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Attack on UNAMID Forces in Darfur: The Khartoum Regime is Responsible

By Eric Reeves
July 12, 2008

Originally published here.

On July 8, 2008, at approximately 2:45pm local time, heavily armed Janjaweed militia attacked a joint police and military patrol of the UN/African Union Mission in Sudan (UNAMID) in an area approximately 100 kilometers southeast of el-Fasher, near the village of Umm Hakibah (North Darfur). In a firefight that lasted approximately three hours, seven UNAMID troops and police were killed and twenty-two were injured, seven of these critically. Ten vehicles were destroyed or taken during the attack. Although there was initial uncertainty about the identity of the attacking force, this uncertainty has been eliminated in the course of a preliminary investigation. In addition to various published reports, UN Undersecretary for Peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, offered a compelling July 11, 2008 briefing to the UN Security Council in closed session, making a number of telling observations that point unambiguously to Janjaweed forces as those responsible:

[1] Guéhenno told the Security Council that the attack on UN-authorized peacekeepers “took place in an area under Sudanese government control and that some of the assailants were dressed in clothing similar to Sudanese army uniforms. He also said the ambush was ‘pre-meditated and well-organized’ and was intended to inflict casualties rather than to steal equipment or vehicles” (Voice of America [dateline: UN/New York], July 11, 2008). The peacekeepers attacked reported seeing approximately 200 fighters, many on horses—a signature feature of the Janjaweed (Arabic for “devil [or spirit] on horseback”).

[2] Agence France Presse reports: “Guehenno was quoted as saying that the ambush was designed ‘to inflict casualties and was carried out with ‘equipment usually not used by (rebel) militias” ([dateline: UN/New York], July 11, 2008). Separately and confidentially, a UN official went further in confirming to this writer that some of the arms used, including large-caliber recoilless rifles, have never been seen in the arsenals of the rebel groups. This official said that Guéhenno, who is retiring, had rarely been so explicit in assigning responsibility for attacks in Darfur.

BREAKING: Bashir to Be Charged With Genocide

More on this really important news to come.

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Sudan Leader To Be Charged With Genocide
Peace Efforts in Darfur Could Be Hampered, Some U.N. Officials Fear

By Colum Lynch and Nora Boustany
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 11, 2008; A01

UNITED NATIONS, July 10 — The chief prosecutor of the Internationals Criminal Court will seek an arrest warrant Monday for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charging him with genocide and crimes against humanity in the orchestration of a campaign of violence that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the nation’s Darfur region during the past five years, according to U.N. officials and diplomats.

The action by the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, will mark the first time that the tribunal in The Hague charges a sitting head of state with such crimes, and represents a major step by the court to implicate the highest levels of the Sudanese government for the atrocities in Darfur.

ACTION: Submit a video question to the presidential candidates

The deadline for this action is Midnight EST today.

If you have twenty minutes or so today, please consider sending a Darfur-related video question to the NAACP for its 2008 Presidential Forum with Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. Feel free to craft your own personal angle with your video. You might ask the presidential candidates to outline their concrete step-by-step plan to bring peace and security to Darfur. Or ask them about more specific issues, such as the need to impose targeted multilateral sanctions against the Government of Sudan’s senior leaders, and the need for the U.S. to support the expansion of the ICC’s open case on Darfur.

Find out how to submit your question here.

[End of Post]

Story: A former Sudanese refugee will run for Team USA

An inspiring story. Former Sudanese refugee Lopez Lomong will represent the U.S. next month at the Beijing Olympics. He has been speaking out recently for the people of Darfur:

“Lomong, 23, is a member of Team Darfur, a global coalition of athletes using the focus on the Beijing Olympics to urge China to exert its influence on the Sudanese government to alleviate the suffering in the country’s Darfur region. Sudan uses income from oil sold to China to buy arms, some of which are used by militias that have inflicted terror on Darfur.”

“I need to send the message as an athlete from Sudan,” Lomong said. “I am worried about the kids who are dying in Darfur, kids who don’t have the dream they could be good athletes or Olympians or doctors, because they will be running away from their village, separated from their families.”

Read the entire article here.

[End of Post]

Snapshot on: Displacement

From Darfuri native Niemat Ahmadi’s June 17 statement to the UN Security Council (read the full statement here):

“As you know, the war has displaced well over 100,000 civilians just since the beginning of this year — that’s nearly a thousand a day — many for a second or third time, as the Secretary-General told the Council on April 4th of this year.”

“…As described in the just released report by SDC and the Enough Project, the failures [of the UN] so far emphasize the need for this Council to ensure that all the necessary resources required for UNAMID deployment be immediately provided and that sanctions be placed on those Sudanese government officials responsible for obstructing deployment. There is no good reason that UNAMID still does not have the helicopters, trucks, or personnel that it requires to have an even minimal impact on the ground.”

[End of Post]

The Darfur Stoves Project

Every day, women living in the refugee camps of Darfur, Sudan must walk for up to seven hours outside the safety of the camps to collect firewood for cooking, putting them at risk for violent attacks. Now, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have engineered a more efficient wood-burning stove, which is greatly reducing both the women’s need for firewood and the threats against them.

Watch the video below (from KQED QUEST). You can also read more about the Darfur Stoves Project here.

[End of Post]

Remember the victories

The International Herald Tribune published a feature article last month about the growing impact of the Sudan divestment movement. Check out the article below:

Sudan divestment campaigns gain momentum
By Holly Hubbard Preston
Friday, May 23, 2008

A study to be released Tuesday provides statistical evidence of what many advocates of socially responsible investing have long asserted: Companies with links to regimes with questionable human rights practices make poor investments, financially as well as ethically.

Conducted with Bloomberg by the Genocide Intervention Network, a private group based in the United States, and its Sudan Divestment Task Force project, the study will most likely bolster the growing clamor among investors for socially responsible policies and investment vehicles.

The study examined actual and forecast returns on investment of 37 multinational companies affiliated with Sudan, the resource-rich country that has been accused of bankrolling a genocide campaign against its citizenry in its Darfur region that has resulted in an estimated 450,000 deaths and some 2.5 million displaced persons.

The Sudan-affiliated multinationals analyzed in the report range from large-capitalization companies like PetroChina and Indian Oil to mid-caps like Lundin Petroleum, based in Sweden, and micro-caps like Dietswell Engineering, based in France. Trade sanctions enacted in 1997 have prohibited all but a few U.S. companies from doing business in Sudan.

Adam Sterling, director of the Sudan project, said the companies were singled out because they participate in industries known to provide “substantial amounts of financial and logistical support to the Sudanese government at the expense of marginalized populations such as the Darfurians” through areas like oil, mining, power generation and military equipment. The project estimates that up to 70 percent of oil-related revenue generated in Sudan goes toward military expenditures.

The study used two key benchmarks to evaluate the peer groups: annualized historical return on investment for the past one, three and five years and forecast return for 2008 and 2009.

Tell the U.S. to make it a month for Darfur

[From American Jewish World Service:]

It’s been four years since the United Nations Security Council first addressed the violence in Darfur. But the devastation continues.

It’s time for the world to act.

Right now, the United States has the opportunity to demonstrate its leadership. During the month of June, the U.S. holds the presidency of the United Nations Security Council. This is a key opportunity for the U.S. to push for concrete international actions that will make a difference for the people of Darfur.

Urge the U.S. to seize this opportunity by sending a message to U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

[End of Post]

An important Sudan action for Californians

[From the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition:]

Dear Darfur Activist:

Sudanese civilians have endured even more suffering at the hands of their government than usual during the month of May. See the report referenced at the end of this email.

The U.S. is the President of the U.N. Security Council during June and has the power to set the Council’s agenda.

Please sign on to the letter below TODAY by replying to this email with your:
Name, Street Address, Town, and Zip Code. Your personal information will be used for no purpose other than as a signatory to the letter.

ACTION: Arrest War Criminals in Darfur

Ahmad Harun, Sudan’s former Minister of the Interior and current Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Janjawid leader Ali Kushayb, are charged with multiple counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur. Amnesty International is campaigning for their arrest and surrender to the International Criminal Court (ICC) the Government of Sudan continues to refuse to do so.

Call on U.S. authorities to take action to press the government of Sudan to arrest and surrender Harun and Kushayb to the ICC.

[End of Post]