Africa

Burundi

AFP 31 Aug 2004 Burundi moves to set up South African-style truth commission BUJUMBURA, Aug 31 (AFP) - The National Assembly of Burundi, a central African country which has witnessed several inter-ethnic massacres since its independence in 1962, on Tuesday passed legislation establishing a South-African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The bill was passed by a vote of 121 in favor, 11 against and 18 abstentions, Jean Minani, chairman of the transitional National Assembly, said. Absent from the vote was the parliamentary group of the country's main rebel group, the Hutu Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD). "Creation of this commission is a major step on the path to peace and reconciliation between the sons and daughters of this country," Minani said. The commission will be tasked to "establish the truth on all acts of violence perpetrated in Burundi since independence on July 1, 1962, establish responsibilities and the identity of those responsible," according to the bill. More than 300,000 people have died in Burundi since rebels from the Hutu ethnic majority took up arms in 1993 against the government and army led by the minority Tutsi ethnic group. The bill now goes to the Senate, where approval is a foregone conclusion as the FDD, the only group which opposes the legislation, is not represented. The commission's 25 members must be appointed by the head of state in consultation with the government, which includes the FDD. The body will have a two-year term, which can be extended by another year. It is patterned on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission which began hearings in 1996 to shed light on apartheid-era atrocities. That commission completed its work in 2003, after having compiled a list of some 19,050 names of victims of gross human rights violations under apartheid between 1960 and 1994. Perpetrators of the crimes were given amnesties if they showed remorse and fully disclosed the nature of their acts before the commission, while victims were able to confront those responsible for their pain.

BBC 3 Sep 2004 Tutsis boycott Burundi cabinet President Ndayizeye must organise elections by end of October Ministers from Burundi's leading Tutsi parties have boycotted a cabinet meeting called to discuss the drafting of a new constitution. Last month, the Uprona party and its nine allies refused to sign a South African-brokered power-sharing deal, to form the basis of the constitution. They want further dialogue about power-sharing between Hutus and Tutsis, who make up 15% of the population. Without a new constitution, elections due by 31 October cannot go ahead. Political process jeopardised The boycotters, led by Vice-President Alfons Marie Kadege, said they were not withdrawing from government. But they insisted there needed to be a "national consensus" on power-sharing or the whole political peace process would be jeopardised. POWER SHARING National Assembly: 60% Hutu, 40% Tutsis 3 Twa seats Government: 60% Hutu, 40% Tutsis Senate: 50% Hutu, 50% Tutsis 3 Twa seats Q&A: Burundi's peace Reacting to the boycott, presidential spokesman Panrace Cimpaye said as ministers in government they are beholden to President Domitien Ndayizeye, not their individual parties. The cabinet meeting, he stressed, was to discuss a new constitution, not impose it, and as such was the dialogue the Tutsi parties were calling for. The Pretoria accords state the national assembly and government comprise 60% ethnic Hutus and 40% Tutsis. But Uprona wants seats to be given to parties as well as ethnic groups. The Burundi parliament approved on Tuesday an independent electoral commission which includes three Hutus and two Tutsis to oversee the country's first elections. Some 300,000 people have been killed since the civil war broke out in 1993. About 5,000 United Nations peacekeepers are in the country to support the South African-brokered peace process.

Reuters 4 Sep 2004 UN officials surprised by massacre "findings" By David Lewis KINSHASA, Sept 4 (Reuters) - A U.N. investigation into a massacre of Congolese refugees in Burundi has not yet determined who carried out the killings, U.N. officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo said on Saturday. "There was a preliminary report but it was decided that another multi-disciplinary team should investigate further," said Albrecht Conze, co-chair of the U.N. team in Congo and Burundi compiling the report. "We have been tasked to carry out this investigation and are currently working on our findings and the report," he told Reuters on Saturday. Conze's comments came after reports on Friday that the world body had evidence the slaughter was carried out by Burundian rebels and two armed groups from neighbouring Congo. More than 160 Tutsi refugees were killed at the Gatumba camp in August. A Burundian rebel group took responsibility, saying it had been aiming to hit a nearby military base. However Rwanda and Burundi have accused armed groups operating in Congo and have threatened to invade their vast neighbour to hunt down those they consider responsible. Diplomats in New York said Hedi Annabi, U.N. assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, had told a closed-door Security Council briefing that the slaughter by the three groups was "meticulously planned" and launched from Congo. U.N. officials in Congo said they were surprised to see these remarks given that those compiling the report had not yet drawn their conclusions and the evidence was scant. "This is going to create a lot of confusion and it is going to put (U.N. peacekeepers) in a difficult position. So far there is no concrete evidence to suggest this," said a second senior U.N. official in Congo, who declined to be named. The United Nations has 10,800 peacekeepers in Congo, helping the vast central African nation emerge from a five-year civil war which sucked in six neighbouring armies. "The first report documented the human rights violations (at the Gatumba camp) and outlined the possible scenarios of who was responsible," he said. Pancrace Cimpaye, a spokesman for Burundi's presidency, said it would not make any comment until it had seen the U.N. report. Henri Mova Sakanyi, spokesman for Congo's government urged investigators to find out who was responsible for the attack. "The people investigating need to be more precise and say exactly who is responsible," he said. "I have the impression that they are just repeating what people said a few hours after the massacre. That would be regrettable." (Additional reporting by Patrick Nduwimana in Bujumbura)

D R Congo

IRIN 1 Sept 2004 UN report suggests DRC groups participated in Burundi massacre NAIROBI, 1 Sep 2004 (IRIN) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has cited evidence that a Burundian rebel group acted in consort with armed groups from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) when it carried out a massacre of refugees at Gatumba on the Burundian side of the border. Annan said in his first report on the UN Operation in Burundi (ONUB): "Eyewitnesses reported to ONUB that [the rebel Forces nationales de libération] FNL had actually attacked a nearby FAB (Burundi Armed Forces) base, while Congolese Mayi-Mayi and FDLR (Rwandan [Hutu] ex-FAR/Interahamwe) elements carried out the Gatumba massacre." He said the attackers appeared to target refugees who were Tutsis from the DRC, known as the Banyamulenge, "while refugees of other ethnic groups and repatriated Burundians were left unharmed". He also said the FDLR denied any involvement in the attack. A joint MONUC/ONUB team began an investigation on 16 August to establish the facts. The massacre has increased regional tensions and threatened to undo the DRC's fragile transitional coalition government. Various Banyamulenge leaders have accused leaders in Kinshasa of complicity. One of the DRC's vice-presidents, Azarias Ruberwa, who is Tutsi, temporarily suspended his participation in the government. South African President Thabo Mbeki has come to Kinshasa to mediate. "The Gatumba massacre and reports of a possible alliance between FNL and Rwandan and Congolese armed groups is a worrying development not only for Burundi but also for the entire subregion," Annan said.

AFP 1 Sept 2004 UN in DRC starts disarmament programme in troubled Ituri region KINSHASA, Sept 1 (AFP) - The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Wednesday launched its disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme of armed militias in the strife-torn eastern Ituri region. "The DRC programme was launched as expected in (Ituri's main town of) Bunia and throughout the region," said Patricia Tome, spokeswoman of the mission known as MONUC. It was done in the presence of UN and DRC officials, as well as leaders of Ituri's armed militias, Tome said. MONUC expressed its hope that Ituri's main armed militias respected the committment they made in May in the capital Kinshasa to help the transition government bring peace to Ituri and restore the authority of the state there. Even as the rest of DRC moves slowly toward recovery from its brutal 1998-2003 war -- which saw some 2.5 million people die in combat and from disease and hunger, according to the UN -- Ituri remains plagued by inter-ethnic violence. At least 55,000 people have been killed in the gold- and diamond-rich region of Ituri, which borders Uganda, since 1999 and half a million others driven from their homes. Ituri district commissioner Petronille Vaweka called on all armed groups to "take part massively in this programme." The voluntary programme targets around 15,000 former fighters, including 6,000 children. Those disarming will each receive a 50-dollar payment and be temporarily housed in orientation centres for idenitification purposes. Elsewhere in DRC, a MONUC official announced that the military court in Katanga had on August 26 resumed a hearing into 22 soldiers accused of crimes against humanity. Luc Henkinbrant said the landmark case, which had been delayed from April, involved 22 soldiers on counts of "rape, pillage and murder" in a raid on the village of Ankoro in November 2002. The United Nations has 10,800 troops in DRC charged with protecting military observers and overseeing key aspects of the country's overall peace process, such as the disarmament of some of the militia groups.

HRW 2 Sept 2004 D.R. Congo: Ituri Court Must Prosecute Gravest Crimes Donors and DRC Authorities Should Increase Funding for Local Courts (Brussels, September 2, 2004) – Judges in the newly restored court in the Ituri district of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) must intensify efforts to prosecute serious human rights crimes, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. Since 1999, armed conflict among rebel factions, local ethnic groups, and foreign fighters in the northeastern region has resulted in numerous atrocities that have gone unpunished. On August 17, the court in Bunia, Ituri’s capital, handed down its most serious conviction so far. Human Rights Watch welcomed the court’s prosecution of Commander Rafiki Saba Aimaible, the former security chief of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an armed group in Ituri responsible for serious crimes. Commander Rafiki was found guilty of arbitrary arrests aggravated by torture, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. With support from the European Commission, the Ituri court resumed its work six months ago after having been closed since May 2003, when its judges had to flee deteriorating security conditions. However, the new investigative judges assigned to the court have largely limited prosecutions to minor crimes and have not investigated the more serious human rights abuses. In one case, the leader of one armed group was charged on the basis of theft, but the prosecutor failed to bring charges of murder, rape, or torture committed by people under the suspect’s direct command, which had been documented by Human Rights Watch. The court has lacked the political will to take on these more serious cases. National courts, such as the tribunal in Bunia, will need to complement the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which started investigating war crimes in the DRC on June 23 – the first-ever investigation by the new international court. The ICC will focus on the most senior perpetrators, and is unlikely to be able to try lesser-ranking individuals who also carried out abuses. These perpetrators will need to be tried by national courts. “If the new court in Bunia is to be effective, it must prosecute the gravest crimes as well as minor offenses,” said Pascal Kambale, counsel for Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program. “The ICC will focus on the high-level perpetrators, so the national courts must ensure that other suspected human rights criminals don’t get off the hook.” In November, the European Commission and other donors initiated a six-month project to help restore the criminal justice system in Bunia. This short-term funding helped judges and investigative judges start working again years after the court had been closed, but many serious problems remain. There is no capable police force able to carry out investigations, and there is a lack of protection for witnesses who come forward to testify. The Human Rights Watch briefing paper, “Making Justice Work: Restoration of the Legal System in Ituri, DRC,” highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the justice program in Ituri, seen by many as the potential test case for rebuilding the largely defunct justice system throughout the DRC. It calls international donors and the DRC transitional government to provide longer-term funding and support to the criminal justice system. “The Ituri justice program is a foundation for rebuilding the national justice system,” said Kambale. “If the government and international donors are serious about ending the cycle of violence and securing justice for victims, they must ensure there is more funding and political will to make this happen.” Human Rights Watch has documented serious crimes in the conflict that ravaged Ituri since 1999, including ethnic massacres, rape, and torture. A local conflict between Hema and Lendu ethnic groups allied with national rebel groups and foreign backers, including Uganda and Rwanda, has claimed over 60,000 lives since 1999, according to United Nations estimates. In the past eight months, fighting has decreased in the area, though human rights abuses continue. “The conviction of Commander Rafiki is a good start for the court in Ituri,” said Kambale. “We need to see more trials focusing on these serious human rights crimes to help end the cycle of violence and ensure that victims see justice being done.” For more information on the state of the judicial system in the DRC, please see Democratic Republic of the Congo: Confronting Impunity. For more information on justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo, please see http://www.hrw.org/doc/?t=justice&c=congo

Agence France-Presse 3 Sept 2004 France introduces UN resolution on DRCongo UNITED NATIONS, Sept 3 (AFP) - France introduced a draft resolution in the UN Security Council Friday to reinforce the troop strength of the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo and broaden its writ. The resolution, based on recommendations in UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's latest report on the situation in central Africa, proposes increasing the troop strength of the mission, known as MONUC, from 10,500 troops to 23,900. The draft makes no specific mention of a rapid reaction force that Annan's special envoy in DRC William Lacy Swing had recommended for the MONUC. However a diplomatic source said it would not be necessary because, were MONUC to be increased to 23,000 as the resolution stipulates, it would be sufficiently large for an ad hoc rapid reaction force to be formed from within as events warranted. France's resolution recommends deployment of a supplemental company of 150 troops in the north and the south of Kivu in eastern DRC. It calls on MONUC to: -- "deploy and maintain a presence in the key areas of potential volatility in order to promote the re-establishment of confidence;" -- "ensure the protection of civilians under imminent threat of physical violence; -- "ensure the protection of United Nations personnel, facilities, installations and equipment; -- "monitor and prevent movements of combatants across the border between the Democrati Republic of the Congo and Burundi, in close cooperation with the United Nations Operation in Burundi; -- "monitor the illegal flow of arms across the borders;" -- "contribute as appropriate to the respect of cease-fire agreements; and, -- "contribute to the disarmament portion of the national program of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of Congolese combatants."

BBC 20 Sept 2004 Militia attack DR Congo town Some 14 people have been killed when 300 militiamen attacked a town in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN says. Four people were shot dead and another 10 burnt in Lengabo town, UN spokeswoman Rachel Eklou told the BBC. Lengabo is in Ituri, one of DR Congo's most volatile districts, where UN peacekeepers were deployed last year to quell clashes between ethnic militias. Some 150 UN troops have been sent to Lengabo, Ms Eklou said. The war in DR Congo She told the BBC Focus on Africa programme that an ethnic Lendu militia had attacked the town, populated by the Bira community. Some 91 houses were burnt in Lengabo, 10km south-west of the district capital, Bunia, Ms Eklou said. The Lendus have been fighting their Hema rivals for many years in Ituri but Ms Eklou said they had not previously had any problems with the Biras. Some 50,000 people have been killed in Ituri since 1999, but the level of violence has been reduced since 4,000 UN peacekeepers were deployed in the region last year.

Equatorial Guinea

Reuters 29 Aug 2004 Equatorial Guinea president says thwarted "massacre" LONDON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo said an international plot to overthrow him would have resulted in a massacre and those responsible deserve death by firing squad. In a rare interview, Obiang told London's Mail on Sunday newspaper he was prepared to visit Britain if necessary to secure extradition for those accused of trying to oust him. "I want to see them in my country, in my prisons ... If I were to be the judge, I would apply the maximum penalty -- execution by firing squad," he said. The trial resumes in the capital Malabo on Monday of 19 men accused of involvement in an attempt to overthrow the government in the tiny oil-rich African nation. The defendants include eight South Africans, six Armenians and five from Equatorial Guinea but Obiang said they were bankrolled by international businessmen. Mark Thatcher, the 51-year-old son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was arrested in South Africa on Wednesday on suspicion of helping finance the plot. Trying to cast its net wider, Obiang's government has requested international arrest warrants for all those it suspects of involvement. They include London-based businessmen Eli Calil. "My investigators have uncovered an elaborate network of payments into offshore accounts which we believe are linked to these men and to business associates of theirs," Obiang said in the interview. "The crimes they intended to commit, which include multiple murder, would have been committed here and this is where I believe they should be brought to face the consequences." Equatorial Guinea, split between lush volcanic islands and a mountainous jungle mainland, has attracted increased foreign interest since large offshore deposits of crude oil were discovered in the 1990s. The former Spanish colony, ruled by Obiang since he seized power from his uncle in a 1979 coup in which the uncle was killed, now pumps 350,000 barrels per day, making it sub-Saharan Africa's third-biggest producer. "These men are nothing but blood-thirsty pirates and thieves with no regard for human life. They were doing this to get their hands on our oil, that was their only aim," he said. "If their plans had gone ahead there would have been a massacre. There have been coup attempts against me in the past and no doubt there will be others in the future. That is why the international community must support us against all mercenaries coming in to steal our country and our wealth." Equatorial Guinea has not asked for Thatcher's extradition and says it will not consider doing so until it has weighed all the evidence against him. But it has asked Zimbabwe to extradite Simon Mann, a former British special forces officer it accuses of leading the coup plot. He was found guilty by a Harare court on Friday of seeking to possess dangerous weapons. That court also acquitted 66 other defendants of weapons charges, most of them arrested in March with Mann when Zimbabwean authorities seized their plane. "I have instructed lawyers to seek all means possible to find and arrest those responsible ... I intend to pursue them through courts in Britain and elsewhere by every means possible," Obiang told the Mail.

Nigeria

Reuters 2 Sep 2004 Politicians wage geopolitical war in central Nigeria By Dino Mahtani JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Power broker and devout Christian Chief Solomon Lar is on a crusade against Islamic "invaders" he says are sweeping down through central Nigeria, killing his people and forcing them off their fertile lands. Lar is one of many politicians embroiled in a battle for dominance over Nigeria's "Middle Belt", an ethnically diverse central area on the cusp of the Muslim-dominated north and Christian south. Conflict has simmered throughout Lar's home state of Plateau since street fighting in the state capital Jos killed hundreds in 2001. It culminated this May in a massacre of hundreds of Muslims by Christian Tarok militiamen in the town of Yelwa. "That was a reprisal in response to orchestrated attacks in Plateau by well-armed Islamic fundamentalists similar to al-Qaeda," said Lar, a Tarok tribesman, once governor of Plateau, at his residence in Jos. Analysts say the violence is threatening to destabilise the young democracy of Africa's most populous country, with systematic purges of minority religious and tribal communities across the Middle Belt. The Plateau crisis prompted President Olusegun Obasanjo -- Nigeria's military ruler from 1976 to 1979 -- to declare a state of emergency there, suspending the elected governor and replacing him with a former military chief of staff. GEOPOLITICAL TINDERBOX The history of the Middle Belt conflict goes back over 200 years to the first holy jihad by a northern ethnic Hausa-Fulani empire that conquered huge swaths of West Africa but was halted by Middle Belt warriors before it reached what is now Nigeria's Atlantic coast. Mutual hatred took root during British colonial rule as rival communities were played off against each other, escalating after independence as politicians and traditional rulers stoked tensions to cling on to power. Environmental changes have compounded the strife as Hausa-Fulani herders push south into more fertile farmlands, fleeing from arid zones caused by over-grazing and the expansion of the Sahara desert. In Wase, one of Plateau's ethnically mixed local government areas, Muslim Hausa-Fulani now outnumber the indigenous Christian tribes following a series of purges on Christian communities and settlements. For Nicholas Mamsing, a high school teacher and part time farmer in the Christian enclave of Kadarko in Wase, the attacks on his community's farms were caused by a political row over elections. "This whole thing started when we began demanding to carve out our own local government back in 2001, so that we could have our own say in things," he said overlooking a field of near burned down huts, charred trees and wilted maize. Most of Kadarko's Christian community have since been chased out by Muslims, said Mamsing, swelling a toll of at least 250,000 people who have been displaced from their homes by violence in Plateau state this year. Under pressure to retaliate against the assault on Kadarko, and other Christian districts, Christian militia regrouped and orchestrated an attack on Yelwa, a Muslim enclave in a neighbouring area. "We were called to a meeting by the local government chairman. I realised it was a trap when I saw heavily armed militiamen swarming into the neighbourhood," said local Islamic preacher and Yelwa resident Mohammed Kabiru Umar, who hid in a dried out well during the May 2 massacre. "The security forces were nowhere to be seen as they were withdrawn before the killings happened. That order had to come from somewhere." FLAWED DEMOCRACY Since Nigeria emerged from 15 years of military rule in 1999, thousands have been killed in sectarian violence as a new generation of politicians wage turf wars over their domains. Elections last year were marred by widespread vote rigging, intimidation and violence, with the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) winning a landslide majority in state and national assemblies. Analysts say the PDP maintains its political domination by using Nigeria's oil wealth to paper over sectarian differences by buying off political rivals if they have not already been swept away by violence. In Plateau, some militant Christian groups felt betrayed by the PDP, which struck deals with Muslims to win elections. The party's solution to the conflict has been to woo shady power brokers back to the fold. The real business of reconciliation has already finished, played out in high political circles behind closed doors. A peace conference inaugurated by Obasanjo in Plateau in August is celebrating the return of peace, but pointedly failed to set up a panel of enquiry to investigate political backing of the violence. Suspects arrested by police are largely cattle thieves. "No party can survive without bridging the ethnic divide," said Dr. Abubakar Siddique Muhammed, head of political science at Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria's premier tertiary institution. "In Plateau, there is a process of resolving the crisis and those opponents controlling resources are being brought back so that the PDP's candidates will be credible," he said.

Rwanda

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 31 Aug 2004 Thousands of Genocide Victims Reburied in Rwanda Kigali Bodies of 5,821 victims of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda exhumed from mass graves in Mutura district in the North West Rwanda province of Gisenyi were reburied on Monday. "The genocide started here way before 1994", the Speaker of the Rwandan senate, Vincent Biruta said during the burial in Mutura. The area experienced killings of ethnic Tutsis also in the early nineties. The Rwandan authorities believe that these killings were the groundwork for the 1994 genocide. A substantial number of those buried on Monday were killed inside Mudende University campus. Genocide survivors and local authorities speaking at the burial accused senior university authorities of coordinating attacks against Tutsis students at the university and other Tutsis in nearby communities. The north west of Rwanda was regarded as the power base of the government that presided over the 1994 genocide. Reburial of genocide victims has been going on since the end of the genocide. Genocide survivors' organizations believe that there are still many mass graves that are yet to be discovered.

zenit.org (Vatican) Code: ZE04083102 Date: 2004-08-31 Rwandan Bishops Criticize Parliament’s Report on Genocide Stress Criminal Factor and Ask that Generalizations be Avoided KIGALI, Rwanda, AUG. 31, 2004 (Zenit.org).- A Rwandan parliamentary commission accused the Catholic Church of covering up the responsibility of priests in the 1994 genocide, an accusation that the country's bishops consider "an unjustified generalization." The parliamentary report also accuses the Church of spreading the genocide, of hiding the guilty in ecclesial communities, and of fostering poverty. The bishops have responded by stating that the Church, as an institution, cannot admit to a crime it has not committed, and have countered the accusations point by point. The writing of the parliamentary commission's report on the Ginkoro massacres began on January 20, with the intention of investigating the massacres that occurred in that Rwandan province. The African country's genocide broke out on April 7, 1994, with fierce confrontations between Hutus and Tutsis. In just three months, 800,000 people were killed and three million fled the country, while corpses floated down the rivers and on Lake Victoria, according to United Nations sources. The bishops' note of response begins by praising the positive aspects of the report. In the second part, they refute the accusations made against the Catholic Church. "We thank the government of Rwanda for its determination to be watchful, so that Rwandans can live in security and peace," the bishops write. However, the prelates fault the report for "unjustified generalizations," when "the personal ideas of some persons are attributed to his ethnic group, region, religious confession, or the association to which he adheres." The bishops are "in perfect agreement with the commission" when it states that "those responsible and the faithful who are guilty of the ideology of the genocide, no matter what their confession, will never be able to escape from justice." Nevertheless, the report has "deplorable and painful errors, as onerous and grave affirmations are made that are not based on the truth of the events and go against persons who might suffer unhappy consequences," the episcopal document notes. By way of example, the bishops mention "the confusion of persons and names, and the erroneous attribution to the Catholic Church of associations that in no way belong to it," they explain. "The Catholic Church affirms that genocide is such a serious sin that protection cannot be given to someone who is guilty of it," the bishops continue. "Therefore, to say that the Church is covering up for priests and others who are responsible is something that goes against the truth. It is the state's responsibility to hunt down all those people, wherever they are," they add. "For its part, the Church has requested all its members who have committed this crime to have the courage to admit their sins." "The Church is right in not admitting a crime it never committed," the bishops emphasize, adding that "its mission is well known by all: to reconcile men with God and to exhort them to fraternity." "There is a surprising anomaly in the report: verdicts are questioned which have already been given by the judiciary of our country." "This is in obvious contradiction with the judicial power's principle of independence, as generally a verdict is appealed when new evidence is available and proceedings begin again in the courts," they emphasize. The accusations made in the report against the ecclesial communities also surprised the Rwandan episcopal conference. "If some person has hidden in our ecclesial communities for his own ends, this cannot be imputed to them," the document stresses. The bishops commit themselves to pay careful attention so that communities will not be used in a counter-productive manner. "We say the same about our ecclesial institutions and the associations of our Christian faithful," they continue. Moreover, "to dare to say, in contradiction to the truth, that in the majority of dioceses the priests belong to one ethnic group, the Hutu, means to use language that carries discriminatory ideas." "There are rules for admission to orders and the religious life. We do not know of one diocese that has rejected a candidate to the priesthood who possessed all the requisites. Likewise, no diocese will ever oblige a candidate to be a priest, a religious or a nun just because of the fact that he or she belongs to one or another ethnic group," they explain. Another accusation in the report which the bishops disputed is that "the Church is the promoter of an ideology of poverty and works to keep the population poor." "Whoever says this ignores completely the role the Catholic Church has played and continues to play to improve the population's conditions of life," they respond. "The Catholic Church will never abandon the poor because this is fundamental and constitutive of its mission." These errors of the report are attributed to the fact that "it has been written in haste, in a precipitous manner and with no desire to verify the testimonies gathered," the Rwandan prelates say. The Bishops end their document with an appeal to the people to walk in "the truth that reconciles all Rwandans."

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 2 Sep 2004 Genocide Suspects' List to Swell to Over 500,000 Kigali The number of people suspected of participating in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is expected to spiral from the present 100,000 to over 500,000 within the coming year, a senior official with the courts set up to try genocide suspects told Hirondelle News Agency on Wednesday. "Statistics drawn on the basis of information collected from the first phase of Gacaca court hearings indicates that we will end up with between 500,000 and 600,000 genocide suspects", the director of the legal department in National Service for Gacaca Jurisdictions(NSGJ), Augustin Nkusi said. Gacaca courts are semi-traditional courts set up three years ago to speed up the trials of genocide suspects. For over one year, only 700 out of some 10,000 courts have been operating in a pilot phase. The rest are expected to begin work later this month. All Gacaca hearings held until now were in a pre-trial phase identifying victims and suspects. Nkusi said that the estimates of genocide suspects made by the NSGJ were an extrapolation from the suspects' lists drawn by the 700 courts. The figure of over 500,000 is about three times the estimate made by the government before the trials began. "This is a big challenge for Gacaca courts", admitted Nkusi. "We must not forget that there was mass participation in the 1994 genocide", he added. However, Nkusi maintained that despite the latest indications of a much bigger number of suspects, Gacaca courts would still complete all genocide trials in a period of between five and eight years. Gacaca courts were set up after authorities realized that classic courts would take over 100 years to handle all genocide suspects. Since the first genocide trials in 1996, regular courts have delivered judgments for 8,000 accused. Regular courts will continue to handle cases involving the highest of four categories of genocide suspects. From the estimated 500,000 suspects, 50,000 would be of the category to be handled by standard courts. Observers say that the government is likely to tighten the categorization process to reduce to a manageable figure the number of suspects to be handled by regular courts. The categorization is done by Gacaca courts. "

washingtonpost.com 28 Sept 2004 In Darfur, Rwandan Soldiers Relive Their Past - Protectors Hope Presence Will Halt Another Genocide By Emily Wax Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, September 28, 2004; Page A20 EL FASHER, Sudan -- As the sun set over this desert camp, Pvt. Lambert Sendegeya, an African Union soldier from Rwanda, popped in a tape of music from his country and launched into a series of leg bends. Lt. Eugene Ruzianda peered from his canvas tent and, removing his green beret, joined the evening exercises. As they stretched, they lamented their daunting task: protecting 80 African Union military observers who are charged with monitoring a rarely observed cease-fire in Sudan's strife-torn region of Darfur, an area about the size of France. They rattled off the reports of violence they had heard and the instances in which victims had handed them handwritten notes about fighting and rapes. But neither the monitors nor the protection forces have enough vehicles or manpower to investigate, the soldiers said. "Every night you go to sleep thinking, 'I could do more. We could do more with a better mandate,' " said Ruzianda, also a Rwandan, whose family fled to Congo during a civil war in his country in the 1990s. "I hate it, to see people living like this. There are some things that remind me of our country when people were fleeing. It can be a shock to see it all again. This time, the only comfort is that at least we are here. At least there is something." These men are part of the generation that survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide, 100 days of violence in which 800,000 people were slaughtered. The Organization of African Unity, since replaced by the African Union, stood by silently while the carnage unfolded. The United Nations, which had a small force on the ground during the bloodshed, also did not intervene. Now 155 Rwandans, part of a 305-member African Union force, are being asked to demonstrate that Africans can stop African wars. The United Nations, backed by the United States and the European Union, called for the group's involvement in Darfur, its first serious test. Burned villages smolder across the region. About 1.4 million Africans who were driven from their farms now live in squalid tent cities that continue to swell. Thousands of people have died in the crisis, which the United States has termed a genocide. The violence erupted in February 2003, when African tribes rebelled against the Arab-led government. The government responded by bombing villages and arming and supporting an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed to put down the rebellion, according to the United Nations and human rights groups. The government has said the Janjaweed is not under its control. The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution this month that threatens sanctions against Sudan unless it stops the violence and establishes a commission to investigate atrocities. The council has also threatened to send 3,000 more African Union troops to Darfur if security does not improve. The monitors and their protectors are key to ending the conflict. Their job is to track violations of the cease-fire by the government and by the African rebels and report them to the union's political wing, which is conducting peace talks between the two sides in Nigeria. Aid groups say the force's mandate is vague and are pressing for more explicit orders that would allow the soldiers to use force to stop the attacks on civilians. Sudan's government has said it would reject any role for the force beyond monitoring. In Khartoum, government-owned newspapers are filled with fiery editorials accusing the troops, who represent 12 countries, of bringing HIV/AIDS to Sudan. Other stories have likened the mission to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. But Sudan's government may not have a choice. Attacks are continuing in villages and around camps, which refugees describe as "prisons without walls," said Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, who recently visited the region. "People cannot return home because they do not trust the government to protect them," Arbour said. "It's clear they need an increased international presence on the ground." The African Union force, created in 2002, is still in its infancy. The union's chairman, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, has appealed for $200 million to buy logistical equipment. The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a bill providing $75 million for the force. During a recent visit to a base in El Fasher, Gen. Festus Okonkwo of Nigeria sat in an air-conditioned trailer and listed the vehicles in his tiny fleet: three helicopters and six armored personnel carriers. "As many more as you can afford to give me, I will take," Okonkwo told a visiting delegation that included U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations. The shortages resonate with the Rwandans. "We hope and would appreciate the very important help," said Maj. Emmanuel Rugazoora, a Rwandan commander. "We want to solve an African problem. No one should be ashamed to ask for more help where there are people suffering." Rugazoora encouraged his men to keep working, and not to worry about politics. "Focus on Darfur," he ordered. "We want to go in deep," said Sendegeya, the private, who grew up as a refugee in Burundi during Rwanda's war. Many of his family's friends, who stayed behind, were killed. "As a Rwandan you feel this should be looked at very carefully and there should be goals," said Sendegeya, 32. "My sentiment is emotional if there is a problem." There are days when there are not enough cars for all of the monitors to go out, and Sendegeya sits in his tent, cleans up the compound and exercises. But he said he was glad to be here. "You know, it's interesting because in spite of everything, I feel like I am doing something to resolve the conflict," he said. Ruzianda, his immediate commander, slapped his friend's back and said he understood. "Even when I complain, I am very happy to be contributing to this, even a little bit," said Ruzianda, who was a member of the military force that stopped the genocide in Rwanda. "It's different for us." The Rwandan soldiers, some holding AK-47s, gathered to talk about the good they said they hoped they were doing. Many said they had attended ceremonies back home in April commemorating the 10th anniversary of the genocide. They talked about the women who attended the ceremonies, many wailing and holding up framed photo collages of the children they had lost. Some of the soldiers mentioned that foreigners descended on their country for the anniversary, but weren't there a decade ago to stop the slaughter. And they spoke about the words inscribed atop the recently opened genocide museum: "Never Again." One youthful-looking guard, who said he had lost his parents in the genocide, walked away. "I'm going to bed," he said. Another stared bleakly at the ground. Ruzianda smiled weakly and shrugged his shoulders. "This is my wish: never again. And isn't that what we are proclaiming here? So stop being foolish," he said. "Our continent doesn't need this all over again."

Somalia

AFP 3 Sept 2004 Somalis uneasy with idea of peacekeeping force MOGADISHU, Sept 3 (AFP) - Residents of the war-torn Somali capital on Friday said they are uneasy with the prospect of deploying a peacekeeping force here, once a new government is installed to try to end years of anarchy. The country has been carved up into fiefdoms governed by unruly warlords with constantly shifting alliances, since dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was toppled in January 1991. The same warlords, recently selected as lawmakers for a Somali parliament that started its sessions on Thursday in Nairobi, hope to vie for the Somali presidency in the coming weeks in the nearly completed peace talks in Kenya. The clan-based assembly is tasked with appointing a speaker and a transitional president, who will in turn appoint a prime minister. The prime minister will name a cabinet that will operate for an initial period of five years. "Peace is good for everybody here, but it cannot be brought by those who created the mayhem (warlords)," Ahmed Mumin Hassan, a businessman in Mogadishu's main Bakara market, told AFP in Mogadishu. "There is no way a a parliament that is dominated by warlords can function to promote peace and harmony among the Somalis," Hassan explained. Amid such fears, the African Union (AU) has strongly hinted that a peacekeeping force could be deployed in Mogadishu after a new government is formed. But Somalis vividly remember the botched military and humanitarian intervention by the United Nations and the United States in the early 1990s, shortly after the central government collapsed and the country turned into a"failed state". Plans on October 3, 1993 to arrest top Somali warlord, General Mohamed Farah Aidid, whose militia had killed 24 Pakistan peacekeepers in an ambush four months earlier, went terribly wrong and led to a gunbattle in which hundreds of Somalis and 18 US special forces were killed. It culminated in an ugly scene where the battered bodies of US special forces soldiers were dragged through the dusty streets of Mogadishu by a frenzied mob. That had a lasting effect on Washington's subsequent decisions about sending troops abroad. "Accepting the new government is conditional," said Hassan Ibrahim, a gunman who protects aid workers in Somalia. "If the coming government will not import troops (peacekeepers) to take over our jobs, we may welcome it," Ibrahim told AFP. Retired army officer Mohamud Sheikh Hassan said sending foreign peacekeeping troops to Somalia could doom peace talks, which started on October 15, 2002 in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret. "Since there is no warlord capable of over-running his rivals since 1991, negotiation is the only solution for peace without involving foreign troops, who could complicate the matter," Hassan added. Ahmed Matan Musa, who calls himself a "true believer" of Islam, took a hardline stance on the idea of outside peacekeepers for the chaotic Horn of Africa nation. "Troops from outside are appreciated by elements that are less patriotic and are not true believers of Allah," Hassan explained. "Look what happened to Sunni prisoners in Iraq and remember the atrocities committed by UN and US intervention forces in Somalia in 1993," Musa added, referring to abuses committed by US troops on Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison. Yahya Ahmed Dhere, a weapons dealer in north Mogadishu's Argentine arms market, said one solution could be the legalisation of weapons' sales. "In America, there are big stores that sell weapons without undermining security. There is nothing sinister if we sell weapons to only very decent people for their self-defence," he added. Dhere is one of several traders who equip Mogadishu gangs with a fearsome array of weapons, including anti-aircraft guns mounted on pick-up trucks and machine guns. "We welcome a new government, but say no to peacekeepers," a young Somali refugee said in Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya.

Sudan

IRIN 1 Sept 2004 Armed men burn village, top UN official decries abuses [ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] © IRIN An IDP near Al-Junaynah, West Darfur NAIROBI, 1 Sep 2004 (IRIN) - Armed men travelling in three vehicles attacked the village of Nortik, 75 km south of El-Fasher, in the Sudanese region of North Darfur on Friday, burning down 48 huts and injuring 18 people, the United Nations reported. In a situation report issued on Tuesday, the UN said that clashes had also occurred between Sudanese government forces and rebels in two locations in Darfur - along the Tawila-Kabkabiya road and between El-Fasher and Tawila. The report was issued as the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, said in an interview on the BBC Hard Talk programme that the Sudanese government had not done enough to improve the security situation in Darfur. "There is still rampant abuse, rape and killing of civilians. We need to see that the Sudanese government is doing its best to disarm Janjawid [pro-government] militias as fast as it can," Egeland said. "The government has not done enough." About 1.2 million people in Darfur are displaced as a result of the insecurity that has reined there since early 2003, when rebels took up arms against the state to fight against what they said was the marginalisation of their area. In turn, the government turned to militias known as the Janjawid, to help it against the rebels. However, the Janjawid have been attacking - and committing abuses against - civilians. A ceasefire was signed earlier this year but, according to Egeland, both government and rebels had been breaking it. Some one million internally displaced people now live in camps, according to Egeland, to which they are often confined by the lack of security. "When the women leave the camps, they are raped. When the men try to leave, they are killed," Egeland said. "We could end up with 139 concentration-camp like areas unless the situation improves. Many IDPs do not have drinking water yet, sanitation is bad and diarrhoea is the biggest killer." Egeland said aid had been getting, against all odds, to the IDPs and that humanitarian agencies "have been able to feed a million people in Darfur in the middle of the rainy season". However, he said the difficult security situation had affected the delivery of aid. "In Darfur, we are kidnapped, our trucks have been looted by militias. There is a police force, but it is not enough," Egeland said. He said there were still about 200,000 people whom aid providers had not yet been able to reach, and more assistance was needed from the international community. "If we do not get enough money by the end of the year, we may have to cut resources," Egeland said. He added that many countries did not give as much as they could and he hoped they would give more. Asked how many people were dying daily in Darfur, Egeland said the UN did not have an exact figure, but that estimated mortality rates were astronomically high in February and March - about 4 to 6 deaths per 10,000 people each day - but has since gone down and now stood at an estimated two out of 10,000. He urged the Security Council, which is due to meet on Thursday to discus a 30-day deadline it gave Sudan to improve security in the camps, to step up the pressure on the parties. "A lot of women and children are dying as we speak. I hope the Security Council will exercise its obligations," he said. "I would like to see a Council that is continually seized on the matter. I hope it will build the pressure on the parties." On 30 July, the Council passed a resolution demanding that Sudan disarm the Janjawid militias within 30 days or face further actions. It demanded that Sudan apprehend and bring to justice the militia leaders and their associates who had incited and committed violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Darfur, and called on the government to immediately fulfill all the commitments it made in a statement issued jointly with the UN Secretary-General on 3 July, in particular by facilitating the distribution of relief aid to those affected by the conflict. Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Mustafa Osman Ismail said in a statement that the resolution did not address the causes of the Darfur conflict and the 30-day period "was illogical and difficult to be implemented". Instead, he said, Sudan was ready to act on the Darfur situation in 90 days. Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday that its three employees who had been held captive by rebels in Darfur, had been released. The three, as well as three members of the Sudanese Red Crescent, disappeared in North Darfur on Saturday afternoon, while they were on a mission to register IDPs, WFP said. "We are delighted that our people, as well as those working for the Sudanese Red Crescent, have been freed unharmed," WFP Senior Deputy Executive Director, Jean-Jacques Graisse, said. "Their disappearance was a matter of enormous concern to us and we were very relieved to hear of their release." "We call upon all armed groups in the region to stop targeting those involved in humanitarian work and allow them to do their duty without fear of intimidation," Graisse added. "Any continuation or escalation of incidents such as the one just resolved is likely to have far-reaching consequences for the relief operation."

September 1, 2004 U.N. Urges Quick Increase in Troops for Sudan By WARREN HOGE UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 1 — Secretary General Kofi Annan said today that the government of Sudan had failed to keep commitments to rein in the militias terrorizing the country's Darfur region and that a large international force was required there as soon as possible. "Attacks against civilians are continuing and the vast majority of armed militias has not been disarmed," Mr. Annan said in a sternly worded report to the Security Council. "No concrete steps have been taken to bring to justice or even identify any of the mlitia leaders or perpetrators of these attacks," Mr. Annan said, "allowing the violations of human rights and the basic laws of war to continue in a climate of impunity." He said that the United Nations continued to receive reports of militia destruction of villages with many deaths — in some cases up to three and four assaults on the same places — and of the raping and killing of people venturing forth from displacement camps. In addition, he said, refugees reported coming under attack by government forces, sometimes from the air. An estimated 50,000 black Africans have been killed and 1.2 million have been displaced by marauding Arab Janjaweed militias armed and encouraged by the government in Khartoum in a campaign of razing villages, destroying crops and poisoning water supplies that the United Nations has characterized as ethnic cleansing and the United States Congress has called genocide. Today's report used the term "scorched earth policy." Mr. Annan said that the Sudanese government had not supplied the United Nations with the names of any militia leaders and had offered no evidence of trying to disarm them or curb their violence. There was also evidence, he said, that authorities were arresting common criminals and calling them Janjaweed to appear to be in compliance. To back up his recommendation of a stepped-up international presence "as quickly as possible," Mr. Annan said that the United Nations had prepared a blueprint for the substantial enlargement of the African Union monitoring force already there. Its present complement is 380 military observors and troops, and diplomats say that a force of up to 3,000 is being contemplated. Mr. Annan's report, based on findings by his special envoy, Jan Pronk, was the first monthly accounting called for in the July 30 Security Council resolution on Darfur that said the Sudanese government could face punitive measures if there were not continuing progress in protecting people and curbing the violence. Mr. Pronk will brief the Council Thursday when focus will not be on sanctions, which a number of the 15 member states oppose, but on the proposal to beef up the African Union presence. The United States, which has been in the lead on the Darfur situation, is reportedly prepared to help pay for the larger force. In his report's only positive portion, Mr. Annan credited the Sudanese for "some progress" in improving security inside several displaced person camps, in deploying additional police, in ceasing efforts to force people to return to their dangerous home lands and in the easing of restrictions on humanitarian relief workers and human rights monitors. The Sudanese government disputed Mr. Annan's report in a letter to the Security Council from Mustafa Osman Ismail, the country's foreign minister. Mr. Ismail said that Sudan was making "relentless efforts" to meet its commitments to the United Nations, and it noted that 12 Janjaweed fighters had been convicted, with three of them facing the death penalty. The letter concluded: "The government of Sudan stands ready to reach a political settlement and reestablish law and order in Darfur."

Deutsche Presse Agentur 1 Sept 2004 Sudan condemns U.N. Security Council report Abuja (dpa) - Sudan's minister of humanitarian affairs, Mohammed Yusuf, Wednesday in Abuja condemned a United Nations Security Council report supporting the deployment of troops in the troubled Darfur region, calling such a move unilateral. "All the sides in the Sudan crisis would have to discuss the issue, consider the merits and the demerits of deploying African Union troops to the area before taking a stand,'' he said. He also condemned the Security Council's indictment of the government of Sudan. "All the sides in the Sudan crisis are guilty of violating the ceasefire agreement and that is why we have ceasefire monitors. Unless there is peace, there will continue to be problems,'' he said. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said Wednesday in the first 30-day assessment of the conflict that the Sudanese government has failed to fully implement commitments to improve the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Annan has called for African Union monitors - not troops - saying they could decrease the level of violence in Darfur. Annan's report, drawn up by his special envoy for Sudan, Jan Pronk, was submitted to the U.N. Security Council for discussion on Thursday. The 15-nation council has threatened to impose sanctions against Khartoum in case of failure to meet those commitments. The conclusion that Khartoum has so far failed to show progress in achieving its commitments would prompt the council to impose sanctions. The council has already imposed an arms embargo on the Khartoum-backed Arab militias fighting in Darfur. Yusuf said all sides involved have seen "the need for tranquility and peace'', adding that he was confident that the U.N. would not impose sanctions on Sudan. He said the government has "achieved a lot of progress''. Ahmed Togodt, spokesman of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, who who was standing by while Yusuf was addressing journalists, interjected: "There are some lies there. The Sudanese government has consistently promised to contain the Janjaweed militia killing our people, but we have been at these talks for 10 days now and it has not done anything to contain the Janjaweed.'' "It is also not true that there will be a national conference where all sides will discuss the deployment of African Union peace keepers. The people of Darfur will take on the government of Sudan until they leave our people alone,'' Togodt charged. The 18-month conflict in Darfur has claimed up to 50,000 lives due to violence, starvation and disease. At least 1.2 million people have been forced to flee from their homes, while two million are in acute need of food and medical attention. Togodt called for African Union peacekeepers to "protect our civilian population and not the Janjaweed militia as we presently have.'' Delegates of the government of Sudan and of two rebel groups in the country, the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement and Army, began peace talks in Abuja last week. The talks are being held under the auspices of the African Union to find a lasting solution to the crisis in Darfur, western Sudan. Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush has expressed satisfaction with the African Union's efforts to resolve the conflict in Darfur. The U.S. embassy in Abuja quoted Bush in a statement issued Wednesday as having said he was delighted with ongoing AU-sponsored peace talks in Abuja and its decision to deploy ceasefire monitors to Darfur. Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said Wednesday that sanctions should not be imposed at present on the government of Sudan but recommended continued pressure to improve conditions in the Darfur region. Freivalds, who visited Sudan on Tuesday for talks with her Sudanese counterpart Mustafa Osman Ismail, told Swedish radio that "demands of what needs to be done should be concrete''.

CSM 1 Sept 2004 ANALYSIS: What's behind the Darfur crisis - and what's next? By DAVID S. HAUCK, Christian Science Monitor (CSM) - Thursday is a pivotal day for the government of Sudan. The United Nations Security Council begins debate on whether Khartoum has disarmed and brought to justice the Arab militias in the western part of the country responsible for killing more than 30,000 people and causing some 1.4 million others to flee their homes over the past 18 months. The penalty for noncompliance: economic and diplomatic sanctions. The U.N.'s mission to Sudan, finishing its fact-finding work in Darfur last week, says that security has improved inside the camps and aid supplies are slowly reaching the camps. Still, some 75 villagers were reportedly killed in six separate attacks last week. Critics have condemned the international community's slow response to the situation. But there are many factors at play. Western troops "invading" an Islamic country, even for humanitarian reasons, may be politically impossible after Iraq and Afghanistan. Members of the Security Council like Russia and China have business interests in Sudan. Then there's the question of genocide: The U.N. has yet to define the Darfur situation as such, which would, by international law, require members to act. If the solution seems complex, the roots of the problem are perhaps more so. Who's fighting whom? The conflict in Darfur, three provinces in western Sudan, is usually cast in terms of Arabs vs. black Africans, but the reality is more muddled. Nearly everyone in the region is Muslim, and the skin color of the Arabs and non-Arabs is often indistinguishable. The distinction between the two groups falls mainly on their occupations: farmers and nomadic herders. According to Human Rights Watch, an international monitoring group, the farmers are generally non-Arabs, or ethnic Africans. They live and farm in the central part of the region. The pastoralists, who reside in the north, are largely of Arab descent. They are nomadic and seminomadic and herd camels by trade. Spats have periodically flared between the two groups, as migrating camel herders in search of water during the dry season would graze on the farmers' land. Disputes over lost crops would be settled by tribal leaders, with the nomadic tribes reimbursing the farmers. Recent droughts, however, have exacerbated the tension. The pastoralists began raiding farms to restock their decimated herds, and with the introduction of automatic weapons in the 1980s, banditry increased and the clashes became more violent. Receiving no help from the central government, the farmers began arming themselves. In fact, instead of trying to quell the conflicts, Khartoum sided with the Arabs, according to Human Rights Watch. It recruited, paid, and armed more than 20,000 Arab militiamen, called Janjaweed (which translates as either "a man with a horse and a gun" or the more sinister "devil on horseback"). How did the current crisis begin? The low-level clashes came to a head in February 2003 when two non-Arab rebel militias - the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement - attacked and captured several towns in Darfur. They demanded that Khartoum increase economic development in the region, share power, and disarm the Janjaweed. The government refused and in July launched major offensives. After battling for months, the two sides agreed to a series of cease-fires in September, but they were routinely violated. By December all efforts at peace collapsed. The Janjaweed increased attacks against civilians, according to international observers, creating what the U.N. has called "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world." It has set up 147 refugee camps throughout Darfur and in Eastern Chad to accommodate the 1.4 million civilians who have fled their homes. The U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that another $434 million is needed by the end of the year to respond to the most urgent needs. Darfur's location at the southern edge of the Sahara makes it difficult for aid groups to reach, compounded by the onset of the rainy season. What shelter there is comes from tents donated by aid organizations or tarps strapped to tree branches. Is it genocide? Aside from 305 African Union troops and 80 monitors currently in Darfur, the international community has yet to intervene militarily to stop the bloodshed. One reason is that the U.N. has not deemed it to be genocide. In 1948, in an effort to ward off another Holocaust, the U.N. drafted a convention defining genocide as including killing or causing bodily or mental harm "in whole or in part, (to) a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group." The U.S. Congress passed resolutions in July urging President Bush to call the crisis a genocide. The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington called the Darfur crisis a "full-fledged genocide emergency," the first time it has ever issued such a warning. But unless the U.N. calls it genocide, member states are not obligated to intervene. The U.S. is pushing for a greater African Union military presence. And the White House was pivotal in pushing for U.N. Resolution 1556, which gave Khartoum until Aug. 30 to avoid sanctions. It has also poured in more than $194.1 million in aid, says the U.S. Agency for International Development. How will this end? Until recently, the Sudanese government has stonewalled efforts to bring aid to the refugees. Robert Rotberg, an Africa scholar at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., says the Sudanese government "fears that outsiders will discover how it has funded and created the Janjaweed," he says. "Khartoum is engaged in a massive coverup." Some diplomats say Sudan is doing just enough to avoid sanctions. A preliminary U.N. report on Darfur released Wednesday said Khartoum had lifted restrictions on humanitarian relief, deployed some 10,000 police officers to the region, and begun disarming the Janjaweed. The report also recommended a rapid increase to the international monitoring force already on the ground. The AU has offered to send in 3,000 troops, but Khartoum has so far rejected the offer. Also, Russia rejects sanctions. Outgoing Security Council president Andrei Denisov of Russia said Monday that Khartoum has made significant progress. And though Sudan isn't a major oil exporter, producing 250,000 barrels per day, countries may balk at sanctions that might push global oil prices higher. If sanctions are slapped on Khartoum, Rotberg argues they must include barring SudanAir from flying internationally and cutting off oil shipments. He also says that a U.N. force led by France or another European country must be deployed to bring an end to the crisis. Darfur snapshot - Population: 6 million - Religion: 98 percent Muslim - People at risk: 2.2 million - Refugees: 1.4 million - People killed in 18-month crisis: 30,000 (est.) - Aid workers operating in region: 4,000 - Funds required: The U.N. says it needs $434 million by the end of the year. The U.S. has contributed $194.1 million. - Troop deployments: 200 French soldiers are deployed on the border between Chad and Darfur. Rwanda and Nigeria have sent 305 troops to assist the African Union's 80 military observers in the region. Sources: U.N., USAID, World Almanac

AFP 1 Sept 2004 Sudanese govt, rebels agree on protection of civilians in Darfur by Ade Obisesan ABUJA, Sept 1 (AFP) - The Sudanese government and rebels late Wednesday agreed on an African Union mediated plan to protect the Darfur region's 1.2 million displaced people from hunger, rape and murder, the parties said. "At this meeting, we came to the agreement on this protocol on humanitarian issues. So this is the end of this part of the talks. We will continue tomorrow (Thursday) on security issues," the leader of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Ahmed Mohammed Tugod, told journalists. "We have reached an agreement by the end of today and we believe this is a step forward, it is timely and opportune because the people in Darfur actually need to have some sort of tranquility," Sudan's minister of humanitarian affairs, Mohammed Yusuf, said. "The Darfur people need some sort of understanding that things are moving forward. So this agreement is sending the right signal in this direction," he said. "We are happy with this conclusion (agreement) ... we can now make another effort forward," said Yusuf, who was mandated by the chief negotiator for the Sudanese government at the talks, Majzoub al-Khalifa, to address journalists at the end of the talks. Although an agreement has been reached by the two parties on the humanitarian issue, the accord would be formally signed at the end of talks on the security issues, the next item on the agenda of the peace meeting, the two parties said. "The agreement will be signed when we conclude talks on the second issue on the agenda, that is the security issue. There is a link between both agreements -- humanitarian and security issues in Darfur," the minister said. Besides humanitarian and security issues, the other issues on the agenda of the talks are political, economic and social affairs. On the UN report indicting the government in Khartoum over tardiness in implementing the Security Council decision and violation of the ceasefire accord, the minister said that his government had performed well within the 30-day deadline set for it. The UN Security Council gave Sudan a 30-day deadline on July 30 to disarm its proxy Arab militia, the Janjaweed, withdraw its regular forces from around the camps of the displaced and ensure free access to the area for aid agencies. "In the understanding with the UN secretary-general, the action plan was for 90 days. But the Security Council shortened the time to 30 days. Therefore, within the 30 days, I think the efforts (of the Sudanese government) were quite marvellous ... remarkable," Yusuf said. On the reported UN plan to have a permanent peacekeeping force in Darfur, the minister said that the matter has to be discussed between the Khartoum government and the African Union. "That is a unilateral decision (by the UN). It will be discussed between Sudan and the AU. We will see in what form it is going to be presented, the modalities to have the peacekeepers and how to manage the whole operation. We will also consider the merits and demerits of the idea," he said. "Violations to ceasefire are always from all sides, and not on one side. The violations will really come to a halt if a peace agreement is signed," he said. He said that the Sudanese government was totally confident that the UN would not impose sanctions on it. "I am 100 percent sure that what has been done is quite satisfactory and I do not think that the UN will go to the direction of applying any sanctions on Sudan," said the minister. But the JEM leader retorted, accusing the Sudanese government of not honouring its commitments to the international community on the resolution of the crisis in Darfur. "They have done nothing so far to meet the commitments which they made with the international community. We in the two (rebel) movements therefore welcome any African troops to protect our civilians in Darfur," Tugod said. Talks on security issues in Darfur, including the implementation of the Ndjamena ceasefire agreement, disarmament of the Janjaweed and other militias, cantonment of the armed elements of the movements and release of prisoners and detainees was to begin Thursday at 10 am (09h00 gmt).

AFP 1 Sept 2004 Darfur rebels release aid workers held as hostages: WFP NAIROBI, Sept 1 (AFP) - Rebels in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region have released six aid workers taken as hostages over the weekend, a World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman said here Wednesday. "The three WFP staff members and three members of Sudanese Red Crescent (SRC) were released by the SLM (Sudan Liberation Movement) this morning," Peter Smerdon told AFP by phone. There were only three SRC workers, and not five as earlier thought when they were snatched on Saturday, he explained. The humanitarian workers "were being held by the SLM and were released following negotiations," Smerdon added. "They were flown by helicopter to El-Fasher after being picked in the Tabit area, south of El Fasher," he said, adding that "they are well and unharmed." The aid workers went missing on Saturday afternoon in the area of Shangel Tubai, south of North Darfur state capital of El-Feshir, he added. The Khartoum government swiftly blamed the kidnapping on the rebels, although it did not say which of the two factions that have been battling the army and allied militias for the past 18 months it held responsible. But both the SLM and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on Tuesday vehemently denied any involvement. "We in the two movements have contacted all our commanders on the field and they have confirmed to us that they are not involved in the kidnap," Ahmed Mohammed Tugod, chief negotiator for the JEM, told AFP on the margins of peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja. On Tuesday, Khartoum said the rebels had also kidnapped 22 other health workers, who were involved in a vaccination programme near Nyala in southern Darfur, but the rebels again rejected the accusation.

NYT 2 Sept 2004 Annan Says Sudan Hasn't Curbed Militias; Urges More Monitors By WARREN HOGE UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 1 - Secretary General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that Sudan had failed to keep commitments to rein in militias terrorizing the Darfur region and that a large international force was required there as soon as possible. "Attacks against civilians are continuing and the vast majority of armed militias has not been disarmed," Mr. Annan said in a report to the Security Council. "No concrete steps have been taken to bring to justice or even identify any of the militia leaders or perpetrators of these attacks, allowing the violations of human rights and the basic laws of war to continue in a climate of impunity." He said the United Nations continued to receive reports of the destruction of villages and many and of the raping and killing of people venturing forth from camps for displaced persons. In addition, he said, refugees reported coming under attack by government forces, sometimes from the air. Sudan disputed Mr. Annan's report in a letter to the Council from Mustafa Osman Ismail, the foreign minister. Mr. Ismail said Sudan was making "relentless efforts" to meet its commitments to the United Nations, and noted that 12 Janjaweed fighters had been convicted, with three of them facing the death penalty. The letter concluded: "The government of Sudan stands ready to reach a political settlement and reestablish law and order in Darfur." Some 50,000 black Africans have been killed and 1.2 million displaced by marauding Arab Janjaweed militias armed and encouraged by the government in Khartoum in a campaign of razing villages, destroying crops and poisoning water supplies that the United Nations has characterized as ethnic cleansing and the United States Congress has called genocide. Today's report used the term "scorched-earth policy." Mr. Annan said the Sudanese government had not supplied the United Nations with the names of any militia leaders and had offered no evidence of trying to disarm or curb them. There was also evidence, he said, that authorities were arresting common criminals and calling them Janjaweed to appear to be in compliance. To back up his recommendation of a stepped-up international presence "as quickly as possible," Mr. Annan said the United Nations had prepared a blueprint for the enlargement of the African Union monitoring force already there. Its current complement is 380 military observers and troops, and diplomats say a force of up to 3,000 is being contemplated. Mr. Annan's report, based on findings by his special envoy, Jan Pronk, was the first monthly accounting required by a Security Council resolution on July 30 on Darfur that said the Sudanese government could face punitive measures if there were not continuing progress in protecting people and curbing the violence. On Thursday Mr. Pronk will brief the Council, where the focus will not be on sanctions, which a number of the 15 member states oppose, but on the proposal to expand the African Union's presence. The United States, which has been in the lead on the Darfur situation, is reportedly prepared to help pay for a larger force. In his report's only positive portion, Mr. Annan credited the Sudanese for "some progress" in improving security inside several displaced-persons camps, in deploying more police, in ceasing efforts to force people to return to dangerous homelands and in easing restrictions on relief workers and rights monitors. Returning from a visit to Panama on Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin L Powell echoed Mr. Annan's conclusions and said the United States would also urge Sudan to accept a larger monitoring force.

Sep. 02, 2004 SUDAN Interviewers recount tales of horror in Darfur region Experts who interviewed refugees from Sudan's troubled Darfur region related the horrors they heard, part of a State Department-sponsored study. BY SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN Knight Ridder News Service TOULOUM, Chad - Mercedeh Momeni, a New Jersey deputy attorney general, can't forget the story of a 15-year-old disabled boy in Sudan's Darfur region whom two Sudanese soldiers threw into a burning hut to die. Jan Pfundheller, a retired police officer from Brewster, Wash., remembered a black African woman who was raped by Arab thugs, members of a militia called the janjaweed. Then she was forced to watch men in her village be castrated and executed. Pfundheller's husband, Brent, a retired federal narcotics agent, recounted how black African men were raped with sticks and rifles. TWO DOZEN EXPERTS The three were among two dozen experts, most of them American, who spent a month interviewing refugees in Darfur under contract to the U.S. State Department to help determine whether the violence that's sweeping the western region of Sudan constitutes genocide. More than 30,000 people have died and 1.2 million have been driven from their homes in ethnic violence pitting the Arab militias against black African villagers. The full report, made up of 1,200 refugee interviews, is on the desk of Secretary of State Colin Powell. It's unclear when the State Department will announce its conclusion. But many of the experts -- who have backgrounds in law and human-rights and criminal investigations and experience in areas of ethnic cleansing, including Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo -- said it was clear that the atrocities in Darfur needed to be stopped, whether or not they were called genocide. ''I was shocked by the scope of the tragedy,'' said Jan Pfundheller, who interviewed rape victims for the study. ``What happened in Kosovo was evil. This is more vast and equally as evil.'' ''Obviously, there is evidence to bring a lot of indictments for war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Convention,'' Brent Pfundheller said. Two teams of 12 experts each conducted the study. The interviewers included employees of the State Department and the Agency for International Development, as well as human rights lawyers. The study is the largest of its kind by the U.S. government. EARLY REPORT A preliminary report from about a quarter of the interviews in the State Department study found widespread atrocities -- including mass rape and summary executions, and strong links between the government and the janjaweed, which Sudan denies backing -- though it didn't label them genocide. The Pfundhellers heard stories of how the Arab janjaweed and Sudanese soldiers looted and razed villages and drove out black Africans, how women were gang-raped, how they targeted and executed males, even babies. ''As a tool of terror, killing your men and raping your women seemed effective,'' Jan Pfundheller said. ``If you have women without men to make a family, it changes the face of their society.'' Others clearly were moved by the interviews they conducted. ''There was a strong current of racial animus running through the stories,'' said Andrew Loewenstein, 30, who practices international law in Boston. He was visibly shaken and fighting back tears. He added: ``They would check to see if a baby was a male or girl.'

BBC 3 Sept 2004 Sudan rejects Darfur peace force The fate of thousands of homeless people hangs on a security deal Sudan will not accept a peacekeeping force in the troubled Darfur region but may agree to extra monitors being deployed, its foreign minister says. Mustafa Osman Ismail was reacting to a suggestion from a UN envoy that several thousand military observers were urgently needed to improve security. Jan Pronk did not specify, but said the 3,000 troops which the African Union (AU) is considering were "not enough." On Thursday, the UN Security Council discussed Darfur. No action was agreed. Deadlock The BBC's Ishbel Matheson in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, says the government will be relieved to have seen off the immediate threat of international sanctions. But the United States is pressing for sanctions against Khartoum, insisting that it is still backing Arab militias. DARFUR CONFLICT More than 1m displaced Up to 50,000 killed More at risk from disease and starvation Arab militias accused of ethnic cleansing Sudan blames rebels for starting conflict Q&A: Has security improved? Spotlight catches Sudan's red tape Up to 50,000 people have been killed in the 18-month conflict and more than a million have fled their homes. Some 300 AU troops are in Darfur to monitor a shaky ceasefire and Nigeria is planning to send another 1,500. Many non-Arab refugees say their villages were attacked by Janjaweed militias, working with government security forces. Such joint attacks have continued in the past week, said US ambassador to the UN John Danforth, citing a report from AU military observers. "If the job of providing security is provided exclusively by people who have been dropping bombs on the people of Darfur, the people of Darfur are going to say: 'What kind of protection is this?'" he said. Presenting a UN report on Darfur to the Security Council, Mr Pronk also urged Sudan to accept extra monitors. Sudan insists that the extra police officers it has sent to Darfur will protect civilians. It denies arming the Janjaweed and blames the violence on two Darfur rebel groups which took up arms last year. Peace talks between the rebels and the government in Nigeria are deadlocked over disarmament and other security issues, the rebels say. Sanctions At the end of July, the UN called on Sudan to rein in the Janjaweed or face unspecified measures. Amid argument among member states over whether Khartoum should face sanctions, the organisation gave itself 30 days to report on the situation. No concrete steps have been taken to bring to justice or even identify any of the militia leaders UN report UN Security Council report (157K) Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download and install the reader here Mr Pronk told the council the authorities had fulfilled a commitment to deploy extra police and improve security in some areas, but had not met its commitments in two respects: "First, it has not been able to stop attacks by militias, nor to disarm these militias. "Second, no concrete steps have been taken to bring to justice or even to identify any of the militia's leaders or the perpetrators of these attacks." The report, prepared by Mr Pronk on behalf of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, does not mention sanctions but Mr Danforth said they remain "on the table".

washingtonpost.com 4 Sep 2004 Editorial: Who Cares About Darfur? Saturday, September 4, 2004; Page A30 UNTIL RECENTLY, the international momentum on Darfur seemed positive. The plight of Sudan's western province was recognized as the world's most pressing humanitarian crisis, and a congressional resolution described the eradication of African villages by a government-backed Arab militia as genocide. After much misguided talk about getting Sudan's government to protect civilians in the region -- a wishful idea, given that the government's proxies have taken children from mothers and tossed them into fires -- a consensus has more or less formed that foreign peacekeepers are needed. But now, despite this progress, it seems the momentum is fizzling, in which case the world will have woken up to a catastrophe and understood what it must do -- and then decided not to do it. About 1.5 million Darfuris have been chased from their homes, some leaving behind villages whose wells have been poisoned with the dismembered bodies of their loved ones. Until they return home, they will depend largely on food airlifted at vast cost by the international community. But they are not going to return until it is safe, and that means that a trusted force must be on hand to protect them. The most extensive survey of refugees carried out so far suggests that a quarter of the attacks on civilians have been perpetrated by the government, and half of such attacks beyond that featured the government assisting the militia. The trusted force that could make refugees feel secure cannot be the government. It could, as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has suggested, involve fighters from the Sudan People's Liberation Army, the southern rebel army that recently negotiated peace with the government. But it is more likely to involve foreigners. A few weeks ago, British and Australian leaders hinted that their countries might supply peacekeepers. Recently, however, no hints have been forthcoming. The best hope for intervention comes from the African Union, which already has a handful of troops in Darfur and which stands ready to provide perhaps 3,000 -- by no means enough for an area the size of France yet certainly worth having. But the African Union is unwilling to deploy troops in the face of Sudanese resistance, which for the moment is determined. It would be nice if the young organization, which has discredited itself by its failure to deal more severely with renegade members such as Zimbabwe, could muster the will to present Sudan's government with an ultimatum. But this seems unlikely. If the African Union is unwilling to play hardball, in theory the United Nations could do so. In July the Security Council passed a resolution giving Sudan's government 30 days to ensure the safety of Darfur's civilians. But although Sudan has not complied, council members show no inclination to follow up with sanctions; instead, there is talk of another resolution, which will urge, exhort and call upon Sudan to do the right thing but which won't spell out the consequences should Sudan again fail to do so. Nor is there much prospect of pressuring Sudan via other channels. The Bush administration has depleted its diplomatic capital and is not inclined to assemble a coalition of the willing that could act if the council and the African Union prove immobile. So the efforts on Darfur have hit a roadblock. Foreign peacekeepers are evidently necessary, but there is no mechanism to force their deployment. The risk is that, with few cards to play, outsiders will accede to a face-saving deal with Sudan's government, perhaps trading an invitation to deploy African Union forces for a mandate so restrictive as to render them useless. But the United States and its allies need to shake themselves awake. Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake in Darfur, and it is up to the world's leaders to decide if they care.

Reuters 5 Sep 2004 Violence Displaces Another 3, 000 in Darfur - U.N. By REUTERS Published: September 5, 2004 Filed at 2:40 p.m. ET KHARTOUM (Reuters) - More than 3,000 people have been displaced since the end of August by violence in an area of Sudan's North Darfur state, a United Nations report said on Sunday. It said villages south of Zam Zam, 11 miles south of North Darfur's capital El Fasher, had been attacked, but a U.N. official said it was not clear yet who was behind them. Advertisement The United Nations says the world's worst humanitarian disaster has been created by fighting in the western Darfur region that has displaced more than a million people and killed up to 50,000. Sudan's government has come under mounting international pressure to end the conflict and disarm Arab militias, or so-called Janjaweed, which have been blamed for much of the violence. ``Attacks on villages south of Zam Zam have resulted in a population movement of around 3,000 to 4,000 persons,'' said the U.N. report, adding that half of those who had fled their homes had been moved to a camp in Zam Zam. ``There has been a sharp upturn in the number of attacks throughout the southern part of North Darfur,'' it said. SCARCE RESOURCES Rebels took up arms against the government in February 2003 after years of low-level clashes between Arab nomads and African farmers over scarce resources. The rebels accuse the government of arming the militias to loot and burn African villages, a charge Khartoum denies. It says the Janjaweed are outlaws. Peace talks brokered by the African Union in the Nigerian capital Abuja have been dogged by accusations from both sides of cease-fire violations. Rebel and government representatives were tightlipped on Sunday on the state of the negotiations, but both sides were due to meet AU negotiators to discuss proposed amendments to a draft security document mooted by the Union. Rebels said only the government and Janjaweed could be responsible for the attacks near Zam Zam because it was too close to government-controlled El Fasher. ``It must have been government forces or the Janjaweed. No rebel group can go there because it is too close to the city,'' said Abdulhafiz Musa Mustapha, a spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement rebel group. Mustapha said fresh attacks had taken place on Sunday near the town of Jabalmoon, some 45 miles north of the West Darfur provincial capital Geneina, but no reports of casualties were immediately available. Sudan government delegates at the talks declined to comment. The United States said on Friday it was preparing a new U.N. resolution on Darfur and that Secretary of State Colin Powell might address shortly whether the violence in western Sudan constituted genocide. The U.S. Congress has already labeled the conflict in Darfur genocide, but President Bush's administration has not yet taken that step. Sudan denies carrying out genocide. The U.N. Security Council threatened on July 30 to consider imposing unspecified sanctions on Sudan if it failed within 30 days to disarm and prosecute the militias. When the deadline expired last week, the United Nations did not call for sanctions but sought a wider mandate for African monitors to stop abuses.

washingtonpost.com 5 Sept 2004 Sudan Rejects U.S. Label Of 'Genocide' in Darfur KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Sudan said on Saturday that the United States was wrong to try to label the conflict in Darfur as genocide and that recent hard-line U.S. statements on Sudan were aimed at Americans and the U.S. elections. The United States criticized the United Nations last week for being soft on Sudan after a U.N. envoy said Khartoum had taken some steps under the threat of possible sanctions to comply with a demand to increase security in Darfur. No sanctions were called for. Instead, U.N. envoy Jan Pronk proposed a wider mandate for African Union monitors to help stop abuses in Darfur.

washingtonpost.com 6 Sept 2004 Witness to Genocide By Fred Hiatt Monday, September 6, 2004; Page A23 Imagine that genocide were taking place -- thousands of children dying, women raped, men mowed down in groups -- just as the American political parties held their quadrennial conventions. Surely it would be a major subject of conversation and alarm as the nation's political elite debated their agendas for the coming four years. No? No. Of course not. We all know that genocide is taking place, in the Darfur region of western Sudan, and you did not hear it discussed during eight nights of rousing oratory at two conventions. Well, but be fair, you say; party conventions are hardly the place or time to talk about such depressing matters. Behind the scenes, the foreign policy mandarins of each party, the masters of "never again" rhetoric, must have been consumed by the issue. Right? No again. In Boston and New York, the Council on Foreign Relations, the nonprofit membership organization of the foreign policy elite, held panel discussions on the central issues of the next four years. Ambassadors and Cabinet ministers mingled with professors and pundits. They congratulated each other on how foreign policy has moved, after many years on the periphery, to the heart of this presidential campaign. They discussed Iraq, terrorism, trade deficits, China, Korea, the Voice of America, European public opinion, port security . . . but not Darfur. A million people may die, tens of thousands already have, and -- nothing. How can this be? One explanation would be that Americans (and Europeans, who were decently represented in the audiences of both panel discussions) just don't care all that much. The victims of Darfur are poor, black and far away. The issues are hard to understand. U.S. and European security is not at stake. This was more or less George W. Bush's attitude when he was running for president in 2000 and said the Clinton administration had been right not to intervene to stop the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in which some 800,000 people died. "That's an important continent," he said of Africa, "but there's got to be priorities. . . . We can't be all things to all people in the world." A more charitable explanation would be that people care but that stopping genocide is not easy. Villages are being destroyed across an area the size of Texas. Sudan's air force and its proxy gangster militia can induce starvation simply by poisoning wells or covering them with sand. Sudan's government opposes and frustrates outside intervention. U.N. Security Council members such as China oppose anything that affronts Sudan's sovereignty. But Darfur should be debated precisely because it raises difficult questions -- and because those questions aren't so different from the challenges that were posed by Iraq and Kosovo and that may arise again in Iran, or Burma, or Zimbabwe, or in many other spots. When is it legitimate to infringe on a nation's sovereignty to ensure global security or rescue an imperiled population? Who should perform those jobs? What if the United Nations says no? France and Germany opposed President Bush's war in Iraq in part because the international community was not unified. Now U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is clear: An international rescue force is required. But still they hesitate. Why? Sen. John F. Kerry criticized Bush for failing to conduct adequate diplomacy before waging war on Iraq. But on Friday, in an admirably tough statement on Darfur, he urged Bush to "insist on the triumph of our common humanity over least common denominator diplomatic compromises." So what are the rules? If the Security Council says no, will a rescue mission -- in violation of international law -- still be the right thing to do? "Being a witness to genocide is not an option," Bush's ambassador at large for war-crimes issues, Pierre-Richard Prosper, said in April, on the 10th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide. "Saving lives is a moral obligation of all nations and all individuals . . . we should always choose to act rather than hope that with time reason will prevail." Did he mean it? The Bush administration seems to have learned at least one lesson from Rwanda: Do not let history record that you were indifferent as a genocide unfolded. Secretary of State Colin Powell has visited Darfur; the White House has pressed the Security Council for action. Republicans may have been mostly silent in New York, but if you scour the party platform you will find a condemnation of Sudan's government. The administration has sent a great deal of food. On the 10th anniversary of the Darfur genocide, no one will be able to say that Bush and his people took no notice. But if there is such an anniversary -- if the genocide proceeds deliberately before us, even as we have all been warned and warned again -- what will it say about the Bush presidency? Well, he was very busy in the summer and fall of 2004, and Darfur is far away.

AFP 6 Sept 2004 Sudan's ruling party dismisses EU sanctions threat over Darfur KHARTOUM, Sept 6 (AFP) - Sudan's ruling National Congress party has dismissed an EU threat to impose sanctions on the country if it does not do more to rein in militias in the western Darfur region, a press report said. The NC's deputy secretary general, Nafie Ali Nafie, was quoted Monday by Al Ayam newspaper as saying his party rejects the EU threat. "The European Union will not impose sanctions and we reject this and the government is living up to its duty towards the people of Sudan," he said. He was speaking after a meeting Sunday between First Vice President Ali Osman Taha and NC Secretary General Ibrahim Ahmed Omar on the Darfur situation. On Saturday, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, welcomed some progress on the humanitarian situation in Darfur. However, he lamented that security remains a problem. "It is necessary to make it quite clear that we may be forced to impose sanctions at some point in the future," he said, adding that EU officials have been asked to draw up a list of possible sanctions and their implications. Rebel groups rose up against Khartoum in February last year, alleging that Darfur's black African tribes have been economically and politically marginalised by Khartoum's Arab elite and demanding greater autonomy for the region and a bigger share of the national income. According to UN estimates, up to 50,000 people have died in Darfur. Another some 1.4 million people have fled their homes, with about 180,000 crossing the border into Chad. Peace talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, between rebel groups and the Sudanese government were stalled on Monday over the issue of disarmament, officials from the African Union said.

NYT 14 Sept 2004 Sudan's Agony: Will the World Act? (4 Letters) To the Editor: Re "Sudan Government's Attacks Stoke Rebels' Fury" (front page, Sept. 11): The images are haunting and speak compellingly of the urgent need for United Nations and African Union intervention in the killing fields of Darfur. A million and a half people have been displaced and tens of thousands killed in a civil war that has riven the heart and soul of Sudan. The world must no longer stand by in complicit silence and allow the carnage to continue; we must defend the defenseless in what is now the charnel house of Darfur. Dave Morse Yokohama, Japan, Sept. 12, 2004 To the Editor: Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's designation of genocide in Sudan (news article, Sept. 10) is welcome but insufficient. To spur intervention, there is another, more powerful label he could apply: terrorism. The State Department's definition of terrorism is "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents." This is a perfect description of the conduct of the Janjaweed under Sudan's government. Doyle Stevick Roosisaar, Estonia, Sept. 10, 2004 To the Editor: President Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell are to be lauded for finally acknowledging that mass killings, rapes and displacement of civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan may properly be characterized as genocide ("Powell Says Rapes and Killings in Sudan Are Genocide,'' news article, Sept. 10). At Nuremberg, the United States proclaimed that only the guilty should be held to account, after a fair trial. For failure to remember those lessons in Iraq, we are paying a bitter price. The Bush administration has repeatedly shown contempt for the United Nations, to which it now turns for help. It continues to ignore and undermine the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which is competent to deal with charges of genocide. Either the Security Council or Sudan itself could request the court to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for the atrocities. By turning its back on the court, our government may be suspected of hypocrisy and politically motivated gestures. Benjamin B. Ferencz New Rochelle, N.Y., Sept. 10, 2004 The writer was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials. To the Editor: Thank you to Nicholas D. Kristof for speaking out about the genocide in Sudan ("Reign of Terror,'' column, Sept. 11). That thought, as well as the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandan civilians in 1994, easily comes to mind on a day of American mourning. From there, it is but a short mental leap to recall the untold millions of civilians who died under Stalin and Hitler: all killed as "undesirable and expendable," just because of who they were. Amid the memorials for 9/11, in which we all mourn the tragic loss of life, wouldn't it be appropriate also to acknowledge the deaths of Iraqi civilians, many of them women and children, whose number is not advertised but is estimated by some organizations to be triple our own 9/11 civilian losses? While we remember our own tragedy, it would be honorable to remember that each life, whether American, Iraqi or Sudanese, is equally precious. Barbara Speer Saugerties, N.Y., Sept. 12, 2004

WP 15 Sept 2004 Death Rates in Darfur Rising, WHO Says U.N. Agency Cites Disease and Sudanese-Backed Militia as Causes of Increase By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, September 15, 2004; Page A18 UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 14 -- Between 6,000 and 10,000 people are dying from disease and violence each month in Sudan's Darfur region as heavy rains and a marauding militia hinder U.N. efforts to respond to one of Africa's worst humanitarian crises, according to a survey of mortality rates by the United Nations' World Health Organization. The latest U.N. figures demonstrate that survival rates have worsened in Darfur over the past three months as the United Nations struggles to provide food to nearly 1 million displaced people in more than 120 camps throughout Darfur. The main killers are preventable conditions such as diarrhea, which accounted for nearly a quarter of the deaths, and a wave of violence that has plagued the region since civil war began in February 2003. Sudan challenged the findings of the survey, saying that mortality rates among displaced civilians in Darfur are improving. "I do not think this assessment is correct," Sudan's minister of humanitarian affairs, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, told reporters in Khartoum after a meeting with Andrew S. Natsios, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. "The death rate is decreasing." The Bush administration has accused Sudan and a government-backed militia of committing genocide. The United States is pressing the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution this week threatening to consider oil industry sanctions against Khartoum if it does not crack down on the militia and invite thousands of additional African monitors into Darfur. The resolution also calls for a formal U.N. inquiry into human rights abuses to determine if genocide has occurred there. The European Union backed the Bush administration's call for a U.N. commission of inquiry to determine whether the government or government- backed militia is guilty of committing genocide. In an attempt to broaden support for the resolution, the United States presented council members on Tuesday with a revised version of the resolution. It softened the threat of sanctions, asking only that the council "shall consider" imposing punitive measures against Sudan if it fails to comply with its obligations. A previous version warned that the council "will take further actions" if Sudan does not comply. "Our hope is that the vote will come towards the end of the week. But we feel that the time is of the essence," said John C. Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "With respect to the number of people dying in Darfur, it is a very large number of people, and it is a true tragedy, and all the more urgent the need for getting the African Union in place, which is the most immediate thing that can be done to help the people of Darfur." The United States and human rights groups allege that Sudan and an Arab militia known as Janjaweed have used extreme violence as part of a counterinsurgency campaign, killing tens of thousands of black African villagers in Darfur and driving more than 1 million from their homes. The U.N. estimates represent the most extensive study of mortality rates in Darfur and are drawn from a survey by WHO and Sudanese government epidemiologists of more than 3,100 households between June 15 and Aug. 15. The figures are not nearly as high as the worst-case-scenario projections of USAID; it predicted that as many as 300,000 will die over nine months, including as many as 36,000 in August. State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said: "Whatever the [precise] numbers are, I think we all understand it's a terrible situation, a situation where many, many people are suffering and many, many people remain at risk." "These death rates indicate that there is a humanitarian crisis in these states," the WHO survey said. "The population, especially in the West and possibly in the North, is dying at between five and ten times the rate that is normal for people in Sudan." U.N. officials cautioned that the results are preliminary and that death rates in the region could be higher. "Delivering relief to these communities is one of the most difficult tasks any of us have been involved in," said David Nabarro, head of WHO's action team. "We are still worried that we are underestimating mortality rates."

Arabic News 15 Sept 2004 www.arabicnews.com Garang: Genocide 'embedded' in Sudan's war strategy Sudan, Politics, 9/15/2004 Sudanese rebel leader John Garang says the violence in Darfur by government - supported militias called Jingaweit is the logical conclusion to a method of waging civil war that has genocide at its very core. Garang, chairman of the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), which has waged a bloody struggle against the Khartoum regime, told a September 10 round table sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), "The seeds of genocide are embedded in the [Khartoum] government's counter-insurgency strategy. What is happening in Darfur is the same thing that has happened in southern Sudan for the last 21 years." According to the United Nations, as many as 50,000 people have been killed and more than a million others displaced in the Darfur region in what Secretary of State Colin Powell recently told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was an ongoing pattern of genocide tolerated by the Khartoum regime. The war -- pitting mainly black Christian southerners against the Arab-dominated north -- has resulted in more than two million deaths since the early 1980s. Garang said, "A lot of emphasis has been put on the Jingaweit," which has become "a household word here in the United States and in many countries. But I want to submit that the problem is not [solely] the Jingaweit. Yes, the Jingaweit are the killers. And in that sense they are the problem. They are a tool in the hands of the [Khartoum] government. The problem in Darfur is the government's counter-insurgency strategy." He explained: "Counter-insurgency is a legitimate weapon in war but it is unique. You recruit individuals from the constituency of the insurgents because they know the local languages, the terrain, and the local cultures. You then form counter-insurgency units who are deployed alongside regular government troops." In Sudan, Garang said, "the government has taken counter-insurgency several steps further by recruiting not just individuals from the constituency of the insurgents," but also recruiting whole tribes or whole ethnic groups to fight other ethnic groups that are against the government. "This is what happened in Rwanda," Garang said. In 1994, "the Hutus were used by the [JuvŽnal] Habyarimana government to fight moderate Hutus and Tutsis and eliminate them. In Darfur this is the same thing, where the government is using elements of Arab tribes" to murder and rape mainly black, non-Arab Muslims. "And so you end up with people fighting people instead of an army fighting an army, and that indeed is the basis of genocide," he emphasized. Of his vision of a peaceful Sudan based on mutual respect and power sharing, Garang said: "I challenge those in Khartoum who say Sudan is just an Islamic Arab state. Yes, Islam is part of our culture. We are proud of it. We have an element of Arab culture in us, but that's not all of Sudan." Garang said he yearned for a Sudan where "nobody is above me and I'm not above anybody else." And therefore, "This is the basis of the new Sudan: recognition of all the countries [regions] and all the tribes" on an equal basis before the law and in government.

AFP 17 Sept 2004 African Union talks on Sudan's Darfur region adjourned for one month: Sudan ABUJA, Sept 17 (AFP) - African Union-sponsored talks on restoring peace to Sudan's western Darfur region adjourned for one month Friday to give negotiators more time to resolve disagreements on the key issues, delegates said. "We are going on recess and during the recess, we are being promised that the AU represented by by the current chairman, will undertake consultations with the two parties and also with the international partners who have shown interest in the issue of Darfur," Sudan's deputy foreign minister Najeib Abdulwahab told AFP. When asked when the talks would resume, he said: "In a month's time", without being specific. The three-week-old talks between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups -- Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) -- have yet to make meaningful progress because of disagreements on the key issues of security and disarmament. The Sudanese government in a statement on Friday blamed the United States and rebel groups for stalling the talks, especially for refusing to sign the agreement on the humanitarian issue. "It is regrettable that while the negotiators were fully engaged in the consideration of the security issue, and while they were making real progress, statements made by senior officials of the USA poisoned the talks environment and sent wrong signals to the rebels who immediately stiffened their positions," the statement said. Last week, US Secretary of State Colin Powell described the situation in Darfur as "a genocide" and blamed the Sudanese government and its proxy Arab militia Janjaweed for it. The Khartoum government said it had confidence in the AU-brokered peace and was ready to resume whenever called upon to do so. "The government of the Sudan maintains that the talks led by the African Union and assisted by other concerned parties, will pave the way for a final, durable and just resolution of the conflict," it added. Earlier, an AU mediator had said the talks would be suspended Friday "whether or not the rebels sign the protocol on humanitarian affair". The war in Darfur broke out in February 2003 when rebels rose up against Khartoum to demand an end to the political and economic marginalisation of their region, peopled mainly by black Africans. Khartoum's response was to back an Arab militia group, known as the Janjaweed, and give it a free rein to crack down on the rebels and their backers. In the 19 months since the conflict began, some 50,000 people have been killed, according to UN estimates. The Janjaweed has been accused of conducting a scorched earth policy in Darfur, of ethnic cleansing and even, in tandem with Khartoum, of genocide -- an accusation made last week by US Secretary of State Colin Powell. The United States has brought a resolution on Darfur before the UN Security Council, threatening to impose sanctions on Sudan's oil industry if Khartoum does not take steps to end the carnage in its western region. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Thursday called on the Security Council to act immediately on the resolution. China has threatened to veto the resolution, which presses Khartoum to rein in the Janjaweed and calls for an expanded force of African Union monitors in Darfur.

Reuters 18 Sept 2004 UN Council Votes for Resolution on Darfur Abuses By REUTERS Filed at 4:16 p.m. ET UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution on Saturday that threatens oil sanctions against Sudan if Khartoum does not stop atrocities in the Darfur region. The vote was 11-0, with four abstentions, on the U.S.-drafted resolution that also calls for an expanded African Union monitoring force and a probe into human rights abuses including genocide. China, Russia, Algeria and Pakistan abstained. China earlier threatened to veto the measure and its U.N. envoy, Wang Guangya, consulted with U.S. Ambassador John Danforth until the last minute. ``We don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater,'' Wang told reporters before the vote. The resolution says Sudan has to cooperate with an expanded African Union monitoring mission in Darfur, where an estimated 50,000 people have been killed and 1.2