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Darfur: IWPR on Influence of Disputed Abyei Region; Status of AU-UN Peacekeeping Deployment; U.S. Congressman Weighs Boycott of Olymics over Darfur; Peace Efforts and Mass Defection by Arab Militias; Op-eds in LA Times, The New Republic, The Guardian

03 Jan 2008

Dear all,

Find below information on recent developments related to the International
Criminal Court's investigation in Darfur, Sudan.

This digest includes a new release by Institute for War and Peace Reporting
on the influence of Sudan’s oil-rich Abyei region in the Darfur crisis; and
an interview with US Congressman Donald Payne, chair of the House of
Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, who is pressing the
US government to boycott Beijing’s 2008 Olympics over Darfur; and several
opinions and editorials from the The Guardian, Los Angeles Times and The New
Republic.

Please take note of the Coalition's policy on situations before the ICC
(below), which explicitly states that the CICC will not take a position on
potential and current situations before the Court or situations under
analysis. The Coalition, however, will continue to provide the most
up-to-date information about the ICC.

Best wishes,

Mariana Rodriguez Pareja
CICC Communications
[email protected]

********

I. IWPR: OIL-RICH REGION FUELS CRISIS

“Oil-Rich Region Fuels Sudan Crisis,” Institute for War and Peace Reporting
(IWPR), 21 Dec 2007
http://www.iwpr.net/’p=acr&s=f&o=341595&apc_state=henh

“Sudan’s disputed Abyei region remains the source of ongoing tensions
between the semi-autonomous region of South Sudan and the government of
Sudan’s President Omar
Al-Bashir.

Although the south recently agreed to end a boycott of the coalition
government created by the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement, saying that
most of its issues with al-Bashir had been resolved, the demarcation of the
oil-rich Abyei region could sabotage the fragile peace.

‘The strategic value of the Abyei region’s oil has not gone unnoticed by
rebels in
Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, where more than a dozen groups are battling
the janjaweed militia backed by the Sudan government.

‘China has been criticised for its failure to pressure the al-Bashir
government to stop the on-going bloodshed in Darfur, a conflict that has
left an estimated 200,000 people dead and more than two million displaced.

The International Criminal Court, ICC, has indicted two Sudanese in
connection with Darfur. Ahmed Harun, Sudan’s minister for humanitarian
affairs, and janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb were charged by the court
as coordinators of violence against innocent civilians in Darfur.

Sudan has refused to hand over either man or cooperate with the court, and
the ICC indictments have had little effect in stopping the violence.

Earlier this month, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the UN Security
Council, which had asked the ICC to investigate Darfur, that ‘massive
crimes’ continued in Darfur and appeared to be well organised.

Unlawful killings, illegal detentions and sexual violence are among the
crimes being routinely committed, he said, while those living in camps for
internally displaced people remain destitute. Obstacles to the delivery of
aid are part of the pattern of attacks, he said.

Reaching an agreement over the Abyei region’s borders that does not involve
war, however, could be difficult as both sides seem reluctant to give up
their claims’.”

II. US WEIGHS BOYCOTT OF OLYMPICS OVER DARFUR

“US Congress weighs possible boycott of Beijing Olympics over Darfur,” Sudan
Tribune, 21 Dec 2007
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php’article25266

“The US Congress may soon be considering the boycott of the 2008 Beijing
Olympics according to a leading lawmaker in Washington today.

Congressman Donald Payne, chair of the House of Representatives Foreign
Affairs
Subcommittee on Africa, told Voice of America (VOA) that China ‘has to
decide whether it is going to be a first class world leader or whether it is
going to deal with the thugs of the world like the government of Sudan’.

China buys two-third of Sudan’s oil exports and is supporting numerous
infrastructure projects in the country, including a pipeline, a super tanker
terminal and a hydropower dam.

Beijing has been accused of protecting the Sudanese government from tougher
UN sanctions at the Security Council by using its veto power.

Earlier this month the Chinese government blocked a non-binding UNSC
presidential statement calling on Sudan to extradite two war crime suspects
wanted by the
International Criminal Court (ICC) pursuant to resolution 1593 which
referred the situation in Darfur to the world court.

The UN accused Sudan of dragging its feet on allowing the deployment of the
peacekeeping force in Darfur.

‘No question about it. We have been participating in discussions on the
boycott,’ Payne said.

US officials have made contradictory statements on the idea of boycotting
the Beijing Olympics. Last June the US State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack said that the boycott ‘is not something that we have supported’. “

III. PEACE EFFORTS AND MASS DEFECTION BY ARAB MILITIAS

i. “Despite Peace Process, Darfur Still Looking for Stability,” Voice of
America, 18 Dec 2007
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-12-18-voa63.cfm

‘In the past year, international efforts to end the four-year-old conflict
in the Darfur region of western Sudan have included approval of a
26,000-member peacekeeping force;
International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Sudanese officials;
U.N.-mediated peace negotiations; and a succession of visits by diplomatic
envoys. But as Derek Kilner reports from VOA's East Africa bureau in
Nairobi, Darfur will finish 2007 in much the same state it was in at the
beginning of the year, waiting for the arrival of U.N. troops, and with
millions displaced by the conflict.

‘Humanitarian aid has been one of the few success stories in the response to
the conflict, with mortality rates among those receiving international aid
now lower than before the conflict began. But attacks on aid workers have
risen over the course of the year, and rights groups have complained that
Sudanese police have resumed attempts to forcefully relocate people from
camps for the displaced’.

ii. “Darfur rebel group reports mass defection by Arab militias,” Sudan
Tribune, 26 Dec 2007
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article25329

“Darfur’s rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) announced today that a
large group of Arab tribal leaders and military commanders joined their
ranks.

…. The JEM statement described the event as a ‘breathtaking development’;
adding that the group included ‘some who previously acted as Janjaweed
leaders or enlisted under the infamous Border Guards’.

Khartoum mobilized proxy Arab militia to help quell the revolt of Darfur
rebels who took up arms against the government in February 2003.

The Arab militia known locally as Janjaweed, pillaged and burned villages
and killed civilians. The Sudanese government has called the Janjaweed
outlaws and denied supporting them.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant last May
against one of the Arab militia commander Ali Kushayb. The warrant for
Kushayb lists 50 counts including murder and intentionally attacking
civilians….”

iii. “Peacekeepers for Darfur an Ongoing Source of Conflict,” IPS, 20 Dec
2007
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp’idnews=40562

“The hope for a lasting peace in Darfur is pinned on the deployment of
26,000 peacekeeping troops to the troubled region. However, squabbling
between the many rebel factions, the Sudanese government and the
international community still threatens to derail the process.

Operating under joint African Union and United Nations command, the force
should have been in place by the end of 2007. But, according to Nouredinne
Mezin, spokesman for he
African Union Mission in Sudan, just 9,000 troops will be on the ground by
this deadline, with more deployments to follow in 2008. The force has also
not been given a single helicopter yet, despite requiring at least 24 to
guarantee the safety of ground troops.

‘.. The U.N. insists that a lasting peace is dependent on consolidation of
rebel forces.
Following a tour of the Darfur region recently, U.N. special envoy Jan
Eliasson expressed satisfaction that there seemed to be some unity emerging
-- though some rebel leaders, such as Abdul Wahid from the SLA and Khalil
Ibrahim from JEM, continue to pursue separate agendas.

‘Eldein says that some in government fear prosecution before the
International Criminal
Court (ICC) if there is a settlement for Darfur. The ICC has issued warrants
for the arrest of Ahmad Muhammad Harun, minister for humanitarian affairs,
and Ali Muhammad Al
Abd-Al-Rahman, a militia leader. But Sidiq insists that, since Sudan is not
a signatory
to the ICC, it should not be subjected to its rules’.”

IV. EDITORIALS

i. ‘Where are helicopters to help in Darfur,’ Los Angeles Times, 16 Dec 2007
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article’AID=/20071216/EDIT05/712
160418/-1/EDIT05

‘Is there a world helicopter shortage that nobody told us about’ United
Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has spent the past few months asking
governments in every potential helicopter contributing country to lend
aircraft for a prospective peacekeeping mission in Sudan's Darfur region,
but it seems that not one can be spared to help resolve the world's worst
humanitarian crisis. ‘

The stinginess over helicopters, of course, is only part of the problem.
European countries refuse to impose targeted sanctions against Sudan like
those approved by the United States. The international community has
successfully pressured China to use its considerable influence on Khartoum,
but that pressure is sporadic and easy for Beijing to shrug off. Efforts by
the International Criminal Court to try Sudanese officials for war crimes
have been rebuffed by Khartoum with no response from the United Nations.
It's no wonder Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir doesn't take
international demands seriously; there are no consequences to his
stonewalling.
If world leaders truly don't care about the ongoing genocide in Darfur, they
should stop claiming that they do. So to the likes of German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, French
President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown: Put your
choppers where your mouth is’.’

ii. ‘Partners in Genocide: A comprehensive guide to China's role in Darfur,’
by Eric
Reeves, The New Republic, 18 Dec 2007
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html’id=1f4269dd-9d4f-4911-891f-57ae85d66b
70

‘Two weeks ago, Britain introduced a toughly worded Presidential Statement
at the U.N.
Security Council, demanding that Khartoum's National Islamic Front regime
turn over two génocidaires to the International Criminal Court. The first,
Ahmed Haroun, who, in a grotesque bit of irony, now serves as Sudan's
minister of humanitarian affairs, is accused of having directly orchestrated
many of the vicious crimes documented by the U.N. and independent human
rights organizations in Darfur. Similarly, Ali Kushayb, a Janjaweed militia
leader, is deeply implicated in the most egregious violations of
international law--targeted ethnic slaughter and the use of rape as a weapon
of war among them.

The Presidential Statement should've easily passed: The evidence against
both men is strong, and because of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1593,
the ICC has jurisdiction over the matter. What ended up happening, though,
was hardly a surprise to anyone who has watched Darfur closely over the last
five years. China threatened to veto the non-binding declaration unless its
language was essentially gutted, and rather than force the issue, Britain,
France, and the U.S.--as well as the other Security Council members—quietly
decided to drop the matter. As a result, not only will Haroun and Kushayb
remain free, but the government in Khartoum will feel as if it can block the
extradition of those subsequently accused by the Court. The ICC just lost
its teeth.

This under-reported development provides yet another example of China's
enabling role in the Darfur genocide. The crimes that China has abetted in
Sudan are almost certainly too numerous to detail in any one place, but,
here, for easy documentation, is a précis of how the country has come to
have the blood of more than 400,000 Darfuris on its hands’’

iii. “A test case for the UN,” The Guardian, 24 Dec 2007

“The last five years have been a bleak period for the United Nations. From
the divisions that surfaced over Iraq to the lack of respect shown towards
the International Criminal Court by Security Council members, it is hard to
see how the UN can recover its reputation and pursue its mission of
spreading peace worldwide.

The inability and reluctance of member states to challenge the Sudanese
government on the various obstructions that have been strategically placed
to delay the deployment of Unamid, the peacekeeping mission to Darfur, has
again shown that the UN is becoming little more than a symbolic figurehead.

…..It clearly states that, although the obstructions to deployment are
primarily the result of resistance from the Sudanese government towards a
hybrid force being based in Darfur, the responsibility lies with Security
Council members to make sure that Sudan complies fully with its obligations
as set out in resolution 1769.

Without this pressure from a united front, the Sudanese government will
continue in its well-orchestrated plan to disrupt any effort to bring peace
to this troubled region and will continue with forcible relocation of IDP
residents.

…. A zero-tolerance policy towards Sudan from the UN is the only hope for
peace in Darfur, and while the likelihood of President Bashir ever being
tried by the ICC for crimes against humanity is about as likely as Dick
Cheney being impeached over Iraq, it is important to condemn world leaders
who stand in the way of peace.

This is the Security Council’s chance to redefine itself for the 21st
century but until the situation in Darfur has stabilised, people will
continue to talk about the failures that have destroyed its reputation
instead of the important work that it has a mandate to carry out.”

iv. “Failure looms in Darfur,” National Post, 24 Dec 2007
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=195012

“…Three years after the United States accused Sudan of committing genocide
in Darfur and a full year after the United Nations began pushing to deploy
its own peacekeeping force there, the conflict remains one of the world's
worst humanitarian crises.

There will be only about 6,500 UN peacekeepers in Darfur 10 days from now,
when a new joint UN-African Union force (UNAMID) is scheduled to take over
in western Sudan.

That's barely a quarter of the promised force of 26,000 peacekeepers who
were supposed to replace 7,000 under-equipped, dejected and ineffective
African Union troops who have been struggling to stop a conflict that has
raged for nearly five years.

….Khartoum is also cynically playing on a growing international reluctance
to get involved.

After the International Criminal Court indicted Ah-mad Harun, Sudan's
Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs, for war crimes in Darfur, Gen.
Bashir did not rush to hand him over for prosecution. Instead, he appointed
Mr. Harun to head a committee overseeing deployment of the new peacekeeping
mission.

So far, the general has been given a free ride by the international
community. He has followed a pattern of resisting international pressure
until it peaks, then appearing to give in and waiting for the world's
attention to shift elsewhere, before resuming his delaying tactics…”

**********************************
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