அரபு முஸ்லீம்கள் ஆளும் சூடான் அரசு துருப்புகள், அகதிகளாக இருக்கும் கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்களது அகதி முகாமை தாக்கியதில் 27 முஸ்லீம்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டார்கள்.
At least 27 reported dead after arms raid by Sudanese troops on aid camp
In this section »
Resentment lingers among Hillary's supportersIraq hails deal for pullout by 2011 but US says no date setGirl strapped with explosives gives herself up in IraqPhysical and mental scars from the past haunt Zardari as power beckonsTensions rise in Kashmir as police kill three protestersAmbassador insists 'mutual benefits' underpin relationships with AfricaSudanese president Bashir: denies genocide chargesSUDAN: HEAVY GUNFIRE was reported in Darfur's most volatile aid camp yesterday as Sudanese troops seized weapons in an operation that left as many as 27 people dead, according to aid workers and rebel commanders. ROB CRILLY in Nairobi reports.
Fighting erupted after about 70 government vehicles surrounded Kalma camp early in the morning.
Sudanese armed forces have made repeated raids on the camp to seize weapons.
Aid workers believe the government is desperate to close the volatile camp because its residents are sympathetic to rebel factions.
Abakr Suleiman, a tribal leader, told Reuters: "I am inside the camp Kalma. Now there is still shooting. There is heavy shooting.
"They came into the camp and killed people. There are houses burning."
Aid sources said the death toll had reached 27 with as many as 60 injured before the clashes subsided. However, estimates varied wildly and there has not yet been any independent verification of the figures.
Ameerah Haq, United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator, said she was concerned about the reports. "Such actions severely threaten the safety and security of civilians who have a right to protection under international humanitarian law," she said.
"The United Nations urges restraint and calls for the immediate establishment of a humanitarian corridor so that the injured may be evacuated."
An official with the joint United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force said a patrol was on its way to Kalma, close to Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.
More than 200,000 people have died during five years of conflict with a further 2.5 million forced to flee their homes. Many now live in sprawling aid camps which have grown to the size of cities. They are supposed to offer a haven from the violence but many are riddled with violence.
Kalma is known as one of the biggest and most volatile. It houses a mishmash of Darfur's tribes who frequently organise against each other. The camp is awash with guns and armed factions. As a result, humanitarian agencies are wary of operating among its simple lean-tos and often withdraw their staff altogether.
Yesterday, a rebel commander said the attack was part of an attempt to close the camp and disperse its residents to remove a centre of dissent.
"This morning security forces surrounded Kalma camp and demanded that every IDP (internally displaced person) leave," said Ahmed Abdel Shafie, a commander in the rebel Sudan Liberation Army. "Later, they opened fire on the eastern side of the camp. There were many casualties."
The Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, denies accusations that his forces are engaged in genocide in Darfur.
Judges at the International Criminal Court are currently considering whether to issue a warrant for his arrest.
Last month the court's prosecutor lodged evidence on 10 counts of genocide, murder and crimes against humanity.
Since then President Bashir has launched a diplomatic campaign building support to block any indictments. The African Union and Arab League have both warned against sending the Sudanese leader to The Hague to face trial, saying it could hinder attempts to find peace.
Djibril Bassole, a new joint mediator appointed by the UN and AU, was due to arrive in Khartoum last night as part of the latest move to try to end the conflict.
Violence in Darfur began in 2003 when rebel groups complaining of discrimination against black Africans began attacking government targets.
© 2008 The Irish Times
Showing posts with label டார்பர். Show all posts
Showing posts with label டார்பர். Show all posts
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
லட்சக்கணக்கான கருப்பினத்தவரை ஜிகாத் மூலம் கொன்ற அரபு சூடான் அதிபர் அல் பஷீர் மீது ஐநா இனப்படுகொலை குற்றச்சாட்ட்டு
சூடானின் அதிபர் அல் பஷீர் அரபு ஜாதிகளில் ஒன்றான ஜாலி ஜாதியை சேர்ந்தவர். ஜாதிபெருமை, அரபு இனப்பெருமை மிக்க இவர் சூடானில் காலம் காலமாக வாழ்ந்துவந்த கருப்பினத்தவர்களை டார்பர் பகுதியில் கொன்றொழித்து அவர்களை நிலங்களை பிடுங்க அரசாங்கத்தின் மூலமாகவே முயன்று லட்சக்கணக்கான கருப்பினத்தவரை ஜிகாது மூலம் கொன்றதாக ஐநா இவர் மீது இனப்படுகொலை குற்றச்சாட்டு கூறியுள்ளது.
Beshir: military man of defiance
By Jennie Matthew, AFP Published:Jul 14, 2008
As an individual, as a member of the Jaali tribe, as a military officer and as head of state, he is intensely proud.
KHARTOUM - Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, the first sitting ruler named for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, is a fiery and defiant professional soldier who seized power 19 years ago in a coup.
His rule of Africa’s biggest country, torn apart by war for much of its half century of independence, has been marked by Islamist resurgence, conflict and peace with the south, collision with the West and bitter war in Darfur.
"As an individual, as a member of the Jaali tribe, as a military officer and as head of state, he is intensely proud," said Sudan analyst Alex de Waal.
"When he feels humiliated, he is prone to angry outbursts marked by extreme rhetorical excess. His language becomes replete with exhortations to avenge insult and betrayal and crush the cowards and traitors."
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has accused Beshir of masterminding a genocidal campaign to try to wipe out three ethnic groups, calling for an arrest warrant for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.
Beshir refuses to cooperate with the ICC or surrender officials wanted for alleged war crimes. He told United Nations (UN) ambassadors last month that a "vicious campaign" against Sudan had tarnished its image, heritage and values.
Beshir, 64, toppled a three-year-old democratically elected government in a bloodless coup on June 30, 1989, backed by the National Islamic Front party of his now sidelined former mentor Hassan al-Turabi.
He declared a nationwide state of emergency, suspended the constitution, dismissed parliament and disbanded all political parties.
His regime then introduced Sudan to a more radical brand of Islam and elements of Sharia law, alienating Christians and animists in the south and many in the northern Arab elite who grew up under British rule.
Beshir and Turabi established the Popular Defence Forces, which deployed in the south to fight Jihad or holy war against the "infidels", raising the stakes in what dragged into Africa’s longest running civil war until a 2005 peace deal.
Yet in promulgating a power-sharing constitution with the former rebels that opened a path to democratic transformation in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) Beshir surprised even his staunchest critics.
Born in 1944 into a rural family in Hoshe Bannaga, an Arab heartland 100 kilometres north of Khartoum, Omar Hassan al-Beshir joined the military at a young age.
He rose quickly through the ranks and served with the Egyptian army in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. He went on to serve as military attache in the United Arab Emirates, garrison commander and as head of an armoured parachute brigade.
In 1988, at the height of the civil war between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, he was appointed commander of the eighth brigade, stationed in the south and considered poorly equipped.
The posting brought him face-to-face with the conflict at a time of huge dissatisfaction in the military, particularly among officers, with the rule of then prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. A year later, he led a mutiny.
He and Turabi ruled through a Revolutionary Command Council and the National Salvation government, after Beshir purged nearly all the top military brass.
In 1993, he dissolved the RCC and declared himself president before being "elected" for the first time in a 1996 election widely denounced as fraudulent.
In Sudan’s last election in 2000, which was boycotted by the opposition, Beshir won another term with 89.5 percent of the vote.
His government sheltered Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden for five years in the 1990s where the Western world’s most wanted man consolidated his terror network’s operations.
Much of his presidency was marked by the devastating north-south conflict in which more than 1.5 million people were killed over 21 years until the 2005 peace deal.
Sudan began exporting oil in 1999 and despite sanctions imposed by the United States, Khartoum has enjoyed an infrastructure and housing construction boom fuelled by Arab, Chinese, Indian and Malaysian investment.
Sudan has been on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1993. Yet despite the CPA, conflict in Darfur has turned the regime into a pariah.
The United States says genocide is taking place in Darfur where government troops and Arab militias have fought an increasingly fractured and complicated war with splintering ethnic rebel groups clamouring for power and resources.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and more than 2.2 million fled their homes in the five-year conflict. Beshir’s regime says 10,000 have been killed.
Beshir: military man of defiance
By Jennie Matthew, AFP Published:Jul 14, 2008
As an individual, as a member of the Jaali tribe, as a military officer and as head of state, he is intensely proud.
KHARTOUM - Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, the first sitting ruler named for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, is a fiery and defiant professional soldier who seized power 19 years ago in a coup.
His rule of Africa’s biggest country, torn apart by war for much of its half century of independence, has been marked by Islamist resurgence, conflict and peace with the south, collision with the West and bitter war in Darfur.
"As an individual, as a member of the Jaali tribe, as a military officer and as head of state, he is intensely proud," said Sudan analyst Alex de Waal.
"When he feels humiliated, he is prone to angry outbursts marked by extreme rhetorical excess. His language becomes replete with exhortations to avenge insult and betrayal and crush the cowards and traitors."
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has accused Beshir of masterminding a genocidal campaign to try to wipe out three ethnic groups, calling for an arrest warrant for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.
Beshir refuses to cooperate with the ICC or surrender officials wanted for alleged war crimes. He told United Nations (UN) ambassadors last month that a "vicious campaign" against Sudan had tarnished its image, heritage and values.
Beshir, 64, toppled a three-year-old democratically elected government in a bloodless coup on June 30, 1989, backed by the National Islamic Front party of his now sidelined former mentor Hassan al-Turabi.
He declared a nationwide state of emergency, suspended the constitution, dismissed parliament and disbanded all political parties.
His regime then introduced Sudan to a more radical brand of Islam and elements of Sharia law, alienating Christians and animists in the south and many in the northern Arab elite who grew up under British rule.
Beshir and Turabi established the Popular Defence Forces, which deployed in the south to fight Jihad or holy war against the "infidels", raising the stakes in what dragged into Africa’s longest running civil war until a 2005 peace deal.
Yet in promulgating a power-sharing constitution with the former rebels that opened a path to democratic transformation in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) Beshir surprised even his staunchest critics.
Born in 1944 into a rural family in Hoshe Bannaga, an Arab heartland 100 kilometres north of Khartoum, Omar Hassan al-Beshir joined the military at a young age.
He rose quickly through the ranks and served with the Egyptian army in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. He went on to serve as military attache in the United Arab Emirates, garrison commander and as head of an armoured parachute brigade.
In 1988, at the height of the civil war between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, he was appointed commander of the eighth brigade, stationed in the south and considered poorly equipped.
The posting brought him face-to-face with the conflict at a time of huge dissatisfaction in the military, particularly among officers, with the rule of then prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. A year later, he led a mutiny.
He and Turabi ruled through a Revolutionary Command Council and the National Salvation government, after Beshir purged nearly all the top military brass.
In 1993, he dissolved the RCC and declared himself president before being "elected" for the first time in a 1996 election widely denounced as fraudulent.
In Sudan’s last election in 2000, which was boycotted by the opposition, Beshir won another term with 89.5 percent of the vote.
His government sheltered Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden for five years in the 1990s where the Western world’s most wanted man consolidated his terror network’s operations.
Much of his presidency was marked by the devastating north-south conflict in which more than 1.5 million people were killed over 21 years until the 2005 peace deal.
Sudan began exporting oil in 1999 and despite sanctions imposed by the United States, Khartoum has enjoyed an infrastructure and housing construction boom fuelled by Arab, Chinese, Indian and Malaysian investment.
Sudan has been on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1993. Yet despite the CPA, conflict in Darfur has turned the regime into a pariah.
The United States says genocide is taking place in Darfur where government troops and Arab militias have fought an increasingly fractured and complicated war with splintering ethnic rebel groups clamouring for power and resources.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and more than 2.2 million fled their homes in the five-year conflict. Beshir’s regime says 10,000 have been killed.
Friday, March 28, 2008
அரபு கொலைவெறிக்கூட்டத்தின் வாக்குமூலம்
கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை கொல்லுவதற்கும், கற்பழிப்பதற்கும், அவர்களது வீடுகளிலிருந்து துரத்துவதற்கும் அரபு முஸ்லீம்களை தயார் செய்ததும், அவர்களுக்கு ஆயுதங்கள் உதவி செய்வதும் சூடானின் அரபு இஸ்லாமிய அரசே என்று சூடான் அரசிடம் உதவி பெற்றவர்களே தெரிவித்துள்ளனர்.
We were armed by Sudan, say Darfur killers
By Nima El Bagir
Last Updated: 2:37am GMT 16/03/2008
Adjusting his camouflage turban, the commander pointed at the weapons and vehicles inside his camp in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur.
Telegraph TV: Preview of 'Unreported World: Meet the Janjaweed'
"All the hardware that we have - where did we get it from?" said Mohammed Hamdan. "Do you think we just magicked it out of the air? It belongs to the government."
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has always
denied any link with the Janjaweed
With those words, he destroyed a myth carefully crafted by Sudan's regime.
Hamdan commands hundreds of gunmen from the notorious Janjaweed militia, which human rights groups blame for countless atrocities in Darfur's civil war.
President Omar al-Bashir's Arab-dominated regime has always denied any link with the Janjaweed.
Instead, Mr Bashir has denounced them as "bandits and thieves" and denied giving them any arms or supplies.
Yet Hamdan spoke near a Toyota Land Cruiser, mounted with a heavy machinegun, and his fighters were armed with mortars, anti-aircraft guns and Kalashnikov rifles. "The weapons, the cars, all that you see, we got it from the government," he said.
This support was given in direct breach of United Nations Resolution 1556, passed in July 2004, which gave Sudan's regime 30 days to disarm the Janjaweed and bring their leaders to justice.
advertisement
Hamdan, 31, has been named by Human Rights Watch as a Janjaweed commander.
From his camp near the town of Um Al-Qura in Southern Darfur province, he now claims to control 20,000 gunmen. These Arab fighters were originally armed and raised by Khartoum to fight Darfur's black African rebels.
The Khartoum regime might disown them now, but Hamdan said that his orders came directly from Mr Bashir.
He claimed to have met the president twice in September 2006. "They asked for a meeting with us," he said. "There were two places that had fallen to the rebels: Um Sidir and Kiryari [in Northern Darfur]. After they fell, they called upon us - of course as part of the army - to go to the northern areas. We asked for the hardware that you now see with us. And they provided us with cars and weaponry, and we moved to the northern area."
He claimed that both meetings took place in the presence of Abdul Rahim Mohammed Hussein, Sudan's defence minister. "One meeting with the president was in his home, and the other was in the armed forces' headquarters," said Hamdan.
Using the weapons supplied by the regime, he managed to block a rebel assault into Northern Darfur in 2006. He was then entrusted with securing Southern Darfur province against the insurgents.
He had his first contact with the regime at the outset of Darfur's war in 2003. Hamdan said he was personally recruited to fight the rebels. "There was a general call to arms, to the entirety of Sudan after the rebellion began," he said. "The Sudanese government then specifically came to us."
He added that Sudan's regular army "sent officers to us who signed people up and trained us". Hamdan was trained at a camp west of Nyala, the provincial capital of Southern Darfur.
He was instructed alongside regular soldiers at an official military training centre. Hamdan produced his snakeskin wallet and took out a Sudanese army identity card. One of his followers, whom he described as his chief of staff, also produced one.
Each contained the Arabic words: "Identity for Officers and Soldiers, Armed Forces Commission for Intelligence and Security." There was an identity number, a photograph, and a hologram of the Sudanese armed forces insignia.
Hamdan rejected the label Janjaweed, which translates as "devils on horseback" for the mounted raids typical of the militia. He does not deny that other Arab fighters committed atrocities in Darfur, only his own guilt.
"We only fought against the rebels," he said. "In fact, there were times when we would receive orders to take part in operations in civilian areas." Hamdan said he always refused to obey these orders.
Others would disagree. The African Union, an alliance of all 53 countries on the continent, has sent a team of observers to Darfur. According to one of their reports, Hamdan was one of three Janjaweed commanders who led an attack on the village of Adwah on Nov 30, 2004, in which women were beaten and raped and more than 200 people killed.
Now that Hamdan has disclosed his relationship with the regime, the central question is whether Khartoum will maintain its bluster and denial.
Unreported World: Meet the Janjaweed will be shown on Friday at 7.35pm on Channel 4.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Darfur Disaster
Darfur's civil war, which began in 2003, has claimed about 300,000 lives, from violence, starvation or disease.
• At least two million people have fled their homes - one third of the population. The fighting has spread into Chad and the Central African Republic.
• The war began as a conflict between black African rebels and Sudan's Arab-dominated regime.
• The authorities recruited the Janjaweed militia from Darfur's Arab tribes and turned them loose on African villages.
• The war has now become more chaotic, with the rebels fighting among themselves and increasingly turning to banditry.
We were armed by Sudan, say Darfur killers
By Nima El Bagir
Last Updated: 2:37am GMT 16/03/2008
Adjusting his camouflage turban, the commander pointed at the weapons and vehicles inside his camp in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur.
Telegraph TV: Preview of 'Unreported World: Meet the Janjaweed'
"All the hardware that we have - where did we get it from?" said Mohammed Hamdan. "Do you think we just magicked it out of the air? It belongs to the government."
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has always
denied any link with the Janjaweed
With those words, he destroyed a myth carefully crafted by Sudan's regime.
Hamdan commands hundreds of gunmen from the notorious Janjaweed militia, which human rights groups blame for countless atrocities in Darfur's civil war.
President Omar al-Bashir's Arab-dominated regime has always denied any link with the Janjaweed.
Instead, Mr Bashir has denounced them as "bandits and thieves" and denied giving them any arms or supplies.
Yet Hamdan spoke near a Toyota Land Cruiser, mounted with a heavy machinegun, and his fighters were armed with mortars, anti-aircraft guns and Kalashnikov rifles. "The weapons, the cars, all that you see, we got it from the government," he said.
This support was given in direct breach of United Nations Resolution 1556, passed in July 2004, which gave Sudan's regime 30 days to disarm the Janjaweed and bring their leaders to justice.
advertisement
Hamdan, 31, has been named by Human Rights Watch as a Janjaweed commander.
From his camp near the town of Um Al-Qura in Southern Darfur province, he now claims to control 20,000 gunmen. These Arab fighters were originally armed and raised by Khartoum to fight Darfur's black African rebels.
The Khartoum regime might disown them now, but Hamdan said that his orders came directly from Mr Bashir.
He claimed to have met the president twice in September 2006. "They asked for a meeting with us," he said. "There were two places that had fallen to the rebels: Um Sidir and Kiryari [in Northern Darfur]. After they fell, they called upon us - of course as part of the army - to go to the northern areas. We asked for the hardware that you now see with us. And they provided us with cars and weaponry, and we moved to the northern area."
He claimed that both meetings took place in the presence of Abdul Rahim Mohammed Hussein, Sudan's defence minister. "One meeting with the president was in his home, and the other was in the armed forces' headquarters," said Hamdan.
Using the weapons supplied by the regime, he managed to block a rebel assault into Northern Darfur in 2006. He was then entrusted with securing Southern Darfur province against the insurgents.
He had his first contact with the regime at the outset of Darfur's war in 2003. Hamdan said he was personally recruited to fight the rebels. "There was a general call to arms, to the entirety of Sudan after the rebellion began," he said. "The Sudanese government then specifically came to us."
He added that Sudan's regular army "sent officers to us who signed people up and trained us". Hamdan was trained at a camp west of Nyala, the provincial capital of Southern Darfur.
He was instructed alongside regular soldiers at an official military training centre. Hamdan produced his snakeskin wallet and took out a Sudanese army identity card. One of his followers, whom he described as his chief of staff, also produced one.
Each contained the Arabic words: "Identity for Officers and Soldiers, Armed Forces Commission for Intelligence and Security." There was an identity number, a photograph, and a hologram of the Sudanese armed forces insignia.
Hamdan rejected the label Janjaweed, which translates as "devils on horseback" for the mounted raids typical of the militia. He does not deny that other Arab fighters committed atrocities in Darfur, only his own guilt.
"We only fought against the rebels," he said. "In fact, there were times when we would receive orders to take part in operations in civilian areas." Hamdan said he always refused to obey these orders.
Others would disagree. The African Union, an alliance of all 53 countries on the continent, has sent a team of observers to Darfur. According to one of their reports, Hamdan was one of three Janjaweed commanders who led an attack on the village of Adwah on Nov 30, 2004, in which women were beaten and raped and more than 200 people killed.
Now that Hamdan has disclosed his relationship with the regime, the central question is whether Khartoum will maintain its bluster and denial.
Unreported World: Meet the Janjaweed will be shown on Friday at 7.35pm on Channel 4.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Darfur Disaster
Darfur's civil war, which began in 2003, has claimed about 300,000 lives, from violence, starvation or disease.
• At least two million people have fled their homes - one third of the population. The fighting has spread into Chad and the Central African Republic.
• The war began as a conflict between black African rebels and Sudan's Arab-dominated regime.
• The authorities recruited the Janjaweed militia from Darfur's Arab tribes and turned them loose on African villages.
• The war has now become more chaotic, with the rebels fighting among themselves and increasingly turning to banditry.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை அழிக்க எங்களுக்கு சூடானின் இஸ்லாமிய அரபு அரசுதான் ஆயுதங்கள் வழங்கியது: ஜஞ்சாவீது தலைவர் ஒப்புதல்
கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை அழிக்க எங்களுக்கு சூடானின் இஸ்லாமிய அரபு அரசுதான் ஆயுதங்கள் வழங்கியது: ஜஞ்சாவீது தலைவர் ஒப்புதல்
We were armed by Sudan, say Darfur killers
By Nima El Bagir
Last Updated: 1:53am GMT 12/03/2008
Adjusting his camouflage turban, the commander pointed at the weapons and vehicles inside his camp in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has always
denied any link with the Janjaweed
With those words, he destroyed a myth carefully crafted by Sudan's regime.
Hamdan commands hundreds of gunmen from the notorious Janjaweed militia, which human rights groups blame for countless atrocities in Darfur's civil war.
President Omar al-Bashir's Arab-dominated regime has always denied any link with the Janjaweed.
Instead, Mr Bashir has denounced them as "bandits and thieves" and denied giving them any arms or supplies.
Yet Hamdan spoke near a Toyota Land Cruiser, mounted with a heavy machinegun, and his fighters were armed with mortars, anti-aircraft guns and Kalashnikov rifles. "The weapons, the cars, all that you see, we got it from the government," he said.
This support was given in direct breach of United Nations Resolution 1556, passed in July 2004, which gave Sudan's regime 30 days to disarm the Janjaweed and bring their leaders to justice.
Hamdan, 31, has been named by Human Rights Watch as a Janjaweed commander.
From his camp near the town of Um Al-Qura in Southern Darfur province, he now claims to control 20,000 gunmen. These Arab fighters were originally armed and raised by Khartoum to fight Darfur's black African rebels.
The Khartoum regime might disown them now, but Hamdan said that his orders came directly from Mr Bashir.
He claimed to have met the president twice in September 2006. "They asked for a meeting with us," he said. "There were two places that had fallen to the rebels: Um Sidir and Kiryari [in Northern Darfur]. After they fell, they called upon us - of course as part of the army - to go to the northern areas. We asked for the hardware that you now see with us. And they provided us with cars and weaponry, and we moved to the northern area."
He claimed that both meetings took place in the presence of Abdul Rahim Mohammed Hussein, Sudan's defence minister. "One meeting with the president was in his home, and the other was in the armed forces' headquarters," said Hamdan.
Using the weapons supplied by the regime, he managed to block a rebel assault into Northern Darfur in 2006. He was then entrusted with securing Southern Darfur province against the insurgents.
He had his first contact with the regime at the outset of Darfur's war in 2003. Hamdan said he was personally recruited to fight the rebels. "There was a general call to arms, to the entirety of Sudan after the rebellion began," he said. "The Sudanese government then specifically came to us."
He added that Sudan's regular army "sent officers to us who signed people up and trained us". Hamdan was trained at a camp west of Nyala, the provincial capital of Southern Darfur.
He was instructed alongside regular soldiers at an official military training centre. Hamdan produced his snakeskin wallet and took out a Sudanese army identity card. One of his followers, whom he described as his chief of staff, also produced one.
Each contained the Arabic words: "Identity for Officers and Soldiers, Armed Forces Commission for Intelligence and Security." There was an identity number, a photograph, and a hologram of the Sudanese armed forces insignia.
Hamdan rejected the label Janjaweed, which translates as "devils on horseback" for the mounted raids typical of the militia. He does not deny that other Arab fighters committed atrocities in Darfur, only his own guilt.
"We only fought against the rebels," he said. "In fact, there were times when we would receive orders to take part in operations in civilian areas." Hamdan said he always refused to obey these orders.
Others would disagree. The African Union, an alliance of all 53 countries on the continent, has sent a team of observers to Darfur. According to one of their reports, Hamdan was one of three Janjaweed commanders who led an attack on the village of Adwah on Nov 30, 2004, in which women were beaten and raped and more than 200 people killed.
Now that Hamdan has disclosed his relationship with the regime, the central question is whether Khartoum will maintain its bluster and denial.
Unreported World: Meet the Janjaweed will be shown on Friday at 7.35pm on Channel 4.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Darfur Disaster
Darfur's civil war, which began in 2003, has claimed about 300,000 lives, from violence, starvation or disease.
• At least two million people have fled their homes - one third of the population. The fighting has spread into Chad and the Central African Republic.
• The war began as a conflict between black African rebels and Sudan's Arab-dominated regime.
• The authorities recruited the Janjaweed militia from Darfur's Arab tribes and turned them loose on African villages.
• The war has now become more chaotic, with the rebels fighting among themselves and increasingly turning to banditry.
We were armed by Sudan, say Darfur killers
By Nima El Bagir
Last Updated: 1:53am GMT 12/03/2008
Adjusting his camouflage turban, the commander pointed at the weapons and vehicles inside his camp in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has always
denied any link with the Janjaweed
With those words, he destroyed a myth carefully crafted by Sudan's regime.
Hamdan commands hundreds of gunmen from the notorious Janjaweed militia, which human rights groups blame for countless atrocities in Darfur's civil war.
President Omar al-Bashir's Arab-dominated regime has always denied any link with the Janjaweed.
Instead, Mr Bashir has denounced them as "bandits and thieves" and denied giving them any arms or supplies.
Yet Hamdan spoke near a Toyota Land Cruiser, mounted with a heavy machinegun, and his fighters were armed with mortars, anti-aircraft guns and Kalashnikov rifles. "The weapons, the cars, all that you see, we got it from the government," he said.
This support was given in direct breach of United Nations Resolution 1556, passed in July 2004, which gave Sudan's regime 30 days to disarm the Janjaweed and bring their leaders to justice.
Hamdan, 31, has been named by Human Rights Watch as a Janjaweed commander.
From his camp near the town of Um Al-Qura in Southern Darfur province, he now claims to control 20,000 gunmen. These Arab fighters were originally armed and raised by Khartoum to fight Darfur's black African rebels.
The Khartoum regime might disown them now, but Hamdan said that his orders came directly from Mr Bashir.
He claimed to have met the president twice in September 2006. "They asked for a meeting with us," he said. "There were two places that had fallen to the rebels: Um Sidir and Kiryari [in Northern Darfur]. After they fell, they called upon us - of course as part of the army - to go to the northern areas. We asked for the hardware that you now see with us. And they provided us with cars and weaponry, and we moved to the northern area."
He claimed that both meetings took place in the presence of Abdul Rahim Mohammed Hussein, Sudan's defence minister. "One meeting with the president was in his home, and the other was in the armed forces' headquarters," said Hamdan.
Using the weapons supplied by the regime, he managed to block a rebel assault into Northern Darfur in 2006. He was then entrusted with securing Southern Darfur province against the insurgents.
He had his first contact with the regime at the outset of Darfur's war in 2003. Hamdan said he was personally recruited to fight the rebels. "There was a general call to arms, to the entirety of Sudan after the rebellion began," he said. "The Sudanese government then specifically came to us."
He added that Sudan's regular army "sent officers to us who signed people up and trained us". Hamdan was trained at a camp west of Nyala, the provincial capital of Southern Darfur.
He was instructed alongside regular soldiers at an official military training centre. Hamdan produced his snakeskin wallet and took out a Sudanese army identity card. One of his followers, whom he described as his chief of staff, also produced one.
Each contained the Arabic words: "Identity for Officers and Soldiers, Armed Forces Commission for Intelligence and Security." There was an identity number, a photograph, and a hologram of the Sudanese armed forces insignia.
Hamdan rejected the label Janjaweed, which translates as "devils on horseback" for the mounted raids typical of the militia. He does not deny that other Arab fighters committed atrocities in Darfur, only his own guilt.
"We only fought against the rebels," he said. "In fact, there were times when we would receive orders to take part in operations in civilian areas." Hamdan said he always refused to obey these orders.
Others would disagree. The African Union, an alliance of all 53 countries on the continent, has sent a team of observers to Darfur. According to one of their reports, Hamdan was one of three Janjaweed commanders who led an attack on the village of Adwah on Nov 30, 2004, in which women were beaten and raped and more than 200 people killed.
Now that Hamdan has disclosed his relationship with the regime, the central question is whether Khartoum will maintain its bluster and denial.
Unreported World: Meet the Janjaweed will be shown on Friday at 7.35pm on Channel 4.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Darfur Disaster
Darfur's civil war, which began in 2003, has claimed about 300,000 lives, from violence, starvation or disease.
• At least two million people have fled their homes - one third of the population. The fighting has spread into Chad and the Central African Republic.
• The war began as a conflict between black African rebels and Sudan's Arab-dominated regime.
• The authorities recruited the Janjaweed militia from Darfur's Arab tribes and turned them loose on African villages.
• The war has now become more chaotic, with the rebels fighting among themselves and increasingly turning to banditry.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
10 வயது கருப்பின டார்பர் முஸ்லீம் சிறுமியை கூட்டாக கற்பழித்த அரபு வெறியர்கள்.
அரபு இனவெறியையும் அரபு ஜாதிவெறியையும் கண்டிப்போம்.
Darfuris return to charred homes after attack
Wed 13 Feb 2008, 2:23 GMT
[-] Text [+] By Opheera McDoom
SIRBA, Sudan (Reuters) - The stench of burning hung in the air of Sirba, a town in West Darfur, as its inhabitants returned home to find their belongings in a charred pile, their animals dead and their food gone.
Sudan said it attacked the three remote West Darfur towns of Sirba, Abu Surouj and Suleia to force the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement out of the area and reopen roads connecting the population to the outside world, closed since JEM occupied the area in December.
A third of Sirba's straw huts were burned and the market looted. Animals lay dead in the sandy streets. Dust-covered children swung off scorched branches watching as aid workers, journalists and United Nations-African Union peacekeepers inspected the damage on Tuesday.
"They killed my husband," said Kultoum Abdallah, 30, left without a home or breadwinner to care for her three children.
"I have nothing to eat, what should I do?" she pleaded, breaking into sobs and hiding her face in her bright blue robe. She spent two days in the bush after militias on horse and camelback looted, raped and burned.
Local leader Abakr Suleiman Ibrahim said 10 girls were raped by militiamen, one as young as 10 years old. He estimated that 3,000 people were missing.
Haroun Esam Yehia said he saw the militia, known locally as Janjaweed, burn his home. "I still don't know where two of my sons are," he said. They are 15 and 12 years old.
FACTS DISPUTED
A humanitarian team had brought tents for some who lost their homes, and a first instalment of food for 5,000 people as well as jerry cans and plastic sheeting arrived on U.N. trucks.
Residents and the governor of West Darfur said militias had killed 45-47 people in the attack and burned their houses. Both said the Sudanese army, which entered later, had not touched them. They said the dead were buried in mass graves.
Residents argued fiercely with army and security officials over what had happened during Friday's attacks.
The army said it was fighting JEM, whose members had hidden among the population dressed in civilian clothes. They showed dozens of rifles, heavy weapons and Israeli-made guns they said they found in houses in the town which had burned in an exchange of fire.
They said they also found two cars belonging to an international aid group with JEM's logo written on them, full of empty bullet shells.
But they denied any links to the militia.
"These criminal gangs hear of an impending operation and take advantage of this," said senior army officer Abdel Salam Abdel Hamid, adding papers and identity cards they found inside the town were proof of JEM's presence.
Many of those killed were men. In Sirba on Tuesday mostly women, the elderly and children had returned to the town. JEM logos and slogans were scrawled over the town's buildings.
Residents said JEM had no permanent presence in the town, saying they painted the logos in December but never came back.
"Dr. Khalil (JEM leader) did not kill one person when he came," Ibrahim said. "Why did the government arm these Janjaweed?"
But he wanted more Sudanese army forces to come and protect them against all armed groups -- militias or rebels.
"We are scared of anyone who has guns but the government."
While the facts are disputed, what is clear is that the world's largest aid operation will have more work as civilians continue to be caught in the crossfire of Darfur's revolt, now approaching its fifth anniversary.
International experts estimate that 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect.
Washington calls the violence genocide, a charge Khartoum rejects. It blames Western media for exaggerating the conflict. Numerous peace efforts have failed because of rebel divisions and continuing clashes.
(Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Darfuris return to charred homes after attack
Wed 13 Feb 2008, 2:23 GMT
[-] Text [+] By Opheera McDoom
SIRBA, Sudan (Reuters) - The stench of burning hung in the air of Sirba, a town in West Darfur, as its inhabitants returned home to find their belongings in a charred pile, their animals dead and their food gone.
Sudan said it attacked the three remote West Darfur towns of Sirba, Abu Surouj and Suleia to force the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement out of the area and reopen roads connecting the population to the outside world, closed since JEM occupied the area in December.
A third of Sirba's straw huts were burned and the market looted. Animals lay dead in the sandy streets. Dust-covered children swung off scorched branches watching as aid workers, journalists and United Nations-African Union peacekeepers inspected the damage on Tuesday.
"They killed my husband," said Kultoum Abdallah, 30, left without a home or breadwinner to care for her three children.
"I have nothing to eat, what should I do?" she pleaded, breaking into sobs and hiding her face in her bright blue robe. She spent two days in the bush after militias on horse and camelback looted, raped and burned.
Local leader Abakr Suleiman Ibrahim said 10 girls were raped by militiamen, one as young as 10 years old. He estimated that 3,000 people were missing.
Haroun Esam Yehia said he saw the militia, known locally as Janjaweed, burn his home. "I still don't know where two of my sons are," he said. They are 15 and 12 years old.
FACTS DISPUTED
A humanitarian team had brought tents for some who lost their homes, and a first instalment of food for 5,000 people as well as jerry cans and plastic sheeting arrived on U.N. trucks.
Residents and the governor of West Darfur said militias had killed 45-47 people in the attack and burned their houses. Both said the Sudanese army, which entered later, had not touched them. They said the dead were buried in mass graves.
Residents argued fiercely with army and security officials over what had happened during Friday's attacks.
The army said it was fighting JEM, whose members had hidden among the population dressed in civilian clothes. They showed dozens of rifles, heavy weapons and Israeli-made guns they said they found in houses in the town which had burned in an exchange of fire.
They said they also found two cars belonging to an international aid group with JEM's logo written on them, full of empty bullet shells.
But they denied any links to the militia.
"These criminal gangs hear of an impending operation and take advantage of this," said senior army officer Abdel Salam Abdel Hamid, adding papers and identity cards they found inside the town were proof of JEM's presence.
Many of those killed were men. In Sirba on Tuesday mostly women, the elderly and children had returned to the town. JEM logos and slogans were scrawled over the town's buildings.
Residents said JEM had no permanent presence in the town, saying they painted the logos in December but never came back.
"Dr. Khalil (JEM leader) did not kill one person when he came," Ibrahim said. "Why did the government arm these Janjaweed?"
But he wanted more Sudanese army forces to come and protect them against all armed groups -- militias or rebels.
"We are scared of anyone who has guns but the government."
While the facts are disputed, what is clear is that the world's largest aid operation will have more work as civilians continue to be caught in the crossfire of Darfur's revolt, now approaching its fifth anniversary.
International experts estimate that 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect.
Washington calls the violence genocide, a charge Khartoum rejects. It blames Western media for exaggerating the conflict. Numerous peace efforts have failed because of rebel divisions and continuing clashes.
(Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Monday, February 11, 2008
இன்று: அரபு முஸ்லிம்கள் டார்பரிலிருந்து 12000 கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை துரத்தியுள்ளனர்-
ஜஞ்சாவீது என்ற பெயரில் சூடானின் அரபு இஸ்லாமிய அரசு டார்பரில் உள்ள கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை துரத்தியுள்ளது. இன்று மட்டுமே 12000 பேர் சாட் நாட்டுக்கு துரத்தப்பட்டுள்ளதாக செய்திகள் தெரிவிக்கின்றன.
12,000 flee Darfur for Chad
AFP Published:Feb 11, 2008
A town in Sudan’s Darfur region stands deserted
Related Content
Rebels driven from Darfur
Pope voices Darfur ‘anguish’
GENEVA - Some 12,000 people from Sudan’s Darfur region have crossed the border into neighbouring Chad after heavy bombardments and armed attacks by the Janjawid militia, the United Nations (UN) refugee agency said today.
The refugees have fled to the Birak region of southeastern Chad after attacks on Friday and Saturday by the Sudanese army and the Janjawid militia, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokeswoman Helene Caux told AFP.
Eastern Chad remains highly volatile after recent fighting between Chadian government and rebel forces, which led the UNHCR to evacuate staff from the country and thousands of Chadians to cross to neighbouring Cameroon, she said.
However, the fresh refugees from Darfur “have been through the worst already,” she added.
Her colleague Catherine Huck, who runs UNHCR’s operations in the Chadian eastern town of Abeche, stressed the difficulties that recent unrest in Chad itself have created for aid workers.
Last weekend saw rebels enter Njdamena and surround the presidential palace before retreating, leaving at least 160 people dead.
“We are already operating in an environment where security is spiralling downwards, where the supply line from NDjamena is cut after recent fighting, and where our field offices are running short of fuel,” Huck said in a statement.
“Getting newly arrived refugees away from the border into camps, is a real challenge,” she added.
The UNHCR is sending an assessment team to the region and hopes to move people by truck to existing camps for Darfur refugees today or tomorrow, she said.
Some 30,000 Darfur refugees already live in two camps in the Guereda area in eastern Chad, while a further 58,000 refugees are in three camps around Iriba.
Once safely in the camps, the newly arrived refugees will be given sleeping mats, blankets, jerry cans and kitchen sets, the UNHCR said.
The Sudanese army on Saturday confirmed its troops had carried out military operations in western Darfur and regained control of three communities, pushing out rebels to Chad.
“Army forces carried out large-scale operations combing the areas of Abu Suruj, Serba and Salia,” army spokesman Othman Mohammed al-Agbash told the official news agency SUNA, referring to areas in western Darfur.
The Justice and Equality Movement rebels said that Sudanese troops backed by Janjaweed militia had attacked the three communities north of Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, killing dozens of civilians on Friday.
JEM commander Abdel Aziz Nur al-Asher told AFP by telephone then that soldiers with 65 vehicles, backed by air support, launched the first attack alongside 600 Janjaweed fighters on camels.
He later said Sirba and Salia, also north of Geneina, had also come under attack, with Antonov fixed wing aircraft and combat helicopters taking part.
The latest unrest comes after a senior UN official warned on Friday that a reported proxy war between Sudan and Chad through rebel groups on each side of their border threatened to destabilise the region and lead to a wider conflict.
12,000 flee Darfur for Chad
AFP Published:Feb 11, 2008
A town in Sudan’s Darfur region stands deserted
Related Content
Rebels driven from Darfur
Pope voices Darfur ‘anguish’
GENEVA - Some 12,000 people from Sudan’s Darfur region have crossed the border into neighbouring Chad after heavy bombardments and armed attacks by the Janjawid militia, the United Nations (UN) refugee agency said today.
The refugees have fled to the Birak region of southeastern Chad after attacks on Friday and Saturday by the Sudanese army and the Janjawid militia, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokeswoman Helene Caux told AFP.
Eastern Chad remains highly volatile after recent fighting between Chadian government and rebel forces, which led the UNHCR to evacuate staff from the country and thousands of Chadians to cross to neighbouring Cameroon, she said.
However, the fresh refugees from Darfur “have been through the worst already,” she added.
Her colleague Catherine Huck, who runs UNHCR’s operations in the Chadian eastern town of Abeche, stressed the difficulties that recent unrest in Chad itself have created for aid workers.
Last weekend saw rebels enter Njdamena and surround the presidential palace before retreating, leaving at least 160 people dead.
“We are already operating in an environment where security is spiralling downwards, where the supply line from NDjamena is cut after recent fighting, and where our field offices are running short of fuel,” Huck said in a statement.
“Getting newly arrived refugees away from the border into camps, is a real challenge,” she added.
The UNHCR is sending an assessment team to the region and hopes to move people by truck to existing camps for Darfur refugees today or tomorrow, she said.
Some 30,000 Darfur refugees already live in two camps in the Guereda area in eastern Chad, while a further 58,000 refugees are in three camps around Iriba.
Once safely in the camps, the newly arrived refugees will be given sleeping mats, blankets, jerry cans and kitchen sets, the UNHCR said.
The Sudanese army on Saturday confirmed its troops had carried out military operations in western Darfur and regained control of three communities, pushing out rebels to Chad.
“Army forces carried out large-scale operations combing the areas of Abu Suruj, Serba and Salia,” army spokesman Othman Mohammed al-Agbash told the official news agency SUNA, referring to areas in western Darfur.
The Justice and Equality Movement rebels said that Sudanese troops backed by Janjaweed militia had attacked the three communities north of Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, killing dozens of civilians on Friday.
JEM commander Abdel Aziz Nur al-Asher told AFP by telephone then that soldiers with 65 vehicles, backed by air support, launched the first attack alongside 600 Janjaweed fighters on camels.
He later said Sirba and Salia, also north of Geneina, had also come under attack, with Antonov fixed wing aircraft and combat helicopters taking part.
The latest unrest comes after a senior UN official warned on Friday that a reported proxy war between Sudan and Chad through rebel groups on each side of their border threatened to destabilise the region and lead to a wider conflict.
கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை கற்பழித்து கொல்லும் அரபு முஸ்லீம்கள்
இந்த 12 வயதான சிறுமி, அரபு முஸ்லீம்களால் டார்பர் பகுதியில் கற்பழிக்கப்பட்டவர்.
U.N. Envoy: Darfur Faces New Dangers Amid Chad Unrest
U.N. special envoy to Darfur Jan Eliasson painted a bleak picture of the war-torn Sudanese region Friday, warning that rebel groups had made only limited progress toward peace talks. In an interview, Eliasson details the latest developments in Darfur and explains how unrest in neighboring Chad may further inflame the crisis.
JIM LEHRER: Finally tonight, an update on Darfur, and to Margaret Warner.
MARGARET WARNER: It's been out of the headlines of late, but the conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan continues to rage.
The toll: at least 200,000 dead, and 2.5 million forced from their homes.
Five years of fighting has pitted local black villagers and rebel commanders against Sudanese government forces and their proxy fighters, the mostly Arab Janjaweed militias.
The victims have been primarily civilians, driven from their villages, then intimidated -- and the women raped -- whenever they venture outside their refugee camps. The U.S. has called the killings of civilians "genocide."
The situation is now further complicated by a civil war in neighboring Chad, where hundreds of thousands of Darfurians are in refugee camps.
Today, the U.N. Security Council received an update from its special envoy for Darfur, veteran Swedish diplomat and former U.N. General Assembly President Jan Eliasson. He joins us from the U.N.
And, Mr. Ambassador, thank you for being with us.
JAN ELIASSON, U.N. Special Envoy to Darfur: Thank you for inviting me.
MARGARET WARNER: The update you presented today to the Security Council was pretty grim. You said at one point the situation is "veering out of control." How so?
JAN ELIASSON: Well, we have made some progress in getting the movements to consolidate. There were maybe anywhere between 10 and 20 movements to deal with earlier. Now we have five groupings.
MARGARET WARNER: These are the rebels?
JAN ELIASSON: Of the rebels, right, of the movements, resistance movements. But now the latest development on the ground has led to a very deteriorating security situation. And, of course, the events in Chad are also complicating our work severely.
MARGARET WARNER: Well, today, there was, of course, this attack that seemed to follow the old pattern. It was in western Darfur on two towns. According to witnesses, you had the Sudanese government helicopters and the Janjaweed militias on the ground working together to drive these people out.
But in general, have those systematic atrocities continued at the same pace? Or are the deaths now more attributed to malnutrition and other conditions like that?
Jan Eliasson
U.N. Special Envoy, Darfur
The problems of today are tribal clashes. And the problem of today is the anger, frustration, and desperation in the camps, with two million people in the camps waiting to go back to their homes.
Tribal clashes
JAN ELIASSON: The mass killings of 2003 to 2005 are behind us. These matters have to be pursued in different other ways.
The problems of today are tribal clashes. And the problem of today is the anger, frustration, and desperation in the camps, with two million people in the camps waiting to go back to their homes, and, lastly, the fact that many of the villages are taken over by people who do not own this land.
So we have, I would say, great dangers ahead if we don't deal with the political issues and deal with the root causes.
But what is today's most troubling matter is the fact that you have not only the fighting in western Darfur that you just referred to, but you also have, ever since November, incursions across the border of Chad and Sudan, and that has a direct effect on the whole climate in this area.
MARGARET WARNER: Now, how does the Chad, Sudan -- how do those tensions exacerbate the situation in Darfur? Explain that.
JAN ELIASSON: If you look at the borderline between Chad and Sudan, it's just one line. It's drawn up in Berlin, 1885. It doesn't take into account the fact that the tribal and ethnic lines go across those borders.
That means that the so-called Zaghawa tribe also has a great part of their population in Chad. And there have been competition and rivalry and negative developments in the relationship between Chad and Sudan.
And this means that you always -- you have had very destabilizing factor all the time at the borderline. And I have come to the conclusion, and so has Salim Salim, my co-negotiator from African Union, that you will not have peace in Darfur without a normalization between Chad and Sudan.
Jan Eliasson
U.N. Special Envoy, Darfur
If the people of Darfur see that the police come into the camps, if they see that their villages will have protection, then they will be able to return. Then they will see that the international community is on their side.
Political stalemate?
MARGARET WARNER: Now, let's go back to the brief you've been carrying, which is to try to get a political agreement within Darfur. You said today the prospects for that look quite dim, at least in the near or medium term. Explain why.
JAN ELIASSON: We want to have the unity among the movements, perhaps in terms of -- not in terms of them unifying as organizations, but at least unifying on the positions for the talks and identifying a negotiation team.
Out of the five movements with whom we are dealing, two are ready to go, but three are in doubt, and one or two has very serious reservations about the process.
For them to come to the negotiation table without a unified position is, of course, very, very difficult.
MARGARET WARNER: Now, the U.N. last July had authorized a peacekeeping force of some 26,000, yet, by your own account, there are still only 9,000 on the ground. What is the hang-up there?
JAN ELIASSON: Well, I am very sorry to see that this deployment is so slow. There have been several difficulties, and we now have only, as you said, 9,000 and expect to have 20,000 soldiers, peacekeepers, deployed this year, plus, which is very important, 5,000 police.
We need those forces on the ground very soon. We want all the nations now to really use their influence to make sure that we get a quick deployment and that these peacekeepers are in place, because they also provide to the population of Darfur a sense of security.
If the people of Darfur see that the police come into the camps, if they see that their villages will have protection, then they will be able to return. Then they will see that the international community is on their side.
So for me and Salim Salim, to put it very simply, we are waiting as impatiently as many people in the rest of the world do.
MARGARET WARNER: So is the problem that the international community isn't contributing the forces and the equipment that's needed or that the Sudanese government won't let them in?
JAN ELIASSON: It's been a combination of two, of the different factors. One, that certain nationalities have not been accepted, and I feel that is very deplorable, since once you are part of a U.N. or African Union force, you should forget about nationality.
But, secondly, also, some powers, some countries have been reluctant in contributing, particularly we need aerial transport capacity. We need helicopters, and these have not come forward.
So it's a combination of different factors, plus, of course, to move so many people to Darfur with very little infrastructure, roads, and places to stay and the need for water, it's a very difficult exercise.
But we have to speed it up, because it's politically extremely significant and, from a human perspective, absolutely necessary.
Jan Eliasson
U.N. Special Envoy, Darfur
All nations have to use their influence, and hopefully the governments themselves will draw the conclusion that it is in their enlightened self-interest to normalize relations.
Immediate peace needed
MARGARET WARNER: Now, you've laid out what all the problems are. What's the single most important thing that the U.N. should do right now if the parties aren't really ready to talk?
JAN ELIASSON: Well, I think we have to put the emphasis now on creating an environment, a climate which is conducive, which is positive for the talks. And that means we have to deal with this very, very difficult situation around Chad and Sudan.
I think all nations have to use their influence, and hopefully the governments themselves will draw the conclusion that it is in their enlightened self-interest to normalize relations. It's very damaging to both of them to have these ongoing incursions and hostility between Chad and Sudan.
Secondly, I think we need to have a cessation of hostilities immediately. What is going on now in western Darfur while we speak is horrible, and the situation can easily run out of control.
Once we then have the increasing deployment of peacekeepers on the ground, we can instill a sense of security among the population, a belief in the international presence and belief in the negotiations that we aim to start.
But I must admit it's a pretty dim picture now.
MARGARET WARNER: Are you going to stick with this?
JAN ELIASSON: Well, we will have to -- we have to do everything to bring about peace in Darfur. I was out there just three weeks ago. And normally I've seen the horrible conditions in the camps. That was bad enough.
But this time I went to areas which were under control of movements, and I was extremely depressed. You know, the women had to go two to three hours to get water, and it's typical it was the women who had to carry it.
The children had gray faces. And the school where I went, they had 12 or 13 books for the whole school, for 300 children. The market had only onions, no food that I could see. Horrible conditions, abject poverty.
And we have to understand that this peace is need for the development of Darfur. It has been a neglected province of the Sudan, and they have to get back on the road. They have gone through the most horrible nightmares.
And we have to, all of us, do everything we can to bring back normalcy and peace to the people of Darfur.
MARGARET WARNER: Ambassador Jan Eliasson, thank you so much.
JAN ELIASSON: Thank you.
JIM LEHRER: Ambassador Eliasson will take your questions about all of this in our online Insider Forum. To participate, just go to our Web site at PBS.org.
Friday, January 18, 2008
மகமீது ஜாதியை சேர்ந்த அரபு ஜஞ்சாவீது ஜாதிவெறியர் சூடானின் இஸ்லாமிய அரசு ஆலோசகராக நியமனம்
மூஸா ஹிலால் என்னும் ஜஞ்சாவீது தலைவரின் கீழ் கருப்பினத்தவர்கள் டார்பரில் கொல்லப்படுகின்றார்கள். இந்த அரபு இனவெறியரால் இதுவரை பல லட்சக்கணக்கான கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளனர். ஏராளமான பெண்கள் கற்பழிக்கப்பட்டு கொல்லப்பட்டிருக்கின்றனர். ஏராளமான கர்ப்பிணி பெண்கள் கதற கதற சிசு வீசியெறியப்பட்டு சிதைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.
அப்படிப்பட்ட கொடூரனான இந்த மூஸா ஹிலால் தற்போது சூடானின் அரபு இஸ்லாமிய அரசின் முக்கிய ஆலோசகராக நியமனம் செய்யபப்ட்டுள்ளார்.
சூடானில் இருக்கும் அரபு ஜாதிகளில் மகாமீது என்ற ஜாதியை சேர்ந்தவர் இந்த மூஸா ஹிலால்.
Sudan president appoints notorious Janjaweed leader as special adviser
Thursday 17 January 2008 04:48. Printer-Friendly version Comments...
January 16, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir appointed a suspected Janjaweed leader as a special adviser.
Musa Hilal (NYT)Press reports in Khartoum said that Al-Bashir issued a decree appointing Musa Hilal, leader of the Darfurian Arab Mahameed clan, as an adviser for the ministry of federal government.
Hilal has been named by numerous eyewitnesses in Darfur as leading terror campaign against the African tribes in the war ravaged region.
The tribal leader denied any wrongdoings and told Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a videotaped interview in 2005, that he only recruited militias on behalf of Sudan’s central government.
The 43 years old was jailed by the Sudanese authorities in 1998 for leading armed robbery of the central bank in the city of Nyala in Darfur. However the First Vice president Ali Osman Taha secured his release in 2002 for unknown reasons.
The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when an ethnic minority rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, which then was accused of enlisting the Janjaweed militia group to help crush the rebellion.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been investigating the war crimes in Darfur and has issued arrest warrants against Ahmed Muhammed Harun the Sudanese minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb.
Hilal was named in the filings made by the ICC prosecutor in February 2007 as making a speech alongside with Harun in July 2003, which was characterized as “racist”. However he was not named as a war crime suspect.
“Hilal was enthusiastic about unifying to fight the enemy and characterized the conflict as a holy war” the ICC prosecutor said in the document he submitted to the judges.
The UN Security Council imposed travel and financial sanctions on Hilal and three other individuals in April 2006. The US president George Bush issued an executive order enforcing similar sanctions on them.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have died in the conflict, which Washington calls genocide, a term European governments are reluctant to use. The Sudan government says 9,000 people have been killed.
(ST)
அப்படிப்பட்ட கொடூரனான இந்த மூஸா ஹிலால் தற்போது சூடானின் அரபு இஸ்லாமிய அரசின் முக்கிய ஆலோசகராக நியமனம் செய்யபப்ட்டுள்ளார்.
சூடானில் இருக்கும் அரபு ஜாதிகளில் மகாமீது என்ற ஜாதியை சேர்ந்தவர் இந்த மூஸா ஹிலால்.
Sudan president appoints notorious Janjaweed leader as special adviser
Thursday 17 January 2008 04:48. Printer-Friendly version Comments...
January 16, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir appointed a suspected Janjaweed leader as a special adviser.
Musa Hilal (NYT)Press reports in Khartoum said that Al-Bashir issued a decree appointing Musa Hilal, leader of the Darfurian Arab Mahameed clan, as an adviser for the ministry of federal government.
Hilal has been named by numerous eyewitnesses in Darfur as leading terror campaign against the African tribes in the war ravaged region.
The tribal leader denied any wrongdoings and told Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a videotaped interview in 2005, that he only recruited militias on behalf of Sudan’s central government.
The 43 years old was jailed by the Sudanese authorities in 1998 for leading armed robbery of the central bank in the city of Nyala in Darfur. However the First Vice president Ali Osman Taha secured his release in 2002 for unknown reasons.
The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when an ethnic minority rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, which then was accused of enlisting the Janjaweed militia group to help crush the rebellion.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been investigating the war crimes in Darfur and has issued arrest warrants against Ahmed Muhammed Harun the Sudanese minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb.
Hilal was named in the filings made by the ICC prosecutor in February 2007 as making a speech alongside with Harun in July 2003, which was characterized as “racist”. However he was not named as a war crime suspect.
“Hilal was enthusiastic about unifying to fight the enemy and characterized the conflict as a holy war” the ICC prosecutor said in the document he submitted to the judges.
The UN Security Council imposed travel and financial sanctions on Hilal and three other individuals in April 2006. The US president George Bush issued an executive order enforcing similar sanctions on them.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have died in the conflict, which Washington calls genocide, a term European governments are reluctant to use. The Sudan government says 9,000 people have been killed.
(ST)
Sunday, October 21, 2007
200000 பேரை பலிகொண்ட டார்பர் இனப்படுகொலை தொடர்கிறது. - அகதி முகாமிலும் படுகொலை
200000 கருப்பினத்தவரை கொன்று அவர்களை அவர்களது வாழ்விடங்களிலிருந்து துரத்திய அரபுக்களின் அராஜகம் தொடர்கிறது.
இப்போது டார்பரின் அகதி முகாமிலும் தாக்குதல் நடந்திருக்கிறது ஏராள்மான கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளதாக ஆப்பிரிக்க யூனியன் தெரிவித்துள்ளது.
இந்த அரபுகள் தங்கள் வன்முறை மார்க்கத்தை விட்டு அமைதி மார்க்கம் வர இறையை இறைஞ்சுவோம்
AU spokesman: Number of people killed, injured in violence at South Darfur camp
The Associated PressPublished: October 20, 2007
KHARTOUM, Sudan: A number of people have died and others have been injured during recent violence at a camp in southern Darfur, a spokesman for the African Union said Saturday.
The AU's Noureddine Mezni would not say exactly how many people were killed or injured in clashes Thursday at the Kalama refugee camp, which is southeast of the South Darfur capital, Nyala.
"Investigations are still under way and until those investigations are completed we would not be able to give specifics," Mezni, the spokesman of the AU, told The Associated Press.
Al Sahafa, the independent daily newspaper reporting from Darfur, said at least five people were killed and nine others were injured inside the Kalama camp. The newspaper reported that senior government officials, including the interior and defense ministers and the national intelligence chief, are in the region to try remedy the situation.
Al Sahafa said the clashes were sparked by differences among tribal groups that signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government in 2006 and those who did not sign the agreement.
Today in Africa & Middle East
Iran's top nuclear negotiator quitsU.S. military says 49 militants killed in IraqSyria makes changes to stem the flow of Iraqi refugees
The violence comes a week before Darfur rebel factions and the government are set to meet in Libya to try to put an end to more than four years of violence in the war-torn region.
Fighting broke out in the western Sudanese region in 2003, when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of discrimination.
Khartoum is blamed for indiscriminately retaliating against black civilians. More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million been chased from their home despite an African Union peacekeeping mission deployed in the region.
The 7,000-strong AU force is to be replaced in January by a hybrid force of 26,000 AU and U.N. peacekeepers.
"We call upon all parties to refrain from any escalation of the situation, especially at a time preparations are being made to engage in the peace negotiations in Sirte, Libya," Mezni said.
He would not say who was responsible for the latest violence, other than to say a "number of parties were implicated."
"But we can confirm that a number of persons were killed and others are missing, and the investigations are still going on about the whole episode." Mezni said.
Terms of Use
Back to topHome > Africa & Middle East
இப்போது டார்பரின் அகதி முகாமிலும் தாக்குதல் நடந்திருக்கிறது ஏராள்மான கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளதாக ஆப்பிரிக்க யூனியன் தெரிவித்துள்ளது.
இந்த அரபுகள் தங்கள் வன்முறை மார்க்கத்தை விட்டு அமைதி மார்க்கம் வர இறையை இறைஞ்சுவோம்
AU spokesman: Number of people killed, injured in violence at South Darfur camp
The Associated PressPublished: October 20, 2007
KHARTOUM, Sudan: A number of people have died and others have been injured during recent violence at a camp in southern Darfur, a spokesman for the African Union said Saturday.
The AU's Noureddine Mezni would not say exactly how many people were killed or injured in clashes Thursday at the Kalama refugee camp, which is southeast of the South Darfur capital, Nyala.
"Investigations are still under way and until those investigations are completed we would not be able to give specifics," Mezni, the spokesman of the AU, told The Associated Press.
Al Sahafa, the independent daily newspaper reporting from Darfur, said at least five people were killed and nine others were injured inside the Kalama camp. The newspaper reported that senior government officials, including the interior and defense ministers and the national intelligence chief, are in the region to try remedy the situation.
Al Sahafa said the clashes were sparked by differences among tribal groups that signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government in 2006 and those who did not sign the agreement.
Today in Africa & Middle East
Iran's top nuclear negotiator quitsU.S. military says 49 militants killed in IraqSyria makes changes to stem the flow of Iraqi refugees
The violence comes a week before Darfur rebel factions and the government are set to meet in Libya to try to put an end to more than four years of violence in the war-torn region.
Fighting broke out in the western Sudanese region in 2003, when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of discrimination.
Khartoum is blamed for indiscriminately retaliating against black civilians. More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million been chased from their home despite an African Union peacekeeping mission deployed in the region.
The 7,000-strong AU force is to be replaced in January by a hybrid force of 26,000 AU and U.N. peacekeepers.
"We call upon all parties to refrain from any escalation of the situation, especially at a time preparations are being made to engage in the peace negotiations in Sirte, Libya," Mezni said.
He would not say who was responsible for the latest violence, other than to say a "number of parties were implicated."
"But we can confirm that a number of persons were killed and others are missing, and the investigations are still going on about the whole episode." Mezni said.
Terms of Use
Back to topHome > Africa & Middle East
Friday, October 19, 2007
டார்பர் கருப்பின அகதி முகாம் மீது சூடானின் இஸ்லாமிய அரபு அரசு குண்டு வீச்சு
அப்துல் வாஹித் முகம்மது நூர் என்ற டார்பர் கருப்பினத்தவர்களது தலைவர் சூடானின் அரபு அரசாங்க துருப்புகள் கருப்பினத்தவரது அகதி முகாம்களின் மீது குண்டு வீசி தாக்குதல் நடத்தின என்று தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.
டார்பரின் பல பகுதிகளிலிருந்து துரத்தப்பட்ட கருப்பின மக்கள் தங்கியிருக்கும் மிகப்பெரிய அகதி முகாம் மீது சூடான் அரசு குண்டு வீசியுள்ளது.
இதுவரை 200, 000 கருப்பினத்தவர்கள் சூடானின் இஸ்லாமிய அரபு அரசால் கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளனர். சுமார் 20 மில்லியன் மக்கள் அகதிகளாக சொந்த இடங்களிலிருந்து துரத்தப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.
Sudanese forces shelling Darfur refugee camp: rebel chief
Fri Oct 19, 6:54 AM ET
NAIROBI (AFP) - An exiled Darfur rebel chief said on Friday that Sudanese government forces were shelling the largest refugee camp in Darfur.
Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, a chief instigator of the Darfur rebellion, said the forces had descended on Kalma camp, 17 kilometres (11 miles) from the South Darfur capital Nyala.
"This is happening as we speak. The government of Sudan is using artillery against the people in the camp," Nur told AFP by phone from Paris, where he is exiled.
Nur said he had received information about the attack on Kalma, the largest camp in Darfur, from his field commanders.
"The strategy is the following: kill, rape, burn, put people in concentration camps. This is the regime's final solution," added Nur, who founded the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) which has since splintered into several factions.
Nur, whose military influence has faded in the recent months but is regarded as influential by the Darfur civilian population, called for action to halt the killing in Darfur.
"I am calling on the international community to stop the genocide against my people. What is happening is really very sad (and) everybody is turning a blind eye.
"We need urgent action and the solution is not going to come from Libya," Nur added.
Final settlement talks between Darfur's myriad rebel groups and Khartoum are scheduled to kick off on October 27 in Libya, in a bid to end the conflict that has raged since February 2003.
Acccording to the UN at least 200,000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced in the conflict that has spawned what aid groups describe as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
டார்பரின் பல பகுதிகளிலிருந்து துரத்தப்பட்ட கருப்பின மக்கள் தங்கியிருக்கும் மிகப்பெரிய அகதி முகாம் மீது சூடான் அரசு குண்டு வீசியுள்ளது.
இதுவரை 200, 000 கருப்பினத்தவர்கள் சூடானின் இஸ்லாமிய அரபு அரசால் கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளனர். சுமார் 20 மில்லியன் மக்கள் அகதிகளாக சொந்த இடங்களிலிருந்து துரத்தப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.
Sudanese forces shelling Darfur refugee camp: rebel chief
Fri Oct 19, 6:54 AM ET
NAIROBI (AFP) - An exiled Darfur rebel chief said on Friday that Sudanese government forces were shelling the largest refugee camp in Darfur.
Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, a chief instigator of the Darfur rebellion, said the forces had descended on Kalma camp, 17 kilometres (11 miles) from the South Darfur capital Nyala.
"This is happening as we speak. The government of Sudan is using artillery against the people in the camp," Nur told AFP by phone from Paris, where he is exiled.
Nur said he had received information about the attack on Kalma, the largest camp in Darfur, from his field commanders.
"The strategy is the following: kill, rape, burn, put people in concentration camps. This is the regime's final solution," added Nur, who founded the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) which has since splintered into several factions.
Nur, whose military influence has faded in the recent months but is regarded as influential by the Darfur civilian population, called for action to halt the killing in Darfur.
"I am calling on the international community to stop the genocide against my people. What is happening is really very sad (and) everybody is turning a blind eye.
"We need urgent action and the solution is not going to come from Libya," Nur added.
Final settlement talks between Darfur's myriad rebel groups and Khartoum are scheduled to kick off on October 27 in Libya, in a bid to end the conflict that has raged since February 2003.
Acccording to the UN at least 200,000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced in the conflict that has spawned what aid groups describe as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
கருப்பினத்தவரது தொண்டையை அறுத்து இனப்படுகொலை - அரபியர் கொடூரம்
ஆப்பிரிக்க யூனியனும், ஐக்கிய நாடுகளும், டார்பரில் ஒரு புது இனப்படுகொலையை ஆராய்ந்து வருகின்றனர். 30 பொதுமக்களான கருப்பினத்தவரகளது தொண்டையை அறுத்து மசூதியில் வைத்து கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ள்னர். ஐந்து வயது சிறுவன் கூடதப்பிக்கவில்லை.
வழக்கம்போல சூடானின் அரபு இஸ்லாமிய குடியரசு அரசாங்கம் இந்த படுகொலைக்கும் தனக்கும் சம்பந்தமில்லை என்று மறுத்துள்ளது.
nation | world
World Briefs: New massacre in Darfur reported
Denver Post Wire Services
Article Launched: 10/17/2007 01:00:00 AM MDT
NAIROBI, KENYA — African Union and United Nations officials are looking into reports of a new massacre in Darfur, in which witnesses said that Sudanese government troops and their allied militias killed more than 30 civilians, slitting the throats of several men praying at a mosque and shooting a 5-year-old boy in the back as he tried to run away.
According to several residents of Muhagiriya, uniformed government troops and dozens of militiamen surrounded the town on Oct. 8 and stormed the market.
Muhagiriya was a stronghold of one of Darfur's many rebel factions, but witnesses said that there were few rebels there at the time and that government forces turned their guns - and knives - on civilians.
The Sudanese government denied any involvement.
வழக்கம்போல சூடானின் அரபு இஸ்லாமிய குடியரசு அரசாங்கம் இந்த படுகொலைக்கும் தனக்கும் சம்பந்தமில்லை என்று மறுத்துள்ளது.
nation | world
World Briefs: New massacre in Darfur reported
Denver Post Wire Services
Article Launched: 10/17/2007 01:00:00 AM MDT
NAIROBI, KENYA — African Union and United Nations officials are looking into reports of a new massacre in Darfur, in which witnesses said that Sudanese government troops and their allied militias killed more than 30 civilians, slitting the throats of several men praying at a mosque and shooting a 5-year-old boy in the back as he tried to run away.
According to several residents of Muhagiriya, uniformed government troops and dozens of militiamen surrounded the town on Oct. 8 and stormed the market.
Muhagiriya was a stronghold of one of Darfur's many rebel factions, but witnesses said that there were few rebels there at the time and that government forces turned their guns - and knives - on civilians.
The Sudanese government denied any involvement.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
அரபியர்களின் கற்பழிப்பு ஜிகாத் - டார்பர் கருப்பின பெண்களின் துயரம்
டார்பரின் கருப்பின பெண்கள் இனவெறி கொண்ட அரபு ஜஞ்ஞாவீத் போராளிகளால் கற்பழித்து கொல்லப்படுகிறார்கள்.
இந்த பெண்களின் துயரத்தை கண்டும் காணாததுமாக உலகம் இருக்கிறது.
இந்த கருப்பின மக்களும் இஸ்லாமியர்களே. அரபுகள் இவர்களது நிலங்களை அரபியாவிலிருந்து வந்து ஆக்கிரமித்து இவர்களை கட்டாயமாக இஸ்லாமுக்கு மதம் மாற்றினர். தற்போது அரபு ஜாதிகளுக்கு மேலும் நிலம் வேண்டும் என்பதற்காக சவுதி அரேபியா போன்ற இஸ்லாமிய நாடுகளிலிருந்து பணம் பெற்று அதன் உதவியுடன் ஆயுதங்களை வாங்கி பல அரபு ஜாதியினரை இணைத்து ஜஞ்ஞாவீத் என்ற போராளிக்கூட்டத்தத உருவாக்கியுள்ளது சூடான் இஸ்லாமிய அரசு.
இவர்கள் டார்பரின் கருப்பின பெண்களை கற்பழித்து கொன்று துரத்துகின்றனர். இதுவரை பல லட்சக்கணக்கான கருப்பினத்தவர் கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.
கற்பழிக்கப்பட்ட பெண்கள் தங்களது குரல்களை தற்போது பதிவு செய்து வருகின்றனர்
September 23, 2007
Curse of the Janjaweed
Since 2003, Janjaweed bandits have been preying on the women of Darfur. Nobody knows how many they have raped, nobody knows how many pregnancies have resulted from these attacks, or how many babies have been killed by their ‘disgraced’ mothers. But now the women are beginning to speak out. Photographs: Jon NicholsonAnn McFerran
As soon as she saw the two darkly clad men riding towards her on camels, their heads and faces swathed in scarves, Nafisa Mohamed knew what she must do. “I told my son and my daughter to run as fast as they could.” The men were the Janjaweed, nomadic Arab bandits who have been slaughtering Darfuri men and raping women, in a military offensive engineered by the Sudanese government. Jinn is Arabic for demon and jawad means horse. Darfuri people will tell you that the Janjaweed are indeed devils on horseback. Nafisa had been living for a year in Kalma camp, which houses about 120,000 Darfuri people who have had their homes destroyed by the Janjaweed. On this day she walked several miles away from the camp with two of her children to collect firewood. When the men approached, she feared they would try to kill her 13-year-old son and rape her 11-year-old daughter, but thought that if she surrendered herself and submitted they wouldn’t bother chasing her children. She knew they might kill her. Certainly they’d rape her.
The first man went off in pursuit of other women, while the second tore off her tobe, a large veil that covers the head and body, and screamed at her: “Unclean slave! I will give you a pale-skinned baby.” Then he thrust himself upon her so violently, she bled: “Slave woman! Your children will be Arabs, and they will inherit this land.” Afterwards, Nafisa, full of self-loathing, ran as fast as she could back to the camp where her other children were waiting. Her greatest fear was that she’d become pregnant by a Janjaweed.
Nafisa, 30, and her children live in Kalma camp near Nyala, the capital of Southern Darfur, where the Khartoum government has been conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Arabs for the past five years. Around 300,000 have died as a result, and more than 2m have lost their homes – over a third of the population. In 2004, when Nafisa’s village was destroyed by the Janjaweed, she had trekked to Kalma camp with thousands of others to escape the slaughter. Even then, what was happening in Darfur was condemned by the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, as “genocide”.
Nafisa is a Fur, from the original tribe of Darfur. She is strong, resourceful and beautiful. She is also almost illiterate, as she left school at the age of 11 to become engaged to a man nearly 20 years older. She married him at 13, and had his five children. Then he left her for a second wife. He gave the family’s food card from the World Food Programme (WFP) to his new wife.
Multimedia
Curse of the Janjaweed
“I couldn’t afford to be pregnant,” says Nafisa. “My children would be shamed by a Janjaweed baby.” Within weeks, however, it became clear that she was pregnant. “I hated the Janjaweed baby I was carrying,” she says. “I hated myself.”
In October 2006, during Ramadan, Nafisa went into labour and gave birth to a perfect baby girl. And then a small miracle happened: she was overwhelmed with love. “I thought, this baby doesn’t deserve my hatred or anger. This baby is a gift from God, so that is my baby’s name, Quisma, which means ‘gift from God’.”
As Nafisa reaches this part of her story, Gisma, who is 10 months old, and has been suckling noisily under her mother’s orange tobe, peers out at us. “The love that I feel for my daughter is as powerful as the hatred I feel for her father,” smiles Nafisa. “Gisma is part of me.” Gisma is lucky, and she may be exceptional. Nafisa knows raped mothers who have placed their innocent offspring in plastic bags and thrust them down latrines. “But that’s bad,” she says. “A child is a child, and no matter what its birth, it should be given every chance to live.”
Since violence convulsed Darfur in February 2003, rape has been part of the Janjaweed’s gruesome pattern of violence against the Darfuri people, though rape was virtually unheard of before these attacks. But it’s impossible to determine how many babies have been born from rape, partly because of a widespread belief that pregnancy only results from wanted sex, and partly because of the subsequent shame of these mothers in this traditional Muslim society.
In the early years of the conflict, some rape victims who had babies were ostracised, and some of them rejected their babies. The Sudanese journalist Nima Elbagir recalls “a hugely disturbing” encounter in Western Darfur in 2005 with a 14-year-old rape victim. The girl was dark-skinned but her baby was light-skinned, suggesting its father was a Janjaweed. The girl was so traumatised, she refused even to hold her baby, let alone feed it. When Elbagir returned some months later, she learnt that the baby had died from lack of nutrition.
In Sudan, a child’s identity is determined by the ethnicity of the father. In Darfur, the rapists have a ready-made excuse for their crimes on the battlefield: to replace the existing communities with a new generation of Arab children.
Darfur is a complex African crisis, rooted in violent ethnic and historical factors, and recently exacerbated by drought and famine. Most of Darfur’s 6m people are either farmers or nomadic herders. Most farmers are African and most nomads Arab. Until recently, the two groups mixed fairly easily. Competition between the tribes tended to be economic rather than ethnic. The three main African tribes are the Fur, who are also the largest, the Zaghawa and the Masalit. Almost everyone is Muslim, speaks Arabic and has dark skin.
The recent violence also has its roots in the cultural legacy of slavery, now outlawed. Until little more than a generation ago, Darfur was Sudan’s slave-trading ground. For many Arab Sudanese, Darfuri women are seen as beautiful, sexually generous and comparatively liberated. By some Arabs they are seen as fit for little more than slavery or prostitution.
Earlier this year, in a dizzying vindication of lawless Janjaweed behaviour, the Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal summarised the contempt the Janjaweed feel for Darfuri women: “Why would you want to rape these women? They’re disgusting; rape is shameful. We have honour, but our men wouldn’t need to use force. These things hold no shame for these women.”
Some rural Darfuri women are not circumcised – certainly none of those I spoke to was – unlike Sudanese Arab women, who are often subjected to an extreme form of genital mutilation. To the Janjaweed, this is conclusive proof that many Darfuri women are unclean.
Women in Darfur who report rapes are risking their lives and stand more chance of being prosecuted than the rapists. (Earlier this year two women were sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery, although their sentences have yet to be executed.) In sharia law, a woman needs four male witnesses to testify to a rape. If she is married, reports a rape but doesn’t have these witnesses, she may be prosecuted for adultery and stoned to death. The Khartoum government has always vehemently denied that its soldiers rape women. Because of what one Sudanese human-rights activist describes as the government’s ongoing objection to the focus of rape in Darfur, the official statistics for last year’s rape cases amounted to a paltry seven. The Janjaweed, like the police and the rest of the military, enjoy immunity.
Six months ago, Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, publicly denied that rape had ever been a problem in Darfur. “It’s not in the Sudanese culture to rape,” he said. “Rape doesn’t exist.” In the teeth of such denial, non-governmental organisations risk being expelled from Darfur if they speak out. In 2005, when Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) published a damning report on the scale of rape, two senior members were arrested – a stark warning to other NGOs. Later that year, police arrested a rape victim in Nyala who’d gone to a clinic for help.
Earlier this year, after lengthy negotiations with the government, a delegation from the US-based group Refugees International arrived in Khartoum to investigate rape in Darfur. They were ordered to leave Sudan within 24 hours.
Fatima was cooking when she heard the vehicle outside her front door. In it were eight men, some in military fatigues. She’d been expecting them ever since she’d been seen rescuing her neighbour’s six-year-old daughter when the Janjaweed were attacking neighbours’ houses. It was 2003, and the Janjaweed’s brutal campaign was beginning to intensify. What happened next is hard to fathom because Fatima emits a sound from somewhere deep within her that is piercing and startling, like the cry of a wounded animal.
Her wail continues for what seems an age. Tears pour down her face as she recalls how the men beat her, whipped her, then proceeded to rape her, passing her from one to the other. Then they whipped her again. She pulls aside her black tobe to reveal a large scar on her shoulder. Then another by her ribcage and left breast. “When I remember that day I can’t control my crying. On that day I lost my children; I lost my heart.”
We are in a large tent that is the women’s centre in Otash camp, near Nyala. Our translator says that Fatima is like many women from Western Darfur whose villages have been destroyed. “What happened to these women is so terrible that we’d find ourselves sitting with them from 6am to 6pm while they wept. Often they don’t want to admit that they became pregnant as a result of rape because they fear that they and their children will be stigmatised.”
But like most Darfuri women, Fatima, 37, is resourceful and courageous, and before the men returned she had prepared emergency supplies – a jerry can of water and a bag of food. When the rape took place, her three older children were helping their uncle at the market. She hopes they’re still with him, because she hasn’t seen them since. (Her husband had been killed some months before.) Within hours of the attack, she strapped her 18-month-old son on her back, took her four-year-old’s hand and set out in the direction of Nyala. It took her 30 days to reach Otash camp. But she arrived safely, and eight months later gave birth to a baby girl, Maryam.
Four years on, Fatima still lives at Otash, in a small, sweltering hut. A rope bed with a filthy blanket stands along one side; at the back is a sack of millet. From the roof hang cooking utensils and jerry cans. A rush mat covers part of the dirt floor. Fatima’s sons appear. She picks up Maryam and sits her proudly on her lap.
Fatima’s life since the rape sounds relentlessly hard. She earns a little money washing blankets for others in the camp, for which she is paid the price of a bar of soap. That money and the WFP’s millet and oil are what she and her family survive on. “My children don’t have enough to eat,” she says. “I still cry and cry because of that terrible day. Time has not healed.” People view her with suspicion because of her situation, and men can be disrespectful to a woman alone. Sometimes she wakes in the middle of the night to find a man in her hut. “I scream ‘Thief!’”
Ask Fatima why her village was attacked in 2003 and she says: “I had heard that the Sudanese want the land of the Fur, so they want us to leave our land.” Which is more or less what the conflict amounts to. In the past two decades, relations between the Arab and African tribes in Darfur have become increasingly strained as persistent drought has forced the camel-riding Arabs onto the more arable lands of the African farmers. Hostilities simmered with the arrival of more Arabs from Chad, Mali and Mauritania. But Khartoum’s leaders ignored the tensions, and even appointed Arabs to Darfur’s top jobs. In February 2003, a group of African rebels calling themselves the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) swept into the airport in El Fasher, northern Darfur, killed 100 soldiers and posted their manifesto on the internet, demanding a democratic Sudan for all Arab and African tribes.
Khartoum’s government realised that since most Sudanese rank-and-file soldiers were from Darfur, they couldn’t be relied upon to turn on their own families and communities. The president called on Arab warlords to crush the rebels. The most enthusiastic recruits came from small bands of Arab nomads who were little more than freelance bandits. They relished the opportunity to grab land and livestock: the Janjaweed – evil on horseback – were born.
Goaded by Khartoum’s exhortations of Arab supremacy, the Janjaweed began a brutal and effective system to destroy the Darfuri people. Liaising with the Sudanese air force and army by satellite phone as villages were being shelled, the Janjaweed would then ride in on camel or horseback to finish the carnage. They’d kill the men, rape the women, often in front of their families, then burn down the rest of the villages. As a parting gesture, boy babies might be thrown into the fire. In February 2004, 75 people were killed in the town of Tawilla and more than 100 women raped – some by as many as 14 men; six girls in front of their fathers.
In March 2004, just before the world’s leaders commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, Mukesh Kapila, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator for Sudan, told the BBC: “This is ethnic cleansing; I don’t know why the world isn’t doing more.” By January 2005, the UN had completed an international inquiry and concluded that the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed were responsible for crimes against humanity, but said they could find no evidence of a policy of genocide. The UK’s then foreign minister, Lord Triesman, doesn’t balk at the term “genocide” but prefers “ ‘crimes of concern to humanity’, which includes war crimes, genocide and ethnic cleansing”.
Khartoum had often described the Janjaweed’s attacks as overenthusiastic counterinsurgency. Whether it was this or a carefully orchestrated campaign of ethnic cleansing, Triesman knew he had to negotiate with Khartoum: “We [the international community] were like rabbits in the headlights – because of the complexity of Darfur. People were appealing to Bashir’s better nature. They should have saved their breath. You don’t get bad people to become good people by schmoozing them. The government of Sudan believed we didn’t have the mettle to test them on the two things that mattered most to them – their leaders ending up before the International Criminal Court, like Milosevic, and they didn’t want it to appear as if they did not exert authority in their own country.”
Today, with most people in central Darfur living in camps, the women are most vulnerable to the Janjaweed when they leave the camps to collect firewood and hay. Gathering firewood is one of the few ways to supplement basic aid. It used to be men’s work; now it’s yet another task performed by the women. Gladys Atinga, a Ghanaian who runs the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) gender-based violence programme in Southern Darfur, says this is also causing a profound change. “Many women have lost their husbands because of the war. They see the remaining men taking advantage of the war, protesting that they’re targets of the killers, so can’t collect firewood. They see how irresponsible and useless the men have become.”
The African Union’s (AU) troops in Darfur sometimes accompany the women as they collect wood, supposedly to protect them. But they don’t usually go the whole distance, and their “firewood patrol days” are known throughout the community, so the attacks on the women on other days are more intense. Until the UN hybrid force arrives in 2008, women will be vulnerable. Meanwhile, Darfur is descending further into tribal anarchy. It’s often hard to work out who is fighting who, let alone why. Some of the most brutal recent rapes are by former SLA rebels led by Minni Minnawi now fighting alongside government militias. Atinga describes how this summer she helped women raped and mutilated by former SLA rebels. “These women haunt me,” she says.
But a remarkable breakthrough is happening. In this highly conservative society, where rape has been the ultimate female disgrace, Darfuri women are beginning to talk. When rapes increased around Kalma camp recently, four women leaders encouraged more than 300 women to demand a meeting with members of the international community to discuss ways to improve protection. “War is terrible,” says Atinga. “Yet despite what they’ve endured, Darfuri women are being transformed because of the war and are becoming more powerful.”
Along the road from Nyala to Manawashei are convoys of WFP and Red Cross vehicles. In the early years of the conflict, when aid agencies were scarce and their neutrality respected, neither side attacked vehicles carrying aid. Today, they are some of the bandits’ biggest prizes. The sight of camels wandering among thorn bushes makes even experienced UN drivers visibly tense, particularly on a 12-mile stretch they call the “forest”, where the Janjaweed have camps.
At Manawashei’s camp, the queue of women for Dr Nourad Umdadin is long, even in the heat of the midday sun. Some come to the doctor at night. A few weeks ago, a father and his 15-year-old pregnant daughter knocked on the doctor’s door one evening. The girl had been raped on firewood patrol, and the doctor says her father was distraught with anxiety – the girl wouldn’t be able to marry and would bring disgrace on her family. Abortion is against the law in Sudan, but the doctor performed what he describes as “a suitable medical procedure”.
Occasionally, he says, young women take action themselves. Discovering she was pregnant, a 17-year-old rape victim drank iodine, believing it would poison the foetus. By the time she came to see the doctor, “she was fainting and I could do nothing”. The doctor sent her to hospital, where she died a slow, painful death. A gentle, compassionate man in his early thirties, the doctor stretches out his palms in a supplicatory gesture. “What can I do to help these young girls? First they’re raped, then their shame is so great they do terrible things to themselves.”
Eighteen months ago, Haja Ibrahim, 25, set out from Manawashei camp with some other women to collect hay. When they saw the Janjaweed, the women tried to escape. Two succeeded, on donkeys, but Haja couldn’t run fast enough. While the men raped her, she screamed. For a month after the rape, she couldn’t – or didn’t – speak at all. Today she speaks in a husky whisper. “After they raped me they branded me with a knife, saying that is what they did to slave women or to their camels.” But the women who’d escaped on donkeys returned with others from the camp, and the bandits fled. “I was lying almost naked in the dirt. My mother cried and cried when she saw me.”
When Haja found she was pregnant, her husband, who’d left her some years earlier, refused to send money to her other two children. Like Nafisa, Haja says she loves her baby. However, she hates it that there are still some who taunt her child for its Janjaweed parentage. “People are shocked at what happened to me, but I think women understand and are angry for me. And they think we should talk about the terrible things that have happened to us.”
As Gordon Brown and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy unite to tackle the problems in Darfur, David Triesman says all the “building blocks” are in place for resolution of the conflict. Those blocks include the threats of the International Criminal Court, sanctions, an arms embargo and the strengthened AU/UN hybrid force. Triesman is confident that “Gordon will see this as a moral issue in which an ethical outcome is essential.” He adds: “And if there isn’t a ceasefire when the hybrid force arrives, I’d be inclined to say to the Janjaweed, ‘If you don’t stop fighting, we will come after you and kill you.’”
Tough talk, but Triesman insists: “Only when Darfur is no longer a war zone will there be effective protection of women.” And what will happen to the children of the raped Darfuri women, to the babies of the Janjaweed? If the children’s mothers are brave enough to care for them in the first place, they will perhaps be integrated within their communities. “A blind eye will be turned towards their paternity,” says Pam Delargy of the UNFPA. “A general amnesia will take place.”
Jon Nicholson’s photographs of Darfuri women will be exhibited at the Air Gallery, 32 Dover Street, London W1, from October 8 to 13. Tel: 020 7250 4500.
To help the women of Darfur, visit www.unfpa.org
இந்த பெண்களின் துயரத்தை கண்டும் காணாததுமாக உலகம் இருக்கிறது.
இந்த கருப்பின மக்களும் இஸ்லாமியர்களே. அரபுகள் இவர்களது நிலங்களை அரபியாவிலிருந்து வந்து ஆக்கிரமித்து இவர்களை கட்டாயமாக இஸ்லாமுக்கு மதம் மாற்றினர். தற்போது அரபு ஜாதிகளுக்கு மேலும் நிலம் வேண்டும் என்பதற்காக சவுதி அரேபியா போன்ற இஸ்லாமிய நாடுகளிலிருந்து பணம் பெற்று அதன் உதவியுடன் ஆயுதங்களை வாங்கி பல அரபு ஜாதியினரை இணைத்து ஜஞ்ஞாவீத் என்ற போராளிக்கூட்டத்தத உருவாக்கியுள்ளது சூடான் இஸ்லாமிய அரசு.
இவர்கள் டார்பரின் கருப்பின பெண்களை கற்பழித்து கொன்று துரத்துகின்றனர். இதுவரை பல லட்சக்கணக்கான கருப்பினத்தவர் கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.
கற்பழிக்கப்பட்ட பெண்கள் தங்களது குரல்களை தற்போது பதிவு செய்து வருகின்றனர்
September 23, 2007
Curse of the Janjaweed
Since 2003, Janjaweed bandits have been preying on the women of Darfur. Nobody knows how many they have raped, nobody knows how many pregnancies have resulted from these attacks, or how many babies have been killed by their ‘disgraced’ mothers. But now the women are beginning to speak out. Photographs: Jon NicholsonAnn McFerran
As soon as she saw the two darkly clad men riding towards her on camels, their heads and faces swathed in scarves, Nafisa Mohamed knew what she must do. “I told my son and my daughter to run as fast as they could.” The men were the Janjaweed, nomadic Arab bandits who have been slaughtering Darfuri men and raping women, in a military offensive engineered by the Sudanese government. Jinn is Arabic for demon and jawad means horse. Darfuri people will tell you that the Janjaweed are indeed devils on horseback. Nafisa had been living for a year in Kalma camp, which houses about 120,000 Darfuri people who have had their homes destroyed by the Janjaweed. On this day she walked several miles away from the camp with two of her children to collect firewood. When the men approached, she feared they would try to kill her 13-year-old son and rape her 11-year-old daughter, but thought that if she surrendered herself and submitted they wouldn’t bother chasing her children. She knew they might kill her. Certainly they’d rape her.
The first man went off in pursuit of other women, while the second tore off her tobe, a large veil that covers the head and body, and screamed at her: “Unclean slave! I will give you a pale-skinned baby.” Then he thrust himself upon her so violently, she bled: “Slave woman! Your children will be Arabs, and they will inherit this land.” Afterwards, Nafisa, full of self-loathing, ran as fast as she could back to the camp where her other children were waiting. Her greatest fear was that she’d become pregnant by a Janjaweed.
Nafisa, 30, and her children live in Kalma camp near Nyala, the capital of Southern Darfur, where the Khartoum government has been conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Arabs for the past five years. Around 300,000 have died as a result, and more than 2m have lost their homes – over a third of the population. In 2004, when Nafisa’s village was destroyed by the Janjaweed, she had trekked to Kalma camp with thousands of others to escape the slaughter. Even then, what was happening in Darfur was condemned by the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, as “genocide”.
Nafisa is a Fur, from the original tribe of Darfur. She is strong, resourceful and beautiful. She is also almost illiterate, as she left school at the age of 11 to become engaged to a man nearly 20 years older. She married him at 13, and had his five children. Then he left her for a second wife. He gave the family’s food card from the World Food Programme (WFP) to his new wife.
Multimedia
Curse of the Janjaweed
“I couldn’t afford to be pregnant,” says Nafisa. “My children would be shamed by a Janjaweed baby.” Within weeks, however, it became clear that she was pregnant. “I hated the Janjaweed baby I was carrying,” she says. “I hated myself.”
In October 2006, during Ramadan, Nafisa went into labour and gave birth to a perfect baby girl. And then a small miracle happened: she was overwhelmed with love. “I thought, this baby doesn’t deserve my hatred or anger. This baby is a gift from God, so that is my baby’s name, Quisma, which means ‘gift from God’.”
As Nafisa reaches this part of her story, Gisma, who is 10 months old, and has been suckling noisily under her mother’s orange tobe, peers out at us. “The love that I feel for my daughter is as powerful as the hatred I feel for her father,” smiles Nafisa. “Gisma is part of me.” Gisma is lucky, and she may be exceptional. Nafisa knows raped mothers who have placed their innocent offspring in plastic bags and thrust them down latrines. “But that’s bad,” she says. “A child is a child, and no matter what its birth, it should be given every chance to live.”
Since violence convulsed Darfur in February 2003, rape has been part of the Janjaweed’s gruesome pattern of violence against the Darfuri people, though rape was virtually unheard of before these attacks. But it’s impossible to determine how many babies have been born from rape, partly because of a widespread belief that pregnancy only results from wanted sex, and partly because of the subsequent shame of these mothers in this traditional Muslim society.
In the early years of the conflict, some rape victims who had babies were ostracised, and some of them rejected their babies. The Sudanese journalist Nima Elbagir recalls “a hugely disturbing” encounter in Western Darfur in 2005 with a 14-year-old rape victim. The girl was dark-skinned but her baby was light-skinned, suggesting its father was a Janjaweed. The girl was so traumatised, she refused even to hold her baby, let alone feed it. When Elbagir returned some months later, she learnt that the baby had died from lack of nutrition.
In Sudan, a child’s identity is determined by the ethnicity of the father. In Darfur, the rapists have a ready-made excuse for their crimes on the battlefield: to replace the existing communities with a new generation of Arab children.
Darfur is a complex African crisis, rooted in violent ethnic and historical factors, and recently exacerbated by drought and famine. Most of Darfur’s 6m people are either farmers or nomadic herders. Most farmers are African and most nomads Arab. Until recently, the two groups mixed fairly easily. Competition between the tribes tended to be economic rather than ethnic. The three main African tribes are the Fur, who are also the largest, the Zaghawa and the Masalit. Almost everyone is Muslim, speaks Arabic and has dark skin.
The recent violence also has its roots in the cultural legacy of slavery, now outlawed. Until little more than a generation ago, Darfur was Sudan’s slave-trading ground. For many Arab Sudanese, Darfuri women are seen as beautiful, sexually generous and comparatively liberated. By some Arabs they are seen as fit for little more than slavery or prostitution.
Earlier this year, in a dizzying vindication of lawless Janjaweed behaviour, the Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal summarised the contempt the Janjaweed feel for Darfuri women: “Why would you want to rape these women? They’re disgusting; rape is shameful. We have honour, but our men wouldn’t need to use force. These things hold no shame for these women.”
Some rural Darfuri women are not circumcised – certainly none of those I spoke to was – unlike Sudanese Arab women, who are often subjected to an extreme form of genital mutilation. To the Janjaweed, this is conclusive proof that many Darfuri women are unclean.
Women in Darfur who report rapes are risking their lives and stand more chance of being prosecuted than the rapists. (Earlier this year two women were sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery, although their sentences have yet to be executed.) In sharia law, a woman needs four male witnesses to testify to a rape. If she is married, reports a rape but doesn’t have these witnesses, she may be prosecuted for adultery and stoned to death. The Khartoum government has always vehemently denied that its soldiers rape women. Because of what one Sudanese human-rights activist describes as the government’s ongoing objection to the focus of rape in Darfur, the official statistics for last year’s rape cases amounted to a paltry seven. The Janjaweed, like the police and the rest of the military, enjoy immunity.
Six months ago, Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, publicly denied that rape had ever been a problem in Darfur. “It’s not in the Sudanese culture to rape,” he said. “Rape doesn’t exist.” In the teeth of such denial, non-governmental organisations risk being expelled from Darfur if they speak out. In 2005, when Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) published a damning report on the scale of rape, two senior members were arrested – a stark warning to other NGOs. Later that year, police arrested a rape victim in Nyala who’d gone to a clinic for help.
Earlier this year, after lengthy negotiations with the government, a delegation from the US-based group Refugees International arrived in Khartoum to investigate rape in Darfur. They were ordered to leave Sudan within 24 hours.
Fatima was cooking when she heard the vehicle outside her front door. In it were eight men, some in military fatigues. She’d been expecting them ever since she’d been seen rescuing her neighbour’s six-year-old daughter when the Janjaweed were attacking neighbours’ houses. It was 2003, and the Janjaweed’s brutal campaign was beginning to intensify. What happened next is hard to fathom because Fatima emits a sound from somewhere deep within her that is piercing and startling, like the cry of a wounded animal.
Her wail continues for what seems an age. Tears pour down her face as she recalls how the men beat her, whipped her, then proceeded to rape her, passing her from one to the other. Then they whipped her again. She pulls aside her black tobe to reveal a large scar on her shoulder. Then another by her ribcage and left breast. “When I remember that day I can’t control my crying. On that day I lost my children; I lost my heart.”
We are in a large tent that is the women’s centre in Otash camp, near Nyala. Our translator says that Fatima is like many women from Western Darfur whose villages have been destroyed. “What happened to these women is so terrible that we’d find ourselves sitting with them from 6am to 6pm while they wept. Often they don’t want to admit that they became pregnant as a result of rape because they fear that they and their children will be stigmatised.”
But like most Darfuri women, Fatima, 37, is resourceful and courageous, and before the men returned she had prepared emergency supplies – a jerry can of water and a bag of food. When the rape took place, her three older children were helping their uncle at the market. She hopes they’re still with him, because she hasn’t seen them since. (Her husband had been killed some months before.) Within hours of the attack, she strapped her 18-month-old son on her back, took her four-year-old’s hand and set out in the direction of Nyala. It took her 30 days to reach Otash camp. But she arrived safely, and eight months later gave birth to a baby girl, Maryam.
Four years on, Fatima still lives at Otash, in a small, sweltering hut. A rope bed with a filthy blanket stands along one side; at the back is a sack of millet. From the roof hang cooking utensils and jerry cans. A rush mat covers part of the dirt floor. Fatima’s sons appear. She picks up Maryam and sits her proudly on her lap.
Fatima’s life since the rape sounds relentlessly hard. She earns a little money washing blankets for others in the camp, for which she is paid the price of a bar of soap. That money and the WFP’s millet and oil are what she and her family survive on. “My children don’t have enough to eat,” she says. “I still cry and cry because of that terrible day. Time has not healed.” People view her with suspicion because of her situation, and men can be disrespectful to a woman alone. Sometimes she wakes in the middle of the night to find a man in her hut. “I scream ‘Thief!’”
Ask Fatima why her village was attacked in 2003 and she says: “I had heard that the Sudanese want the land of the Fur, so they want us to leave our land.” Which is more or less what the conflict amounts to. In the past two decades, relations between the Arab and African tribes in Darfur have become increasingly strained as persistent drought has forced the camel-riding Arabs onto the more arable lands of the African farmers. Hostilities simmered with the arrival of more Arabs from Chad, Mali and Mauritania. But Khartoum’s leaders ignored the tensions, and even appointed Arabs to Darfur’s top jobs. In February 2003, a group of African rebels calling themselves the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) swept into the airport in El Fasher, northern Darfur, killed 100 soldiers and posted their manifesto on the internet, demanding a democratic Sudan for all Arab and African tribes.
Khartoum’s government realised that since most Sudanese rank-and-file soldiers were from Darfur, they couldn’t be relied upon to turn on their own families and communities. The president called on Arab warlords to crush the rebels. The most enthusiastic recruits came from small bands of Arab nomads who were little more than freelance bandits. They relished the opportunity to grab land and livestock: the Janjaweed – evil on horseback – were born.
Goaded by Khartoum’s exhortations of Arab supremacy, the Janjaweed began a brutal and effective system to destroy the Darfuri people. Liaising with the Sudanese air force and army by satellite phone as villages were being shelled, the Janjaweed would then ride in on camel or horseback to finish the carnage. They’d kill the men, rape the women, often in front of their families, then burn down the rest of the villages. As a parting gesture, boy babies might be thrown into the fire. In February 2004, 75 people were killed in the town of Tawilla and more than 100 women raped – some by as many as 14 men; six girls in front of their fathers.
In March 2004, just before the world’s leaders commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, Mukesh Kapila, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator for Sudan, told the BBC: “This is ethnic cleansing; I don’t know why the world isn’t doing more.” By January 2005, the UN had completed an international inquiry and concluded that the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed were responsible for crimes against humanity, but said they could find no evidence of a policy of genocide. The UK’s then foreign minister, Lord Triesman, doesn’t balk at the term “genocide” but prefers “ ‘crimes of concern to humanity’, which includes war crimes, genocide and ethnic cleansing”.
Khartoum had often described the Janjaweed’s attacks as overenthusiastic counterinsurgency. Whether it was this or a carefully orchestrated campaign of ethnic cleansing, Triesman knew he had to negotiate with Khartoum: “We [the international community] were like rabbits in the headlights – because of the complexity of Darfur. People were appealing to Bashir’s better nature. They should have saved their breath. You don’t get bad people to become good people by schmoozing them. The government of Sudan believed we didn’t have the mettle to test them on the two things that mattered most to them – their leaders ending up before the International Criminal Court, like Milosevic, and they didn’t want it to appear as if they did not exert authority in their own country.”
Today, with most people in central Darfur living in camps, the women are most vulnerable to the Janjaweed when they leave the camps to collect firewood and hay. Gathering firewood is one of the few ways to supplement basic aid. It used to be men’s work; now it’s yet another task performed by the women. Gladys Atinga, a Ghanaian who runs the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) gender-based violence programme in Southern Darfur, says this is also causing a profound change. “Many women have lost their husbands because of the war. They see the remaining men taking advantage of the war, protesting that they’re targets of the killers, so can’t collect firewood. They see how irresponsible and useless the men have become.”
The African Union’s (AU) troops in Darfur sometimes accompany the women as they collect wood, supposedly to protect them. But they don’t usually go the whole distance, and their “firewood patrol days” are known throughout the community, so the attacks on the women on other days are more intense. Until the UN hybrid force arrives in 2008, women will be vulnerable. Meanwhile, Darfur is descending further into tribal anarchy. It’s often hard to work out who is fighting who, let alone why. Some of the most brutal recent rapes are by former SLA rebels led by Minni Minnawi now fighting alongside government militias. Atinga describes how this summer she helped women raped and mutilated by former SLA rebels. “These women haunt me,” she says.
But a remarkable breakthrough is happening. In this highly conservative society, where rape has been the ultimate female disgrace, Darfuri women are beginning to talk. When rapes increased around Kalma camp recently, four women leaders encouraged more than 300 women to demand a meeting with members of the international community to discuss ways to improve protection. “War is terrible,” says Atinga. “Yet despite what they’ve endured, Darfuri women are being transformed because of the war and are becoming more powerful.”
Along the road from Nyala to Manawashei are convoys of WFP and Red Cross vehicles. In the early years of the conflict, when aid agencies were scarce and their neutrality respected, neither side attacked vehicles carrying aid. Today, they are some of the bandits’ biggest prizes. The sight of camels wandering among thorn bushes makes even experienced UN drivers visibly tense, particularly on a 12-mile stretch they call the “forest”, where the Janjaweed have camps.
At Manawashei’s camp, the queue of women for Dr Nourad Umdadin is long, even in the heat of the midday sun. Some come to the doctor at night. A few weeks ago, a father and his 15-year-old pregnant daughter knocked on the doctor’s door one evening. The girl had been raped on firewood patrol, and the doctor says her father was distraught with anxiety – the girl wouldn’t be able to marry and would bring disgrace on her family. Abortion is against the law in Sudan, but the doctor performed what he describes as “a suitable medical procedure”.
Occasionally, he says, young women take action themselves. Discovering she was pregnant, a 17-year-old rape victim drank iodine, believing it would poison the foetus. By the time she came to see the doctor, “she was fainting and I could do nothing”. The doctor sent her to hospital, where she died a slow, painful death. A gentle, compassionate man in his early thirties, the doctor stretches out his palms in a supplicatory gesture. “What can I do to help these young girls? First they’re raped, then their shame is so great they do terrible things to themselves.”
Eighteen months ago, Haja Ibrahim, 25, set out from Manawashei camp with some other women to collect hay. When they saw the Janjaweed, the women tried to escape. Two succeeded, on donkeys, but Haja couldn’t run fast enough. While the men raped her, she screamed. For a month after the rape, she couldn’t – or didn’t – speak at all. Today she speaks in a husky whisper. “After they raped me they branded me with a knife, saying that is what they did to slave women or to their camels.” But the women who’d escaped on donkeys returned with others from the camp, and the bandits fled. “I was lying almost naked in the dirt. My mother cried and cried when she saw me.”
When Haja found she was pregnant, her husband, who’d left her some years earlier, refused to send money to her other two children. Like Nafisa, Haja says she loves her baby. However, she hates it that there are still some who taunt her child for its Janjaweed parentage. “People are shocked at what happened to me, but I think women understand and are angry for me. And they think we should talk about the terrible things that have happened to us.”
As Gordon Brown and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy unite to tackle the problems in Darfur, David Triesman says all the “building blocks” are in place for resolution of the conflict. Those blocks include the threats of the International Criminal Court, sanctions, an arms embargo and the strengthened AU/UN hybrid force. Triesman is confident that “Gordon will see this as a moral issue in which an ethical outcome is essential.” He adds: “And if there isn’t a ceasefire when the hybrid force arrives, I’d be inclined to say to the Janjaweed, ‘If you don’t stop fighting, we will come after you and kill you.’”
Tough talk, but Triesman insists: “Only when Darfur is no longer a war zone will there be effective protection of women.” And what will happen to the children of the raped Darfuri women, to the babies of the Janjaweed? If the children’s mothers are brave enough to care for them in the first place, they will perhaps be integrated within their communities. “A blind eye will be turned towards their paternity,” says Pam Delargy of the UNFPA. “A general amnesia will take place.”
Jon Nicholson’s photographs of Darfuri women will be exhibited at the Air Gallery, 32 Dover Street, London W1, from October 8 to 13. Tel: 020 7250 4500.
To help the women of Darfur, visit www.unfpa.org
Thursday, August 16, 2007
அரபுகளுக்கிடையான சாதி சண்டையில் 140 பேர் மரணத்துக்குபிறகு ஒப்பந்தம்
டார்பரில் கருப்பினத்தவர்களள துரத்திவிட்டு காலியாக்கிய நிலத்தை யார் ஆக்கிரமிப்பது என்ற சண்டையில் இரண்டு அரபு சாதியினர் கடுமையாக ஒருவரை ஒருவர் தாக்கிக்கொண்டனர். இதில் 140 பேர்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டபின்னால், சூடான் அரசு இந்த இரண்டு அரபு ஜாதிகளுக்குள் மத்தியஸ்தம் செய்து வைத்திருக்கிறது.
Darfur Arab tribes sign pact after clashes kill 140
Sun Aug 12, 2007 10:10AM EDT
By Simon Apiku
KHARTOUM, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Rival Darfur Arab tribes have signed a truce after more than 140 people died in clashes, an official and tribal leaders said on Sunday.
"It's an agreement to cease hostilities," Mohammed Ahmed Hassan, a Terjem tribal leader, told Reuters of the deal his tribe signed with the Rizeigat on Saturday.
"If the Rizeigat adhere to and respect the agreement, the Terjem will not violate it," he said.
Both are Arab tribes in South Darfur state. Fighting has continued on and off for months between them, but a reconciliation deal signed in February fell apart in July.
Ali Hassan, a Rizeigat tribal leader, said his group was committed to the truce. "We are going around trying to explain it to our people," he said.
Most of the casualties of the fighting were Terjem.
"Around 145 of our people were killed between July 30 and August 8," said Mohammed Ahmed Hassan, adding that 40 people with serious injuries were still in hospital in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State.
"We have buried them in mass graves," he added. He said the Rizeigat had superior firepower.
South Darfur's Labour Minister Abdul Rahman al-Zein has previously said three Rizeigat were killed in the clashes.
Each tribe blamed the other for starting the fighting.
The Terjem are a sedentary farming tribe while the Rizeigat are nomadic cattle herders. The latest problems began as the Rizeigat moved north in their seasonal migration, passing close to Terjem territory. The Terjem say the cattle eat their crops.
"The Terjem tell them you cannot pass through here," said Zein. "The government will deploy forces in the trouble spots to ensure compliance."
Ali Hassan declined to comment on the numbers killed.
Fighting over land and resources had been going on in Darfur for decades, before the region's revolt broke out in early 2003. The conflict has led to a proliferation of weapons, making tribal clashes even deadlier.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in the fighting in Darfur, where mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting their arid region.
Khartoum says only 9,000 people have died in the violence.
Darfur Arab tribes sign pact after clashes kill 140
Sun Aug 12, 2007 10:10AM EDT
By Simon Apiku
KHARTOUM, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Rival Darfur Arab tribes have signed a truce after more than 140 people died in clashes, an official and tribal leaders said on Sunday.
"It's an agreement to cease hostilities," Mohammed Ahmed Hassan, a Terjem tribal leader, told Reuters of the deal his tribe signed with the Rizeigat on Saturday.
"If the Rizeigat adhere to and respect the agreement, the Terjem will not violate it," he said.
Both are Arab tribes in South Darfur state. Fighting has continued on and off for months between them, but a reconciliation deal signed in February fell apart in July.
Ali Hassan, a Rizeigat tribal leader, said his group was committed to the truce. "We are going around trying to explain it to our people," he said.
Most of the casualties of the fighting were Terjem.
"Around 145 of our people were killed between July 30 and August 8," said Mohammed Ahmed Hassan, adding that 40 people with serious injuries were still in hospital in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State.
"We have buried them in mass graves," he added. He said the Rizeigat had superior firepower.
South Darfur's Labour Minister Abdul Rahman al-Zein has previously said three Rizeigat were killed in the clashes.
Each tribe blamed the other for starting the fighting.
The Terjem are a sedentary farming tribe while the Rizeigat are nomadic cattle herders. The latest problems began as the Rizeigat moved north in their seasonal migration, passing close to Terjem territory. The Terjem say the cattle eat their crops.
"The Terjem tell them you cannot pass through here," said Zein. "The government will deploy forces in the trouble spots to ensure compliance."
Ali Hassan declined to comment on the numbers killed.
Fighting over land and resources had been going on in Darfur for decades, before the region's revolt broke out in early 2003. The conflict has led to a proliferation of weapons, making tribal clashes even deadlier.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in the fighting in Darfur, where mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting their arid region.
Khartoum says only 9,000 people have died in the violence.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
டார்பர் அரபு ஜாதிகளிடையே சண்டையில் 100 பேர் பலி
சூடானில் கருப்பினத்தவரை துரத்தி டார்பரில் அரபு ஜாதியினர் ஆக்கிரமித்து வருகின்றனர். அதில் இரண்டு ஜாதிகள் சண்டைபோட்டுக்கொண்டிருக்கிறார்கள். ஒரு வாரமாக தொடர்ந்து நடக்கும் இந்த சண்டையில் இதுவரை 100க்கும் மேற்பட்ட அரபுகள் இறந்திருக்கின்றனர் என்று செய்திகள் கூறுகின்றன.
இதுவரை இந்த அரபுஜாதிகள் கருப்பினத்தவர் 200000 பேரை கொன்றிருக்கின்றன. இன்னும் பல லட்சக்கணக்கானவர்களை இந்த டார்பர் பகுதியிலிருந்து துரத்தியிருக்கின்றன.
பாலஸ்தீனத்தில் 10 பயங்கரவாதிகள் இஸ்ரேலால் இறந்தால் போராட்டம் கம்யூனிஸ்டுகளும் மற்ற இஸ்லாமிய சகோதரர்களும் இந்த இன அழிப்பு, இன சுத்திகரிப்பு ஆகியவற்றை கண்டுகொள்ளாதது வருத்தத்துக்குரியது.
Darfur Arabs clash, at least 100 killed this week
Thu 2 Aug 2007, 16:27 GMT
KHARTOUM, Aug 2 (Reuters) - More than 100 people have been killed in clashes between Arab tribes over land and scarce resources in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region this week, an official and a tribal leader said on Thursday.
Terjem tribal leader Babikir Elias blamed a rival tribe, the Rezeigat, for the majority of the killing which took place over the past week in South Darfur state.
"A group of heavily armed Rezeigat Abala attacked the Terjem on Tuesday in an area called Gawaya in South Darfur and killed 51 people, including old men, women and children," Elias told Reuters.
The Terjem were at a funeral mourning the deaths of 65 of their tribesmen who died in clashes, also with the Rezeigat, earlier in the week in Bulbul, near Nyala, he said.
"There are conflicting reports on the total numbers of casualties, but most reports indicate tens (dozens) of deaths and injuries," the United Nations said in a bulletin on Tuesday.
"Nearly all the victims were from the Terjem tribe," Abdul Rahman al-Zein, the minister of labour in the South Darfur government, told Reuters from Nyala, the state capital.
Elias said the Rezeigat used assault rifles and machineguns mounted on pick up vehicles in the attack, adding that Terjem men responded and a gunfight ensued that lasted several hours.
"The authorities found the bodies of three Rezeigat tribesmen," said Zein.
The clashes came amid an escalation of hostilities between the two tribes, who have a history of conflict. They have signed reconciliation agreements, which Zein helped broker, but which have never fully taken hold.
The Terjem accuse the Rezeigat of trying to encroach on their land and displace them with some help from the government.
Fighting over land and resources has been going on in Darfur for decades, before a revolt broke out in early 2003.
But more than four years of conflict between mostly non-Arab rebels and government forces has led to a proliferation of weapons, making tribal clashes even deadlier.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in fighting in Darfur, where mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting their arid region.
Khartoum says only 9,000 people have died in the violence.
இதுவரை இந்த அரபுஜாதிகள் கருப்பினத்தவர் 200000 பேரை கொன்றிருக்கின்றன. இன்னும் பல லட்சக்கணக்கானவர்களை இந்த டார்பர் பகுதியிலிருந்து துரத்தியிருக்கின்றன.
பாலஸ்தீனத்தில் 10 பயங்கரவாதிகள் இஸ்ரேலால் இறந்தால் போராட்டம் கம்யூனிஸ்டுகளும் மற்ற இஸ்லாமிய சகோதரர்களும் இந்த இன அழிப்பு, இன சுத்திகரிப்பு ஆகியவற்றை கண்டுகொள்ளாதது வருத்தத்துக்குரியது.
Darfur Arabs clash, at least 100 killed this week
Thu 2 Aug 2007, 16:27 GMT
KHARTOUM, Aug 2 (Reuters) - More than 100 people have been killed in clashes between Arab tribes over land and scarce resources in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region this week, an official and a tribal leader said on Thursday.
Terjem tribal leader Babikir Elias blamed a rival tribe, the Rezeigat, for the majority of the killing which took place over the past week in South Darfur state.
"A group of heavily armed Rezeigat Abala attacked the Terjem on Tuesday in an area called Gawaya in South Darfur and killed 51 people, including old men, women and children," Elias told Reuters.
The Terjem were at a funeral mourning the deaths of 65 of their tribesmen who died in clashes, also with the Rezeigat, earlier in the week in Bulbul, near Nyala, he said.
"There are conflicting reports on the total numbers of casualties, but most reports indicate tens (dozens) of deaths and injuries," the United Nations said in a bulletin on Tuesday.
"Nearly all the victims were from the Terjem tribe," Abdul Rahman al-Zein, the minister of labour in the South Darfur government, told Reuters from Nyala, the state capital.
Elias said the Rezeigat used assault rifles and machineguns mounted on pick up vehicles in the attack, adding that Terjem men responded and a gunfight ensued that lasted several hours.
"The authorities found the bodies of three Rezeigat tribesmen," said Zein.
The clashes came amid an escalation of hostilities between the two tribes, who have a history of conflict. They have signed reconciliation agreements, which Zein helped broker, but which have never fully taken hold.
The Terjem accuse the Rezeigat of trying to encroach on their land and displace them with some help from the government.
Fighting over land and resources has been going on in Darfur for decades, before a revolt broke out in early 2003.
But more than four years of conflict between mostly non-Arab rebels and government forces has led to a proliferation of weapons, making tribal clashes even deadlier.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in fighting in Darfur, where mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting their arid region.
Khartoum says only 9,000 people have died in the violence.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
ரிஜிகத் அபாலா அரபு ஜாதியும் டோர்ஜம் அரபு ஜாதியும் டார்பரில் சண்டை: 34 பேர் பலி
டார்பரில் சென்றவாரம் இதே அரபு ஜாதிகளுக்கு இடையே நடந்த சண்டையில் பலர் மாண்டார்கள். தற்போது மீண்டும் அங்கு ஜாதி சண்டை தோன்றியிருக்கிறது. இந்த சண்டையில் 34 பேர் பலியானார்கள். மேலும் 38 பேர் படுகாயமடைந்திருக்கிறார்கள்.
கருப்பின மக்களை துரத்திய இடங்களை யார் ஆக்கிரமிப்பது என்று ரிஜிகத் அபாலா அரபு ஜாதியும் டோர்ஜம் அரபு ஜாதியும் டார்பரில் போரிட்டுக்கொண்டிருக்கிறார்கள்.
Arab tribes clash in Darfur, leaving 34 dead
Khartoum (Sudan) At least 34 people were killed in clashes between rival Arab tribes in war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur on Monday, a tribal chief said.
"These clashes, coming just after the ones from last week, killed 34 and wounded 38 of our people,\" Mohammed Hammad Jalabi, chief of the Torjum tribe, told APA by telephone from the south Darfur capital of Nyala.
He said that the rival Rzigat Aballa tribe, with which the Torjum have been clashing for months, attacked his tribal lands west of Nyala from four directions with fighting lasted much of the day before the Sudanese army intervened.
On July 25, Sudanese papers reported that another 16 people died in clashes between the two tribes when Rzigat Aballa tribesmen attacked a band of Torjum, killing nine.
The tribes, at odds over grazing rights and livestock raiding, have violated a February truce seven times, most dramatically in April when Rzigat Aballa tribesmen killed 62 Torjum in their villages.
CLR/pm/APA
2007-07-31
African Press Agency
கருப்பின மக்களை துரத்திய இடங்களை யார் ஆக்கிரமிப்பது என்று ரிஜிகத் அபாலா அரபு ஜாதியும் டோர்ஜம் அரபு ஜாதியும் டார்பரில் போரிட்டுக்கொண்டிருக்கிறார்கள்.
Arab tribes clash in Darfur, leaving 34 dead
Khartoum (Sudan) At least 34 people were killed in clashes between rival Arab tribes in war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur on Monday, a tribal chief said.
"These clashes, coming just after the ones from last week, killed 34 and wounded 38 of our people,\" Mohammed Hammad Jalabi, chief of the Torjum tribe, told APA by telephone from the south Darfur capital of Nyala.
He said that the rival Rzigat Aballa tribe, with which the Torjum have been clashing for months, attacked his tribal lands west of Nyala from four directions with fighting lasted much of the day before the Sudanese army intervened.
On July 25, Sudanese papers reported that another 16 people died in clashes between the two tribes when Rzigat Aballa tribesmen attacked a band of Torjum, killing nine.
The tribes, at odds over grazing rights and livestock raiding, have violated a February truce seven times, most dramatically in April when Rzigat Aballa tribesmen killed 62 Torjum in their villages.
CLR/pm/APA
2007-07-31
African Press Agency
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
டார்பரில் கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை கொல்ல சூடான் அல்குவேதாவுக்கு உதவி
அல்குவேதா உறுப்பினர்கள் மீது சூடானில் விதிக்கப்பட்டிருக்கும் கட்டுப்பாடுகளை தளர்த்தப்போவதாகவும், பதிலுக்கு டார்பரில் கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை கொல்லவும், டார்பரில் பன்னாட்டு அமைதி படையினரை கொல்லவும் அல்குவேதா உதவும் என்றும் அறிவித்துள்ளது.
இந்த ஒப்பந்தம் 2004இலேயே அல்குவேதாவுக்கும் சூடான் அரசுக்கும் நடந்திருக்கிறது என்று ஆவணங்கள் தெரிவிக்கின்றன.
இதுவரை சூடான் டார்பரில் 200000 கருப்பினத்தவர் அரபு சூடான் அரசால் பல்வேறு முறைகளில் கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.
Sudan sought Al-Qaeda’s help to fight Darfur peacekeepers
Monday 30 July 2007 06:00.
By: Wasil Ali
July 29, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government decided to lift restrictions on Al-Qaeda members in the country in return for their help in fighting peacekeepers in Darfur.
Osama bin Laden
The classified document sent to Sudan Tribune by a group named Kosh Liberation Movement (KLM) was dated April 27, 2004 and signed by senior members of Sudan’s presidency, ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the army.
One of the signatories was Sudan’s presidential adviser Majzoub al-Khalifa who was killed in a car accident last month signing on behalf of the NCP.
The authenticity of the document could not be independently verified.
Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan for several years in the early 1990s.
The document requests all government agencies to allow “foreign Jihadis who came to Sudan with Osama Bin Laden in 1994 to resume their political activities in Sudan given the circumstances surrounding foreign intervention in Darfur to support armed forces and the people of Sudan to fight Zionist enemies”.
The decision outlines certain steps to be taken to allow Al-Qaeda to operate in Sudan such as unfreezing their bank accounts and returning all properties confiscated in 1996.
A copy of the order was sent to President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, Head of Security Services and a representative of Al-Qaeda in Sudan.
Last year Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims in a video released on Friday to launch a holy war against proposed U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan’s Darfur region.
The Los Angeles Times revealed last month that Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq, an example of how the U.S. has continued to cooperate with the Sudanese regime even while condemning its suspected role in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur.
The U.S.-Sudan relationship goes beyond Iraq. Sudan has helped the United States track the turmoil in Somalia. Sudanese intelligence service has helped the US to attack the Islamic Courts positions in Somalia and to locate Al Qaeda suspects hiding there.
The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when an ethnic minority rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, which then enlisted the Janjaweed militia group to help crush the rebellion.
According to UN estimates, at least 200,000 people have died from the combined effect of war and famine since the conflict started in February 2003. But Khartoum disputes the figures
(ST)
இந்த ஒப்பந்தம் 2004இலேயே அல்குவேதாவுக்கும் சூடான் அரசுக்கும் நடந்திருக்கிறது என்று ஆவணங்கள் தெரிவிக்கின்றன.
இதுவரை சூடான் டார்பரில் 200000 கருப்பினத்தவர் அரபு சூடான் அரசால் பல்வேறு முறைகளில் கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.
Sudan sought Al-Qaeda’s help to fight Darfur peacekeepers
Monday 30 July 2007 06:00.
By: Wasil Ali
July 29, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government decided to lift restrictions on Al-Qaeda members in the country in return for their help in fighting peacekeepers in Darfur.
Osama bin Laden
The classified document sent to Sudan Tribune by a group named Kosh Liberation Movement (KLM) was dated April 27, 2004 and signed by senior members of Sudan’s presidency, ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the army.
One of the signatories was Sudan’s presidential adviser Majzoub al-Khalifa who was killed in a car accident last month signing on behalf of the NCP.
The authenticity of the document could not be independently verified.
Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan for several years in the early 1990s.
The document requests all government agencies to allow “foreign Jihadis who came to Sudan with Osama Bin Laden in 1994 to resume their political activities in Sudan given the circumstances surrounding foreign intervention in Darfur to support armed forces and the people of Sudan to fight Zionist enemies”.
The decision outlines certain steps to be taken to allow Al-Qaeda to operate in Sudan such as unfreezing their bank accounts and returning all properties confiscated in 1996.
A copy of the order was sent to President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, Head of Security Services and a representative of Al-Qaeda in Sudan.
Last year Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims in a video released on Friday to launch a holy war against proposed U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan’s Darfur region.
The Los Angeles Times revealed last month that Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq, an example of how the U.S. has continued to cooperate with the Sudanese regime even while condemning its suspected role in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur.
The U.S.-Sudan relationship goes beyond Iraq. Sudan has helped the United States track the turmoil in Somalia. Sudanese intelligence service has helped the US to attack the Islamic Courts positions in Somalia and to locate Al Qaeda suspects hiding there.
The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when an ethnic minority rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, which then enlisted the Janjaweed militia group to help crush the rebellion.
According to UN estimates, at least 200,000 people have died from the combined effect of war and famine since the conflict started in February 2003. But Khartoum disputes the figures
(ST)
Monday, July 30, 2007
டார்பரில் இன்னும் 25000 கருப்பினத்தவர் வீடுகளிலிருந்து துரத்தப்பட்டுள்ளனர்
வடக்கு டார்பரில் சூடானின் விமானங்கள் குண்டு வீசுவதாலும் ஜஞ்சாவீது அரபு படை துரத்துவதாலும் அங்குள்ள கருப்பின முஸ்லீம் மக்கள் அகதிகள் முகாமுக்கு வந்த வண்ணம் உள்ளனர்
இன்னும் 25000 பேர் அகதியாக ஆனதாக ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபை அறிக்கை கூறுகிறது
இதுவரை 200000 கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை சூடான் நாட்டு அரபு அரசு கொன்றிருப்பதாக கணக்கிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.
சூடான் அரசோ இதுவரை 9000 கருப்பினத்தவரையே கொன்றிருப்பதாக கூறுகிறது. எண்ணிக்கையை அதிகரித்து ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபை கூறுவதாக சூடான் அரபு அரசு குற்றம் சாட்டுகிறது.
25,000 more Darfuris flee homes, strain camps - UN
Wednesday 25 July 2007 03:30.
July 24, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Violence and insecurity in Darfur has forced 25,000 more people from their homes and is straining the capacity of camps swollen with refugees fleeing conflict in western Sudan, the U.N. said in a report on Tuesday.
Darfur refugees are seen at Goz Amir camp in eastern Chad, December 22, 2006. (Reuters)"Aerial bombings by the military continued to be reported in North Darfur up to late June while clashes between the military and rebel factions continued to be reported ... in various locations," the United Nations said in a statement.
The report said in May and June a further 25,000 people fled their homes, bringing the number of camp residents in Darfur to 2.2 million.
The United Nations said there are more than 200,000 Darfuri refugees in neighbouring Chad and 140,000 Chadians displaced by the Darfur conflict, which has bled across the border.
"A very visible consequence of the increasing pace of displacement is the increasing population of IDP camps — many of which can no longer absorb new arrivals," the report said.
The report said one aid agency was asked to leave Kutum in North Darfur and that the number of aid workers in Darfur had fallen to 12,300, down 2,400 from a year ago. Access to those affected fell to 68 percent from 78 percent last year.
"At the same time the caseload of conflict-affected populations has increased by more than half a million, to 4.2 million, it said.
The report was issued on the same day U.N. and African Union Darfur envoys issued invitations to rebel factions to meet in Tanzania and negotiate a unified position ahead of peace talks with the government.
In a joint statement U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim said the August 3-5 meeting in Arusha will focus on "ensuring a speedy, negotiated and sustainable settlement of the Darfur conflict, including the format and venue of and participation in the negotiations."
The envoys did not say which of the more than dozen rebel factions had been sent invitations, describing them only as "leading personalities of the non-signatory movements to the Darfur Peace Agreement."
Only one of three negotiating factions signed a peace deal in the Nigerian capital Abuja in May 2006. The rebels further factionalized following the deal.
In more than four years of rape, murder and looting, international experts say 200,000 people have died. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000, blaming Western media for exaggerating the conflict.
(Reuters)
இன்னும் 25000 பேர் அகதியாக ஆனதாக ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபை அறிக்கை கூறுகிறது
இதுவரை 200000 கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை சூடான் நாட்டு அரபு அரசு கொன்றிருப்பதாக கணக்கிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.
சூடான் அரசோ இதுவரை 9000 கருப்பினத்தவரையே கொன்றிருப்பதாக கூறுகிறது. எண்ணிக்கையை அதிகரித்து ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபை கூறுவதாக சூடான் அரபு அரசு குற்றம் சாட்டுகிறது.
25,000 more Darfuris flee homes, strain camps - UN
Wednesday 25 July 2007 03:30.
July 24, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Violence and insecurity in Darfur has forced 25,000 more people from their homes and is straining the capacity of camps swollen with refugees fleeing conflict in western Sudan, the U.N. said in a report on Tuesday.
Darfur refugees are seen at Goz Amir camp in eastern Chad, December 22, 2006. (Reuters)"Aerial bombings by the military continued to be reported in North Darfur up to late June while clashes between the military and rebel factions continued to be reported ... in various locations," the United Nations said in a statement.
The report said in May and June a further 25,000 people fled their homes, bringing the number of camp residents in Darfur to 2.2 million.
The United Nations said there are more than 200,000 Darfuri refugees in neighbouring Chad and 140,000 Chadians displaced by the Darfur conflict, which has bled across the border.
"A very visible consequence of the increasing pace of displacement is the increasing population of IDP camps — many of which can no longer absorb new arrivals," the report said.
The report said one aid agency was asked to leave Kutum in North Darfur and that the number of aid workers in Darfur had fallen to 12,300, down 2,400 from a year ago. Access to those affected fell to 68 percent from 78 percent last year.
"At the same time the caseload of conflict-affected populations has increased by more than half a million, to 4.2 million, it said.
The report was issued on the same day U.N. and African Union Darfur envoys issued invitations to rebel factions to meet in Tanzania and negotiate a unified position ahead of peace talks with the government.
In a joint statement U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim said the August 3-5 meeting in Arusha will focus on "ensuring a speedy, negotiated and sustainable settlement of the Darfur conflict, including the format and venue of and participation in the negotiations."
The envoys did not say which of the more than dozen rebel factions had been sent invitations, describing them only as "leading personalities of the non-signatory movements to the Darfur Peace Agreement."
Only one of three negotiating factions signed a peace deal in the Nigerian capital Abuja in May 2006. The rebels further factionalized following the deal.
In more than four years of rape, murder and looting, international experts say 200,000 people have died. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000, blaming Western media for exaggerating the conflict.
(Reuters)
தாங்கள் கருப்பின மக்களை கொல்வதற்கு யூதர்களே காரணம் - சூடான்
தாங்கள் கருப்பின மக்களை டார்பரிலிருந்து துரத்துவதற்கும், கொல்வதற்கும் யூதர்களே காரணம் என்று சூடான் அரசு தெரிவித்துள்ளது.
கருப்பின மக்களுக்கு 24 யூத அமைப்புகள் உதவுவதாகவும், அதனாலேயே இன்னும் தொடர்ந்து அங்கு போர் நடைபெறுகிறது என்றும் சூடானின் பாதுகாப்பு அமைச்சர் அப்துல் ரஹிம் முகம்மது உசேன் தெரிவித்தார்.
Sudan: Jews behind Darfur conflict
Sudanese defense minister says '24 Jewish organizations fueling conflict in Darfur'
Yaakov Lappin Published: 07.29.07, 20:29 / Israel News
Sudan's defense minister, Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, has accused "24 Jewish organizations" of "fueling the conflict in Darfur" last week in an interview with a Saudi newspaper.
Hussein was interviewed during an official state-visit to the Saudi kingdom last week.
Darfur Crisis
'Israel creating unnecessary drama' / Roee Nahmias
Sudanese minister promises his country 'will find the way to deal with refugees'. Israel to continue aiding those fleeing Darfur until international solution is found
Full story
A journalist from Saudi Arabia's Okaz newspaper asked Hussein: "Some people are talking about the penetration of Jewish organizations in Darfur and that there is no conflict there?"
"The Darfur issue is being fuelled by 24 Jewish organizations, who are making the largest amount of noise over the issue, and using the Holocaust in their campaigning," the Sudanese defense minister replied.
Hussein added that the Darfur conflict was driven by "friction between farmers and herders and shepherds. Among the biggest problems is that of water, which is used to exploit the differences and fuel the conflict."
"Are these Jewish groups supporting (the rebels) financially?," the interviewer from Okaz asked Hussein.
"Yes, they provide political and material support through their control over the media and across American and British circles," Hussein said, adding that Jewish groups were using "all means to fuel these conflicts."
He added that Western reports of 200,000 people dying in Sudan were false, and said: "We talk about 9,000 dead as a result of either government or rebel actions."
'We came to Israel to look for a better place'
Several days ago, Sudan's Interior Minister, Zubair Bashir Taha, lashed out at Sudanese refuees who had sought asylum in Israel, and accused "Isaeli authorities of encouraging the Sudanese refugees to come to their country."
He added that his ministry was "very confused" by Sudanese citizens who came to Israel."
The Sudan Tribune quoted a Sudanese refugee as telling al-Jazeera television: "We were surprised when we came here. We met good people, who welcomed us and gave us food. We feel that we are extremely happy. We hope that the Israeli government would find a solution for us and our children. We came here to look for a better place."
Meanwhile, in the US, a number of Jewish organizations have attempted to raise awareness over the plight of Sudanese citizens who face mass killings and ethnic cleansing from the Sudanese government. Some 20 Jewish organizations joined the 'Save Darfur Coalition,' along with other religious communities and American civil rights groups.
கருப்பின மக்களுக்கு 24 யூத அமைப்புகள் உதவுவதாகவும், அதனாலேயே இன்னும் தொடர்ந்து அங்கு போர் நடைபெறுகிறது என்றும் சூடானின் பாதுகாப்பு அமைச்சர் அப்துல் ரஹிம் முகம்மது உசேன் தெரிவித்தார்.
Sudan: Jews behind Darfur conflict
Sudanese defense minister says '24 Jewish organizations fueling conflict in Darfur'
Yaakov Lappin Published: 07.29.07, 20:29 / Israel News
Sudan's defense minister, Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, has accused "24 Jewish organizations" of "fueling the conflict in Darfur" last week in an interview with a Saudi newspaper.
Hussein was interviewed during an official state-visit to the Saudi kingdom last week.
Darfur Crisis
'Israel creating unnecessary drama' / Roee Nahmias
Sudanese minister promises his country 'will find the way to deal with refugees'. Israel to continue aiding those fleeing Darfur until international solution is found
Full story
A journalist from Saudi Arabia's Okaz newspaper asked Hussein: "Some people are talking about the penetration of Jewish organizations in Darfur and that there is no conflict there?"
"The Darfur issue is being fuelled by 24 Jewish organizations, who are making the largest amount of noise over the issue, and using the Holocaust in their campaigning," the Sudanese defense minister replied.
Hussein added that the Darfur conflict was driven by "friction between farmers and herders and shepherds. Among the biggest problems is that of water, which is used to exploit the differences and fuel the conflict."
"Are these Jewish groups supporting (the rebels) financially?," the interviewer from Okaz asked Hussein.
"Yes, they provide political and material support through their control over the media and across American and British circles," Hussein said, adding that Jewish groups were using "all means to fuel these conflicts."
He added that Western reports of 200,000 people dying in Sudan were false, and said: "We talk about 9,000 dead as a result of either government or rebel actions."
'We came to Israel to look for a better place'
Several days ago, Sudan's Interior Minister, Zubair Bashir Taha, lashed out at Sudanese refuees who had sought asylum in Israel, and accused "Isaeli authorities of encouraging the Sudanese refugees to come to their country."
He added that his ministry was "very confused" by Sudanese citizens who came to Israel."
The Sudan Tribune quoted a Sudanese refugee as telling al-Jazeera television: "We were surprised when we came here. We met good people, who welcomed us and gave us food. We feel that we are extremely happy. We hope that the Israeli government would find a solution for us and our children. We came here to look for a better place."
Meanwhile, in the US, a number of Jewish organizations have attempted to raise awareness over the plight of Sudanese citizens who face mass killings and ethnic cleansing from the Sudanese government. Some 20 Jewish organizations joined the 'Save Darfur Coalition,' along with other religious communities and American civil rights groups.
Friday, July 27, 2007
டார்பரில் இரண்டு அரபு ஜாதிகள் அடித்துக்கொண்டதில் 16 பேர் பலி
சூடான் டார்பரில் இரண்டு அரபு ஜாதிகள் அடித்துக்கொண்டதில் 16 பேர் பலியானார்கள். கருப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை துரத்திவிட்டு டார்பரை அரபு ஜாதிகள் ஆக்கிரமித்து வருவது தெரிந்ததே.
அதில் இரண்டு அரபு ஜாதிகள் ரிஜிகத் அபாலா என்ற அரபு ஜாதியும், டோர்ஜம் என்ற அரபு ஜாதியும் போரிட்டுக்கொண்டன.
சூடான் அரசு டார்பரில் இருக்கும் கருப்பினத்தவரை துரத்துவதற்கும் கொல்வதற்கும் உருவாக்கிய ஜாஞ்சவீது என்ற அரபு படைக்கு ஆளெடுபப்து ரிஜிகத் அபாலா அரபு ஜாதியிடமிருந்தே.
16 people killed as tribal clashes erupt in Darfur
Thursday 26 July 2007 06:15.
July 25, 2007 (AL-FASHER) — At least 16 people were killed and 20 wounded in a clash between rival Arab tribes in the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan, local authorities said on Wednesday.
Rzigat Aballa tribesmen fell on a band of Torjum nomads in South Darfur province killing nine, the authorities told reporters, without specifying what day the clash took place.
The tribes, at odds over grazing rights and livestock raiding, have violated a February truce seven times, most dramatically in April when Rzigat tribesmen killed 62 Torjam in their villages.
Darfur came to world attention in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government to protest at their region’s marginalisation.
The government combatted the rebellion with camel-riding Janjaweed militia, many from the Rzigat Aballa tribe, who have since been accused of atrocities and genocide.
International aid organisations are struggling to address the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, but have been impeded by the widespread violence.
"In the past two weeks, nine food convoys have been attacked by gunmen across Darfur," said Kenro Oshidari, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Sudan representative.
"WFP staff and contractors are being stopped at gunpoint, dragged out of their vehicles and robbed with alarming frequency," he said, adding that 18 food convoys have been attacked this year, with six vehicles stolen.
Ten WFP staff have been either detained or abducted.
The attacks have prompted the United Nations to declare the road between Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, and Kass town, where fighting between Torjam and Rzigat Aballa has taken place, a "no-go" zone for staff.
WFP’s operation in Darfur feeds two million people a month.
About 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in the Darfur conflict, according to UN estimates. Some sources say the death toll is much higher.
(AFP)
அதில் இரண்டு அரபு ஜாதிகள் ரிஜிகத் அபாலா என்ற அரபு ஜாதியும், டோர்ஜம் என்ற அரபு ஜாதியும் போரிட்டுக்கொண்டன.
சூடான் அரசு டார்பரில் இருக்கும் கருப்பினத்தவரை துரத்துவதற்கும் கொல்வதற்கும் உருவாக்கிய ஜாஞ்சவீது என்ற அரபு படைக்கு ஆளெடுபப்து ரிஜிகத் அபாலா அரபு ஜாதியிடமிருந்தே.
16 people killed as tribal clashes erupt in Darfur
Thursday 26 July 2007 06:15.
July 25, 2007 (AL-FASHER) — At least 16 people were killed and 20 wounded in a clash between rival Arab tribes in the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan, local authorities said on Wednesday.
Rzigat Aballa tribesmen fell on a band of Torjum nomads in South Darfur province killing nine, the authorities told reporters, without specifying what day the clash took place.
The tribes, at odds over grazing rights and livestock raiding, have violated a February truce seven times, most dramatically in April when Rzigat tribesmen killed 62 Torjam in their villages.
Darfur came to world attention in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government to protest at their region’s marginalisation.
The government combatted the rebellion with camel-riding Janjaweed militia, many from the Rzigat Aballa tribe, who have since been accused of atrocities and genocide.
International aid organisations are struggling to address the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, but have been impeded by the widespread violence.
"In the past two weeks, nine food convoys have been attacked by gunmen across Darfur," said Kenro Oshidari, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Sudan representative.
"WFP staff and contractors are being stopped at gunpoint, dragged out of their vehicles and robbed with alarming frequency," he said, adding that 18 food convoys have been attacked this year, with six vehicles stolen.
Ten WFP staff have been either detained or abducted.
The attacks have prompted the United Nations to declare the road between Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, and Kass town, where fighting between Torjam and Rzigat Aballa has taken place, a "no-go" zone for staff.
WFP’s operation in Darfur feeds two million people a month.
About 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in the Darfur conflict, according to UN estimates. Some sources say the death toll is much higher.
(AFP)
Saturday, July 14, 2007
டார்பாரில் கறுப்பினத்தவர் இல்லாமல் "சுத்திகரிக்கப்பட்ட" இடங்களில் அரபுகள் குடியேற்றம்
டார்பரில் ஜஞ்சாவீத் போராளிகளால் கறுப்பின முஸ்லீம்கள் துரத்தப்பட்டு அந்த இடங்களில் கறுப்பின முஸ்லீம்கள் வாழ்ந்துவந்த நிலங்களிலிருந்தும் வீடுகளிலிருந்தும் துரத்தப்பட்டனர். அங்கு இருந்த கிராமங்கள் அழிக்கப்பட்டன. அந்த பெண்டிர் கற்பழிக்கப்பட்டு கொல்லப்பட்டனர்.
கறுப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை துரத்தி காலியாக்கப்பட்ட நிலங்களில் அரபுகள் குடியேற்றப்படுகிறார்கள். சாட், நைஜர் ஆகிய நாடுகளிலிருந்து அரபுகள் சூடானில் உள்ள டார்பர் பிராந்தியத்தில் குடியேற்றம் செய்வது கறுப்பினத்தவரை ஆத்திரப்படுத்தியிருக்கிறது.
இதுவரை ஏறத்தாழ 30000 அரபுகள் இவ்வாறு அரபுகள் ஆட்சி செய்யும் சூடானால் வரவேற்கப்பட்டு இந்த டார்பர் நிலங்களில் குடியேற்றம் செய்யப்ப்பட்டிருக்கிறார்கள். இது மிகவும் திட்டமிடப்பட்ட செயலாக இருக்கிறது என்று ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் அதிகாரிகள் கூறுகிறார்கள்.
இதுவரை 2.5 மில்லியன் கறுப்பின முஸ்லீம்கள் தங்கள் வாழ்விடங்களிலிருந்து துரத்தப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.
Arabs pile into Darfur to take land 'cleansed' by janjaweed
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.
கறுப்பின முஸ்லீம்களை துரத்தி காலியாக்கப்பட்ட நிலங்களில் அரபுகள் குடியேற்றப்படுகிறார்கள். சாட், நைஜர் ஆகிய நாடுகளிலிருந்து அரபுகள் சூடானில் உள்ள டார்பர் பிராந்தியத்தில் குடியேற்றம் செய்வது கறுப்பினத்தவரை ஆத்திரப்படுத்தியிருக்கிறது.
இதுவரை ஏறத்தாழ 30000 அரபுகள் இவ்வாறு அரபுகள் ஆட்சி செய்யும் சூடானால் வரவேற்கப்பட்டு இந்த டார்பர் நிலங்களில் குடியேற்றம் செய்யப்ப்பட்டிருக்கிறார்கள். இது மிகவும் திட்டமிடப்பட்ட செயலாக இருக்கிறது என்று ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் அதிகாரிகள் கூறுகிறார்கள்.
இதுவரை 2.5 மில்லியன் கறுப்பின முஸ்லீம்கள் தங்கள் வாழ்விடங்களிலிருந்து துரத்தப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.
Arabs pile into Darfur to take land 'cleansed' by janjaweed
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)