Monday 04 August 2008 Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday argued that the African Union should carry out its own probe into war crimes allegations against Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir. International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo last month requested an arrest warrant be issued against Mr. Beshir over charges of war crimes in Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur. If accepted by the judges, the request would result in the first-ever arrest warrant issued by the world tribunal against a sitting head of state.
Fri 18/07/2008 A contingent of 172 Chinese soldiers has arrived in Darfur region, bringing to 8,000 the numbers of troops in the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force there. The Chinese troops are in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state. The newcomers arrive as the force is under alert after the International Criminal Court laid an accusation of genocide against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Monday. The Chinese government has expressed concern with the development, saying it could destabilize the region. A major investor and the biggest client for Sudanese oil, China is regularly accused of supplying Mr. al-Bashir's government with weapons and of failing to try to persuade the Khartoum government to end the violence in Darfur. Government troops backed by "janjaweed" militias have been fighting Darfurian rebels since 2003. The conflict has caused 300,000 deaths
Friday 11 July 2008 OTTAWA: CANADA CONDEMNS KILLING OF PEACEKEEPERS IN SUDAN
Foreign Minister David Emerson says Canada condemns the killing of seven members of the UN-African Union peacekeeping force disclosed on Wednesday. The gunmen also injured 22 others in an attack in northern Darfur. The minister says it's unacceptable that those trying to serve the cause of peace are the targets of such assaults, calling on all armed groups in Darfur to stop committing such horrible acts immediately. The attack against the UN-AU force is the most serious since it relieved a previous African force at the beginning of the year. Mr. Emerson added that there is no military solution to the conflict and that both rebel groups and the Sudanese should resume the negotiations started under the aegis of the AU and the UN.
The two main rebel groups in Sudan's western region of Darfur have condemned this week's attack against the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force. Seven peacekeepers died and nearly a dozen were wounded in the attack. The UN says Tuesday's attack involved some 200 gunman on horseback and in vehicles mounted with heavy weapons. The rebel Sudanese Liberation Movement says the attack was cowardly. The rebel Justice and Equality Movement calls the ambush a sinful aggression. Sudanese rebels have been fighting a guerrilla war for autonomy, claiming they suffer discrimination by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
Thursday 10 July 2008 The UN says seven UN and African Union peacekeeping troops were killed and 22 others wounded in an attack in Darfur region by unidentified militiamen. Five of the slain are from Rwanda, and the two others from Ghana and Uganda. The attack came as the peacekeepers were investigating the killings of civilians in North Darfur. A spokeswomen for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says he has condemned the attack as an "unacceptable act of extreme violence."
Sunday 29 June 2008 OTTAWA: FATE OF SUDANESE REGION PREOCCUPIES GOVT.
Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier says the government is "very worried" by a new and higher estimate by the UN of the number of dead in the five-year-long strife in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. Mr. Bernier says the number of 300,000 dead presented by the world body on Thursday seems "credible." Two year ago, the UN put the figure at 200,000. The Sudanese government reacted by minimizing the death toll, estimating it at 10,000, in addition to a "very minimal" number of people dead of malnutrition or famine. Mr. Bernier says there's no military solution in Darfur and urges both the Khartoum government and Darfurian insurgents to return to the peace process initiated by the UN. During a visit to Sudan in March, the minister announced $275 million in aid to support peace efforts in Sudan.
Sunday 15 June 2008 The Man for a New Sudan When Roger Winter’s single-engine Cessna Caravan touched down near the Sudanese town of Abyei on Easter morning, a crowd of desperate men swamped the plane.
Monday 02 June 2008 The US special envoy for Sudan said Sunday he will shuttle between northern and southern leaders to try to resolve a crisis in a disputed oil district where deadly clashes have sparked fears of a new civil war. Following late-night talks with southern leaders from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, Richard Williamson said he would meet members of the National Congress of President Omar al-Beshir later on Sunday. The envoy called for creative thinking in order to restore security in Abyei, a contested oil district on the border between north and south, with a wider mandate for foreign peacekeepers one possibility for consideration.
Tuesday May 27, 2008 Sudan 'on brink' of civil war Sudan is on the brink of a new civil war following more than a week of north-south clashes in the disputed oil-rich town of Abyei, a senior southern official said yesterday.
Pagan Amum, secretary general of the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement, told reporters northern troops were building up around the remote central town, with southern troops likely to follow.
Amum said the way to avoid a full-scale conflict was for all troops to leave the town, to be replaced by a UN peacekeeping force or, eventually, joint north-south military units.
Wednesday 21 May 2008 Fighting erupted for five hours on Tuesday in the southern oil town of Abyei between fighters of the Sudan People's Liberation Army and government troops. The Sudanese army says some of its soldiers were killed but that they repelled a rebel attack. The fighting threatens the Comprehensive Peace Agreement reached in 2005. The accord aimed at ending Africa's longest civil war provides for a six-year transition period in the south, after which a referendum on independence is to be held. There will be a separate referendum in Abyei to allow residents to decide whether they wish to join the south or to retain their status of regional autonomy under the Khartoum government.
Sunday 11 May 2008 Sudan's government is accusing Chad of helping rebels in Darfur to make their closest advance to the capital, Khartoum. Sudanese troops fought with the rebels in a suburb of Khartoum on Saturday. Heavy gunfire and artillery shook Omdurman, across the Nile River from Khartoum. Helicopters and armoured vehicles headed for the fighting. An overnight curfew was declared. The government said that the attack on the capital had been defeated.
Tuesday 06 May 2008 NORWAY
A donors' meeting for Sudan is underway in Oslo, Norway. Sudanese participants have asked donors to contribute $6 billion over three years to help rebuild a country shattered by decades of civil war. The donors began meeting regularly since a peace accord in 2005 between northern and southern Sudan ended Africa's longest civil war. A representative of the country's semi-autonomous government complained that some of the aid pledged since then hasn't reached the south because the Khartoum government is diverting it to Darfur. The U.S. envoy to the Oslo meeting expressed regret that China is not present, saying that as the biggest foreign investor in Sudan it would have the power to influence events in the western region now is its fifth year of civil war.
Wednesday 02 April 2008 Sudan's ambassador to the world body says the Security Council has invited President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to attend a Council summit. The invitation was issued by South Africa, the current Council president. The principal subject will be discussion why Mr. al-Bashir has been tardy in accepting the full deployment of a UN-African Union peacekeeping force of 26,000 in Darfur. The Sudanese envoy says his government is considering the invitation and will respond in coming days. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has accused the country's minister for humanitarian affairs, Ahmad Harun, and a former militia commander, Ali Kushayb, of war crimes for their activities in Darfur. The Sudanese government refuses to hand them over.
Tuesday 25 March 2008 Op-Ed: Make Sudan an Offer It Can’t Refuse
As the death toll closes upon half a million, the pity is that the people of Darfur can in fact be saved.
FM TO VISIT SUDAN
Canada's foreign minister will visit Sudan Tuesday for talks with senior government officials on the violence in Darfur. During his three-day visit, Maxime Bernier will also meet with representatives of the United Nations and African Union. The two parties have been attempting to deploy an enlarged peacekeeping mission to Darfur. Mr. Bernier will also press representatives of southern Sudan to implement a peace deal arranged three years ago that ended 21 years of war in the south.
Monday 24 March 2008 A former Sudanese foreign minister survived an assassination attempt on Saturday that killed three of his assistants. Attackers targeted Lam Akol's convoy in Upper Nile State, part of the autonomous south. Mr. Akol escaped unhurt. A number of people were wounded in clashes between the assailants and his bodyguards. Mr. Akol's political movement fought two decades of civil war against the government in Khartoum until a power-sharing deal was signed in 2005.
Sunday 27 January 2008 Three former prisoners at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are demanding compensation for their detention as well as an apology from the U.S. government. The three from Sudan held a news conference on Saturday in Khartoum. One of them, Adil Hassan Hamad, was freed one month ago after being arrested in 2002 in Pakistan, where he was working with refugees. His lawyer will seek financial compensation for him. The former prisoners are also seeking the release of other detainees. The wife of Sami al-Hajj, a journalist for al-Jazeera, described how he was being force-fed since he began a hunger strike more than a year ago. Detainees at the facility are held without charge on suspicion of terrorist activity. Among some 300 detainees is one Canadian.
Wednesday 09 January 2008 Gunmen have ambushed a United Nations convoy in Darfur, the first attack again U.N. peacekepers since their mission began this month. The attack near the Sudan-Chad border destroyed a fuel tanker truck and damaged an armoured personnel carrier. A Sudanese driver was wounded. He was in critical condition after the attack. After talks with the U.N., Sudanese forces admitted to shooting at the convoy, saying they mistook it for a group of rebels.
Tuesday 01 January 2008 A joint African-United Nations force took over peacekeeping duties in Darfur on Monday. But the force of 9-thousand soldiers and policemen is only a little larger than the beleaguered African Union peacekeeping mission it replaces. It will take months to build up to its planned strength of 26-thousand. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir long resisted western demands that he accept a UN force. But in June he accepted a compromise deal for deployment of a "hybrid mission" of mainly African troops.The Darfur conflict has pitted ethnic African rebels against the military of the Arab-dominated Khartoum government. Arab militias allied to the government, known as janjaweed, are accused of a campaign of atrocities against ethnic African civilians, razing villages and raping women.
2007
Wednesday 05 December 2007 A UN report claims that the Sudanese army and its local militia allies have killed hundreds of civilians in the past six months by bombarding areas of Darfur. The document is to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council next week. Meanwhile, a think tank of comprising former world leaders has published a report that claims that a solution to the Darfur conflict is at hand but that the world community must mobilize to put it into place. The leaders include former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu. Their report calls for the immediate deployment in Darfur of the proposed UN-African Union peacekeeping force.
Tuesday 04 December 2007 A 54-year-old British teacher found guilty of insulting the prophet Muhammad has flown from Khartoum to Dubai and is expected in London on Tuesday morning. Gillian Gibbons had been found guilty of having allowed her pupils to confer the name "Muhammad" on a teddy bear. She was given a 15-day jail sentence and ordered deported. Her case inspired angry crowds to take to the streets of Khartoum, some demanding she be executed for blasphemy. President Omar al-Bashir pardoned her after intercession by two British Muslim members of the House of Lords. Mrs. Gibbons said she had no wish to offend anyone. LIBREVILLE: MIGRANTS DROWN OFF GABON Interior Minister André Obame reports that at least a dozen illegal immigrants drowned in waters off Libreville when their boat capsized. The minister says the date of the accident and the exact number of victims is unknown. According to local charities, the boat was carrying migrants from western Africa. Oil-rich Gabon is a popular destination for such migrants. Of the country's population of !.3 million, 400,000 are immigrants, many illegal.
Friday 30 November 2007 A British school teacher has been convicted of inciting religious hatred. Gillian Gibbons was arrested after she allowed her seven-year-old pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad. One of Mrs. Gibbons' defence lawyers says she has been sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation from Sudan. The case has drawn international condemnation. Many Muslims see giving the Islamic prophet's name to an object as insulting. Britain's foreign secretary calls the situations an innocent misunderstanding.
Wednesday 31 October 2007
A FLIGHT TO SAFETY OR SLAVERY? CTV
News and the
Globe go inside with the story of sixteen Europeans who were arrested
as they were about take off from Chad with a plane full of young children.
Precisely what was going on is a matter of dispute. Chad’s government
arrested six French aid workers, three French journalists and a
seven-member Spanish flight crew on charges of attempted child abduction
and fraud. Facing the possibility of twenty years’ hard labour if
convicted, the Europeans claim they were simply trying to improve the
lives of young refugees orphaned by the war in neighbouring Darfur.
Chad’s government, however, believes the group was planning to put
the 103 France-bound children up for adoption and sell them to pedophiles.
The French government and aid agencies have dissociated themselves from the
affair, and said that they warned against the operation in the country
France formerly colonized. With widespread distrust of French intentions
across Chad, CTV News’ analysis focused on the potential
implications this turn of events might have for French peacekeepers, who
are scheduled to be deployed along the Chad-Sudan border. The Globe puts
the affair into a post-colonial context. The paper quotes one protestor in
Chad as saying, “Slave trading was abolished, wasn’t it? ... So
we shouldn’t be seeing children trafficked now in the twenty-first
century.”
Rishi
Hargovanis a Toronto-based MediaScout
writer for Maisonneuve Magazine.
Sixteen Europeans are being detained in Chad after a mission to 'rescue' children was halted just before takeoff 4:19 AM 2
Tuesday 23 October 2007 Human rights activists and a number of Nobel Prize winners have sent a petition to the Swiss bank UBS to end its role in launching PetroChina on the Shanghai stock exchange. PetroChina is controlled by the China National Petroleum Corporation, the largest operator in the Sudanese oil industry. The signatories claim that the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation provides revenue to the Sudanese government - helping pay for its war in Darfur. The petition was signed by personalities including Canadian Senator Romeo Dallaire, a former UN commander in Rwanda, and Mukesh Kapila, a former UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Sudan. It expresses deep concern at the role of UBS in the launch of PetroChina.
Wednesday 17 October 2007 President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had a meeting in Khartoum on Tuesday with a delegation of former southern rebels led by the vice-chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. The meeting was the first such since the SPLM withdrew its ministers from the government for its alleged refusal to implement the peace accord of 2005 which ended Africa's longest civil war in which two million people died and four million were displaced. Vice-chairman Riek Machar says that Chairman Salva Kiir will arrive within two days also to meet with Mr. al-Bashir. The SPLM accuses the government of failing to respect provisions of the peace accord by continuing to hold hundreds of prisoners, by leaving northern troops deployed in southern oil fields and by refusing to accept the decision of international adjudicators regarding the borders between the oil fields and northern Sudan.
Wednesday 10 October 2007 The only one of the three main Darfurian rebel groups to have signed a peace accord with the Sudanese government has threatened to resume war if government troops stage further attacks on the territory which it controls. The Sudan Liberation Movement was reacting to what it says was an attack on the town of Mohajiriya in southern Darfur by government warplanes and "janjawid" militias earlier in the week in which 48 people were killed. The rebel group says the attack is a "flagrant violation" of the agreement which is signed with the Khartoum government in May 2006. The government denies it was involved in any attack, blaming the violence on "clashes between tribes." The UN reports that because of the attack two humanitarian groups have withdrawn 29 relief workers from Mohajiriya.
Monday 08 October 2007 The United Nations said Sunday a Darfur town under the control of Sudanese troops has been razed. The UN mission to Sudan said the destruction of Haskanita was in apparent retaliation for a suspected rebel attack on a nearby African Union peacekeeping base a week ago in which 10 peacekeepers were killed. The UN statement did not say who set fire to the town but said Sudanese government forces took control of the area last week. The statement said the market area was looted, adding that most civilians had fled the town after the Sept. 29 attack on the base, but a few had returned to search for food and water. The UN officials said the burning began Wednesday, but observers were unable to obtain firsthand confirmation until Sunday. The Sudanese military had no immediate comment.
Sunday 07 October 2007 US envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios expressed deep concern on Saturday over what he called the "poisonous" atmosphere between the north and south peace partners in Sudan. He made the comment as he wrapped up a 10-day visit to the war-torn country. Mr. Natsios said the risk of clashes between both sides was high, warning of the danger of militarisation on the border. Relations have been strained between the ruling National Congress Party in the north and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in the south, which now share a unity government.
Tuesday 02 October 2007 The African Union is investigating an unprecedented attack on one of its bases in Darfur over the weekend. The attack left 10 peacekeepers dead and 25 missing. The African Union says those behind the attack will be held accountable. The attack by heavily-armed rebels was the worst assault on African Union peacekeepers since they deployed in July 2004. The AU said that seven of the dead, and 21 of the missing are Nigerian. The remaining dead are from Mali, Botswana and Senegal. The United States has called for a planned AU-UN force many times stronger than the current mission to reach Darfur as soon as possible.
Friday 07 September 2007 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited a refugee camp in the Sudanese region of Darfur on Wednesday and promised the refugees that the world has a duty to help them return home. The camp is located near the capital of North Darfur, Al-Fasher. In a speech in the southern city of Juba on Tuesday, the secretary general acknowledged that the world has taken too little notice of Darfur's plight but that that situation now is changing. Mr. Ban is trying to arrange talks between the government in Khartoum and the various rebels groups, only one of which has signed a peace accord. The government has agreed to a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur but it won't be fully deployed until the middle of next year.
The Khartoum government has agreed to hold peace talks with Darfurian insurgents on Oct. 27 in Libya. The negotiations will include all rebel factions. The announcement was made after a meeting in Khartoum between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Sudanese President Omas al-Bashar. The two parties issued a joint statement to the effect that the negotiations will have the goal of achieving a full cessation of hostilities. Mr. Ban has made the end of the civil war in Darfur a priority. About 200,000 people have died in Darfur and two million have been displaced since the conflict began four years ago.
Tuesday 04 September 2007 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Khartoum on Monday and was expected to dine with President Omar al-Bashir. On Tuesday, he'll visit southern Sudan to monitor implementation of a peace accord in 2005 between the government and insurgents that ended a 21-year civil war. On Wednesday, he'll travel to Darfur to visit a camp for some of the 2.5 million people who have been displaced by the separate civil war between the government and various rebel groups. Mr. Ki-moon is expected to urge new negotiations between the various parties to that conflict as well as for an early deployment of the 26,000-member peace force which the world body has authorized.
Sunday 26 August 2007 KHARTOUM: SUDAN SILENT ON EXPELLED CANADIAN DIPLOMAT
A European Union envoy who was expelled along with a Canadian diplomat from Sudan earlier in the week has been invited to return, but Sudan remains silent about the Canadian. The two envoys were accused of having improper contact with opposition leaders. Sudan said that it would allow Kent Degerfelt of Sweden to return because the E.U. apologized for his actions. But no mention was made of Canada's acting charge d'affaires, Nuala Lawlor. Canada has demanded an explanation for its diplomat's expulsion. A Canadian foreign ministry spokesman, Rodney Moore, says that Mrs. Lawlor was working in the best tradition of Canadian diplomacy, defending the values of freedom, democracy, personal rights and the rule of law. Sudan is Canada's third-largest recipient of foreign aid. Sudan's foreign ministry says that it is working hard so that the expulsion will not hamper ties with Canada or the E.U.
Saturday 25 August 2007 rci Amnesty International accuses the Sudanese government of shipping weapons to the territory of Darfur in violation of a peace accord of 2005.
Amnesty has published photographs showing military aircraft, combat helicopters and cargo planes belonging to the Sudanese airforce parked at an airfield in the west of Darfur. The photos show containers being loaded onto military trucks. The arms embargo voted by the UN in 2005 and the peace accord which the Khartoum government concluded in the following year forbid the sending of weapons to Darfur. Amnesty says that the planned joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force for the territory won't be effective unless the embargo is respected.
Canada's foreign affairs minister has announced more aid to the Darfur region of Sudan. Peter MacKay says that another $48 million will be added to bring Canada's total aid to Darfur over the next three years to nearly half-a-billion dollars. It's estimated more than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur's religious and racial conflicts and two million people are refugees. A combined UN-African Union force of 26,000 peacekeepers is to be sent to Darfur to replace the small AU there now. Nigeria, Egypt and three other African nations on Thursday pledged to contribute troops.
Wednesday 01 August 2007 The U.N. Security Council has unanimously authorized up to 26,000 troops and police to stop attacks on millions of displaced people in Sudan's Darfur region. The force is expected to cost more than $2 billion in the first year. More than 2.1 million civilians have been driven from their homes in Darfur, and an estimated 200,000 have died over the last four years. The resolution allows the use of force in self-defence, to ensure freedom of movement for humanitarian workers and to protect civilians under attack.
Wednesday 25 July 2007 The UN reports that violence and lack of security in Sudan's wartorn province of Darfur has created 25,000 more refugees in May and June. The world body also says that several of the camps that now shelter 2,200,000 refugees are full to capacity and cannot receive any more people, while at the same time numbers of humanitarian workers has dropped by 2,400 this year to 12,300. The conflict in Darfur has caused 200,000 deaths since it started four-and-a-half years ago.
Sunday 15 July 2007 rci A U.S. diplomat says the Sudanese government has resumed bombing civilian targets in Darfur. Andrew Natsios, speaking in Khartoum after a visit to the region, urged the Sudanese government to end the bombing. Khartoum signed a ceasefire agreement with the two main rebel groups in Darfur in 2004, but violence has continued. International experts estimate 200,000 people have died as a result of ethnic and political conflict in Darfur since it flared in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms after accusing the central government of neglect.
Friday 06 July 2007 U.S. President George W. Bush has directed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to consult with Britain and other allies on pursuing new UN Security Council sanctions against Sudan. Mr. Bush said the Sudanese government supported the bombing, murder and rape of innocent civilians. He says the aim of a new resolution would be to apply new sanctions against the Sudanese government and officials found to be violating human rights or obstructing peace, and to impose an expanded embargo on arm sales to the government of Sudan. He also says it will prohibit the Sudanese government from conducting any offensive military flights over Darfur.
Tuesday 26 June 2007 PARIS: CANADA COULD OFFER SUDAN MEDIATORS
Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay says more countries need to come forward to help resolve the tragedy in the Sudanese region of Darfur, a plea which he made while attending a conference on the subject in the French capital. Mr. MacKay says his country is already involved by providing humanitarian relief, training and policing, making Canada one of the four or five most involved in Darfur. The minister says that although there's no question of Canada providing soldiers to police the huge region, the country could supply mediators between Darfurian rebels and the Sudanese government. Khartoum has after months of negotiations agreed to accept a 14,000-member mixed UN-African Union force to end four years of bloodshed in Darfur. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recalled, however, that the Sudanese government has a history of appearing to agree to proposals and then backtracking and she says that the possibility of sanctions cannot therefore be taken off the table.
Thursday 17 May 2007 rci A Sudanese government advisor predicts that the new sanctions imposed on Sudan by the U.S. will have little effect. Abdul Rahim Hamdi says one reason is that the U.S. government has avoided targeting Chinese interests in Sudan's booming oil industry. Mr. Hamdi says that in any case the U.S. has few commercial ties with his country, which does three-quarters of its trade with Arab and Asian nations. The U.S. added 31 Sudanese firms and three individuals to the 132 companies already on the list. U.S. Undersecretary of State John Negroponte disputed the claim that the U.S. government has skirted the Chinese firms doing business in Sudan, saying that the issue of China's relations with Sudan is definitely on Washington's bilateral agenda with the Chinese.
8 June 2007 rci SUDAN
The United Nations and the African Union have reached a tentative pact on a peacekeeping force for the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur. But the question of who will control the 23,000-member force has yet to be settled. The UN Security Council as well as a security committee of the African Union must endorse the plan. In other developments, the London-based human rights group Amnesty International has just launched a website that allows the public to access satellite images of villages in wartorn Darfur. Some 200,000 people have died in the conflict and several million others have been displaced. more
5 June rci
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu has called on the international community to impose sanctions on Sudan to end the conflict in Darfur. Desmond Tutu says the same kinds of sanctions should be used against Sudan as were used to force an end to apartheid in South Africa. The former Anglican archbishop told EU lawmakers to consider such sanctions as a ban on Sudanese ministers and senior officials from travelling, and an embargo on their funds. Mr. Tutu also urged the EU to stop its companies from operating in Sudan and to impose a no-fly zone over Darfur. International experts say 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and two million forced from their homes since February 2003.
Over the past eighteen years the International Committee
of the Red Cross has cared for victims of the civil war in Sudan,
the longest-running conflict in Africa
Tuesday Mar 13, 2007 UN blames Darfur crimes on Sudan
In what amounts to a challenge for the United Nations Human Rights Council to take action, investigators...
Friday 15 December 2006 OTTAWA: UN DECISION ON SUDAN WELCOMED
Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay has greeted the decision of the UN Human Rights Council to send a delegation of experts to the Sudanese region of Darfur. Mr. MacKay says he hopes the visitors will focus on the worsening of attacks against civilians, in particular those of a sexual nature. The minister also hopes that the experts will look into the fact that there's no way to call those ultimately responsible to account and will make concrete suggestions for eventual action.
Saturday 09 December 2006 Sudanese President Omas Hassan al-Bashir has rejected criticism by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who said on Thursday that the Sudanese government might have to answer "collectively and individually" for the situation in Darfur. Mr. al-Bashir accuses Mr. Annan of making unreasonable demands and of turning a blind eye to the activities of Darfurian rebel groups. The secretary general has in vain tried to convince Sudan to accept a force comprising UN and African Union troops to restore peace to Darfur. The president claims colonists are trying to reassert control of his country.
Monday 20 November 2006 African Union peacekeeping forces in Sudan report heavy civilian casualties in Darfur as a result of attacks two days ago by Sudanese forces and Muslim Janjaweed militiamen. The attacks on the village of Birmaza in northern Darfur included an aerial bombardment. Exact casualty figures were not reported. The A-U calls the attacks a flagrant violation of the Darfur Peace Agreement arranged last May. The attacks came on the same day that the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, announced that Sudan's government had finally agreed to allow U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur. But diplomats in the region say that Sudan's position on the U-N force remains unclear. Sudan's foreign minister, Lam Akol, denied on Saturday that an agreement on a U.N. force had been agreed. On the same day, the U.N. humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, appealed to Sudan's warring parties to halt what he called a 'man-made disaster.' Speaking in Khartoum, he added that the Darfur Peace Agreement was not inclusive enough and had worsened the humanitarian crisis.
Saturday 04 November 2006 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says attacks against residents of Sudan's Darfur region have left many of them dead, including 27 children. The African Union, which has soldiers trying mostly in vain to enforce a ceasefire in Darfur, says the attacks against four villages in the Djebel Mun area may have taken a death toll as high as 92. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, has demanded that the Sudanese government investigate the allegations. In Beijing, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bachir has again refused the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. The UN Security Council authorized such a deployment on Aug. 31.
Saturday 28 October 2006 The United Nations says that its official envoy for Sudan, Jan Pronk, will remain in his post through the end of this year. Last Sunday, Sudan gave Mr. Pronk 36 hours to leave the country, after published comments about Sudan's army on his personal Web site. He said that the Sudanese army lost two major battles to rebels in the troubled Darfur region and morale was low. Mr Pronk has been in New York for consultations, He returns to Sudan in early November to organize an orderly handover to the officer in charge of the UN mission.
Thursday 26 October 2006 MONTREAL: MICHAEL IGNATIEFF CRITICIZED BY RIVAL LIBERAL PARTY LEADERSHIP CONTENDERS
In their final debate before Canada's Liberal Party holds its leadership convention in December, contenders generally banded together in criticizing the front-runner, Michael Ignateiff. There have been questions raised in the media about articles that Mr. Ignatieff, a distinguished academic, wrote in which he appeared to advocate the use of torture in interrogating terrorist suspects. One leading contender at the debate, Bob Rae, demanded that Mr. Ignatieff explain his views. Mr. Ignatieff replied indignantly that his mother was once engaged to a man who was later killed in the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald. 'So you can be very sure that as a prime minister, as a party leader, I oppose torture,' said Mr. Ignatieff. Mr. Ignatieff was also criticized for other articles in which he seemed to promote greater foreign military intervention in areas such as Palestine. Mr. Ignatieff's supporters often booed the other contenders when they attacked their candidate. The last debate was held on Saturday in Montreal, the largest city in the French-speaking province of Quebec. Observers noted that, with the exception of a contender from Quebec, Stephane Dion, most of the candidates struggled to speak French. It's widely accepted that the leader of the federal Liberal Party must be fluently bilingual to have a chance of his party's winning a federal election.
Sun 22/10/2006 Canada announced more money and two new aid programs for Afghanistan on Sunday. One program involves building as many as four thousand community schools and training about four thousand female schoolteachers. The project will cost CDN$14.5 million. It will be undertaken by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. The second project is a CDN$5 million program of loans to women to help them open their own commercial fruit and vegetable gardens. Canada is also adding CDN$10 million for ongoing reconstruction projects. The new aid was announced by Canada's minister of international cooperation, Josee Verner, who made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Sunday. She made her announcement on the same day that Afghanistan and the United States made an urgent appeal for help for Afghan's people, two million of whom lack enough food as a result of drought.
A trawler carrying 26 activists left Hong Kong on Sunday bound for a cluster of disputed Japanese-held islands in the East China Sea. Among the protestors from several countries were those from Hong Kong, the United States and Canada. As the vessel left port, they waved colourful banners and shouted slogans into loudspeakers denouncing Japan's wartime aggression and claiming Chinese sovereignty over the islands. In the past, Japanese authorities have blocked such protest vessels from approaching the uninhabited islands, which are also claimed by Taiwan.
Fierce fighting between rival militant factions in western Afghanistan killed at least 32 people on Sunday. Many more were reported wounded. NATO-led troops in Afghanistan killed 15 insurgents in the south in an attack which occurred on Saturday. Taliban militants attacked the NATO convoy in Zabul province with guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Two NATO vehicles were damaged, but no injuries were reported. Canada has 2300 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, most of them in Kandahar province. Since the mission began in late 2001, 40 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died.
Sun 22/10/2006 rci MONTREAL: LIBERAL PARTY WING ENDORSES QUEBEC AS 'NATION WITHIN CANADA'
The Quebec chapter of Canada's federal Liberal Party has endorsed a controversial resolution that says that Quebec is 'a nation within Canada.' Separatists in the province have pressed for the designation for years, but the Liberal Party has opposed it. One of the leading contenders for the leadership of the federal party, Michael Ignatieff, supported the resolution. His chief rival, Bob Rae, opposed it. The resolution now faces a vote at the party's leadership convention in Montreal in December.
QUEBEC CITY: OPPOSITION PARTY THREATENS TO TOPPLE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
The leader of Canada's federal opposition Bloc Quebecois Party is threatening to topple Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government and force an election. Gilles Duceppe will vote against the Conservatives unless the government fixes an imbalance with Quebec in its next budget. Mr. Duceppe wants at least CDN$3.9 billion from the federal government this year. During the campaign that brought the Conservative Party to power early this year, Mr. Harper promised to repair the fiscal imbalance with Quebec.
Fri 20/10/2006 nyt Closing in on Hedge Funds It is time for Congress and federal regulators to take an unflinching look at how deals really get done in today's markets.
Thursday 26 October 2006 Two Rival Magicians, and Each Wants the Other to Go Poof Entertaining, spirited and shamelessly gimmicky, Christopher Nolan's film tells the intricate tale of two rival magicians practicing their art in late-Victorian London.
Tuesday 24 October 2006 War in Sudan? Not Where the Oil Wealth Flows
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Despite the image of Sudan as a land of cracked earth and starving people, the economy is booming, with little help from the West.
Tuesday 10 October 2006 Government troops in Sudan clashed this weekend with rebels on the border with Chad, leading to scores of injuries on both sides. One source at a civilian hospital in Chad said that 77 combatants were being treated there. Both the government and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement blamed each other for provoking the clash. The rebel group is part of a new rebel alliance that refuses to accept a peace deal signed earlier this year by only one of three factions.
Monday Sep 25, 2006 Wed1281
Speaking of prevarication - or at the very least, distortion - we believe that the President of the Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, has distinguished himself in front of the UN Assembly, stating that Sudan will not allow the United Nations to take control of peacekeepers in Darfur under any circumstance, and claiming that human rights groups have exaggerated the crisis there in a bid for more donations UN_GEN_UN_Sudan.php
Monday 11 September 2006 The United Nations says a major catastrophe is brewing in Darfur that could further destabilize the western Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic. Antonio Guterres of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says millions of people are at risk, and hundreds are dying amid ongoing violence. He also says thousands of people are still being displaced by force. Mr. Guterres says African Union peacekeepers will pull out at the end of the month while the Sudanese government masses troops there. Sudan refuses to allow UN peacekeepers to replace the AU troops. Some 46,000 refugees have left the Central African Republic to go to UN refugee camps in Chad. There are already as estimated 200,000 refugees from Darfur in the camps.
Thu 03/08/2006 rci The relief agency Médecins Sans Frontières says it has sharply scaled down its health care operations for thousands of people in Sudan's western region of Darfur. The announcement follows a wave of attacks on medical staff.
The organization says the reduction of activity has immediate and serious consequences for the population.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Tuesday that 18,600 troops would be needed for an international peacekeeping force in Darfur instead of the 7,000 African Union troops currently there.
Up to 300,000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced since civil war erupted in Darfur in 2003.
Wed 02/08/2006 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is urging the Security Council to strengthen African Union forces in Sudan's Darfur region. Mr. Annan says the force should be more than doubled if a takeover of peacekeeping duties is approved.
Mr. Annan laid out proposals on Tuesday for a much stronger UN operation to protect civilians and to support a peace agreement signed by the government and one rebel group in May.
Under one proposal the UN would deploy about 19,000 troops. It would also triple an African Union police contingent to about 5,300.
Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, has vowed to never allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur and Mr. Annan says the UN can't take over without the government's consent and co-operation.
Wednesday Jul 5, 2006 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was again unable to persuade Sudan to accept UN peacekeepers, but expects international soldiers will eventually be deployed to control fighting in the troubled Darfur region.
Saturday May 20, 2006 rci UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says it's time for the world to act to save hundreds of thousands of people from starving to death in Darfur. Mr. Annan says the western region of Sudan is undergoing the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet. In an article in the French newspaper le Figaro, the secretary general says tensions remain high in Darfur despite the agreement signed by the Sudanese government and the main rebel group in Darfur earlier this month. And he says an underfunded and under-equipped African Union force monitoring a truce in Darfur is unable to stop militia attacks on civilians.
Tuesday May 9, 2006 rci Uncertainty surrounds peace talks for Sudan, as both the Sudanese government and rebel groups from Darfur continue to meet in Abuja, Nigeria. Khartoum accepts a peace plan on security, and on sharing power and wealth. However, Darfur rebel factions object to several parts of the plan. The African Union has extended the deadline for an agreement twice. The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Zoellick, is leading diplomatic efforts by the U.S., Canada and Britain to try to persuade the rebels to accept. A diplomat close to the talks says there are internal divisions among the rebels. The U.S. proposal includes the integration of the rebels into the Sudanese armed forces. The rebels want Khartoum to disarm the Arab Janjaweed militia before it will surrender arms. Leaders of the African Union are scheduled to meet about to discuss the impasse.
Sunday May 7, 2006 UNITED NATIONS: RETIRED CANADIAN GENERAL NAMED TO UN POST
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has named retired Canadian General and current Sen. Roméo Dallaire to a committee set up to advise the world body on ways to prevent genocides. Gen. Dallaire will sit on the committee which includes Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Sadako Ogata, a former UN commissioner for refugees. The committee will advise the UN's special councillor on genocide, Juan Mendez, whose post was created created last month. Gen. Dallaire has first-hand awareness of genocide because he commanded the small UN military force that was unable to prevent the genocide that erupted in Rwanda in 1994. The general has in recent months been worrying publicly about the situation in Sudan's Darfur region.
Tuesday May 2, 2006 Deadline Passes Without Darfur Accord The talks were extended 48 hours after Sudan's government accepted a peace agreement, but two of Darfur's three main rebel groups raised last-minute objections.
Monday May 1, 2006 rci Sudan's government said on Saturday that it was ready to sign a deal brokered by the African Union to bring peace to Sudan. On the same day, A.U. mediators met in Abuja, Nigeria, to put pressure on Sudan's warring factions to sign the peace deal on Sunday. The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, was expected to arrive in Sudan on Saturday on a fact-finding mission. Details of Miss Arbour's visit to the Darfur region were being kept secret for security reasons. Her visit comes amid increasing calls for Sudan's government to end human rights abuses in Darfur, where black African Muslims have suffered great loss of life as a result of attacks by Arab marauders. Miss Arbour has criticized Sudans' government for supporting the marauders. She wants to see what progress has been made toward peace since her last visit to Darfur two years ago. Last week, the U.N. Security Council and the United States imposed some sanctions against four Sudanese leaders thought to be connected to human rights abuses in Darfur. Louise Arbour is a former justice of Canada's Supreme Court and served on the tribunal that investigated genocide in Rwanda.
Wednesday Apr 26, 2006 rci A leading political figure and Muslim theologian in Sudan could face the death penalty for advocating radical changes to Islamic customs. Hassan al-Turabi is leader of the opposition Popular Congress Party and Sudan's most famous theologian. Earlier this month, he proposed that Muslim women should have equal rights with men, be allowed to marry non-Muslims and to pray in mosques alongside men. He also said that Islamic holy wars should be fought only as a self-defence. But Sudan's clerics say that Mr. al-Turabi should withdraw his suggestions and repent or face death for blasphemy under Islam's Sharia law. Mr. al-Turabi was once a highly conservative cleric who gave asylum to the al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, in Sudan for five years.
Monday Apr 17, 2006 rci Sudan's president is denying allegations that he supported rebels trying to overthrow the government in neighbouring Chad. Omar al-Beshir says that he has no interest in promoting instability along the border. His comments on Saturday were the first since Chad's president, Idriss Deby, launched accusations against Sudan last week. Chad broke off diplomatic relations two days ago and closed its border. Mr. Deby also accused Mr. al-Beshir of promoting genocide in Sudan's Darfur region. Mr. al-Beshir said, however, that he remains committed to an agreement brokered by Libya two months ago that aimed at easing tension along the border with Chad.
Monday Apr 17, 2006 rci The president of Chad, Idriss Deby, says his government has ended diplomatic relations with neighbouring Sudan and closed the borders with that country as well. Mr. Deby's government has accused the government in Khartoum of supporting the rebels who unsuccessfully attacked N'Djamena on Thursday. Sudan denies it. The Chadian government says 100 insurgents were killed in the failed attack. One-hundred-and-sixty captured rebels were paraded in the streets of N'Djamena on Friday. Mr. Deby also says that 200,000 Sudanese refugees from the civil war in Sudan's western region of Darfur will be expelled unless the conflict there is resolved. The Chadian leader says he wants a solution to the situation by the end of June.
Sunday Mar 26, 2006 Sci-Fi Battles: Kirk vs Picard The bald guy finally gets his! From the archetype. A great splicing of existing footage into something totally different!
rci Members of the Arab League are voicing opposition to the United Nations' plan to deploy forces in Sudan's Darfur region. The opposition comes in a resolution drafted on Sunday by Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Khartoum. They're meeting in advance of the Arab League summit that begins there on Tuesday. On Friday, the U.N. Security Council voted to hasten its plan to replace African Union troops in Darfur with U.N. forces. African Union forces are said to be inadequately supplied and staffed. Sudan opposes replacing the African Union mission, saying that the Arab world should give more support.
Sunday Mar 26, 2006 rci Iraq is a major topic of discussion for the Arab League as it prepares for a summit this week in Khartoum. Arab League foreign ministers met today in the Sudanese capital for two days of preparatory talks. They resolved to ensure that the Arab League plays a prominent role in the future of Iraq. Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyari Zebari, asked for Arab involvement in stabilizing his country and more Arab diplomatic representation in Iraq. Summit leaders are also expected to discuss what kind of financial support to offer to the Palestinian Authority following the refusal of the United States and the European Union to fund a Palestinian government led by Hamas. The eighteenth Arab League summit begins on Tuesday. Some Arab leaders are not attending. Among them are the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Tunisia.
Sunday Mar 26, 2006 rci The UN Security Council has agreed to ask Secretary-General Kofi Annan to speed planning for a new UN force in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
A resolution on the matter was proposed by the United States. It is set to be adopted by the 15-nation Security Council today. It would give Mr. Annan until April 24 to prepare a range of options for a United Nations operation in Darfur.
The resolution will also ask Mr. Annan to prepare recommendations on how a separate UN peacekeeping mission in southern Sudan could help crack down on Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA has wreaked havoc in the region for decades.
Tens of thousands have died and millions left homeless by fighting in Darfur.
Saturday Mar 18, 2006 rci China has rejected on Friday criticism of its military spending expressed on Thursday by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Miss Rice said China should be more forthcoming in explaining why it has increased military spending by almost 15 per cent for this year. The foreign ministry has responded by saying that the Chinese government published documents that explain military spending and has increased military exchanges with other countries. Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said his country's military would never present a threat to China's neighbours.
Tuesday Mar 14, 2006 rci Mediators from the African Union have presented a detailed ceasefire proposal to end the fighting in Sudan's western region of Darfur. The proposal was presented at talks in Abuja, Nigeria, between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels. The African Union says the key elements of the plan are the demilitarization of humanitarian supply routes and camps for the displaced. The AU's chief mediator, Salim Ahmed Salim, says that if any party refuses to sign the new agreement, the AU will have no option but to conclude that it is not interested in peace and the well-being of the people of Darfur. The AU and the United Nations say the peace talks must conclude by the end of next month. On Friday, the AU extended its mission in Darfur until the end of September.
Monday Mar 13, 2006 rci The main rebel group in Sudan's Darfur region is welcoming news that the United Nations will take over peacekeeping duties in the region from the African Union. A-U foreign ministers meeting in Addis Ababa made the announcement on Friday. But the ministers also said that AU troops would remain in Darfur for six more months. Today, the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement said that it would cooperate with AU forces while they're there. The SLA urged AU forces to continue monitoring the movements of Sudanese troops in the area. About 7,800 AU troops have been in Darfur for the past two years. Critics of the force say that it lacks money and resources to maintain regional peace effectively. Meanwhile, another rebel group in Darfur, the Justice and Equality Movement, is accusing Sudanese forces and Janjaweed militiamen of attacking six villages in southern Darfur on Friday, killing 27 people, injuring 17 others, and stealing livestock.
Tuesday Feb 28, 2006 nyt Refugee Crisis Grows as Darfur War Crosses a Border By LYDIA POLGREEN The chaos in Darfur, Sudan, has spread across the border into Chad, deepening one of the world's worst refugee crises.
Saturday Jan 14, 2006 rci The United Nations warned Thursday that the refugee crisis in Sudan's western region of Darfur could spill over into other parts of Africa. The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, called Darfur 'the most pressing political and humanitarian problem in Africa today. He also warned the situation threatens to destabilise the whole region, noting that tensions between Sudan and neighbouring Chad have recently escalated. Mr. Guterres said major powers, the UN and
2005
Tuesday Oct 11, 2005 rci UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is warning it may suspend aid to Darfur because of increased violence in the troubled western Sudanese region. On Sunday dissident rebels kidnapped 37 members of an African Union team, and an American monitor. They were later released. The hostage drama occurred a day after two African Union troops were killed by another rebel group, the first fatalities suffered by the pan-African body since it deployed peacekeepers to Darfur in April 2004.
Wednesday Aug 3, 2005 rci Clashes continued in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, in a second day of violence sparked by the death of the former rebel leader, John Garang. Thirty-six people died on Monday in clashes between northern and southern Sudanese. Diplomatic efforts are underway to ensure that a peace accord between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and the Sudanese government will not unravel. Mr. Garang, who led the peace movement, was named Sudan's vice-president as a result of the accord. He died in a helicopter crash over the weekend. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement has announced five days of mourning leading to Mr. Garang's burial on Saturday. The SPLM has also announced that Mr. Garang's deputy, Salva Kiir, will succeed him. A political leader in Uganda, Reagan Okumo, says that Mr. Garang's death is a blow to efforts to restore peace in northern Uganda. Mr. Okumo had hoped that Mr. Garang would take firm control in southern Sudan and end the menace from the Lord's Resistance Army. One of Mr. Garang's last comments was a vow to flush the LRA and its leader, Joseph Kony, out of southern Sudan from where they have launched raids into Uganda for 19 years.
July 12, 2005 bbcSudanese unity is 'in jeopardy'
1.5 million people have died in the 21-year civil war in Sudan and fighting continues in the western region of Darfur
Sunday Jul 10, 2005 rci The former rebel leader, John Garang, was sworn in as Sudan's vice-president on Saturday, a result of a power-sharing deal signed six months ago. The deal formally ended decades of fighting between the country's north and south. Mr. Garang became deputy to his former enemy, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The president also took his own oath of office and signed an interim constitution. The swearing-in of the leading officers of the coalition government took place in the presence of the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan and six African heads of state.
Wednesday Jul 6, 2005 Ottawa aids firm in genocide case
As Prime Minister Paul Martin joins other leaders of the world`s eight major industrialized nations today in a summit focusing on aid for Africa, documents show his government asked the U.S. government this year to persuade its courts to dismiss a suit against Talisman Energy Corp. for assisting genocide in Sudan.
Sunday Jul 3, 2005 rci United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is criticizing the developed world for being too slow to respond to the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region. Mr Annan said in an interview with the BBC that the world has learned nothing from the Rwandan genocide in l994. The conflict in Darfur has cost 180-thousand lives since it erupted in 2003. And more than two-million people have been forced from their homes.
Tuesday Jun 14, 2005 rci OTTAWA: CANADIAN MILITARY MAY SEND VEHICLES TO HELP STABILIZE SUDANESE AREA Canada could send about 100 Grizzly-type armoured vehicles to Sudan, in support of the African Union's efforts to restore peace in the Darfur region. The African Union has deployed about 3,000 soldiers in the region. But Washington must give its approval before Canada goes ahead with the plan, since the Grizzlies contain American hardware. Ottawa is also considering sending Canadian soldiers to the region to maintain the vehicles provided by African countries.
Sunday Jun 12, 2005 United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says he welcomes the agreement by the NATO alliance to provide the logistical support to the African Union to airlift its peacekeeping soldiers in Sudan's wartorn area of Darfur. Mr. Annan's spokesman says the secretary general is glad that NATO is helping the AU expand its mission in Darfur. The spokesman also says that Mr. Annan hopes that the development will encourage the donor nations who promised millions of dollars in aid for Darfur at a conference in Addis Ababa on May 26 to fulfil their pledges. Darfur has been plunged in civil war since 2003 between two rebel groups and Arab militias supported by the government in Khartoum.
Friday Jun 10, 2005 rci The NATO alliance says it will help the African Union airlift peacekeeping troops to Sudan's embattled western area of Darfur. NATO defence ministers will discuss details of the operation at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday and also talk about training for AU peacekeepers. The AU wants to double the numbers of its troops in Darfur. About 180,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since a conflict broke out in February 2003 between two rebel groups trying to defend black farmers and Arab militias that support the government in Khartoum.
Monday Jun 6, 2005 rci The U.S. has called for more African Union soldiers and police officers to patrol the refugee camps in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. The American deputy secretary of state, Robert Zoellick, visited one of the camps on Friday. He says that a bigger AU presence would make the camps where two million Darfurians have sought refuge safer. He also repeated the oft-made demand that the Sudanese government disarm the Arab militias accused of numerous atrocities in Darfur. The AU has 3,000 troops and police in the territory but wants to increase the number to 7,000 by September. The troops have the task of monitoring a shaky ceasefire between the militias and Darfur's two main rebel groups. Nations taking part in a donors' conference last month promised almost $300 million US more to assist Darfur. Canada's pledge was an additional $198 million Cdn.
Wednesday Jun 1, 2005 rci The United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights, Canada's Louise Arbour, has condemned the arrests by Sudanese authorities of several aid workers. She called the development 'disturbing' and called on Khartoum to allow aid workers to work freely and without fear of retaliation. A second worker for Médecins Sans Frontières was arrested on Tuesday over the release of a report that details the rape of some 500 women over four-and-a-half months in Darfur. MSF's Dutch mission head in Sudan, Paul Workman, was detained on Monday over the same matter. Both men have now been released. A Sudanese translator who accompanied UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to hear rape victims in Darfur has also been arrested. Khartoum had promised that all those who spoke to or co-operated with Mr. Annan would be safe.
Saturday May 28, 2005 ts .Saudi King Fahd in Riyadh hospital
RIYADH—King Fahd, whose efforts to strengthen ties between Saudi Arabia — the world`s largest oil exporter — and the United States provoked the wrath of Islamic militants, was hospitalized yesterday, apparently suffering from pneumonia.
Saturday May 28, 2005 The secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, says he's pleased with the results of Thursday's international donors' conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for Sudan. About $292 million was pledged to assist the wartorn western region of Darfur. Canada's pledge of $134 million US was the biggest. The U.S. promised most of the rest. Mr. Annan said in Khartoum that he's delighted that the entire world community joined to help the African Union restore peace in Darfur. The AU has said it needs $460 million in cash, military equipment and logistical support to increase its peacekeeping force of 2,700 soldiers threefold by September. Mr. Annan warns, however, that more aid is need for southern Sudan, where an 18-year-long civil war ended last year. The secretary general says that in the absence of the aid, the peace accord between southern insurgents and the Khartoum government could collapse.
Friday May 13, 2005 Canada's prime minister has announced measures to help resolve the conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur. The measures also apply to southern Sudan where a recent accord was signed to end more than 20 years of civil war. Mr. Martin says Canada will send up to 100 soldiers to help African Union peacekeepers in Sudan. The Canadian soldiers will help the African Union with intelligence and logistics. Paul Martin says Canada has an obligation to help but that the situation in both Darfur and southern Sudan require an African solution. So he says Canada will contribute $170 million over the next two years to help the African Union in its duties in the area. The new funding is in addition to the $90 million recently announced.
Friday May 6, 2005 ts Ottawa boosts aid effort for Darfur
OTTAWA—Canada will send more troops, boost aid efforts and help co-ordinate multi-nation peacekeeping in Sudan`s war-torn Darfur region.
Sunday Apr 24, 2005 Sudan's foreign minister has defended the current methods of dealing with the insurgency in the country's western province of Darfur. Mustafa Osman Ismail offered that defence in remarks at the Asia-Africa conference in Indonesia. Mr. Ismail defended the sending of government security forces to Darfur to try to restore order. He says Sudan's and Chad's militaries are now conducting joint operations to establish law and order. Mr. Ismail also says Sudan won't turn over war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court. On Monday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that despite previous declared ceasefires, fighting is worsening between Darfur's two main rebel groups and government-back militias.
Wednesday Apr 20, 2005 rci The leaders of Sudan, Egypt, Nigeria and Ethiopia are trying to restart talks on ending the conflict in Darfur. Talks between the Sudanese government and rebels groups broke down recently. Sudan's president, Omar al-Beshir, his Nigerian counterparts, Olusegun Obasanjo and Hosni Mubarak and Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, met after attending the African Union Summit in Egypt. A delegation from the African Union will travel to Khartoum next week to try to mediate an end to the two-year conflict. An estimated 300,000 people have been killed and some two million displaced since the Darfur conflict erupted in March 2003.
Wednesday Apr 13, 2005 rci International donors have pledged $4.5 billion to help Sudan recover after Africa's longest civil war. The pledges came at a two-day donor conference in Oslo, Norway, attended by representatives of 60 countries. Norway's Development Minister, Hilde Frafjord Johnson, says the pledges exceeded a combined $3.6 billion aid request for 2005-2007. The conference was called to bolster the January peace accord which ended a 21-year war in southern Sudan. Canada pledged $90 million at the conference. The new funding will be used for peace-building, good governance and to reduce poverty. The funding is in addition to the $180 million Canada has contributed to Sudan since 2000.
Tuesday Apr 12, 2005 rci A Canadian newspaper says Canada plans to increase its development aid to Sudan by $90 million. The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that the new funding will be split into three areas: $40 million will go to reduce poverty and to support the UN and World Bank peace process. Another $40 million will be used for international aid. And $10 million will be used for peace-building and governance. The Globe and Mail says that the minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency, Aileen Carroll, will announce the new funding in Oslo at a 60-nation donors' meeting for Sudan. Canada has contributed $180 million to Sudan since 2000.
Wednesday Apr 6, 2005 Sudan has rejected a resolution by the United Nations for the International Criminal Court to prosecute war crimes in the western province of Darfur. President Omar el-Bashir denounced the UN resolution, which he says violates the country's sovereignty and will make the situation in Darfur more complicated. The rejection came as the United Nations gave the international court a sealed list of more than 50 suspects accused of war crimes in Darfur. A recent UN report by the UN into killings, torture and rape implicates several Sudanese government and army officials as well as militia and rebel leaders.
Wednesday Mar 30, 2005 The United Nations reports that the number of displaced persons in the western Sudanese region of Darfur has increased to 2.4 million. A UN spokeswoman in Khartoum says that represents an increase from the world body's previous estimate of between 1.6 and 1.8 million. A ceasefire is supposed to be in effect between two Darfurian rebel groups and government-backed Arab militias but the violence has shown no signs of abating. The UN has said that 180,000 people have died in the region in the past year-and-a-half.
Monday Mar 28, 2005 Official media reports said Sunday that Sudan will try 164 suspects, some of them government officials, for abuses including rape and murder in the war-wracked western region of Darfur. The announcement came as the UN Security Council prepared to debate a French draft resolution referring 51 suspects identified by a UN probe for trial on war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Also Sunday, Sudan's attorney-general said he expected 72 men charged with attempting a coup in Khartoum would be sentenced to death because the evidence against them was so clear.
Saturday Mar 26, 2005 OTTAWA: CANADA WELCOMES UN SUDAN RESOLUTION
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