Liberia
see Nigeria
Legalbrief Africa 2
May 2005 www.legalbrief.co.za Issue No: 128 New evidence against Taylor The
War Crimes Court in Sierra Leone, which has indicted Charles Taylor on 17 counts
of crimes against humanity for his role in supporting the war there, says it has
evidence the former Liberian leader masterminded an assassination attempt on the
president of neighbouring Guinea in January this year. The Financial Times quotes
the court’s Chief Prosecutor, David Crane, as saying he had evidence Taylor, who
is living in N igeria, backed the gunmen who fired on President Lansana Conté's
convoy in Conakry, the Guinean capital. ‘His assassination attempt on Conté marks
him as a true threat to international peace and security,’ said Crane. Regional
analysts say Guinea is considered the weakest link in the chain of interlinked
countries in west Africa that Taylor may be eyeing as a base for a new regional
war. Analysts say Guinea, which has a third of the world's known bauxite reserves,
would provide Taylor with ample resources to fund a new war chest. Full
report in the Financial Times ft.com
Nigeria
Philadelphia
Inquirer 2 May 2005 Biafra's independence dream rekindles By Andrew Maykuth
Inquirer Staff Writer OKIGWE, Nigeria - In its day, the Nigerian civil war was
a huge international story, made bigger by the wrenching televised images of skeletal
babies who accounted for many of the one million victims in the breakaway region
called Biafra. The conflict, The Inquirer wrote in 1969, "has joined Vietnam and
the Middle East as a world problem of dangerous importance." The war ended 35
years ago, and today there is scant physical evidence of the futile effort to
create the independent nation of Biafra. No war cemeteries, no monuments, no veterans'
organizations. Except for a small museum that contains a few fading photographs
and rusting weaponry, the Nigerian government has banished memorials to the war,
one of the first to be seared onto the world's consciousness by television. Ralph
Uwazuruike, who was 9 years old when the war began in 1967, says he will never
forget his younger sister Mary dying in his arms from malnutrition while his mother
desperately searched their village for medicine. "So many other children died
as my sister died," said Uwazuruike, 46, a lawyer. Six years ago, Uwazuruike became
fed up with what he considered the continued humiliation of the ethnic Ibo people,
the dominant tribe in the eastern Nigerian region that had declared itself independent.
He formed an organization called the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign
State of Biafra, daring to use the name that the Nigerian government had officially
expunged from maps. At first, not many people took MASSOB seriously. The group
hung Biafra's red, green and black flags from cell-phone towers and power lines,
and erected a "Welcome to Biafra" sign on a bridge crossing the Niger River. The
government tore down the flags and signs and arrested MASSOB members in confrontations
that sometimes became violent, even deadly. Last August, the rest of Nigeria took
notice as the outlawed group organized a one-day strike that virtually shut down
Africa's most populous nation. The following month, authorities arrested 53 people
at a soccer game sponsored by MASSOB, charging them with treason, punishable by
death. "At first people said, 'Look at this small boy' - they ignored me," Uwazuruike
said in an interview in the organization's new headquarters here, a fortified
mansion surrounded by 15-foot walls topped with tightly coiled razor wire. "But
this thing is strengthening us, making us stronger every day." Uwazuruike insisted
his group is nonviolent, saying he is inspired by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. and Mohandas K. Gandhi. But the organization has some militaristic appearances.
Its security forces wear camouflage fatigues. Its internal command is governed
by a group called the "Biafra Liberation Front." And Uwazuruike, while talking
about plans to build a museum to the civil war, refers to the 1960s conflict as
the "first" Biafran war. The Biafran secessionist movement is not the only
ethnic or regional group in Nigeria clamoring for more recognition. Several groups,
including the Biafrans, claim territory that sits atop the nation's oil wealth.
The existence of so many restless ethnic groups is testimony to Nigeria's precariousness
45 years after independence from Britain. Fractured along ethnic and religious
lines and governed for much of its postcolonial history by oppressive military
regimes, the West African nation of 130 million people has failed to develop more
than a superficial sense of national identity. With more than 250 ethnic groups
- the largest are the Yorubas in the west, the Hausas in the north, and the Ibos
in the east - Nigeria has plenty of potential fault lines. But the reemergence
of a Biafran secessionist movement is said to be particularly galling to President
Olusegun Obasanjo, who will visit President Bush in Washington on Thursday. Obasanjo,
the former head of Nigeria's armed forces, established his career fighting the
Biafrans in the civil war. MASSOB has tapped into a deep reservoir of resentment
among Ibos, who say they have received few government jobs and public projects
since the civil war. Many also believe the predominantly Christian Ibos are the
target of violence in the Muslim north, where Ibos have settled as traders. "Most
of the world thinks the Biafran war ended in 1970, but we know it never ended,"
said Chidi Ofoegbu, 49, an electronics engineer in Port Harcourt who is active
in the Biafran movement. "The only way we can get rid of this mess is to have
a separate entity." Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Oxford-trained soldier who led
the secession bid in 1967, initially dismissed MASSOB's efforts as "infantile
drama" but has changed his thinking about the group. "The greatest thing MASSOB
has done is just to demonstrate you can't wipe out the memory of Biafra," said
Ojukwu, 71, who lives in the city of Enugu and suffers from faltering eyesight.
He is careful to point out that he is not a member of MASSOB. Some Ibos in
the United States have organized the Biafra Foundation to channel support to MASSOB.
The foundation broadcasts weekly shortwave radio programs to Nigeria from its
base in Washington. "There's no indication that the winners of the civil war are
ever going to let us have a life of our own," said Emmanuel Enekwechi, the foundation
president and a psychologist at the University of Iowa. "Ibo culture is being
undermined." Nigeria's civil war broke out in 1967 when Muslim Hausas in the
north massacred Ibos after several military coups. Thousands of Ibos took refuge
in the eastern region, and Biafra declared its independence. The international
community, fearing newly independent African nations would disintegrate into ethnic
anarchy if secession were permitted in any single country, steadfastly refused
to recognize Biafra. The Biafrans received some support by clandestine airlifts
organized by Irish and French sympathizers. But after 32 months, Nigerian federal
forces gradually encircled the separatists, and Biafra was crushed. Ibos now
regard the war with mixed feelings. "People look back and say we were very resourceful
during the war," said the Rev. John Okoye, who was a Red Cross volunteer during
the conflict and is now rector of Bigard Memorial Seminary in Enugu. "We didn't
stand back and allow our women and children to be raped and killed," Okoye said.
"We were men. It's something to look back, not with joy as such, but to say that
we were able to do this without any big country supporting Biafra." But there
is little appetite for waging war again. Few Ibos say publicly that independence
is the answer - partly out of fear of sounding treasonous. "The international
community will not recognize secession, so why pursue that?" said Mike Eke, a
Biafra war veteran who is editor of the Sunday Statesman, a government newspaper
in the city of Owerri. "The solution is to get involved in the political process."
Uwazuruike, the MASSOB chief, is vague about how the organization hopes to achieve
independence nonviolently when the government of Nigeria is unlikely to grant
it any other way. He said that many believe Nigeria will be unable to survive
as a unified nation and that Biafra must be prepared to go on its own when that
day arrives. "People believe that Nigeria will someday break up and let us go
our separate way," he said. Ojukwu, the aging Biafran leader who ran as a presidential
candidate in 2003, said secession is always an option. "We saw the war that
ended in 1970 as an interruption of our romance with freedom - an interruption,"
said Ojukwu, who still commands much respect among Ibos. "Our aspirations still
remain."
washingtonpost.com
6 May 2005 Nigerian Leader Says He Won't Turn Taylor Over for Trial By
Michael A. Fletcher Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 6, 2005; A20 President
Bush and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo met at the White House yesterday
where they discussed the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan, the
high price of oil and a way to bring to justice Charles Taylor, the former Liberian
president accused of war crimes and now living in exile in Nigeria. Obasanjo,
speaking after the meeting in an interview with Washington Post reporters and
editors, said, "I don't believe anybody who has committed a crime should get away
with it." He said, however, he would not turn Taylor over to a United Nations-sponsored
court in Sierra Leone, where Taylor has been indicted for crimes against humanity,
unless there is "absolute . . . evidence" that Taylor has violated the asylum
agreement. Absent that, Obasanjo said, he would turn Taylor over if asked to do
so by the Liberian government. "Nothing should be done to erode the credibility
of Nigeria," Obasanjo said, explaining that he consulted widely with other nations
before granting political asylum to Taylor. If he reneges on the asylum agreement,
Obasanjo said, "nobody will respect us." Taylor has been indicted on 17 counts
of war crimes against humanity for his role in the war in Sierra Leone. In 2003,
as part of an internationally brokered deal, Obasanjo offered Taylor political
asylum so long as Taylor refrained from any further crimes. At the time, Bush
and many other world leaders praised the move. Subsequently, however, Taylor
has been accused of violating his asylum deal by plotting the attempted assassination
of the president of Guinea earlier this year, and meddling in the campaign leading
up to this fall's presidential elections in Liberia. Obasanjo said those allegations
have not been proved. Bush administration officials acknowledged the sensitivity
of the Taylor situation, saying the asylum agreement helped bring a fragile peace
to Liberia and neighboring West African nations that had been embroiled in brutal
wars for 15 years. "The president appreciates President Obasanjo's leadership
in helping to bring an end to the civil war and to get Charles Taylor out of Liberia,"
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. Nonetheless, he said, "they talked
about a way to hold Charles Taylor accountable." During the 45-minute meeting,
Obasanjo also updated Bush on African Union peacekeeping efforts in Sudan's Darfur
region, where hundreds of thousands of people have died in two years of fighting
that Bush has labeled a "genocide." The African Union, which Obasanjo chairs,
has decided to double the number of troops in the region and is seeking NATO help
in deploying the new peacekeepers. "The president thanked him for his strong
leadership in Darfur and talked about the importance of resolving the situation
in Sudan," McClellan said. Bush and Obasanjo also discussed oil prices, which
have doubled over the past two years. Obasanjo said he agreed with Bush that oil
prices are too high. He said it was in the interest of large oil-producing and
oil-consuming nations that prices be more moderate. Nigeria is the world's seventh-largest
oil producer, pumping 2.5 million barrels a day. Obasanjo said he also raised
the question of debt relief for Nigeria with Bush, asking him to "use his good
offices" to press the issue with his European counterparts. Earlier in the day,
Obasanjo met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, with whom he said he discussed
many of the same issues, including the Taylor situation. "I think that we and
the Nigerians both agree that he should not be interfering in any way in Liberia's
internal affairs, and to undermine democracy there, and that he should face justice,"
State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said.
Rwanda
See Belgium, Burundi, France
NYT
1 May 2005 ESSAY Searching for Answers, and Discovering That There Are None
By ANDREW BLUM DURING my first semester of college, in the mid-90's, I went with
a dozen classmates on a two-week junket to Berlin, sponsored by the German government
with the intention of improving relations with American Jews. One afternoon, we
were taken to a villa in the suburb of Wannsee, where we were ushered politely
into an elegant dining room and offered juice and mineral water. A historian
sat down with us at an enormous wooden table and explained that in that very room
in 1942, 15 Nazi bureaucrats planned the genocide of the Jews. We were literally
immobilized. I - all of us, I think - had expected to "learn more" about the
Holocaust on this trip, to come to some rational understanding of what had happened,
some sequence of cause and effect. But it made no sense; as we sat in that place,
its defiance of understanding was devastating and astounding. I remember standing
in the parking lot outside as dusk descended, stomping my feet in fresh snow,
waiting for everyone to be composed enough to get on the bus. Later that evening,
we all went to an outdoor Christmas market, where we ate sausages and got drunk
on mulled wine. I thought of this in February in Rwanda, over a dinner of skewered
beef and French fries with my wife, Davina Pardo, and our friend Claire Wihogora.
Claire casually told us that the owner of the restaurant, a popular place called
Chez Lando, had been killed in the Rwandan genocide. Then the conversation moved
on. It was our first night there, and my mind raced with questions, none of which
I asked. How he died, who killed him and why - all of that seemed to matter less
than Claire's implicit point, a necessary part of our orientation to this country:
that the genocide was everywhere in Rwanda. Nobody had got off easy. Those whose
families had escaped killing had perhaps been killers themselves. Or if they weren't
themselves killers, then they must have seen killing. I watched the waiter unscrew
the top on a bottle of water. One of the great thrills of travel is feeling more
alive. But death, too, has its appeals for the traveler. Battlefields and memorials
have long been staples of tourism at places like Gettysburg, Normandy, Auschwitz
or ground zero in Lower Manhattan. And though it felt strange for us to be drawn
to a faraway place by the horrors that had happened there, drawn we were. At the
risk of sounding glib, we might call ourselves genocide tourists, seeking answers
to the unanswerable. Davina had begun work in Toronto on a film about Claire.
A native Rwandan, Claire lived through the genocide as a teenager and then moved
to Canada, where she became close to Davina's family. When Claire invited us to
come along on a visit home, we accepted quickly. Davina could film in Rwanda,
and we would meet Claire's remaining family (her father, brother and cousins were
killed in the genocide). But there was more behind our eagerness. Like Davina,
I am the grandchild of Holocaust refugees. For us, born three decades after 1945,
the stories of loss and the bitter memories exist at a remove. We feel compelled
to try to grasp their meaning, but the horrors are abstracted and refracted by
film, literature and time. In Rwanda, it is only 11 years since an estimated
800,000 people were killed in 100 days. Genocide is still fresh. In his book
on Rwanda, "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families,"
Philip Gourevitch writes that even after he saw piles of decomposing bodies, what
had happened was "strangely unimaginable." He adds, "I mean one still had to imagine
it." But would being at the scene, breathing its air, give us some insight, however
small, into the mysteries of mass murder and of death itself? Strangely, the
place in Rwanda where the genocide seemed most distant and abstract was the main
genocide memorial, across a small valley from downtown Kigali. The complex is
strikingly tidy and cool - one of the few places in Kigali with air-conditioning.
Videos and text are in English, French and Kinyarwanda, the native Rwandan language
spoken by both Hutus and Tutsis. Inscribed on the walls are quotations like "When
they said 'never again' after the Holocaust, was it meant for some people and
not for others?" It was affecting, but in those carpeted and cooled galleries,
the genocide was history. Outside, it was still part of everyday life. On the
slope below the museum was a garden filled with tombs, one of them still open.
Coffins draped in purple bunting were visible a few feet underground, and a ladder
rested nearby, ready for use. A guard carrying a machine gun walked with us, chatting
with Claire and her brother-in-law in Kinyarwanda. When genocidaires were released
from jail, the guard explained, they often pointed out the graves of people they
had killed, who were then brought there; bodies had arrived that week. He said
the tombs held about 250,000 people. As Claire searched a wall of names for
family and friends, on the other side of a low fence a man hacked at tall grass
with a machete. It seemed extraordinarily callous to me. The perversion of the
machete, the agricultural tool of Rwanda, into the favorite weapon of the genocide
even colored my observation of a gardener at work. Every institution, place
and life in Rwanda seemed to show scars, some more obviously than others. One
afternoon, Claire introduced us to a neighbor passing by her mother's house -
the woman's husband, Claire explained later, had hidden Claire and her sisters.
Later that afternoon, Claire paused unexpectedly to point out the spot where her
father had been killed, a few hundred yards from their house. While we looked
and talked, some neighbors came out to watch us. The same neighbors, Claire said,
had watched as her father was murdered. We drove two hours out into the countryside
to the Catholic church in Nyamata, where thousands sought refuge and were killed.
A sad woman named Celaphine Mukamusoni showed us around. She pointed out bullet
holes in the ceiling and bloodstains on the walls where children had been smashed.
She gestured toward a side room that held a pile of clothes removed from the victims'
bodies and, as a raw memorial, left there, unwashed. In the same room were plastic
sacks of remains exhumed from recently identified graves, waiting for burial at
an anniversary ceremony. Behind the church were two enormous crypts, built
into the ground but covered with a tile roof. Celaphine gestured for us to step
down into them. They were hot and damp, like something alive. Near the entrance
were newer coffins, wrapped in purple. Stretching out into the dark were shelves
and shelves of skulls and bones. We went back up the stairs and Celaphine led
us silently to the second crypt, which she insisted that we climb down into. It
was the same as the first, and my stomach turned. Strangely, I felt relief.
The odor exempted us from the need for imagination. It relieved us of the need
for understanding. Claire began to cry. That, Celaphine told her, was how she
felt every day. ANDREW BLUM is a contributing editor at Metropolis Magazine.
Hirondelle
News Agency (Lausanne) 3 May 2005 Former UN Head in Rwanda During the Genocide
Settles ScoresArusha A new book, "Le patron de Dallaire parle" (Dallaire's
boss speaks out), by the man who headed the United Nations Assistance Mission
to Rwanda (UNAMIR) during the 1994 genocide, Jacques Roger Booh Booh, shows the
depths of the divisions in the UN at that time. And provides it him with an
opportunity to settle old scores with his critics. Even the title of the short
book, published in France by Editions Duboiris, shows how seriously Booh Booh
takes Gen. Romeo Dallaire's - the former commander of the UNAMIR forces - accusations
against him. Dallaire, who has previously twice testified for the prosecution
at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in Arusha, has
attained almost mythical status for the way he has described the failure of UN
forces to protect civilians in the genocide. He earlier published a book in which
he did not pull his punches in his descriptions of his former boss. Dallaire accused
Booh Booh of favouring the Hutu-dominated regime in place at that time, and not
being able to impose the UN's role in the Arusha Peace accords. The comments obviously
touched a raw nerve with Booh Booh. Much of the book is filled with complaints
against his former subordinate, calling him a "mediocre politician and diplomat"
who "sabotaged my work by openly siding with the RPF" (Former rebels of the Tutsi-dominated
Rwandese Patriotic Front currently in power in Kigali.) In the rest of the 200
or so pages, Jacques Roger Booh Booh tries to salvage his own image. He says that
Rwandans are to blame for their own misfortunes. But for many Rwandans he
is the one that failed to pass the test during the three months that took the
lives of an estimated one million people. The Cameroonian diplomat is himself
expected to appear as a defence witness for Colonel Theoneste Bagosora who is
on trial at the tribunal. Bagosora is considered by the Prosecutor of the ICTR
to have been the "mastermind" of the genocide. If there were any doubts that
the UN behaved badly during the fateful days of 1994, this book dispels them.
Hirondelle
News Agency (Lausanne) 5 May 2005 Gacaca to Complete Genocide Cases in 'Less
Than 10 Years' Kigali Gacaca courts will complete all cases related to the
1994 genocide in less than ten years, a senior official told Hirondelle News Agency
on Thursday. "We are now working at an impressive speed. At this rate we should
be done with the trials in less than ten years", said Augustin Nkusi, the director
of legal affairs in the National Service for Gacaca Jurisdictions (NSGJ).
Gacaca is a semi-traditional court system established three years ago to speed
up genocide cases and reconciliation. Authorities had previously estimated that
it would take at least 100 years to clear all genocide cases if they were tried
in regular courts. When the Gacaca courts were created, the government estimated
that the courts would need only five years. However, estimates of the number of
potential genocide suspects have since more than tripled to about 750,000 people.
"I'm not sure about five years", Nkusi said, casting doubt on previous calculations.
He said that the NSGJ was now analyzing available statistics to make a more informed
projection of the time needed for Gacaca courts to complete their mandate. The
NSGJ reported last week that 654 trials had been completed by 118 courts in their
first 50 days of proper trials. This is less than 10% of the number of Gacaca
courts expected to be holding trials by early next year.
Telegraph
UK 8 May 2005 'These people are fatalistic. They return to Rwanda because they
have nothing to lose' By Benjamin Joffe-Walt in Congo (Filed: 08/05/2005)
From the air above eastern Congo, the sprawling Kivu jungle appears mysterious
and impenetrable. Roads look like faint sketchings traced through the thick green
canopy, concealed by mutant trees of gigantic height that grow across the tracks.
Inhospitable - but also home, for the past decade, to hundreds of thousands of
refugees from the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda, mainly women and children who
have eked out a miserable, invisible life without food, medicine, possessions
or security. For some, the only memories of their homeland are of fleeing the
100-day slaughter in 1994, when up to 10,000 people a day were massacred by gangs
wielding clubs and machetes. Recently, however, the hostile jungle has begun
giving up its most elusive residents as thousands of Hutu refugees prepare to
return home under a United Nations repatriation programme. For the youngest children,
this is the first time they have ever ventured out of the jungle and the exodus
offers the forest fugitives an uncertain future. Many will go back to their villages
only to discover that the rest of their families are dead. They will still be
better off. While Kivu has long been the perfect sanctuary for other species fleeing
extinction - large gorilla colonies thrive here - it has proved less hospitable
to the refugees. Living in fear of being hunted by gangs of rogue militiamen
launching crossborder attacks from Rwanda, the Hutus have been forced to survive
in the same way as the beasts with which they share the forest floor - ever on
the move, living off little more than fruit and berries scavenged from the bush.
"Imagine eking out a life in this jungle," says Juya Murthy, a repatriation officer
with the UN High Commission for Refugees UNHCR). "Many of these people died just
trying to survive. This programme reaches out to the few who made it." Dressed
in camouflage army shirts, Beatrice Nyiransabimana and Nikore Erevaniyam emerge
nervously from the forest to shelter under the green canvas of a crowded refugee
camp. Ten years after the Tutsis took control of Rwanda following the genocide,
the women remain terrified of what might yet happen. "We were afraid before because
we heard that if we return to Rwanda they'll kill us," they said. "But there is
such illness and hunger in the bush. We sleep one day inside here, the next day
outside there. One day you eat, the next day nothing. We've been living like animals."
The refugees are used to physical hardship but life in the jungle is attritional.
Bacteria flourish, there is little to eat, and clean water and medical care are
all but non-existent. Malaria, Aids and other killer diseases are rampant. About
a third of the refugees are believed to be HIV-positive, while those children
who do not die young suffer stunted growth because of severe malnutrition. Many
refugees arrive at assembly points on the point of collapse after trekking for
up to three weeks through the jungle. "It's in everyone's best interest to get
Rwandan refugees back home," Ralf Gruenert, another protection officer, told The
Telegraph. "But it's such incredible uncertainty for them. They've spent 10 years
in the forest and they don't know much of what to expect - if you leave as a child
you have a certain image of your country and returning must be disillusioning.
"But they are fatalistic - they think it can't possibly be worse then this, and
they cross the border with nothing to lose." About one million Hutus fled Rwanda
after members of their own ethnic group began the 1994 uprising against the historically-dominant
Tutsi minority, which culminated in the savage deaths of almost 800,000 people.
While a minority of refugees are thought to have been complicit in the atrocities,
others are moderates who were targeted by fellow Hutus for refusing to participate
in the genocide. Many also fled the equally savage reprisals that were exacted
as Tutsi security forces began to quell the uprising. The UN repatriation
programme received a huge boost in recent weeks with news that the much-feared
FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), the main Hutu rebel group,
plans to disarm. The group's violent followers are deeply intermingled with the
refugees. For years, seeking to avert any peaceful resolution with the government
of Paul Kagame, the Rwandan president, the rebels have prevented refugees from
returning. "The FDLR said if you go back to Rwanda you are a coward and supporting
Kagame," says Nikore Erevaniyam. "They told us we must all stay until we retake
Rwanda by force." The United Nations estimates that tens of thousands of refugees
remain at bay in the FDLR stronghold areas of eastern Congo, where the militia
presence has been a source of consistent instability across the entire region.
Rwanda invaded the Democratic Republic in Congo in 1996 and 1998 on the grounds
that the rebels posed a continued threat to the reconstituted, Tutsi-led government.
The invasions sparked a devastating, five-year conflict that sucked in troops
from six neighbouring countries and left 3.8 million dead. The Congolese remain
nervous of the refugees in their midst. "If they stay here we cannot have peace
in Congo because there are FDLR among them wishing to disturb the peace," said
Nestor Baliana Mastaki, the local Congolese government administrator. Persuading
the refugees that they will prosper in Rwanda is not easy. Despite efforts at
power-sharing and ethnic reconciliation, Hutus remain politically and economically
marginalised, and face routine harassment from the security forces. "What they
have in Rwanda is a black-on-black apartheid," one senior international official
said. "So far, any real opposition in Rwanda has been arrested. "The international
community has been a group of moral midgets, feeling so guilty for their inaction
during the genocide that they're afraid to stand up to Rwanda today." Yet most
of the forest refugees seem past caring. A day after arriving at the UN camp they
queue eagerly for trucks heading to the border, singing with excitement as they
balance their few belongings in a sack on their heads. Many do not even know where
they are headed, seemingly motivated by nothing more than homesickness for a Rwanda
that most of them only remember as children. Some who have made the journey ahead
of them say that life on the other side of the border has proved little better.
"The UN gives you a blanket, a bucket, some oil and a bit of food, but then they
abandon you," says Felix Inzamukosha. ''If you find your former house or your
relatives you are lucky, but if not, you're on your own." Nonetheless, most of
the returning Rwandans are grateful. None, so far, has shown any interest in going
back from where they came.
Reuters 12
May 2005 Hero of 'Hotel Rwanda' to write autobiography 12 May 2005 19:32:35
GMT Source: Reuters NEW YORK, May 12 (Reuters) - The Rwandan hotel manager
who saved hundreds of people from genocide and was portrayed in the film "Hotel
Rwanda" will publish an autobiography next year, his literary agent said on Thursday.
After a 28-hour bidding process, which drew offers from eight publishers, Viking
Penguin bought the North American rights to Paul Rusesabagina's personal story
for an undisclosed sum on Friday, agent Jill Kneerim said. The lively bidding
was fueled by the Oscar-nominated movie tracing Rusesabagina's role as a luxury
hotel manager who helped save the lives of more than 1,200 of his countrymen in
the 1994 genocide, Kneerim told Reuters. "I think he'll certainly have a lot to
tell; the genocide took 100 days and the film took two hours," she said. "There's
so much to be said about the massacres and his own personal story." About 800,000
people were killed in the genocide in the tiny central African nation in the Great
Lakes region. U.S. actor Don Cheadle, who played Rusesabagina, was nominated for
an Oscar as best actor in the film. British-born Sophie Okonedo earned a nomination
as best supporting actress for playing his wife. The book is still being written
and will probably begin with a prologue set in the midst of the massacre, in which
victims were hacked to death with machetes, Kneerim said. The first chapter is
likely to open with his childhood. Rusesabagina left Rwanda in 1996 to live in
Brussels. He is working with a co-writer, American journalist Tom Zoellner, while
giving lectures across the United States. Kneerim said she also sold British rights
for the book and was in talks with publishers in other countries for the French,
German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese editions of the book.
Sudan
news.independent.co.uk
28 Apr 2005 Nato poised for first African engagement in Darfur By Stephen
Castle in Brussels 28 April 2005 Nato is on the verge of its first mission
in sub-Saharan Africa, after the African Union turned to the transatlantic alliance
for logistical help for its monitoring operations in Sudan's conflict-ravaged
Darfur region. Within hours of receiving the request, Nato's ambassadors gave
the go-ahead for talks on how it can help assist the AU's observation mission
and discussions will start "as soon as possible", Nato said. There is no prospect
of alliance soldiers being committed to the operation, which will probably focus
on providing transport and other technical needs. Nato involvement has been encouraged
by the US, which pressed the case at a recent meeting of the alliance's foreign
ministers in Vilnius, Lithuania, in the face of French resistance. France has
already sent a deployment in the region. The African sub-continent had been seen
as an obvious sphere of operations for the EU's new military force which mounted
a mission to Congo two years ago. One French idea for Darfur was that its logistical
support and air surveillance operation, based in Chad, might be turned into an
EU military mission. That prospect seems less likely following yesterday morning's
written request to Nato from Alpha Oumar Konare, the chairman of the AU Commission,
who is expected to visit the alliance's Brussels headquarters next month. James
Appathurai, Nato's chief spokesman, said: "What has to be decided is what the
AU needs and what is already provided and whether Nato can add value.But certainly
this is the first time Nato would be engaged in any significant way in sub-Saharan
Africa." The Sudanese government insists only African troops can be involved
in intervention and other Nato and EU diplomats are frustrated by the limited
progress made by the AU. "It is a question of choosing the most appropriate organisation
for the operation," one official said. Tens of thousands of people have been killed
and more than two million have fled their homes during the last two years of violence
in Darfur involving Arab militias, non-Arab rebels and Sudanese government forces
in the province. The deployment of more than 2,000 African Union peace monitors
has helped calm the situation in some areas. But the force remains small relative
to its task, and its mandate is limited, preventing it from enforcing the peace.
It is likely, however, that the AU force will be given a stronger mandate to protect
civilians who are under threat.
AFP
29 May 2005 African Union to double Darfur mission From correspondents
in Addis Ababa THE African Union (AU) decided today to double the strength of
its peace monitoring mission in Sudan's troubled western region of Darfur within
five months, officials said. The AU's Peace and Security Council agreed to increase
the size of its Darfur mission from the 3320 that will be deployed by the end
of May to 7731 by the end of September, they said. The council, modelled after
the UN Security Council, approved an increase that will see a total of 6171 military
personnel and 1,560 civilian police deployed in Darfur by September 30, said Said
Djinnit, the AU commissioner for peace and security. The AU has had a peace monitoring
mission in Darfur since last summer which currently numbers 2200 men. The decision
by the council came a day after the AU formally asked to start talks with NATO
for logistical support in its Darfur mission. It was not immediately clear about
how NATO might help concretely, but the alliance has large logistics, transport
and operating planning capacities at its disposal. Overnight at AU headquarters
here, UN chief Kofi Annan's special envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said that as far
as he was concerned the AU force in Darfur, should number 12,000. The Darfur conflict,
which pits rebels against pro-government militia, has resulted in between 180,000
and 300,000 deaths and the displacement of some two million people. Negotiations
between the parties in the conflict have been suspended for the past several months
following repeated violations of the cease-fire agreement signed in April 2004.
They are scheduled to resume early May in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
Reuters
29 Apr 2005 Sudan should try Darfur war crimes suspects - minister Fri
April 29, 2005 8:51 AM GMT+02:00 By Opheera McDoom KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan
should set up an independent court to try people accused of war crimes in the
troubled region of Darfur, a senior official said on Thursday. The comments
of Justice Minister Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin were the first indication that Khartoum
may start cooperating with a U.N. resolution on bringing people suspected of war
crimes in the vast western region to justice. Last month's Security Council
resolution referred Darfur war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court
(ICC) in The Hague. But it also left the door open for Sudan to hold its own trials
provided these were credible, saying the ICC should encourage such domestic efforts.
Sudanese officials have rejected the possibility of the country's citizens being
tried in a foreign court. Yassin said he would propose to the government at a
meeting on Saturday that Sudan conduct credible and independent investigations,
working alongside the ICC's chief prosecutor. "I'm suggesting that we appoint
an independent court from experienced judges, some from outside the judiciary
and some from within," he said. "That will be an independent court to try people
accused of crimes in Darfur." "I also think an independent prosecutor should be
appointed -- an impartial, independent and experienced Sudanese, who can do his
job as a counterpart to the prosecutor-general of the ICC," he added. Rebels
took up arms more than two years ago in Darfur accusing the central government
of neglect and of giving Arab tribes preferential treatment over non-Arabs in
the arid region. More than 2 million people have since fled their homes to makeshift
camps, creating a humanitarian crisis. The United States said last year the Darfur
violence, in which tens of thousands have been killed, was genocide and held the
government and allied Arab militias responsible. Yassin is the head of a committee
which has been studying the U.N. resolution. Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail
said he thought his proposal would be adopted by the government. The Rome Statute
which created the ICC says that suspects tried in credible and just proceedings
in their own country cannot be tried again at the Hague-based tribunal. But legal
experts say it would be hard for the government to convince the ICC that Sudan
could hold such trials. "If they try officials and happen to find them innocent,
I think they will still be sent to the ICC," said one U.N. source. A U.N.-appointed
commission, which said heinous war crimes had likely taken place in Darfur, said
in January that the Sudanese justice system had been significantly weakened and
it did not believe it was capable of trying war crimes suspects. It gave a sealed
list of 51 suspects including senior government and military officials, militia
and rebel leaders and foreign army officers, to the United Nations. The list is
now with the ICC.
NYT 29 Apr 2005
Sudan Poses First Big Trial for World Criminal Court By MARLISE SIMONS THE
HAGUE - Almost three years after the International Criminal Court opened over
United States opposition, the United Nations Security Council asked it to investigate
atrocities in Sudan and, in the process, placed the court squarely in the international
spotlight. By any measure, the request was an important vote of confidence in
the new tribunal. But at the court's glass-and-steel headquarters in The Hague,
the reaction has been less than euphoric. Still wrestling with the mechanics of
how to carry out its mandate to deal with large-scale human rights abuses, the
new institution faces high expectations but lacks practical experience. Unlike
temporary tribunals, such as those addressing Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone,
this is the world's first permanent and independent criminal court for judging
war crimes. The chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has taken up two cases,
involving large-scale killings in Uganda and Congo, but neither case is expected
to come to court soon. On the conflict in Darfur in Western Sudan, however, where
as many as 300,000 people have been killed and more than two million others displaced,
the court is under pressure to act swiftly, not only in the hope of ending the
bloodshed but also, some diplomats say, because it would allow the Security Council
to postpone direct intervention and nonetheless appear to be taking action. Darfur
will put the court to its first major test, as it carves a legal path from accusation,
through investigation and indictment, all the way to trial, verdict and punishment.
Christian Palme, a spokesman for the prosecution, said he did not know when the
Darfur investigation would formally begin. "But you can count on the work being
expeditious," he said. In mid-April, court analysts began poring over nine boxes
of material collected by a United Nations commission of inquiry that spent three
months scrutinizing Sudan's ethnic killing campaign and its humanitarian crisis.
Antonio Cassese, an Italian law professor, led that commission, and he knew what
to look for, having served for almost eight years as a judge of the war crimes
tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He said the boxes contained the type of material
used to document other war crimes, including photographs and videos of weapons,
ammunition and war damage, as well as hundreds of statements from military officers,
rebels, prisoners and witnesses to atrocities. "The prosecutor will use this as
he deems fit, but our material can provide clues, where to investigate, how to
identify perpetrators," Mr. Cassese said. His 30-member team, which included 13
investigators, also prepared a list of suspects. Among the 51 names listed, he
said, were "military and civilians about whom there is much convincing evidence."
That evidence includes accounts from senior military officers that the Sudanese
government "openly uses militia gangs, gives them weapons and salaries and tells
them to kill and burn and it backs them up with planes and helicopters," Mr. Cassese
said. "There is no restraint. More than 2,000 villages have been burnt. The scale
of looting, raping and torture is horrible." Since the commission sent the 51
names to the court, much speculation has occurred in Darfur over who they are.
"People see themselves as on the list," a Western diplomat said. "They're asking
questions. They're saying, 'If I'm on the list, what can I do about it?' " For
the time being, though, the wealth of material provided by the commission cannot
be treated as evidence because the Cassese inquiry was a fact-finding mission
that did not collect sworn witness statements. In contrast, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo
must conduct criminal investigations that can stand up in court. He has called
on other governments and individuals to provide any information they have. "It
will be an uphill battle for the prosecutor to prepare specific cases, I don't
envy him," Mr. Cassese said, recalling that his own investigation faced many obstacles.
Lawyers familiar with the court said the prosecutor was likely to focus on a dozen
or fewer of the top suspects in Sudan's atrocities. To build his case, they say,
he must prove the chain of command during the conduct of military operations,
demonstrate who had control of the militias responsible for much of the looting,
raping and killing, and show which officials, politicians or military officers
had the authority to prevent the atrocities committed against civilians or at
least to punish the perpetrators. This means court investigators will have to
question suspects who are high-level officials, including members of the Sudanese
government, which has already objected to the court's involvement. The prosecution
will almost certainly have to turn to Western governments to request intelligence
intercepts. "With Darfur, the court has moved into the big league and now the
burden is on the prosecutor to produce," said Richard Dicker, a director of Human
Rights Watch. "He has to demonstrate to the Security Council and to the world
that he can act swiftly and effectively. Darfur certainly focuses attention in
a way that the investigations in the Congo and Uganda have not." Court officials
here said the Security Council resolution of March 31 asking the court to act
has certainly energized the staff. But some said the staff also felt apprehension.
"Most people here realize we are now under a magnifying glass," said one court
official. "It could make or break the institution." The court has 360 employees,
85 of them in the office of the prosecutor. With Darfur on its roster, the court
will accelerate its plans to hire more police investigators and legal analysts.
It draws its recruits from the 98 nations that have ratified the 1998 Rome Treaty
establishing the court. The Bush administration withdrew the United States from
the treaty and has campaigned against the court, demanding that it have no jurisdiction
over Americans. After two months of opposition and diplomatic wrangling, the Security
Council was only able to refer the Darfur crisis to the court because the United
States agreed to abstain, rather than cast its veto. European governments that
have championed the court are eager for its first major case to succeed. Foreign
Minister Michel Barnier of France, who had provided much of the drive behind the
Security Council's move, visited the court recently to be briefed on its plans.
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo, meanwhile, has gone to Washington to seek help. Sudan has told
the Cassese commission that it will never surrender any Sudanese to The Hague
and will try to block court action by opening its own investigations. "These will
have no credibility," Mr. Cassese said. "The country has no way to conduct proper
trials, the whole judiciary is flawed." More Peacekeepers Due in Darfur ADDIS
ABABA, Ethiopia, April 28 (AP) - The African Union agreed Thursday to more than
triple the size of its peacekeeping force in the Darfur region of western Sudan
by Sept. 30. The union's Peace and Security Council approved bolstering the 2,200-member
force to more than 7,700, including nearly 5,500 troops, 1,600 civilian police
and about 700 military observers, an African Union spokesman, Assane Ba, said.
Marc Lacey contributed reporting from Khartoum, Sudan,for this article.
www.latimes.com
29 Apr 2005 THE WORLD Official Pariah Sudan Valuable to America's War on Terrorism
Despite once harboring Bin Laden, Khartoum regime has supplied key intelligence,
officials say. By Ken Silverstein Times Staff Writer April 29, 2005 KHARTOUM,
Sudan — The Bush administration has forged a close intelligence partnership with
the Islamic regime that once welcomed Osama bin Laden here, even though Sudan
continues to come under harsh U.S. and international criticism for human rights
violations. The Sudanese government, an unlikely ally in the U.S. fight against
terror, remains on the most recent U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. At
the same time, however, it has been providing access to terrorism suspects and
sharing intelligence data with the United States. Last week, the CIA sent an executive
jet here to ferry the chief of Sudan's intelligence agency to Washington for secret
meetings sealing Khartoum's sensitive and previously veiled partnership with the
administration, U.S. government officials confirmed. A decade ago Bin Laden and
his fledgling Al Qaeda network were based in Khartoum. After they left for Afghanistan,
the regime of Sudanese strongman Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir retained ties
with other groups the U.S. accuses of terrorism. As recently as September,
then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell accused Sudan of committing genocide in
putting down an armed rebellion in the western province of Darfur. And the administration
warned that the African country's conduct posed "an extraordinary threat to the
national security" of the United States. Behind the scenes, however, Sudan was
emerging as a surprisingly valuable ally of the CIA. The warming relationship
has produced significant results, according to interviews with American and Sudanese
intelligence and government officials. They disclosed, for example, that: • Sudan's
Mukhabarat, its version of the CIA, has detained Al Qaeda suspects for interrogation
by U.S. agents. • The Sudanese intelligence agency has seized and turned over
to the FBI evidence recovered in raids on suspected terrorists' homes, including
fake passports. • Sudan has expelled extremists, putting them into the hands of
Arab intelligence agencies working closely with the CIA. • The regime is credited
with foiling attacks against American targets by, among other things, detaining
foreign militants moving through Sudan on their way to join forces with Iraqi
insurgents. Sudan has "given us specific information that is … important, functional
and current," said a senior State Department official who agreed to discuss intelligence
matters on condition of anonymity. The official acknowledged that the Mukhabarat
could become a "top tier" partner of the CIA. "Their competence level as a service
is very high," the official said. "You can't survive in that part of the world
without a good intelligence service, and they are in a position to provide significant
help." From Khartoum the view is markedly upbeat. "American intelligence considers
us to be a friend," said Maj. Gen. Yahia Hussein Babiker, a senior official in
Sudan's government. During an interview at the presidential palace, Babiker said
Sudan had achieved "a complete normalization of our relations with the CIA." Intelligence
chief Maj. Gen. Salah Abdallah Gosh, who otherwise declined comment for this article,
told The Times: "We have a strong partnership with the CIA. The information we
have provided has been very useful to the United States." The paradox of a U.S.-Sudanese
intelligence partnership is personified by Gosh. Members of Congress accused him
and other senior Sudanese officials of directing military attacks against civilians
in Darfur. During the 1990s, the Mukhabarat assigned Gosh to be its Al Qaeda minder.
In that role he had regular contacts with Bin Laden, a former Mukhabarat official
confirmed. Today, Gosh is keeping in contact with the office of CIA Director Porter
J. Goss and senior agency officials. In exchange for the collaboration, which
has been largely unpublicized, Khartoum wants to be removed from the list of state
sponsors of terrorism. It is also pressing Washington to lift long-standing economic
sanctions barring most trade between the two countries. "There can be a strong
[intelligence] partnership, but there is some hesitation because the diplomatic
relationship remains poor," said Gutbi al-Mahdi, a former head of the Mukhabarat
and currently senior presidential advisor for political affairs. Babiker, a former
deputy director of the Mukhabarat, said the CIA was seeking to smooth the broader
political relationship between the Bush administration and the Bashir regime.
The cooperation is politically delicate for both sides. Bashir's government faces
strong internal opposition — including critics within the regime itself — to cooperating
with the U.S. Responding to an uproar over rumors of collaboration with the administration
in late 2001, Bashir told a Khartoum news conference, "I swear in God's name that
we have not handed and will not hand in any [terrorism suspects] to the United
States." Official acknowledgment of the relationship by Washington could also
create a political backlash in the U.S. Sudan's government has been accused of
large-scale human rights violations, and the administration has been one of its
leading global critics. In Congress, allies of human rights advocates share strong
anti-Sudanese sentiment with supporters of conservative Christian groups that
have been sympathetic to Christian and animist rebels in southern Sudan, where
a peace deal has taken hold. Concern that the White House might soften its policy
toward Sudan on the Darfur issue to encourage intelligence assistance was raised
in an October report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. It said
Gosh and other Sudanese officials had played "key roles in directing … attacks
against civilians" and noted that the administration was "concerned that going
after these individuals could disrupt cooperation on counter-terrorism." The administration
denies that it is retreating in any way. A senior administration official called
intelligence-sharing one of "the building blocks" of U.S.-Sudanese relations but
said "it wouldn't matter unless there was progress in other areas," including
human rights. "We began mobilizing and leading international pressure on Khartoum
ever since the dimensions of the Darfur situation became clear, and we have continued
to do so ever since," the official said. -The CIA jet waiting on the tarmac
here last week opened its doors to a stocky, cherub-faced man with a thin mustache
and a smoldering cigarette. It was spy chief Gosh, and when he boarded, it was
only the latest step in Sudan's secret effort to improve relations with the U.S.
— using its historic ties with extremists to benefit counter-terrorism operations.
. Sudan became a haven for Islamic radicals after the 1989 military coup that
brought Bashir to power. He promptly declared that any Muslim could enter the
country without a passport. Khartoum had become a "Holiday Inn for terrorists,"
Barbara Bodine, a State Department official in the Clinton administration, said
later. Visitors to Khartoum during the period included members of the hard-line
Abu Nidal faction that had broken with the Palestine Liberation Organization,
Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Islamist guerrillas fighting governments in neighboring
African states. Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, lived
in relative luxury in Khartoum during the early 1990s. Regulars at local hotels
said he took breakfasts of coffee and croissants at the Meridien and had his hair
styled at the Hilton. The Mukhabarat expelled Carlos in 1994, handing him to French
authorities, reportedly while the terrorist was under an anesthetic for a vasectomy
reversal operation. Bin Laden moved his business and operations base to Khartoum
in 1991 due to increasing conflict with Saudi Arabia, which revoked his citizenship
three years later. His construction company built roads around the Sudanese capital.
Al Qaeda expanded ties and offered financial support to a variety of radical Islamic
groups. As a Mukhabarat officer, Gosh began serving as an intermediary between
the intelligence agency and Bin Laden's fledgling Al Qaeda network. Jack Cloonan,
a former FBI agent involved in tracking Bin Laden, said Sudanese members of Al
Qaeda later told the bureau about Gosh's contacts with the Saudi-born terrorist.
"We remained wary of him … for obvious reasons, but we never had any prima facie
evidence linking Gosh to any Al Qaeda [activities]," Cloonan said in an interview
Maj. Gen. Elfatih Mohammed Ahmed Erwa, now Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations
and formerly a senior Mukhabarat officer, said that Gosh at the time held the
rank of colonel in the spy service and was not a decision-maker. "He was charged
with keeping an eye on those people," he said. "He was monitoring their contacts,
not discussing politics with them or facilitating their activities." By 1993,
the Clinton administration had listed Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism, citing
the country's "disturbing relationship with a wide range of Islamic extremists."
It said Sudan's support of terrorists "included paramilitary training, indoctrination,
money, travel documentation, safe passage and refuge." In late 1995, the U.S.
shut down its CIA station in Khartoum and, in February 1996, withdrew its ambassador.
Sudanese officials said their government, alarmed by the frayed ties, tried repeatedly
without success to regain favor by turning over Bin Laden to either the Saudis
or the U.S. Even after Sudan forced Bin Laden to move operations to Afghanistan
in 1996, the regime continued to make overtures to the White House and the FBI.
In letters reviewed by The Times, Sudan offered cooperation on counter-terrorism
efforts. The Clinton administration accepted an invitation by Sudan to send a
CIA-FBI counter-terrorism team to Khartoum in mid-2000, but otherwise the Bashir
regime's overtures were rejected — even when, Cloonan said, it offered to turn
over two suspects in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa. Tim
Carney, the last ambassador to Sudan, said the stated goal of American policy
was to win cooperation from the Bashir regime, but he believed that the "real
agenda" was to bring on the regime's collapse. "That's largely why there was no
effort whatsoever to respond to Sudan's initiatives," he said. Others were skeptical
of Sudan's intent. John Prendergast, who served at the National Security Council
during Clinton's second term, said Bashir's regime remained committed to a radical
Islamist project. "Their promises of cooperation were totally opportunistic and
were designed to get sanctions removed," he said. The newly installed Bush administration
took steps early in 2001 to improve relations with Khartoum, Sudanese and American
officials said. In July, Walter Kansteiner, then assistant secretary of State
for African affairs, met secretly in Kenya with Sudan's foreign minister. Another
clandestine meeting followed in London, attended by Babiker, then Sudan's deputy
intelligence chief. The meetings explored possible cooperation on terrorism issues.
But there was little progress until the Sept. 11 attacks that year on the United
States, which Sudan condemned. In late September, Kansteiner and the CIA's Africa
division chief held discussions with Babiker at the U.S. Embassy in London. A
deal was struck. Days later, the Bush administration abstained on a vote at the
United Nations, with the result that Sudan was freed from international sanctions
imposed for its alleged role in efforts to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak in 1995. At roughly the same time, the Sudanese turned over to the U.S.
a stack of intelligence files several inches thick. They contained the cream of
the information collected on members of Al Qaeda and other extremist groups during
their years in Khartoum and thereafter. The intelligence partnership had begun
in earnest. By November 2001, the CIA had an active station in Khartoum, according
to multiple sources. Among other programs, the agency was running surveillance
on suspected foreign extremists with the knowledge and assistance of the Mukhabarat.
Material obtained by Sudanese intelligence was turned over to U.S. investigators
by Babiker, said former FBI agent Cloonan — including counterfeit visa stamps
and blank passports from Arab countries seized in a raid on a terrorism suspect's
home. Cloonan and several FBI colleagues arrived in Sudan that month to interrogate
several longtime Al Qaeda members residing in Khartoum. The interviews were conducted
at safe houses arranged by Sudanese intelligence. The Mukhabarat brought the suspects
to the FBI. Among those Cloonan questioned were Mohammed Bayazid, a Syrian American
whose alleged ties to Bin Laden dated to the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan
after Moscow's 1979 invasion. Bayazid allegedly sought to obtain uranium for Al
Qaeda. Another person interrogated was Mubarak Douri, an Iraqi who was regarded
as part of Bin Laden's business infrastructure. Cloonan said Douri and a second
Iraqi laughed when he pressed them about possible Bin Laden ties to Saddam Hussein's
regime. "They said Bin Laden hated Saddam," the retired FBI investigator recalled.
Bin Laden considered Hussein "a Scotch-drinking, woman-chasing apostate," the
Iraqis told the former federal agent. The Mukhabarat also allowed the FBI to interview
the manager at Al Shamal Bank, where Bin Laden held multiple business accounts
while living in Sudan, Cloonan said. Those records were made available to U.S.
investigators as well. "Until then, the Sudanese had a credibility problem with
the U.S., but they gave us everything we asked for," Cloonan said. Robert Oakley,
a retired diplomat who served as special assistant to former Sen. John C. Danforth
(R-Mo.), the Bush administration's special presidential envoy to Sudan at the
time, said intelligence cooperation had a positive influence on overall ties between
Washington and Khartoum. "Our relationship with their Foreign Ministry was fragile,"
he said. "The only established relationship we had was through the intelligence
channel because we had our people working directly with them." Collaboration with
Sudan has steadily deepened since then. Prendergast, the former National Security
Council official, said the Sudanese have provided information to U.S. intelligence
about extremist suspects. "They are valuable on these connections because they
were deep in it," he said. "They know aliases, business backgrounds, banking information
and other data." At the request of American agencies, the Mukhabarat has continued
to detain suspected extremists, some of whom have been interrogated by the FBI
and CIA. "Some were implicated in [terrorist] activities," Babiker said. "Others
had a chance to talk and cleared themselves." A U.S. source familiar with Sudan's
cooperation said, "They've not only told us who the bad guys were, they've gone
out and gotten them for us. Hell, we can't get the French to do that." Sudanese
and American sources confirmed that the Bashir government has turned over terrorist
suspects to other Arab security services, including agencies in Egypt, Saudi Arabia
and Libya, another country long at odds with the U.S. that has been cooperating
on counter-terrorism. One of those expelled to the Saudi kingdom was a Sudanese
national named Abu Huzifa, a suspected Al Qaeda operative who reportedly admitted
taking part in a failed 2002 plot to shoot down an American military plane in
Saudi Arabia with a surface-to-air missile. He was sentenced by the Saudis to
prison for committing "terrorist acts against vital installations in the kingdom."
Sudan also has initiated an internal crackdown on suspected extremists, and it
is closely monitoring foreigners moving through the country. "If they detect someone
coming in that we might be concerned about, they let us know," the senior State
Department official said. In May 2003, security forces raided a suspected terrorist
training camp in Sudan. They arrested more than a dozen people — mostly Saudis,
who were expelled to the kingdom. Four months later, a Sudanese court convicted
three men accused of training foreign radicals to conduct attacks in Iraq, Eritrea
and Israel, a State Department report said. Beyond its cooperation since 9/11,
Sudan's intelligence service presents an opportunity to gather information on
suspected extremist groups in countries where U.S. agents are unable to operate
effectively. Middle Eastern and Muslim intelligence agencies such as the Mukhabarat
can "get firsthand information while we get 10th-hand information," said Lee S.
Wolosky, a former National Security Council staffer in the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail acknowledged in an interview that
the Mukhabarat already has served as the eyes and ears of the CIA in Somalia,
a sanctuary for Islamic militants. Late last year, a senior Mukhabarat official
met in Washington with the CIA's counter-terrorism center to discuss Iraq, according
to sources familiar with the talks. . Though the Bashir regime vocally opposed
the American invasion of Iraq, it never had close ties with Hussein's regime,
which repressed religious parties and movements. But in 2003, as the U.S. invasion
of Iraq neared, Hussein sympathizers recruited local and foreign jihadists to
fight American troops, sending small numbers to Baghdad. The Mukhabarat monitored
and rolled up the pro-Hussein network. Those efforts also "led to the discovery
of cells in other countries that were active and planning to target U.S. interests,"
Babiker said. Sudan's extensive cooperation with the U.S. has been noted in the
State Department's annual reports on terrorism. The latest report said Sudan's
assistance had "produced significant progress in combating terrorist activity."
A senior U.S. government official familiar with terrorist threats in the region
said Khartoum was not at present a state sponsor of terrorism. "These are not
all nice guys, but they have gone way past a passing grade on counter-terrorism
cooperation and don't technically belong on the list," he said. "The reason they
are still there is Darfur, which is not related to state-sponsored terrorism but
makes lifting sanctions now politically impossible." The State Department list
also includes Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea and Syria. In March, the U.S. successfully
pushed for a U.N. resolution imposing sanctions on Sudanese officials implicated
in Darfur atrocities. The Bashir government rejects charges of genocide in
Darfur and denies that senior officials such as Gosh have ordered attacks on civilians,
which it blames on rogue army elements and militias that it says largely operate
beyond its control. In late March, Sudan announced that it had arrested and
charged 15 members of its military and security forces with war crimes. Former
assistant secretary of State Kansteiner said Sudan's collaboration with the CIA
did not win it a free pass from the Bush administration. "We always made clear
that the relationship was not just about counter-terrorism, but also about the
peace process with the south and human rights in general," he said. But critics
are impatient for a stronger response on Darfur. "We have not taken adequate
measures given the enormity of the crimes because we don't want to directly confront
Sudan [on Darfur] when it is cooperating on terrorism," said Prendergast, the
former National Security Council staffer. Last month, Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice sent a letter to the Bashir government calling for steps to end the conflict
in Darfur. But the letter, reviewed by The Times, also congratulated Sudan for
increased cooperation with an African Union mission to Darfur. It also said the
administration hoped to establish a "fruitful relationship" with Sudan and looked
forward to continued "close cooperation" on terrorism.
IRIN
29 Apr 2005 First blue berets arrive [ This report does not necessarily
reflect the views of the United Nations] NAIROBI, 29 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - The
arrival of 12 Nepalese soldiers in the central Sudanese city of El-Obeid this
week signalled the start of the deployment of UN peacekeepers across the country
to monitor the ceasefire agreement and stabilise the southern region, a UN spokesperson
said. "The first six troops arrived last Monday and another six came on Wednesday,
together with their equipment," George Somerwill, deputy spokesperson for the
United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), told IRIN on Friday. "They are drivers
and logistical support personnel, not military observers," he said, noting that
they would eventually move to the eastern Sudanese town of Kassala. "Other Nepalese
troops landed this morning [Friday], and we expect more to arrive over the following
days," he added. According to Somerwill, India, Egypt, and Zambia were among the
countries that had pledged to contribute substantial contingents of soldiers and
military observers. The UN Security Council on March 24 unanimously approved the
deployment of 10,000 troops and more than 700 civilian police to southern Sudan
for an initial period of six months to support the 9 January Comprehensive Peace
Agreement signed between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The agreement ended two decades of civil war in the south.
The council provided UNMIS with the mandate to monitor and verify the ceasefire
agreement, help set up a disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme
for former combatants and promote national reconciliation and human rights. The
UN military deployment plan had been finalised, the UNMIS spokesperson noted,
"but it is all quite fluid still". "I’m not aware of any other scheduled deployments
in the immediate future," Somerwill added. General Fazle Elahi Akbar, the Bangladeshi
UN force commander, visited the main southern cities of Malakal, Wau and Juba
on 21 and 22 April to assess the ground preparations for the deployment. Meanwhile,
on Monday, the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) reportedly ambushed
and killed nine people near Juba in southern Sudan. "A civilian convoy which was
going to Torit from Juba was ambushed by LRA elements and they managed to kill
about seven civilians and two soldiers two days back," Joseph Duer, a minister
in the regional southern government was quoted by Reuters News Agency as saying
on Wednesday. A senior Sudanese military official who declined to be named said
the news had not yet reached the army headquarters in Khartoum. "Many, many attacks
on military and civilian vehicles happen on the road from Juba to Torit," the
official told IRIN on Thursday. "The LRA has a base east of Torit, in the Imatong
Hills. That’s where these attacks are coming from," he added. The Uganda army
spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN on Thursday that he had heard reports
from leaders in the north but had been unable to verify the ambush from his own
sources. On 21 April, about 15 LRA fighters attacked the town of Nimule on the
Ugandan border but were repelled by SPLM/A forces. Two civilians and one SPLM/A
soldier were reportedly killed in the attack. According to a UN report published
on Tuesday, an SPLM/A delegation met with top leadership of the Equatoria military
area on 14 April in Juba to explore ways in which to fight the LRA jointly. According
to the report, an agreement had been reached between the government forces and
the SPLM/A to conduct joint operations against the LRA until they were pushed
across the border into Uganda. The LRA has waged a 19-year war against the government
of President Yoweri Museveni and is known for targeting and mutilating civilians.
More than 20,000 children have been abducted to serve as fighters, porters and
sex slaves during that time.
washingtonpost.com
3 May 2005 Sudan's Unbowed, Unbroken Inner Circle Tight Web of Savvy Leaders
Withstands International Criticism By Emily Wax Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 3, 2005; A01 KHARTOUM, Sudan -- The men who control Africa's largest
country -- the key architects of the conflict in Darfur -- hail from two tiny,
interwoven Arab tribes. Many of them grew up together and graduated from Khartoum
University. They often sit together in cafés beside the Nile, bickering about
politics and religion over endless cups of sweet tea. They attend the weddings
of one another's sons and daughters, who frequently marry within the two tribes.
They are neighbors and rivals, nephews and cousins. Politics in Sudan is often
a family affair, and as in any family, there are occasional feuds. For instance,
Hassan Turabi, a college professor and radical Islamic cleric, led a military
coup in 1989 against his brother-in-law Sadiq Madhi, the country's popularly elected
leader. The main backers of the coup were Turabi's protégés, Omar Hassan Bashir
and Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha, now Sudan's president and vice president. Yet
not long before that, Madhi had presided over the wedding ceremony of Taha and
his bride, Turabi's cousin. "In Sudan we say, 'You meet your enemies at weddings,'
" said Turabi's son Issam, 39, whose father has been jailed or under house arrest
for nearly five years after a bitter falling-out with Bashir and Taha. "All of
politics in Khartoum is a bunch of warring families trying to stay in power over
one another." This is Sudan's ruling elite: shadowy and insular, cliquish and
fractious. It's an unusual arrangement for a continent more accustomed to the
rule of patriarchal Big Men, such as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Zaire's Mobutu
Sese Seko, with a single personality dominating the national psyche. Despite their
tendency to feud, the ministers and security officials in Sudan's inner circle
form a tight web of power that combines tribal, religious and military elements.
Its formal name is the National Islamic Front, but it is known in Khartoum as
the "security cabal." The cohesion of this club has enabled the government
to weather the chill of world condemnation for years -- first in the 1990s for
harboring terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and waging a protracted war against
African rebels in the south, and now for carrying out a second armed campaign
in the western region of Darfur. Even though both the Bush administration and
the United Nations have spoken out on the situation in Darfur, with U.S. officials
even terming it a case of genocide, the Khartoum government has remained entrenched.
And Taha, the man widely viewed as the chief architect of Darfur's war, has now
repackaged himself as the voice of reconciliation, heading peace talks with its
rebel groups. "When this government first came, they had their own project" to
build an Islamic state, said Mahjoub Mohamed Saleh, editor of Al Ayam, an independent
newspaper here. "But eventually it became survival politics -- to remain in power
at any cost. "If that means dropping an Islamic agenda and kicking out bin Laden,
then fine," he said. "If that means making peace in the south, then fine. If that
means reversing themselves on Darfur publicly, then fine. As long as they stay
in power, they are willing to appease the international community and do just
enough to maintain control." A New Power Rises During the 1960s, Sudan's Muslim
Brotherhood was born on the campus of Khartoum University, once one of Africa's
most prestigious schools. The charismatic, urbane Turabi taught law there, wearing
neckties as comfortably as turbans, sliding easily between Arabic and English,
and courting Western visitors with warm hospitality. Yet Turabi was also a religious
leader who inculcated his students with a mission that included spreading the
Arabization of Africa and spearheading the rise of Islam as a form of government
in secular states. In 1985, the Muslim Brotherhood was renamed the National Islamic
Front, and in 1989 it seized power. After the coup, Turabi was widely considered
the force behind the throne, while the popular Bashir ruled as president and Taha,
an astute intellectual and former judge, acted as chief aide to Turabi, his spiritual
mentor. Taha and a group of senior ministers formed the mainstay of what officials
call Sudan's Islamic revolution. They installed strict Islamic law, or sharia
, and launched a campaign to convert the Christian and animist
