Sierra Leone: President Threatens to Declare Emergency

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Sierra Leone leader warns of possible state of emergency

Source: CNN.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (Reuters) -- Sierra Leone's President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has warned he could declare a state of emergency across the former British colony if violence ahead of next month's presidential run-off vote worsens.

Police declared a curfew in the eastern border region with Liberia on Monday, a center of the illegal diamond mining trade which fueled a 1991-2002 civil war, after dispersing more than a thousand demonstrators from rival political groups.

The unrest spread to the suburbs of the capital Freetown late on Monday, where supporters of the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party and the opposition All People's Congress took to the streets with machetes, local radio said.

U.N. sources said one person was believed to have been killed in the violence.

"The people of this country have suffered long enough," Kabbah said in an address broadcast late on Monday.

"I'm deeply distressed by events at the weekend. ... From henceforth the government shall not hesitate to declare a state of emergency," he said.

The polls in the West African country are the first since United Nations peacekeepers left two years ago following the civil war, a brutal conflict in which children were drugged and forced to fight and civilians were mutilated with machetes.

The British army has retrained Sierra Leone's armed forces and the security situation is much improved, but corruption among politicians -- one of the root causes of the war -- is rampant and the country remains mired in poverty.

Main opposition candidate Ernest Bai Koroma of the APC won 44 percent of the vote in the August 11 first round, followed by Vice President Soloman Berewa of the SLPP on 38 percent.

Koroma is being backed in the run-off by the third-placed candidate Charles Margai, who polled 14 percent.

Deep fault lines in the country have resurfaced during the polls, with the APC winning strong support among the northern ethnic Temne and Limba groups but the SLPP backed by the southern Mende population.

With about 100,000 votes separating Koroma and Berewa in the first round, the run-off will depend largely on whether Margai, who took over 250,000 votes, can convince his southern Mende heartland to switch to the northern-based APC.

Analysts say that means ethnic politics are likely to play a role in campaigning but note that the unrest so far has been relatively minor and localized.

Sierra Leone's Independent Media Commission has already issued warnings to two radio stations -- one owned by the SLPP, the other by the APC -- for broadcasting programs liable to stir unrest.

"Several people within the community are perturbed by the incitative statements from the two radio stations," Commissioner Bernadette Cole told Reuters. "If left unchecked their activities may lead to chaos, mayhem and public disorder."

"Members of the Security Council called on leaders of all parties and their followers ... to respect the results of the elections as they are confirmed and to resolve any disputes through exclusively peaceful and legal channels," the U.N. Security Council said in a statement.

Don't Miss
Run-off in Sierra Leone presidential poll.

Arabs pile into Darfur to take land 'cleansed' by janjaweed

Source: The Independent on Sunday.
By Steve Bloomfield, Africa Correspondent
Published: 14 July 2007.

Arabs from Chad and Niger are crossing into Darfur in "unprecedented" numbers, prompting claims that the Sudanese government is trying systematically to repopulate the war- ravaged region.

An internal UN report, obtained by The Independent, shows that up to 30,000 Arabs have crossed the border in the past two months. Most arrived with all their belongings and large flocks. They were greeted by Sudanese Arabs who took them to empty villages cleared by government and janjaweed forces.

One UN official said the process "appeared to have been well planned". The official continued: "This movement is very large. We have not seen such numbers come into west Darfur before."

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, sent a team to the border with Chad at the end of May to interview the new arrivals. Fighting in eastern Chad has been steadily increasing and it was thought that many could be refugees. But only a very small number have required support from UNHCR.

"Most have been relocated by Sudanese Arabs to former villages of IDPs (internally displaced people) and more or less invited to stay there," said the UN official.

The arrivals have been issued with official Sudanese identity cards and awarded citizenship, and analysts say that by encouraging Arabs from Chad, Niger and other parts of Sudan to move to Darfur the Sudanese government is making it "virtually impossible" for displaced people to return home.

James Smith, chief executive of the Aegis Trust, said the revelations proved that the Sudanese government was "cynically trying to change the demographics of the whole region", adding: "If the ethnic cleansing has been consolidated because the land has been repopulated it will become irreversible. The peace process will fall to pieces."

Repopulation has also been happening in south Darfur where Arabs from elsewhere in Sudan have been allowed to move into villages that were once home to local tribes. Aid agency workers said the Arabs were presented as "returning IDPs".

Before the conflict started in 2003, Darfur was home to seven million people, mainly from three African tribes, Fur, Marsalit and Zargahwa. Darfur literally translates as "Land of the Fur". But some 2.5 million have now been forced to flee their homes after attacks by Sudanese troops and planes, and Arab militia on horseback known as janjaweed.

Most are now in camps around Darfur's main towns, relying on handouts from international aid agencies. About 250,000 have become refugees in Chad. A further 1.5 million have been affected by the conflict, meaning at least four million people are now reliant on the 80 or so international aid agencies in the region. More than 200,000 people are believed to have been killed so far during the four-and-a-half-year conflict.

And if Khartoum is moving Arabs from abroad to replace them, diplomats fear that Darfur rebels may try to remove them forcibly. "It could be quite explosive," said one western diplomat. "It is a very serious situation."

Nomadic Arab tribes have been crossing the border between Chad and Sudan for centuries, long before lines were drawn on a map. It is normal for tribes to follow the rains from west to east and back again, searching for fertile grazing land for their cattle. Straight lines carve out the northern borders of the five countries which spread across the Sahel, taking no notice of traditional tribal links and nomadic routes.

In Mauritania and Sudan, both countries long ruled by Arabs, black African tribes have suffered most. In Mali, Niger and Chad, the Arab and Tuareg nomads have been suppressed.

Towards the end of last year, Niger announced that it planned forcibly to remove more than 150,000 Arab nomads into Chad. Many of the Arabs, known as Mahamid, moved from Chad in the 1970s after a serious drought. Although the government later rescinded the order, it is thought that many decided to return to Chad voluntarily.

Apart from the 30,000 Arabs from Chad and Niger cited in the UNHCR report there have been consistent rumours that a further 45,000 Arabs from Niger have also crossed over. For most nomads citizenship means very little; the lines that separate the countries of the Sahel have not created a sense of nationality. But for the Khartoum regime it could be pivotal. Elections are to be held in two years, the first since President Omar al-Bashir seized power in a coup in 1989.

Although opinion polling is not very advanced, it is thought that no party is likely to win an overall majority. By providing citizenship for the new arrivals, one Khartoum-based diplomat said, President Bashir could be hoping to bolster his election chances.

For the Arabs who have crossed into Darfur there are both push and pull factors. Drought in parts of northern Africa has forced nomads to look further afield for fertile land. Although the spread of desert is rapidly reducing the amount of land available for farmers and nomads in Darfur, much of the area cleared by the janjaweed and government forces is fertile.

An ethnic cleansing and colonisation strategy that stretches back through history

* EAST TIMOR: The poorest country in Asia, much of East Timor's instability stems from the country's repeated colonisation. Invaded and occupied by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999, hundreds of thousands of Javanese migrants flooded the former Portuguese colony from nearby islands as part of a government-sponsored programme. This led to decades of violent clashes between the indigenous Timorese population, which is 90 per cent Roman Catholic, and the Muslim Javanese migrants. There has been little improvement following the Indonesian withdrawal and East Timor's subsequent independence; in 2006 150,000 East Timor residents were displaced due to conflicts.

* SOVIET UNION: Russia deliberately exported ethnic Russians to restive republics during Soviet times.

Thirty per cent of the population of the Baltic state of Estonia was implanted during the Soviet regime. In 1949, following the annexation of the Baltic states, Stalin, right, deported 42,000 Latvians to Siberia. As a result, the proportion of ethnic Russians there increased from 8.8 per cent in 1935 to 34 per cent by 1989. Stalin's ethnic cleansing - involving 3 million people between 1941 and 1949 - included the deportation of 200,000 Crimean Tatars to central Asia.

* KOSOVO: Currently administered by the UN, this disputed land-locked province in southern Serbia endured conflicts throughout the 1990s, fuelled by ethnic divisions and repression. With Serbian and ethnic Albanian inhabitants vying for supremacy, these struggles came to a head in the mid-1990s, when Serbian forces began a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Kosovo's mainly Muslim Albanians. Thousands of people died and hundreds of thousands of refugees fled to neighbouring states. Reconciliation between Kosovo's 1.5 million ethnic Albanians and its 100,000 Serbs remains elusive, pending approval of an internationally backed draft plan for virtual independence.

U.S. envoy says Sudan bombing civilians in Darfur

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- The top U.S. envoy for Darfur on Friday accused the Sudanese government of bombing civilian targets in its war-ravaged western region and rebels of cynically obstructing international efforts to end the conflict.

Andrew Natsios told a news conference in Khartoum following a visit to Darfur that both sides were to blame for the conflict that has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. "After a halt in the bombing between the beginning of February and the end of April in 2007, the Sudanese government has resumed bombing in Darfur," Natsios said. "This should end, and the ceasefire that was agreed to sometime ago should be respected. We urge the Sudanese government to end all bombing in Darfur immediately," he said.

Khartoum signed a ceasefire agreement with the two main rebel groups in Darfur, the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement, in 2004, but violence has continued. A May 2006 Darfur peace deal was signed by only one rebel faction. Since then, rebels have split into a dozen groups. "Some of them are descending into warlordism and criminality and this is not a good trend in Darfur, which is all the more reason why we need to accelerate the political process for a peace agreement," Natsios said.

"Some rebel leaders are cynically obstructing the peace process and the United States government is very disturbed by this. It needs to end now," he continued. Natsios said the bombing by the Sudanese military focused on the Jebel Marra region, a strong-hold of Abdul Wahid Mohammed Nour, leader of a faction of one of the Darfur rebel groups, and other targets in West and North Darfur.

"I think there were four attacks in Jebel Marra Mountains. We are troubled by this, because these have been stable areas before," the U.S. envoy said. "And there had been other bombings I think in West Darfur and North Darfur of civilian targets," he added.

The Sudanese military could not be immediately reached for comment.Natsios also said the United States was disturbed by reports that the Sudanese government was deliberately trying to change Darfur's demography by settling non-Sudanese Arab tribes there.

"It is a very provocative action that concerns us all and will complicate any future political process for reconciliation in Sudan and particularly in Darfur," he said. "Because when a settlement is reached and people go back to their homes and they find out someone is living on their land and farming it, this will simply create a new war."

The U.S. envoy's comments came as Britain, France and Ghana circulated a draft resolution in the U.N. Security Council for a joint African Union-U.N. force for Darfur, which also threatened force against those who attack civilians, relief workers and obstruct peace efforts. The resolution, expected to be adopted this month, allows the U.N. to formally recruit troops for the mission.

Under sustained international pressure, Sudan agreed last month to a combined U.N.-AU peacekeeping force of more than 20,000 troops and police to bolster the cash-strapped AU force of 7,000 already operating in Darfur. The AU troops have failed to stem the violence.

International experts estimate 200,000 [It has been 400,000 for 2 years now!] people have died as a result of ethnic[, religious] and political conflict in Darfur since it flared in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms after accusing the central government of neglect. [LIE! It was the Arab janjaweed that was raping, pillaging, murdering, flash burning the land, and committing genocide that started the war.] Washington calls the violence genocide, and blames the government and its allied militia. Khartoum rejects the term and says only 9,000 have died.

Other sources: AlertNet, AlertNet, Reuters, by Simon Apiku, U.S. envoy blasts Sudan for attacks (San Jose Mercury News, written by MOHAMED OSMAN Associated Press Writer), etc. May I also add that they are ALL using the same Reuters article! Will someone please explain to me why everyone goes to journalist school if they are only going to copy/paste? Just asking...

Paris pushes swift deployment of troops in Darfur

Source: CNN.

June 25, 2007.

PARIS, France (AP) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy pushed fast international action toward speeding up deployment of troops in Darfur, as key world players met Monday to try to consolidate efforts and resources for the ravaged Sudanese region.

Sudan was not invited to the one-day Paris conference, organized by a new French government that has made the four-year conflict in Darfur a top priority. The meetings come after Sudan agreed -- under international pressure -- to allow the deployment of a joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in the region.

Sarkozy pledged an additional $13.4 million to the existing -- and cash-strapped -- African Union force. "Silence is killing," in Darfur, Sarkozy said in greeting participants to the conference.

"The lack of decision and the lack of action is unacceptable," he added.

He praised Sudan for agreeing to the hybrid force but insisted, "We must be firm toward belligerents who refuse to join the negotiating table."

Stepping up pressure for progress, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said Sunday night that the international community has fallen down on the job in Darfur.

Rice and Sarkozy had their first face-to-face talks since Sarkozy took over last month from Jacques Chirac.

Details about the composition, mandate and timetable of the joint force are expected to top discussions at Monday's meetings.

More than 200,000 people have died in the Darfur region of western Sudan and 2.5 million have become refugees since 2003, when local rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect. Sudan's government is accused of unleashing in response a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed -- a charge Sudan denies.

The U.N. and Western governments had pressed Sudan for months to accept a plan for a large joint force of U.N. and AU peacekeepers to replace the overwhelmed 7,000-strong African force now in Darfur.

Sudan initially accepted the plan in November but then backtracked, before finally agreeing earlier this month. Rice warned Sudan's government not to renege on its agreement.

Bernard Kouchner, French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, insisted Sunday, "This is not a 'peacemaking' meeting, but on the contrary, a meeting to support the international efforts that have been deployed."

Kouchner, a Socialist who co-founded the aid group Doctors Without Borders, said "humanitarian work ... is not enough." He also noted that the world powers must agree to support the U.N. force financially.

"If there are 20,000 forces who are in the hybrid force, whoever they are, they must be paid," he said.

The conference includes Rice, Kouchner, officials from the United Nations including Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, the Arab League and the European Union, as well as 11 European countries, Egypt and China.

Notable absences, other than Sudan, include the African Union and neighboring Chad, which has seen an influx of tens of thousands of people fleeing Darfur and is a key conduit for aid.

China is viewed as a power broker in Sudan because of its heavy investment in the country. China has long opposed harsh measures against Sudan over Darfur.

Beijing has dramatically stepped up efforts to end the violence in Darfur in the wake of mounting criticism that threatened to taint the 2008 Olympic Games, which it is hosting.

China has not received a formal request to send soldiers for the AU-U.N. peacekeeping mission, but officials have said the country is open to contributing troops.

France had long been less vocal than the United States, Britain and others in pushing for peace in the region, but Sarkozy has made Darfur a foreign policy priority since taking office last month.

Sierra Leone war crimes court convicts 3

Source: CNN.

June 20, 2007.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) -- A U.N.-backed court trying those accused of bearing greatest responsibility for the brutality of Sierra Leone's civil war issued its first verdicts Wednesday, convicting three former leaders of a junta that had terrorized the country during a brief reign.

The court found the three defendants guilty of 11 of 14 charges, including terrorism, using child soldiers, enslavement, rape and murder.

The three were acquitted of charges of sexual slavery, "other inhumane acts" related to physical and acts related to sexual violence, said Peter Andersen, spokesman for the Sierra Leone Special Court.

The tribunal was set up following the end of fighting in 2002 to prosecute the worst offenders in a conflict that ravaged the small West African nation and spilled over into neighboring Liberia. The court has indicted 12 people, including former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is charged with backing Sierra Leonean rebels.

The three defendants convicted Wednesday in Freetown had pleaded not guilty to all the charges, which were linked to heading a junta that raped women, burned villages, conscripted thousands of child soldiers and forced others to work as laborers in diamond mines.

The men -- Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu -- were indicted in 2003 as the alleged leaders of the group, called the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council. The group of former military officers toppled Sierra Leone's government in 1997 and then teamed up with rebels to control the country until 1998, according to the indictment.

The conviction marks a watershed, said Corinne Dufka, a senior researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch. "It's the first time that an international court has issued a verdict on child recruitment," she said.

David Crane, the founding prosecutor of the Sierra Leone Special Court, agreed.

"It's a huge moment for children around the world who have been oppressed in these conflicts," said David Crane, now a law professor at Syracuse University. "This particular judgment sets the cornerstone forever -- those who recruit children into an armed force are criminally liable."

Dufka said the group led by the three men committed their worst atrocities after they were pushed into the bush by an international peacekeeping force in 1998. It was then that they started "punishing the civilian population as a whole," said Dufka, an expert on the conflict.

It is estimated that about half a million people were victims of killings, systematic mutilation and other atrocities during Sierra Leone's conflict, in which illicit diamond sales fueled years of devastation.

Five others are awaiting verdicts in Freetown.

Some have criticized the Special Court for not progressing through trials quickly enough. Three of those charged have died since the indictments -- two of natural causes and one in a killing that many believe was a move to silence him.

Taylor's trial opened earlier this month in The Hague, Netherlands. It was being held outside of Freetown because of fears the case could trigger fresh violence, but remained under the auspices of the Sierra Leone court. Taylor's case was being heard in a room rented from the International Criminal Court.

Taylor is also linked to brutality in his own country, but Liberians have opted for a truth and reconciliation commission rather than a court.

Sudan accepts revised plan for joint Darfur force

Source: , June 12, 2007.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Sudan on Tuesday accepted a revised plan for a joint African Union and United Nations peacekeeping force of between 17,000 to 19,000 troops in Darfur, a senior African Union official said.

African Union, United Nations and Sudanese officials held a two-day meeting to discuss a force whose deployment would mark the final phase of a three-stage U.N. plan to bolster a poorly equipped and underfunded force of 7,000 AU peacekeepers, which has been unable to end four years of death and destruction in Darfur.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed to the package in November, but stalled acceptance of the first two phases and has since backtracked on his approval. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday that al-Bashir told him he fully agreed to the proposed "hybrid" force but was adamant that all of the troops must come from Africa.

"In view of the explanation and clarification provided by the AU and the U.N. as contained in the presentation, the government of Sudan accepted the joint proposals on the hybrid operation," said Said Djinnit, the African Union's top peace and security official.

The decisions made Tuesday still have to be approved by the U.N. Security Council and the African Union's Peace and Security Council, Djinnit said.

He was reading a joint African Union, U.N. and Sudan statement after the two-day meeting.

Sudan has not changed its position on the hybrid force, said Mutrif Siddig, a senior Sudanese Foreign Affairs Ministry official who attended the meeting in the Ethiopia capital, Addis Ababa. The country has always demanded that the force be under African Union command and its members be Africans only, Siddig told journalists.

"It has been our stance from the beginning to have the hybrid operation. ... But we rejected the transfer of the African mission to the United Nations," Siddig said, referring to the overall command of the peacekeeping force.

"If African countries do not have enough troops or are not willing to contribute [to the force], in consultation with the Sudanese government, the United Nations and African Union, we are ready to recruit other countries according to our agreement," Siddig said.

At U.N. headquarters in New York, Security Council diplomats said they had been informed that Sudan's acceptance had conditions, including requiring all troops in the hybrid force to be Africans. That could make putting together a robust force difficult, if not impossible, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because there has been no public announcement.

"I'd like to see what the agreement is," said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. "If the agreement is unconditional support of the package, then we obviously would welcome that, because the letter we got yesterday was a little bit more of the same kind of pattern we have seen before of vagueness and lack of clarity."

"But if this is a clear, unconditional acceptance of the AU-U.N. concept it's welcome. Now we move to the implementation, which is another issue that has been there in the past, where there has been acceptance and then implementation has been a problem," Khalilzad said.

"The participants further agreed on the need for an immediate comprehensive cease-fire accompanied by an inclusive political process," Djinnit said, adding they called on countries to step up and quickly contribute troops and money toward the operation.

Djinnit said that there will be more discussions on the force's size and one factor will be whether there will be enough air transport to move the troops around Darfur.

Chad may allow peacekeepers on Sudan border

Source: CNN, June 12, 2007.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Chad may allow international peacekeeping troops to deploy along its border with Sudan to create safe passage for humanitarian aid to the war-torn Darfur region, the president of the African country said Tuesday.

President Idriss Deby said Chad was under intense international pressure to accept such a plan, but he wouldn't provide specifics nor confirm if he would allow U.N. troops to be deployed on Chad's border.

"Chad is a poor country, and it cannot stand up to the pressures by the world's major powers and the United Nations," Deby told reporters in Cairo after talks with the Arab League's top diplomats.

"In the past, we refused the international troops, but now the situation does not allow that, and if there will be further deterioration, we won't be able to resist," he said.

Deby said Arab and African countries have failed to put an end to the humanitarian disaster in Darfur, where more than 200,000 [400,000] people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in four years of fighting between the government and regional rebels.

The Chadian president's comments come as a senior African Union official said after a meeting in Ethiopia that Sudan accepted a revised plan for a joint African Union and U.N. peacekeeping force of between 17,000 and 19,000 troops that would replace an ill-equipped and understaffed AU force currently deployed in Darfur.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed to a "hybrid" force in November but later backtracked on his approval. During a visit to Sudan on Monday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that al-Bashir told him he fully agreed to the proposed "hybrid" force but was adamant that all of the troops must come from Africa.

As part of France's efforts to boost diplomatic efforts on Darfur, Paris has announced it plans to host an international conference on Darfur later this month that will bring together European countries along with Egypt, the United States and China, Sudan's key diplomatic ally.

The conference will focus on creating the safe passage so humanitarian aid can reach people in the western Sudan region, Arab diplomats in Cairo said, speaking on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Deby said the suggestion of the safe passage was made to him by Kouchner during his stop in Chad earlier this week.

But so far, Sudan has not agreed to attend the conference.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol has said that the timing was not right to attend and suggested that international initiatives be handled mainly by the United Nations and African Union.

Just for the record, there are rumors that the UN peacekeepers are worse than the AU.

In land of war criminals, Liberia divided on Taylor trial

Source: CNN.

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) -- Ex-President Charles Taylor's men were known for eating the hearts of their slain enemies. They decorated checkpoints with human entrails. They sliced open the stomachs of pregnant women, taking bets on the sex of the unborn child.

But as the toppled Liberian ruler heads to an international war crimes court in the Hague on Monday, his supporters are erecting billboards in the capital showing him waving triumphantly next to the words: "God willing, I shall return."

The long-awaited trial of the man accused of orchestrating acts of horror would seem to be a time of celebration in the country that witnessed many of his alleged crimes.

Instead, the mood is one of outrage on the part of his former associates, who have launched a pro-Taylor Web site and have arranged for the shiny billboards to be shipped in from Europe. In their homes, they proudly display Taylor's portrait. His family is renovating his war-scarred residence, as if in anticipation of his swift return.

Although plenty of Liberians say they are relieved to see the 59-year-old Taylor face justice, many say they just want to move on. Their ambivalence -- even indifference -- underlines the country's complicated relationship to Taylor, as well as the nation's history of violence, a cycle of bloodshed and revenge that has left few untouched.

"If you start prosecuting war crimes in Liberia, you'll prosecute every Liberian," says ex-child soldier Paul Tolbert, 28.

From 1989 to 1997, Taylor led the rebel National Patriotic Front of Liberia, whose aim was to unseat then-President Samuel K. Doe. Taylor is believed to be one of the first warlords to recruit children, who were organized into a Small Boys Unit and christened with names like Babykiller.

Tens of thousands of people were killed in the first eight years of the 14-year war, but one of Liberia's great paradoxes is that in 1997, Taylor won a landslide victory in an election international observers deemed free and fair. One of the slogans chanted by those going to vote for him was: "He killed my ma. He killed my pa. I'll vote for him anyway!"

Some say he won because Liberians feared what he would do if he didn't. Even with Taylor at the helm, fighting continued through 2003, when he was forced into exile. He was turned over to the U.N.-backed court three years later.

Books have been written about Taylor's alleged atrocities in Liberia, but one of the ironies of the current trial is that he has been indicted for war crimes committed in neighboring Sierra Leone.

The murders, rapes and amputations there were carried out not by Taylor's men, but by Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front. Taylor allegedly backed the Sierra Leonean group, which was trying to overthrow the Sierra Leonean government.

To the international community, the trial is a watershed, marking the first time an African president is being forced to account for the chaos he allegedly sowed not just in his own country, but throughout the region.

Siblings, senators alleged to have dirty hands

After the war, Liberians chose not to establish a war crimes court on their soil, opting instead for a truth and reconciliation process which allows victims to tell their stories but does not have the power to punish perpetrators.

Because of the tangled nature of the war -- where in a single family it's not uncommon to find both a daughter that was raped and a son that was enlisted to rape somebody else's daughter -- many say they would rather just move on.

The desire to forget has allowed known war criminals to reinvent themselves. There's Gen. Peanut Butter, the nom-de-guerre of Adolphus Dolo, now a senator and a former Taylor commander, whose platoon is accused by rights groups of having thrown more than 100 people into a river, their hands tied behind their backs.

Prince Johnson, another senator, videotaped himself as he instructed his men to cut off Doe's ears -- a videotape still widely available at roadside stalls.

"They say that in order to kill a snake, you have to cut off its head. So maybe Taylor is the head," says Reginald Goodridge, Taylor's former information minister and one of 28 Liberians on a U.N. travel ban because of his close association with the ex-ruler. "But our Congress is full of war criminals. What about them?"

It's an argument frequently invoked by Taylor's family, who say Taylor was not in control of those that carried out the crimes.

"He's taking the blame for what others did," says 25-year-old Charen Taylor, his daughter who grew up in the United States and dropped out of college to help organize her father's defense.

On a gold chain around her neck, she keeps a portrait of Taylor which she routinely cradles protectively in her hands. Her father doesn't approve of tattoos, but she has one: the Chinese character for "Beloved Daughter" on her left shoulder.

Not all Liberians see Taylor as a beloved father, but even his victims express ambivalence about the trial.

On a soccer field not far from where a pro-Taylor billboard faces traffic, a team of one-legged amputees vie for the ball, vaulting on crutches across the sandy turf. There are six one-legged teams in Liberia and several more in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Many of the maimed players were child soldiers fighting on opposite sides of the conflict and their coach has forbidden them from discussing politics in an effort to bury the past.

"Taylor? We're here to forget that name. I've taken it out of my mind," says Tolbert, their coach, who was 10 in 1990 when he joined the Small Boys Unit.

By 15, he'd become General Devil, reportedly one of Taylor's youngest and most feared commanders, in charge of a platoon of 2,000 fighters known as the Evil Forces. They wore wigs and women's dresses when they headed into battle, a technique meant to frighten the enemy. He routinely ate the hearts of his victims, a ritual adopted by Taylor's rebels which was said to impart the dead man's strength.

He cannot keep track of how many people he killed, nor how many women he raped. He doesn't see the point in prosecuting Taylor.

"We're all dirty," he says. "None of us have clean hands."

Photo: From 1989 to 1997, Charles Taylor -- seen here in 1990 -- led the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, aimed at unseating then-President Samuel K. Doe.

Blair to G8: Keep African promises

Source: CNN.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday urged rich nations to keep their promises of financial aid to Africa, saying failure to do so could threaten the continent's march toward prosperity and democracy.

In a keynote speech in Johannesburg on the final leg of his farewell African tour as Britain's leader, Blair also said that Africa's leaders must get tough on authoritarian governments, such as those in Sudan and Zimbabwe.

"Wealthy nations and Africa both face a choice ... Our challenge is to support the good. Africa's challenge is to eliminate the bad," Blair said in the speech.

"Next week at the G8 (Group of Eight) Summit, leaders will show whether, having put Africa at the top of the global agenda, we have the perseverance and vision to see it through. I hope we have," the outgoing British leader said.

Blair's visit came on the eve of the G8 summit scheduled for Germany, during which Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to press rich nations to fulfil aid pledges to Africa under a 2005 Blair initiative.

"We need each G8 to be bolder on Africa than the last," Blair said. "If we give up, we will lose the chance in this continent, rich as it is though its people are often poor, for our values to take root."

He said initiatives such as the new Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund, which will provide matching funds for commercially sustainable African business projects, showed that Africa and the West could be partners in development.

Mandela and Mbeki

Due to hand over power to finance minister Gordon Brown on June 27, Blair is using the trip to build momentum for the summit, which will focus on the world's poorest continent and push for a world trade deal.

He visited Libya and Sierra Leone before traveling to South Africa, where he will bid farewell to former South African President Nelson Mandela and meet current leader Thabo Mbeki.

Pushing the United States and other Western nations to meet their pledges of financial aid, trade support and assistance on peacekeeping and conflict resolution is a key part of the Blair agenda in his final weeks in office, as is the need for a global deal to fight climate change.

But Blair is also underscoring what he says is the need to pressure Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government, which has been criticized in the West for a violent crackdown on political opponents.

Mbeki is overseeing efforts to bring Mugabe and his opponents in Zimbabwe to the bargaining table ahead of elections in the southern African nation scheduled for next year, and Blair said this effort needed to bear fruit quickly.

"African governments should also hold other African governments to account," Blair said.

"The world is waiting, wanting to re-engage with a reforming Zimbabwe government ... but for the people of Zimbabwe, this is urgent, and change before the 2008 elections essential."

Blair said Sudan, where the United States has accused President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of pursuing genocide in the war-ravaged region of Darfur, was another opportunity for Africa to show it stood on the side of peace and justice.

"We have to offer President Bashir a choice. Engage with us on a solution. Or, if you reject responsibility for the people of Darfur, then we will table and put to a vote sanctions on the regime."

Blair acknowledged some people were growing cynical over repeated -- and often only partially fulfilled -- pledges of Western help for Africa, but said he was convinced the policy needed to be enhanced not questioned.

"The fact that we don't get it all doesn't mean that we got nothing," he said. "We've got to make the case in the developed world that in the end this is in our own self-interest as well. This is not about charity."

Your e-mails: Will U.S. sanctions on Sudan work?

Source: CNN.

(CNN) -- President Bush imposed new sanctions this week against the Sudanese government for its refusal to stop violence against civilians in Darfur. The sanctions are aimed at 31 companies owned or controlled by the Sudanese government, banning them from doing business with the United States or U.S. companies.

CNN.com asked readers if they think that economic sanctions can help end the crisis in Darfur, and what responsibility, if any, the United States has to end the violence. Below is a selection of those responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity:

Haytham Mohamed of Khartoum, Sudan.
As far as I know, thousands of Sudanese incomes depend on these 31 companies regardless of the political situation in Darfur.

Sanctions might be a good weapon by adding more suffering and hunger to Sudanese people, but now it is like the U.S. government is saying ,"Equity in Sudan means that all people of Sudan must live an equal way of living, they should all be starving and leave Sudan."

Instead of increasing the number of people who are suffering in Sudan, please Mr. Bush be more creative and find a better way.

Dorothy Rich of Norwalk, Connecticut.
We say "never again" and then it happens again. Colin Powell visited the Darfur area of Sudan and had the courage to state the truth about what is happening there: genocide. All countries, including the U.S., have a responsibility to do what they can to stop the slaughter and other human rights abuses by the Janjaweed and the Sudanese government. China, especially, needs to be pressured to stop investing in Sudanese oil. The Sudanese government must accept the intervention of U.N. and African Union forces.

Roman Soiko of Plainsboro, New Jersey.
President Bush has been completely and seemingly intractably ambivalent about the horrors, the reprehensible and completely unfathomable horrors that are commonplace, and occur with impunity in Darfur.

It is high time that Bush expanded his net, and force all companies who do business with Sudan, no matter how infinitesimal their portfolio is in that country, and should place economic sanctions on any country that colludes with Sudan and send in NATO, U.N., AU peacekeeper forces immediately and without ambivalence or hesitation.

Harry Stone of Raleigh, North Carolina.
I was listening to Bush about Darfur. Why does he stick his nose in it? That's why we are short of money and troops and so many soldiers have died because he simply believes his way is the right way. I believe in helping anyone who needs it, but my family comes first.

Dana Crumbliss of Fort Worth, Texas.
I believe it is absolutely crucial that the U.S. becomes much more involved in putting an end to the horrific crimes continuing in Darfur. The passivity of the world is shameful, and we are looked to as leaders whether we like it or not. Kofi Annan said it best: We have yet to summon the collective sense of urgency this issue requires.

Chris Lafargue of San Antonio, Texas.
Why do we always have to help other countries? Most of them hate us to begin with and the only time they want us around is when they need us to help them. It should be the responsibility of the government of the country in trouble to take care of its own people, not us. Also if all off these rich celebrities are so concerned for Darfur, why don't they donate their money to help?

Jose Antonio Goncero of Quezon City, Philippines.
I believe that the economic sanctions will only make things worse. The U.S. is not only depriving the Sudanese government business but also putting its ordinary people into deeper anguish.

Aimee Imlay of Lakeside, California.
I applaud the president for imposing sanctions against the Sudanese government; it demonstrates concern on behalf of the U.S. Unfortunately, the sanctions are far too late, as hundreds of thousands of people have already died. I am not sure if the sanctions will "work," but I imagine that they will not. I think that the U.S. and the entire Western world both have a responsibility to end this crisis in Darfur. The U.S., claiming to be interested in implementing democracy in places in need, should examine the Darfur crisis and give substantial consideration to ending the violence, regardless of strategic interests such as economic and logistical opportunities. In a time with an emerging global economy, people should consider taking care of their fellow global citizens, regardless of country lines, cultural and religious differences.

Michelle Blake of Hillside, New Jersey.
I don't think that sanctions will stop the violence in Darfur. It is a start. However, it is not enough. I don't think the Sudanese care so much about doing business with the U.S. than it cares about its cause. If we can send troops to Iraq to fight a senseless war, surely we can spare troops to help the people in Darfur. At least we would know what our purpose was.

V. Fleming of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
I believe generations of people now and generations to come just don't want to care. Hundreds of thousands of innocent lives are being destroyed in innumerable ways. The slaughter of people, young and old, the rape of women and young girls and the use of young children as soldiers continue. It's as if Africa and its people aren't important enough for the rest of mankind to care. And it's not just the ordinary people that carry this attitude. Leaders of many nations do nothing more than give the Darfur crisis lip service of the poorest magnitude. How long will we have to witness yet another wholesale slaughter of innocent lives? What has to happen for the world to react to yet another holocaust? Do we have time to save Darfur?

Photo: An aerial view shows typical huts in the western Darfur town of Mukjar, Sudan.

3,000 Darfur refugees make 10-day trek through bush

Source: CNN.

BANGUI, Central African Republic (Reuters) -- An estimated 3,000 Sudanese refugees driven from their homes by fighting in Darfur trekked for 10 days through the bush to seek shelter in Central African Republic, United Nations officials said on Tuesday.

The refugees told a U.N. team in the northeastern town of Sam-Ouandja, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Sudanese border, that a ground and air attack had forced all 15,000 inhabitants of the southern Darfur town of Dafak to flee their homes.

Most of them headed south within Sudan, but some fled westward into Central African Republic, an arduous journey of more than 125 miles (200 kilometers) following a track accessible only on foot or by horse.

Their flight was the latest evidence that the conflict in Darfur, where a war pitting rebels against Sudan's army and allied militias has raged since 2003, is pushing refugees into neighboring states like Chad and Central African Republic.

"So far we have registered 1,411 refugees and more of them are arriving every day," said Bruno Geddo, country representative for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, who led a U.N. mission on Monday to Sam-Ouandja in the isolated north-east.

"We are working on an estimate of 3,000 [refugees] at the moment," he told Reuters.

Although initial news reports suggested the groups were armed and could include Chadian rebels, Geddo said the U.N. team had found no evidence of either weapons or Chadian nationals.

The town of Sam-Ouandja was attacked in March and November by insurgents trying to topple Central African President Francois Bozize, who seized power in a 2003 coup before legitimizing his rule at the ballot box two years later.

Geddo said the town's inhabitants were unable to cope with the influx of Sudanese refugees, who were currently relying on mangoes picked from the bush for food.

The United Nations children's agency UNICEF estimated last month that a quarter of the 4 million people in Central African Republic -- the world's sixth poorest country -- are suffering the effects of internal violence or the spill over from conflicts in neighboring Sudan and Chad.

Photo: Conflict in Darfur is pushing Sudanese refugees into neighboring states like Chad and Central African Republic. These refugees left Darfur in September 2004.

In Darfur camp, women recount rapes, suffering

Source: CNN.

KALMA, Sudan (AP) -- The seven women pooled money to rent a donkey and cart, then ventured out of the refugee camp to gather firewood, hoping to sell it for cash to feed their families. Instead, they say, in a wooded area just a few hours walk away, they were gang-raped, beaten and robbed.

Naked and devastated, they fled back to Kalma.

"All the time it lasted, I kept thinking: They're killing my baby, they're killing my baby," wailed Aisha, who was seven months pregnant at the time.

The women have no doubt who attacked them. They say the men's camels and their uniforms marked them as janjaweed -- the Arab militiamen accused of terrorizing the mostly black African villagers of Sudan's Darfur region.

Their story, told to an Associated Press reporter and confirmed by other women and aid workers in the camp, provides a glimpse into the hell that Darfur has become as the Arab-dominated government battles a rebellion stoked by a history of discrimination and neglect.

Now in its fourth year, the conflict has become the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and rape is its regular byproduct, U.N. and other human rights activists say.

Sudan's government denies arming and unleashing the janjaweed, and bristles at the charges of rape, saying its conservative Islamic society would never tolerate it.

It has agreed to let in 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers, but not the 22,000 mandated by the U.N. Security Council. It claims the force would be a spearhead for anti-Arab powers bent on plundering Sudan's oil.

Meanwhile, more than 200,000 civilians have died and 2.5 million are homeless out of Darfur's population of 6 million, the U.N. says, and a February report by the International Criminal Court alleges "mass rape of civilians who were known not to be participants in any armed conflict."

Stigma of sexual assault

Kalma is a microcosm of the misery -- a sprawling camp of mud huts and scrap-plastic tents where 100,000 people have taken refuge. It is so full of guns that overwhelmed African Union peacekeepers long ago fled, unable to protect it. It is so crowded that the government has tried to limit newcomers -- forbidding the building of new latrines, so a stench pervades the air.

Anyone venturing outside must reckon with the janjaweed, as Aisha and her friends found out.

In Sudan, as in many Islamic countries, society views a sexual assault as a dishonor upon the woman's entire family. "Victims can face terrible ostracism," says Maha Muna, the U.N. coordinator on this issue in Sudan.

Some aid workers believe the janjaweed use rape to intimidate the rebels, and their supporters and families. "It's a strategy of war," Muna said in an interview earlier this year in Khartoum, the capital.

Sudan's government is especially sensitive about such accusations and denies rape is widespread.
Sudanese public opinion would view mass rape much more severely than other crimes alleged in Darfur, said a senior Sudanese government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from his superiors.

He acknowledged the janjaweed had initially received weapons from the government -- something the government officially denies -- and said authorities now are struggling to rein in the militias.

Nasser Kambal, a prominent human rights activist and co-founder of the Amel center, a Sudanese group helping victims of rape and other abuse, offers a similar view.

"I don't think raping was planned by the government. Killing and looting and torture, yes, but not rape," he said.

" All the time it lasted, I kept thinking: They're killing my baby, they're killing my baby."
- Aisha Hamid

Kalma isn't the only place where multiple accounts of rape have surfaced. Some 120 miles away, in the town of Mukjar, two men separately described women being brought into a prison where they were being held and raped for hours by janjaweed.

They said the assailants shouted that they were "planting tomatoes" -- a reference to skin color: Darfur Arabs describe themselves as "red" because they are slightly lighter-skinned than ethnic Africans.

According to Muna, U.N. agencies are working closely with Sudanese authorities to improve the government's response to rape allegations. In 2005, the government created a task force on rape in Darfur, headed by Attayet Mustapha, a pediatrician, government official and women's rights activist.

In an interview this year, Mustapha said social workers were being deployed to address the problem and a special female police unit was being assembled in Darfur.

"We tell officials that the government has decided to enforce a zero tolerance policy toward rape in Darfur," she said.

U.N. workers say they registered 2,500 rapes in Darfur in 2006, but believe far more went unreported. The real figure is probably thousands a month, said a U.N. official. Like other U.N. personnel and aid workers interviewed, the official insisted on speaking anonymously for fear of being expelled by the government.

Victims usually can't identify their aggressors, which makes prosecutions impossible. Only eight offenders were tried and sentenced for rape crimes in Darfur by Sudanese courts in 2006, said Mustapha, the task force leader. "They received three to five years prison, and 100 lashes" in accordance with Islamic law, she said.

In May, after the top U.N. human rights official charged that Sudanese soldiers had raped at least 15 Darfur women during one recent incident, Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi asked where the evidence was.

"We always seem to get sweeping generalizations, without naming the injured, without naming the offenders," he told reporters.

In Kalma, collecting firewood needed to cook meals is becoming more perilous as the trees around the camp dwindle and women are forced to scavenge ever farther afield. It is strictly a woman's task, dictated both by tradition and the fear that any male escorts would be killed if the janjaweed found them.

Agreeing to tell the AP their story earlier this month through a translator, the seven women's voices wavered and hesitated, broken by embarrassed silences. All gave their names and agreed to be identified in full, but the AP is withholding their surnames because they are rape victims and vulnerable to retaliation.

The women said they set out on a Monday morning last July and had barely begun collecting the wood when 10 Arabs on camels surrounded them, shouting insults and shooting their rifles in the air.

The women first attempted to flee. "But I didn't even try, because I couldn't run," being seven months pregnant, said Aisha, a petite 18-year-old whose raspy voice sounds more like that of an old woman.

She said four men stayed behind to flay her with sticks, while the other janjaweed chased down the rest of her group.

"We didn't get very far," said Maryam, displaying the scar of a bullet that hit her on the right knee.

Once rounded up, the women said, they were beaten and their rented donkey killed. Zahya, 30, had brought her 18-year-old daughter, Fatmya, and her baby. The baby was thrown to the ground and both women were raped. The baby survived.

Zahya said the women were lined up and assaulted side by side, and she saw four men taking turns raping Aisha.

The women said the attackers then stripped them naked and jeered at them as they fled. On their way back, men from the refugee camp unraveled their cotton turbans for the women to partly cover up, but the victims said they were laughed at when they entered the refugee camp.

"Ever since, I've made sure that women living on the outskirts of the camp have spare sets of clothes to give out," said Khadidja Abdallah, a sheika, an informal camp leader, who took the women to the international aid compound at the camp to be treated.

They were given anti-pregnancy and anti-HIV pills, thanks to which their families haven't entirely ostracized them, the women said. The baby Aisha was expecting at the time is doing well. His name is Osman.

Alarming trend of assaults in camps

Sheikas in Kalma said they report over a dozen rapes each week. Human rights activists in South Darfur who monitor violence in the refugee camps estimate more than 100 women are raped each month in and around Kalma alone.

The workers warn of an alarming new trend of rapes within the refugee population amid the boredom and slow social decay of the camps. But for the most part, they added, it all depends on whether janjaweed are present in the area.

The sheikas say they are making some headway toward persuading families to accept raped women back into their embrace and let them report attacks to aid workers. One advantage is that they get a certificate confirming they were raped.

"We tell husbands they might be compensated one day," said Ajaba Zubeir, a sheika. "But I don't think that's going to happen."

The seven women say they haven't left the camp since they were attacked. They have started their own small workshop and make water jugs out of clay and donkey dung to sell to other refugees.

As they worked on their large pile of jugs and bowls, they said they are even poorer than before, because they now have to buy their firewood from other women.

"But at least we never have to go out again," said Aisha.

None of the women has any faith that Sudanese or international courts will ever give them justice. All Zahya asks is that one day she can return to her village.

"If people could at least help end the fighting, that would be enough," she said.

U.N. peacekeeper killed in Darfur

Source: CNN.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- A U.N. peacekeeper was killed in Darfur, the first U.N. casualty since the world body began sending small reinforcements to a beleaguered African Union force deployed in the violent western Sudan region, the AU and the United Nations said Saturday.

The U.N. peacekeeper, Egyptian Lt. Col. Ehab Nazir, was shot by unidentified gunmen who looted his house late Friday in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state. He died hours later in an AU hospital at the African force's headquarters about one kilometer (half mile) away, the AU said.

"The senseless killing of an innocent man in the confines of his residence is beyond comprehension," said Hassan Gibril, the deputy head of the AU mission, at a memorial for the peacekeeper held Saturday at the AU's headquarters.

"He is the first peacekeeper sent to us as reinforcement to be killed in Darfur," AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni told The Associated Press by telephone.

The U.N. mission in Sudan confirmed the Egyptian officer's death -- the first time a blue helmet was slain in Darfur.

The unidentified gunmen who killed him where thought to be burglars, but an official close to the investigation said authorities would not exclude other motives for the killing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

In Cairo, the foreign ministry deplored the Egyptian officer's death and deeply condemned in a statement the "sinful aggression" in which Nazir became the "casualty of an attack by armed elements."

African Union faces increasing hostility

The AU has faced increased hostility from warring factions in Darfur, and has lost 19 of its own peacekeepers since it first deployed in June 2004.

"Not a month goes by without a new killing, it's very difficult," AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni said.

The U.N. began deploying some 180 staff to Darfur in December as reinforcement to the overwhelmed 7,000-strong AU mission.

This "light support package" is part of a broader agreement that should lead to 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers moving into Darfur in 2007, but the AU and U.N. both acknowledge that even the first batch of 180 reinforcements have not yet all arrived.

The Sudanese government of President Omar al-Bashir has rejected a U.N. resolution for some 22,000 U.N. peacekeepers to replace the AU in Darfur, where over 200,000 people have been killed and 2,5 million chased from their homes in four years of fighting.

Since then, Khartoum, the U.N. and the AU continue to negotiate a compromise deal for U.N. forces to slowly beef up world efforts to end Darfur's spiraling violence.

Hospital ship begins trip around Africa in Liberia

Source: .

MONROVIA, Liberia (Reuters) -- The world's largest charity hospital ship docked in Liberia on Wednesday to begin a mission to bring free health care to Africa.

The 80-bed Africa Mercy, a former Danish rail ferry converted into a state-of-the-art hospital ship, will spend several months treating patients in Monrovia port before moving on to Sierra Leone on a voyage that will take it around Africa.

An enthusiastic crowd greeted the white- and blue-painted vessel with its massive square superstructure.

With six operating theaters on board, it has the capacity to carry out 7,000 operations a year including, cataract and tumor removal, lens implants, cleft lip and palate reconstruction, orthopaedics and obstetric fistula repair.

It is run by the international charity Mercy Ships, which since its creation in 1978 has sent hospital ships around the world providing free health care and services to the poor.

Africa Mercy and her 400-strong multinational volunteer crew will take over from the smaller Anastasis, another Mercy Ships vessel which will be retiring later this year after serving more than 275 ports around the world over her lifetime.

"The Africa Mercy will now lead the charge to help end despair throughout the regions of Africa," Myron E. Ullman, III, Chairman of the Mercy Ships International Board, said.

Crew members waving the flags of several countries joined in signing and dancing at the arrivals ceremony at the port.

On hand to greet the ship on Wednesday were several former patients who had been successfully treated by Mercy Ships staff.

"I am just happy, I mean too happy for the Mercy Ship to be here. I was blind for five years. I couldn't see, but when the Mercy Ship (the Anastasis) came, I was able to see after they operated on me," 68-year-old Liberian Joseph John told Reuters.

Buying the former ferry and turning it into a floating hospital cost around $62 million, funded by donations and gifts-in-kind.

Liberia, Africa's oldest republic founded in 1847 by freed American slaves, is trying to recover from a devastating on-off 1989-2003 civil war that destroyed infrastructure and public services and killed and maimed tens of thousands of people.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first female elected head of state, will visit the Africa Mercy on Monday.

U.N. official accuses Sudan of 'disproportionate' attacks

Excuse me. Is there any proportional attack against civillians? You people make me sick. Pardon me. Go ahead and read. Just had to add my 2 cents to this atrocity. They're committing genocide, and they use baby-like words. Why? So as not to offend them??? They sure don't worry about offending us, and we pay most of their stinking salaries!

GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) -- The United Nations' human rights chief on Friday said recent air raids by Sudanese forces on at least five Darfur villages appeared to be "indiscriminate and disproportionate", and violated international law.

The attacks between April 19 and 29 have already been condemned by U.S. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, although Khartoum says they never took place.

Making no reference to the Sudanese denial, the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said the attacks were reportedly carried out by helicopter gunships and Antonov aircraft.

There were "numerous civilian casualties and destruction of property," with school children amongst the wounded, Arbour's spokesman Jose Luis Diaz said in a statement.

At least five villages near El Fasher in North Darfur were targeted during 10 days of attacks which had "contributed to an already critical humanitarian situation".

"The bombardments appear to have been indiscriminate and disproportionate", and as such constituted "violations of international humanitarian and human rights law," Diaz added.

Earlier this month, Ban called for an end to air raids by Sudanese forces, which he said had caused civilian deaths and destruction, although he gave few details at the time.

But Sudan's ambassador to the U.N. Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem denied the reported attacks and said rumours were being spread by people out to torpedo peace talks with rebels.

The United Nations says that some 200,000 have died and more than 2 million have fled their homes since conflict flared in Darfur in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government accusing it of years of neglect.

Sudan says 9,000 have perished.

The U.N. has sent some peacekeepers to Darfur, in western Sudan, and is trying to get agreement with the Khartoum government on more.

Cheadle acts to stop Darfur genocide

Source: CNN.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Actor Don Cheadle has a new mission in life: raising awareness about the atrocities being carried out in what the United Nations says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Cheadle traveled throughout western Sudan's Darfur region in 2005, and the trip left him a changed man, so much so it was difficult to come back to "my comfortable life and take stock in all the privileges ... and do nothing," he said.

The "Hotel Rwanda" star teamed up with human rights activist John Prendergast to write "Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond" (Hyperion), which arrived in bookstores this week.

It chronicles the Darfur crisis and urges readers to take action to stop genocide there and across the globe.

Cheadle and Prendergast spoke with CNN during a recent book tour that brought them to the nation's capital. They are hoping the book will draw attention to what's happening in Darfur -- where the United Nations estimates 200,000 people have been killed and another 2.5 million displaced since the conflict flared in 2003.

"[I] really try to feel what it would possibly be like to have been attacked and trudged through miles and miles and miles of desert," Cheadle said.

Cheadle and Prendergast detail what they saw throughout Darfur and outline how people can take action.

"It is urgent that President Bush act... to confront the Sudanese regime for the atrocities that it is committing and perpetuating to bring this genocide to an end once and for all," they write.

The book lists six steps for readers to get involved, beginning with raising awareness and then campaigning to bring an end to the crisis.

Prendergast, a former Clinton administration official who is a senior adviser to the International Crisis Group, urges the U.S. government to pressure the Sudanese regime to take action against the militias that have ravaged Darfur.

"These guys will respond to significant measures," he said.

There is one image from Darfur that haunts Prendergast. He was traveling through the desert with a colleague when they came across the bodies of about 24 young men left to rot in the 130-degree heat.

"No amount of time in Sudan or work on genocide ever prepares anyone sufficiently for what Samantha and I saw in a ravine deep in the Darfur desert," Prendergast writes.

"One month before, they had been civilians, forced to walk up a hill to be executed by Sudanese government forces. Harrowingly, this scene was repeated throughout the targeted areas of Darfur."

The United States has called the atrocities of Darfur this century's first genocide.

The Darfur crisis began in February 2003 when black Sudanese rebels attacked government property, accusing the government of neglecting Darfur in favor of the country's Arab population in northern Sudan.

The government is accused of arming the pro-government Arab Janjaweed militia, whose members have raped, killed and tortured Darfur civilians.

Cheadle said he finds it disturbing the mainstream media gives so little attention to the killings in Darfur, while crime stories in the United States will be reported on ad nauseam.

"The media loves when they have a little piece of tape that they can run over and over. I just think that it really does a disservice," Cheadle said.

While the actor and Prendergast are hoping to bring about an end to the atrocities, they also acknowledge it's a daunting task.

"Preventing genocide and other mass atrocities is a challenge made all the more difficult by a lack of public concern, media coverage, and effective response, especially to events in Africa," they write.

I just have one question. Where have you been? President Bush has been trying to get everyone involved. Do you mean to say that the political party of a person determines who you will and will NOT help? HMM?

Sudan, Chad reach Darfur deal

Source: CNN.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- The leaders of Sudan and Chad signed an agreement in Saudi Arabia on Thursday pledging to work together to quell spillover fighting from the Darfur crisis along their countries' 600-mile border.

The accord, signed by Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and Chad's President Idriss Deby, calls on the two African nations to work together to halt rebels and opposition groups from staging cross-border attacks and support the African Union's efforts to restore stability in Darfur.

The deal comes amid fears that the bloodshed in Sudan's western Darfur region is increasingly spilling over the border into neighboring Chad. Janjaweed militiamen who have terrorized Darfur regularly launch raids into Chad, attacking civilians. Meanwhile, Sudanese-backed Chadian rebels stage attacks into Chad, prompting Chadian army assaults into Darfur.

The four-year conflict between ethnic African rebels and pro-government janjaweed militia in the western Sudanese region has killed more than 200,000 people and displace 2.5 million Darfurians.

Khartoum denies supporting the janjaweed. But the International Criminal Court in The Hague has accused a junior Sudanese Cabinet minister of being the militia's paymaster and a member of the Sudanese security forces of being a janjaweed commander. (Full story)

The current 7,000 AU peacekeeping force in Darfur has struggled to contain the fighting in the region, which is the size of France. Khartoum has recently agreed to allow a batch of 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers reinforce the AU troops in Darfur.

U.S. House members blast China

Source: CNN.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Congress members rebuked China on a range of issues, criticizing Beijing's test of an anti-satellite weapon, its military buildup, its policy of forced abortion, its support of ruthless regimes, and its repatriation of North Korean refugees in violation of international law.

At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday, lawmakers repeatedly expressed concern over China's suitability to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

"If ever there was a time for China to get its house in order, this is it," said committee chairman Tom Lantos, a Democrat.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican and long a strident critic of China, noted that the United States has played a significant role giving China the wherewithal to become a military power because of China's robust U.S.-bound exports.

"We have built up a Frankenstein that now threatens us," Rohrabacher said.

In a similar vein, Rep. Ileana Ros Lehtinen, a Republican, noted that China is planning a 17.8 percent increase in its military budget for the next financial year.

"Who's the target?" she asked.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte testified that the motives behind China's military buildup are unclear and are a matter of concern to both United States and China's neighbors.

"To enhance -- rather than detract from -- regional security, China should be more open about its military budget, doctrine, and intentions," said Negroponte, who is the chief adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on China and Asia in general.

Negroponte agreed with China's critics on the committee that Beijing falls short on a number of issues. But, he said, the overall picture is not uniformly negative.

He said it would not have been possible in the relatively recent past to imagine China supporting U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea -- as it did last year after Pyongyang tested a nuclear weapon.

"They are capable of shifting," Negroponte said, referring to the Chinese authorities. "They are changing."

As another example, he cited China's relations with other East Asian countries.

"China's improved relations with its neighbors are a testament to the country's robust trade ties, but also to China's increasingly skillful diplomacy. This is a positive development," he said.

China caused a stir last January when it downed one of its own satellites, using a missile warhead. It triggered fears of a big power competition for supremacy in space, and China's unwillingness to comment on the action for almost two weeks caused widespread unease.

Negroponte raised the possibility that the Chinese military may have undertaken the action on its own, without the knowledge of the country's political leadership.

Pressure on Sudan urged

Sitting behind Negroponte were a group of people wearing shirts emblazoned with the words: "Genocide Olympics."

This was a reference to the support China has shown for the Sudanese government, despite Khartoum's role in the violence in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. The Bush administration has characterized the suffering there as genocide.

Several committee members also criticized China's support for Sudan. Negroponte agreed that Beijing "is seen as Khartoum's diplomatic patron and benefactor."

But he also said the United States has had a "measure of success" in sensitizing the Chinese leadership to the need to respond to the human suffering in Darfur.

Amnesty International made public on Tuesday a letter signed by 96 senators to Chinese President Hu Jintao urging him to increase the pressure on Sudan.

Specifically, the letter calls on Hu to reconsider his offer to Sudan of an interest-free loan to build a presidential palace in Khartoum.

"We believe that extending such a loan would clearly send the wrong message to Khartoum," the letter said.

It urged Hu to impress on President Omar al-Bashir the need to halt Sudanese military operations in Darfur and to withdraw Sudanese troops from the area.

China's Sudan Foray Falls Far Short: Mia Farrow

Source: Radio Free Asia.

WASHINGTON—China’s bid to answer critics by using its clout to stop violence in troubled Sudan falls far short of what’s needed to make a difference, actress and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow has said.

Farrow’s March 28 comment in The Wall Street Journal used the term “Genocide Olympics” to call for a boycott of the 2008 Games in Beijing. While Sudan had agreed to allow a small UN peacekeeping force to Darfur, she said, no timeframe had been set, and the proposed 3,000 troops had yet to materialize under an unclear mandate.

“I feel that what Khartoum has agreed to is so minimal as to be nothing,” Farrow told RFA’s Mandarin service.

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