divestment, we targeted specific companies that we have found directly bankroll the military and weaponry, making divestment more feasible and efficient." CalPERS has surveyed the 1,800 portfolio companies in its $186 billion pension fund and found only a handful with indirect investments in Sudan, according to a Reuters report. STAND is recommending that the state and its pension funds go further than ACR11 by actually divesting from companies operating in Sudan that do not cease propping up a regime that assists in the genocide of its own people. "With the biggest public pension fund in the nation, California has significant political legs, and hence responsibility," added Ms. DeLine. However, since both ACR11 and the APIR's recommendation are non-binding, it remains to be seen whether CalPERS and Stanford ultimately divest from the companies in question, and whether divestment can help effect the end of genocide in Sudan.

FT.com 25 May 2005 Sudan will pay high price for 'peace' By Gerard Prunier, Financial Times May 25, 2005 -- In Soba Aradi, just south of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, land has become quite valuable for residential housing. At dawn on May 18, police cordoned off the squatter area and tried to remove 26,000 internally displaced refugees living in miserable shelters. The people fought back with sticks and knives and grabbed some police weapons. At 9.40am, the police opened fire, killing at least 20 people. This was not a chance happening. Graft and violence have long marked the Sudanese government's political attitude and its signing of a so-called "comprehensive peace agreement" in January in Nairobi with a carefully chosen segment of the political opposition has not changed much. The agreement was the result of sustained US arm-twisting and vigorous lobbying by the Bush administration's fundamentalist Christian constituency. It has worked in terms of cowing the US Congress into shelving or reducing its proposed anti-Khartoum legislation. This new mood of clemency towards a regime that sheltered Osama bin Laden - thereby boosting his campaign of global terrorism - appears to stem from the view that "peace" in southern Sudan meant stopping the killing of Christian black Africans. Despite the violence now engulfing people of various ethnic origins there - who are mostly Muslims - this impression of "progress" helped attract foreign aid pledges amounting to $4.5bn (€3.5bn) in Oslo last month. Today, Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, is in Addis Ababa to co-chair with the African Union Commission president a donors' meeting on Sudan's "other civil war", in the western region of Darfur. This move totally separates the Darfur crisis from problems in southern Sudan and the stalled implementation phase of the peace agreement. The record of the agreement's signatories, particularly of Khartoum, shows that virtually none of its provisions, constitutional, civil or military, have been implemented. The constitutional committee that should be in full swing has only just started discussions, military disengagement measures have not been implemented and selection of the new integrated administration has not even begun. The government insists these steps will soon be carried out, but nearly five months into the agreement's six-month "pre-interim" period, time is running out. John Garang, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army and its political wing, has not yet set foot in the Sudanese capital, where he is supposed to assume the position of vice-president. People are being assured he will come in July. But Khartoum has also been talking with its southern militia allies who fought Colonel Garang's rebel forces and, given the rampant violence in the capital, the opposition leader may be understandably concerned for his safety. Other signs of newfound "peace" are hardly encouraging. Demonstrations, for example, seem unacceptable: 30 people were killed and 40 wounded when they tried to march in Port Sudan in January. In April, the Sudanese government closed down the offices of the Umma party, northern Sudan's largest Muslim opposition party, after it publicly supported UN Resolution 1593, which calls for international judgment of the perpetrators of mass killings in Darfur. The message was that, under the Khartoum regime, support for a UN resolution on war crimes is a crime in itself. All the while, violence and starvation continue unabated in Darfur. A recent UN report warned that "militia attacks" intensified there last month, and it is now accepted that the Janjaweed, the most notorious militia group, acts largely at the government's bidding. The UN recently admitted fatality figures of unprecedented magnitude in the Darfur region, bringing the recognised death toll since February 2003 to at least 300,000 and perhaps as much as 400,000. Meanwhile, despite promises to the contrary, Khartoum has done nothing to rein in its violent proxies. So in Addis Ababa, Mr Annan will have to display a selective blindness in order to save the peace agreement signed after so much effort. The bloodshed in Darfur should not interfere with disbursing $4.5bn of "conscience money" to aid efforts in the south. Brussels, New York and Washington appear ready to pay that price. But the Sudanese public has not been asked its opinion; the implicit message is to keep suffering in silence while the rest of the world decides its future. The writer, a senior researcher with Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, is author of the forthcoming Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide (Hurst & Co)

HRW 2 June 2005 U.N.: Sanctions for Darfur Stalled in Committee Security Council Committee Should Appoint Sanctions Team (New York, June 2, 2005) — Two months after resolving to impose sanctions for Darfur, U.N. Security Council members have failed to expedite the appointment of a sanctions panel to identify individuals responsible for violence in the western Sudanese region, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 29, the U.N. Security Council authorized sanctions on individuals responsible for violating international law in Darfur; the penalties include asset freezes and travel restrictions. Under Resolution 1591, the U.N. secretary-general must appoint a panel of experts in consultation with a committee made up of all the members of the Security Council, all within 30 days from the date the resolution was passed. Two months after the resolution, the matter remains pending in the Security Council committee, and no one has been appointed to the panel of experts. Human Rights Watch urged the fifteen-member committee to take immediate steps toward appointing the panel of experts. The entire Security Council should ensure that the panel receives the cooperation of the Sudanese government. “U.N. sanctions on those responsible for the violence in Darfur would have some teeth if implemented,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “But after two months of foot-dragging, Security Council members still haven’t taken steps toward appointing a sanctions panel.” Identifying wrongdoers in Darfur and subjecting them to penalties is key to ending abuses, Human Rights Watch said. The Security Council resolution bars all non-state actors, including the rebel movements, from bringing arms into Darfur. In addition, it requires the Sudanese government to ask the U.N. panel for permission to ship any military equipment or supplies into the three states that comprise Darfur. “Once the sanctions panel is appointed, the Security Council will need to maintain pressure on Sudan to provide the team with immediate access and full cooperation,” said Takirambudde. During his trip to Darfur on May 28, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan visited burned-out villages and camps for the displaced, many of whom told him about how they still suffer from a lack of security in Darfur. “Kofi Annan has made his second visit to Darfur. Why is the Security Council committee lagging behind in its work?” asked Takirambudde. “The committee needs to ensure that those responsible for atrocities and arms flows in Darfur are identified and sanctioned.” Human Rights Watch called on the U.N. Security Council members of the committee to: Immediately establish a panel of experts pursuant to Resolution 1591; and Extend the mandate of the panel by as many months as necessary to compensate for delays in its establishment and access to Sudan..

Reuters 2 June 2005 WFP says 3.5 million people now hungry in Darfur GENEVA, June 2 (Reuters) - The World Food Programme (WFP) is seeking more funds for Sudan's troubled Darfur region, where the number of people who need food has jumped to 3.5 million -- more than half of the population, it said on Thursday. WFP, the U.N.'s international food aid organisation, will seek an additional $96 million for Darfur, bringing its budget to $563 million for the year, according to Holdbrook Arthur, regional director for East and Central Africa. "We are talking about 3.5 million including the local population who have lost or are dramatically losing their livelihood because of insecurity," Arthur told a briefing in Geneva. "A lot of people are going hungry." Arthur said the appeal was currently being finalised and would be issued next week. WFP has progressively raised its forecast from 2.8 million people in need of food at the start of the year as the conflict dragged on between rebels who took up arms against Sudan's Arab-dominated government in 2003. Fighting has stopped farmers from planting crops and women are scared to leave their villages for food or firewood because of fears of attacks, it said. Most people fed by the WFP stay in camps for the displaced. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) separately said it was increasing the number of Darfuris it is feeding outside the camps to 320,000 from 250,000.

Reuters 2 June 2005 Gaddafi opposes any foreign intervention in Darfur 02 Jun 2005 19:18:21 GMT Source: Reuters OUAGADOUGOU, June 2 (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Thursday any intervention in Sudan's Darfur region from outside Africa would exacerbate the crisis, adding that the continent was capable of dealing with its own problems. "We are against any foreign intervention in Darfur because that would do nothing but pour oil on the fire," Gaddafi said after a summit of heads of state from West and North Africa in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou. "There are threats of intervention from outside which raise the chances of civil war in our region. We should be firmly opposed to all these foreign interventions ... which aim to resolve our problems as if we weren't grown up," he said. U.S. President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he was concerned about genocide in Darfur, where U.N. officials say some 180,000 people have died, but stopped short of offering military support beyond the aid Washington already provides. The Bush administration is giving logistical help through NATO to African Union troops but has been criticised for not doing enough to end the atrocities in Darfur, where an estimated 2 million people have been forced from their homes by fighting. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick is this week making his second trip in a month to Darfur, where conflict broke out in February 2003 after rebels took up arms against Sudan's Arab-dominated government. "Those who want to do so should help us but those who want to humiliate us, to attack us, we say to them that we will cut off any warlike hand that is extended to us," Gaddafi said.

NYT 3 Nov 2005 Darfur's Real Problem Friday, June 3, 2005; Page A22 SUDAN MAY be extremely poor, but its spin doctors are sophisticated. The suffering in Darfur is terrible, they say, but don't blame the government. The violence is a function of generalized anarchy, which is a function of underdevelopment, which is a function of the West's failure to help: To chastise Sudan's impoverished rulers is therefore hypocritical. Rather than urging punitive sanctions, outsiders such as The Post should urge engagement and assistance. So how do the spin doctors explain this week's news? On Monday Sudan's government showed its real feelings about Western help by bringing charges against the Sudan director of Doctors Without Borders, an intrepid medical charity that runs clinics in Darfur. The next day it detained the charity's Darfur coordinator. Over the past six months, the government has arrested or threatened more than 20 foreign aid workers in Darfur -- not exactly evidence of an appetite for Western engagement. The idea that Darfur's crisis is not really the government's fault has never fit the facts. In response to a rebellion by two local armed groups, Sudan's government attacked civilians with helicopter gunships and armed a local militia to raze villages. Then, far from soliciting international help to deal with the humani- tarian fallout, Sudan's government actually blocked aid groups' access to Darfur. Its policy toward displaced people was to deprive them of food, sanitation and protection: in other words, to kill them. Recently, government troops and their militia allies have engaged in a systematic policy of raping civilians. Doctors Without Borders has been targeted this week because it documented these offenses. The harassment of aid workers poses an immediate risk to Darfur's 2 million or so displaced people, who have been unable to plant food and so remain dependent on Western assistance for the near term. But it also poses a challenge for outsiders. Western diplomacy toward Sudan has oscillated between the pressure that we and others advocate and the engagement that implicitly endorses the government's claim that Darfur's suffering reflects anarchy and poverty. Sometimes the United States has persuaded its allies to threaten to bring U.N. sanctions against Sudan. But at other times outside nations have treated the government as a partner that's constructively bringing the violence under control; they've pledged large amounts of aid to support the tentative North-South peace deal on the theory that this will help solve the Darfur crisis. Sometimes, in other words, the world has treated Sudan's government as though it were the cause of Darfur's suffering. And sometimes it has acted as though it might be the solution. On Wednesday President Bush called the Darfur killings "genocide," a description that implies some moral obligation on the part of the United States to act to stop the killing. But his administration has yet to improve on the schizophrenic pressure-cum-cooperation approach of the past year, in part because it is hemmed in by the world's indifference. China courts Sudan because of its oil. Russia seeks to sell arms to Sudan. Egypt and other Muslim states appear unmoved by the killing of Darfur's Muslim people. The diplomatic challenge for the United States is to persuade these partners to see Sudan's government for what it is: the problem, not the solution.

NYT 7 June 2005 Uncover Your Eyes By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Labado, Sudan Last fall President Bush declared the slaughter here in Darfur to be genocide, and then looked away. One reason for his paralysis is apparently the fear that Darfur may be another black hole of murder and mutilation, a hopeless quagmire to suck in well-meaning Americans - another Somalia or Iraq. It's not. We're again making the same mistake we've made in past genocides: as in the slaughter of Armenians, Jews, Cambodians, Rwandans and Bosnians, we see no perfect solutions, so we end up doing very little. Because we could not change Nazi policies, we did not bother to bomb rail lines leading to death camps; today, because we have little leverage over Sudan, we do not impose a no-fly zone to stop the strafing of civilians or even bother to speak out forcefully. Yet this town of Labado underscores that Darfur is not hopeless, that even the very modest actions that the international community has taken so far have saved vast numbers of lives. A desert town that used to hold about 25,000 people, Labado was attacked in December by the Sudanese military and the militia known as the janjaweed. For several days, the army burned huts, looted shops, killed men and raped women. For months, Labado was completely deserted and appeared destined to become a ghost town. But then African Union forces, soldiers from across Africa who have been dispatched to stop the slaughter, set up a small security outpost of 50 troops here. Almost immediately, refugees began returning to Labado, followed by international aid groups. Today there are perhaps 5,000 people living in the town again, building new thatch roofs over their scorched mud huts. The revival of Labado underscores how little it takes to make a huge difference on the ground. If Western governments help the African Union establish security, if we lean hard on both the government and the rebels to reach a peace agreement, then by the end of this year Darfur might see peace breaking out. For now, Labado is only an oasis, and when the people here step out of the town they risk being murdered or raped by the janjaweed militia. Refugees fleeing to Kalma from a village called Saleya described how nine boys were seized by the janjaweed, stripped naked and tied up, their noses and ears cut off and their eyes gouged out. They were then shot dead and left near a public well. Nearby villagers got the message and fled. Aid workers report that in another village, the janjaweed recently castrated a 10-year-old boy, apparently to terrorize local people and drive them away. The boy survived and is being treated. Yet along with atrocities, there are hopeful signs. While Mr. Bush should do more, he has forthrightly called the killings genocide and heaped aid on Darfur, probably saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Indeed, aid shipments have brought malnutrition rates in much of Darfur below those of other places in Sudan, partly because donor governments have "borrowed" aid from other regions. So children are going hungry in southern and eastern Sudan as a consequence of Darfur. If Mr. Bush led a determined effort to save Darfur, there would be real hope for peace here - plus, the international image of the U.S. would improve. And a new Zogby poll commissioned by the International Crisis Group found that Americans by margins of six to one favor bolder action in Darfur, such as a no-fly zone. But Mr. Bush is covering his eyes. Last year administration figures like Colin Powell and John Danforth led the response to Darfur, but now neither Condoleezza Rice nor the White House seems much interested. Darfur will never be a Somalia or Iraq, because nobody is talking about sending in American combat troops. But simply an ounce of top-level attention to Darfur would go a long way to save lives. In 1999, Madeleine Albright traveled to Sierra Leone and met child amputees there, wrenching the hearts of American television viewers and making that crisis a priority in a way that eventually helped resolve it. Ms. Rice could do the same for Darfur if she would only bother to go. Mr. Bush values a frozen embryo. But he hasn't mustered much compassion for an entire population of terrorized widows and orphans. And he is cementing in place the very hopelessness he dreads, by continuing to avert his eyes from the first genocide of the 21st century.

AP 6 June 2005 War crimes probe into Darfur The U.N. referred to the court allegations of rape, murder and plunder in Darfur. THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- The International Criminal Court has formally announced the start of an investigation into alleged war crimes in Sudan's troubled Darfur region. The government in Khartoum, accused of trying to intimidate international aid workers, indicated Monday it would not cooperate with the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal or allow its citizens to be sent abroad for trial. The U.N. Security Council asked the court to take on the Darfur situation two months ago, in what would be the first case to be investigated against the will of the country where the alleged crimes occurred. The court is investigating war crimes in two other conflicts, in Congo and Uganda. A failure by Khartoum to cooperate with the court could result in economic sanctions, rights groups said. In a formal announcement of the investigation, prosecutors said their work will be "impartial and independent, focusing on the individuals who bear the greatest criminal responsibility for crimes committed in Darfur." Initial inquiries have been made with dozens of experts, resulting in thousands of pages of case material, they said. Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo also appealed to "all partners to provide his office with the information, evidence and practical support needed to carry out his mandate." An estimated 180,000 people have died -- many from hunger and disease -- and about 2 million others have been displaced since the conflict began in February 2003. Darfur's crisis erupted when rebels took up arms against what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudanese of African origin. The government is accused of responding with a counterinsurgency campaign in which the ethnic Arab militia known as the Janjaweed have committed wide-scale abuses against ethnic Africans. A U.N. special International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur concluded in January that crimes against humanity had occurred in Darfur, although the mass killings fell short of a policy of genocide. It recommended that the case go to the fledgling court in The Hague. The commission drew up a list of 51 potential suspects. Though it has not been made public, suspects apparently include Sudanese government officials, anti-government rebels and Janjaweed militiamen. Prosecutors will determine independently which suspects to indict. Sudan has said it intended to set up its own tribunal to prosecute crimes, and the court had no need to intervene. Sudan's ambassador to London, Hasan Abdin, told the British Broadcast Corporation (BBC) his country "will not hand in any Sudanese citizen accused of committing crimes in Sudan to be tried outside of Sudan. We have our law system. We have our own courts and judicial system." But the New York group Human Rights Watch said the courts cannot be trusted to investigate crimes committed by the country's leaders. "The government in Khartoum can be linked to many of the atrocities that have occurred in Darfur. There is a real connection between the Janjaweed attacks and central authorities," Richard Dicker, the head of the international justice program, said in an interview. "Aerial bombings were carried out directly by the Sudanese Armed Forces." The court's announcement came at a time when Sudan is already under international pressure over its treatment of foreign aid workers in Darfur and elsewhere in the east African nation. In recent weeks Sudanese authorities held and questioned two workers of the medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, which reported on widespread rape in Darfur. Human Rights Watch said at least 20 other aid workers and groups had been harassed in an apparent attempt at intimidation, but few have made their complaints public for fear of further hindrance by the authorities. Yves Sorokobi, Moreno-Ocampo's spokesman, told Associated Press Television News that "the prosecutor has promised to conduct a thorough and quick investigation into these very heavy allegations of crimes." Prosecutors will then consider issuing indictments and arranging for suspects' transfer to the court in The Hague. "On the basis of our own collection of information we will determine who the suspects are," Sorokobi said. It was not clear, however, how the arrests would be made or by whom, since the court has no enforcement arm. The International Criminal Court, or ICC, began its work in July 2002 after 60 countries joined its founding treaty. Some 99 countries have now ratified the court, including the entire European Union, Australia and Canada. The United States opposes it, citing possible political prosecutions against American citizens.

UPI 8 June 2005 Sudan oppostion leader urges aid for south Date: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 1:31:59 PM EST WASHINGTON, June 8 (UPI) -- John Garang, head of Sudan's former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, Wednesday urged the world community to send aid to southern Sudan. "It is ironic that having signed a peace agreement the situation could have deteriorated so rapidly," he told reporters in Washington. Garang said the situation in southern Sudan had worsened since a comprehensive peace deal was signed in January between the Sudanese government and the SPLA, ending 21 years of fighting. "Not a single dollar" of pledged aid has arrived, he said. The agreement calls for Garang to be Sudan's vice president. He emphasized he was "not joining the current government," but was helping to "form a new government." He said a primary goal of the new government was to end the crisis in Darfur, a region in western Sudan that has seen more than 2 million people displaced and some 70,000 killed in fighting between government-backed Arab militia and the local black population over two years.

ICRC 13-06-2005 05/50 Sudan: ICRC cares for wounded from Darfur fighting A rapidly deteriorating security situation in Southern Darfur has prompted the ICRC to deploy a surgical team to care for the wounded. Armed clashes in and around the town of Gereida on 3 and 4 June resulted in the death of at least 17 civilians, with dozens more wounded. There was an unknown number of casualties among the combatants. An ICRC mobile surgical team is now in the town performing life-saving operations on civilian victims. The surgical team sent to Gereida is a quick-response mobile unit set up by the ICRC for difficult-to-reach areas of Darfur. The four-member team is now operating out of the town's hospital, where it is working closely with local staff and providing them with medical supplies. All efforts are focused on the most urgent cases. The team comprises a surgeon, an anaesthetist, a surgical nurse and a nurse for post-operative care. The fighting in early June occurred between the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), rebel groups normally considered allies. It caused more than 25,000 people – all previously uprooted from their villages by the conflict – to flee their makeshift camps in Gereida to the relative safety of the surrounding bush. They were able to begin returning to the camps only after two days when the situation showed signs of calming down. The Gereida area has suffered greatly from the consequences of the conflict and the ICRC has maintained a constant presence there since August 2004. Its priority is to provide water, sanitation, food and health care for the growing population in the camps. Fighting between the SLA and the JEM is a new development in the Darfur crisis. To spare the civilian population still further suffering, it is essential that international humanitarian law be complied with by all those involved in hostilities. The ICRC calls on the parties to the conflict to exercise restraint and to respect the principle of proportionality in all military operations. It stresses that all necessary precautions must be taken to spare civilian lives and property and to ensure that the wounded have access to adequate medical facilities.

BBC 14 June 2005 Sudan sets up war crimes tribunal Darfur rebels have been battling for greater autonomy Sudan has set up a special court to try those accused of war crimes in the Darfur region. Justice Minister Ali Mohammed Yassin said the court would be an alternative to the world court which has started to investigate alleged atrocities. Lobby group Amnesty International said the court "lacks credibility" unless the judges are free from interference. More than two million people have been forced from their homes in the conflict in which at least 180,000 have died. Mr Yassin said that more than 160 suspects had already been identified but he did not give any more details, beyond saying they were from Darfur and that they included rebels. 'Small-fry' Judge Mahmoud Saeed Abkem, head of the Special Criminal Court, on Tuesday flew to South Darfur's capital, Nyala, to meet local officials, although the court will be based in North Darfur's capital, al-Fashir. The International Criminal Court last week officially began its investigations of 51 war crimes suspects, whose names were handed over in a sealed document by a United Nations panel of investigators. Sudan rejects the ICC. The BBC's Alfred Taban in Sudan says that he does not expect the Sudanese court to charge the 51 but instead to concentrate on the "small-fry". "Sudan is a sovereign country and this means that all those violating the law inside its national territories be tried therein," Mr Yassin said. The United Nations envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, welcomed the special court but said it could not be a substitute for the ICC. Darfur's rebel groups rejected the new court outright. "The Sudan Liberation Movement does not accept this special court. The so-called 160 suspects the court is planning to try are petty criminals," SLM spokesman Mahjoub Hussein told the AFP news agency. Kolawole Olaniyan, the director of Amnesty International's Africa programme said: "We fear that the establishment of the special court may just be a tactic by the Sudanese government to avoid prosecution" by the ICC. "On the one hand, the Sudanese government is claiming that it is able to punish the crimes it is accused of condoning for the last two years," he said in a statement. "On the other hand, it continues to crack down on those who expose or criticise such human rights violations." Camps blockaded The refugees have accused pro-government Arab militias of carrying out the worst atrocities, such as mass rape, killings and looting. The Janjaweed militia has been accused of trying to drive black Africans from their land. Sudan's government says the scale of the humanitarian emergency has been exaggerated and denies backing the Janjaweed. The UK's International Development Secretary Hilary Benn told the BBC that the Sudanese government should do more to ease the emergency in Darfur. He said that fighting between the army and rebels had eased but that Kalma refugee camp near Nyala was being blockaded and that aid workers were still being attacked by bandits. Peace talks between the government and rebels are continuing in Nigeria but little progress has been made so far.

Tanzania - ICTR

AFP 9 June 2005 Genocide trial of 'minister of axe' begins June 09 2005 at 05:17PM Arusha, Tanzania - The trial of a former Rwandan minister accused of hacking to death Tutsi hospital patients during the country's 1994 genocide opened on Thursday before a UN-backed international tribunal. Andre Rwamakuba, 55, Rwanda's minister for primary and secondary education during the 100-day killing spree between April and July 1994, is accused of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, extermination and assassination. A Hutu physician known as the "minister of axe" for his alleged crimes, he and three co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges that stem from killings at a university hospital in Rwanda's southern Butare province in mid-April of that year.- Prosecutor Dior Fall told judges at the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that Rwamakuba walked into the hosptal, selected Tutsi patients for death and dragged them out so they could be taken to be killed by members of the extremist Hutu Interahamwe militia. Rwamakuba is accused of removing intravenous drips from Tutsi patients During the same April 22 to 25 period, the ex-minister hacked to death five Tutsis with an axe, the prosecution alleged, according to the independent Hirondelle News Agency covering the ICTR proceedings. In addition, Rwamakuba is accused of removing intravenous drips from Tutsi patients in the hospital's intensive care unit, the prosecution said, calling his actions "paradoxical behviour for a man who had chosen a medical career." According to Fall, Rwamakuba was "obsessed by the desire to destroy the Tutsis," but defense attorney David Hooper cautioned the court against believing the truth of the allegations, which he said could not be proven. Rwamukuba, who was not present in the courtroom when the trial began, has protested against prosecutorial "manipulation" of his case and refused to appear in the court. He was first arrested in 1997 and released six months later before being re-arrested in 1998. He appeared in court with his three co-defendants but the trial was halted in February and he was ordered to be judged separately. The new trial of the other three, senior officials of the then ruling party, is to begin in September. Since its founding in 1994, the ICTR has tried 25 people including former ministers, members of the Rwandan army and a Catholic priest for their roles in the genocide during which some 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were slaughtered by Hutu extremists. Only three have been acquitted and the rest were convicted and given sentences ranging from six years to life in prison. The killings erupted after a plane carrying Rwanda's Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down on April 6, 1994. - Sapa-AFP

Zimbabwe

AP 27 May 2005 Zimbabwe police torch settlements HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Police torched dwellings in a poor squatter camp overnight and deployed more than 3,000 officers Friday to "monitor" the destruction of informal settlements around the capital. Residents rioted Thursday night in at least one township on the southern edge of Harare as police arrested street vendors and burned their kiosks. While police used gasoline and torches to destroy shacks in one township, state radio said desperately poor residents in other areas hurriedly tore down their own shacks, taking away building materials they had bought with their life savings. Police are under orders to destroy "illegal dwellings" and vendors' shacks as part of a campaign to clean up the city. About half of the city's urban poor live in the shacks. About 10,000 street vendors have been arrested since the crackdown began eight days ago. The opposition says the campaign, which has triggered rioting, is a government ploy to justify declaring a state of emergency. "We are on high alert. We really do not know where they (police) are striking next," said Lovemore Muchingedzi, an opposition Movement for Democratic Change party worker in the Glen Norah township where there was extensive rioting Thursday night. "Police went around beating up anyone they came across. They made sure there was no electricity in the area and under cover of darkness they were beating everyone up," said Muchingedzi, who said the area had quieted by daybreak. Trudy Stevenson, an opposition legislator for the area that includes the Hatcliffe squatter camp in northern Harare, said people there called her when three truckloads of armed police arrived late Thursday night. "They told me they were burning everything but I better not come as I might get shot in the darkness," she said. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai alleges the blitz, called "Operation Marambatsvina" (drive out trash) is aimed at provoking unrest which will force urban opposition voters to return to the countryside and the justify declaration of a state of emergency ahead of nationwide economic collapse. A state of emergency would give the government of President Robert Mugabe, 81, unlimited powers of search, seizure, detention and censorship as the country goes into a food crisis with up to 4 million people needing food aid. James Morris, head of the World Food Program and representative of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, is due here next week to discuss the relief effort with Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980 independence. Before recent parliamentary elections in which he claimed to have won a landslide victory, Mugabe refused assistance saying the country had had a "bumper harvest." His Zanu-PF party was alleged to have used access to food to intimidate rural voters. Harare's government-appointed mayor, Sekesai Makwavarara, announced Tuesday that illegal settlements and houses would be destroyed in three months. The government has not explained why police have already begun the destructions. State radio raid the roundup of street traders and demolition of "informal housing" was discussed at a meeting Thursday of Mugabe's elite 40-member policy-making body, the Politburo, in advance of a Zanu-PF central committee session Friday.

www.sokwanele.com 2 June 2005 Zimbabwe Burns The police are cutting a swathe of destruction across the towns and cities of Zimbabwe, as the so called “Operation Murambatsvina” (“Operation Drive Out Trash”) continues to gather momentum. On Wednesday morning (June 1) towns as far apart as Victoria Falls and Mutare were still reeling under the effects of a virtual blitzkrieg orchestrated and directed from ZANU PF central command. In Harare our reporter was touring the streets of the city’s oldest and most populous low density suburb, Mbare, at 1.00 o’clock in the morning. He could hardly believe his eyes at the trail of destruction and burning and the general desolation of the scene. It resembled, he said, an area hit by a bomb. In every direction through the filthy streets of Mbare could be seen burning household-goods, furniture and rubble. A few distraught residents still milled around, apparently stunned by the speed and ferocity of the attack, although the intimidating presence of scores of heavily armed police kept their number to a minimum. Similar scenes have been reported over the last few days in Mutare, Victoria Falls and several other centres. The campaign has all the markings of a well-planned and coordinated blitzkrieg, although the residents received no warning and were taken completely unawares by it. At Victoria Falls the police burnt a 10 km long line of curio stalls that have been there for as long as anyone can remember, and in the town so many dwellings were torched that thousands of residents found themselves without any shelter for the night. In Bulawayo, one of the last centres to feel the fury of the ZANU PF attack, a vicious police crackdown got underway on Tuesday and continued into Wednesday morning. It is understood that many of the traders whose stalls and produce were destroyed were operating with licences in structures approved by the local authority. It is known that more than 18,000 people have been arrested and tens of thousands of families across the nation have been left homeless.

BBC 3 June 2005 Final phase of Zimbabwe crackdown Some have been able to salvage a few possessions Zimbabwe's police say their operation against street traders and illegal housing is entering its final day. More than 22,000 people have been arrested and tens of thousands left homeless in the two-week crackdown. The government says the move is needed to clean up Zimbabwe's cities but some feel it is punishment for areas which voted for the opposition. Lobby group Amnesty International has called for an end to the demolitions, which some are calling the "tsunami". Appalled Whole shantytowns and markets have been razed to the ground, while the police are now targeting houses illegally built on farms around the capital, Harare, some of which were seized under the government's controversial land reform programme. Our children are not going to school, we are sleeping outside everywhere... if you walk, everywhere you see people sleeping in the road Victoria Machine "Amnesty International is appalled by this flagrant disregard for human rights. Forced evictions without due process, legal protection, redress and appropriate relocation measures, are completely contrary to international human rights law," said Amnesty's Africa Programme director Kolawole Olaniyan. "Everything was destroyed without notice," Ernest Rautavaara told the Reuters news agency, standing in front of a half-demolished concrete building which was once a vegetable market. "This is the true meaning of tsunami," he said. Amnesty said it had received reports that people had been forced to pull down their own homes but police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said this was a sign that people were co-operating with "Operation Restore Order". The police say the operations is targeted at criminals and black marketeers who are subverting the economy. No food aid Reuters reports that open spaces in the poor Mbare district near Harare city centre have been turned into giant warehouses for goods salvaged from the police "tsunami". People are sleeping in the open, even though Zimbabwe's winter has begun. This market was set on fire by police "We are suffering, we have nowhere to go. Our houses were destroyed," said Victoria Muchenje. "Our children are not going to school, we are sleeping outside everywhere... if you walk, everywhere you see people sleeping in the road." Meanwhile, Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche has denied that Zimbabwe needs food aid. He told state radio that the government had bought 1.2m tonnes of corn from South Africa to cover poor harvests. Earlier this week, World Food Programme chief James Morris said Zimbabwe faced "an enormous humanitarian crisis", with between 3 and 4 million people needing food aid in the next year. Mr Goche, however, said that Zimbabwe would welcome any food it was offered. Zimbabwe has been accused of manipulating food aid for political reasons - downplaying shortages ahead of elections and depriving opposition areas of food. The government denies that its seizure of white-owned farms has led to the food shortages. It blames poor rains and a western plot to remove President Robert Mugabe from power.

The Zimbabwe Independent 3 June 2005 www.theindependent.co.zw News Analysis Eric Bloch Column Muckraker Comment Byo mayor slams ‘war against poor’ Loughty Dube BULAWAYO mayor Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube said the country’s second largest local authority is opposed to government’s demolition blitz that has left a trail of destruction nationwide. Ncube said government’s crackdown against alleged “illegal structures” and informal businesses was an “illegal action”. He said government’s “war against the poor” was not justified, at least in Bulawayo where council has designated vending areas and set aside sites for informal sector businesses. He said informal traders were paying rents and rates to council but was shocked to see that police had in some areas razed the structures without consultation. “The Bulawayo city council is not involved in this illegal action being undertaken by the police and we do not know government’s intentions in this whole exercise,” Ncube said. “The police did not consult us because some of the properties they are destroying are legal structures operated by legal vendors licensed by the council.” Ncube’s comments came against a background of a brutal police clean-up operation that has seen them pull down structures at the main Renkini bus terminus, Fife Street vegetable markets and other areas around the city. Police also stormed the country’s largest foreign currency trade centre in Fort Street — the so-called “World Bank” — and confiscated goods and foreign currency from parallel market traders. The “World Bank” was deserted during the week and resembled ruins as mangled metals and destroyed shacks bore testimony to the sweeping campaign that has engulfed all major cities and towns. Ncube said the action by the police was affecting the smooth operation of the city and said council had “civilised means of dealing with illegal vendors and such structures”. “What police are doing is affecting council operations, the structures they are destroying are legal and were created by council. We collect taxes from vendors because they are licensed,” he said. He however could not quantify off-hand how much council was going to lose in revenue but said the treasury department was working out the figures. Ncube became the first mayor to condemn the demolition blitz. Harare commission chairperson Sekesai Makwavarara has come out in full support of the clampdown, which has provoked the ire of civic society groups. Harare has been the major victim of the crackdown. Residents have tried to resist the attacks but failed to match police brutality. In Harare police have destroyed shantytowns, flea markets, hair saloons, tuckshops, and a vast swathe of small-scale informal industries, leaving thousands homeless, jobless, hungry and stranded. Main opposition parties, churches, human rights groups and civil society organisations have condemned government’s “Operation Restore Order” — which has created more disorder and suffering than there was before — but have not done anything beyond verbal resistance. In a move likely to rapidly intensify calls for his resignation, Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said yesterday he will not lead a mass protest against the ongoing demolition blitz in his party’s urban strongholds. Tsvangirai, who leads the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said it was not the responsibility of his party’s leadership to organise mass action but that of the people. People had been calling on the MDC to rise and fight President Robert Mugabe’s “war against the poor”. Although pressure has been mounting for the MDC to confront Mugabe’s regime since the hotly disputed general election in March, Tsvangirai said his party would not do it. But he admitted after touring scenes of destruction in Harare that the “picture is shocking”. “The picture is shocking. Hatcliffe, Tongogara and parts of Mbare have been smashed into a huge heap of debris,” he said. “Pieces of timber, scraps and junk, normally recycled by the poor for use and for resale, are strewn all over the place.” Tsvangirai said he was dismayed by the “disastrous consequences of the demolition campaign”. “A trail of destruction evident in these areas resembles a site in a war zone,” he said. “Property worth millions of dollars has gone up in flames. Families are out in the open — without jobs, without income, without shelter, without support. Overnight, Zimbabwe has a massive internal refugee population in its urban areas.” Controversy dogs Senate Byo mayor slams ‘war against poor’ Chief Tangwena turning in his grave Future uncertain as old guard ails Byo faces water rationing NRZ fails to pay employees Govt plans to nationalise land NCA to protest amendments Mugabe in dramatic U-turm

Sydney Morning Herald (subscription), Australia 4 June 2005 www.smh.com.au Mugabe takes his revenge on traders By Rochelle Mutton in Bulawayo June 4, 2005 Page Tools Email to a friend Printer format A woman stands in the mangled ruins of her market stall in downtown Bulawayo, eyes brimming with tears and unable to find the words to describe her grief and fear. Bulawayo is Zimbabwe's second city after Harare and has become the latest target in a brutal countrywide blitzkrieg on the informal economic sector. Hours earlier, dozens of heavily armed police demolished thousands of licensed market stalls, smashing, burning and seizing goods and arresting hundreds of vendors. Like thousands of others in devastated Bulawayo, this woman lost all her wares and her livelihood in one terrifying morning of wholesale destruction. "What can we do?" she asks. "That is how we get rent; that is how we get food." Another woman vendor sits among the twisted metal and cardboard wreckage with a single bag of oranges for sale, desperate to earn her bus fare home. To her right a man smiles as he retrieves bunches of unspoiled bananas from his cart. He is about to make a sale when a stampede down the street gives him the split-second warning he needs to run as a police truck carrying eight officers swoops. My reflexes are much slower, leaving me in the middle of the police as they leap off the truck, seize three women vendors without explanation and bundle them away. For the rest of the day the terrified vendors who have anything left to sell hide behind cars and shopfronts, displaying only small samples of wares at a time. Impassive gestures belie the frightened eyes and simmering anger of the Bulawayo traders, who in the past two days have been collectively murmuring the word of their darkest horrors, "gukurahundi". It is the local Shona word for "the wind that sweeps away the chaff before the rain" and used to describe the action overseen by the President, Robert Mugabe, to get rid of the political opposition at the beginning of his reign in the early 1980s. Then, Mugabe's Fifth Brigade, trained by North Korean forces, killed thousands, and tortured many more, of the minority Ndebele tribe that lives in western Bulawayo. This time, the Government-sanctioned attacks are countrywide. The Mugabe regime calls the crackdown Operation Murambatsvina, meaning clean out the filth. The first alleged murder was reported this week, a woman vendor beaten so badly by police that she died in a Bulawayo hospital. There is bewilderment as to why the police and army have been ordered to destroy market stalls and housing, leaving tens of thousands of people without a livelihood or shelter. The Government says it is targeting criminals who deal in foreign currency, and that it is removing illegal eyesores. Most Bulawayo vendors sell only in Zimbabwe dollars and run their stalls at the municipality's invitation. Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, says the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party wants to provoke a state of emergency to introduce unrestrained powers of search, arrest and detention. It is believed the raids are meant to punish urban dwellers who voted overwhelmingly for the opposition in the election on March 31. "I have no doubt it's a policy of retribution against people who are perceived, correctly, as being opposed to this fascist regime," said the MDC's legal affairs spokesman, David Coltart. FOOD CRISIS LOOMS - More than 22,000 people have been arrested and thousands of street vendors' wares have been seized since the Government began a crackdown on May 19. - The head of the UN World Food Program, James Morris, met President Robert Mugabe this week to discuss what he described as an "enormous humanitarian crisis", saying that between 3 million and 4 million Zimbabweans would need food aid in the next year. - Mugabe agreed to accept UN food aid, Morris said, but the Social Welfare Minister, Nicholas Gosche, told state radio on Thursday that the country had bought 1.2 million tonnes of corn from South Africa that should be enough to alleviate shortages.

The International Association of Genocide 7 June 2005 www.isg-iags.org RESOLUTION ON STATE REPRESSION IN ZIMBABWE By The International Association of Genocide Scholars We, the leadership and membership of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, a world-wide professional association of experts on genocide, call upon the government of Zimbabwe to reverse its discriminatory and life-threatening policies toward the urban poor and supporters of the political opposition. The government has in recent years used food as a political weapon by denying it to people thought to support Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. On June 1, 2005, the government agreed to resumption of international food donations to feed up to four million people, but has objected to creation of World Food Program centers to distribute food to the general population. Instead food will be directed to government-controlled institutions including schools, orphanages, and work programs open only to ZANU-PF government party members. Simultaneously the government has initiated Operation Masarmbatsvina (“drive out rubbish”) to evict more than a million urban poor by demolishing squatter shacks. More than 22,000 people have already been arrested in the first few days of the crackdown, according to a police spokesman. News reports tell of hundreds of thousands of people driven from their homes, with many fleeing to the outskirts of cities where they are camped with no shelter, food, or means of transportation to whatever jobs they may have had. The Zimbabwe government organized major massacres during the 1980’s against the Matabele people, which cost over 20,000 lives. The massacres were carried out by an all-Shona army brigade trained by North Korean advisers. The Mugabe government has again organized Shona youth militias, nick-named the “Green Bombers,” who terrorise members of the political opposition, many of whom are Matabele. The government’s denial of food thus has an ominous ethnic dimension, an early warning sign of potential genocide by attrition. Denial of food to targeted groups and forced evacuation of poor communities are among the tactics used in past politicides. These policies are creating a humanitarian crisis for targeted ethnic, economic, and political groups in Zimbabwe. They constitute an early stage of a politicide aimed at eliminating ethnic, class and political opponents of the government. We call on governments and international organizations to condemn policies of the Zimbabwe government that target the Matabele ethnic group, the urban poor, and political opponents of the Mugabe regime. · Zimbabwe’s neighbors, the Republic of South Africa above all, should exert political and diplomatic pressure on the government to reverse these malign policies. · The African Union should take similar actions in coordination with the Commonwealth and the European Union. · The United Nations’ World Food Program should insist that the food aid it has recently agreed to supply be distributed to all in need, without regard to political affiliation. · International financial institutions on which Zimbabwe depends for investment and loans should make it clear that assistance is conditional on government policies that deal equitably and humanely with the needs of all citizens. · NGO’s should publicize the escalating humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe and advocate preventive responses by all members of the international community. Adopted unanimously at the biennial meeting of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Boca Raton, Florida, June 7, 2005. Written by Prof. Ted Robert Gurr, Prof.. Gregory Stanton (IAGS First Vice President) and Dr. Helen Fein.

The International Association of Genocide 7 June 2005 www.isg-iags.org Petition and Resolution on Intervention in Darfur We, the leadership and membership of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, a world-wide professional association of experts on genocide, call upon the United Nations to authorize a coalition of member states to organize and deploy a robust armed intervention force in Darfur, Sudan, in order to stop the ongoing war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide being perpetrated by Government of Sudan troops and Janjaweed Arab militias against Black African ethnic groups in Darfur. In order for the intervention to be effective -- and not another fiasco as the international community witnessed in Rwanda in 1994 and again in Srebrenica in 1995 -- the mandate must come under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, and include authorization not just to observe atrocities but to use armed force to prevent them – to protect the lives of civilians who are in danger of attack or who need protection to return to their homes in Darfur. We urge that the African Union, European Union rapid response force, Standing High Readiness Brigade, and other regional and national forces provide a minimum of 12,000 heavy infantry, logistical, communications, and airborne troops for this mission. The mission should be quickly provided with all necessary financing and equipment -- in good working order -- and supplies, including fuel, spare parts, medical support, food, and water. The troops should have armed air support, heavily armored vehicles, and weapons with adequate ammunition to stop Government of Sudan and Janjaweed attacks on civilians. If the Sudanese air force continues to attack civilian villages, the U.N. should authorize imposition of a No-Fly Zone over Darfur, except for U.N. authorized aircraft, to be enforced by the air forces of U.N. member states. We strongly urge that this intervention mission be undertaken as soon as possible. As each day goes by, five hundred more people are dying in Darfur. Proof of the effectiveness of such a mission should be based upon the following criteria: 1. An end to all attacks by Sudanese troops and Janjaweed militias in Darfur, and cessation of violent attacks by all other militia groups. 2. An end to rapes of women in and around displaced persons camps and villages in Darfur, with arrest and prosecution of those who have committed such rapes. 3. Immediate secure access for all humanitarian workers to deliver food, water, medical aid, and shelter to internally displaced persons camps, refugee camps, and other areas where the victims of the Government of Sudan and Janjaweed are seeking safety. 4. Immediate augmentation of the food, water, and medical assistance reaching displaced persons and refugees in Darfur and adjoining areas of Chad. 5. Voluntary and safe return of displaced persons and refugees to their homes and villages, following a negotiated settlement of the civil war in Darfur. 6. Accountability for those engaged in the planning and perpetration of the crimes against humanity, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide in Darfur, including trial of responsible Sudanese and Janjaweed leaders by the International Criminal Court. Adopted unanimously by The Officers and Members of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) Boca Raton, Florida, 7 June 2005.

http://www.friendsofbosnia.org/_news/89_tenYrDirectory/

Scholars Contemporary history judges Nuremberg by three shattering events — the Nuremberg Rallies, the Nuremberg Racial Laws and the Nuremberg Trials. Nuremberg was the seat of Nazi power, and the site of the Nazi Party rallies. Images of Hitler overlooking masses of troops are etched in our collective memory. Likewise, we remember Nuremberg for the first reading of the Nuremberg Laws, a collection of laws making official the Nazi policy of racial hatred. Nuremberg is where Naziism rose and fell. And now, finally, we revisit Courtroom 600 in The Palace of Justice, the site of the Nuremberg Trials, where, for the first time in history, a conquering force put defeated leaders on trial for "crimes against humanity." Relive the drama and excitement of the trials while sitting in the actual courtroom where history was made. Participate in an exclusive, private tour of the Nazi Rally Grounds. Discuss the history and impact of the Nuremberg Laws with renowned jurists and historians. Visit the nearby Dachau Concentration Camp. Deliberate with international legal experts on the establishment of a military court of justice. Understand how the Nuremberg Trials still impact war-crime justice today. Network with international scholars; American, European and Israeli officials, and top legal thinkers www.nuernberger-konferenz-2005.de OR www.tourolaw.edu/nuremberg

Zimbabwe

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE AI Index: AFR 46/012/2005 (Public) News Service No: 150 1 June 2005 Zimbabwe: Thousands of forced evictions and arrests in violent crackdown I arrived, I wept. They were all outside …of their broken houses...children screaming, sick people in agony." - Eyewitness account of the scene following one mass eviction in Zimbabwe As United Nations Special Envoy James Morris visits Zimbabwe to discuss the country's severe food shortages, Amnesty International called on the Government of Zimbabwe to immediately halt mass forced evictions that have left whole communities homeless and destroyed thousands of livelihoods. Over the past two weeks the Government of Zimbabwe has orchestrated the forced eviction of thousands of informal traders and families living in informal settlements across the country as part of a crackdown called "Operation Murambatsvina" – widely translated as "drive out the rubbish" but being referred to by police as "operation restore order". Evictions are being carried out without notice and without court orders in a flagrant disregard for due process and the rule of law. During the forced evictions police and other members of the security forces are using excessive force -- burning homes, destroying property and beating individuals. On the night of Thursday 26 May, more than 10,000 people were forcibly driven from their homes in the informal settlement of Hatcliffe Extension in northern Harare. Police reportedly destroyed these homes, leaving the settlement's families destitute and sleeping in the open during Zimbabwe's winter. Many of those evicted were actually placed at Hatcliffe Extension by the government. "We have had reports of heart-wrenching scenes of ordinary Zimbabweans who have had their homes and livelihoods completely destroyed crying on the street in utter disbelief," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme. "We have even had reports of police forcing people to destroy their own homes." "Amnesty International is appalled by this flagrant disregard for internationally recognized human rights. Forced evictions -- without due process, legal protection, redress and appropriate relocation measures, are completely contrary to international human rights law." Thousands of people – mainly informal traders – have been arrested during the crackdown, on the grounds that their businesses are illegal. Their goods have been destroyed or confiscated – although many are reported to have been in possession of licences to operate. Human rights lawyers are now taking court action on behalf of the traders, most of whom were forced to pay fines to secure their release. "The forced closure of informal businesses – the only livelihood option left for many in Zimbabwe's shattered economy – has pushed thousands into an increasingly vulnerable position -- a fact that is particularly disturbing in light of the high levels of poverty and food shortages already present in Zimbabwe." "The Government of Zimbabwe is acting in blatant violation of civil, political, economic and social rights guaranteed under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights – and many more people are in danger of injury and homelessness as the forced evictions continue," said Kolawole Olaniyan. "We call on the government to immediately cease the forced evictions. Those who have been forcibly evicted and had property destroyed should be granted full legal protection and redress and should receive adequate compensation," said Kolawole Olaniyan. "As a matter of urgency the government must ensure that all those evicted have access to shelter, food and safe water." Background In September 2004 Amnesty International reported on the attempted forced eviction of thousands of people from Porta Farm, an informal settlement on the outskirts of Harare, during which police reportedly misused tear gas against residents. The police were acting in defiance of a court order prohibiting the eviction. According to eye-witness testimonies the police fired tear gas directly into the homes of the Porta Farm residents. At least 11 people died in the following weeks. Amnesty International has repeatedly called for a full investigation into the events and subsequent deaths at Porta Farm, but no investigation is known to have been carried out. Amnesty International is very concerned that Porta Farm may again be targeted in the current "clean-up" operation.

BBC 2 June 200 Desperation on the streets Zimbabwean cobbler Edwell - not his real name - has been mending shoes on the streets of the capital, Harare, for nearly 20 years. But the 46-year-old tells the BBC News website how police forced him off the pavement as part of a crackdown on the country's huge informal business sector. Commuter buses are now so rare that people have to push for places It was just past noon when a Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) pick-up truck drove up to the pavement where I sit and mend shoes. Two policemen accompanied by two other men got out. As they walked towards me they said: "You need to take your things and go." I asked them why but they refused to explain. They were very firm and just kept saying: "We don't want you, we don't want you here, we want you to go from this place." Even though I was so afraid, I tried arguing with them but I failed. 'Wrong side' Full of fear, I tried asking again but all they would say was: "We don't want excuses." Shouting, "Listen, take your things and go" they then started chasing the ladies selling vegetables away and so I put all my tools and customer's shoes into my sack. I am suffering even more than before now, my family is suffering because I am not doing anything The ladies were all chased out. I haven't seen them since. They're not selling vegetables any more and so they must be suffering too. The men didn't take anything from me but I was so afraid. I am lucky because the owners of the business near the pavement, where I mended shoes for about 20 years, are letting me work in their yard. But now only my regulars know where I am. Passers-by cannot see me anymore because now I am on the wrong side of the wall. There is little fuel now and commuter buses are very scarce and so I walk the 10km to work and then back home again when it is dark. Driven to tears I am suffering even more than before now. Edwell fears his problems will affect his son's future My family is suffering because I am not doing anything. I am not very busy, sure. I charge Z$15,000 ($0.26) to fix heels and for soles it is about Z$35,000 ($0.60) and now that I am hardly doing anything I am crying. I recently had to buy my 15-year-old son some things for school. All I could afford was his books, a new pair of shoes and socks and some short trousers and it came to over Z$200,000 ($3.60). I still have to pay his school fees for this term which come to Z$350,000 ($6.20). I don't know how I will be able to.

washingtonpost.com Zimbabwe Police Raze Poor Towns In Rampage Government Says Homes Being Destroyed Are Illegal By Craig Timberg Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, June 5, 2005; A23 HARARE, Zimbabwe, June 4 -- Six days after teams of police officers ordered the residents of Hatcliffe Extension, a squatter village, to tear down their homes, the destruction still looks startlingly fresh, the former tenants dazed and weary. Where houses once stood are piles of plastic sheeting and splinters of lumber. Shops built of concrete have been reduced to rubble. A Catholic day-care center for AIDS orphans has been destroyed. And the residents, worn out after days of living among the ruins and nights spent outside in the cold, sit mournfully among the shattered remnants of their lives. "I have no options. I have nowhere to go," said Catherine Tangara, 58, a round-faced widow who cares for her four grandchildren because both of her daughters have died. The story is the same in urban areas throughout Zimbabwe, an economically and politically troubled southern African country of 12 million. Thousands of police officers have spent the past two weeks on a rampage of destruction that officials call a campaign to clean up illegal housing and markets. At least 22,000 street traders have been arrested, police said in government-owned newspapers, and tens of thousands of people have been left homeless. Though the full extent of the operation remains unknown, opposition leaders say as many as 1.5 million people in Harare alone may have lost their homes. President Robert Mugabe has dubbed the campaign "Operation Murambatsvina," which the state-owned press translates as "Operation Restore Order" and portrays as a necessary effort to curb crime, garbage and the other excesses of rapid urbanization over the past several years. But in Shona, the dominant language in Zimbabwe, it has a more sinister translation, given that most of those targeted are poor: "Operation Drive Out the Rubbish." In Hatfield Extension, more than 6,000 people lost their homes on police order last Sunday. No houses or shops remain standing, and a community mosque was destroyed. "They said, 'If you refuse, we will whip you,' " said a 38-year-old widow who cares for her two children and her elderly mother on a modest income earned from sewing dresses and bedspreads. "Now everything is destroyed." In neighborhood after neighborhood, truckloads of police officers have arrived in riot helmets and demanded that residents tear down their own homes, typically wood shacks or one-room concrete houses that shelter Zimbabwe's urban poor. Most people have complied with the police, attacking their homes with their bare hands or with picks and hammers that made the job quicker, if no less terrible. Traders, meanwhile, have turned their own wooden stall