Heading Home

It has been a good year for me, but it is time to return home and hopefully start my PhD next summer. I have lots more to say but I will wait until I have access to a faster connection sometime this weekend.

The short story is that I will be going on vacation in Europe for a month and then returning to Sudan for my final week in country before returning to my beloved Indiana.

Talk to you all in a few days.

Ceasefire declared amidst continued fighting

Some of you may have seen the headlines that come at the end of a highly publicized effort in Khartoum to give the world the impression that a new peace initiative is under way in Sudan to bring an end to the war in Darfur. The rhetoric has been that the international community needs to steer clear of the internal affairs of Sudan and let the Sudanese people handle their own affairs. This statement is directly particularly at the International Criminal Court and perhaps to some degree at the peacekeeping operation here in Darfur which has the object of a number of attacks in the last month.

At the closure of the conference, the president of Sudan acted on some of the recommendations of the participants by declaring an immediate ceasefire and suggesting that the courts would consider compensation to families that had been affected by the conflict. This statement addressed the two most important demands of the rebels BEFORE any peace negotiations can resume.

The news on the ceasefire was treated with some mistrust and scepticism, and with reason. Yesterday and today, I learned that the Sudanese military launched a major assault in North Darfur on a number of positions. You can read more about the ceasefire declaration and the related rhetoric here: 'Sudan People's Initiative' Calls for Ceasefire; President Declares it Immediately and Unconditionally. The source of this article is the "Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan."

Many people have expressed scepticism about the sincerity of this declaration, and these articles provide a good overview of that position: Sudan cease-fire call gets wary reception in Darfur and France says not swayed by Sudan ceasefire call

Mind you, none of the articles mention the fact that there is still fighting taking place in Darfur. That may be the key reason not to trust the immediate and unconditional declaration of a cessation of hostilities.

Here are the most recent reports of fighting. I have added explanations of site-specific references or abbreviations in parenthesis:

YESTERDAY, NOV 13

Reports of from Korma (North Darfur) that GoS (Government of Sudan), with 60 technicals (pick up trucks with mounted machine guns), 2 Antonov (bomber planes) and two gunships (attach helicopters), has attacked SLA(AW) (rebel group led by Abdul Wahid)positions /checkpoints west of Khazan Tungur (southern area of North Darfur), which were established on the access roads to Jebel Mara (area in Southwest North Darfur but also in West and North Darfur). Reported casualties : five (5) persons killed and four (4) wounded. No Further Info (NFI)

TODAY AT 1100 HOURS

Aerial bombing by GoS Antonov in the vicinity of KURBIA. ( KURBIA located N NW of KUTUM on the main road between ABDEL SHAKUR and ANA BAGI). Exact time unknown. Report of casualties and battle damage unknown. In KUTUM two GoS Heli gunships are prepared and on standby to conduct mission. No Further Info (NFI).

Yes, it is normal for ceasefires to be violated. Foot soldiers receive orders late and accidents can happen. But it is difficult to see how the launching of a new assault in an area that has not seen active fighting in recent weeks can be explained in those terms.

What provoked this attack? Why now? Difficult to say, but I have the feeling that we will all learn more soon. It is entirely possible that the rebel groups were mobilizing and that it prompted a government retaliation attack to keep them in check. Either way, this new assault needs to be explained quickly if the president hopes that his ceasefire declaration will retain any credibility in Darfur and with the international community.

Journey to Kass

One of the roots of the crisis is the Sudanese government’s longstanding neglect of the region. Schools in Darfur are few and far between, and where they do exist they have traditionally been understaffed and under-funded. Darfur is the exception to the rule about conflicts and education, for today there are more children in school than before the conflict. Communities have opened their doors and generously shared their meager resources to enabled children to attend school and obtain provisions . More children, and especially girls, are in school because their families have lost their land and animals, leaving children with less work to do.

I recently traveled to Kass. Sudan is divided into states and states are divided into localities. Kass locality is one of the nine localities in South Darfur State. It is situated 150 km westof Nyala. It has three administrative units, namely: Kass, Janub El Jabel and Shateya.

Kass town is the capital of the state and the estimated resident population is about 33,000 inhabitants.

In 2003, the conflict has produced a large influx of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to Kass town, which increased in number each day until the estimated number of IDPs in Kass town had reached around 27,000 in September 2004 and were allocated different places within the city. Most were integrated in the schools. Today, the numbers have crested at approximately55,000 displaced people. Most of them are crowded into makeshift shelters in the compounds of public buildings such as schools. There are 13 camps located throughout Kass town, each named after the school whose property they occupy. Some of the displaced people are staying with relatives in dusty front yards and crowded houses.

The schools remained closed for two years since the displaced occupied the classrooms themselves, but in 2004, residents in Kass pushed to get the schools to reopen. International NGOs such as Oxfam, IRC, and others provided plastic sheeting to allow IDPs to move out of the school buildings and into the courtyards. Today, the schools are a veritable tent city as you can see in these pictures. Instead of school yards, you have hundreds of shelters. The entrance to the girls secondary school is lined with IDP housing. After five years of waiting to return to their homes, many IDPs had begun to build permanent settlements in the schools. So now, between one classroom and another, you have to walk through a maze of brick walls and shelters, wandering children, donkeys, and if you are particularly unlucky, an angry Sheikh asking about what the school is going to do to improve living conditions for the families on the school grounds.

Kass is historically located deep in Fur territory. Traditionally, Fur would farm the land in this area and allow Arab tribes in the area to graze their cattle on the stubs of the harvested crops. The drought in the 1980s put a strain on this mutually beneficial arrangement and Fur began to deny Arabs access to certain seasonal migration routes in the name of preserving slow growing crops. Many Arab families suffered and there was reportedly widespread starvation among nomadic tribes in the area who had come to depend on this livelihood arrangement. The bitterness that emerged combine with government neglect and manipulation of loyalties led to open warfare that took its toll on all people living in this area - Arab and non Arab.

On the social side of things, everyone is more cautious than I have found when visiting villages in North Darfur. The kids were more skittish but never failed to belt out the common refrain "okay, okay" and give me the thumbs up. I am not sure they know what Okay means. My guess is that they think that it is a greeting. I am sure that they have heard foreigners use the word often enough to know that it is English. These kids made me realize just how much I use "okay" everytime I talk with my staff. Have to tried to reduce that and substitute it with a convenient Arab phrase with the same meaning. Tamam is what lots of people use. Or Tayeeb. Both mean 'good'.

I liked Kass alot. Nice air, lots of trees and overall friendly market, but it is difficult to imagine the situation improving for the residents of this town anytime soon. The most disturbing thing that struck me was the number of latrines (outdoor toilets) that lined the streets and the school yards. Latrines are like the port-o-potties you would find at a public event in the states, but these are made from plastic sheeting for privacy and the waste drops into a shallow (9 foot) hole dug into the ground with a cement platform placed on top. The holes fill up quickly and new holes have to be dug. With the sandy soil, there is little doubt that the ground water is being affected by such a density of human waste in such a small area. UN agencies have discussed the potential of creating another even greater disaster - the contamination of the only available water for miles - as a result of all the humanitarian assistance focused in one restricted area.

Towns are safer than villages and that is the reason most villagers give for refusing to relocate outside the center of town, but unless some solution is found soon, we run the risk of triggering another conflict in Darfur - this one over access to the remaing, clean aquafers in Darfur. Ethnic and politically motivated wars are survivable. A water war would be cataclysmic. Fortunately there are a few solutions being batted around and our organization also has a few ideas that it will attempt to implement over the next two months including the conversion of human waste to natural cooking gas - or biogas. The idea may be difficult to sell. I will keep you all appraised of the progress. Below you can see a picture of the biolatrine concept. Talk with you again soon.

Narration via pictures -- Mellit and a smattering of Kutum

No room for a library. All the books stacked in the headmaster's office

Hell of a way to go to High School!

Nature of Mellit!

Day Two - still making my way back to earth

I am back in El Fasher and noticing the striking differences between the general feel of the desert town I visited and the city. Even the small Zhagawa market where I do my shopping for tomatoes and cucumber was buzzing with chatter, smiles, laughing children, and just an overall positive vibe. The desert Market lacked any of those things. Funny that I did not notice it until now. I may also be adding a tad of my own euphoria of having access to my own bed, kitchen (after 4 bouts of food poisoning), and cooling temperatures.

I will try to add as many photos as I can. The internet connection is very very slow, so I will not guarantee anything at this stage. I will also try to upload photos to my facebook, so take a look at that site as well.

I think the only news I have from my work is that my employer is not willing to fly me back to my home station because I have elected to cut my contract short. I will be completing a full year, but they apparently have no obligations for less than the full contract. This news changes somewhat my plans to visit India from here. I had expected the employer to ship my belongings to the states and leave me with no luggage, so that I can travel more freely in India. I will try to find out how to make that happen with my own means, but without the help of a logisitcian, I will have some trouble getting my things shipped home. So, it would appear that I will be heading straight home and attempt to go to India another time.

Sorry, the picture uploading is not working. I lose the internet connection every two minutes or so and have to keep logging on. I will try to visit one of our neighbors with a fast internet satellite connection over the week and upload photos from my trip.

I especially wanted to show you the pictures of the desert transformed. When I first traveled into the desert, I uploaded a video of our Land Rover braving the sands. Well, I have a part two picture and video showing all the sand covered in grasses and various other plants. Amazing what the rainy season can bring to this environment.

Hope to bring you more information and images on Sunday, when we open again for work.

Until then, peace to you all.

A love for the desert

It has been a heavy past 2 weeks in northern North Darfur. Just before we set out, we received word that a major battle was being prepared just 60 km north of our destination and that we should be wary of wayward or awol troops who may decide to loot a few NGOs rather than report for duty in this crazy war.

We saw bombers pass over head and we saw Janjaweed troops pass noisily through town, but nothing worth noting happened to our delegation or to the town we visited. It was an uneventful trip in that sense. But so many adventures and stories to tell about living in the desert.

First the stars. I have been on extended camping trips in the past, but there was always some distant source of light to damper the view, but this place had no lights after 10pm and some days not at all. We had an amazing view of the milky way and spent hours lying in our cots outside counting shooting stars and satellites as they danced their way across the sky.

The days were very warm and the cement construction holds heat well into the night, so we decided to sleep outside on most nights. I was usually exhausted by 9 pm but Sudanese get their second wind about that time and conversations lasted well into the early hours of the morning.

The best constellation story I can relate now is the one about the origins of the Milky Way. When Ibrahim (Abraham for Bible readers) was asked to sacrifice his son, Allah (God) sent a sheep to him and told him to stop all human sacrifices. The Milky Way, I was told, was created to help the sheep find its way to Ibrahim. Many other stories ensued, but that was the one I retained best. Please remember that much of these late night stories are told in Arabic. It was too late to translate for the foreigner in their midst. So, I may have some details missing. In all, it was a great way to spend the night. Remember watching clouds as a child? Well, it is like that, except I cannot remember too many days when Darfur has been blessed with the cover of clouds.

The small town market began to stir around 10am each morning and many stayed closed well into the afternoon. That is usually a sign of trouble in El Fasher, but, when I inquired, I was told that no one had any money in the wake of Eid Ramadan. Ramadan ends with much merry making and gifts for family and children, especially the children. Lots of money is spent on new clothes and new make overs for the house. People are still struggling to make ends meet after such lavish outpouring of generosity in such a poor region. So merchants open with few expectations of selling any wares that day. Most just spend the day visiting fellow vendors and asking about their Eid and their expectations for the next big celebrations in December.

I visited with one old lady who sells wood in the market. She told me that it takes a day and a half on a donkey to collect the wood she sold there before me. Small bundles of dried twigs and branches. Each bundle of six or seven branches sold for less than 2 dollars. A decent living when you consider that in that town alone, residents spend over 40,000 dollars a day on firewood and charcoal. Poverty is relative. People pay for what they need and firewood is a premium product.

I am back in Fasher, and very tired, but I promise to continue with this and other stories over the weekend which, for me, begins tomorrow.

Thank you for your emails of concern. Maa salaama

Troubled horizon

Darfur is a place of many seasons all in the same day. In one direction, life seems to be almost normal, serene, downright boring. But on another horizon we feel a storm coming. In El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. we hear lots of rumors that the rebels, who have been losing the battle to maintain their bases in the northern desert, have decided to take the fight to the government troops based in Fasher. The town is very jittery but the market has remained open every day without fail, suggesting that the rumors are just that. When businessmen shut their doors, then I get nervous, not before.

Today 50 heavily armed vehicles arrived in Fasher from Khartoum, presumably on their way to new front lines north and west of the city. Mellit and Kebkabiya have seen fortified battle lines forming just outside of their city limits. But fighting seems to have stopped in the areas that saw heavy bombardments and fighting over the past few weeks.

The vice president and head of one faction met early this week and allegedly signed an agreement to stop fighting one another. Hard to say what is true or just conjecture since no public announcement was ever made, but I feel confident enough to head back to Fasher the day after tomorrow for a rediscovery of my bed and abode.

It has been 28 days since I have had a chance to sleep in my own bed and use my own kitchen. I look so forward to celebrating the Ed Ramadan in peace in my own place. Okay, maybe the word ‘peace’ is not appropriate in the given circumstances, but being in one’s own surroundings with one’s own stuff does bring on a hint of inner peace. Talk about a false sense of security!

The downside of being in Fasher is that the internet has not been functioning there since the fighting started over a month ago, so I will most likely be in contact with family and friends via telephone and not the internet. That also means no internet update for a few solid weeks unless I can bum a few minutes of online time with the NGOs that have a Vsat connection.

Here is an idea of the situation reports we used to receive once a day but now appear to come in updates during the course of the day as needed:

UPDATED INFO RECEIVED AT 1600 HOURS: Today at 1230 hours ,a vehicle convoy composed of approx 50 vehicles ( composed of pick up trucks , with machine-guns mounted and one heavy lift truck) , arrived in El Fasher from Khartoum. Each vehicle had approx 6-8 GoS soldiers on it.

UPDATED INFO AS AT 1700 HOURS: Vicinity KAGURO "As regards KABKABIYA (North of Kaguro) be informed that there are increased GOS Military, Janjaweed (and Jundi Mazloum) activities demonstrating typical indications of new build of Janjaweed in the area. Such indications include massive theft of domestic animals like goats, sheep, horses and others (replenishment or preparations for field mission) which at times has involved shooting of the owners of such animals if they resist the theft . One was yesterday involving the theft of goats and firing of a woman in the leg."

Also: From the SLA HAC Commissioner that there is a significant build-up of government-backed militia (he did not detail a location where the build-up is occurring) and advised OCHA that no-one (presumably meaning UN and INGOs) should not leave El Fasher for a "few days"! It was not specified in this advice but we have already had reports of a build-up of troops in Kabkabiya and Mellit-Malha so this may be the locations where the SLA HAC Commissioner is referring to.

Peace is hard. War, thats easy

In the past four weeks, the conflict in the three States that make up Darfur is taken on a different charateristic. It is now composed of more overt confrontations that differ from the hit and run skirmishes we saw at the start of my stay here.

This article highlights some of the most intense fighting that is currently being staged just 40 miles southwest of Fasher. I am currently in Nyala. I had been scheduled to travel to Fasher today but my office failed to book a place aboard the UN WFP planes that service Sudan's war affected cities.

Read the article for more info:

Darfur villages, clinic destroyed in fighting: rebels

KHARTOUM (AFP) — Rebel fighters accused government forces on Sunday of burning three villages and destroying a health clinic in north Darfur during heavy clashes involving more than 100 vehicles.

Rebels said fierce fighting erupted on Friday southwest of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, the latest in a series of battles in Sudan's war-torn western region.

"The fighting was very heavy, with government soldiers and militia attacking," said Abu Bakr Kadu, a senior commander with the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)-Unity faction.

"There was fighting late on Saturday, but we are behind them and shooting now," Kadu said, speaking by satellite telephone from near to the battlefield.

"There was very bad damage to the villages in the bombing, and in Khazan Tungur village the hospital was destroyed."

Kadu said the centre was run by Partner Aid International (PAI), a European aid agency, which opened a health clinic in the village earlier this year.

PAI could not be reached to confirm the attack, but other rebels gave similar accounts.

"They have been bombing with Antonov aeroplanes, then moving quickly into the areas," said Ibrahim al-Hillo, a commander from the SLA faction led by Paris-based exile Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur.

"There are also Janjaweed militia but they are travelling with the government soldiers in their vehicles," Hillo added, speaking from north Darfur.

He said the government troops had burnt the villages of Khazan Tungur, Tarny and Hijaj, all approximately 60 kilometres (40 miles) southwest of El-Fasher.

Rebels said the government force totalled more than 100 vehicles packed with soldiers, but the numbers could not be independently verified.

"There are civilians killed and injured, but many ran away when the fighting started," Hillo said.

"The fighting has destroyed their villages, they are all burnt along with the small hospital in Khazan Tungur."

Peacekeepers confirmed there had been fighting between government and rebel forces, in which aircraft were involved.

"The reports that we have indicate there has been heavy fighting," said Kemal Saiki, a spokesman for the joint UN-African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

"We do not have exact details. But with reports of more than 100 vehicles with troops, this is not just a skirmish."

UNAMID was working to establish details of casualties, exact troop numbers and a time-line of events, he added.

There was no immediate response from the military. However, an army spokesman on Saturday said that the only military action under way was against bandits responsible for a spate of attacks on aid convoys.

The new violence comes amid mounting pressure on Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir as he seeks to head off potential charges from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and genocide in Darfur.

According to the United Nations, up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million fled their homes since rebels rose up against Khartoum in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 people have been killed.

The Silence is a blessing for some

Sitting under a jakaranda tree enjoying a tall glass of lime juice at my favorite watering hole, I realize that no matter how hard the wind blows, the tree makes no noise. No rustling of leaves, that quiet peaceful background noise that puts you at ease. Just the image of dancing branches moving every which way and challenging your eyes to focus on one branch when another seduces your gaze to shift and settle on its new found rhythm. Such a feast for the eyes. Like watching a beautiful movie with the sound turned off. Quite a zen experience. I never noticed this before. May you discover such a rare pleasure in your life this day.

The image sets a less than pleasant tone for this entry. As I write this message, more tensions are mounting outside the Kalma displaced persons camp just 10 km outside Nyala and fighting has been raging on in North Darfur. The government troops opened fire on internally displaces women, children, and men in the camp just a week ago killing 30 instantly and sending seven more to the hospital for what turned out to be fatal wounds. The army has returned and has been seen setting up camp just a few kilometers from the 80,000 plus camp. The government claimed that it had been fired upon and it is difficult to discount this claim given the amount of manipulation that we see of innocent people on both sides of the conflict here. But the children are the real innocents and 11 perished on that day.

Yet, through it all, I sit at my desk. I meet with villagers. I travel to distant towns across burning sands and I do not hear a thing.

Nearly all the news of these events are harvested from the internet. My experience here for ME has been peaceful. My life has been sheltered by a jakaranda tree. Always watching over me and always quiet. For that I feel blessed and give thanks. Allah Karib - God provides!

I am sorry for not writing over the past month. I had a chance to return home to see many of you face to face and let the blog entries lag. I am back on the job in Darfur for my last five months and we have really picked up the pace. But that reality is already changing.

Ramadan is here. A time when Muslims fast during the day and eat and party like its 1999 at night, every night. This revelrie and suffering combination send many of my employees into a progressive slumber everyday from the time they reach the office to the time they leave around 4pm.

This is only the second day of Ramadan and many are suffering from head and stomach aches. the rainy season usually grants us cool days but these past few days we have not seen rain and it is hot. Not a great complement to the long days without water or food after staying up most of the night eating and talking with friends and family. It is a heady time in Sudan and not one that lends itself to heavy work. Yet work does not wait, so I anticipate taking on more of the burden through this month and will look forward to a more energetic crew in October.

Ramadan kareem my friends.

The Arab problem and other nonsense

Tbe following article makes another attempt to make the Darfur conflict into an 'Arab" problem. These kinds of portrayals do an injustice to the attempts to resolve the conflict in Darfur. I hosted several Egyptians in my home and they told me quite frankly that they could not distinguish Arabs from non-Arabs during their time in Darfur. They certainly did not feel any kind of brotherly solidarity with the Darfur Arabs. I am not familiar with the political leanings of Israel Today (though they do provide a link to a Zionist newsletter), but it certainly fails to hit the mark in regards to Darfur.

Israel Today
Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Egyptian troops execute another Darfur refugee

Egyptian soldiers on Wednesday morning put a bullet in the back of a 24-year-old Sudanese man's head as the desperate refugee from the war-torn Darfur region made a dash for the Israeli border.

Three other Darfur refugees accompanying the victim were arrested by the Egyptians.

Egyptian troops have killed at least 20 African refugees trying to reach Israel this year alone. In at least one incident late last year the Egyptians even threatened to shoot Israeli soldiers who were trying to help refugees escape from their Arab pursuers.

Thousands of Sudanese refugees from Darfur have been in Egypt for years. Recently, many have begun making the long difficult trek across the Sinai desert to escape the oppression and discrimination they experience at Egyptian hands.

Good analysis from a Gulf State perspective

Kharartoum and Crocodile Tears, by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed Al-Arabiya News Channel, July 24, 2008 The shock triggered by the ICC prosecutor's decision to charge Sudanese president Omar Bashir of war crimes has passed. We don't know yet if the government in Khartoum has recovered from its awe or is still at the peak of its anger. Here is the messenger of crises, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, starting a series of trips to and from the Sudanese capital, ones that might last for long if the government keeps its mouth shut and its ears open. On the first days of shock, some of the Sudanese officials showered me with criticism because I wrote that in principle the ICC has the right to try regimes that abuse power against their people. I didn't say that president Bashir, or anyone else, is guilty. I just said the principle is right and necessary to deter regimes that err. I am sure the decision was welcome by the intelligentsia and political activists in the Arab world and those who see that some regimes are not satisfied with imprisoning the symbols of opposition, but also go as far killing hundreds, even thousands, of their own people. Instead of criticizing the court or the opposition, Sudanese officials have to think about the ordeal they are facing now. They have to listen to those who oppose them and criticize them and not just those who shed crocodile tears and declare fake solidarity. Wise, balanced thinking might lead to a solution, but those who only cheer will make them sink deeper into the ICC swamp. I remind them that the current regime in Sudan is no stronger than that of Saddam, no richer than that of Libya at the time of Lockerbie, and not more important than that of Yugoslavia at the time of the Bosnian war. In a matter of months, the case will get more serious and the Sudanese regime will not find support from any of the Arab governments. Their Chinese ally, with all the support it gave to the Bashir regime and to the dictator of Zimbabwe, will not jeopardize its international interests. They will do what the Russians did when they supported Milosevic with money and weapons due to blood, religious, and political ties with the Serbs; but when he was arrested and tried, they abandoned him. If we want to enumerate the mistakes of the Sudanese regime, we will fill entire books. Throughout the past three years, the Sudanese government has been defying all human rights organizations and delegates that kept prompting it to solve the Darfur crisis. Instead of complying with international demands, the regime kept claiming that the situation is stable in Darfur and that reports about assaults, arson, expulsion, and killing were sheer lies. I am sure that at the time Khartoum was capable of solving the problem and cooperating with the international community to end the tragedy. But because the government is used to suppressing opposition, it ignored all international protests and branded the protestors a bunch of unworthy artists, intellectuals and women. That's how the matter reached the court, and the Khartoum leaders did not realize how serious it was. They were not aware that there are international demands for their trial. Added to that, no head of state will dare to obstruct the court since we are in the big elections year. If the Arab League plan, delivered by Secretary General Amr Moussa, aims at solving the Darfur problem and not just getting Bashir out of his ordeal, then this is a smart and fair step. The main purpose is not to defy the court or support Bashir or to declare him innocent, but to achieve a balance. It is true that the Arab League called for respecting the sovereignty of nations, but this was just embellished talk that aimed at calming things down and did not benefit the Sudanese government in one way or another. The most challenging mission is finding a solution that satisfies the UN Security Council, such as holding an international conference to solve the Darfur problem, which means getting the Sudanese government to agree to something it has been rejecting for years. The sovereignty pretext is no longer valid as the death of thousands necessitates international intervention in any country and under any circumstances. The international conference will mean the Sudanese government will no longer be in charge of handling the crisis in the plighted province and could thus be the only way to save the regime from being chased. Handing the reins to the international community is much better than arresting and trying the president. No matter how much support the Sudanese leaders are getting from internal or external parties, they realize—or at least feel—that lots of those harbor feelings against them and that some of them are happy to see the tiger in the cage. No matter how much support they garner inside or outside Sudan, there will be two problems. First, it is temporary support and second, it has no effect on the ICC. After the crowds are dispersed, the regime will have to face the court. That is why I wish that Khartoum would get over the initial shock and start to think wisely about giving up the incriminating language and menacing strategy because this will not stop the ICC. Sooner or later, Sudanese leaders will discover that most of the tears are those of crocodiles and that if they don't help themselves, nobody will. The Sudanese regime should not count on internal and external support and should not delude itself with the immunity of sovereignty because all this is talk that runs like water through sand on the sea shore. The real enemy of the regime is that which implicated it and deceived it into believing that the court has no right to try it under the pretext that it is not a signatory to its treaty. The matter got serious when the Security Council referred the Darfur case to the ICC. At this point, the court verdict becomes obligatory for all states, including those who didn't sign the treaty. Now, the situation is complicated and a solution outside the court is not guaranteed. However, if the regime solves the problem of hundreds of thousands of refugees in Darfur, this might strengthen the position of those who want to help it. If the Sudanese government agrees to power sharing with other Sudanese factions it deprived of ruling the country, the Sudanese people could unite to support it. Finally, Khartoum’s leaders should learn from precedents, whether those who were saved because they compromised or those who fell because they were obstinate. * Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed is the general manager of Al-Arabiya News Channel. He is also the former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly magazine, Al Majalla. (This opinion piece was translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid).

Confuson and Dangerous Politics

The threats that led the UN to move the security level to phase IV in Darfur and phase III in Khartoum seemed to all but vanish over the past week. Phase IV protocols require that all UN agencies relocate or evacuate all non-essential personnel. We had been holding meeting on a daily basis with UN humanitarian coordinating bodies discussing how many NGOs would qualify for evacuation should the situation go phase V which requires the evacuation of all personnel. Many NGOs voiced concern about the possible loss of important assets like UN helicopters and other facilities that enable NGOs to reach vulnerable populations in the rural areas outside Nyala, Geneina, and Nyala. And there has been lots of negotiation about how much the UN would promise to reserve for the NGO community.

But that process was stopped just a few days after it began. UNAMID announced that it would be suspending its relocation of non-essential personnel - most them United Nations Civil Police Officers. Threats to restrict helicopter use and limits on NGO workers in the field have all but vanished. And most NGOs that relocated their staff to Khartoum or abroad are returning to the field in Darfur.

In the midst of all the demonstrations against the US and Europe over the recent ICC indictment of the president, government officials have also been meeting with NGOs to reassure them of continued support for humanitarian operations and ask NGOs not to panic or follow the example of the UN agencies.

The president organized a tour of the Darfur states to demonstrate to his detractors that he was not a threat to peace in Darfur and to show the level of support for him and his government among the Darfur people. The visit featured a great deal of fanfare including promises that the government would provide protection for the peacekeepers and humanitarian convoys that are frequently looted. He also invited the sole signatory to the peace agreement - Mini Minawi of the SLA -MM faction - to return to Khartoum for talks on ways to mend any disputes about the terms of the peace agreement.

Behind the scenes however the UN reported bombing raids on areas formally under SLA-MM control, which suggests that it may be too late for talks in Khartoum. Mini Minawi had been threatening to leave the peace process and resume the fight for his people in Darfur. It is possible that the government and the SLA-MM have already broken their agreement and resorted to a violent resolution of the conflict.

But today, in contradiction to the previous assurances from the President, the government issued a warning that it would not guarantee the well-being of the UN peacekeepers if the president were to be indicted by the ICC. (Click on this line to read the article in Al jazeera) The ICC prosecutor has requested an indictment on 10 counts including genocide and crimes against humanity, but the court is still waiting for the judge to review the request and issue the indictment. The government of Sudan has used a lot of its political capital to elicit the support of the African Union and Arab League to reject the issuance of an indictment and now this warning. It is very difficult to judge the direction this process will take and hard to estimate how the UN will manage resistance from the government combined with the potential for renewed fighting between all factions in the field.

A DRIVE IN THE DESERT

UN evacuates more than personnel

It has been a sad week in Fasher. The UN agencies finished evacuating their non-essential staff leaving fewer than 15 people behind to manage responses to only life-threatening situations.

UNAMID declared the whole of Darfur a phase IV zone, requiring all non-essential personnel to evacuate to Uganda, Egypt, and Ethiopia. They are calling it an administrative relocation because it sounds less like they are abandoning the people of the area. The plan was to get everyone - all 3,600 UN civilian personnel - out of the country in a 5 day period. That plan has hit a few snags. Mechanical problems, logistical mistakes, miscommunication, and lack of coordination have meant that nearly a thousand remain behind until the kinks in the system can be worked out.

The cessation of all field missions and restricted movement for UN assets like helicopters has also meant that NGOs have had to limit their activities and reduce their personnel to bare minimums. A few NGOs have not given in to what they feel is just hyper hysteria and continue to operate in the rural areas with little guarantee of evacuation should the rumors of an imminent attack against government controlled areas by the allegedly united rebel factions actually come true.

The usually bustling town is a tad off today. Stores are open and people go about their business but the largest employer and biggest economic driver is shipping out and people are scared. Mahmoud, a storekeeper in the central market, recently bet the farm on continued profits from UNAMID and other international customers - quite literally. Mahmoud sold a large area of his farm to build a warehouse and fill it mainly with bottled water. A profitable commodity, bottled water used to go for upwards of 9 dollars for 9 litres (six bottles of 1.5 litres of Safia). Today the market can barely hold at 6 dollars and Mahmoud predicts that the slide will continue. "No Sudanese will pay for water, it is unthinkable," he lamented. No sooner than you enter a person's home or shop in Darfur, you will receive a large metal cup of cool water. Declining is not insulting. I accepted once and wound up in the hospital with an intravenous drip, so now I decline with a smile and a hand over my heart to express thanks. But no thanks.

It is not hard to see the negative impact the departure of so many people will have on a town like Fasher. The UN had been on phase III when I arrived here 7 months ago. Now with phase IV and phase V around the corner (many people fear), they might as well call it "on your mark, get set, GO." At least that is the sentiment of many residents who feel abandoned and also wonder if the departure will mean the loss of jobs. UNAMID had been engaged in a massive recruitment campaign. Many NGOs lost good program and admin personnel to positions such as driver or security guard with UNAMID because of the significant difference in pay. This year, 45 school teachers in Fasher abandoned their posts in favor of jobs as translators, drivers, or security guards. The situation is even worse in the interior. Each employee supports families who have come to depend on this salary. Now the threat of that income diminishing or stopping is giving everyone in Fasher a reason to lament the departure of UNAMID personnel.

No one even talks about why they are leaving. Hard to even come close to narrowing down the reason for the decision to pull the plug. The recent attack is definitely one of the triggers. The belief that it was only the tip of a large, unseen iceberg of trouble is also probably a cause. But because we do not see any significant change in the conflict situation, it is hard to say what would trigger a return to former levels in Darfur. How long do we wait to see things deteriorate and say "ah, hah, see I told you the evacuation was necessary!" Or did the evacuation allow for the events to unfold the way they might?

Today word got out on the internet of an impending attack on Khartoum. Hundreds of vehicles heading toward the capital to ... what? Not sure. To drive home the message that what happens in Darfur is not a Darfur problem but a Sudanese problem. Hard to imagine that the rebels stand any chance of actually defeating the government. They will terrorize the town. Create apprehensions among the foreigners and bring Sudan back into the forefront of people's thoughts, for a while anyway.

It is hard to be a witness to all this movement of military materiel and young men newly trained to be the government's new loyal fighters without feeling like something more can and should be done.

The ICC came out with its indictment of the president, charging him with 10 counts of genocide. The statute of the ICC talks about helping to build reconciliation. That peace is not possible without justice. The prosecutor is at least doing something when the rest of us can only stare and shake our collective heads at the insanity of this war.

Does the threat of a warrant mean a threat to peace?

What peace?

All parties to this conflict have seen what price is paid by those who do not use the force of arms. Very few will go to that place again anytime soon. The best alternative to a negotiated agreement has not yet been uncovered. Probably buried somewhere under the next major battle with big losses on all sides, waiting for the first massive demonstration against the growing body count, or sitting on the sidelines waiting for the ammunitions and weapons supply to finally dry up. Until that happens, there is no peace to preserve. No in my opinion. For what it is worth.

Cool wind and heavy drops of rain, promises of a better night's sleep before I make my way to Khartoum in the morning.

Until then.

Will we stay or will we go - or get kicked out?

That is the question on many people's minds today. Will the government decide to lash back at the international community by canceling our travel authorizations and demanding that western organizations withdraw their international staff to Khartoum or even out of the country?

I think that would be extreme, even for this government. Sudan has faced previous indictments with little to no impact on the international community here, so I cannot envisage a drastic move like the expulsion of expatriates or attacks against UN troops in retaliation for an indictment against the president.

I am posting for the second time today because of the quickly changing environment in Darfur. Two international NGOs have sent their staff to Khartoum already in response to potential threats. The government of Sudan held military exercises in Nyala (capital of South Darfur) and in Khartoum (nation's capital) for reasons unknown. That has many people on edge, especially in Nyala, where we do not normally see overt displays of military prowess. In Fasher, it seems to be life as normal. But, as I stated before, much of the tension is just beneath the surface. It is very difficult to know just what people are thinking.

I will have an update on Sunday after the OCHA security update as to whether we have moved to a phase 4 security alertness and what it will mean for our mission here in Darfur.

Enjoy this Los Angeles Times article which gets at the meat of the threats facing the humanitarian community here in Darfur:

"Genocide Charges will be Sought"

By Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 11, 2008

UNITED NATIONS -- The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor will ask judges to issue an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan next week on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, diplomats and an official close to the case said Thursday.

The prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, issued a statement Thursday announcing that he would submit evidence of crimes committed against civilians in Sudan's western region of Darfur over the last five years, though he will wait until Monday at the pretrial chamber to name names.

If the judges issue an arrest warrant, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir would be the first sitting or former head of state to be charged with genocide by the 6-year-old international court in The Hague.

The prosecutor may seek the arrests of other senior Sudanese officials later, said the official close to the case, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the proceedings.

U.N. officials are concerned that the request for warrants could cause the Sudanese government to retaliate against peacekeepers and aid workers in Darfur -- or even eject them. But they have not asked Moreno-Ocampo to soft-pedal his charges against Bashir, said U.N. and court officials.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had tried to keep the court's quest for justice in Darfur on the margins of negotiations with Sudanese officials, concerned that it would disrupt the deployment of additional troops for a United Nations-led peacekeeping force. But Thursday, he told reporters that "in principle, I believe that peace and justice should go hand in hand."

The Sudanese envoy to the world body fueled fears that a request for Bashir's arrest would jeopardize U.N. operations in Darfur. "All options are open," Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem said. "It is playing with fire."

Darfur has been racked by violence since a rebellion against the central government began in 2003. At least 200,000 people have been killed, according to most estimates, most of the deaths blamed on militias that critics charge were unleashed by the government to put down the insurrection.

The U.N. in January took command of an African Union peacekeeping effort in Darfur. The force is expected to eventually consist of 26,000 troops, though it has grown only slightly from the original 9,000 African troops because of delays in deployment and supplies.

U.N. peacekeepers and aid workers, who have faced repeated attacks from gunmen, began retrenching in Darfur after an attack Tuesday on U.N. forces that killed seven and injured 20. The Sudanese ambassador blamed the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Unity rebel group, but U.N. officials say they suspect that the Sudanese army was linked to the attack.

Humanitarian groups have been withdrawing staff members from remote areas and preparing for demonstrations or attacks in response to Moreno-Ocampo's actions Monday.

"We take the situation quite seriously," said a humanitarian coordinator for Darfur, especially because nongovernmental organizations and the U.N. have faced frequent violence over the last six months. The coordinator requested anonymity for security reasons.

Sudan probably will not turn over its leader if a warrant is issued. Sudan has ignored arrest warrants issued last year for an official and a rebel leader, and even promoted the official, Ahmed Haroun, to oversee humanitarian affairs for the people he is charged with helping displace in Darfur.

"I swear to God, I swear to God, I swear to God, we will not hand over any Sudanese to the International Court," Bashir recently told a gathering of Sudan's Popular Defense Forces.

Moreno-Ocampo's strategy is risky, human rights groups and diplomats say. Besides potentially alienating the head of state who controls U.N. access to Darfur and triggering a retaliation, proving the crime of genocide is very difficult, said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch.

Moreno-Ocampo will have to show that the systematic killings in Darfur were ordered by Bashir with the specific intent to eliminate the Massalit, Zaghawa and Fur groups on the basis of their ethnicity.

The government claims that the conflict was triggered by rebels from those groups, and that the government and allied militias responded in self-defense. Any casualties occurred in the course of a counter- insurgency operation, and in intertribal warfare, officials have repeatedly said.

"If genocide is the charge that the ICC prosecutor is pursuing, he has set himself a high hurdle to get over," Dicker said.

Though warrants against Bashir would be a first for the ICC, its prosecutor would be following a path blazed by other tribunals.

A special court backed by the U.N. indicted Liberian President Charles Taylor in 2003 for atrocities committed during a 10-year civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone. His trial is underway.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was indicted by the international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1999, while he was still in office, and was turned over to authorities after he was overthrown in a popular uprising. He died of heart failure in 2006 during his trial in The Hague.

Moreno-Ocampo, an Argentine who helped put his country's former ruling junta behind bars, has been called quixotic in his quest for justice while at the International Criminal Court. He has opened investigations of violent campaigns in the Democratic Republic of Congo, northern Uganda, Darfur and the Central African Republic. The court has issued 12 arrest warrants.

Moreno-Ocampo will be making his new far-reaching case against a backdrop of criticism after the recent collapse of his prosecution of a Congolese warlord accused of using child soldiers. The trial chamber suspended the trial of Thomas Lubanga after the court ruled that the prosecutor withheld evidence that could help the defense.

The Darfur case could help shore up Moreno-Ocampo's credibility, or undermine it.

"Charging a sitting head of state is going to generate a lot of commentary and controversy," Dicker said. "But given what has happened in Darfur since 2003, it is hardly a surprise that the trail of evidence leads to the head of state. It is an important step toward the end of impunity."

UN takes a hit and ICC prepares to hit again

Just returned from another incredible four-day trip into the desert. I will have more stories and pictures (!) to share about that later when we get power to the office.

The most pressing issue in Sudan today is the looming threat of more violence directed at UN peacekeepers. Yesterday, UN agencies in Khartoum and the Darfur states voted on whether to reclassify the region as a phase 4 after 7 peacekeepers were killed and 20 were wounded in a well-planned ambush by men on horseback and in well armed 4x4 vehicles.
See more on this incident in this article from the July 10th article By Stephanie McCrummen in the Washintgon Post - 7 Troops Killed in Sudan Ambush : Gunmen Besiege Peacekeepers in Northern Darfur

The International Criminal Court is on the verge of indicting and issuing a warrant of arrest for the president of the Sudan. The implications of such an action are debated in this article from this July 11^th Memo From Africa section in the New York Times

The Pursuit of Justice vs. the Pursuit of Peace

By LYDIA POLGREEN and MARLISE SIMONS

DAKAR, Senegal — When Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, reported to the United Nations Security Council last month, he painted a dire tableau of death, rape and dispossession in Darfur, saying the entire state apparatus was involved in a five-year campaign of terror there. His target, it seemed, was Sudan’s president.

On Thursday, the prosecutor’s office said it had prepared its second case involving war crimes in Darfur, a region of Sudan. Now analysts, diplomats, aid workers and United Nations officials are bracing for the increasing likelihood that Mr. Moreno-Ocampo will ask the judges for an arrest warrant for the president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

The indictment of a sitting head of state in a war-torn country would not be unprecedented: Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Charles Taylor of Liberia were both charged by international war crimes courts while in office.

But the complexity and fragility of Sudan’s multiple conflicts have led many diplomats, analysts and aid workers to worry that the Sudanese government could lash out at the prosecutor’s move by expelling Western diplomats and relief workers who provide aid to millions of people displaced by the fighting, provoking a vast crisis and shutting the door to vital diplomatic efforts to bring lasting peace.

The dueling objectives have exposed a growing tension: between justice and peace, that is, between the prosecution of war criminals and the compromises of diplomacy.

Darfur, in many ways, is in freefall. On Tuesday, seven peacekeepers were killed in an ambush, sending shockwaves through the already demoralized international peacekeeping force there.

“It is escalating every day,” said a senior United Nations peacekeeping official in Darfur. “The government wants us to fail. We are doing our best, but we are under attack everywhere.”

Aid groups are struggling to provide basic assistance, as they face increased banditry and harassment. Last week Sudanese authorities expelled several staff members of the aid group Doctors Without Borders. Hijackings of aid vehicles in Darfur have become an almost daily occurrence, peacekeeping officials say.

Beyond that, in southern Sudan, the embers are cooling after a fierce battle in May over the disputed oil-rich town of Abyei that displaced 50,000 people. Tensions remain extraordinarily high between the sides, which fought a 20-year civil war that ended in a fragile peace accord in 2005. A government of national unity is holding, but only just.

Many argue that the added strain of war crimes charges against the head of state would push an already precarious nation over the edge.

“It is certainly going to close off all sorts of options for diplomacy and leave us very few options other than condemnation and isolation,” said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Other analysts and activists argue that it could increase pressure on the Sudanese government at a critical moment — when peacekeeping forces in Darfur are increasingly under attack, the peace agreement with the south is in danger of collapsing and the aid effort in Darfur hangs by a thread.

“I think it is absolutely imperative to go straight to the top,” said John Prendergast, a former Clinton administration official who co-founded Enough, a group that seeks to end genocide. He argued that concerted pressure by the international community had changed Sudan’s behavior at times.

Sudanese officials declined to comment, saying they would wait until the prosecutor made his announcement. But in the past, the Sudanese government has rejected the legitimacy of the court, arguing that Sudanese courts are capable of prosecuting any crimes. The international court has already brought criminal charges against two senior government officials, but the government has refused to hand them over. One was even given a promotion.

In the short term, a request for Mr. Bashir’s arrest could have a potentially devastating impact on the people of Darfur. Representatives of the Sudanese government have long said that they view the entire aid and security apparatus in Darfur as accomplices of the international court, bent on regime change.

Aid organizations say they are under intense scrutiny by Sudan’s intelligence agencies, which monitor their communications and tightly control their visas and permits to work in Darfur. Several foreign aid workers have been expelled at least in part on suspicion of providing information to the International Criminal Court.

The government already accuses nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations “of passing information to the I.C.C.,” said one senior aid official in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, speaking anonymously for fear of retribution. “There is quite strong concern they will expel U.N. staff and possibly entire agencies.”

Diplomats are also worried about the impact an indictment might have on efforts to revive peace talks in Darfur, which have been stalled for the better part of a year, and on efforts to prevent the complete dissolution of the strained 2005 peace deal between the north and south.

For months, talks have been taking place between the United States and Sudan, with American officials trying to persuade Sudan to improve security in Darfur and strengthen the peace agreement with the south.

In exchange, Sudanese officials would get better relations with the United States, something they have sought for years, according to diplomats and analysts. But that process would be much more difficult if Mr. Bashir were formally charged with war crimes, Western diplomats said.

Diplomats have predicted dire consequences from arrest warrants before. When Mr. Milosevic, then Yugoslavia’s president, was first indicted in 1999 — during the conflict in Kosovo — German, French and Russian politicians said it would put a fatal obstacle in the way of peace negotiations. When he was transferred to The Hague, diplomats worried it would destabilize the region.

Similarly, when the Special Court for Sierra Leone unsealed its arrest warrant for Mr. Taylor, then Liberia’s president, in 2003, in the midst of intense fighting there, diplomats and others involved in peace negotiations privately warned of disastrous consequences. Kofi Annan, then the United Nations secretary general, was furious and reportedly told his aides it was a threat to the peace process.

Both leaders ultimately fell from power, and the role the indictments played in either prolonging or shortening conflict has been much debated.

More recently, diplomats have complained that arrest warrants hampered a peace deal with the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has ravaged northern Uganda for 20 years.

Led by Joseph Kony, the rebel group has kidnapped thousands of children and turned them into soldiers and sex slaves. Mr. Kony agreed to take part in peace talks, but only if the international arrest warrants against him were lifted. The Security Council, which has the power to suspend prosecutions, was reportedly ready to agree if Mr. Kony signed.

“But he failed to appear,” said Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch. “It turns out that the rebel group used the talks as a screen to beef up its depleted ranks.”

The argument that peace trumps justice might be more compelling in Darfur, human rights workers argue, if there were a peace process achieving results there. But peace efforts are at a virtual standstill. Previous efforts to bring the fractious rebel groups together to negotiate ended in failure.

Still, the short-term risks of seeking an indictment are grave, said Alex de Waal, a Sudan expert at the Social Science Research Council in New York.

“Bashir is paranoid; he feels the world is out to get him,” Mr. de Waal said. “He is prone to irrational outbursts and could respond in a very aggressive way.”

Trigger happy day in Fasher

Today's short story takes place in El Fasher, the administrative capital of North Darfur.

I sent an article a while back about the number of carjackings in town and around the IDP camps. Well, today, some unlucky group decided to try to carjack a couple of trucks from a local construction company. They fired a few shots in the air to put off any one brave enough to try to stop them and sped off down the streets headed for out of town.

The ever present border police were immediately on their tails and managed to stop the vehicles and apprehend them. The police were so proud of themselves that they could not resist firing off a few rounds to let people know of their victory. No sooner had one soldier started firing his automatic rifle did people all around the city begin to fire in response. Gunfire was everywhere. I think all my neighbors fired at least 20 rounds before the city grew quiet. I did not know about the carjacking or the police at the time and thought that everyone had heard some particularly good news on the radio or something, But in actuality, it turns out that rumor quickly spread that rebels were trying to take the town and people fired their guns to send a message to the would-be-rebels that they will face a well-armed civilian population if they tried. The army (which also did not get the memo) set up roadblocks and rolled out a tank - tearing up the newly paved road in the process.

The whole matter did not last for more than 20 minutes but people are so high strung that it took no more than a few celebratory shots to set everyone on edge.

So much for veil of peace.

Surfing the dry river beds of Darfur

Forgive the long delay.

I finally managed to leave the cities and travel to the field. Then the city ran out of fuel again and we had no internet connection for a week. Suffice it say that it has not been a good past 2 weeks for communication.

I am happy to report that I managed to spend a week in the most beautiful desert landscape I have ever seen. It is not the typical sandy desert with dunes. It was in the higher elevations and very rocky. It reminded me somewhat of Arizona - a state in the southwestern part of the United States - but this area was far more pristine. White sand, yellowish rocks, against a pale blue sky. Not quite as hot as Fasher or Nyala and definitely cooler than Khartoum these days. I arrived the day before the regional market day and was able to see thousands of people descend from the surrounding hills bringing their wares to sell or trade. Most were on foot but had four or five donkeys carrying their goods to market. The children either walked or rode along with the merchandise. I wish I could have taken a picture of the throngs of folks crossing the dry river bed (called Wadi). Here the sand is white and deep and people move very slowly passing these huge trees that grow in the center of the rivers. I thought at first they were Boabab trees but I now know them as Tibaldi trees. Are they the same thing? Guess I could have looked that up before writing in this log, but you are free to do so. Okay rambling again. But the image of the people wearing so many different colors moving slowly towards a vibrant market day was amazing.

Unfortunately, a breathtaking moment is not always a picture taking moment, especially when you have a few dozen rough looking militia and soldiers also making their way to the market to keep order in case some of the merchants or traders happen to be rebels looking for trouble. So the camera stayed in the bag.

While I was visiting this desert paradise, I experienced my first real rain. It rained from morning to evening and the following day the town was empty. Merchants closed their shops. The market where I buy my pita bread was closed. It was not until the helicopter flight out back to Fasher that I saw everyone out in the fields planting. The dry river beds became roaring rivers and the white sandy and rocky landscape took on a pale green hue. Amazing to be able to witness this natural transition from barren land to green terrain with promise.

I also managed to fly over a few displaced persons camps and villages along the way since the helicopter flies very low. The life of an IDP is one of fear. Every time the UN opens an encampment, those afraid of renewed attacks with pitch their tent close-by. When another 500 households do the same, a camp is born. Suddenly the needs of one family is complicated by the competing needs of 20,000 people. Many of these camps are not government approved and attempts are made to dismantle them or deny its residents access to humanitarian food and water. But eventually access is granted and these camps become formally recognized IDP concentrations. The ideal is for the international organizations and NGOs to establish a camp formally, with rows between each house, designated areas for latrines and schools, and social time. Unfortunately most camps look like this picture. People all pushed together and little chance for reorganization.

I will speak more about the camps in my next entry. We just lost power again and I will sign off to save on the battery life of this computer.

Good article on the complexity of modern wars

This Washington Post article seems to suggest that wars are usually simple with clearly identified sides and driven by ideology. The reality has always been that wars - no matter how they may be perceived - have brought opportunists and power mongers to join in the fight from the time of the crusades to WWII to the present day wars. Rarely are the majority of soldiers in a fight in it for the ideology. Good article nonetheless. Helps to paint a better picture of why the Save Darfur campaigns in the west are simplifying the needed approach to this quagmire. The bag guys are not difficult to identify but the real question needs to be what to do about them.

Happy reading.

A wide-open battle for power in Darfur

Sudan conflict has fragmented into a free-for-all jeopardizing relief mission

By Stephanie McCrummen

The Washington Post

June 20, 2008

EL FASHER, Sudan - Five years after the Darfur conflict began, the nature of violence across this vast desert region has changed dramatically, from a mostly one-sided government campaign against civilians to a complex free-for-all that is jeopardizing an effective relief mission to more than 2.5 million displaced and vulnerable people.

While the government and militia attacks on straw-hut villages that defined the earlier years of the conflict continue, Darfur is now home to semi-organized crime and warlordism, with marijuana-smoking rebels, disaffected government militias and anyone else with an AK-47 taking part, according to U.N. officials.

The situation is a symptom of how fragmented the conflict has become. There were two rebel groups, but now there are dozens, some of which include Arab militiamen who once sided with the government. The founding father of the rebellion lives in Paris. And the struggle in the desert these days is less about liberating oppressed Darfurians than about acquiring the means to power: money, land, trucks.

Though there are some swaths of calm in Darfur, fighting among rebels and among Arab tribes has uprooted more than 70,000 people this year, compared with about 60,000 displaced by government attacks on villages, according to U.N. figures.

Although powerful countries such as China, which is heavily invested in Sudan's oil, have been criticized by human rights activists for not doing more to pressure the Sudanese government to end the conflict, some analysts say the breakdown of command lines on all sides has made the situation increasingly impervious to outside influence.

Humanitarian trucks carjacked every day
Meanwhile, the proliferation of banditry has become the biggest threat to humanitarian groups undertaking the largest relief effort in the world and to a nascent U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force. Their trucks and SUVs are stolen almost daily, used as fighting vehicles or sold for cash to middlemen who haul them to Chad and Libya.

Carjackings were once rare in Darfur, but 130 humanitarian trucks were taken last year, and the count so far this year is 140. Of those, 79 belong to the World Food Program, which sometimes recovers the trucks from the side of the road, abandoned by bandits who ran out of gas.

The insecurity has crippled food distribution. Last month, the organization was forced to halve rations for millions of people in camps and villages.

"This is a new dimension for us," said Laurent Bukera, head of the program's North Darfur Area Office. "This week, there's been a carjacking every day -- every day."

World Food Program truck driver Adam Ahmed Osman said the bandits who attacked his convoy were young, skittish amateurs.

They popped out of a dry riverbed in trousers and head scarves, pointing rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns at Osman's 20-ton truck and another returning from delivering food a few hours from this bustling market town.

The nine men told Osman and the other driver to lie in the sand. The attackers took their cellphones, Osman's watch and some money. Then came a question.

"One of the men got on the seat of the truck and asked, 'What is this?' " said Osman, who escaped unharmed with his colleague as the bandits made off with one truck. "I explained, 'It is a hand brake.' "

On a road leading south from here, carjackings are so frequent that World Food Program officials recently discussed using a helicopter to reach a camp of 50,000 displaced people that is a 30-minute drive away. Along a 30-mile stretch of road farther south are no fewer than 15 checkpoints manned by various militia or rebel factions. Heading west, Osman has been a victim four times.

Wild West style of banditry abounds
The Wild West style of banditry is not happening only along the roads.

In recent weeks, a group of disgruntled militiamen -- the notorious Janjaweed -- rode into El Fasher on horseback and attempted to rob the National Bank of Sudan, complaining that the government had not paid them.

During the first four months of this year, 51 humanitarian compounds in towns across Darfur were raided by armed men, compared with 23 during the same period last year, according to the United Nations.

Relief groups in El Fasher are topping walls with razor wire and taking other precautions. Oxfam workers have resorted to using banged-up rental trucks, taxis and even donkey carts to deliver supplies, hoping to make themselves less enticing to potential bandits.

The insecurity has not yet reduced the impact of the relief effort. Rates of infant mortality and malnutrition have dropped significantly since 2006, for instance. But in the nearby Abu Shouk camp, where tents have been replaced by mud-brick houses and walls spiked with broken glass to deter break-ins, people have noticed that humanitarian workers visit less regularly.

"They used to check on us every week," said Tigani Nur Adam, a teacher who has lived in the camp for five years. "Now, it's not so often."

Of the seven Oxfam locations in Darfur, four are accessible to workers only by air, said Alun McDonald, a spokesman for the group who recently survived an assault on his compound.

"The conflict has become so much more complex," he said. "There were three rebel groups, and now I don't think anyone knows how many there are. . . . The lines of who's who are much more blurred."

Evolution of the conflict
It is a marked change from the beginning of the conflict in 2003, when the Sudanese government unleashed a brutal campaign to crush rebels who had taken up arms under the banner of ending decades of discrimination by a government of Arab elites.

Of the 450,000 deaths some experts estimate have been caused by the conflict, most occurred during the first two years, which produced the iconic images of Darfur: government planes bombing villages and allied militias rampaging on horseback, burning huts, raping women and killing civilians.

Though Arab and African ethnicities are very much intertwined in Sudan, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government used Arab nationalism, and money, as way to rally the landless, Arab nomadic militias against their farmer neighbors, who tended to identify themselves as African.

But the situation began to change in 2006, when only one rebel faction of the original Sudan Liberation Movement signed a peace deal with the government.

The rest of the rebels headed back to the desert and jockeyed for position as the divisions began: SLA-Unity, SLA-Free Will, Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance, National Redemption Front and so on. "There's no need of counting anymore," a U.N. official said, referring to the factions.

The one rebel group that remains militarily strong is the Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM, which is backed by Chad and staged an attack last month on Khartoum, Sudan's capital, that failed to topple the government. So far this year, most government and militia attacks on villages have been in areas along the Chadian border controlled by JEM.

Otherwise, the Sudanese government has little need for military action, as Darfur is at war with itself.

Arab tribes are fighting one another over land, cows and other spoils of war. Disillusioned Janjaweed militiamen, abandoned by the government, have joined rebels and government soldiers in the business of looting, carjacking and petty shakedowns.

"Everybody is guilty," said Col. Augustine Agundu, chairman of the peacekeeping mission's cease-fire commission, who reserved special wrath for the rebels. "Emancipation, ending discrimination, that was their drive at the beginning, whereas today they don't know what they want."

Peacekeepers in the middle
The peacekeeping mission is in the middle of it all, saddled with the high expectations of advocacy groups that simply want the conflict to end.

The hybrid U.N.-African Union force, known as UNAMID, technically took over from an underfunded, underequipped African Union force of about 7,000 soldiers in December, but little has changed. The first new battalions have not yet arrived, nor has any new equipment.

The soldiers are authorized to use force to keep peace and protect civilians under imminent threat, but commanders fear that opening fire would jeopardize the mission by making it a party to the conflict.

Last month, bandits on horseback attacked a UNAMID commander and several peacekeepers, who surrendered their weapons and truck.

"What we are here to do is talk, not shoot," said Gen. Martin Luther Agwai of Nigeria.

That is all that Osman, the truck driver, can do, too. He's learned to sweet-talk the bandits, whom he often presumes to be rebels. Sometimes, he tries to shame them, explaining that he is bringing food to people who need it. The approach seems to have worked so far.

"I am from Darfur, and these people outside are our relatives," Osman said. "So I have an obligation to take food to them."

© 2008 The Washington Post Company