Darfur Midweek links
Sudan Elections and Southern Self-Determination: At Growing Risk
Sudan’s significantly delayed national elections, now scheduled for February 2010, have been very poorly supported by the international community and are at risk of even further delay. A host of technical, logistical, administrative, as well as legal and policy issues have yet to be resolved. A complex electoral calendar is far behind schedule in many critical respects, even as the rainy season has begun in both Southern Sudan and Darfur; this will badly hinder the critical task of effective voter registration, only now getting underway. The Sudanese census seems badly skewed in some of its results, and was conducted with far too little international supervision. Census issues are critical in determining legislative power in the National Assembly that will be formed on the basis of elections less than eight months from now. An abuse of illegitimate and excessive legislative power by the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party (NIF/NCP) could result in a pernicious re-writing of the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA; 2005), which stipulated the current elections and legislative make-up—or amendments to the Interim National Constitution could be passed with the same effect.
Elections in Darfur amidst the current violence, insecurity, and displacement are hopelessly problematic, and it is highly doubtful that anything resembling a representative vote will take place. The electoral process may break down entirely, allowing the NIF/NCP a free hand in construing the Darfur results how they will. Violence in the South has also accelerated in recent months, and President Salva Kiir of the Government of South Sudan has a good deal of evidence for his recent ominous remarks, hinting at Khartoum’s stoking of ethnic and tribal tensions:
Ex-UN SG criticize AU stance on ICC arrest warrant for Sudan’s Bashir
Darfur IDP’s skeptical over Mbeki panel
NCP: 20 YEARS OF ENGINEERING DEATH AND DESTRUCTION IN SUDAN
Sudan: AU reiterates commitment to the ICC
In conclusion the AU member states are still supportive of the ICC, but realize that there is need for a coordinated cooperative effort between the two institutions.
Meaning it supports the death of 12 suspected rebels, but would prefer not to punish the man responsible for incomprehensible acts against humanity – if that is what you want to call it.
However, it falls upon both institutions to make concerted efforts towards cooperation, which would facilitate the work of the Court and advance the regional body’s commitment to fighting impunity and to achieving international justice for victims of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. It is necessary to fast track the request by the ICC to open a liaison office within the AU, and the signing of an agreement between the two institutions which has been pending for years now. The court should also be seen to operate in a way that it is not partisan. This can only be achieved through proper outreach activities and engagement with the AU and in particular the States Parties. Enhanced outreach activities for the Court are inevitable if it has to further its momentum in Africa.
Go figure
The African Union Panel on Darfur
The African Union Panel on Darfur (AUPD) arrived last week in Sudan to conduct a series of public hearings across Darfur to examine the root causes of the conflict in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region.
The AUPD is chaired by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, and includes former Burundian President Pierre Buyoya, former Nigerian President Abdulsalami Abubakar, Zambian Justice Florence Mumba, and other African dignitaries.
The AUPD is hold hearings to listen to the voices of Darfurians and other stakeholders to determine how best to expedite the peace process to create conditions conducive to promote justice, healing, and reconciliation in Darfur.
African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) is providing technical support to the DDDC for the AUPD hearings, which are scheduled as follows:
Khartoum, June 17: Burj Al–Fateh Hotel, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
El Fasher, North Darfur, June 20: UNAMID, 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Nyala, South Darfur, June 21: UNAMID, 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
El Geneina, West Darfur, June 22: UNAMID, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Zalingei, West Darfur, June 23: UNAMID, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Khartoum, June 25: Burj Al–Fateh Hotel at 8:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Hearings to identify causes of conflict kick off in Darfur, reports UN-AU mission
Mbeki’s panel conducts public hearings in Darfur, post and commentary from The Sudan Tribune.
“It Went Well. We Told Them.” The AU Panel in Zalingei, from Making Sense of Darfur, a must read on the process as it is occurring. An interesting but not surprising list by the IDP representative which included a “criticism of the panel” and a ten item list
1. Disarm the Janjawiid;
2. Acknowledge the historic hawakir (tribal lands);
3. Expel new settlers on occupied lands;
4. Prosecute criminals before the ICC according to its mandate;
5. Change UNAMID to an international force under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter in accordance with UNSCR 1706;
6. Reconstruct the Sudanese police forces, security and army, as independent national forces;
7. Place Darfur under international trusteeship as an area free of weapons;
8. Establish a no-fly zone;
9. Return the humanitarian organizations which were expelled;
10. The government must stop its propaganda about the voluntary return of IDPs.
The full post is compelling so check it out.
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Radio Dabanga Notes
According to While We Wiat,
“Leaders of refugees in IDP camps in Darfur in interviews with Radio Dabanga this morning asked The President of The United States of America Barack Obama to fire his Special Envoy General Scott Gration for his remarks on Wednesday. One leader from a camp in Zalengie (west Darfur) said since the expulsion of the NGOs “the rations are cut 50%, we live with our children under rain in torn shelters, we lack health services, how could the Special Envoys says the humanitarian conditions are improving, from where he got this 100% figure?!”.
From Radio Dabang Sama Samar says
The situation in Darfur is not stable, the direct attack by government and militi’a loyal to government on civilians is still continuing in addition to special attacks by armed movements in the region.
Also of Note
The displaced people accused the AU committee of elders headed by former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, that they only work for defense of the Sudanese government and not Darfur and its people. Al Shgelly Abel Rahman Al Thaier, leader of elders at the displaced people camps told Radio Dabanga that Mbeki and his committee did not move except that when president Omer Al Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court and his government. Al Shgelly asked: where was Mbeki committee when crimes were committed?
Darfur Lunch Time Linkage
Here’s how one of my aid worker friends put it: “It’s like the boiling frog. If you had said to us at the start of the Darfur emergency that this is where we would end up, then no-one would have accepted it. But Khartoum made things worse bit by bit, almost imperceptibly until we ended up in an impossible situation.”
read the rest at Microwaving the Frog in Darfur /Rob Crilly
Aid groups return to Darfur – with new names
First, they were returning. In a statement last week, the United Nations chief humanitarian official said four aid agencies expelled from Darfur in March for “spying” had been given permission to come back to the wartorn region of Sudan, where more than 4 million people depend on help.
Then they were not.
In pictures: Darfur’s water woes
Sima Samar, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Sudan, also voiced concern at “large scale killings” in the south, where several hundred civilians died in inter-tribal clashes in March and April amid growing violence in the region.
But diplomats said Sudan was trying at the United Nations Human Rights Council this week to win backing from African and Islamic states to block Western attempts to extend her mandate to report on violations in Sudan for a further year.
Sudan forces still attacking Darfur civilians -UN
Remnants of genocide, the preferred term of tyrants and murderers
