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South Sudan VP: Talks Over Referendum, Elections Progressing

Amanda Hsiao — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:58:30 +0000

South Sudan Vice President Riek Machar has returned to Juba after 12 days of negotiations in Khartoum with the North’s Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, and he reports that they’re making progress. The two men, plus U.S. Special Envoy Scott Gration who was in Khartoum briefly, discussed major issues stalling the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the deal that ended the North-South civil war in 2005.

According to Machar, who was quoted in the Sudan Tribune, the two sides have come closer to agreeing on the required turnout for the referendum, a vote that will determine whether the South secedes or remains united with the North. Machar reported that the ruling National Congress Party, or NCP, had backed away from its original demand—a 66 percent turnout—but did not say what the new percentage would be to legitimize the vote. He will be presenting this proposal to the SPLM’s Political Bureau.

Just three weeks ago, Machar announced that he’d struck a deal consisting of a simple majority and two-thirds turnout with the NCP. These thresholds were rejected by the Politburo.

Machar said that negotiations will probably resume in Khartoum in the next three days and warned that time is running out—no exaggeration given that the Sudanese legislature has a mere 17 days left to vote on Machar’s and Taha’s proposed referendum law before breaking for recess until next April.

Meanwhile, on the election front, rumors of postponing legislative elections have leaked out through the Sudan Tribune. The story, which is only being reported by the Sudan Tribune, says the council of political parties, a body established by the Government of National Unity, will propose to separate executive and legislative elections, and to postpone the latter. According to the article, the council said this proposal was based on the complexities of the legislative elections and the fact that they are linked to controversial issues that have not been resolved, including border demarcation and the census—not to mention the referendum. The article also quotes opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, who claimed that the U.S. and UK were behind the plan.

Photo: South Sudan Vice President Riek Machar (AP)

5 Best Stories You Might Have Missed This Week

Laura Heaton — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:53:49 +0000

Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.

AlJazeera produced this video embedded about a story frequently in the news lately: that the Kenyan government is forcibly recruiting Kenyans of Somali origin and Somali refugees and training them to fight on behalf of the weak central government in Mogadishu. The Kenyan government strongly denies the accusations, but as AlJazeera’s Mohammed Adow reports,
“People of northern Kenya… are worried that the Kenyan military involvement in Somalia could have huge consequences at home.” (HT to Alex Thurston at the Sahel Blog http://sahelblog.wordpress.com/)

PRI’s The World featured this narrated slideshow about some of the challenges of daily life in Somalia, illustrated through photographs taken by a nurse working for Doctors Without Borders.

Bec Hamilton had some interesting insights to add to this week’s discussion about the U.N. Group of Experts report on the situation in Darfur.

After sitting vacant since the beginning of the year, the top office at USAID finally has someone to fill it. Dr. Rajiv Shah is expected to be a shoo-in for the formal confirmation process but will take up the post largely as an unknown, even to people in the business. Foreign Policy published this analysis of what the new guy – and the process overall – may mean for the future of the U.S. development shop.

Here's a melancholy piece: The Guardian reported that moments before dying, Joseph Kony’s mother told her bedside nurse to give a final message to her son: lay down arms, make peace, and end the murder. If he won't even listen to his own mother's dying wish...

WaPo: Losing The Fight For Darfur

Laura Heaton — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:01:46 +0000

Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson is spot on in this morning’s column, “Losing the fight in Darfur.” Reacting to the U.N. Group of Experts report released this week, which found rampant sexual violence in camps for displaced people in Darfur, Gerson writes:

(…) America's Sudan policy is in a holding pattern, waiting for the next crisis to refocus global attention. Meanwhile, women are raped, with impunity. Weapons are illegally imported, with impunity. Civilians are attacked, with impunity. And at some point, impunity becomes permission.

He also addresses the changing nature of violence in Darfur, not suggesting that the conflict is over by any stretch of the imagination, but rather noting that the status quo represents a genocidal policy by Khartoum that achieved its goal:

This is not, at present, the active phase of Darfur's genocide, involving mass attacks on civilians. Instead, it is the evidence of a genocide that has succeeded. The Sudanese regime achieved its policy aims -- targeting disfavored ethnic groups, destroying their way of life and forcing millions into camps. And now it is threatening to forcibly relocate these victims in 2010 -- a plan of Stalinist scale and brutality.

Gerson pretty fairly sizes up the new U.S. policy toward Sudan as well, noting that the long-awaited policy review produced “more of a whimper than a bang” as a result of bureaucratic compromises. “Only a president and his secretary of state can insist on boldness,” he wrote.

They would do well to read Gerson’s column today.

Easier Said Than Done: Gov't To Close Darfur Camps

Amanda Hsiao — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:37:22 +0000

Rebel groups and Darfur experts are questioning Khartoum’s motivations for shutting down camps for internally displaced persons, or IDPs, in Darfur. The Sudan Tribune yesterday reported that the Sudanese government plans to shut down IDP camps in Darfur starting in early 2010.

According to the article, the Sudanese humanitarian aid commissioner said the government is building 20,000 housing units for displaced people in Darfur’s three capitals and that aid money will be funneled towards the rehabilitation of villages. People will be given the choice of either moving back to their villages or to the new housing complexes.

Darfur rebel groups decried this announcement as a ploy to facilitate future war crimes. Abdel-Wahid al-Nur, leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, said to Sudan Tribune: “The government wants to send our people back to the same places they fled from so that they can get killed again under the whole world eyes.”

Author and human rights lawyer Bec Hamilton, who recently visited camps in Darfur, suggested that the move is Khartoum’s attempt to gain international legitimacy on the eve of elections in April 2010. She wrote in a blog post today:

There is a very real sense in which those in Khartoum view the IDP camps themselves as the problem - as if the camps would disappear, then there would no longer be a “Darfur problem” and the world [would] shift the spotlight. What the regime understands well is that “free and fair elections” and “2.5 million IDPs” are not concepts easily reconciled.

Moreover, at this point in the conflict most of the camps are politically organized and so in addition to the international attention they attract, they also pose a threat to the NCP as concentrated clumps of political opposition. Conversely, maintaining international concern, and being able to organize politically are two key reasons that some of the rebel leaders (be careful not to assume these men represent the IDPs themselves) would want to see IDPs stay in the camps for as long as possible.

Khartoum’s decision to close the camps also raises a red flag for the rights of the internally displaced. Can we really expect the Sudanese government to resettle and return 2.7 million internally displaced people in a manner consistent with the international standards on internal displacement when the thinly-veiled bigger agenda seems to be to sweep the IDP problem under the rug in time for elections? Under U.N. rules, authorities have the responsibility to “allow internally displaced persons to return voluntarily, in safety and with dignity, to their homes or places of habitual residence, or to resettle voluntarily in another part of the country.” Not to mention that the African Union, in a historic move, recently adopted a legal convention reiterating those same rights.

That Khartoum has already flouted the principle of voluntary return – by proposing that displaced people will have to choose between resettling or returning – suggests that the government will continue to trammel IDP rights in the coming months. International community, stay tuned.

Photo: Internally displaced women and child in Nyala, Darfur.

RUINED Captivates DC Crowd

Laura Heaton — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:30:13 +0000

We were thrilled to welcome the cast of RUINED, the Pulitzer prize-winning drama, to Washington for a staged reading on Monday night. Eager to get the real-life message of the play out to an audience of D.C. influentials, the cast donated their performance, which they delivered to a packed house at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater.

The play, set in a mining town in eastern Congo circa present day, tells the story of Mama Nadi, a brothel owner who acts as both a protector and exploiter of women as she tries, with increasing difficulty, to keep the war at bay. The play also highlights the scramble for Congo’s minerals that is perpetuating the violence.

Award-winning playwright Lynn Nottage crafted the play’s leading women characters– portrayed stunningly by Portia (Mama Nadi), Condola Rashad (Sophie), Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Salima), and Chrise Boothe (Josephine) – based on her conversations with Congolese women and survivors living in refugee camps in Uganda. Nottage’s exposure to these first-hand testimonies gives RUINED a strong grounding in the realities of the war that continues to plague eastern Congo, in which women bear the brunt of the violence.

The event closed with a brief discussion between playwright Lynn Nottage, renowned journalist Chouchou Namegabe (who will receive the Knight International Journalism Award tonight), and Enough co-founder John Prendergast, who emphasized the role that each of us – as consumers of conflict minerals – can play in helping to end the violence.

We owe a special thank you to Lynn Nottage and Kate Whoriskey, the play’s director, and to the cast and musicians who traveled from as far away as California to take part in Monday’s performance. The Kennedy Center’s Alicia Adams and Erik Wallin and the Center for American Progress’ Marlene Vasilic were early supporters of our effort to bring RUINED to D.C. and generously worked to open the Kennedy Center’s doors to this important event.

Finally, thank you to those of you who turned out on Monday night and were part of a very engaged audience. Please stay tuned – there is much work we can do in the coming months to get the word out about the atrocities occurring in eastern Congo and ensure that our elected officials get involved in ending the trade in conflict minerals that is helping to fuel violence against Congo’s women.

Based on the outpouring of interest in this event it’s clear that D.C. presents the ideal audience for RUINED. We’re hopeful that the staged reading will lead to a full production in Washington that can reach many more people and generate even more advocacy around its crucial theme.

Photos: (left to right) Enough's John Prendergast greets Ambassador from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. Faida Mitifu; actors perform staged reading of RUINED; Prendergast with journalist Chouchou Namegabe and playwright Lynn Nottage. (Credit: Daniel Schwartz)

From Congo's Mines To Your Mobile

Laura Heaton — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:01:43 +0000

For the past several months, a team at Enough spanning from eastern Congo to Washington has been immersed in work to better understand the sordid trade in conflict minerals that fuels the violence that has claimed 4.5 million lives. Our newest strategy paper, meticulously researched by Enough’s John Prendergast and Sasha Lezhnev of the Grassroots Reconciliation Group, traces the path of these essential minerals “from mine to mobile” and boils down the complex supply chain into six steps.

The paper opens by describing the context in which conflict minerals are becoming a household name, increasingly recognized for the notorious role they play in fueling violence against women in Congo:

Increasing pressure on electronics companies to ensure that their products do not contain illicit minerals from the killing fields in eastern Congo is beginning to have a significant impact. With bills on conflict minerals moving through Congress, the electronics industry has spent about $2 million per month lobbying Senate offices to relax the legislation, which would increase transparency in the supply chains for tin, tantalum, and tungsten, or the 3Ts.

These mineral ores, as well as gold, are key elements of electronics products including cell phones and personal computers, and also are the principal source of revenue for armed groups and military units that prey on civilians in eastern Congo. Congo’s mineral wealth did not spark the conflict in eastern Congo, but war profiteering has become the fuel that keeps the region aflame and lies beneath the surface of major regional tensions.

As conscientious consumers, it’s important that we understand well how our demand for electronics devices is linked to the conflict in Congo so that we can use our purchases to make a point loud and clear: We won’t tolerate violence and exploitation on our behalf.

As co-author John Prendergast aptly put it:

"Because companies do not currently have a system to trace, audit, and certify where their materials come from, all cell phones and laptops likely contain conflict minerals from Congo. By demanding conflict-free products, consumers have a critical role to play in ensuring that Congo’s minerals benefit its people rather than the armed groups that prey upon them."

Click here to read the strategy paper and check out related multimedia content.

Photo: Tin ore (Sasha Lezhnev)

UN: Rebels, Gov't All Prevent Darfur Peace

Amanda Hsiao — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:45:44 +0000

All parties to the conflict in Darfur, including the Sudanese government, have failed in their obligation to comply with Security Council sanctions and international human rights law, said the United Nations Panel of Experts in a comprehensive report released Friday.

The Panel, charged with overseeing compliance with the Security Council sanctions and arms embargo in Darfur, said that Darfuri civilians continue to face constant insecurity and violence without access to judicial remedies. The report documents a variety of abuses, and here’s a breakdown:

Armed Janjaweed: Members of Arab tribes or Janjaweed continue to carry arms, and harass and attack internally displaced persons on a routine basis.
“Rampant” sexual and gender-based violence: Victims have no recourse to justice or necessary services because of the expulsion of international non-governmental organizations in March and the absence of a functioning judicial system.
Government and rebel attacks on civilians: The Panel cited three clashes in which the Sudanese army and two rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM, and Sudan Liberation Army-Minni Minawi, used indiscriminant force against civilians. The Sudanese government also continues to conduct offensive military overflights, bombing areas occupied by internally displaced people.
Arbitrary arrests and detentions: The Sudanese security and intelligence apparatus continue to arrest and detain individuals based on their political affiliations; many individuals were persecuted after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Bashir on war crimes charges in March.

All belligerent parties also continue to violate the arms embargo. Of particular concern were:

Transfer of embargoed military supplies into Darfur by the Sudanese government, JEM, and Chadian rebels.
Movement of military personnel and materials by the Sudanese government and its auxiliary forces without prior approval from the Security Council committee.
Illegal deployment of aviation assets and unmanned aerial vehicles by the Sudanese government.
Illegal military operations by the Sudanese army, Chadian rebels, and JEM.

The Sudanese government was charged, in general, with impeding the peace process in Darfur. The Panel demonstrates with hard evidence—copies of signed letters and orders—that Khartoum continues to support Chadian opposition groups and Darfur rebels and regularly restricts the movement of U.N. flight operations. The report offered a scathing review in its summary, saying Sudanese officials “offer lip service while committing sanctions violations.”

If you only take a look at one part of this detailed 93-page report, check out pages 75-78, which break down the abuses committed by each actor into easy-to-read charts. Provides a good overview of the challenges that remain, nearly seven years into the conflict.

Gration "Live"

Laura Heaton — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:53:52 +0000

President Obama's Special Envoy to Sudan, Major General Scott Gration and National Security advisor Samantha Power will be online live at 3 p.m. EST taking questions from activists about the U.S. policy toward Sudan. Special Envoy Gration explained the purpose behind this unique forum in a blog post last week: "'Ask U.S.' is an effort to reach out to the advocacy communities and to solicit questions on the U.S. Sudan policy from activists deeply and passionately engaged on this critical issue."

Save Darfur Coalition and STAND collected questions from activists and passed them to Gration and Power ahead of time, so I think it's safe to say that today's "discussion" won't be especially dramatic. But it's certainly an interesting effort on the part of the State Department and White House to turn over a new leaf with an activist community that has been, shall we say, less than pleased with the administration's approach to Sudan so far.

Tune in at the State Department's Facebook page here.

Learning Hope In Southern Sudan

Maggie Fick — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:19:17 +0000

JUBA, Southern Sudan -- “We can’t always judge a student as ‘traumatized,’” said Mother Jina, the headmistress of Usratuna Basic Education School, a Catholic primary school in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan. “But their behavior—active, quiet, stubborn—is sometimes difficult for teachers to deal with.” Mother Jina spoke to me about the students at her school who were orphaned during the devastating civil war between Sudan’s North and South, which ended in 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Usratuna opened in 1989, when Juba was a garrison town for the North’s army, the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF. The school remained opened through the most brutal periods of the war, when U.N. planes attempting to bring relief supplies into Juba were shot at regularly by the southern army, or the SPLA, troops surrounding the town. Today, Usratuna has 1,000 students, and is known as one of the best primary schools in Juba.

Despite its strong reputation, the school faces many constraints such as overcrowded classes (between 50 and 85 students per class) and a dearth of resources—the school has no library, few textbooks, and Mother Jina lamented that it can be dangerous for the children to run around the open schoolyard because of soil erosion, poor irrigation, and large ditches in the school’s grounds.

Posted on trees in the schoolyard are wooden painted signs with messages to encourage and advise the students: “Pray Always,” “God Loves You,” “Do Your Homework,” “Don’t Cheat on Exams.” The most meaningful sign to me was one that spoke to the history of the place where these students come from: “Be Educated for a Better Future.”

At first glance, this sign is not out of the ordinary. It could appear on any poster printed by the U.N. or by a development or education organization supporting the message of education and empowerment in any number of countries. But the message struck me as particularly significant in this school in this part of the world. As Mother Jina said, many of her school’s students are clearly traumatized by the direct or indirect effects of the civil war, by decades of conflict and violence in southern Sudan. Even those children whose families fled the South during the war—and who were perhaps born in a refugee camp in neighboring Ethiopia, Uganda, or Congo, or in a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, if they were lucky—are living with the reality of their country’s history. It is not an exaggeration or an insult to say that this history is tortured, painful, and traumatic. However, despite this history, and often even because of this struggle, the people of southern Sudan are also proud. They are hopeful for a better future and they are working towards it.

When I asked a southern army general recently how he felt about the challenges of the current, critical period in the run-up to the nationwide elections and southern self-determination referendum, he said, “A freedom fighter is always hopeful.” This hope is evident in the eyes of some people I have met in Juba, like Mother Jina, who works hard every day to make her school a safe and positive environment for her students. Sadly, some of her students’ young faces seem less hopeful. These children have already witnessed enough of war and its effects to lose hope. It may well take years of peace to change these faces and bring hope back into them.

A special thanks to Mother Jina for her assistance in editing this blog post.

Field Dispatch From Eastern Congo

Noel Atama — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:31:30 +0000

Bukavu, South Kivu -- The commanders of the Kimia II offensive here in South Kivu are quick to provide detailed figures on the number of rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, they have killed or caused to surrender to back up their positive assessment of the military operation. But these numbers provide little comfort to communities paying the price for the poorly organized operations. In addition to the horrific direct effects of reprisal attacks by the FDLR, whose leadership helped orchestrate the Rwandan genocide, and Congolese army predation, a rising tide of indirect insecurity is contributing to an atmosphere of terror.

Click here to read my full field dispatch.