Women in Sudan Photo Exhibit

Wed 2/23/2005

7:00 PM Marvin Grand Ballroom

Sponsored by Amnesty International and DC Women's Action Team

News:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4266157.stm
The US has circulated a draft resolution to the UN to send 10,000
peacekeeping troops who would monitor a peace agreement between
Sudan;s government and the rebels in the south. It also calls for a
travel ban and freeze on the assets of those responsible for the mass
killings and sexual violence in Darfur.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/02/15/sudan.libya.reut/index.html
Annan urged NATO and European Union officials at a security conference
in Germany on Sunday to help in Darfur, arguing that the African Union
mission in the region was inadequate to the scale of the challenge.

"The brother Kofi Annan's statement is very dangerous and stops us
from pursuing the African efforts. If his statement were to be
implemented that will make Sudan a second Iraq," Gadhafi said in
remarks reported late on Monday by the official news agency Jana.

Seven deadly trends in Darfur
By Don Cheadle and John Prendergast

It is still happening. Nearly a year after all the usual alarms were
sounded heralding the inferno engulfing Darfur, the fire is still
raging. Last week, the day after we left Darfur, the killer Janjaweed
militias, supported by the Sudanese government, launched an attack on
a nearby village, reportedly killing more than 100 people.
    Attacks like this are just the tip of the Darfurian volcano.
Despite all the noise made by the United Nations Security Council and
the Bush administration, and despite the recently signed deal between
the Khartoum regime and south-based rebels, the trend lines for Darfur
are getting uglier. The international response remains confused,
inadequate, timid and criminally negligent.
    The story of the massive ethnic-cleansing campaign orchestrated
by the Sudanese government has been well-documented. But the current
mop-up operation is less well understood. The regime is calibrating
its tools of death and destruction to the level and sophistication of
international concern. There are seven deadly trends at play.
    First, the ceasefire is in tatters. Violations are routine and
occur without any consequence. The fighting has spread eastward toward
the oil facilities, thus raising the stakes and provoking even more
draconian responses from the regime.
    Second, rape and pillage are on the increase since September,
reflecting the steady deterioration of security in Darfur. This was
always part of the regime's plan, as it stoked smoldering
inter-communal tensions and deliberately abdicated the state's
monopoly of violence in favor of semi-autonomous militias, which
enforced the regime's will but which maintained a degree of separation
that appears to have fooled much of the international community.
    Third, the regime has again turned to the Janjaweed to do its
dirty work. Militia attacks are on the rise again. Refugees told us
that the attacks are usually reinforced by aerial bombing by the
regime's air force and provided ground support by its army. As yet,
not one Janjaweed has been disarmed and not one has been arrested for
the atrocities that have been committed.
    Fourth, the government has embarked for the last few months on a
massive arms build-up, even initiating a limited offensive launched on
the first day of the last round of peace talks with the rebels,
demonstrating the breathtaking disregard the regime has for the
"pressure" the Security Council has generated thus far. This
weapons-buying spree is facilitated by the fact that the Security
Council has yet to embargo arms sales to the regime.
    Fifth, and also part of the regime's brutal master plan,
humanitarian access is again being restricted. Killing and abducting
aid workers have replaced bureaucratic restrictions as the regime's
tools of choice, and they are much more effective at disrupting
life-saving aid than red tape ever was.
    Sixth, the rebel groups are fragmenting, with repercussions in
the form of increased cease-fire violations, human rights abuses and
inability to deliver at the peace table. And seventh, the peace talks
themselves are rudderless, marked by a lack of commitment by the
parties and a lack of leverage by the mediators.
    This catalogue of unchecked death and destruction must be
confronted much more effectively by the international community. Two
priorities must become focal points for action: accountability and
protection.
    In the two years since the atrocities began, the U.N. Security
Council has not imposed one punitive measure on the regime that
orchestrated the killings. Since hortatory appeals and constructive
engagement have not restrained regime excess, it is now time to set
aside the carrots and bring out the sticks. Available sticks are small
but effective. A travel ban on senior officials, an arms embargo on
the government, and an asset freeze against ruling party businesses
would pressure the regime to stop butchering its own people and start
arresting Janjaweed ringleaders. And a referral by the U.N. Security
Council to the International Criminal Court would finally end the
cycle of impunity that feeds the killing.
    The 1,000 African Union forces that have already been deployed to
Sudan — and the 2,000 additional forces that were supposed to have
been deployed by the end of 2004 — have little chance of reversing the
deterioration in Darfur. There must be many more, and the mandate must
be strengthened to one of civilian protection, so that the troops can
focus on stopping the raping, the attacks on villages and the
intimidation of aid workers.
    The bullies and butchers must be confronted directly, both on the
ground in Darfur and in the government's air-conditioned offices in
Khartoum. If we continue to stand idly by, the culpability for the
continuation of the atrocities will be all of ours.

    Actor Don Cheadle is nominated for an Academy Award for his
performance in "Hotel Rwanda." John Prendergast is an adviser to the
International Crisis Group. They both visited Darfur and the refugee
camps in Chad in late January.