Mia Farrow's Writings, Photos and Information on the Growing Crisis in Darfur (Sudan), Chad and Central African Republic (CAR)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/opinion/07kristof.html?th&emc=th
The World Capital of Killing
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
BUKAVU, Congo

It’s easy to wonder how world leaders, journalists, religious figures and ordinary citizens looked the other way while six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. And it’s even easier to assume that we’d do better. But so far the brutal war here in eastern Congo has not only lasted longer than the Holocaust but also appears to have claimed more lives. A peer- reviewed study put the Congo war’s death toll at 5.4 million as of April 2007 and rising at 45,000 a month. That would leave the total today, after a dozen years, at 6.9 million.

What those numbers don’t capture is the way Congo has become the world capital of rape, torture and mutilation, in ways that sear survivors like Jeanne Mukuninwa, a beautiful, cheerful young woman of 19 who somehow musters the courage to giggle. Her parents disappeared in the fighting when she had just turned 14 — perhaps they were massacred, but their bodies never turned up — so she moved in with her uncle. A few months later, the extremist Hutu militia invaded the home. She remembers that it was the day of her very first menstrual period — the only one she has ever had “First, they tied up my uncle,” Jeanne said. “They cut off his hands, gouged out his eyes, cut off his feet, cut off his sex organs, and left him like that. He was still alive.

“His wife and his son were also there. Then they took all of us into the forest.” That militia is known for kidnapping people and enslaving them for months, even years. Men are turned into porters, and girls into sex slaves. Jeanne and other girls were regularly tied spread-eagle and gang-raped, and she soon became pregnant. The rapes continued, sometimes with sticks that tore apart her insides and left her dribbling wastes constantly. Somehow the fetus survived, but her pelvis was too immature to deliver the baby.

One of the people the militia had kidnapped was a doctor who was forced to treat the soldiers. The doctor, seeing that Jeanne was close to dying in obstructed childbirth, cut her open with an old knife, without anesthetic, and removed the stillborn baby. Jeanne was delirious and almost dead, so the militia dumped her beside a road.

“She was completely destroyed inside,” said another doctor, Denis Mukwege, who saved her life after she was brought here to Bukavu. Dr. Mukwege, 54, presides over the 400-bed Panzi Hospital <http://www.panzihospitalbukavu.org/> , supported by the European Union and private groups like the Fistula Foundation. He is sometimes mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for his heroic efforts to fight the war and heal its victims.

Dr. Mukwege operated on Jeanne nine times over three years to repair the fistulas that were causing her to leak wastes. Finally he succeeded, and she returned to her village to live with her grandmother.

“He told me to stay away from men for three months,” Jeanne remembers, to give her body time to heal. But three days after she returned to the village, the militia came again and raped again. The fistula reopened. Jeanne, kept naked in the forest and stinking because her internal injuries had reopened, finally managed to escape and eventually found her way back to Panzi Hospital. Dr. Mukwege has already started a second round of surgeries on her, but there is so little tissue left that it is not clear she can ever be continent again.

About 12 percent of the raped women he treats have contracted syphilis, and 6 percent have H.I.V. He does what he can to repair their injuries and help them heal — until the next time.

“Sometimes I don’t know what I am doing here,” Dr. Mukwege said despairingly. “There is no medical solution.” The paramount need, he says, is not for more humanitarian aid for Congo, but for a much more vigorous international effort to end the war itself.

That means putting pressure on neighboring Rwanda, a country so widely admired for its good governance at home that it tends to get a pass for its possible role in war crimes next door <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/world/africa/04congo.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1> . We also need pressure on the Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, to arrest Gen. Jean Bosco Ntaganda, wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges. And, as recommended by an advocacy organization called the Enough Project <http://www.enoughproject.org/conflict-minerals> , we need a U.S.-brokered effort to monitor the minerals trade from Congo so that warlords can no longer buy guns by exporting gold, tin or coltan.

Unless we see some leadership here, the fighting in Congo — fueled by profits from mineral exports — will continue indefinitely. So if we don’t act now, when will we? When the toll reaches 10 million deaths? When Jeanne is kidnapped and raped for a third time?

Women and children in desperate need of aid-UNICEF appeal

I took the top photo in Central African Republic. After her village was attacked and destroyed by armed militia, this woman fled into the bush. She survives eating roots and leaves. I took this picture as she, with her baby tied to her back, was climbing out of a deep hole with her bowl of muddy water.

the second photo is of a mother and child in north Kivu, eastern Congo. Another of the most dangerous places on earth for woman and children.

The United Nations Children's Fund is appealing for $1.2 billion to provide life saving emergency assistance to millions of children and women in dire need. UNICEF says earthquake-stricken Haiti is only one of 28 countries where children and women lack even the most basic means of survival.
Since the devastating earthquake struck, UNICEF has increased its efforts to restore shattered lives and protect children and women who are among the most vulnerable victims of this disaster. While Haiti remains a priority, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Hilde Johnson tells VOA there are many other emergencies that are critical and must be addressed.
"We need to scale up our efforts delivered in Haiti, but we also need to ensure that children all over the world-in the Horn of Africa, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Sudan, in Chad-all these children deserve and have the right to the same assistance as children everywhere else," she said. "And, we must not now only be one-sided. We need to be able to show that we care and plan to assist all these children globally," said Johnson.

Johnson says children are always among the most severely affected, and disasters put them at increased risk of abuse and grave violations of their rights. She says children are at risk of sexual violence, killing and maiming, and forced recruitment into armed groups.

Every year, UNICEF responds to some 200 emergencies around the world. These crises are most acutely felt in the 28 countries that figure in the Humanitarian Action Report. The greatest needs are in sub-Saharan Africa, where some 24 million people in the Horn of Africa are being affected by drought, chronic food insecurity and armed conflict. UNICEF's three biggest operations are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Ethiopia. Johnson says more than six million people in Ethiopia are going hungry because of drought and famine. She says children there are at risk of severe and acute malnutrition.
"In Sudan, the combination of conflict and drought, instability and the situation in Darfur, which is still difficult," she explained. "And, in south Sudan it is getting worse. In DRC, the Democratic Republic of Congo, we are well familiar with challenges in the eastern part of the country, where we still have thousands and thousands of people on the move. And, where women and children and girls are subject to sexual violence."

While the crises in these three countries are relatively well known, there are a number of countries that remain largely forgotten. Johnson cites the Central African Republic as one country where children suffer from instability and lack of basic services. Yet, she notes little is ever heard about what is happening there.

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Children-Women-In-28-Countries-in-Desperate-Need-of-Aid-83545362.html

Multiple predators stalk civilians in Congo

Recently the governments of Uganda, Congo and Southern Sudan launched a joint offensive against the LRA rebels, but they have failed to capture or kill the group's commander Joseph Kony. And so the violence has continued, with civilians as targets for abductions, rape, mutilations and murder.

The LRA is not the only group preying upon on the Congolese population. Terrified civilians in eastern Congo told me the Congolese Army attacks them regularly, raping women and girls, stealing possessions and obstructing aid to displaced people. Other militia include the Maimai-un official followers of the Congolese army, Tutsi rebels from Rwanda and according to the women I spoke with, the most brutal of all, are the marauding Hutu genocidaires from Rwanda.

A look at the International Criminal Court

By The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands. It is an independent body, not a U.N. court.

ESTABLISHMENT - The Rome Statute creating the ICC was adopted in Italy July 17, 1998. It came into force in July 2002 after ratification by 60 countries. Neither the United States nor Sudan are among the 110 countries which have endorsed the treaty to date.

JURISDICTION - A court of last resort, the ICC acts only when member countries are "unwilling or unable" to dispense justice themselves. It may prosecute individuals responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed after July 2002. The U.N. Security Council may ask the court to open an investigation.

CASES - The prosecutor has opened investigations in Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Sudan and Central African Republic.

SUSPECTS - The court has four suspects in custody, all of them alleged war lords from Congo. One of them, former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba is charged with crimes allegedly committed in Central African Republic.

TRIALS - The court is currently trying three Congolese warlords in two separate cases.

FUGITIVES - The court has issued arrest warrants for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, one of his government's ministers, Ahmad Muhammad Harun, and Ali Kushayb, a commander of the government-backed janjaweed militia. All are wanted for crimes allegedly committed in Darfur. Arrest warrants also have been issued for four leaders of the Ugandan rebel group Lord's Resistance Army and for another Congolese warlord, Bosco Ntaganda.

COMPOSITION - Its 18 judges are elected for terms of three to nine years. The chief prosecutor is Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina. The president is South Korean judge Song Sang-hyun.

U.S. POSITION - The United States voted against the Rome treaty in 1998. But then-President Bill Clinton signed it on Dec. 31, 2000. Former President George W. Bush, citing fears Americans would be unfairly prosecuted for political reasons, renounced the signature and initiated bilateral immunity deals with dozens of countries, barring them from handing U.S. citizens to the court's jurisdiction. It is unclear how the U.S. relationship with the court will change under President Barack Obama.

BUDGET - The court had a 2009 budget of just over euro101 million ($140 million), that is paid by the countries in the ICC's governing body, the Assembly of States Parties.

Link to article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020300255_pf.html

ICC to reconsider whether to add genocide to charges against Omer al-Bashir with

The appeals chamber at the International Criminal Court has ordered the court to reconsider its decision to omit genocide from the arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, The Netherlands-based ICC indicted al-Bashir on seven charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity last March, but said there was not enough evidence to charge him with three counts of genocide. Erkki Kourula, an ICC judge, said the "decision by the pre-trial chamber not to issue a warrant in the respect of the charge of genocide was materially affected by an error of law". The court's pre-trial judges will now have to rule again on whether to add genocide to list of charges against al-Bashir.

You asked. President Obama responds.

Yesterday, President Obama responded to a question on Sudan submitted by Enough Project and voted by the general public as the most popular foreign policy question. Thanks to a dynamic social media campaign, online voters made clear they wanted the president to better explain what he is doing to avert a resumption of widespread bloodshed in Sudan. The outpouring of support for a query on Sudan is all the more impressive given that some 14,000 potential questions were submitted for the online interview. Watch what President Obama had to say on Sudan, and read his remarks. http://www.enoughproject.org/YouTube

Enough’s Co-founder, John Prendergast took some issue with the president’s statement:
"President Obama's response is missing two elements. First, there is no full-time field-based diplomatic presence in Sudan and the surrounding region working on both Darfur and the North-South issues to make sure peace efforts have a chance of success. So we would like to see him deploy that diplomatic capacity and challenge other nations with influence to do the same. Without that kind of on the ground U.S. leadership, the kind that led to the 2005 North-South peace deal, the risk of further conflict is very high. Second, diplomatic engagement should be backed by real and immediate pressures on the Sudanese government. It is not a case of engagement versus pressure as the president seems to imply. The U.S. should be working to build a coalition of countries willing to escalate pressures in support of peace – pressures that would include targeted asset freezes and travel bans, expansion of the arms embargo, denial of debt relief, and suspension of aid to the deeply flawed election. Introducing these consequences into the equation would influence the calculations of the parties and help move them toward lasting peace."

Since President Obama took office, an estimated 2,500 people have been killed in violent clashes in southern Sudan <http://www.enoughproject.org/glossary/term/109?Array> . Here's our petition to President Obama that we hope you'll sign as well:
"Thank you for responding to our question about the crisis in Sudan. We agree with you, Mr. President, that there is an acute threat of violence during the upcoming elections and referendum period. We respectfully disagree, however, that our government has made the progress necessary to broker agreements in Sudan that will stabilize the country. We therefore urge you, Mr. President, to lead other counties willing to escalate pressures on the parties in support of peace. Only with increased pressures and a full-time field-based diplomatic presence in Sudan, working on both Darfur <http://www.enoughproject.org/glossary/term/102?Array> and the North-South issues, will peace efforts have a chance of success."

Add your name to the petition
http://www.enoughproject.org/YouTube

Congo's Forgotten War in Congo-watch this video. Meet Chance, one courageous little girl

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/01/30/opinion/1247466767698/congo-s-forgotten-war.html?th&emc=th

Make your voices heard to help stem the atrocities in Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo's mineral wealth continues to fuel the armed groups that commit the atrocities in eastern Congo. Despite the upsurge in atrocities during 2009 and more than a million people on the run from armed groups,, multinational companies continue to purchase minerals such as gold, tin and tungsten from the Congo.

Urge your Representative to support legislation for conflict-free cell phones, laptops and other electronics by cosponsoring the Congo Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009 (HR 4128) <http://www.enoughproject.org/conflict_minerals_trade_act> . The bill will indentify any conflict minerals from Congo imported into the United States. It is the strongest effort to stop the scourge of conflict minerals in Congo.

Contact Your Own Representative Urge him or her to support conflict mineral legislation (HR 4128)
Dial 1-800-GENOCIDE. By entering your zip code, you will have access to the contact information for elected officials ranging from your state Governor
to your Senator to the President.

Take Action: Urge Industry Leaders to Make Conflict-Free Products
   We need your help to increase demand for conflict-free electronics products. As a consumer, we can influence electronics industry leaders as they weigh whether or not to invest in making their supply chains transparent and producing verifiably conflict-free products. Tell companies that if they take conflict out of their products, you'll buy them.
Go to this website and through them you make your voice heard at Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Microsoft, Canon, IBM,Intel Apple, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo. Rim,Nintendo, Phillips, Panasonic
http://www2.americanprogress.org/t/1659/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6265

Write to President Obama and ask him to make finding a non-military solution to the war in Congo a priority in his foreign policy agenda:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

Educate yourself about how conflict minerals are illegally and inhumanely pillaged from the Congo and make their way into your cell phones and the computer you are using to read this post right now. Demand that electronics companies alter their mining and trade policies so that conflict-free minerals are used in our electronics. Until this happens, we all literally have blood on our hands.

You can inform yourselves on the sites listed here and let your voices be heard
ttp://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/conflictminerals_faq <http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/conflictminerals_faq>

http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/27/news/international/congo.fortune/

Orphaned, Raped and Ignored-Nicholas Kristof reporting from Congo

Sometimes I wish eastern Congo could suffer an earthquake or a tsunami, so that it might finally get the attention it needs. The barbaric civil war being waged here is the most lethal conflict since World War II and has claimed at least 30 times as many lives as the Haiti earthquake. Yet no humanitarian crisis generates so little attention per million corpses, or such a pathetic international response.

That's why I'm here in the lovely, lush and threatening hills west of Lake Kivu, where militias rape, mutilate and kill civilians with a savagery that is almost incomprehensible. I'm talking to a 9-year-old girl, Chance Tombola, an orphan whose eyes are luminous with fear. For Chance, the war arrived one evening last May when armed soldiers from an extremist Hutu militia - remnants of those who committed the Rwandan genocide - burst into her home. They killed her parents in front of her. Chance ran away, but the soldiers seized her two sisters, ages 6 and 12, and carried them away into the forest, presumably to be turned into "wives" of soldiers. No one has seen Chance's sisters since.

Chance moved in with her aunt and uncle and their two teenage daughters. Two months later, the same militia invaded the aunt's house and held everyone at gunpoint. Chance says she recognized some of the soldiers as the same ones who had killed her parents. This time, no one could escape. The soldiers first shot her uncle, and then, as the terrified family members sobbed, they pulled out a large knife.

"They sliced his belly so that the intestines fell out" said his widow, Jeanne Birengenyi, 34, Chance's aunt. "Then they cut his heart out and showed it to me." The soldiers continued to mutilate the body, while others began to rape Jeanne.

"One takes a leg, one takes the other leg" Jeanne said dully. "Others grab the arms while one just starts raping. They don't care if children are watching." Chance added softly: "There were six who raped her. One raped me, too." The soldiers left Jeanne and Chance, tightly tied up, and marched off into the forest with Jeanne's two daughters as prisoners. One daughter is 14, the other 16, and they have not been heard from since.

"They kill, they rape, burn houses and take people's belongings" Jeanne said. "When they come with their guns, i'ss as if they have a project to eliminate the local population."

A peer-reviewed study <http://www.theirc.org/special-reports/congo-forgotten-crisis> found that 5.4 million people had already died in this war as of April 2007, and hundreds of thousands more have died as the situation has deteriorated since then. A catastrophically planned military offensive last year, backed by the governments of Congo and Rwanda as well as the United Nations force here, made some headway against Hutu militias but also led to increased predation on civilians from all sides.

This is a pointless war - now a dozen years old - driven by warlords, greed for minerals, ethnic tensions and complete impunity. While there is plenty of fault to go around, Rwanda has long played a particularly troubling role in many ways, including support for one of the militias. Rwanda's government is dazzlingly successful at home, but next door in Congo, it appears complicit in war crimes.

Jeanne and Chance contracted sexually transmitted diseases. Like other survivors in areas that are accessible, they receive help from the International Rescue Committee, but Chance still suffers pain when she urinates.

It takes astonishing courage for Jeanne and Chance to tell their stories (including in a video posted with the on-line version of this column). I'll be reporting more from eastern Congo in the coming days, hoping that the fortitude of survivors like them can inspire world leaders to step forward to stop this slaughter. It's time to show the same compassion toward Congo that we have toward Haiti.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/opinion/31kristof.html?th&emc=th
===================================================================
And from Nick's blog
There are of course many problems in the world, many demands on our conscience. But the Congo war seems to me particularly important because of the death toll (already 5.4 million as of April 2007); the savagery or rape and mutilation directed at civilians; and the prospect that some pressure and heavy diplomacy could resolve it. Moreover, without that pressure and diplomacy, it will continue unabated for years to come. I do think that the news media have dropped the ball on this one, but that may reflect the new media realities in which television reporting in particular from abroad just falls off the map.

I was last in Congo in 2007, and so it was dispiriting to see that while some parts of Congo are better off, the situation has worsened in the Kivus. Last year was a particularly bad year, because of the catastrophic military offensive, and more than 1 million people were newly displaced in 2009 in the Kivus alone. With 45,000 people dying unnecessarily every month, this should be a priority. I'll talk more in later columns about what is to be done, but here's a preview: pressure on Rwanda, pressure on Congo's president, pressure on the Congolese minerals that finance conflict, and efforts to professionalize Congo's army and end the impunity for rape and murder. Your thoughts?
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/your-comments-on-my-congo-column-2/

WILL THE ICC CHARGE AL-BASHIR WITH THE ULTIMATE HUMAN CRIME

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said on Thursday he expects ICC judges to add the charge of genocide against Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Last March the ICC issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir last March on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, rape and torture, and displacement of millions, but said it lacked evidence to prosecute al-Bashir for the crime of genocide. Moreno-Ocampo appealed the ruling, arguing that nearly 3 million people languishing in Darfur s camps, itself justifies the label of genocide.
"The people in the camps are still suffering what I consider genocide," he said. "And in a few weeks the appeal chairman will rule on my request to include genocide charges. I think I will win." Moreno-Ocampo said conditions in the camps amounted to a "slow death" which the world has lost interest in.
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HAS GENOCIDE OCCURRED IN DARFUR?

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948 defines genocide as any -not all- of the following acts with intent ---
It is clear to me that ALL of the elements listed below were at play during 2003-2004 rampage when 80-90% of Darfurs villages were destroyed. The Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes were targeted by the Khartoum regime and its entire apparatus in coordination with the Janjaweed, .

Some question whether the genocide continues today. For seven years, nearly three million people primarily of the Fur, Zaghawa, Masalit tribes are barely surviving in refugee camps. I think the genocide is in fact complete-the culture and the villages of these three tribes are memories. Traditional tribal life is no more. It is doubtful that it can ever be reclaimed. People are dying of disease and hunger now, they lack basic necessities such as clean water, sanitation, sufficient food, tents, education and medicines. Genocide by attrition.

Excerpt from the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of Genocide (For full text click here <http://www.preventgenocide.org/law/convention/index.htm#text> )

"Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

Darfur refugees in desperate need of food and water

UN says Darfur refugees desperately short of food and water
UNAMID UN Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur) said a joint assessment mission with UN agencies had found worrying signs of shortages around the North Darfur settlements of Dar El Salaam and Shangil Tobay and their surrounding displacement camps. "IDPs (Internally displaced persons) in both regions were found to be in desperate need of food and water," it said.

Thu Jan 28, 2010
By Andrew Heavens
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Refugees in parts of Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region are desperately short of food and water due to a lack of rain, and problems have been exacerbated in at least one area by Khartoum's expulsion of aid groups, officials said on Thursday.

An estimated 4.7 million people rely on humanitarian aid in Darfur -

UNAMID said a joint assessment mission with UN agencies had found worrying signs of shortages around the North Darfur settlements of Dar El Salaam and Shangil Tobay and their surrounding displacement camps. "IDPs in both regions were found to be in desperate need of food and water," it said.

A U.N. official, who asked not to be named, said the aid group Oxfam had provided water services in Shangil Tobay before it was expelled last year. "That gap has not been properly filled," said the official.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ordered 13 foreign aid agencies to leave north Sudan in March, and closed three local groups, after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him to face charges of war crimes in Darfur. Bashir accused the groups of passing information to the Hague-based court, an accusation they denied.
Link to complete article
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE60R0HQ20100128

Let us not forget

Even as our hearts and prayers are with the people of Haiti, let us not forget the three million refugees who are trying to survive and sustain hope through this, their seventh year in wretched camps across Darfur and eastern Chad.
The last three photos were taken in the refugee camp, Oure Cassoni.

I took this photo of children in Jebel Marra, Darfur in 2004. They are still waiting for protection.

Refugee mother and child
Oure-Cassoni refugee camp
Girl getting water at the Oure Cassoni water-point-
The water is not clean. People were asking for new jerrycans. As far as I know, none have come.

Remarks by Ambassador Susan Rice

“We also stressed that the insecurity in the South – while it is the responsibility of the government of South Sudan to provide security for its people, just as it is the responsibility of the government of Sudan to do so throughout the country – is being exacerbated by an inflow of weapons and munitions. And this is not something that is happening by osmosis, it is something that is happening deliberately. And we are very interested in knowing, and the Council being made aware of, the source of the flow of weapons.--
With respect to the weapons, we heard today from the UN that it is not just small arms but some heavier munitions that seem to be flowing in. We weren't given specifics on that. But we have seen, in the violence that is taking place in the South, a higher degree of sophistication and lethality of the weapons employed, and that's a source of concern.--
I think the issue is to find out what is the principle source, what is the motivation behind the flow of those weapons. Is this simply small arms trafficking of the sort that we see throughout the continent or is it actually a deliberate effort to sow instability’

Link to State Dept transcript
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SNAA-8242VA?OpenDocument

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We can be defined by what we give rather than what we possess.

What Could You Live Without?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/opinion/24kristof.html
Another great piece by Nick Kristof
Kevin Salwen, a writer and entrepreneur in Atlanta, was driving his 14-year-old daughter, Hannah, back from a sleepover in 2006. While waiting at a traffic light, they saw a black Mercedes coupe on one side and a homeless man begging for food on the other.
“Dad, if that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal,” Hannah protested. The light changed and they drove on, but Hannah was too young to be reasonable. She pestered her parents about inequity, insisting that she wanted to do something.
“What do you want to do?” her mom responded. “Sell our house?”

“No one expects anyone to sell a house,” said Hannah, now a high school junior who hopes to become a nurse. “That’s kind of a ridiculous thing to do. For us, the house was just something we could live without. It was too big for us. Everyone has too much of something, whether it’s time, talent or treasure. Everyone does have their own half, you just have to find it.”

Check out Hannah’s video too! http://www.thepowerofhalf.com

Even before the earthquake

Even then there were almost 400,000 orphaned children in Haiti. Here are some of the orphans I met in the aftermath of the hurricanes that hammered Haiti in 2008
If you can, support organizations that have been working in Haiti for decades-

Partners In Health has been providing health care to Haiti for 20 years“ We urgently need your support to help those affected by the recent earthquake. our mission; “ PIH uses all of the means at our disposal- to providing medical care and social services. Whatever it takes. Just as we would do if a member of our own family –or ourselves-were ill.”
P.O. Box 845578
Boston, MA 02284-5578
http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti

UNICEf has been in Haiti since 1946
Another plane loaded with UNICEF emergency relief supplies arrived in Port-au-Prince this morning, carrying urgently needed water and sanitation supplies. This is the second load of UNICEF water and sanitation materials to arrive in Haiti in the past 24 hours. The shipment contained additional oral rehydration salts, water purification tablets and jerry cans. Two experts in water and sanitation were also on the flight
http://www.unicef.org/

Partners In Health and UNICEF are charitable organizations under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The full amount of the gift you make on this page is tax-deductible.

Experts seem to agree that the only groups that can get anything done in the very short term are those with experience in Haiti —
Partners in Health <http://www.pih.org/> is a name that comes up again and again — or those with expertise in disaster relief.

mercy ship arrives in Port-au-Prince

Hospital ship greeted by Haiti's stark reality
Victims stream aboard from a steady procession of helicopters
    Robert Little
  Baltimore Sun
   January 21, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
    The faces of the Haitian disaster arrived Wednesday aboard the Navy hospital ship Comfort as a procession of earthquake victims, looking lost and scared, staggered off helicopters or strained to look up from their stretchers while corpsmen carried them below deck. They came from clinics and triage centers across Haiti, beginning just after sunrise and ending at dusk, shattering the ship's military and clinical sterility with the cries and smells and blank stares of human anguish

The patients were flown in by the Navy, Coast Guard or Air Force in one of the 30 helicopters available within the ship's range. Plans for a boat-based shuttle were foiled by an earthquake aftershock that flattened the pier the Comfort had expected to use and that jolted the ship as if it had hit ground. Ship officials identified an alternate boat-landing site by midafternoon.

Operations were also hindered Wednesday by the slow arrival of more than 350 crew members who are expected to bring the vessel up to its full 1,000-bed, 12 operating room capacity. Most of those crew members, expected to join the ship during the next two to three days, will arrive by boat. But even with the slowed startup, the ship's main treatment and assessment rooms seemed on the verge of being overwhelmed. As one helicopter touched down on the Comfort's flight deck, three or more could sometimes be seen circling over Port-au-Prince harbor.

At the ship's medical receiving area, the first stop of any patient aboard, the same scene was repeated throughout the day: Elevator doors rumbled open to reveal a bewildered collection of men or women, some on stretchers, some in wheelchairs, all gaping at the mad frenzy and bright lights of the Navy's flagship of disaster response. They wore bloody bandages and wounds wrapped in old sheets or clothing. Some had tape or stickers affixed to their shirts, bearing messages from the triage team such as "chronic renal failure" or "left leg."

By early afternoon, some surgeons were calling for more operating rooms to open, a challenge before the rest of the crew arrives. The idea was resisted by others, however, because it could tie up all of the surgical teams and leave them vulnerable if an emergency patient arrived. There was little time for arguing though, as the elevator doors kept opening.

The ship had been preparing for this day since it left Baltimore on Friday, testing equipment, unpacking supplies and holding trauma drills. But the human reality of what the crew will face - and what Haitians have struggled with for a week - became evident on one of Wednesday's first flights. He was a young Haitian whose crusting burns covered his head, concealing most of his features.

"A number of them have been injured in the last few days by walls falling on them in structures where they were trying to sleep," said Cmdr. Tim Donahue, head of surgery on the Comfort. "It shows how dangerous Haiti still is, and how much work we have to do."

Link to complete article
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-md.hs.comfort21jan21,0,4154306.story

Doctor in Haiti says

As many as 20,000 people are dying needlessly of gangrene and preventable ailments because the medicine isnt getting through .

A surgeon friend in Haiti performed 20 amputations today

Wall Street Journal Jan 20, 2010

Time for a U.N. Crisis Corps
Haiti shows the need for better disaster relief.

<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703837004575013083189066118.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion#>

  By MIA FARROW
'You have not been forsaken," President Barack Obama assured the people of Haiti two days after the earthquake demolished a country already on its knees. The president's message was on point. But, for Haitians desperate for aid, it was likely little comfort.

With massive military capabilities and highly trained rescue staff both in the United States and around the world, why do natural disasters always seem to catch us so unprepared? When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, Americans reached into their pockets and prayed, while those we trusted to lead scrambled, mangling their half-baked plans.

The response to the Haitian earthquake has been different. President Obama has been involved from the outset, and the American response has been massive and commendable. The American people responded to the catastrophe with characteristic generosity—over $112 million was contributed to the Red Cross alone. And 30 countries came together with rescue teams and supplies. Yet seven days have passed and we still have not managed to fully implement a coherent rescue and relief operation in a country just one hour's flight from Florida.

A weak and overwhelmed Haitian government has declared there is little it can do. An aide to the mayor in Port-au-Prince described the situation as "anarchy." So it has fallen to the U.S. to lead the relief effort, deploying a fully equipped floating hospital, 250 government doctors and medical personnel, helicopters, and more than 10,000 soldiers and Marines.

Despite these resources Haiti's incapacitated infrastructure has crippled relief efforts, costing precious time and lives. The Haitian port is too damaged to accommodate large ships. Airplanes circle the tiny, single-runway airport for hours waiting for an opportunity to land, and the airport lacks sufficient fuel to refuel departing planes. Some humanitarian aircraft are rerouted to neighboring Dominican Republic where they must find trucks to convoy the 12 or more hours along broken roads. Still, 200 planes have managed to land and take off each day in Port-au-Prince, leaving their precious cargo—food, water, medicines and equipment—stacked on the sizzling tarmac.

As we enter day eight, the odds of finding buried victims alive are slim. The priority now is organizing orderly distributions of food and water to increasingly desperate people. Medical centers must be set up immediately to care for the wounded. And vulnerable, starving people competing for resources need to be protected by military forces from violence and stampedes.

Some have been critical of the United Nations, which has had a significant presence in Haiti since 1994, for not playing a stronger role in organizing the rescue operations. But the peacekeeping mission suffered the greatest loss in U.N. history when 150 workers—including Mission Chief Hedi Annabi—perished beneath the collapsed U.N. compound.

Television coverage of this disaster has been agonizing. It has been shocking to see the corpses clogging the streets, piled high outside the morgues, or dumped by the thousands into mass graves. From the comfort of our couches, we watch the horror of dying children trapped in the rubble in real time.

Abhorrent as this thought may be, as sure as night will fall there will be another disaster so terrible that entire infrastructures will be decimated, hundreds of thousands of people will need to be rescued, and every moment will matter.

We must plan for the next time. The first step is clear: The U.N. needs to formulate an international response corps. This corps would be tasked with contingency planning for sites known to be at risk of natural disaster. It would ensure there is a coherent game plan capable of putting rescue teams on the ground in any country. And it would apply the same alacrity and level of organization we use when we have a military objective. No matter how good an ad hoc response is, it will never be quick enough to save lives in the first chaotic days of a catastrophe. There are many components to building a more effective response in the future, but advance planning is essential.

Rescue teams, water, food, medicine and tents have finally started to reach the Haitian people. But for far too many, help has come too late.

Partners in Health has been working in Haiti for over 20 years. Look what they are doing even now.

http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti

please support the most excellent, Partners in Health

Partners in Health was founded by the amazing and deeply respected Dr. Paul Farmer who has has been providing health care in Haiti for more than 20 years.
Partners In Health: www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti.

Read his blog from Haiti

http://standwithhaiti.org/haiti/news-entry/building-back-better-op-ed/

Paul Farmer is the Presley Professor of Social Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, the co-founder of Partners In Health, and the deputy to Bill Clinton, United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti

US Troops distribute food as relief effort gets under way

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/16/haiti.international.aid/
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- U.S. helicopters carrying food hovered above the ground in one area of the battered Haitian capital on Saturday, flinging out boxes to the anxious crowd. It was a chaotic scene as hundreds of Haitians without food and water for four days swarmed toward the boxes, ignoring the wind and dust kicked up from the helicopters' blades.

How we Can help Haiti

Not forsaken-but when?

Three days after the earth quake the people are growing increasingly desperate. Water and food is still not reaching those who need it.

30 countries have responded with the US taking the lead, deploying warships, a fully equipped floating hospital, 5,500 soldiers and marines. But the port is damaged and closed to large ships. The single runway airport is clogged and not nearly big enough. Planes filled with supplies circle for hours but eventually they are able to land. Piles of life-sustaining supplies are accumulating on the tarmac but distribution is another matter. Centers must be set up with guards to protect desperate people from stampeding. The Haitian Government is completely overwhelmed and barely existent. Reporters say Haitian police are not visible in the streets. The UN team was a peace keeping team, now it must regroup with experts in to ensure the aid is distributed in an orderly manner as quickly as possible. Haiti's people have been left to fend on their own, still digging for loved ones with their hands and hammers. Some are using car tires as funeral pyres to burn the bodies of relatives, but countless unclaimed bodies are piled in the streets, outside the morgues and at the graveyerds. Reportedly 8000 bodies have been deposited in a mass grave. There are not nearly enough doctors or nurses, there is little medical care to be found anywhere. The wounded suffer outside the crumpled hospital and flattened medical clinics.

Tomorrow will be day 4. The people watch the helicopters circling and the planes landing, but so far there is little relief for the hungry and thirsty. Too many of Haiti’s children were already malnourished. How long can they survive?

you will not be forsaken.

More photos, taken by me in 2008 are in 'photo' gallery at right of homepage.

Cite' Soleil in Port-au-Prince

I took these photos in Citi Soleil a crowded, desperately poor shanty located in Port-au-Prince. It was 2008, shortly after Haiti was pounded by 4 hurricanes. I traveled through the country by helicopter as most of the roads and bridges were destroyed. I saw towns and rice fields completely submerged in sea water and deep, thick mud. With 80 percent of the people living below the poverty line, most people unemployed, roughly half the population unable to read, a weak government and Port-au-Prince run by thugs and gangs, the future looked bleak for Haiti's beautiful children. I didn't think things could be worse. I was wrong.

Governments and aid agencies are rushing to help the people of Haiti.

Governments and aid agencies around the world are organizing supplies for Haiti, while aid workers in Port-au-Prince, scramble to set up makeshift clinics beside the rubble that just one day ago had been their hospitals.

Doctors Without Borders were mobbed by people with severe traumas and crushed limbs, and by people begging for help in rescuing trapped relatives. Most of the medical centers in Port-au-Prince have collapsed. Electricity and communication lines are down, so it is difficult to assess the damage and locate lost aid workers.

Many international relief agencies have had large presences in Haiti since a series of hurricanes in 2008 caused drastic levels of flooding, mudslides and devastation. They were struggling now to get people and supplies into the country and then distribute them. The survivors are trying to dig buried people out from the rubble. The wounded and the dead fill the streets.

The Pentagon is sending an aircraft carrier to Haiti. It is expected to arrive by Friday and it will serve as an offshore staging area for helicopters and air support for the island. The Pentagon also ordered a hospital ship but officials said it was still assembling a crew and had not yet sailed. The United States Coast Guard dispatched four cutters, some equipped with helicopters, early Wednesday morning and had helicopters there helping with surveillance. More Coast Guard helicopters and aircraft were sent from the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. China has sent a plane with relief workers and supplies.

France said it would send three military transport planes, including one from nearby Fort de France, Martinique, with aid supplies, and that 100 troops based in the French West Indies would be sent to help. Britain said it would send an assessment team as soon as snow could be cleared from a runway at an Airport near London. Germany, too, is sending an assessment team, and said it would make 1.5 million euros, or about $2.2 million, available for emergency assistance.

About 800 people from Doctors Without Borders, were already in Haiti when the quake struck. They treated more than 600 patients in various locations for fractures and other injuries and for burns, many of them caused by domestic cooking-gas containers that exploded as buildings collapsed. But even as Doctors Without Borders tried to mobilize staff and supplies, they could not get very far, roads that were not strewn by rubble were made impassible during the night by people sleeping or lying wounded there.

Partners in Health, working with medical centers throughout Haiti, said it was trying to send supplies to the capital from its nine medical centers in the Central Plateau of Haiti, about 100 miles from Port-au-Prince, which were not damaged in the quake. "We have to make sure that when we do bring aid in, we have a system that we can use effectively," said Andrew Marx, a spokesman for the organization. "The important thing is getting what we already have in country to the place that it's needed - there has to be a 'there' there."

The World Food Program -www.wfp.org/haiti is airlifting additional food supplies from its emergency hub in El Salvador, which will provide more than half a million emergency meals.

Pray for the people of Haiti

The strongest earthquake in more than 200 years hit desperately poor Haiti at about 5pm tonight, collapsing buildings leaving people screaming for help. Officials report bodies in the streets and describe the situation as "total disaster and chaos." United Nations officials said a large number of U.N. personnel are unaccounted for. Communications are disrupted, making it impossible to get a full picture at this point

Terror in Sudan

New York Times
January 11, 2010
To the Editor:

Re “After Years of Mass Killings, Fragile Calm Holds in Darfur <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/world/africa/02darfur.html> ” (front page, Jan. 2):

Contrary to the impression given in your article, it is not the rebels but Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Sudan’s president, who is the real catalyst for seven years of government-sponsored terror in Darfur, resulting in 300,000 deaths and the displacement of about three million more.

This same man, who has been indicted on war crime charges, and his National Congress Party were responsible for the deaths of two million in southern Sudan during two decades of civil war as they sought to protect their hold on oil resources.

The “fragile calm” your article depicts in Darfur exists only because Mr. Bashir has largely finished his work there. He is now focused on other priorities, most important of which is rigging the coming elections to maintain his grip on power. Before an election farce legitimizes his reign, the Obama administration should impose strict consequences on his brutal regime. Otherwise, southern Sudan may descend into another war, and three million Darfuris suffering in camps may never be able to go home.

Susan Morgan
The writer is co-founder of Investors Against Genocide and executive director of Pax Communications.

Thank you and farewell to a hero

Miep Gies died this week at one hundred years of age. Ms Gies was an employee of Otto Frank before becoming friends with the entire family, including its youngest member, Anne Frank. For two years beginning in 1942, Gies and her husband Jan Gies hid the Franks, her dentist, Fritz Pfeffer, and the Van Pels family- eight people in all, from the Nazis in Amsterdam.

Ms. Gies, a Catholic, risked her life to keep the eight alive, bringing them fresh food, books and newspapers. In 1944 they were betrayed by an unknown informant and taken to concentration camps. Again risking her own life, Meip Gies went to Gestapo headquarters and tried in vain to secure their release by offering money.

Anne, by then 15 and her older sister Margot died in Bergen-Belsen in 1945.

Otto was the sole survivor of the Frank family. Ms Geis gave him Anne's diary which she had saved and which became, after the bible, the best selling non-fiction book in the world.

I had the great privilege of spending time with Miep Gies, in New York and in Amsterdam. I was eager for my children to meet her, and to try to learn what it was within her that caused her to do these extraordinary things. Why Miep Gies? Why Raul Wallenberg? Why Schindler? And most importantly, why not everyone?

Miep shed no light on her decisions. "Of course it was not easy", she told me," But what else could I do?" The profundity of her response lies in its simple ordinariness. For Miep, there were no other options. She could not have done otherwise.

I have a Rwandan friend who survived the 1994 genocide but lost most of her family and was witness to unimaginable atrocities. Based on what took place in her country, she calculates that "95% of people will pick up a machete and kill strangers and friends alike for 90 days. This we know. 3%--they don't want to kill, they will run away."

My friend's words dropped me into the bleakest silence. But eventually I thought "Two percent! That's not zero! We have something to build on."

Miep Gies always insisted, " I am not a hero. There is nothing special about me." I respectfully disagree. Ms Gies was among the "two percent" who set the bar, show us the way, and help us all feel more hopeful about being human.

Eve Ensler, HuffPost: "TEN RADICAL ACTS FOR CONGO IN THE NEW YEAR"

Here are some excerpts from Eve Ensler’s piece on Congo and the link to the entire article
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/ten-radical-acts-for-cong_b_418... <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/ten-radical-acts-for-cong_b_418425.html>

‘Sexual terrorism was imported into the DRC like a plague about 12 years ago years ago, after a 1996 military operation know as Operation Turquoise - a plan supported and implemented by the international community which allowed murdering Hutu militias of Rwanda (FDLR) into Eastern Congo. Since then, this sexual terrorism has been sustained by these and other parties interested in the minerals, (coltan, gold, tin), that are serving you. Like a plague, this rape and sexual violence has spread infecting the Congolese Army and even the UN peacekeepers who are there to "protect" the women. Put pressure on the international community to remove all outside militias. They brought them there, they are responsible for getting them out.

Read the latest U.N. human rights reports:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/world/africa/13iht-congo.1.18648435.ht... <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/world/africa/13iht-congo.1.18648435.html> )

Visits these sites:
AFEM
http://englishafemsk.blogspot.com/
Friends of Congo
http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/

Read the recent Human Rights Watch reports:
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/12/14/you-will-be-punished-0

Read the history:
http://www.amazon.com/King-Leopolds-Ghost-Heroism-Colonial/dp/0618001905

We know what is happening in the DRC. Now is the time for action.

Support the local groups and campaigns that already exist, that have existed. They need your support to continue to exist. Fight to make sure the money headed for Eastern Congo actually gets to the women on the ground - the grassroots groups who need it most like AFEM, the South Kivu Women's Media Association, Panzi Hospital in Bukavu and Heal Africa Hospital in Goma, women's collectives like I Will Not Kill Myself Today and AFECOD, and the Women's Ministry and Laissez l'Afrique Vivre.
Visit https://secure.ga4.org/01/drcongo to donate.

Write to President Obama and ask him to make finding a non-military solution to the war in Congo a priority in his foreign policy agenda:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

Educate yourself about how conflict minerals are illegally and inhumanely pillaged from the Congo and make their way into your cell phones and the computer you are using to read this post right now. Demand that electronics companies alter their mining and trade policies so that conflict-free minerals are used in our electronics. Until this happens, we all literally have blood on our hands.

Investigate where and how your electronics companies are purchasing their materials. As a consumer, demand that they use conflict-free minerals in their parts.

Feel what your sister, mother, grandmother, daughter, wife, girlfriend would be feeling if she were being gang raped or held as a sex slave for years or if her insides were destroyed by sticks and guns and she could never have another baby.

Eve Ensler, a playwright and activist, is the founder of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.

-

Half the Sky

A brilliant, inspiring book -and a perfect gift
Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn is essential reading for every global citizen.
A book that is being referred to as a manifesto for our times. Kristof and WuDunn expose a global human rights crisis that is estimated to have killed more little girls and women in the last 50 years than the total number of the men lost in all the wars of the 20th century.

Time to push

Call 1-800 GENOCIDE
Keep conflict minerals on your radar-I have provided sites below which will put you in touch with those trying to get a crucial bill passed which would require transparency so that US companies aren't fueling the violence through gold, tin (caserterite) and other minerals.

You can inform yourselves on the sites listed here and let your voices be heard
ttp://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/conflictminerals_faq

http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/27/news/international/congo.fortune/

This little boy is among so many who are suffering from acute malnutrition and hunger- related diseases

The expelled humanitarian agencies left the world's most vulnerable people without sufficient assistance.

Children under five are the first to die

Oure_Cassoni refugee camp

Three million people are living in camps such as this in Darfur and along the border in eastern Chad. They cannot survive without humanitarian aid. The gap left when Sudanese president Omer Al-Bashir expelled 13 key aid agencies has not been filled.

Sudanese agencies should plug Darfur aid gap

Sudanese agencies should plug Darfur aid gap
Thu Jan 7, 2010
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese aid agencies must be helped to fill in the huge gaps left in Darfur's aid operation by the expulsion of 13 humanitarian organisations last year, Oxfam America said on Thursday.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in March last year for war crimes in Darfur. He responded by expelling the major aid agencies from Darfur, leaving a hole in the world's largest humanitarian operation. Oxfam America was one of the small agencies left in Sudan which had to step up its work to fill the gap, but country director El Fateh Osman Adam said there was still much to do. "We worked hard to address the immediate life-saving issues, provide water, sanitation," he told Reuters in an interview. "If it was not provided we may have seen humanitarian catastrophe," he said. "But there are gaps in a number of areas, livelihood... protection... and nobody is talking about education."

Sister agency Oxfam GB was one of the largest and oldest agencies working in Sudan before being expelled last year.
Adam said his organisation's priority was to support Sudanese aid agencies to one day take the lead in the humanitarian operation in their own country.
"It's not something that will happen in one day -- we have to have the patience until we build the capacity of our local partners," he said.
"The expulsion showed that you can suddenly lose everything ... but if you are supporting other (local) actors then what you have done can continue."
Adam said international aid agencies, the United Nations and the Sudanese government should all work to help local organisations to lead the aid effort themselves.
Link to complete article
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE6060HF20100107

Sudanese army has resumed daily bombardments in Darfur since the beginning of the New Year killing civilians

Sudanese military Antonov aircrafts bombed, on a daily basis, civilian and rebel targets in West Darfur state since Sunday,3 January.
Speaking via satellite telephone Al Tigani Kurshaom, a JEM commander in the area, told the Sudan Tribune that three children and two women were killed during the Antonov attacks as well as hundreds of camels belonging to the nomads in the areas.
"We regret that these indiscriminate attacks target mainly civilians and their livestock", said the deputy head of JEM's nomad division, who belongs to Darfur Arab tribes.

The rebel official further urged international protection of Darfur nomads, saying Khartoum is targeting them now after their refusal to implement Khartoum's plans in the region. "Khartoum government is targeting the Arabs after they decided to join their hands with the rest of Darfur tribes. We are against the marginalization and the genocide of Darfuri because we are part and parcel of this region."

"The army now is attacking our people and the international community has to stop this new genocide, particularly the (UN/AU peacekeeping mission) UNAMID which has to protect the civilians," he stressed.

Excerpt from a Sudan Tribune article linked here.
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article33702

Awesome video

http://www.girleffect.org/video

Make your voices heard to help stem the atrocities in Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo's mineral wealth continues to fuel the horrors in Congo. Despite the upsurge in atrocities during 2009 and more than a million people on the run from armed groups,, multinational companies continue to purchase minerals from the Congo.
Breaking the cycle of mineral-fueled violence in eastern Congo will require a coalition of private and public actors ranging from the largest of multinational electronics and jewelry companies all the way to the most knowledgeable and dedicated Congolese civil society voices.

Urge your Representative to support legislation for conflict-free cell phones, laptops and other electronics by cosponsoring the Congo Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009 (HR 4128) <http://www.enoughproject.org/conflict_minerals_trade_act> . The bill will indentify any conflict minerals from Congo imported into the United States. It is the strongest effort to stop the scourge of conflict minerals in Congo.

Contact these influential members of the Foreign Affairs Committee now:

Mike Pence (R-IN)
Email <https://forms.house.gov/pence/IMA/webforms/contact_form.htm> Rep. Pence urging for support
Call (202-225-3021) Rep. Pence’s office directly
Send Rep. Pence a message on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/mike.pence.usa?ref=search&sid=14600442.772246115..1>
Tweet <http://twitter.com/> Rep. Pence @RepMikePence about conflict mineral legislation (HR 4128)

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Email <http://ros-lehtinen.house.gov/IMA/issue.htm> Rep. Ros-Lehtinen urging for support
Call (202-225-3931) Rep. Ros-Lehtinen’s office directly
Tweet <http://twitter.com/> Rep. Ros-Lehtinen @IRL to support conflict mineral legislation (HR 4128)
Ed Royce (R-CA)
Email <http://royce.house.gov/Contact/> Rep. Royce urging for support
Call (202-225-4111) Rep. Royce’s office directly
Send Rep. Royce a message on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/EdRoyce?ref=search&sid=14600442.1974795186..1#/EdRoyce?v=wall&ref=search>
Chris Smith (R-NJ)
Email <http://chrissmith.house.gov/Email/
  Call (202-225-3765) Rep. Smith’s office directly


Contact Your Own Representative
CALL <http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm> , CONTACT <https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml> , or EMAIL <http://www2.americanprogress.org/t/1659/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6281>
Urge him or her to support conflict mineral legislation (HR 4128)
or
Dial 1-800-GENOCIDE. By inputting your zipcode, you will have access to
the contact information for elected officials ranging from your state Governor
to your Senator to the President.

Take Action: Urge Industry Leaders to Make Conflict-Free Products

We need your help to increase demand for conflict-free electronics products. As a consumer, we can influence electronics industry leaders as they weigh whether or not to invest in making their supply chains transparent and producing verifiably conflict-free products. Tell companies that if they take conflict out of their products, you'll buy them.
Go to this website and through them you make your voice heard at Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Microsoft, Canon, IBM,Intel Apple, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo. Rim,Nintendo, Phillips, Panasonic
http://www2.americanprogress.org/t/1659/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6265

Israelis protest Gaza blockade

      According to AFP, hundreds of Israelis have rallied in central Tel Aviv to protest against the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Arab and Jewish activists marched on Saturday in the city's Rabin square, chanting slogans and waving signs calling for "Freedom and Justice in Gaza".
     The protesters demanded Israel end the blockade, deeming its continuation a "war crime", the AFP news agency reported.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007 when Hamas seized power in the territory.
   Hundreds of international protesters held a similar demonstration on Thursday on both sides of an Israeli border crossing to the Palestinian territory.

I TOO DREAM IMPOSSIBLY OF A YEAR OF PEACE , JUSTICE AND KINDNESS FOR ALL THE PEOPLE IN MY HUMAN FAMILY

FOR THE RWANDANS - SURVIVORS AND VICTIMS

WHAT BETTER TIME TO SAY ENOUGH--FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN

We live in a world of sorrow. I have posted some of the photos I took over the last couple of years in places where people graciously received me in tents, on mats, in camps, on the desert sands- in times of terror and desperation. The people in the pictures are victims of man made disasters. We have inflicted immeasurable suffering upon each other, and it is the worlds most vulnerable who suffer most. It seems we have learned nothing since we first declared 'never again'.

Of course for me these are not photographs, but people in my life, people of courage, generosity, humor and grace. I am grateful beyond all words for the privilege of spending time with them and for the inspiration they continue to give me. They deserve better.

FOR THE CHILDREN OF DARFUR

FOR THE CHILDREN IN THE KIBERA SLUMS OF KENYA

FOR THE CHILDREN OF CONGO

FOR THE CHILDREN IN EASTERN CHAD

FOR THE CHILDREN OF THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

FOR THE CHILDREN IN SOUTH SUDAN

FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE OGADEN REGION OF ETHIOPIA

FOR THE CHILDREN OF BURMA

FOR THE PEOPLE OF SOMALIA --this boy is in Dadaab refugee camp on the Somali border

FOR THIS TINY CHILD ABANDONED ON THE STEPS OF A CHURCH IN HAITI

FOR THE CHILDREN OF HAITI

FOR ISRAELI AND PALESTINEAN CHILDREN -A FUTURE OF PEACE WITHOUT WALLS

Holocaust Survivor Goes on Hunger Strike for Gaza

One year after Operation Cast Lead, Israel's 28 day military offensive against Gaza during which 14,000 people were killed, thousands of homes and hundreds schools and hospitals remain rubble. The economy is decimated, the water is undrinkable, food and basic goods are in short supply, water treatment plants pour raw sewage into the sea, and the children of Gaza still watch the skies in terror.

But the people of Gaza are not forgotten. On Tuesday Hedy Epstein, an 85 year old Holocaust survivor, began a hunger strike for Gaza.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-hall/holocaust-survivor-goes-o_b_406655.html>

"There comes a time in one's life when one has to step up and risk one's own body," she said.
Hedy Epstein escaped Hitler's Germany in 1939, when she was 14 years old. Her parents sent her to England on the Kindertransport -- a rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of World War II to evacuate predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany. Epstein's parents remained in Germany and she was never to see them again; they perished in the extermination camp at Auschwitz in 1942. Her extraordinary childhood is one of the reasons Epstein found herself inclined to become involved in the Palestinian solidarity movement.

After World War II, Epstein worked as a research analyst at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi doctors who performed medical experiments on concentration camp inmates. After she moved to the US, Epstein became an activist for peace and social justice causes. It was a particular event though, that triggered Epstein's interest in the Israel-Palestine conflict. <http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2009-12-30-epstein.jpg>

"I think for me the wakeup call came in 1982 with the massacres in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon. Up until then I had not paid that much attention to what was happening in that part of the world. Then I heard about that and questioned what is this all about," she said. "As I learned more and I discovered more, I became increasingly more horrified by the practices of the Israeli government vis-a-vis the Palestinian people. And I began to speak out publicly against those policies," she added.

Epstein acknowledged that she represents somewhat of an anomaly in the American Jewish community. "There is an almost thoughtless, blind support of Israel no matter what it does," she said. Epstein did, however, note a slight change in attitude recently: "Since the massacre in Gaza at the end of last year, I do see a crack in the way people are looking at what Israel is doing, and that crack needs to be broken wide open, so that a change will take place."

Still no copters-' If we all honestly say we do care for Darfurians we would do better."

After two agonizing years UNAMID, the UN peacekeeping force tasked with providing protection for Darfur’s people, now has 77% of the 26,000 troops.
Force commander Patrick Nyamvumba told Reuters, "Now the biggest issue is no longer the numbers -- we have the boots on the ground, For us to be able to deliver we don't have to get 100 percent — 77 percent is good enough to make a difference." The biggest problem facing the peacekeepers is the lack of helicopters. UNAMID has been imploring the United Nations member states to provide helicopters but thus far have yet to contribute a single one.

Ethiopia pledged five helicopters, possibly they will arrive next month, but no others have been promised and the commander says he needs at least 18 to do the job and keep his troops safe. "We cannot deliver the mandate without the necessary equipment." he said. "It's like sending somebody to the (boxing) ring and then you tie one of their hands at the back and you expect them to perform at 100 percent capability," he said. "If we all honestly say we do care for Darfurians we would do better."

LRA continues to murder, mutilate, abduct displace and terrorize civilians in Congo and Sudan

woman mutilated by the LRA
28 December 2009
In the past 10 months some 1,300 civilians have been murdered in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo by the Lord's Resistance Army, according to latest reports by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The report on the DRC states that at least 1,200 civilians were killed, including women who were raped before they were executed. About 1,400 people were abducted or are missing.
"During their captivity, abductees were subjected to forced labor in fields, forced to carry looted goods or personal effects or recruited into the LRA. Women were forced to marry LRA members, subjected to sexual slavery, or both,"
"Thousands of homes, dozens of shops, at least 30 schools, health centers, hospitals, churches, markets, and traditional seats of chiefdoms, were looted, set on fire and over 200,000 people were also displaced."

Describing harrowing experience from victims, the report called on the international community to co-operate with the ICC in investigating, arresting all LRA leaders accused of international crimes.

The report also accused the DRC army of human rights violation of the displaced persons instead of protecting them.
"Soldiers of the Congolese armed forces, supposed to protect civilians, also committed human rights violations, including executions, rape, arbitrary arrests and detentions and illegal, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and extortion," the report said.

The report states that attacks, systematic and widespread human rights violations carried out since mid-September 2008 against Congolese civilians may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Sudan report on the other hand based on 27 confirmed attacks, reveals that at least 81 civilians were killed in attacks and many others injured.
"The evidence presented in this report suggests that LRA actions may amount to crimes against humanity," The report recommends that the United Nation Mission in Sudan should exercise its protection of civilians since its mandated to prevent further loss of life.

"The international community, including governments, should cooperate with the ICC to search for, arrest and surrender the LRA leaders accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The international community should support meaningful peace efforts between governments in the region and the LRA," the report recommends.
Link to complete article
http://allafrica.com/stories/200912290746.html

Darfuri refugee-children-at-school in Sam Ouandja-where there is a high probability that something very very bad is going to happen

The situation in the north east of CAR, along the border with Sudan, has been worsening in recent weeks. Two French aid workers were kidnapped by ‘people coming from Sudan’ and were taken across the border into Darfur. Humanitarians working along the CAR/Sudan border are being targeted because, ‘ there is high probability that something very very bad is going to happen’ in the Sam Ouandja area. The attackers don't want witnesses.
I took this photo in Sam Ouandja at a camp for Darfuri refugees.

Darfuri refugee children playing in a sand storm in eastern Chad

Mother gathering wood in eastern Chad

I joined an elderly man, sitting on his mat on barren land in eastern Chad. He gestured out toward the miles of baked sand and said, "When I was a boy, there were two streams that met just there. There were many trees and thick, tall grass. All the animals came here to drink, even elephants and huge birds, and monkeys -they were all here. And we children played in the water." We stared at the parched land and I could almost see what he was remembering.

Lake Chad is drying up

The waters of Lake Chad, one of Africa’s great lakes, currently sustain about 30 million people in Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger; its water basin reaches Sudan, Libya, Algeria and CAR. CAR, Sudan But since 1963, as a result of global warming, the magnificent lake has shrunk by 90%. Experts predict that within 20 years the lake will have dried up altogether creating an unprecedented famine in a place already plagued by hunger. Fishermen say their catch is down by 60%-and the fish are small. Farming villages, once able to produce plenty of crops can do nothing with the desiccated land, villagers are moving with the Sahara-at the rate of one mile a year in Bahai at the very edge of the Sahara in eastern Chad’s borderland with Darfur and Libya.

“If Lake Chad dries up, 30 million people will have no means of a livelihood, and that is a big security problem because of growing competition for smaller quantities of water,” said Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, executive secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission.
“Poverty and hunger will increase. When there is no food to eat, there is bound to be violence.”

MSF lists Top 10 worst humanitarian crises

Aid group lists Top 10 worst humanitarian crises
Tue Dec 22, 2009
(Reuters) - The international humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders on Monday released its annual list of the world's 10 worst humanitarian crises.

    The following is the list, as provided by the group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres.

    1. Violence against civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

    2. Violence, civilians cut off from aid in Afghanistan

    3. Violence and lack of access to health care in Somalia

    4. Violence, lack of aid in northern Yemen

    5. Violence, disease, lack of health care in southern Sudan and Darfur

    6. Inadequate funding for treatment of childhood malnutrition

    7. Civilians trapped in war-torn Sri Lanka

    8. Stagnated funding for treatment of AIDS/HIV

    9. Violence, civilian neglect in Pakistan

   10. Lack of research, treatment of neglected diseases kala azar, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and Buruli ulcer

Inspired gifts

this is the Unicef site for gifts such as treated mosquito nets and products aimed at dehydration and malnourisment in children. Great to give in honor of a friend.
http://inspiredgifts.unicefusa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ig_homepage

Five Myths About Darfur by John Prendergast

      China's oil investments in Sudan keep it from pressuring the        government.
     China, which has invested more than $9 billion during the past decade in Sudan's oil sector, has provided weapons to the regime and run interference for it at the U.N. Security Council. Major international efforts to pressure Beijing to play a more constructive role have fallen on deaf ears. However, the game could change. If the 2005 peace deal between Sudan's north and south collapses and southerners go back to war, their first targets will be Chinese oil installations in the north. China, therefore, has a vested interest in peace and security. Washington and Beijing could partner in a diplomatic "surge" in Darfur.
Link to full article:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-prendergast_22edi.State.Edition1.2d4a58f.html

One of the very best gifts of all

A dear friend gave my family one of the best gifts imaginable- a flock of chicks and a rabbit! The animals were given through Heifer International to another family -somewhere in Africa . Heifer is a humanitarian organization dedicated to ending hunger and poverty. Since 1994 Heifer has been providing live stock and training environmentally sound agriculture to those with genuine need
Find out more
Www.heifer.org
800 422 0474

THE DARFUR ARCHIVES

This is what I have been working on. Most of you who follow my blog already know much of what is written here, but every day, there are new visitors. This is for you-

I initiated the Darfur Archives in order to document the rich cultural traditions and oral history of those Darfur tribes targeted for extinction; the Fur, Zaghawa and the Masalit.

In 2003 Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir and his cabal launched a merciless campaign of destruction upon the non-Arab tribes of Darfur. Al-Bashir is still in office and he is wanted by the ICC for war crimes and crime against humanity including the murder, rape and displacement of millions. Nearly 3 million survivors fled to hastily formed camps scattered across Darfur and eastern Chad.
Today, 80-90 percent of Darfur’s villages are ashes-or occupied by others-Arab tribes not only from Darfur but from Chad and from distant Niger and Mali.

In one refugee camp an Oumda, (tribal leader) explained, “You know us very well. You know we are in mourning. We are suffering. We do not do these celebrations in the camps.”

I made it clear that I understand that they are suffering. And that this project is born of my deepest respect for them, I know something of the atrocities they have endured and the injustices and deprivations they continue to face each day. I also respect what once was theirs; the traditions that were inseparable from their identity, which marked the most important passages in their lives and within their lost communities. The archives must exist for the children who are growing up in deplorable camps and amidst violence. It is for them and for the children of Darfur who otherwise may never know their own heritage. It is true that far too much has been lost. But so many treasures exist today, in the memories of the elderly! Only in their memories.
The livelihood of the Darfurian people was once tied to the land. The Fur and the Masalit people are agriculturalists, the Zaghawa, herders. Young people who know only life in the camps will not know the agricultural methods when peace finally comes and they can return to their land. Nor will they know their own rich cultural traditions. I pledged to the refugees that when, one day peace comes, there will be a museum in the middle of Darfur. A place where the young people can go to reclaim what is theirs.
I then told them I would be at a designated spot at the edge of the camp every day for a month. I would simply operate the camera—they could decide what should be preserved on film. It’s for them, for the children of Darfur -and for the generations to come.

In the thousands they came each day, and they brought forth their treasures. I have filmed some 35 hours of songs and dances, celebrations of coming of age, marriage, planting, harvesting, visiting neighboring villages, children’s stories, mourning and honoring the dead. The elders shared their memories and the stories told to them by their grand parents. We have gone back 300 years!
The refugees took over this project as their own-which of course it is. I spent the month of Feb 2009 in the Oure Cassoni camp. At the end of my stay, the refugees donated some 200 artifacts they had brought with them when they fled their villages, everyday items they had used before their lives were destroyed. The artifacts are photographed, (I can email them to anyone who is interested) and are currently being stored at the US Embassy in Chad. And the old Oumda rewarded me bountifully when he said, “Thank you for reminding us to remember.”

The video footage and sound are of the highest quality. It is currently being edited professionally– divided into tribe.
The Darfur Archives Advisory board;
Historian and Harvard Professor Alex DeWaal, A Short History of A Long War, Famine
Professor Sean O’Fahey (Darfur Sultanate-2009)
Jerome Tubiana-widely published historian and expert on the tribes of the Chad/Darfur region.
The continuing support and advice of the board has been invaluable. Alex DeWaal told me that even in the midst of brutal warfare waged by this same government against the people of southern Sudan, the leaders in the Nuba Mountains had the foresight to summon the elders; the body-painters, the storytellers, the singers and dancers-and they filmed them, so that their traditions would not be lost. It is astonishing that no one had done this for Darfur. Traditions in Darfur have been passed through the generations orally. When the ways of conveying traditions break down completely, the culture is lost.

The project has, in so many ways, exceeded my goals. I could not have anticipated such wholehearted support from the refugees. I did not suppose that it would be possible to acquire artifacts.
But at least one more trip back to the refugee camps will be necessary in order to form a more complete archive. I will need to visit other camps, in another part of eastern Chad, in order to film the people of North Darfur, where the traditions are different.
Until we can have the museum in Darfur, I would like to have everything we have filmed put on the ‘Darfur Archives’ website. The primary importance of the archive is for the Darfuris in the future, but also, at this point in advocacy, it will serve as an important tool to show the world what extraordinary people we have been talking about and how rich and meaningful their customs and traditional way of life once were. I believe seeing the ceremonies and hearing the stories will bring Darfur’s people into focus in a new, very profound way.

Carter Center "gravely concerned"

The Carter Center, tasked with monitoring the election process in Sudan, condemned the arrests and assaults upon hundreds of peaceful protesters in Khartoum.

The oppressive actions taken by the Sudanese forces "undermine political rights and fundamental freedoms. The Center is gravely concerned by the recent action of the security forces in Khartoum to restrict legitimate activity related to the exercise of freedom of assembly, association and speech" responded the election monitoring body.

They also protested the fact that election committees in Darfur did not gain access to all displaced persons' camps in Darfur, including two of the largest IDP camps Kass and Kalma.

The Carter Center noted "checks on the distribution of proof of residency documents appeared weak, and given the widespread view of the partisan nature of local popular committees, this created some perceptions of bias in the process of identifying registrants."
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article33501

Sudan is sliding towards violent breakup,

AFP
KHARTOUM — Sudan is heading towards 'violent breakup' due to the lack of implementation of peace deals between Khartoum and the west, south and east of the country, the International Crisis Group warned Thursday.
"Unless the international community, notably the US, the UN, the African Union Peace and Security Council and the Horn of Africa Inter-Government Authority on Development (IGAD), cooperate to support (peace deals), return to north-south war and escalation of conflict in Darfur are likely," the ICG said.

"The main mechanisms to end conflicts between the central government and the peripheries -- the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (with the south), the Darfur Peace Agreement and the East Sudan Peace Agreement -- all suffer from lack of implementation, largely due to intrasigence of the National Congress Party," of President Omar al-Beshir, the report said.
Link to complete article;
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g1ECQoU5jGYx8FP28ZqvGKi36emQ

Aid groups targeted in eastern Chad, CAR amd Darfur

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VVOS-7YSLLJ?OpenDocument
NDJAMENA, Dec 16, 2009 (AFP) - Brazen kidnapping raids targeting aid workers in Chad and Darfur have set UN officials and aid groups on edge, fuelling fears of a violent new trend that could hobble relief work in the lawless area.

Four French aid workers, including two Red Cross employees, have been abducted since October in a string of attacks across a vast triangle straddling eastern Chad, Sudan's war-torn Darfur and the Central African Republic.

Darfur and the wider region have been rocked by dozens of carjackings and attacks on aid groups in 2009, but the latest abduction, which took place deep inside an aid workers' compound in Birao in the CAR, marked a turning point.

"The Birao hostage-taking caught everyone off guard. No one thought there could be a raid like this one," said Victor Angelo, special representative for the UN secretary general in charge of MINURCAT, the 5,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission to Chad and CAR.

"It was a well planned raid by people who knew exactly where to find the workers," Angelo said.

CONGRESSMAN FRANK WOLF STATEMENT ON DIRECTION OF U.S. POLICY IN SUDAN

December 15, 2009
WOLF STATEMENT ON DIRECTION OF U.S. POLICY IN SUDAN

Washington, D.C. - At a press conference today with Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) made remarks on the direction of U.S. policy in Sudan. He prepared the following longer statement for insertion in the Congressional Record:

Madam Speaker earlier today a news conference was held with Congressmen Donald Payne, Chris Smith and myself along with representatives from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), to draw attention to the desperate situation in Sudan. We heard compelling firsthand accounts of what transpired in Khartoum last week. Arrests, detention, tear gas and beatings of peaceful Sudanese protestors including several high-ranking Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) officials. These protestors had gathered in the streets to press Sudan’s President Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP) to demand passage of important laws by the National Assembly.

Khartoum’s actions are inexcusable, but why should we be surprised, given the head of state is an accused war criminal.   We also know from widely reported information that the National Congress Party (NCP) is obstructing the establishment of conditions for free and fair elections. The world also still awaits reform of the national security law.

Against this backdrop of violence and intimidation by Khartoum, the NCP and the SPLM entered into intense negotiations over the weekend. While reports indicate that a tentative compromise has been reached, the outcome is still far from assured. And if the coming weeks don’t yield the necessary results, the long-suffering people of Sudan will watch any real prospect of lasting peace and justice slip away. Will the U.S. stand by and allow this to happen?

For years the U.S. has been a leader on the world stage in advocating for the marginalized people of Sudan. This is an issue, unlike many in Washington, which has enjoyed broad, bipartisan support. In January 2005, after two and half years of negotiations, the North and the South signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) bringing about an end to the 21-year-old civil war during which nearly two million people died, most of whom were civilians. I was at the signing of the CPA in Kenya along with Congressman Payne. Hopes were high for a new Sudan.

Sadly those hopes are quickly dimming as President Bashir becomes further entrenched and principled U.S. leadership on Sudan wanes. On the eve of the five-year anniversary of the signing, the CPA hangs in the balance as does Sudan’s future.

President Obama’s special envoy to Sudan, General Scott Gration, was appointed in March of this year. Many in Congress, myself included, had pressed for a special envoy in the hope of elevating the issue of Sudan particularly at this critical juncture in the implementation of the CPA and with genocide in Darfur still ongoing.

While there have been times in the months following that I have been concerned by the direction that this administration appeared to be taking in Sudan, I refrained from any public criticism, not wanting to do anything that could jeopardize peace or progress on these critical issues. But I can be silent no longer.

The time has come for Secretary Clinton and President Obama to personally and actively engage on Sudan.

During the campaign, then candidate Obama said, "Washington must respond to the ongoing genocide and the ongoing failure to implement the CPA with consistency and strong consequences." He went on to say, "The Bush administration should be holding Sudan accountable for failing to implement significant aspects of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), imperiling the prospects for scheduled multiparty elections in 2009."

I could not agree more. Accountability is imperative. The CPA is not up for re-negotiation. But the burden for action, the weight of leadership, now rests with this president and this president alone.

I have consistently received reports from people on the ground that this administration’s posture toward Sudan has only emboldened Bashir and the NCP.

The December 12 Wall Street Journal editorial page put it this way, "As a candidate, Mr. Obama stood with the human rights champions of Darfur and pledged tougher sanctions and a possible no-fly zone if a Sudanese regime infamous for genocide didn't shape up. His tone has changed in office....the preference for diplomacy over pressure has encouraged the hard men in Khartoum to stoke the flames in Darfur, ignoring an arms embargo and challenging the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force there."

Khartoum is savvy in the ways of Washington. This softening in the U.S. posture has not gone unnoticed.

In recent written testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, the top UN investigator said, "In contrast to that leadership of 2004 and 2005, the United States appears to have now joined the group of influential states who sit by quietly and do nothing to ensure that sanctions protect Darfurians."

This administration’s engagement with Sudan to date has failed to recognize the true nature of Bashir and the NCP.

Having been to Sudan five times, I’ve seen the work of their hands with my own eyes. In June 2004 I was part of the first congressional delegation with Senator Sam Brownback to Darfur, soon after the world began hearing about the atrocities being committed against the people of that region. I witnessed the nightmare. I saw the scorched villages and overflowing camps. I heard the stories of murder, rape and displacement. In the summer of 2004, the Congress spoke with one voice in calling what was happening in Darfur genocide.

In addition to the massive human rights abuses perpetrated by the Sudanese government against its own people, it is also important to note that Sudan remains on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. It is well known that the same people currently in control in Khartoum gave safe haven to Osama bin Laden in the early 1990’s. I was troubled by Special Envoy Gration’s comments this summer at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that "there is no evidence in our intelligence community that supports [Sudan] being on the state sponsors of terrorism list..." despite the findings of the 2008 State Department Country Reports on Terrorism that "there have been open source reports that arms were purchased in Sudan's black market and allegedly smuggled northward to Hamas."

Last week marked the anniversary of the adoption of the 1948 Genocide Convention. In the aftermath of the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust the world pledged "Never Again." But these words ring hollow for the woman in the camp in Darfur who has been brutally raped by government-backed janjaweed so that they might, in their own words, make lighter skinned babies. Were these horrors taking place in Europe would the world stand by and watch?

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which sits just blocks from here, bears witness to genocide and related crimes against humanity around the world. The museum’s warning for Sudan stems from "(t)he Sudanese government’s established capacity and willingness to commit genocide and related crimes against humanity. This is evidenced by actions the government has taken in the western region of Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and the South that include:

Use of mass starvation and mass forcible displacement as a weapon of destruction;
Pattern of obstructing humanitarian aid;
Harassment of internally displaced persons;
Bombing of hospitals, clinics, schools, and other civilian sites;
Use of rape as a weapon against targeted groups;
Employing a divide-to-destroy strategy of pitting ethnic groups against each other, with enormous loss of civilian life;
Training and supporting ethnic militias who commit atrocities;
Destroying indigenous cultures;
Enslavement of women and children by government-support militias;
Impeding and failing to fully implement peace agreements.”

These are hardly our partners in peace. And yet, we cannot claim that Khartoum has been unpredictable, that we did not know what they were capable of. Tragically, they have been utterly consistent for nearly 20 years. They have consistently brutalized their own people. They have consistently failed to live up to agreements. And they have consistently responded only to strength and pressure.

And so I say once again, time is running out. The urgency of the situation calls for intervention at the highest levels of the U.S. Government-specifically the secretary of State and the president of the United States. The people of Sudan cry out for nothing less.

Elyse Bauer Anderson
Appropriations Legislative Assistant
Congressman Frank Wolf (VA-10)
202-225-5136

It is past time for Obama and UN Security Council to bring pressures to bear against belligerents in Darfur: impose targeted sanctions, freeze assets

Sudan Tribune
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article33478
The Obama Administration’s unveiling of its official strategy toward Sudan in October was greeted domestically with some hesitation but general approval. Since then, the presidential envoy Scott Gration, who is currently on diplomatic travel, has continued to articulate a defense of his trips to meet with members of Sudan’s senior political leadership.

Secretary Clinton, for her part, in a speech Monday evening suggested that the Administration’s approach to human rights has added a considered dose of realism to US diplomacy, saying "we must be pragmatic and agile in pursuit of our human rights agenda – not compromising on our principles, but doing what is most likely to make them real." In a mention of Sudan, she recommended "we have to continue to press for solutions," without elaboration whereby.

But such voices from within the US Executive Branch were met this week with a broadside of criticism and advice from lawmakers, activists, Sudanese expatriates, and an independent commission established by Congress.

In a move led by Senators Russ Feingold and John McCain, 27 total senators signed a letter calling for the UN Security Council to turn to violations of the UN arms embargo on Darfur. The letter, addressed to Ambassador Susan Rice, the US envoy at the United Nations in New York, asks her to "begin a discussion at the Security Council about pressures that can be brought to bear against belligerents in Darfur in the case that these violations persist."

The senators endorsed recommendations made by a UN Panel of Experts who had concluded research on the abortive arms embargo on Darfur and presented their findings to the UN Secretary General and then this month to the US Congress. Proposed steps include requiring Sudan’s government to submit to the Security Council bimonthly reports on its movement of troops and materiel into and out of Darfur. Other information uncovered by the UN Panel may lead to additional US designations of individuals to be targeted for financial sanctions and travel bans, the senators’ letter suggests.

Another open letter, addressed to President Obama, was released today by 50 leading Sudan advocates and Sudanese expatriates from around the country. It calls for "multilateral asset freezes and travel bans," support of the International Criminal Court cases against Sudanese officials, denial of debt relief, and enforcement of the UN arms embargo.

In the US House of Representatives, three members on Tuesday morning joined two members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) at an "emergency press conference," as it was described by Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey. The event marked the first public criticism of the Sudan policy from Rep. Frank Wolf, a legislator with long-standing involvement with the issue.

USCIRF Commission Chairman Leonard A. Leo, having recently returned from a five day visit to Khartoum, said "it is time for the United States to exercise strength. The policy of engagement – ‘cookies and gold stars’ – is not working. It is emboldening Khartoum to a point where this peace process is perilously close to failure."

The sudden renewed furor over Sudan comes after recent crackdowns on demonstrators in Khartoum who were led in part by politicians of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. The latter party, a signatory to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), objects to major gaps in implementation of the 2005 deal, whose terms are set to expire in January 2011.

Mr. Leo, in a statement taken as he was making his return last Thursday, said that "Leadership will come only from the top, and many of the officials we met were urging the Commission to take home a plea for greater US strength and pressure on recalcitrant signatories. We call upon Secretary Clinton in the next two weeks to send a strong message to the CPA signatory parties, as well as the international community, by personally standing with the peace process and seeking to reestablish a level playing field for free and fair implementation of the CPA."

Also calling for leadership from the top, President of the Save Darfur Coalition Jerry Fowler noted, "With elections rapidly approaching and the atmosphere getting more and more volatile, the situation in Sudan cries out for presidential leadership. In his Nobel address, President Obama recognized that the ’world must stand together as one’ in dealing with recalcitrant regimes like Sudan’s. That will not happen without sustained engagement by President Obama himself."

France-Africa summit due to be held in Egypt has been cancelled over French concerns at the invitation of Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir

BBC NEWS
Summit moved to keep Bashir away
The announcement came after Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt met in Paris. The venue was reportedly moved to prevent the Sudanese leader from attending: France has said it would carry out the ICC warrant for his arrest, whereas several African nations, including Egypt, have said they would not.
The ICC accuses him of running a campaign of genocide that killed 35,000 people outright, at least another 100,000 through a "slow death" and of forcing two-and-a-half million to flee their homes in Darfur. Earlier this month, Mr Bashir pulled out of an Islamic summit in Istanbul after Turkey, which is seeking EU membership, reportedly came under pressure from Brussels to drop him from the guest list.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/8414480.stm

UN peacekeepers sent to protect refugees and aid workers in Sam Ouandja, CAR

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 14 -- UN peacekeepers were sent on Monday to protect a camp of refugees from Sudan's Darfur region in the northeast of the Central African Republic (CAR) and humanitarian staff working there, UN officials said here.

The United Nations took the step after an attack, apparently by bandits, left three people dead on a nearby road in the region.

The mission, known by the acronym MINURCAT, added that it was following the situation closely and would reinforce its military presence in Sam Ouandja if necessary.

CAR, especially its northeast, has been plagued by armed rebels and bandits for years, a situation exacerbated by the spill-over of the Darfur conflict. UN officials have repeatedly called for an end to attacks on civilians that have seen scores of thousands of people driven into the bush, with scant means of sustenance, an appeal reiterated on Monday by the mission.
=================================================
I took these pictures in Sam Ouandja, not long after the 4000 refugees came in, on foot from Darfur where their villages had been attacked. Sam Ouandja is right on the Darfur/CAR border. It is a very volatile area-as is all of the north east and the north west of CAR.

Once again Nick Kristof gives us invaluable info-this time about dangers in our own homes

Excerpt from Nicholas Kristof’s column linked here
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
What if breast cancer in the United States has less to do with insurance or mammograms and more to do with contaminants in our water or air -- or in certain plastic containers in our kitchens? What if the surge in asthma and childhood leukemia reflect, in part, the poisons we impose upon ourselves?

‘More than 80,000 new chemicals have been developed since World War II, according to the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai. Even of the major chemicals, fewer than 20 percent have been tested for toxicity to children.
-- avoid microwaving food in plastic or putting plastics in the dishwasher, because heat may cause chemicals to leach out. --
“safer plastics” - those marked (usually at the bottom of a container) 1, 2, 4 or 5.
--plastics to avoid are those numbered 3, 6 and 7 - my weekend project is to go through containers in our house and toss out 3’s, 6’s and 7’s.’

I met these children in north Kivu, Congo. Its not too late to save them

Take action now

Two bills before Congress right now would help to make trading in conflict-minerals more transparent. They are H.R. 4128 <http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h4128/show> , introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/m000404/> (D-Wash.), and S.891, introduced by Sens. Sam Brownback <http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Sam_Brownback> (R-Kan.), Richard Durbin <http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Richard_J._Durbin> (D-Ill.) and Russ Feingold <http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Russell_Feingold> (D-Wis.).

Urge your representative and senators to push for passage of the bills. Lists of electronic industry leaders can be found at http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org

Two excellent hospitals in Congo that provide fistula surgeries, and crucial supporting services are Heal Africa <http://www.healafrica.org/cms/> and the Panzi Hospital <http://www.panzihospitalbukavu.org> .

I visited the Heal Africa hospital and was hugely impressed. A surgeon was performing fistula surgeries all day every day—six a day is all he could manage. The youngest patient I spoke with was 14. But the rape of small children and even babies is not uncommon. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have suffered senselessly violent rapes which leaves their insides so damaged that, if they survive, they will be shunned in their communities.

What Else Can I Do

The sign held by Darfur's refugees says
UP UP OKAMBO
Down Down AL BASHIR

Luis Moreno Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, is tasked with prosecuting atrocity crimes in Darfur, Northern Uganda, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He and the ICC have become the symbols of justice for millions in the region; the hope that one day justice will come, is what sustains them. Countless babies in Darfur are respectfully being named Okambo.
Here are two of the countless stories told to Luis Moreno-Ocampo during his investigations;

A fourteen-year-old girl in Northern Uganda, was abducted for use as a sex slave. When a baby was born of the rapes, she named her child, What Else Can I Do.

The girl spent three days with Moreno Ocampo and the ICC legal team, sharing the details of all she had endured. After all was told, she wept, and when the lawyers apologized for having raised such painful memories, the girl said she was weeping from happiness - no one had ever taken the time to listen to her.

"You are here! I knew you would come!" a Darfuri survivor cried out, upon meeting Moreno-Ocampo. When the refugee finished telling of how he was forced to watch while his eight year-old daughter was raped and murdered, he said that at last his story was told: "Now I can die."

Warren Anderson, Worthy addition to the 'gallery of rogues'

On the night of December 3 1984, an explosion at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India caused 40 tones of lethal gas to be spewed into the city of Bhopal. The incident caused the deaths of more than 20,000 thousand people and inflicted life-long illnesses and suffering upon some 120,000 survivors.

Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide, received the 1982 safety audit of the Bhopal plant which identified 30 major hazards. He used the report to fix some of the problems in the company's twin plant in the U.S. but he chose to do nothing for the Bhopal plant.
On the night of the disaster, December 3, 1984, six safety measures designed to prevent a gas leak either malfunctioned, were turned off or were otherwise inadequate. In addition, the safety siren, intended to alert the community should an incident occur at the plant, was turned off.

After the disaster Indian police arrested Warren Anderson but he jumped bail and was flown by private jet back to the US.

With Anderson in flight from the law, his company abandoned the polluted factory site and refused to disclose the composition of the poisonous gas (the company still claims this is a trade secret), thus hampering medical treatment for the 120,000 people who are still sick. Survivors received between US$300-500 compensation each.

Dow Chemical took over Union Carbide in 2001, and it claims Union Carbide has "settled" the issue of Bhopal. But, twenty five years on, toxic chemicals continue to contaminate the water of Bhopal. Survivors are still demanding a cleanup of the site.
Anderson is wanted in India to face charges of culpable homicide over the deaths of 20,000 people. The Indian Government formally filed an extradition request with the US, but for the last 18 years India, reluctant to damage US trade relations, has not pursued the extradition of Warren Anderson. US authorities claimed they could not find Anderson but last year he was found. Warren Anderson lives in a luxury home in Bridgehampton, Long Island, New York. His yearly golf club membership is four times the average compensation for a Bhopal survivor.

Bombs and babies

This week Israel prevented a European parliamentary delegation from entering the Gaza Strip. "The visit was canceled three hours prior to the scheduled visit," the delegation said in a statement.

Palestinian sources said the delegation had already arrived at Erez crossing point in northern Gaza Strip before Israeli soldiers turned the legislators back.

According to the statement, the Israeli army cited "security concerns" in denying the delegation's entry. This is precisely what I was told when my entry was initially canceled the afternoon before my scheduled trip into Gaza. But perhaps it was my relentless phone calls that caused them to reconsider, and allow me to enter Gaza.
Perhaps Israeli officials didn’t want the delegation to see the hundreds of bombed schools, and hospitals, or the thousands of destroyed homes. Or the destroyed sewage plant and the fact that raw sewage is now pouring into the sea- where the fishermen are permitted to fish just a mile or two from the shore, in the polluted water. Actually, all the water in Gaza is contaminated. The nitrate content in water is 300 times World Health Organization standards. Babies are being born with nitrate poisoning. Doctors told me that they are seeing a rise in babies with deformities. We wonder what was in the bombs that fell on them. Is white phosphorus the cause of the birth defects? The agricultural economy is dying from the contamination and salinated water;.
The UN has proposed two sewerage repair projects but they are awaiting approved by Israel. If the blockade could be lifted just to let these building materials and equipment into Gaza, to let water works begin, it would give many thousands of babies and children a chance.

CONGO

James Karuhanga
9 December 2009
Kigali. Non-governmental Organisations and journalists operating in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have revealed that the security situation in South Kivu province is worsening after the FDLR rebels attacked villages where they looted and raped women.

According to Radio Okapi, the villages of Magunga and Mugaja in the territory of Uvira, South Kivu were attacked by FDLR rebels recently. In a separate incident, the rebels are reported to have recently attacked, ransacked as well as set fire to a civilian hospital in the locality of Shabunda, in South Kivu, in addition to abducting several hospital staff.

Hundreds of civilians have fled the areas.

The FDLR, with help from Mai-Mai militias of the Kapopo group, stole cows, goats and sheep as well as money, reports say. Four women were raped.

Recent revelations by a UN group of experts indicate that the FDLR, remnants of perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, have a world-wide network. The UN experts base their findings on evidence gathered after tracking down 240 calls between German-based FDLR leader Ignace Murwanashyaka and his military commanders in DRC.

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200912090027.html
Copyright © 2009 The New Times.

Gallery of rogues; John Crawley, Chris Huber

Excerpt from the new UN report:

175. The Group has been informed by several international buyers that African
Ventures Ltd. operates as a middleman for Chris Huber. Mr. Huber is a Swiss
businessman who has been widely cited by various government officials and in
public reports as having been involved in the large-scale transport of coltan out of
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda during the period of the
Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma rebel occupation in eastern Democratic Republic of
the Congo during the period 1998-2003. During this time Mr. Huber worked with
Rwanda Metals, a company then managed by Tri-Star Investments, a company
which was in turn set up by RPF.
176. The Group contacted Mr. Huber, who explained in writing that he acts as a
"consultant" for African Ventures Ltd. in Hong Kong, China. The Group has
confirmation that Mr. Huber is also a consultant for a company called Refractory
Metals Mining Company Ltd. (RMMC), which is based at Shing Wan Road in Hong
Kong, China, the same street as African Ventures Ltd. (annex 61), and which is a
known supplier to the Thailand Smelting and Refining Company Ltd. (Thaisarco),
held by Amalgamated Metal Corporation (AMC), a United Kingdom entity. The
director of RMMC is John Crawley, who is also a director of the tantalum
processing company, Niotan Inc., in Nevada, United States. Mr. Crawley confirmed
that Mr. Huber works for RMMC.
CONTACT JOHN CRAWLEY in Nevada 775 246 4480
Tell him to stop dealing in conflict minerals in Congo.

Niotan Inc., of Nevada is buying conflict minerals plundered from Congo

These children -in north Kivu- are just two of the millions of victims of the violence in Congo that since 1998 has claimed more than five million lives. The boy in the lower photo is 9 years old.
Profits from the plundering of valuable mineral mines, including gold and tin, are financing the armed groups tearing apart eastern Congo.

Niotan Inc., of Mound House, Nevada is the first American company to be identified as a buyer of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is one of several companies cited in a U.N. study on how the illegal trade of the region's vast mineral resources, has kept the war going by enriching both rebels and Congolese army units. Niotan in Nevada is complicit in the suffering and deaths of millions of innocent people.

Phone John Crawley at 1-775-246 0566 or 775 246 4480. Weigh in. It is morally unacceptable to purchase conflict minerals from the Congo.

John Crawley, the CEO of Niotan is denying links to conflict minerals but the truth is evident in the UN Report released yesterday. Here is the link to the report -including all of the annexes with the evidence.
Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo addressed to the
Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1533 (2004)

paragraphs relevant to Niotan / John Crawley 175,176 and paragraphs 215,216
http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=s/2009/603

the U.S. should not be financing Sudan's electoral charade unless the laws are amended to allow the basics of a credible election

WASHINGTON, D.C. The Enough Project at the Center for American Progress today released the following statement in reaction to news that the government of Sudan had arrested several members of the opposition political party, the SPLM:

"It was fanciful of the United States and other donor nations to think that the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), which has ruled Sudan with an iron fist and tolerated no peaceful dissent, would suddenly loosen its grip and allow peaceful elections and their necessary precursor: peaceful freedom of assembly," said Enough Co-founder John Prendergast."Today's reaction by the NCP-controlled security services demonstrates further that the U.S. should not be financing this electoral charade unless the laws are amended to allow the basics of a credible election," Prendergast continued. "President Obama should recognize that any benchmarks-based policy of incentives and pressures will have no credibility unless consequences are imposed immediately when such an obvious benchmark like today's denial of a basic element of the existing North-South peace deal -- freedom of assembly for the elections -- has been violated."As Prendergast testified last week before the Africa and Global Health Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee: "Until the parties agree to conditions that will allow a credible election, the United States and broader international community should suspend all electoral assistance. Non-credible elections should not be financed and legitimized by American taxpayers. The parties should agree to delay the election until these CPA-mandated conditions exist, because the U.S. and international community should not recognize any election that does not meet basic standards."###

Rwanda: Govt Blames Sudan for Murder of 5 Peacekeepers in Darfur this week

Kigali — Rwanda has accused the Khartoum government of being behind the ambush in which three RDF peacekeepers were killed and two injured at Saraf Umra in Darfur on Friday.
Hours later, two more peacekeepers were killed in a separate attack yesterday; the RDF spokesman Maj. Jill Rutaremara told The Sunday Times that there is no known presence of rebel activity in the area where the ambush took place. He pointed out that the ambush took place 300 metres from the Government Forces' check point.
"The proximity of the ambush to the checkpoint manned by the government forces raises some questions. The only logical conclusion the RDF can make is that the RDF Peacekeepers were killed and injured by the government forces," said Rutaremara.

He revealed that the second attack in which two soldiers died yesterday were carried out by gunmen dressed in civilian clothes in Shagilitobay where they were supplying water to Internally Displaced Persons, the army spokesman said,
"There is nothing that immediately points an accusing finger to the Government forces in the Shangilitobay case apart from the coincidence of timing.""More investigations are needed in this second case to establish the identity of the perpetrators," he added.

Rwanda has over 3,500 troops serving under the UN-AU hybrid force, UNAMID as well as UNMIS.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200912060014.html

Bashir's shrinking world.

These snap shots were taken the day the ICC announced the indictment of Omer al-Bashir. The refugees were rejoicing. Luis Moreno-Ocampo is known with deepest respect as “OKAMBO’

By REUTERS
UNITED NATIONS <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org>

Sudanese officials who deny and deceive the world about crimes committed in Sudan's western Darfur region might face criminal charges, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said on Friday.

In March, the Hague-based ICC issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on suspicion of war crimes such as orchestrating mass killings and deportations in Darfur, a remote region of Sudan roughly the size of France.

"(Bashir) used the state apparatus not only to commit massive crimes but also to dissimulate them, and therefore facilitate their continuation," ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the U.N. Security Council "My office is considering the criminal responsibility of Sudanese officials who actively deny and dissimulate crimes," he said, adding that the crimes in Darfur "are continuing."

Khartoum denies that Bashir or any other Sudanese government or military official committed war crimes in Darfur. It has refused to cooperate with the court.

Moreno-Ocampo said Sudanese officials who deny that crimes have been committed do not enjoy any immunity from the court. "Since Nuremberg, due obedience is no longer a legal excuse for the commission of crimes," he said.

The prosecutor was referring to the World War Two tribunals in Germany which tried Nazis accused of crimes against humanity and other war crimes. Many Nazis defended themselves by saying they were following orders.

The ICC prosecutor told the 15-nation Security Council that the court was taking steps to protect its witnesses. Those believed to be helping the court, he said, can face cruel treatment if they fall into the hands of Sudanese authorities.

"Individuals falsely suspected of providing evidence to the ICC have been arrested and tortured in Khartoum," he said. "There are public threats by the Sudanese authorities against anybody who cooperates with the court."

Moreno-Ocampo also said that Bashir's decision to cancel a planned trip to Istanbul to attend an Islamic summit showed that he was facing increasing isolation and "sends a clear message (that) President al-Bashir will face justice."

the United States appears to have now joined the group of influential states who sit by quietly and do nothing to ensure that sanctions work to protect Darfurians,"

By Colum Lynch <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/articles/colum+lynch/>
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 4, 2009

A former top U.N. investigator on Thursday accused the Obama administration of failing to enforce a five-year-old arms embargo in Darfur, Sudan, and said weapons continue to flow into the region. : Sudan in Crisis <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/interactives/sudan/>

Enrico Carisch, a Swiss national who until October led a U.N. panel investigating violations of the arms embargo, contrasted the administration's efforts with those of President George W. Bush, noting the previous administration's strong advocacy of sanctions against Sudan.

"In contrast to that leadership of 2004 and 2005, the United States appears to have now joined the group of influential states who sit by quietly and do nothing to ensure that sanctions work to protect Darfurians," Carisch said in written testimony for an appearance before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa.

Carisch said key architects of the U.N. arms embargo -- the United States, France and Britain -- have lessened their commitment to enforcing sanctions as U.S.-led efforts to revive peace talks in Sudan have gained traction. "Increasingly it looks like poorly understood and under-enforced U.N. sanctions are being sold out in favor of mediation whose success is far from ensured," he said.

The U.N. Security Council, he noted, has dismissed nearly 100 recommendations in recent years aimed at strengthening the sanctions, including proposals to extend them to all of Sudan. He also said U.S., French and British officials have done little to press for an official debate on the arms embargo in the Security Council.

Carisch alleged that large amounts of foreign ammunition and weapons, principally from China and Chad, have illegally made their way into Darfur in recent years, fueling a conflict that has left more than 300,000 dead and driven more than 2.7 million from their homes.

Envoy: U.S. negotiates with genocidal regime in Sudan

Washington (CNN) -- The United States' special envoy to Sudan reluctantly agreed Thursday that he is negotiating with a government that is accused of carrying out genocide in Darfur in western Sudan. Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, under questioning by a House subcommittee, said he has never met Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is accused by the International Criminal Court of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. However, Gration conceded he deals with senior officials of the Bashir government. When asked if the Bashir government is currently leading the genocide in Darfur, and therefore the United States is negotiating with perpetrators of genocide, Gration answered: "That's correct."

Earlier this year, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir, accusing him of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in his government's campaign against rebels in Darfur.

Gration said the goal of the U.S. policy is to establish democratic processes in Sudan, which held its last election in 1986 and has been wracked by warfare, drought and other problems.
The 2005 peace agreement calls for national elections in April 2010, followed by a referendum in 2011 on independence in southern Sudan. Darfur is not in the southern region seeking independence. According to Gration, progress so far has included registering more than 11 million people for the April election, and negotiating agreement between al-Bashir's government and the southern independence movement on how to make progress on 10 of the 12 points of the peace plan.

Committee members questioned if the U.S. policy is realistic, particularly in dealing with the Bashir government and its history of genocide. They noted Sudan has more than 2 million displaced people, had kicked out international aid organizations when the ICC issued its arrest warrant for al-Bashir, and is reportedly arming allied militias ahead of the scheduled 2010 election.

Several asked Gration about a classified list of possible incentives and penalties for Sudan available to the administration under its new policy. Gration responded he was willing to discuss the options in a classified hearing, but provided no details.

"I strongly oppose any approach that provides incentives, concessions to a perpetrator of genocide," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, who was allowed to participate in the House subcommittee hearing in the initial absence of the ranking Republican member. "We cannot trade justice for peace. The ends do not justify the means." Brownback persistently questioned Gration on his contacts with the Bashir government, eventually forcing Gration to concede his dealings with a government perpetrating genocide.

Gration initially acknowledged dealing with government officials as part of his efforts to increase implementation of the 2005 peace agreement. Under Brownback's questioning, he said the officials are senior members of the Bashir government, and then agreed that the government is currently carrying out genocide in Darfur.

However, Gration defended the U.S. strategy as a balanced effort to achieve long-term progress.
John Prendergast, a former Clinton administration security official who now heads a group dedicated to ending genocide, told the panel that the U.S. strategy must hold al-Bashir's government accountable to its commitments under the peace plan. In particular, he said the peace plan calls for creating conditions for successful elections, including freedom of assembly, full access to media and international observers, and new security laws to reduce harassment of opposition parties. "None of these preconditions have been met," Prendergast said, adding that a non-credible election would give al-Bashir and his government "false legitimacy." Failure to hold the referendum in 2011 as planned, he warned, would be the "clearest trigger for all-out war."

Prendergast said the international community must enforce an existing arms embargo on Darfur and impose "credible pressure" on Sudan, including targeted sanctions on top government officials, denying international debt relief and bolstering support for ICC investigations.

Committee members asked Gration if China's role as an arms supplier and major investor in Sudan's oil industry is hindering efforts to impose sanctions. Gration said Obama discussed the Sudan issue with Chinese President Hu Jintao on his recent trip to China, but the countries continue to differ on some matters, including arms.
++++++++++++++++++++++++

POLITICO
Outcry from Darfur advocates <http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1209/Outcry_from_Darfur_advocates.html?showall#>
The criticism of President Obama's Sudan envoy, Scott Gration, by Darfur advocates grew louder after hearings in the House today at which Gration conceded <http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/12/03/us.sudan/> that he's negotiating with the Sudanese government:

“The big surprise was there is not a classified annex. And that suggests there is a big hole at the center of the administration’s strategy. They haven’t clearly articulated for themselves, international partners, Khartoum and other actors what the benchmarks are for progress," said Save Darfur Coalition President Jerry Fowler, referring to a promised annex at last month's policy rollout.

"We are extremely disappointed that Gen. Gration did not know any details regarding President Obama's meeting with the Chinese leader. It contributes to a growing level of concern that ending violence and genocide in Sudan is not as high on the administration's list of priorities as we've been led to believe," said Ruth Messinger, the president of the American Jewish World Service, in the same press release.

US and world powers should impose sanctions. Now.

U.S.Ambassador Susan Rice;
‘The United States is particularly concerned about ... the secretary-general's report of some 42 instances in which UNAMID personnel and patrols have been denied freedom of movement and access. These quite directly and seriously contravene the terms of the Status of Forces Agreement the government of Sudan has committed to. It impedes UNAMID's ability to protect civilians and do its vital work. It is utterly unacceptable, as are the threats by the government of Sudan against UNAMID."

A U.S. anti-genocide group, the Enough Project, issued a report on Monday that urged the United States and other world powers to impose sanctions on key members of Sudan's government for refusing to end the violence in Darfur and south Sudan.

Frustration in Congress Over US Policy for Sudan

There was a palpable and bipartisan level of frustration at today's House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health hearing on the Obama administration's Sudan policy. In his testimony John Prendergast focused on the upcoming elections, emphasizing that the U.S. should not recognize the outcome of the elections if they are not held under free and fair conditions.
To date, not one of the CPA's preconditions for holding credible elections has been met. The risks of ignoring preconditions and holding a non-credible election are enormous.
Non-credible elections should not be financed and legitimized by American taxpayers. Until the parties meet the agreed conditions for a credible election, the United States and broader international community should suspend all electoral assistance.
The U.S. should work within and outside the UN Security Council to develop a coalition of countries willing to impose consequences on the NCP for its obstruction of basic conditions for peace.

While the special envoy has made consistently positive and inadvertently misleading statements
about levels of aid, relief organizations clearly do not have access to large areas of Darfur, and those that do have access to vulnerable populations no longer publicize their assessments for fear of expulsion. Darfuris struggling to get information out to the world are imprisoned and silenced. Journalists cannot get travel permits and when they do their visits are stage managed by Khartoum. The NCP's recent statements about a plan to force displaced persons to return home in early 2010 should set alarm bells ringing. The regime's policy of divide and destroy continues, but it is just a different phase, and much more secretive.

Most importantly, this peace surge needs to be backed by credible pressures. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there are actually many such diplomatic levers that have not yet been utilized. They include:
- Multilateral asset freezes aimed at key members of the NCP who have enriched themselves as a
result of the oil boom of the last decade in Sudan
- Multilateral travel bans that act as a scarlet letter on the shirts of key officials who aspire to be taken seriously internationally
- Multilateral enforcement of the U.N. Security Council's arms embargo through the enhancement
of the sanctions committee or another enforcement mechanism if the U.N. Security Council once
again fails to discharge its duties
- Multilateral support to the International Criminal Court's cases against key Sudanese officials,
both in terms of existing indictments and a further expansion of the caseload
- Multilateral denial of debt relief that the NCP is aggressively seeking in the context of declining
energy price

Watch Prendergasts's testimony here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4xGJWYgL2Y
Read his Huffingtonpost blog here
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-prendergast/house-subcommittee-hearin_b_379003.html

What to do about Sudan now
http://www.enoughproject.org/publications/what-do-about-sudan

====================================================================

CONGO-North Kivu-no where is safe

These people are just trying to survive. They are traumatized and exhausted. many are ill. I took this picture around 11am. At 5pm armed militia raided the encampment, raping women and girls including a one-year-old baby.

Check out this video

http://www.girleffect.org/video

Heal Africa

www.healafrica.org runs a hospital in Goma, Congo where they perform fistula surgery and care for rape victims.
Females, even babies, are raped in this region of Congo (North Kivu) . I spoke to women who told me they had been gang raped, then raped with a bayonet, after which the militia would use their rifle butts to pound the women's legs to pulp. Not all of the women can be repaired and their psychological wounds are another matter

Congo -this mother is trying to find a safe place for her family. She has been on the run for 3 years

As most people now know, gold revenues as well as profits from the mining of tin, copper, and coltan, which is used in computers and cell phones are helping to purchase the weapons and fund the rampage that is tearing apart the Congo and destroying millions of lives.

These minerals have fueled the deadliest war since World War II . Since 1998 more than 5 million people have perished in Congo. Hundreds of thousands of women and children have been raped and at least one million terrified people are continually on the run from the various militia. I have asked victims who their attackers are but sometimes they know only that they were ' armed men in uniforms". They could be the Tutsi rebel group ( CNDP), or the unpaid, armed and unleashed Congolese army, or the Mai-mai a self proclaimed militia with no particular agenda other than to follow the army, or the most chillingly brutal of all, the former Hutu genocidaires ( FDLR),

Homes, villages and fields are burned by these groups to terrorize the people and to strengthen their grip on areas containing the region's minerals. Many people I spoke to had moved as many as 10 times. But in North Kivu nowhere is safe.

For a dollar a day, destitute men and children dig deep in the pits in search of the tiny pieces of gold which rebels smuggle through Uganda into Dubai.
Years ago, the international community banned the sale of blood diamonds, but the same has not happened with gold. While the other minerals also help to fund the violence, gold plays a large role, and the jewelry industry is now on the hot seat for not having developed a universal system to track the source of gold used for jewelry. One percent of the world's gold comes from the Congo, but that equals at least $300 million a year. Enough to fuel the violence for decades to come.

Only Tiffany has distanced itself from conflict gold. Under questioning by 60 Minutes, Wal-Mart agreed to trace the source of 10 percent of its gold by next year. Of course tracking the source of minerals will require a concerted effort but as we have seen with diamond trade, it can be done. I think Wal-Mart should aspire to do better than that 10%.

The Kimberley Process < http://www.kimberleyprocess.com> was set up to stem the flow of conflict diamonds and was a joint effort between governments and the industry. A similar effort must be made for gold.

Nowhere to go- people outside UN peacekeepers barracks

Thousands of starving, terrified people are gathered outside the UN peacekeepers barracks

Support UNICEF's life saving efforts in Congo

Congolese child on the run. We can help. Read below

This child has been fleeing from militia for three years. Learn what you can do to help

Urge your Representative to support legislation for conflict-free cell phones, laptops and other electronics.
Urge your Representative to cosponsor the Congo Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009 (HR 4128) . The bill will identify any conflict minerals http://www.enoughproject.org/publications/mine-mobile-phone from Congo imported into the United States. It is the strongest effort thus far to stop the scourge of conflict minerals in Congo.

CALL your Representatives's office urging for support http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

CONTACT https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml your Representative's office to ask in person for their commitment.

EMAIL your Representative directly;http://www2.americanprogress.org/t/1659/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6281

Commit to purchase conflict-free cell phones, laptops and other electronics.
Help us increase demand for conflict-free electronics. Email the electronics industry leaders http://www2.americanprogress.org/t/1659/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6265 and urge them to make their products conflict free. The message is clear: If you take conflict out of your cell phone, I will buy it.

Urge your school, or other institution to go conflict-free.
Get your school to publicly call on electronics companies to make conflict-free computers and printers for your campus. To share stories and ideas with other students, send an email mailto:conflictfreecampus-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to join our "Conflict-Free Campus" listserv.

Help us grow the conflict-free movement!
Urge your friends to join you http://www2.americanprogress.org/t/1659/tellafriend.jsp?tell_a_friend_KEY=1106 in coming clean for Congo.

Publicly call for support of conflict minerals legislation
Write an opinion editorial or letter to the editor ;http://www2.americanprogress.org/t/1659/letter/?letter_KEY=275 of your local paper. Publicly urge your Senators to support conflict mineral legislation. Click here http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/edtips for tips on writing your editorial, or check out our MediaToolkit;http://www.enoughproject.org/files/RAISE%20Hope%20for%20Congo%20Media%20Toolkit.pdf

Recycle your old electronics
By recycling your old cell phones, computers and other electronic products, you'll cut down on the need for new minerals. Visit electronic recyclers like Eco-Cell http://eco-cell.com for more information.

to learn more go to http://www.enoughproject.org/conflict_areas/eastern_congo

families driven from their homes find a temporary shelter in an abandoned school-North kivu

Congo-5 million dead, over a million civilians on the run. Dont feel helpless. We have work to do

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Aid workers now being targeted in eastern Chad, CAR and Darfur. Refugees suffer

Lawlessness, rampaging armed groups, the kidnapping and murder of relief workers threaten the lifeline to nearly 100,000 people in eastern Chad.
In eastern Chad there are 256,700 Sudanese refugees from strife-torn Darfur, 168,000 Chadian displaced people and around 150,000 homeless civilians residing in host villages. But several key humanitarian agencies have suspended or reduced their activities due to the insecurity.
'The kidnapping of relief workers is a new element in bandits operations in eastern Chad, Darfur and northern Central African Republic, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest update, citing the recent kidnapping of an International Red Cross staff member, attacks on two non-governmental organizations (NGO) and the abduction of two French nationals.
'To date at least 96,500 people in need are at risk of deteriorating living conditions due to the continued suspensions or reduction of operations by several humanitarian organizations '.

Refugee child-in eastern Chad

eastern Chad too dangerous. Six Aid groups have suspended work there

Six humanitarian aid organizations including the International Committee of the Red Cross and French group Doctors Without Borders have suspended work in eastern Chad after Laurent Maurice, an agronomist for the ICRC and his five Chadian colleagues were abducted near the Sudanese border. A Chadian aid worker was recently killed. Two years ago the director of Save the Children was killed. All of the aid compounds have been attacked and many workers have been beaten and shot. Attacks on aid workers in eastern Chad have doubled to about 190 in the past last year. They and their compounds are targeted for their vehicles and other valuables.
The border between Darfur and Chad is completely porous but during the rainy season the rivers (wadis) fill with water, inhibiting incursions from Sudanese militia and giving people a few months of security. But by October, the rains have ended, the wadis are dry and the attacks resume.

In October of 2006, I was in in eastern Chad when some 60 villages were attacked and destroyed by janjaweed from Darfur and from Chad.. Many people were killed, mutilated, raped and wounded. Thousands were were displaced. If you are interested, here is a link to piece I wrote at that time for the WSJ; No Hopes For US http://www.miafarrow.org/ed_072707.html

Since 2006 aid organizations have been working in very dangerous conditions. There are the Janjaweed attacks, the incursions of Chadian rebels ( their training camps are inside Darfur and they are entirely armed and supported by the Sudanese government) and in this lawless land banditry thrives.
Today 250,000 Sudanese refugees and nearly the same number of displaced Chadians are completely dependent on humanitarian relief . Tragically that aid is further compromised.

Unexploded ordinances litter war torn eastern Chad. 8 year old Bakit found one

Displaced civilians in Darfur's camps being forced to register to vote. Those who resist are killed.

Having an election in Darfur sounds like a good idea. But the truth is that most of Darfurs people do not want to vote. They do not believe the election will be fair; there are widespread reports of ballot boxes being stuffed with votes for war criminal and current president Omar al-Bashir, and there is no candidate on the ballot the people want to vote for. They do not want their names being used in a process they believe will be fraudulent. "We would rather die than vote" is the message coming to me from Darfuris in the camps

So government officials, accompanied by army, police and janjaweed forces have begun to raid the camps. Those who resisted registration were killed. Reportedly UNAMID peacekeepers were also present but did nothing to stop the executions.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?page=imprimable&id_article=33276
November 28, 2009 Seven Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were killed Friday in West Darfur following a wrangle between the residents and government troops which attempted to force them to take part in voter registration.

The IDPs ask the government to disarm militia and to bring to justice responsible of atrocities committed in the restive region as well as to conclude a peace deal with the rebel groups before organize elections in the country. However, the local authorities in Darfur launched a voter registration process in the three states of the province in a bid to count IDPs that the UN estimates their number to be 2.7 million.

The Sudanese regular forces and militia in West Darfur state on Friday evening at 05:00pm killed seven people in Deleij IDPs camp, some 280 klm from El Geneina the capital of West Darfur state. The incident took place after attempts by local officials to persuade the residents of the camp to register in electoral lists.

In a discussion with the officials who were accompanied by regular forces from the army and police besides Janjaweed militiamen the residents reiterated their rejection to the electoral operation.
"They had a hot discussion with the officials after declaring their support to (the rebel leader) Abdel Wahid Al-Nur, then the regular forces and the militia started shooting on the innocent civilians," said Hussein Abu Sharati the spokesperson of Darfur IDPs and refugees.

He further said the peacekeepers in the area were present but did not intervene to prevent the killing.

Speaking on Saturday afternoon, the IDPs spokesperson added the regular forces had been withdrawn after the killing.
Abu Sharati also stressed that what was happened in Deleij could be repeated in two other camps in North Darfur.
According the spokesperson, the Sudanese authorities already visited Al-Maliha and Kassap camps today and threatened to arrest tomorrow those who refuse the voter registration operation. "Today they already arrested seven local leaders (Mashaikh) from Kassap camp," he further said.
(ST)

Aid worker being evacuated from eastern Chad

What will happen to them

Women and children of Birao.
The airstrip in Birao is heavily guarded

What will happen to them?

This week two international aid workers were kidnapped by militia from the remote town of Birao, just a few miles from Central African Republic’s borders with Sudan and from Chad.

Darfur, eastern Chad and the equally anarchic north of the Central African Republic are roamed by militia of all kinds, the abduction , beatings and murder of humanitarian aid workers is increasingly commonplace. The region is now so dangerous that six aid groups temporarily withdrew from eastern Chad, leaving 37,000 displaced people without assistance.

People cannot leave the camps because of the rampant violence and because so many of their homelands have been occupied by Arab tribes from elsewhere. If the surge in violent attacks upon aid workers and their compounds continue, more NGO’s will be forced to withdraw. More than 3 million people have been displaced in Darfur, Chad and CAR. Most are women and children. What will happen to them?

ABYEI: Bashir wants it all

Friday 27 November 2009
Link to full piece here.
www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article33259#comment_article
by Roger Winter- former USAID manager and former US State Department special envoy for Sudan assigned to follow Darfur dossier and implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement

November 26, 2009 — Having visited Abyei on numerous occasions over the last fifteen years, it has become a place that I regularly go to see President Bashir and his National Congress Party at their predictable worst. Visually, the destruction of May 2008, when Abyei’s market and most of its homes were burned to the ground by Bashir’s 31st Sudan Armed Forces Brigade, were, of course, the most striking sights. Abyei’s civilians fled south, displaced once again. To top things off, the 31st blew up the facilities of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement, the NCP’s ‘partner’ in the mis-named Government of National Unity. This wanton destruction by Khartoum’s forces was followed by both Parties presenting their cases to the Permanent Court of Arbitration(PCA) in the Hague. On July 22 of this year the PCA rendered its findings which both Parties committed to implement, including by properly demarcating the borders.
---
But the dark storm clouds of Bashir and his NCP, along with the criminals of the 31st Brigade, are not far away. Both Bashir and his NCP have a perfect record insofar as agreements are concerned; they NEVER , EVER keep an agreement they sign. --.

The task of the demarcation team is to lay out Abyei’s boundaries pursuant to the PCA decision. This involves working in the field, on the ground and in the air, to plot out and mark the boundaries with pillars and markers so that there is no question of the border’s location. The plan was to install between 25 and 30 major pillar markers along with smaller markers between pillars. So far, four pillars have been installed, all in southern locations. When visiting other areas for their preliminary work, the team has been threatened with death and bodily harm. The process is now at a standstill. The demarcation task was to have been completed in November.

Bashir has publically made promises to the Misseriya community about Abyei’s future. His promises are all at odds with the Abyei Protocol of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, not to mention the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. He obviously couldn’t care less about demarcation. He wants Abyei and he wants it all.

we need protection

I took this photo of displaced children in 2004. All across Darfur- even before the desperate need for water and food came the plea for protection. Can there be a more visceral plea from the human heart? Yet no adequate protection has come for the people of Darfur.
This week, in response to the new UN report, the utterly shameless Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem says the U.N./African Union Peacekeeping Mission (UNAMID) should get out because there is no longer any conflict in Darfur. The UN report accuses the Sudanese government of harassing peacekeepers and obstructing their movements throughout the region. Outrageously the Khartoum cabal headed by man indicted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity including the murder, rape, pillaging and displacement of millions, is able to dictate which parts of Darfur may and may not be accessed by international peacekeepers.

Happy Thanksgiving! If you are able to give please consider one of these great organizations

Save the Children
www.savethechildren.org <http://www.savethechildren.org

United Nations High Commission for Refugees
www.unhcr.org <http://www.unhcr.org

United Nations Children's Fund
www.unicef.org <http://www.unicef.org

Medecines sans frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)
www.msf.org <http://www.msf.org

International Rescue Committee
www.theirc.org <http://www.theirc.org

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
http://www.icrc.org

Solar Cookers-
Solar Cookers are provided to Darfuri women in camps in Chad through Jewish World Watch. To donate go to http://www.jewishworldwatch.org or call 818-501-1836.

Paul Farmer-Partners in Health
http://www.pih.org/who/vision.html

For $199.00 you can put a sturdy, totally cool lap top in the hands of the poorest children on earth, go to http://www.amazon.com/xo Or you can give a laptop AND buy one for the child in your own world for $399.000 . If you have the ability, you could give $100 or $1000 and even specify where you want them to go! For example, somebody can buy 100 for a refugee camp or buy 1000 for a small town. Here's a link to the video about the laptop
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GB87EI/ref=sc_i <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GB87EI/ref=sc_iw_c_0_1>

Excellent article by by Andrew Heavens

As pressure mounts to send IDPs home, little is being said about the crucial issue of land rights.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/HHVU-7Y5KLN?OpenDocument
25 Nov 2009
By Katy Glassborow, Tajeldin Abdhalla Adam and Blake Evans-Pritchard in The Hague (AR No 237, 25-Nov-09)

Abdalla Adam, an IDP (internally displaced person) leader from Alryad camp in El Geneina, West Darfur, says that he desperately wants to return to his village, Mestarei, from which he was forced to leave in 2003, but cannot because others have occupied his land. Shortly after he was expelled, Arab settlers moved in.

"We were evicted by force from our land, which was given to settlers," he said. "The ultimate goal of this campaign of killing and displacement is to eliminate us and give our land to these settlers. We don't want to live in these camps but for now we have to because there is no where to go."

"This is about our land, which we are very attached to, where we have our houses, farms and orchards, and where our ancestors lived, died and were buried," Adam explained.

Adam is not alone in expressing such anxieties. Many other IDPs would also like to leave the camps and return to their former villages, once the situation improves, but fear that they no longer have land to go back to.

Mohamed Abdalla Aldoma, a lawyer from the Darfur Bar Association, said, "Land occupation in Darfur is a very vital issue. But, unfortunately, everybody, including the [United Nations] who documented it in 2007, are silent now."

Around three million Darfuris (mainly members of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa so-called black African Darfur tribes) have been displaced by government forces and allied janjaweed militia since 2003. Perceiving these tribes as disloyal and harbouring insurgents, the Khartoum government deliberately targeted this section of the population, destroying homes, crops, livelihoods, killing men, raping women and forcing people off their land. There are claims that Khartoum annulled traditional customary law - which gave ownership rights to the region's sedentary African tribes and leasing rights to Arab nomads - and then actively encouraged Darfur Arabs and Arabs from other countries such as Chad to settle on land previously occupied by the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa, in a bid to swell support for Bashir's regime.

One estimate from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNCHR, puts the number of Chadians that migrated to Darfur between 2006 and 2007 at 30,000, but gives no indication that the Sudanese government was responsible for encouraging this influx. Aldoma says that he has documented many cases where settlers, who were clearly foreigners, were given Sudanese IDs. "In some places the settlers have taken full control of the land including farms, orchards and water resources," he said.

Salih Osman, a Sudanese legislator and human rights campaigner, warns time is running out to resolve the problem and that, in the absence of official records, traces of villages and land ownership could disappear. During the fighting, many villages were razed and surrounding fields burnt.
"In time, the remnants of the ruined villages will vanish, and someone will come and say he found the land and there was no sign of previous possession," Osman said. "The longer we keep people in camps, the longer there is a possibility of something like this happening. We all fear that this will be an ethnic cleansing, in the sense that millions of people will never be able to go back to their regional homes."

DANGER OF RETURNING

IDPs report that, whenever they try to leave the camps, they are in danger of being attacked by militiamen.
When two IDPs, Omer and Ali, left their camp at Kereinig, east of El Geneina, recently to cultivate peanuts a few km away, they were ambushed by armed men. They were then beaten and Omer's arms were broken.
"We were very lucky to survive," he said. "We thought they were going to shoot us, but instead they beat us and threatened to kill us if we come back again." Omer said that the two men had wanted to leave the camp to grow something for their families to eat.
"But these armed men in military uniform have prevented us," he said. "They told us that they are the government, and they are the masters of this land."

Ibrahim Adam, from the Kasab IDP camp in Kutum, North Darfur, recalls how he was attacked by four armed soldiers when he took his goats to graze in bushland 20 minutes walk away from the camp.
"They knocked me down and started to kick me with their boots all over my body while I kept rolling like a ball," he said. "Then they tied me to a tree and left with the goats." Ibrahim was eventually discovered by his family, who managed to free him from the tree. Ibrahim says that neither UNAMID, the UN peacekeeping operation in the region, nor the police were able to take any action.
"We are just living in big prisons," he said. "We have no freedom to move, let alone go back to our destroyed villages."

Khartoum regime continues to block peacekeeping efforts

The UN Secretary General said in the report that "freedom of movement continues to be a serious concern for UNAMID and many of the agencies in Darfur"

Sudan has blocked peacekeeping patrols in Darfur on 42 separate occasions this year, the UN says, amid fears of a new conflict in the region.

LRA's Kony said to be seeking protection from Sudan army

Kony is asid to be planning to move along the Central African border to Chad and then enter into Darfur to meet SAF officers. He wants the Arabs to give him logistical support and a safe haven.”
Some estimate that there are only about 250 rebels left. Most have died or defected.

According to one escapee "Since December 14, Kony no longer communicates on phone. He now sends one of his security men on foot to convey messages. They would move 10 to 20km away from him and then communicate on phone.”
The atrocities committed by the LRA have been widely documented by human rights groups and are among the worst the Congolese suffered at the hands of Joseph Kony. On Christmas day, his fighters killed at least 143 people in Faradje and abducted 160 children. According to survivors, the LRA crushed their victims’ skulls with axes and bats. They also set fire to 940 houses, three schools and nine churches. They killed another 86 people in the first week of January in the towns of Sambia, Akua and Tomate, to the south of Faradje. The massacres were in retaliation for the participation of the Congolese army in 'Operation Lightning Thunder,' attempt to apprehend the LRA.

Asked where they got their weapons, ammunition and new uniforms from, the defector rebel, Arop said they received supplies from SAF, (the Sudanese Army) many of which were still buried in river banks and hills in Southern Sudan. In Congo, he said, they seized weapons from the UN soldiers they ambushed and killed.

As for food, before Operation Lightning Thunder they relied on the supplies given by Caritas during the peace talks. “Every month we received 200 bags of beans, 200 bags of rice, 200 bags of posho, 100 jerry-cans of cooking oil, 100 boxes of wheat flour, 100 sachets of salt and 100 boxes of soap.”
Arop said Kony keeps surviving because he never takes part in battles. “Whenever attacked, he runs away and leaves his fighters to fight back. I have never seen him fight.”

The most abandoned children on earth

Many thousands of children in Congo and in the Central African Republic are accused witchcraft. Such children are kept out of sight and often experience horrific abuse. Churches perform ‘exorcisms’ which can include burning, starvation and severe beatings. In some cases the child has a deformity which brings shame to the family, or adults blame their misfortunes on the child.

I took this photo in CAR. Incredibly the eldest of these two little girls is ten years old, her sister is 8. The two are no bigger than an average 4 year old in the US. The older child has a ‘club foot”. A simple surgery could fix it here, but in CAR the child and her sister are accused of witchcraft and doomed to a life of isolation, abuse and scorn.

I don’t know why so many children in CAR are born with a club foot but this is the case, and no surgeon in CAR is skilled in this type of surgery.

Calling all orthopedic surgeons. Is someone willing to go to CAR ? This is a chance to help many young lives. Unicef in CAR could identify and gather the children. I would gladly purchase your ticket.

Voices of Darfuri civil society call for peace

Nov 20, (DOHA) — Darfur civil society called on the Sudanese government and rebel groups to stop the fighting and to seek seriously a lasting peace agreement to end the six year conflict in the restive province in western Sudan.

The Joint mediation held a four day consultative meeting in the Qatari capital from 17 to 20 November in order to identify the means for supporting the peace process. Over one hundred group from the tribal, traditional, youth, women and displaced took part of the consultation.

The Darfur rebels denounced the dominance of pro-National Congress Party groups and asked the mediation to consider this factor when it comes to assess the outcome of the meeting.

"The final statement issued by the consultative meeting of the Darfurian civil society called on both the Government and the Movements to immediately ceasefire, cease hostilities and to cooperate earnestly with the international community and the mediators to reach a just peace," said a statement released by the Mediation Friday.

The civil society reaffirmed that Doha will remain the sole venue for negotiations on Darfur peace, said the statement.
The mediation hopes the mobilization of the civil society would contribute to create favorable climate for the Doha process as its concerns are expressed in the action conducted to achieve peace.

Djibrill Bassolé* said on Wednesday civil society consultations would continue in Darfur to ensure that the voice of wider segments of the Darfurian communities would be heard.

The civil society consultations shall continue in the form of sequential consultative meetings planned to take place in order to ensure that the voice of wider segments of the Darfurian communities, with regards to the peace process, would be heard.

(ST)
Bassolé served in the government of Burkina Faso as Minister of Security from November 2000 to June 2007 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation from June 2007 to September 2008. Bassolé has been the Joint African Union United Nations Chief Mediator for Darfur since August 2008.

300 armed men on camels attack 2 villages in South Darfur. 11 Dead

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Unidentified gunmen, many riding on camels, killed 11 people in attacks on two villages in Sudan's Darfur region, the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping mission said today.
More than 300 gunmen took part in the attack in the state of South Darfur, the mission said.

Tilting at Windmills

Is there some good reason we should not be pushing to get the UN to introduce a bill declaring that all minerals, including oil, belong to the people of the country in which they are mined? Those who extract them etc can make their profit but the majority of the revenues should go toward the health, education and welfare of the people. Of course this wont happen any time soon for all the reasons we know too well, but why shouldn't we be trying for it?

Hutu killings continue in neighboring Congo

Every year at least 40 tons of gold, worth more than a billion US dollars, are extracted from the Democratic Republic of Congo and smuggled through neighboring Uganda to Dubai. These operations are conducted by the FDLR, the Rwandan-Hutu militia involved in the genocide. They fled across the border into eastern Congo in 1994 and have been responsible for many of the indescribably brutal attacks and rapes there. Profits from the gold continue to fund and purchase weapons for the group.
Females, even babies, are raped in this region of Congo (North Kivu) . I spoke to women who told me they had been gang raped, then raped with a bayonet, after which the militia would use their rifle butts to pound the women's legs to pulp.

Fistula surgery is performed at the Goma hospital where the surgeon operates non-stop. But not all of the women can be repaired and their psychological wounds are another matter.

China is in a position to exert pressure on Khartoum

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in a letter to Human Rights First in March 2009, "We believe that the Chinese government needs to abide by the spirit as much as the letter of UN Security Council Resolution 1591 (2005) and subsequent resolutions. The Chinese government also should prevent Chinese companies from selling weapons to Khartoum. In order to bring an end to hostilities in Darfur, we must effectively deny all combatants access to the tools of war."

"As Sudan's largest export partner and greatest source of foreign investment, China is in a position to exert pressure on Khartoum to resolve the conflict in Darfur and implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement."

Urge president Obama to raise the problem of Chinese influence and arms sales to Sudan in his meetings with President Hu Jintao and others, today.
Call 1800-GENOCIDE to reach the White House toll free or call the White House directly 202 456 1111
Or 202 456 1414

Letter to President Obama

Signed by 44 members of Congress. Here is a link
http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/newsroom

44 Members of Congress sent a letter to the President concerning China's involvement in Sudan.

The helicopter gunships, bombers and vast majority of weaponry used against people of Darfur have been and continue to be of Chinese origin. No country has greater influence over Khartoum than China. On November 13, as President Obama prepared to visit China, 44 members of the United States Congress signed a letter to President Obama in which they state:

" Failure to exert sufficient public pressure on China regarding its relationship with Khartoum will send a signal to the rest of the world that the United States places other interests ahead of achieving peace in Sudan. If that happens, the talk of an American-led multilateral effort to bring peace and justice to this war-ravaged land will have been mere words.

"Therefore, we ask that in your meeting with President Hu Jintao and other Chinese officials, Sudan feature prominently on the agenda. We ask also that you push for the Government of China to exert influence over Sudan to end its attacks in Darfur, faithfully implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement with South Sudan, prepare for free and fair elections, and make a renewed commitment to the ongoing peace process. Furthermore, China must be reminded of its obligations to cease any actions that actually contribute to the violence, namely the provision of weapons and technology which have aided the genocide in Darfur."

If you agree and want your voice to be heard call 1800-GENOCIDE. Ask for the White House and strongly urge the President to make Sudan a priority in his upcoming discussions with President Hu.

a harsh life

Darfuri refugee

children at a camp for displaced Chadians

No Hopes For Us

eastern Chad too dangerous. Six Aid groups have suspended work there

Six humanitarian aid organizations including the International Committee of the Red Cross and French group Doctors Without Borders have suspended work in eastern Chad after Laurent Maurice, an agronomist for the ICRC and his five Chadian colleagues were abducted near the Sudanese border. A Chadian aid worker was recently killed. Two years ago the director of Save the Children was killed. All of the aid compounds have been attacked and many workers have been beaten and shot. Attacks on aid workers in eastern Chad have doubled to about 190 in the past last year. They and their compounds are targeted for their vehicles and other valuables.
The border between Darfur and Chad is completely porous but during the rainy season the rivers (wadis) fill with water, inhibiting incursions from Sudanese militia and giving people a few months of security. But by October, the rains have ended, the wadis are dry and the attacks resume.

In October of 2006, I was in in eastern Chad when some 60 villages were attacked and destroyed by janjaweed. Many people were killed, mutilated, raped and wounded. Many thousands were were displaced. If you are interested, here is a link to piece I wrote at that time for the WSJ; No Hopes For US http://www.miafarrow.org/ed_072707.html

Since 2006 the aid organizations have worked in very dangerous conditions. There are the Janjaweed attacks, the incursions of Chadian rebels ( their training camps are inside Darfur and they are entirely armed and supported by the Sudanese government) and in a lawless land,   ‘banditry’ thrives.
Today 250,000 Sudanese refugees and nearly the same number of displaced Chadians are completely dependent on humanitarian relief . Tragically that aid is further compromised.

The world looks at Darfur and responds, in effect: We can live with that. There are many in Darfur, however, who will not live.

“This is not, at present, the active phase of Darfur's genocide, involving mass attacks on civilians. Instead, it is the evidence of a genocide that has succeeded. The Sudanese regime achieved its policy aims -- targeting disfavored ethnic groups, destroying their way of life and forcing millions into camps. And now it is threatening to forcibly relocate these victims in 2010 -- a plan of Stalinist scale and brutality.”

“America's Sudan policy is in a holding pattern, waiting for the next crisis to refocus global attention. Meanwhile, women are raped, with impunity. Weapons are illegally imported, with impunity. Civilians are attacked, with impunity. And at some point, impunity becomes permission.”

Link to full Washington post article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/12/AR2009111209826.html

United Nations Assembly Endorses Report on Gaza but US votes against, GB and France abstainhttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/world/middleeast/06briefs-001.html?_r=1By NEIL MacFARQUHARNovember 5, 2009 The General Assembly voted 114 to 18, with 44 abstentions, to endorse the report by a Human Rights Council panel led by the South African judge Richard Goldstone that said there was evidence that both Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas committed war crimes during the Gaza war last winter. The assembly’s resolution demands that both Israel and the Palestinians, without specifically naming Hamas, carry out investigations within three months. It also pushes for Security Council attention. France, Britain and Russia were among the countries that abstained, and the United States voted against the resolution. The lack of support among permanent Security Council members suggests that Council action is unlikely. Supporters basically said such serious accusations of war crimes deserved international attention, while opponents found the resolution too broad.=====================================================The General Assembly "requests the secretary-general to report to the General Assembly within a period of three months, on the implementation of the present resolution, with a view to considering further action, if necessary, by the relevant United Nations organs and bodies, including the Security Council," the resolution said.
The new resolution urged Israel and Palestine to launch the investigations that "are independent, credible and in conformity with international standards" within a period of three months.
The president of the 64th General Assembly session, Ali Treki, told reporters after the adoption of the new resolution that "this is an important declaration against impunity." "It is a call for justice and accountability," he said. "Without justice, there can be no progress toward peace. Human beings should be treated as human beings, regardless of his or her religion or nationality."
The resolution was adopted after more than 40 countries, including Israel, took the floor at the two-day plenary General Assembly session on the Goldstone report, which accused both Israel and Hamas militants of war crimes in the Gaza conflict, which left more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis killed.

Getting water is not easy for everyone

Bush schools

The most abandoned people on earth

CONGO- The World Capital of Killing By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Women and children in desperate need of aid-UNICEF appeal

Multiple predators stalk civilians in Congo

A look at the International Criminal Court

ICC to reconsider whether to add genocide to charges against Omer al-Bashir with

You asked. President Obama responds.

Congo's Forgotten War in Congo-watch this video. Meet Chance, one courageous little girl

Orphaned, Raped and Ignored-Nicholas Kristof reporting from Congo

WILL THE ICC CHARGE AL-BASHIR WITH THE ULTIMATE HUMAN CRIME

Darfur refugees in desperate need of food and water

Let us not forget

Remarks by Ambassador Susan Rice

We can be defined by what we give rather than what we possess.

Even before the earthquake

mercy ship arrives in Port-au-Prince

Doctor in Haiti says

Wall Street Journal Jan 20, 2010

Partners in Health has been working in Haiti for over 20 years. Look what they are doing even now.

please support the most excellent, Partners in Health

US Troops distribute food as relief effort gets under way

How we Can help Haiti

Not forsaken-but when?

you will not be forsaken.

Cite' Soleil in Port-au-Prince

Governments and aid agencies are rushing to help the people of Haiti.

Pray for the people of Haiti

Terror in Sudan

Thank you and farewell to a hero

Eve Ensler, HuffPost: "TEN RADICAL ACTS FOR CONGO IN THE NEW YEAR"

Half the Sky

Time to push

This little boy is among so many who are suffering from acute malnutrition and hunger- related diseases

The expelled humanitarian agencies left the world's most vulnerable people without sufficient assistance.

Oure_Cassoni refugee camp

Sudanese agencies should plug Darfur aid gap

Sudanese army has resumed daily bombardments in Darfur since the beginning of the New Year killing civilians

Awesome video

Make your voices heard to help stem the atrocities in Congo

Israelis protest Gaza blockade

I TOO DREAM IMPOSSIBLY OF A YEAR OF PEACE , JUSTICE AND KINDNESS FOR ALL THE PEOPLE IN MY HUMAN FAMILY

FOR THE RWANDANS - SURVIVORS AND VICTIMS

WHAT BETTER TIME TO SAY ENOUGH--FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN

FOR THE CHILDREN OF DARFUR

FOR THE CHILDREN IN THE KIBERA SLUMS OF KENYA

FOR THE CHILDREN OF CONGO

FOR THE CHILDREN IN EASTERN CHAD

FOR THE CHILDREN OF THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

FOR THE CHILDREN IN SOUTH SUDAN

FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE OGADEN REGION OF ETHIOPIA

FOR THE CHILDREN OF BURMA

FOR THE PEOPLE OF SOMALIA --this boy is in Dadaab refugee camp on the Somali border

FOR THIS TINY CHILD ABANDONED ON THE STEPS OF A CHURCH IN HAITI

FOR THE CHILDREN OF HAITI

FOR ISRAELI AND PALESTINEAN CHILDREN -A FUTURE OF PEACE WITHOUT WALLS

Holocaust Survivor Goes on Hunger Strike for Gaza

Still no copters-' If we all honestly say we do care for Darfurians we would do better."

LRA continues to murder, mutilate, abduct displace and terrorize civilians in Congo and Sudan

Darfuri refugee-children-at-school in Sam Ouandja-where there is a high probability that something very very bad is going to happen

Darfuri refugee children playing in a sand storm in eastern Chad

Mother gathering wood in eastern Chad

Lake Chad is drying up

MSF lists Top 10 worst humanitarian crises

Inspired gifts

Five Myths About Darfur by John Prendergast

One of the very best gifts of all

THE DARFUR ARCHIVES

Carter Center "gravely concerned"

Sudan is sliding towards violent breakup,

Aid groups targeted in eastern Chad, CAR amd Darfur

CONGRESSMAN FRANK WOLF STATEMENT ON DIRECTION OF U.S. POLICY IN SUDAN

It is past time for Obama and UN Security Council to bring pressures to bear against belligerents in Darfur: impose targeted sanctions, freeze assets

France-Africa summit due to be held in Egypt has been cancelled over French concerns at the invitation of Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir

UN peacekeepers sent to protect refugees and aid workers in Sam Ouandja, CAR

Once again Nick Kristof gives us invaluable info-this time about dangers in our own homes

I met these children in north Kivu, Congo. Its not too late to save them

Take action now

What Else Can I Do