PRESIDENT OBAMA: “Silence, acquiescence, paralysis in the face of genocide is wrong.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA said: “Silence, acquiescence, paralysis in the face of genocide is wrong.”

Send your letter to President Obama.

Here is my letter that I sent ~

Dear President Obama:

I have been involved as a volunteer activist regarding Sudan since 2003. I heard you speak at the 2006 Rally for Darfur on the mall in Washington, D.C. What you said then, made me believe you cared. I believe you meant what you said then and also when you visited a Darfur refugee camp prior to becoming President. However, your appointed Special Envoys to Sudan have not only be ineffective, but detrimental to the human rights violations by the Sudanese government. How can you do this? It does not line up with what you said prior to becoming President in 2008. Or to the letter you sent to me and other activists the first year of your Presidency.

The people of Darfur have been experiencing genocide for almost ten years and continue to suffer. Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has been allowed to use the "lessons learned" from Darfur in the Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions, where innocent civilians are now also experiencing what many call genocide. Clearly, current U.S. policy and international engagement is not working.

At the 2006 D.C. Rally for Darfur, you said: “Silence, acquiescence, paralysis in the face of genocide is wrong.” As a Senator and a first-time candidate for President, you promised to act.

You also said: "Our action and leadership will show who we are as a nation and as a people."

And yet, your administration has not taken action, shown humanity leadership regarding Sudan or made it a priority as you said you would in the text of your letter response to me in your first year as President.

...............................................................

...............................................................

"If we don’t fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don’t really stand for them.” Paul Wellstone, 1944-2002

You have the opportunity as President to make a marked difference in the lives of the Sudanese people trying to stay alive in caves, tents, after rape, after witnessing their family members being slaughtered, under the fire of Sudanese government bombings, during years of on-going blocking of food and health assistance and scorched earth manifestations of genocide by the Sudanese government. The Sudanese government that your administration has given the go-ahead to keep on committing the atrocious crimes of genocide has increasingly become emboldened because they KNOW that the USA and other potential coalition countries have done nothing, will do nothing to stop their genocides in various regions of their country. All on your watch.

When you are no longer President, I will not believe you when you say that you regret you did not effectively do enough to stop this from going further in Sudan. That is what Bill Clinton did about Rwanda. This is your Rwanda.

Sincerely,

Sandra Hammel

The following text is from ~

Hidden Hunger - Living in Caves in Nuba Mountains of Sudan

Read the full article ~Nuba Reports

Frequent bombing by the Sudan government continues to threaten civilians' safety. More than 100 bombs fell in South Kordofan in October, according to Nuba Reports journalists. Attacks on the ground are also a concern for citizens as the SAF burns villages as part of the violent campaign against areas under Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) control.

For many, the journey to Yida refugee camp in South Sudan is a daunting choice. With over 65,000 people inhabiting a camp intended for 15,000, living conditions are poor, food stocks are low and the long walk there is dangerous.

Life in the mountains is not a solution for displaced people, however. Cave life is unsustainable, especially without land to harvest or hope for food aid. Violence surrounds the mountains but their home villages are destroyed or in too dangerous a region to which to return.

Marriam Teia told Nuba Reports that not only does she have no way to get to Yida, but it is a place she's never been before--far from her home in Tess, a village recently burned by the SAF. "I don't know where to put my heart," she said. "I'm in the middle. I want to go home."

Read the full article ~Nuba Reports

Send your letter to President Obama.

SANDRA HAMMEL HAS A MESSAGE FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA USING HIS OWN WORDS

Portsmouth Resident Sandra Hammel to Spotlight Darfur Genocide at Compassion Film Festival

Posted April 8, 2011, 9:30 a.m. in the Portsmouth Patch

Written by Kirsten Ferguson

Sandra Hammel, retired music teacher and activist, who is trying to raise awareness about the Darfur genocide, has been selected to show her film this Friday at the Compassion Film Festival

Activist Sandra Hammel Credit Kirsten Ferguson
April 6, 2011

My addition: I don't like the picture, but then I don't like any picture of me taken in the last year. I have decided to like being old. However, I wouldn't say that I have totally succeeded. But I am working on it. Young old, but here I am in the years that are no longer even close to young.

The article~

How do you explain a catastrophic event and move an audience to action in five minutes?

Sandra Hammel of Portsmouth will attempt just that this Friday, when she debuts her film “Darfur The Abandoned Genocide” at the Compassion Film Festival at Jane Pickens Theater in Newport.

Hammel, a retired music teacher, became an activist for the cause in 2004 after watching a powerful documentary on the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. "I knew very little about what was happening in Rwanda at the time, but after seeing the film, I decided to educate myself,” said Hammel. “When I heard what was happening in Darfur, I knew I couldn’t be silent anymore.”

Since 2004, Hammel has been extremely proactive about the cause and has volunteered in two major rallies both in Washington, DC, and New York to bring more awareness to the troubles overseas, but in the past few years, the Darfur conflict has not been settled.

“In the last several months, bombing from Sudan has escalated in Darfur, yet we don’t hear about it anymore,” said Hammel. “We are inundated with news daily, yet somehow this entire conflict has dropped out of circulation. The only reason I know what is going on is because I am actively looking for updates on what is going on.”

As for expectations on Friday, Hammel is looking to get the attention of her audience and motivate them to get involved.

“The change starts with us,” said Hammel. “Until we, as people, ask and pressure our leaders to do something, they are just going to let it go.”

As for getting her message down to a five-minute film slot, it wasn’t an easy task but she has faith that it will get through to the audience by the time the ending credits come on.

“I think so many of us, myself included, are so busy and now people are losing jobs and have their own issues so it takes a lot more to move people,” said Hammel. “I completely understand that but it is still so important to get involved.”

The Compassion Film Festival, is a benefit event for Looking Upwards, a local non-profit organization and will consist of a juried collection of short films submitted by local and regional film artists that are all based around the theme of compassion.

If you are interested in checking out the event, you can join the group on April 8 at 6 p.m. at the Jane Pickens Theater in Newport.

For more information about the film series, click here.

Source: portsmouth.patch.com/articles/portsmouth-resident-sandra-hammel-to-spotlight-darfur-genocide-at-compassion-film-festival

Credit Kirsten Ferguson

Volunteers in the News

Portsmouth Resident Sandra Hammel to Spotlight Darfur Genocide at Compassion Film Festival

By Kirsten Ferguson

(16 hours ago April 9, 2011 at 1:40 a.m.)

............................................................


............................................................

Unfortunately the lips and audio became out of snyc due to compression of uploading here at Vimeo. Fortunately, the DVD for the Compassion Film Festival of this video was in sync.

I always put credits at the end and couldn't because of the limit I had to get my message across.

Here are more complete credits:

❧ Special thanks to ❧
Eric Reeves for Open Letter excerpts
Mohamed Suleiman for Darfuri sayings
Photos ~
Mia Farrow
Gabriel Stauring
Sandra Hammel
♫ Music ♫
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Performed by Eva Cassidy
Available at itunes
Krista Powell
Presented by Sandra Hammel

Genocide flourishes when there is no accountability.
It has been flourishing in Darfur since February 2003.

One voice won’t stop a genocide,
but that is no excuse to be silent.

Please, use your voice to call upon our leaders
to do what is right about something
that is very wrong.
1-800-GENOCIDE for President Obama,
U.S. Senators and Representatives

Updated news
Radio Dabanga

Eric Reeves
sudanreeves.org

Mia Farrow photos of Darfur Refugee Camps
miafarrow.org/​images

Terry Nickelson ~ OUR HUMANITY IN THE BALANCE
ourhumanityinthebalance.org

Where there is a will there is always a way,
where there is no will there is never a way.

ULTIMATE GOAL IS TO TOPPLE THE REGIME IN KHARTOUM, SUDAN ~ WILL USA MEDIA REPORT STORY?

Sudan: Youth Group Call for Fresh Protests On March 21

Posted February 28, 2011

Source: allafrica.com

Khartoum — A Sudanese organization called 'Youth for Change' made a call for demonstrations in all parts of Sudan on March 21st in a new bid to bring about a mass uprising similar to the ones in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The group's spokesperson Magdi Okasha said that their ultimate goal is to topple the regime.

This came as opposition parties launched a fierce attack on the Sudanese government and vowed to push for change by mobilizing their supporetrs to take the streets.

Leaders from the opposition parties convened at the headquarters of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) in which they saw a replay of a video showing a female activist recounting her alleged rape by agents from the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).

Police and NISS officers cordoned the PCP HQ as families of detainees and opposition supporters lifted banners and shouting anti-government slogans.

The leaders of the opposition parties who form the National Alliance Forces called for the release of PCP leader Hassan Al-Turabi who remains in jail since January with no formal charges being brought against him.

Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) leader Mohamed Ibrahim Nugud expressed solidarity with the PCP "despite past bitterness" in order to work on the issue of freedoms, calling for dispatching a delegation to hold meetings with the revolutionary forces in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt for coordination and exchange of ideas.

The deputy Secretary-General of the Sudan people Liberation Movement (SPLM) Yasser Arman, echoed Nugud's call and voiced rejection of the concept of politically motivated arrests and torture by the NISS.

Arman made a demand for spreading democracy to fight against corruption and tyranny, noting that the Sudanese state "is a failed and outdated one that needs update and renewal".

He further suggested establishing a new capital other Khartoum describing it as the source of the wars waged throughout the Sudan.

For his part, the chairman of the Alliance opposition Farouk Abu Issa said a commission would be formed that would work on spreading freedom and defending against torture and preventing it, stressing that crimes of torture is punishable without statute of limitations.

Sudanese youth have called for anti-government protests which were violently dispersed by security forces starting on January 30. The movement failed to take on mass appeal and dozens of activists remain detained without charge.

Sudanese President Omer Hassan al-Bashir has promised to step down at the next election in four years, after 26 years in power. His party took over in a 1989 bloodless coup.

But growing voices of dissent, even from within his ruling party, are calling for more immediate action to prevent the kind of popular uprising that toppled long-serving leaders in Tunisia and Egypt and has spread to other nations including Libya.

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

....................................................

....................................................
Uploaded by unesco

The official You Tube channel for UNESCO,
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

www.unesco.org

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

Our humanity in the balance

Radio Dabanga

PRESIDENT OBAMA IS OFF IN THE DITCH REGARDING DARFUR ~ FEBRUARY 2011

The House of Representatives is expected to vote TOMORROW on unprecedented humanitarian aid and disaster assistance cuts.

Just how much is at stake? $1.7 billion of life-saving humanitarian aid are on the chopping block -- funding that directly impacts the lives of millions of Sudanese and Darfuri people.

Contact your representative TODAY and urge him or her to vote against these drastic cuts.

My email to my Congressman ~

February 16, 2011

Dear US RI Representative Cicilline,

I organized the Rhode Island Torch Relay which was one of many around the country and the world. The Rhode Island Torch Relay took place October 27, 2007. I was grateful that you as Mayor of Providence agreed to and spoke at this event in the Ceremony portion that took place at the Rhode Island State House on a rainy afternoon. The t-shirts for that day were made and read “I Carry the Torch for Darfur”. I have posted some of this Ceremony on youtube. I know your heart is in the right place regarding preventing and ending genocide and ask you to vote against the cuts of humanitarian aid that assist in saving lives of Darfuri people that have lived in refugee camps since 2003 trying to escape a Sudanese government-sponsored genocide against the unarmed people of the Darfur region. This aid impacts lives of millions of Sudanese, Darfuri people.

Violence in Darfur is on the rise. We simply cannot afford to cut aid for millions of refugees in one of the world’s most volatile regions at this time.

Proposed cuts in programs that provide life-saving aid to Darfur and all of Sudan include:

$431,000,000 in International Disaster Assistance
$582,000,000 in Migration and Refugee Assistance
$687,000,000 in the Food for Peace Program

These severe reductions run counter to the United States’ commitment to peace in Darfur and Sudan. Funding should be restored to these critical accounts that support Sudan. I ask you, US RI Representative Cicilline, to vote NO on passage of House Bill 1.

Thank you for your making decisions based upon principle.

I look forward to your reply and would like to sit down to talk with you about this defining issue.

Sandra Hammel

Use Your Voice to Stop Genocide RI

Genocide will only stop with us demanding it - Our leaders have taught us this

"The most important things belong first, not last or never."

Words of the Earth by Cedric Wright

If you want peace, work for justice
إذا كنت تريد السلام ، أعمل من أجل العدالة

President Obama: 202-456-1111 or 1-800-GENOCIDE

Another action you can easily

take:

Join me in urging the Obama administration to ramp up its effort in support of peace in Darfur.

Read Sudan Now’s Roadmap for Peace in Darfur.

Third action - a VERY important action:

Targeting: The President of the United States
Started by: Operation Broken Silence

The information about this petition ~

The White House announced on February 10, 2011 that U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration has been elected to become the new U.S. Ambassador to Kenya. The removal of Gration from Sudan will leave the special envoy post vacant. Seeing a dramatic rise in violence and genocidal attacks against civilians in Darfur as well as months worth of work remaining in south Sudan to ensure a democratic, secure, and peaceful transition for the world's newest nation, a seasoned diplomat needs to...

The White House announced on February 10, 2011 that U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration has been elected to become the new U.S. Ambassador to Kenya.

The removal of Gration from Sudan will leave the special envoy post vacant. Seeing a dramatic rise in violence and genocidal attacks against civilians in Darfur as well as months worth of work remaining in south Sudan to ensure a democratic, secure, and peaceful transition for the world's newest nation, a seasoned diplomat needs to immediately replace current Special Envoy Gration to help put Sudan back on the road towards peace.

This petition calls for the following:

1. President Obama to appoint a new, U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, one who is seasoned diplomat experienced in conflict prevention/resolution, African affairs, as well as Sudan itself.

2. The new U.S. Special Envoy to enforce the abandoned U.S. Sudan policy of a balanced approach regarding pressures and incentives. Implementation has been largely incentives-based and rewarded a regime which is guilty of genocide.

3. The new U.S. Special Envoy to immediately focus on ensuring peace negotiations for Darfur take place outside of Sudan, reinvigorating Darfur peace negotiations, engaging civil society in both south Sudan and Darfur so that their voices may be heard concerning peace efforts and the issues which plague them, fight to empower UNAMID to better protect civilians in Darfur, and heavily push for a democratic, secure, and peaceful transition of southern Sudan into a sovereign state.

Sign the petition to tell President Obama to appoint the right diplomat to Sudan who will implement the right policy

Spread the word, post to Facebook/Twitter, and help speak out for those in Sudan who should be oppressed no more.

Click the post title for Our Humanity in the Balance website

A STORY OF GENOCIDE ONLY MATTERS WHEN THEY ARE OVER - PROOF? WHEN THEY ARE GOING ON WE IGNORE THEM

"We", meaning news outlets, especially TV channels, and leaders of the world's governments.

That saying ~ No News is Good News ~ really doesn't mean anything in the USA "news" outlets. I say this because there are so many important stories that the USA news outlets don't include in their coverage. Genocide in Darfur is one of those stories.

..........................................................

..........................................................


Darfur death toll mounts amid new war fears

Source: afp

UNITED NATIONS — The Darfur conflict claimed more than 2,300 lives in 2010, according to new UN figures released with Western powers expressing renewed alarm over the war.

With growing numbers of abductions and attacks on UN peacekeepers, some diplomats accuse Sudan's government of stepping up its offensive in the remote western region while international attention is focused on the self-determination vote in south Sudan.

The Sudanese military has frequently refused permission for UN peacekeepers to go to areas where trouble is reported, according to UN officials.

Three Bulgarian air crew on a helicopter carrying World Food Programme supplies were abducted last week and this week troubles flared in the west Darfur town of Nertiti after the killing of a Sudanese intelligence officer.

In December, Tanzanian soldiers at Khor Abeche in southern Darfur even decided to give out their own rations because food supplies were blocked for nearly a week and thousands of extra refugees had headed for the UN base amid renewed fighting, UN officials said.

UN rules say peacekeepers should not give their own food to refugees.

More convoys have been halted around Khor Abeche this week, according to the UN mission in Darfur, UNAMID.

At least 2,321 violent deaths were reported in Darfur in 2010, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report. At least 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur since the conflict erupted in 2003 when tribal fighters rose up against the Khartoum government, the UN says.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir is wanted for genocide by the International Criminal Court. He is accused of ordering the campaign by government troops and their Janjaweed militia allies in Darfur.

The renewed fears over the conflict and deadlocked peace talks were highlighted at a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan on Tuesday.

Britain's ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who has taken a lead role in Security Council efforts on Darfur, said there was "deep concern" at the renewed hostilities.

Last week's abduction of the UN air crew "highlights the lack of security and its impact on humanitarian operations in Darfur," he added.

Lyall Grant called on all rebel groups to join the peace process without delay or pre-conditions.

"These are not sporadic attacks. This is a real war between Sudanese army forces and the rebel groups," said French ambassador Gerard Araud. "It is at the expense of civilians who are chased, causing deaths and tens of thousands of new displaced."

US ambassador Susan Rice called on the Sudanese government to "immediately halt aerial bombardments," adding: "We condemn in the strongest possible terms attacks on civilians."

She said reaching a ceasefire between government forces and the rebel groups "should be the immediate objective of the peace process."

The Sudan Liberation Army-Minni Minnawi Faction is the only group to have signed up to a 2006 peace accord with the government. But its fighters clashed with army troops last month.

The Sudanese government withdrew its negotiating team from Qatar, where talks with some rebels have been held, in late December but insisted it was not leaving the talks.

South Africa, a new member of the UN Security Council, called for a special international Darfur conference to find a political settlement.

However, one African diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "The Khartoum government is resigned to losing southern Sudan, but it is determined to win back control of Darfur. The referendum in the south has been perfect cover for all sides to open fire again."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

USUN PRESS RELEASE #006

Jan. 18, 2011

AS DELIVERED

Remarks by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United

Nations, at a Security Council Briefing on Sudan, January 18, 2011

Thank you, Mr. President. I also want to thank SRSG Menkerios and President

Mkapa for their important briefings today.

This is a historic moment. And I join President Obama in congratulating the

people and leaders of Sudan for the successful completion of voting on the

referendum on independence. The people of Southern Sudan, after decades of war

and more than two million killed, have cast their votes peacefully and expressed

their will.

The promise of self determination was made to the Southern Sudanese people in

2005. Thanks to the commitment of the people of Sudan and the support of the

international community, that promise was finally fulfilled. Let us not

underestimate what this referendum means to the people of Southern Sudan. We

have all heard reports of long lines forming overnight on January 8th, and of

people standing in line for hours to vote. We have even heard of a case in

which a river ferry broke down, and voters jumped into the presumably

crocodile-infested river and swam across to reach the polling station.

As President Obama said after the polling closed, “The past week has given the

world renewed faith in the prospect of a peaceful, prosperous future for all of

the Sudanese people – a future that the American people long to see in Sudan.”

To the men and women of UNMIS: the United States commends you for your

outstanding work.

Thanks to your tireless efforts, under daunting challenges and difficult

circumstances, the people of Sudan have been able to take a huge step forward on

the path of full implementation of the CPA, which ended a 23-year civil war. To

Special Representative Menkerios, my government congratulates you. You are

performing an incredibly difficult job with grace and wisdom. We thank you. We

also welcome the work that the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, the

Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau, the Government of Sudan, and the Government of

Southern Sudan have done to ensure that this historic referendum occurred on

time, peacefully, and reflects the will of the people.

We welcome the January 16 statement from the Secretary General’s Referenda

Monitoring Panel, in which the panel said it was satisfied that the referendum

process “allowed the people of Southern Sudan to express their will freely.” A

number of other observer missions have also already released preliminary

statements. On January 17, the Carter Center called the referendum “peaceful

and credible” and “broadly consistent with international standards.” The Arab

League stated that the process was “in line with international standards.” The

European Union Observer Mission commended a “peaceful, credible voting process,

with overwhelming turnout.”

On January 16, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the

African Union called the referendum “free, fair, and credible.” We commend the

work of the hundreds of international observers and thousands of domestic

observers. The United States continues to urge all to respect the results of

the referendum.

Of course, we must all focus on the challenging – and promising – road ahead.

We urge the parties to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible to

negotiate a rapid and sustainable resolution to the question of Abyei and other

outstanding CPA issues.

The United States fully supports the efforts of AU High-Level Implementation

Panel Chair President Thabo Mbeki to facilitate these agreements. We reiterate

that any resolution regarding the future of the Abyei area must be reached with

the consent of both parties, through a political settlement or a process that

respects the rights and needs of those communities traditionally associated with

the area.

Along with the status of Abyei, there are other outstanding issues requiring

urgent attention, such border demarcation, citizenship, wealth-sharing

agreements, natural resource management, the division of the national debt,

security arrangements, currency arrangements, and international treaties and

legal obligations, which are all equally important. We also consider peaceful,

inclusive popular consultations in Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan that reflect

the will of the people to be essential components of CPA implementation. We

call on the parties to bring the same spirit to these negotiations as they have

brought to the conduct of the referendum itself.

For all of the inspiring events in Sudan over the last week, the United States

laments the loss of life in the Abyei and border region and reiterates its deep

concern regarding the arrest, detention, and harassment of human rights

activists and journalists by the Government of Sudan’s security forces, which

prevented both an SPLM leader and an Umma Party leader from conducting

television interviews. In addition, four university students were arrested in

separate incidents for trying to host discussions.

We urge Council members to join us in calling on the Government of Sudan to

release those who have been imprisoned unjustly, including those jailed for

exercising such basic rights as freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and

freedom of assembly.

As President Obama has made clear, the United States wants the leaders in Sudan

to choose the path of peace and prosperity for all of the Sudanese people, and

he has extended the U.S. hand in that spirit. In order for this future to be

realized, however, Sudan, too, must work with the international community.

This includes cooperating with UNMIS and UNAMID to facilitate full freedom of

access and movement for UN peacekeepers and for humanitarian workers.

This access is especially important given the alarming reports that Sudanese

Armed Forces have burned homes and blocked civilians’ access to UNAMID in Khor

Abeche, and that the Government of Sudan violated the North/South ceasefire with

repeated aerial bombardments into the Kiir River Valley – in addition to the

all-too-frequent reports of aerial bombardment in Jebel Mara and the Government

of Sudan’s ongoing refusal to grant UNAMID patrols access to affected

populations, despite the Status of Forces Agreement.

We are deeply saddened and troubled by the news that on January 13, three

Bulgarian helicopter crew members contracted to the UN World Food Program were

kidnapped in Darfur. We convey our condolences to their families. And we urge

the Government of Sudan to do its utmost to facilitate their safe return. We

recall that 40,000 residents of Darfur were displaced from their homes in

December alone. Civilians continue to live under the threat of attack, and of

sexual and gender-based violence. It is thus in all of our interests to

continue to work to prevent genocide.

The United States again calls on the Government of Sudan to immediately halt

aerial bombardments, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms attacks on

civilians. Obtaining a ceasefire between the Government of Sudan and the armed

movements should be the immediate objective of the peace process. The political

process for a Darfur peace agreement must be reinvigorated, and all relevant

parties must come back to the negotiating table.

As we discussed during consultations on Sudan on January 6, the unity shown by

this Council has gone a long ways towards supporting the parties as they have

stayed on the path of peace. We need to continue to watch closely as the

parties continue to implement the CPA. As progress is made, we should welcome

it and offer continued encouragement. But, just as importantly, we need to be

prepared to insist upon and to support full and final implementation of the CPA

on such issues as protection of minorities and rejection of proxy militias, and

other threats to peace and security in Sudan.

Thank you, Mr. President.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GI-NET/SDC URGES OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO STEP UP EFFORTS FOR PEACE IN DARFUR

Group sites dramatic increase in large-scale violence, threats to credible Darfur peace process

(Washington, D.C.) The Genocide Intervention Network/Save Darfur Coalition (GI-NET/SDC) today urged the United States government to reinvigorate its policy on Darfur. The call follows reports of renewed violence in Darfur, and comes amid concerns about the future of credible negotiations to reach a Darfur peace agreement.

"Thirty-two thousand Darfuri women, men and children were driven from their homes by violence during the last weeks of December as the world focused on the Southern referendum for independence,” stated Amir Osman, Senior Director for Policy and Government Relations for GI-NET/SDC. “The United States and international community must act to stop future violence and to ensure humanitarian access to care for these displaced people in Darfur while continuing high level engagement on North-South issues.”

GI-NET/SDC also expressed concern about news reports citing U.S. Special Envoy General Scott Gration indicating that he believes the Government of Sudan’s recently released strategy for Darfur is a ‘very good plan.’

“The Government of Sudan’s Darfur plan has serious flaws, including a call to hold Darfur peace negotiations in Sudan, and it would be a policy blunder if the United States endorses such a plan,” stated Osman. “Many of the civil society and rebel representatives who should be around the table in any negotiation would not feel safe traveling within Sudan, and that makes Sudan an impossible venue for such a critical negotiation.”

“The United States should instead support a high-level, internationally mediated negotiation for Darfur peace that would include the Government of Sudan, the major rebel group and civil society representatives, held in neutral location outside of Sudan,” Osman continued. The historic end the North-South war and signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 resulted from a similar process.

“We are heartened by the recent appointment of Ambassador Dane Smith, and we hope he will have an opportunity to increase U.S. engagement on Darfur at this critical time,” concluded Osman. “Given the broad concern Americans have demonstrated on this issue and the strong promises President Obama made as a candidate and since his inauguration, it would be a mistake to pursue a policy with the goal of anything less than meaningful peace, protection and justice for civilians in Darfur."

###

The Save Darfur Coalition and Genocide Intervention Network merged on November 1, 2010 to create a more powerful voice dedicated to preventing and stopping large-scale, deliberate atrocities against civilians. The organization remains committed to its work to end the crisis in Darfur and bring peace to all of Sudan as well as to end violence in other areas of mass atrocities such as Congo and Burma.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
our humanity in the balance

USA POLICY ON DARFUR IS NOT WORKING TWO YEARS INTO OBAMA'S LEADERSHIP

What could be worse than having Gration (since March 2009) be Obama's Special Envoy to Sudan for two years? What will change when Dane Smith takes on the same impotent Obama policy regarding genocide in Sudan, including Darfur?

Click image to enlarge the letter

The first paragraph written by President Obama states:

"Thank you for your letter urging action to end the genocide in Darfur. I share your outrage over the hundreds of thousands of lives lost, and the suffering of millions more. It has gone on for far too long. Bringing relief to the battered region of Darur is a top priority for my administration. "

For sure, President Obama does not share MY outrage. His personally selected Special Envoy to Sudan has absolutely no support by the Darfuris. I risk little to say NOT ONE DARFURI APPROVES OF GENERAL SCOTT GRATION. And neither do I. He deserves no support from the Darfuri people. He has made statement after statement that could only alienate Darfuri people. And the new man, Dane Smith has the same President to satisfy, so I wonder what will be different?

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." Martin Luther King Jr.

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

U.N. accused of caving in to Khartoum over Darfur

Source: iwpr.net/kk/node/49799

Amid growing levels of malnutrition, illness and instability in Darfur displacement camps, United Nations aid and peacekeeping agencies are being accused of capitulating to pressure and interference from the Sudanese government and failing in their duty to protect civilians.

By: Simon Jennings, Katy Glassborow, Tajeldin Adam, Assadiq Mustafa Zakaria Musa (*)

Human rights and civil society activists are joining the region’s internally displaced people, IDPs, and Sudanese opposition politicians in calling on UN agencies not to duck their responsibilities in order to keep Khartoum on side.

This comes as conditions in IDP camps deteriorate, with the government delaying food and medical supplies and many children often too hungry to go to school. One Sudanese opposition politician interviewed for this report claimed that some of the weakest camp inhabitants have started to die because of the shortages.

“International humanitarian capacities have been seriously eroded and impaired to a point that leaves Darfuris in a more vulnerable position now than at any other time since the counter-insurgency operations and forced displacements in 2003,” reads a recent paper, Navigating Without a Compass: The Erosion of Humanitarianism in Darfur, published by Tufts University in the United States.

Since 2003 when fighting between the government and rebel groups began in earnest in Darfur, millions of civilians have been forced to leave their villages – which were frequently razed to the ground – and have since lived in displacement camps or fled to eastern Chad.

They have relied heavily on international aid to survive, but according to research by IWPR and Radio Dabanga (an IWPR partner radio station based in Holland), the government – which sees IDP camps as strongholds of rebel support – has consistently worked to thwart the distribution of food, restrict access of relief workers and control the movements of peacekeepers.

In October last year, the head of the UN children’s agency UNICEF, Nils Kastberg, told Fi al Mizan, a radio programme made by IWPR and Radio Dabanga, that Khartoum is preventing his agency from releasing reports about malnutrition in IDP camps.

“Part of the problem has been when we conduct surveys to help us address issues, in collaboration with the ministry of health, very often other parts of the government such as the humanitarian affairs commission interferes and delays in the release of reports, making it difficult for us to respond [in a] timely [manner],” he said.

“We are raising these issues with the government at the moment that the humanitarian affairs commission should not interfere with the release of these reports.”

UNICEF reported early last year that as many as 21 nutritional surveys were conducted since June 2009, but only seven have been released by the humanitarian affairs commission. Six of those showed malnutrition rates of between 15 and 29 per cent, the report stated.

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court, ICC, say that restricting humanitarian aid is further evidence of a continued genocidal campaign against the people of Darfur by the Khartoum government.

But of the UN agencies engaged in Darfur, only UNICEF and the peacekeeping operation in Darfur, UNAMID, have talked publically about government interference.

Other UN agencies approached by IWPR have declined to speak about the problem, saying this could jeopardise their entire aid operations and lead to them being thrown out of the country. Sudanese opposition politicians say that by failing to speak out, UN agencies are in effect collaborating with the government.

The Sudanese government, meanwhile, insists that it is meeting its obligation to look after IDPs in Darfur.

“I don’t think the government will try in any way not to fulfil its commitments or not to perform its responsibility as regards the humanitarian access,” Mohammed Eltom, from the Sudanese embassy in London, told IWPR.

Read the full article at ~iwpr.net/kk/node/49799


"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Martin Luther King Jr. - I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World, Special 75th Anniversary Edition

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

Abyei litmus test Sudan's Peace

While much effort has gone into ensuring that the Southern Sudan referendum went ahead on time, the escalating tensions in the contested border region of Abyei serve as an important reminder of the significant challenges that still remain to a successful transition to long-term peace in Sudan.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) has special provisions for the ‘Three Areas’: Blue Nile, Southern Kordofan (including the Nuba Mountains) and Abyei. Abyei is a transition zone between North and South and has traditionally been an area of cattle owning groups: the Dinka (from the south), and the Missiriyya (from the North). In the negotiations leading up to the CPA, Abyei was always a sticking point and has since continued to be a contested region. Abyei holds a vast amount of Sudan’s oil. However, the pipelines and refineries, essential for the extraction of the oil, are situated in the North.

Abyei, as the rest of the Three Areas, was supposed to be the litmus test for a united Sudan and for the wealth- and power-sharing arrangements set out by the CPA. The agreement should have identified mechanisms to share the wealth between the North and the South long term but the Abyei Protocol did not tackle any of the disputed issues and was only ever meant as a resolution for the interim period following the signing of the CPA in 2005. The Abyei referendum, on whether Abyei should remain in Southern Kordofan State in Northern Sudan or join Bahr el-Ghazal State in Southern Sudan, was to take place at the same time as the Southern Sudan vote. However, the vote has been delayed and no future date has been set. The borders have also yet to be demarcated.

At this timely event, as the results of the South Sudan referendum begin to emerge, senior NCP and SPLM commentators from Abyei discuss the future of the region.

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

US envoy reiterates support to Sudan’s strategy for Darfur

Source: Sudan Tribune

January 13, 2011 (KHARTOUM) — US Special Envoy for Sudan Scott Gration renewed his support to Sudanese government strategy to end Darfur conflict and announced that his country would work jointly with Khartoum to implement it.

Flanked by his aide for Darfur conflict Dane Smith, Gration ended Thursday a two-day visit to the restive region where he met with North Darfur deputy governor Idriss Abdalla Hassan and the head of UNAMID Ibrahim Gambari. He also paid a visit to IDPs camps in Deribat, Khor Abeche and Shangili Tobayai.

The Sudanese government plan aims to domesticate efforts to resolve Darfur conflict though promoting dialogue among local actors from states governments, tribal leaders, civil society and IDPs. It also plans to establish security and support the return of displaced persons besides recovery and development projects there.

In a meeting with deputy governor, Gration praised the Darfur peace strategy prepared by the government to address the eight year conflict. He further said his government has appointed Dane Smith to lead an American team to support these efforts.

"We know that those are your priorities, but we will work together and synergize our efforts to reach a sustainable peace in Darfur conducive to the return of displaced persons and refugees to their homes."

The government’s strategy is founded on the conviction that the rebel groups have become an obstacle to end the conflict. Ghazi Saleh Al-Deen, presidential adviser tasked with the file, considers also that the rebels distorted the origins of the conflict which had been disputes over pastures and land between cattle herders and farmers.

Gration announced his support to the government’s plan since last August after a meeting with Ghazi besides Thabo Mbeki of the African Union panel and Gambari who is supposed to represent the United Nation.

The US envoy however emphasized the need to establish a ceasefire commission supervised by the UNAMID, comprising representatives from the government and all the rebel groups including Minni Minnawi, LJM, JEM and SLM-AW.

GOS-JEM CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES

The head of the Sudanese government negotiating team met today with the Qatari state minister for foreign affairs to discuss the proposal submitted by the mediation to the government and the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM).

Amin Hassan Omer also discussed with Minister Ahmed bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud a cessation of hostilities draft agreement submitted by the mediation to the government and the Justice and Equality Movement.

Last December, Gration during a visit to Doha contributed to convince JEM rebels to commence talks on cessation of hostilities before to resume peace talks.

Sudanese government withdrew its delegation from Doha last month saying talks can be conducted through exchange of visits and correspondence.

The Joint Chief Mediator Djibril Bassole is expected in Khartoum on Saturday for talks with Sudanese officials on the peace process.

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King Jr.

DYING BY LACK OF CARING FROM PEOPLE ON PLANET EARTH - THAT IS THE SITUATION FOR THE DARFURI PEOPLE

I am trying to get the Pell Center in Newport, Rhode Island to sponsor Darfuri Mohamed Yahya as a speaker. The director of the Pell Center accepted the idea, then he resigned and now I am not sure what will happen. I just learned that the Pell Center is choosing their speakers by committee. This may make it difficult. As the previous director knew of me and my work and the committee does not.

This is my attempt tonight ~

Dear Michele and Pell Center "team",

I cannot convey in typed words why I care so much about ending, preventlng genocide and our response to it - or in our case as a country and international community, our lack of response to it.

This post/article by Eric Reeves is an example of why I care so much about this as a human being who lives on this planet while a genocide has been going on since 2003 on the Darfuri people....unarmed families.

I hope you and your team will take the time to read this. This is a humanity-defining issue. It says who we are as human beings....that we allow this to go on. We aren't truly free until all are free and this young boy that died by drowning in a refugee camp certainly is more free now than he was while living "on our watch".

I certainly hope you will consider having Darfuri Mohamed Yahya come and speak at the Pell Center. I have attached his bio and included a youtube video link where he talks with VOA's Ndimyake Mwakalyelye. Mohamed speaks near the beginning and later on the video link, which I include here

And here is the link to Radio Dabanga where he works: radio dabanga

Thank you for your humanity and consideration.

Sandra Hammel

“The Death of ‘Ahmed’ of Kassab Camp,” Dissent Magazine (on-line), February 15, 2010

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?keyword=Sudan

Eric Reeves

The young boy from Kassab Camp is unnamed, unidentified except by the name of his camp. He drowned last week, and notice came only in the form of a brief announcement from Radio Dabanga, which has sources throughout Darfur:

“A boy died by drowning in Kassab Camp in North Darfur on Saturday. Several houses collapsed in the camp after heavy rains that fell on the region. A source said that dozens of displaced families are in the open after the loss of their homes.”

Without this notice from one of the world’s more obscure news sources, the boy’s anonymity would have been complete—joining the hundreds of thousands who have perished in similar anonymity over the past eight years. And perhaps I should be more concerned about the “dozens of displaced families”—potentially hundreds of civilians—exposed in North Darfur during the very height of the rainy season, facing ominously high malnutrition rates. But there are times when I find the world’s inability to look with any particularity at the human suffering and destruction in Darfur a cause for rage, for a desperate urge to make this suffering and destruction into a recognizable, an undeniable, an inescapably disturbing portrait. So I will construct an all too plausible history for this boy from Kassab Camp, and his place in Darfur’s ongoing agony.

I’ll call him Ahmed, and he is twelve years old; he has been in Kassab for the past six years. He arrived in summer 2004, at the height of the genocidal violence, having seen his village destroyed and losing most of his family. His ten-year-old sister and mother were gang-raped by the Janjaweed in front of all the village men, including his father, who was later killed. His mother survives, but has been nearly disabled by the trauma of the gang-raping and loss of her husband; his sister died a painful death from the fistula that developed following the tearing of her vagina and anus. His younger brother was killed in the attack; he is not sure whether his older brothers are alive or dead. His nights are haunted by dreams of violence he cannot understand or escape.

He has had few, perhaps no educational opportunities, and recreational resources are nonexistent; the minimal psycho-social services for his mother disappeared when Khartoum expelled thirteen humanitarian organizations in March 2009. He has been increasingly hungry as the UN World Food Program cuts rations to half the minimum kilocalorie diet; malnutrition is rising in North Darfur and food has become too expensive for him or his mother to purchase. She is unable to work, and Ahmed has been too young to compete for the few jobs available in or near the camp. Daily life before his death was defined by hunger, a lack of properly maintained latrines, inadequate shelter against this summer’s slashing rains (August and September are the two rainiest months of the season), and fear. At times he has suffered from an unbearable loneliness and sadness.

His vision of the future is no more than a version of the past six years. As part of this vision, Ahmed is all too aware of the marauding presence of the Janjaweed militia, who have made travel outside Kassab too dangerous (they have military quarters just a few kilometers away), and the protection nominally provided by the UN peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) is widely regarded as a grim joke within the camp. Continual low-level conflict among the equally deprived camp residents is a source of continual anxiety for Ahmed. A renewed military offensive begun earlier this year by Khartoum and the Janjaweed in nearby Jebel Marra has created many more displaced persons; and Kassab, already inadequate to the needs of its more than 30,000 residents, has become dangerously overcrowded. A camp leader told Radio Dabanga in early June of this year that, “People [in Kassab] suffer from food shortages and water shortages with the influx of new migrants to the camp.” Things have only grown worse in the past three months.

Ahmed also senses a growing fear that Kassab itself may be attacked at some point, as Khartoum ratchets up plans to dismantle the camps and forcibly return displaced persons to villages without security, or to as yet unconstructed “new villages.” Indeed, two years ago Nicholas Kristof posted a dispatch from a visitor to Kassab:

“As I write this, Kassab camp (North Darfur) home to 25,000 unarmed civilians and the location of Darfur Peace and Development Organization’s women’s center, is under attack by Janjaweed forces. I spent time in the camp and know many people there. What do we do? Rebel forces are too distant and under-equipped to defend Kassab. UNAMID has only a small presence there. Who will be dead tomorrow?”

“Who will be dead tomorrow?” The question, even unarticulated, has haunted Ahmed as he watches his mother’s mental health deteriorate and people he has known die from one cause or another.

In March 2007, the UN’s most senior humanitarian official, John Holmes, attempted to visit Kassab. As the BBC journalist traveling with him reported:

“The UN’s new emergency relief coordinator John Holmes has been turned away from a camp in Darfur for those fleeing the Sudanese conflict. The UN envoy was refused entry by Sudanese soldiers to Kassab camp in northern Darfur, says the BBC’s Karen Allen, who is travelling with him. In the past six months the BBC has reported on mass rapes of women and young girls at the camp.... Within hours of arriving in Darfur, Mr Holmes was stopped at a checkpoint. His convoy was sent back and television groups covering the visit had their video tapes confiscated, our correspondent says.”

Ahmed perhaps heard rumors of an important foreigner who might help Kassab, and perhaps bring protection, help for his mother, and more food and clean water. The bitter anger of the camps residents at the impotence of the African Union force (which would become the UN/African Union force [UNAMID] on January 1, 2008) would have been palpable, if largely incomprehensible.

Even more incomprehensible to Ahmed are the questions continually posed by his elders: “Where is the international community?” “Where is a real UN peacekeeping force?” “Why have we been abandoned?” Ahmed knows virtually nothing of the world that has so resolutely refused to see him or end the suffering of his people.

So the ignorance is mutual: the world that knows nothing of Ahmed or his death has created only the most tenuous presence in his own life. He can’t feel gratitude for the humanitarian assistance that alone has stood between him and death; although unable to say as much, his life barely seems worth living. When the heavy rains washed away his no doubt inadequate shelter, his last thoughts before drowning were not of the help that did not arrive, they were not even of his family. I imagine them simply as the confused, terrified culmination of six years of suffering and deprivation that he had come to believe was his lot in life.

For all the Ahmeds who remain, or who have already perished, this assessment is all too true.

[Eric Reeves is author of A Long Day’s Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide]

_____________________________
Eric Reeves
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063

ereeves@smith.edu
www.sudanreeves.org


```````````````````````````````````````

Email from Mohamed Yahya ~

-----Original Message-----
From: Mohamed Yahya
To: Sandra Hammel
Subject: Re: Speaking in Rhode Island

Dear Sandra,


Thank you so much again for our excellent efforts trying to connect us and make the upcoming event possible.

I'm very excited to hear about these good news. I will be honored to go and speak to your Community or the Congregation when possible. I'm sending you my bio that needed to updated by adding very few things..such as my recent nomination for the "2010 Dan David Pulitzer Prize". However, you can added the way you want. Even though I wasn't fortunate enough to compete with the top world leaders, such as the Italian president, Britain Tony Blair and other most Influential leaders and Actors..But I'm still proud to be one of the nominees..anyway..

I just wanted to let you know that I just arrived from a short trip to Boston, where I was invited to speak at one of the Universities about Darfur. I thought I passed through your area during my visit if you are from that Rhode Island...If so I really wished to meet you but the limited time given me no chance. I hope to see you next time soon...

Please keep up your good work forward and say Hi and thank you to Dr. Peter Liotta.


I will look forward to talk to you a bout anything else soon. Please let me know if there any questions.


Keep your good work forward.


Thank you.


Mohamed Yahya

BIO of Mohamed Yahya

Mohamed Adam Yahya is a refugee from the Darfur region of Sudan and is the founder and Executive Director of Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy. From 1995 to 2005, he was Chairman and spokesman of the Representatives of the Massaleit Community in Exile, which was the first human rights group to alert the international community to human rights abuses in western Sudan.

Mr. Yahya was born in a small village east of Al-Geneina, the capital of Darmassaleit (West Darfur state). Both as a child and adult, he experienced the brutal racism that permeates Sudanese society. In 1993, his village witnessed the first attacks of the Sudanese government's Arab militia raiders, known as janjaweed. Yahya's home was completely decimated and most of his relatives and neighbors were shot, raped, or burned alive in their huts. Yahya was studying at Al-Azhar University in Cairo at the time his village was destroyed. He received word that his parents were safe, but he lost 21 other family members. He subsequently began to receive firsthand reports of the terrible crimes that were being committed by the Sudanese government and its proxy force, the janjaweed.

It quickly became apparent to Yahya that Sudan's ruling regime was engaged in a campaign to rid western Sudan of its black African ethnic population. Yahya and other Sudanese students living in Cairo sought to alert the international community to the humanitarian crisis that had begun to unfold. In 1995, they formed the Representatives of the Massaleit Community in Exile (RMCE). The RMCE's founding members came from many different ethnic Sudanese backgrounds including the Massaleit, Fur, Dajo, Zagawa, Bargo, Gimir, Tama, Berty, Barno, and Meme, in addition to people from the Nuba Mountains, southern Sudan and elsewhere.

Believing that the pen is mightier than the sword, the RMCE sought to protect the people of Darfur through peaceful means, including advocacy and public education. With no financial resources, Yahya and other members of the RMCE began this work by writing reports and circulating them on foot to all the international embassies in Cairo. Their first major open letter to the international community, "The Hidden Slaughter and Ethnic Cleansing in Western Sudan,” was distributed this way in 1999. Over the next couple of years it was widely referenced by the United Nations General Assembly and Secretary-General Kofi Annan, along with organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. In this way, Yahya and other members of the RMCE were the first people to awaken the world to the unfolding genocide in Darfur.

Between 1999 and 2003, working in Cairo with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Yahya and the RMCE were also able to sponsor more than 20,000 refugees from various parts of Sudan. They helped ensure that nearly 95% of the people fleeing Sudan received political asylum and resettlement in Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States.

In 2002, fearing reprisal from the Sudanese government for his humanitarian and advocacy work, Yahya sought political asylum in the United States. After his relocation to Charlottesville, Virginia, Yahya founded Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy, in order to continue and expand on the work of the RM

````````````````````````````````````

Reuters reports

Darfur attack survivors tell of brutal killings

September 17, 2010

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfuri men were shot dead at point blank range during a surprise Arab militia raid on a busy market this month in which at least 39 people were killed and almost 50 injured, eyewitnesses said on Friday.

The attack on civilians was reminiscent of the early years of the counter-insurgency operation in Sudan's west, which took up arms against the government in 2003, complaining that the region had been neglected by Khartoum

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has since issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for genocide and war crimes in Darfur, charges he denies.

Details of the September 2 attack on the market in the village of Tabarat have not previously come to light. The government prevented peacekeepers from visiting the site until days later.

But five survivors of the attack told Reuters that heavily armed Arab militia had targeted male victims and shot many at point blank range.

One diplomat said the militia were likely from among those armed and mobilised by the government to quell the rebels. Those militia, known as Janjaweed, were responsible for mass rape, murder and looting. Many of the tribal militia still support the government but Khartoum has lost control over some.

In Tabarat, men were rounded up by militia wearing military uniforms who rode into the market on horses and camels pretending to be buying goods before spraying the shops with gunfire. Then vehicles mounted with machine guns and carrying militia fighters appeared and rounded up some of the men, survivors said.

"They laid them down and they came up close and shot them in their heads," Abakr Abdelkarim, 45, told Reuters by telephone from the town of Tawilla, where many of the victims had sought refuge and medical help.

"(Those killed) were all men and one woman -- some men were tied with rope behind the cars and dragged until they died."

RUN FOR HIS LIFE

Adam Saleh said he had run for his life and hidden in nearby fields to watch from afar. "They were targeting men -- all of them were shot in the head and chest, only those who were running away got shot in their legs and arms."

Nour Abdallah, 45, said the attackers let most of the women run away. She could not escape and so lay face down in the dirt. "They told me not to lift my head up or I would be shot too."

Saleh and others said after the attack they had gone to the joint U.N.-African Union (UNAMID) peacekeeping base in Tawilla to ask peacekeepers to come to Tabarat but they had refused.

"They also refused to come and help us recover the bodies," Saleh added.

UNAMID has said both rebels and the government prevented it getting access to the area.

A UNAMID spokesman said he could not comment on the witness reports but an internal document seen by Reuters showed UNAMID had received similar witness reports of men being executed.

The only aid agency working in Tawilla, Medecins Sans Frontieres, said it could confirm 39 people died and it had treated 46 injured, many with "serious gunshot wounds".

"We saw only men," said MSF head of mission Alessandro Tuzza. He said he could not comment on how the victims were shot but that MSF was still negotiating with the government to get access to the area in North Darfur province.

The witnesses said they had buried 41 bodies in common graves but more were still in the bushes around the market.

Sudan's army denied involvement in the attack and said the local government was investigating. "The North Darfur government have formed a security committee to investigate this."

Presidential adviser Ghazi Salaheddin visited the area on Friday on a fact-finding mission.

Kidnapping and violent banditry have become frequent in Darfur where years of impunity and the ready availability of arms have fuelled a breakdown in law and order, with foreign workers targeted for abductions even in the main towns.

Bashir expelled 13 of the largest aid agencies working in Darfur after the ICC arrest warrant last year and many gaps in the humanitarian operation have yet to be filled.

"We are begging the international aid agencies to come and give us food, water. We have women and children here sitting in the sun for days with no shelter. We have nothing," said Abdelkarim.

More ~ As-Obama-offers-to-meet-Sudan-leaders-culture-of-mistrust-grips-Khartoum