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.

IT'S HARD TO RALLY AN UPRISING ON FACEBOOK WHEN YOU LIVE IN REFUGEE CAMPS WITH NO COMPUTERS - SUCH AS IT IS FOR DARFURIS

INGREDIENTS OF A GENOCIDE:
PERPETRATORS, UNARMED CITIZENS,
A WORLD THAT TURNS THE OTHER WAY
................................................................

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

I made this video January 1, 2010
Things have not gotten better for the Darfuri people. President Obama gave us all indications that he would do better than he has regarding Darfur and genocidal regimes. His US Special Envoy Gration to Sudan has been nothing short of a disaster. Gration is slated to leave his Sudan post to be Obama's Envoy to Kenya.

It is unthinkable what President Obama has done regarding Darfur. How does he define terrorism? I believe genocide by a government on its own people is terrorism. But Obama has decided to remove Sudan and its President Omar al-Bashir from the state-sponsored terrorist list of the USA. Bashir is indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. And Obama decides to reward him.

Before and following the Southern Sudan referendum (January 2011) to vote to become a separate country, the escalation of bombing of Darfur villages is ignored by Obama, as well as by the media.

It is hard to rally an uprising on Facebook when you live in makeshift camps with no running water, no electricity, no computers.

Since 2003, the world has turned its deaf ears and blind eyes to Darfuris.

"We can't say 'Never again' and then allow it to happen again." You know who said that? Answer: Barack Obama

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

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

"CHANGE" and "HOPE" words Obama ran on for his candidacy of President. Imagine that. The Darfuris renamed their makeshift schools after him in the refugee camps. They believed him. Once.

Notice all the countries being reported on in the news recently on this map.
Sudan is next to Egypt which we have had news coverage on. Also in the news and on this map are Yemen, Jordan, Libya, Iran, Bahrain, Saudi Arabi and nearby, but not on this map: Tunisia.

Sudan is in this picture and NOT being reported on by our USA media.

DARFUR, SUDAN ~ THE STORY THE MEDIA NEGLECTS DAY AFTER DAY ~ FEB 22, 2011

THE STORY MEDIA and PRESIDENT OBAMA NEGLECT DAY AFTER DAY. A story untold, news unreported STILL GOES ON and on and on.....since 2003. Eight years and counting. The holocaust lasted 12 years. Four years to go at this rate and Darfur will be the longer genocide.

On a Whitehouse conference call within the last two weeks, it was confirmed that President Obama is removing the genocide-supporting government of Sudan from the USA state-sponsored terrorist list. He has changed. "Change" with Obama has turned out to be nothing like he said he would be.

As I said in my letter to him (Dear President Obama - Defing Terrorism in Terms of Genocide and Darfur ):

Obama has betrayed the Darfur people, including most recently waiving the protection for Darfuris created in an agreement ~ The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act- DPAA (Darfur_Peace_and_Accountability_Act explained) (H.R. 3127/S. 1462). This apparently has been done so that the USA can remove Sudan from a USA list of state sponsors of terrorism. This is WHILE the Sudan government bombs Darfur civilians because of their ethnicity, which amounts to a state sponsored terrorism all by itself. Rightly so, Senator Obama complained that Bush was selling out Darfur. And at that time, Senator Obama was proud of forcing linkage via DPAA to justice being done regarding Darfur. Obama, as President, is waiving the requirements within the DPAA to protect Darfuris.

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

Darfur Liberation Forces continue to report ongoing bombing

By Radio Dabanga

22 Feb 2011

Darfur rebels claim that bombing is ongoing in central Darfur. The alliance of the Liberation factions (Sudan Liberation Movement - Abdel Wahid, Sudan Liberation Movement – Minni Minawi, and Karbino) said that bombing is still ongoing in areas of Jebel East and around Shangil Tobaya. The aerial attacks have been reported for weeks now.

Ibrahim Suleiman Abdullah, speaking from the field behalf of the alliance of Liberation Forces, told Radio Dabanga that the air strikes targeted the civilian populations in Wadi Mora and some of the villages there. They also caused death among the livestock and caused thousands flee.

Ibrahim described the situation of civilians who fled the bombing as very bad, noting that some fled from areas of Jebel East into Wadi Mora. They are awaiting the arrival of UNAMID and humanitarian organizations to save them, Ibrahim told Radio Dabanga.

Meanwhile, the UNAMID peacekeepers reported aerial bombardment near Sortony, approximately 110km west of El Fasher, North Darfur, Sunday at around 1730hrs.

UNAMID sent an assessment mission to Wadi Mora. The Mission “continues to evaluate the findings” of the Mission. The peacekeeping mission has not made any of its reports public, but it disclosed in a press statement yesterday that the team found “a number of villages were abandoned, and a large number of their inhabitants have moved to Tawilla and Zamzam camps.”

Rebels warn UN against using Darfur airfields

31000 new arrivals at Zamzam Camp following Darfur bombing

Bombing east of Jebel Marra kills 3 women, 2 children

Antonov drops bomb near Darfur village; no casualties

Radio Dabanga

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

31,000 new arrivals at Zamzam Camp following Darfur bombing

By Radio Dabanga

ZAMZAM CAMP

21 Feb 2011

About 31.000 displaced people arrived at Zamzam Camp during the past days, fleeing from Shangil Tobaya Camp and the surrounding villages following aerial bombardment there on 17 and 18 February.

A witness in Zamzam described the conditions of the thousands of newly displaced people as “very bad”. He said there is no process to record their arrival or provide them with any food or tents for shelter.

Cases of diarrhea have emerged among children of the new arrivals, the witness at Zamzam told Radio Dabanga.

One of the leaders of Zamzam Camp appealed to international organizations and the United Nations to immediately intervene and provide humanitarian and medical aid to the tens of thousands of newly displaced people in the camp. In remarks broadcast today on Radio Dabanga, the leader described the situation of the new arrivals as grave.

Last Saturday, UN-African Union peacekeeping mission said there was a “recrudescence” (worsening) of violence in the areas where these 31.000 people have fled from. The UNAMID chief issued a statement saying he was “particularly disturbed about reports of the most recent recrudescence of violence between Government of the Sudan soldiers and a combined group of elements from several rebel movements, in the region of Shangil Tobaya, 66 kilometers south west of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.”

Darfur Liberation Forces continue to report ongoing bombing

Rebels warn UN against using Darfur airfields

Militias loot village and new IDP camps near Shangil Tobaya

Bombing east of Jebel Marra kills 3 women, 2 children

Radio Dabanga

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

South Sudan clashes force 20,000 to flee: official

Source: afp

Thu Feb 17, 2011

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) – Over 20,000 people fled clashes last week between rebels and the army in south Sudan's troubled Jonglei state in which over 200 people died, a senior official said on Thursday.

"People have run from the fighting, and 20,000 people have been displaced," said Stephen Kuol, Jonglei's state education minister, releasing the findings of an assessment mission to the devastated Fangak region in which he took part...

...Many of the victims -- the majority of them civilians -- reportedly drowned in a river as they tried to escape the two days of fighting.

Kuol, who comes from the area and who helped to bury some of the victims in mass graves, said he witnessed "floating corpses" following the violence last week, which he described as "mass butchery."

Several officials in the county administration died, as well as the deputy head of both the prison and army based in the area, Kuol said.

Followers of the renegade southern general George Athor are accused of carrying out the attacks, which broke a ceasefire many had hoped would end the conflict.

They came just days after formal confirmation of the results of the January 9-15 referendum on southern independence, in which almost 99 percent of southerners voted to split with the north...

...Analysts have said that maintaining security in the fledgling southern nation, which is due to win international recognition in July, will be a major challenge. Read the full article: Source: afp

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

Noteworthy

Official date January 30, 1933 - the Beginning of the Holocaust.

The lead up and the ending

After the 1932 elections it became clear to the Nazi leaders that they would never be able to secure a majority of the votes and that they would have to rely on other means to gain power. Leading up to the 1933 elections, the Nazis began intensifying acts of violence to wreak havoc among the opposition. At the same time, with cooperation from local authorities, they set up camps as concentration centers within Germany. One of the first was Dachau, which opened in March 1933. These early camps were meant to hold, torture, or kill only political prisoners, such as Communists and Social Democrats. Eventually, the Nazis imprisoned Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, critical journalists, and other undesirables.

These early prisons, usually basements and storehouses, were eventually consolidated into full-blown, centrally run camps outside of the cities and somewhat removed from the public eye. By 1942, six large extermination camps, located in Nazi-occupied Poland, had been established.After 1939, with the beginning of the Second World War, the concentration camps increasingly became places where the non-political enemies of the Nazis, including Jews and POWs, were either killed or forced to act as slave laborers, and kept undernourished and tortured.

The holocaust ended in specific places when the Allies liberated the camps in 1944-1945. The official end to the holocaust did not come until the end of WWII and all German troops surrendered.

The holocaust ended in specific places when the Allies liberated the camps in 1944-1945. The official end to the holocaust did not come until the end of WWII and all German troops surrendered.

December 28 1945

"We heard a loud voice repeating the same words in English and in German: "Hello, hello. You are free. We are British soldiers and have come to liberate you." These words still resound in my ears." Hadassah Rosensaft, inmate of Bergen-Belsen.

DEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA ~ DEFINE TERRORISM IN TERMS OF GENOCIDE AND DARFUR

My text sent to President Obama today via whitehouse.gov/contact ~

Beyond an email to President Obama's inbox, I don't know where to express my feelings of anger and being thoroughly let down by Barack Obama.

I was on a White House conference call today regarding Sudan.

The fact that President Obama has betrayed moral integrity regarding the Darfuri people outrages me. As someone who campaigned for him because of Senator Obama's stand on Darfur, I now am nothing but thoroughly, starkly hopeless about President Obama doing anything right to end the injustice that Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir supports and engages in against his own people of Darfur. The government of Sudan’s bombings and the burnings of villages of the Darfur region have escalated since the referendum to split Sudan into two countries.

Obama has betrayed the Darfur people, including most recently waiving the protection for Darfuris created in an agreement ~ The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act- DPAA (Darfur_Peace_and_Accountability_Act explained) (H.R. 3127/S. 1462). This apparently has been done so that the USA can remove Sudan from a USA list of state sponsors of terrorism. This is WHILE the Sudan government bombs Darfur civilians because of their ethnicity, which amounts to a state sponsored terrorism all by itself. Rightly so, Senator Obama complained that Bush was selling out Darfur. And at that time, Senator Obama was proud of forcing linkage via DPAA to justice being done regarding Darfur. Obama, as President, is waiving the requirements within the DPAA to protect Darfuris.

Every time a government knows we, the USA, will not hold them to what we have said, they will continue to bomb, kill, rape, burn. That is just the way it is and always has been. It is no different than raising a child and not sticking to what we say will happen if behavior doesn’t stop. Al-Bashir can logically gamble that President Obama is not serious about sticking with the International Criminal Court’s indictment against Sudanese President al-Bashir of crimes against humanity. And why should he, when he is witness to such turnarounds of character and words by the standard bearer of human rights on the planet – the USA. We as a country and government are treating the Darfuri people and their tragic past, present and future as a part of a political chess game.

I am not proud of this, President Obama. This is not the country I want to be. Freedom and justice for all is not an easy concept to employ, but betrayal of the principles of justice and human rights is an insult to my vote for you.

The end of message to President Obama

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

1-800-GENOCIDE

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies,

but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Darfur Daily News
Sudan army surrounds, threatens to burn down UNAMID camp

SHANGIL TOBAYA

While we wait Sudan

A Sudanese army force of 200 soldiers on 40 vehicles surrounded the exit of an UN – African Union military camp yesterday in Shangil Tobaya. A senior officer at the head of the force then threatened to burn down the military camp and an adjoining refugee camp. The threat came at about 6:00 p.m., after the UN forces unsuccessfuly tried to prevent the army from threatening and arresting refugees at the neighboring camp. The army arrested three people in the camp.

“The SAF commander at the scene stated that they were carrying out their duties and intended to persuade the IDPs to return to their original camps. He then threatened to burn down the makeshift camp and UNAMID team site, if the peacekeepers continued to interfere,” UNAMID reported in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

The makeshift camp next to the UNAMID base sheltered thousands of people who had fled during the events of December 2010.

UNAMID also reported that it was unable to complete a “verification mission” from its Shangil Tobaya base to Tabit, where fighting broke out Monday, due to “resumption of aerial bombardment in the area.”

and

Government of Sudan conducts intensive aerial bombings in Darfur:

- Government of Sudan (GoS) is conducting intensive aerial bombings targeting villages south of Elfasher (Capital of North Darfur). There are clashes between GoS and rebels. Yet the GoS is going after the villages and civilians. Many villages were bombed, burnt, and destroyed by aerial bombings. These villages were then looted by Janjaweed. Thousands are fleeing now the bombed areas.
Via phone calls, these are the names of some of the villages (8 of them) that are bombed and completely destroyed: Tabit, Hashabah, Traney, Chemerry, Abu Talatin, Abu Gretion, Komis, Tangary.
Thousands of civilians of these villages are now on the run,

- Resident of Elfasher told me that the GoS stopped civilian flights form and to Elfasher because the Airport is busy with military air activities.

- UNAMID issued a statement that the GoS has prevented two of its convoys to reach the affected civilians in two separate incidents.

- Khartoum announced it is flying thousands of its "Popular Defense" para-military troops militias to Darfur to "secure the return of the IDPs".

AFP: US to recognize south Sudan, delist north.

Washington Post: Clashes in Sudan as southerners in army refuse to withdraw to north.

AFP: Sudan's crucial north-south trade under threat.

BBC: Southern Sudan minister Jimmy Lemi Milla shot dead.

VOA: Darfur: Thousands Displaced in North by Two Months of Fighting.

Reuters: South Sudan independence: Bashir seeks Darfur 'reward'. Sudan has hinted that the arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir should be withdrawn as a "reward" for him accepting the south's independence. Mr Bashir has promised to recognise Southern Sudan after 99% of voters backed secession. In a special meeting on Wednesday, the UN Security Council congratulated Sudan's government for its co-operation in the south's referendum on independence. "Shouldn't this be rewarded by your distinguished and august council by a new vision, a new vision that would reconsider the position vis-a-vis the hero of peace, President Bashir?" asked Sudan's UN ambassador Daffa Alla el-Haj Ali Osman.The US has suggested it would take Sudan off their list of states which sponsor terrorism, if it ensured a peaceful referendum. However it has linked promises to lift sanctions and normalise relations to a negotiated solution of the conflict in Darfur.

AFP: Sudan detains opposition leader: party official. Sudanese security services on Thursday arrested prominent government critic Mariam al-Mahdi, daughter of the prime minister whom veteran President Omar al-Bashir ousted in a 1989 coup, a member of her Umma party said. Mahdi was arrested as she went with a group of activists to petition the security forces for the release of protesters detained nearly two weeks ago, Habab Mubarak, the daughter of another leading Umma party member Mubarak al-Fadil, told AFP.She said the incident took place after around 30 women, among them the mothers of those still being held after anti-government demonstrations last month, set off to present their petition to the head of the Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services Mohammed Atta.

Washington Post: Report: Chad's army, rebels recruit child soldiers. Chad's armed forces and Chadian and Sudanese rebel groups are recruiting children as young as 13 to become soldiers, Amnesty International said in a report released Thursday. The children are recruited from camps in eastern Chad, which has suffered a spillover from the Darfur conflict in neighboring Sudan, Amnesty said. Recruiters use family or appeal to the children's ethnic loyalties to get them to join. Sometimes they use child soldiers already in their ranks to lure the new recruits with money, clothes and cigarettes, the report said. Not all of the child recruits fight, the report said, adding that some are used as porters or messengers for the soldiers and rebels.

AFP: Minnawi urges all Darfur groups to battle Khartoum. Minni Minnawi, the Darfur leader who tore up a 2006 peace accord with Khartoum in December, on Wednesday urged all the armed movements in Sudan's troubled western region to step up their struggle against the government. On Wednesday, the rebel leader accused the government of seeking to forcefully dismantle the camps for people forced to flee their homes in the eight-year conflict, of treating all the armed movements as military targets and of carrying out mass killing against the Darfuri people.Renewed fighting between rebels and the Sudanese army has displaced thousands of civilians and coincided with a deadlock in the Doha peace talks, which were suspended at the end of December when the government recalled its delegation, citing a lack of progress.

Op-Ed by Rebecca Hamilton featured in the New York Times: One Referendum, Two New Nations.

our humanity in the balance

PEACEFUL PROTESTS CALLED FOR IN EGYPT'S NEIGHBORING COUNTRY OF SUDAN

2007 map
Click on image to enlarge

BREAKING NEWS - The Facebook Organized Protests Have Begun In Sudan

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

Student Protesters Want Ouster Of Sudanese President

Source: wsj

Updated: Sunday, 30 Jan 2011, 3:45 PM CST

Published : Sunday, 30 Jan 2011, 3:45 PM CST

KHARTOUM -- Student protesters in Khartoum clashed with police Sunday and called for the ouster of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, in a movement organizers said was inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

Communicating via the social networking site Facebook, organizers called for a street demonstration on Jan. 30 to protest Sudan's poor economic climate and political oppression. The date was chosen to coincide with the announcement of preliminary results for the south's referendum on whether to secede from the north. Over 99 percent of voters chose secession, according to those results, in line with overwhelming support for independence in southern Sudan.

A handful of demonstrations sprang up at various locations in Khartoum, including three of the main universities, and around the country. In Khartoum, participants reported via Twitter that police had attempted to disperse the crowd with teargas and Tasers. Images posted by a Sudanese website showed police clad in riot gear apparently hitting people with long batons.

Ahmed Musa, a police officer in Khartoum, said that students started protesting on campuses and attempted to move to the streets, but that police had stopped them. "The stubborn students wanted to start chaos," Musa said. "They sung songs praising protests in Tunisia and Egypt … They threw stones at the police, but we controlled them." Musa estimated about 120 students were involved in the protest and five had been arrested.

Samira Hassan, a political activist who participated in the protests, said that about 500 people, who included students and other civilians, gathered on a main street in Khartoum. Hassan said police beat them and arrested about 100 from the crowd.

"The police and security forces hit me and broke my hand, and others were badly beaten -- they were beating people viciously," she said, adding that one hospital that is affiliated with the police had refused to treat her because she had been involved in the protests.

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

Mapping non-violent protests in Sudan: jan30sudan.crowdmap.com

• All Categories
• تجمُّع سِلمي.1 (Peaceful Gathering)
• إشتباكات.2 (Clashes)
• إعتقال .3 (Arrests)
• مقتل مُتظاهرين.4 (Demonstrators Killed)

How to Report

1. By sending an email to jan30sudan@gmail.com
2. By sending a tweet with the hashtag/s #Jan30 or #Sudan or #jan30sudan
3. By filling this form

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

Sudanese police, students clash in the capital

From Isma'il Kamal Kushkush, For CNN

Source: cnn

January 30, 2011 -- Updated 1631 GMT (0031 HKT)

Sudanese riot police hold shields and sticks as students take to the streets in protests, spurred by events in Egypt and Tunisia.

Khartoum, Sudan (CNN) -- Sudanese police clashed with students Sunday as protests inspired by rallies in Egypt broke out in the capital.

The students protested at a university in Khartoum, chanting "No to high prices, no to corruption" and "Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan together as one."

About 100 students hurled rocks at police officers, who forced them back. Five people were arrested, authorities said.

Students resumed the protests and tried to engage bystanders as soon as police left the area.

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

News at Operation broken silence

News at Radio dabanga

Related articles at:
njuice.com/Sudanese-police-students-clash-capital

af.reuters

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

WikiLeaks cables: Sudanese president 'stashed $9bn in UK banks'

Speculation that Omar al-Bashir siphoned $9bn in oil money and deposited it in foreign accounts could fuel calls for his arrest

Source: guardian.co.uk

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

From Sudan to Pittsburgh: A long journey home

Refugees watch changes in Darfur intently but say Pittsburgh has embraced them

Source: post-gazette

Sunday, January 30, 2011

By Sean D. Hamill, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Ismail Omar, foreground, prepares for dinner with Mohamed Idris.
Bill Wade/Post-Gazette

The question is simple: Would you like to return home some day?

The answer is simple, too, but loaded with history and emotion.

"I can't. There is no home," said Ismail Omar, waving his arms indicating his home -- his entire village -- is gone.

Home for Mr. Omar, 54, was the village of Amo in the Darfur, or western, region of Sudan, one of the most war-torn countries on the planet over the last 30 years.

After a 20-year journey by turns treacherous and fortuitous that took him through four countries, he now works in housekeeping at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and lives in a small apartment in Castle Shannon.

He shares it with three other men, including lifelong friend Mohamed Idris, 48; all are refugees from Darfur. In the apartment across the hallway are three more refugees, all seven of them from villages in the northern region of Darfur.

They all came here between May and August 2009, assisted by Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh. Though the region now has several hundred residents from the south region of Sudan, the seven are believed to be the first Darfurians to move as refugees to the Pittsburgh area in recent memory.

Their presence is appreciated by the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition, which formed six years ago to raise awareness of the genocide taking place in Darfur.

Before the Darfurians moved here, "we had to ask Darfur residents from Philadelphia to come speak at our rallies," said David Rosenberg, lead organizer for the coalition.

Having them here "helps people understand and makes it real to them," Mr. Rosenberg said. "It doesn't feel so far away anymore."

The men take language classes to improve their English, already pretty good, and search for more work. But Mr. Omar and Mr. Idris keep an eye and ear on their homeland, which is lurching toward peace.

Wednesday marks the end of a three-week-long referendum among residents of south Sudan, and expatriate refugees around the world, including in the United States, to decide if the predominantly Christian south will separate from the predominantly Muslim north.

Often lost in the coverage of that momentous referendum, which is expected to pass easily, is that it does nothing to solve the lingering trouble between the north of Sudan, which is ethnically Arab, and the Darfur region, which is ethnically African.

This past week, Mr. Omar and Mr. Idris sat down in their apartment to talk about their history, and the future of their country.

Both are members of the Fur tribe, the largest tribe in the region of Darfur, which literally means "land of the Fur." Their native tongue is Fur, despite the Sudanese government's effort to stamp it out and make them speak only Arabic.

They spoke in English, and for more complex questions in Arabic translated by a friend.

They met the friend, Benedict Killang, since moving here. He is a leader among the south Sudanese community here. Three weeks ago, Mr. Killang and fellow south Sudanese went to Virginia to vote in the referendum, something not lost on Mr. Idris and Mr. Omar, who say they weren't envious.

"We were happy for him," said Mr. Idris, who works in housekeeping at Rivers Casino. "It will be better that they separate, because since 1955 [when England gave up colonial rule of Sudan] there has only been death. So this will enable them to stay in peace."

As for their hopes for their homeland, like Darfurians around the world, they can't agree on what should happen.

"That is a tough question," Mr. Idris said. "Maybe Darfur and the south will join together, and later rejoin with the north."

Mr. Omar can't fathom that, not after genocide, not after he lost his father and two brothers in the early fighting in 1987.

"I hope for a separate state, like the south will have. This is my hope," he said.

---

Though international officials, pundits and historians like to debate the real reasons behind the fighting in Darfur, to Mr. Omar and Mr. Idris, there is no disagreement about what was really behind it.

"The government [in the north] wanted to completely destroy our African culture and bring the Arab culture in and use Darfur as the gateway for Arab Islam to get into the whole of Africa," Mr. Idris said.

"My religion is Islam, like it is in the north, and I speak Arabic, like in the north, but my roots are not Arab. I am African," he said. "And since we became an obstacle to what the government wanted, they fought us."

His friend, Mr. Omar, nods in agreement.

The two men have known each other nearly all of their lives. They were both farmers in separate villages in northern Darfur, "about a three- or four-hour walk apart, maybe two by camel," Mr. Idris said.

Mr. Idris first left his village, Einseiro, for the larger town of Kutum in 1985, after fighting broke out near home. When it worsened, he left Sudan and headed to Egypt. He eventually made his way to Iraq in 1998, living for a time in a refugee camp in the desert, "where only the American military helped us, gave us food."

Eventually he got a job in a hotel nearby, staying for a decade before heading to a refugee camp in Romania. From there, in 2009, he finally was approved to come to the United States.

Mr. Omar followed roughly the same path, though he left four years later, in 1989, joining up with Mr. Idris in Egypt and then Iraq and Romania before leaving for the U.S. But he couldn't persuade his mother, who is living in a refugee camp, to apply to leave with him.

"She says she will never move," he said. "She wants to go back to our village and die, even though I tell her it is destroyed."

Mr. Omar also worked in a hotel in Iraq, work that made them appealing hires when they came to the United States.

"Unlike some other refugees we work with, every time I took them somewhere for a job interview, everyone was just amazed," said Kheir Mugwaneza, a refugee case manager for Catholic Charities, which provided financial support when they first arrived with almost no possessions. "They spoke some English. They had more than 10 years experience working in hotels. They would do anything and were eager to work. It wasn't hard to find them jobs."

Catholic Charities found them an apartment just a couple blocks from the T line that runs through the South Hills, and the jobs have given them a base, but life remains a work in progress.

Both worry their limited English will prevent them from getting better jobs: "I want people to understand me with everything I say," Mr. Idris said.

But Western Pennsylvania has been very welcoming, Mr. Omar said, so much so that when he heard from his friend Mr. Idris that New Hampshire, where he was first settled, was not a good fit, he persuaded him to move here.

"It was very, very cold there," Mr. Idris said, and the people there were indifferent.

Mr. Omar described a different life in Western Pennsylvania to him.

"I told him, the citizens of Pittsburgh are good. They like helping others," Mr. Omar said.

A big part of that were the exchanges he began having with Mr. Rosenberg and the people, like Mr. Killang, he met through the south Sudanese community.

Finding the coalition here "was a surprise," Mr. Omar said. "I didn't expect there would be people here worried about Darfur."

"One of the reasons I feel I belong to Pittsburgh and it is my land now is knowing [the coalition] is here," he said.

He told Mr. Idris about the coalition before he came here, too, and it helped persuade him to move.

"I was grateful there were people here who cared," said Mr. Idris, who has come to be a fan of the Steelers.

Of course, they miss their homeland, their families, their food -- "We can't find any millet to make our food like at home," Mr. Idris said -- and their music, kushoke, a drum-based music played for celebrations.

But neither can they see ever returning for anything more than a visit. Even if peace is achieved, too much time and history have passed, and because so many have died, they wouldn't know whom to trust.

"Here," said Mr. Omar, pointing around the table in his apartment at Mr. Rosenberg, Mr. Killang and Mr. Idris, "I know he is my friend, and he is my friend and he is my friend. I know that. But there, so many of my friends died.

"I think, now, this is my home."

JANUARY 28, 2011 ~ SUDANESE GOVERNMENT STILL PERPETRATING HUMANITY CRIMES AGAINST OWN CIVILIANS IN DARFUR ~ WHERE'S THE MEDIA?

EVEN MSNBC HAS REPORTED THE STORY IN EGYPT. AND THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT, BECAUSE THEY ALMOST NEVER REPORT NEWS OUTSIDE THE USA. TAKE DARFUR, FOR EXAMPLE. MOST OF THE MSNBC POLITICAL SHOWS NEVER MENTION DARFUR. RACHEL MADDOW HAS, BUT EXTREMELY RARELY.

RECENTLY AND EVEN IN THE LAST SEVERAL MONTHS, WHICH IS NOT SO "RECENT", THE GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN HAS BEEN BOMBING AND BURNING DOWN DARFUR VILLAGES. The USA government has been ineffective in this issue for the last two years under President Obama (as well as the eight years of George W Bush's Presidency) and US Special Envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration's words have played into the hands of the very government behind the crimes against humanity - the genocide on the Darfuri people.

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

Sudan army bombs north Darfur, threatens to burn down UNAMID base

Source: sudantribune

January 27, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese army on Wednesday carried out an aerial bombardment on rebel-controlled areas in north Darfur and threatened to "burn down" a base of the UN-AU hybrid peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) in the area.

Troops of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) clashed a day before on Tuesday with rebels from the Sudan Liberation Movement of Abdel Wahid Al-Nur joined by combatants of the disaffected SLM faction of Minni Arkoi Minnawi in Tabit area, 45 kilometers from El-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur state.

On Wednesday, SAF forces resumed bombardment of Tabit area, which prevented a UNAMID’s verification team based in Shangil Tobaya from accessing the area, the hybrid operation said today.

The mission further reported that at 06:00pm (local time) approximately 200 SAF soldiers, on 40 vehicles, surrounded the mission’s base in Shangil Tobaya and the adjacent makeshift camp.

The commander of SAF forces, who detained four people in the area, initially said they were there to persuade displaced persons to return to their homes. Moreover, the SAF commander later threatened to "burn down" the makeshift camp and the UNAMID site if the peacekeepers continued to interfere. UNAMID said SAF forces had eventually left after its peacekeepers held their grounds.

The standoff between SAF and UNAMID comes at a time when the mission faces international calls to act as aggressively as its mandate authorizes it to act in protecting civilians.

Members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday received a briefing via a video link by UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari and later criticized the Sudanese authorities for curtailing the mission’s right to access areas in the region.

The US envoy also appeared unhappy with the mission’s failure to function in accordance with its mandate to protect civilians.

"UNAMID is a Chapter 7 mission, with a robust protection of civilians mandate. And the United States view and the view of many members of the Council, as expressed today and on numerous previous occasions, is that we expect UNAMID, as one of the UN’s largest and most costly operations, with one of the most robust mandates passed by this Council, to be very active and, when necessary, aggressive, in fulfilling its mandate to protect civilians," Rice said.

Internally Displaced Persons from Darfur told Sudan Tribune that the recent violence displaced thousands of people as the government troops and militias continue to harass the civilians and burn their villages.

A female teacher from Tabit reached by Sudan Tribune after their arrival to Zamzam IDPs camp near El-Fasher said since the bombing of 25 January, the villagers, 17000 families, fled to Zamzam, and Rwanda camps near Tawilla.

"People are homeless in the valleys and roads as the army block the roads," she said, adding "this is the new policy of peace".

A local chief from Al-Salam IDPs camp told Sudan Tribune that the Sudanese troops burnt down seven villages in the area located south-west of El-Fasher on the period of Saturday to Tuesday of this week.

Oumda Atem Osman said the army detained 80 people from Abu Zarka area in north Darfur. He further said their belongings and properties were looted by the militiamen who attacked the villages jointly with the army.

He further deplored the position of the peacekeepers on the ground adding that in the areas of Tawilla and Korma the militiamen seized the harvest of farmers but the UNAMID members were unable to stop them.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) today denounced the growing violence against civilians in Darfur and urged the international community to not forget Darfur by focusing only on the independence of South Sudan.

"While the international community remains focused on South Sudan, the situation in Darfur has sharply deteriorated," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "We are seeing a return to past patterns of violence, with both government and rebel forces targeting civilians and committing other abuses."

UNAMID is the largest U.N.-funded peacekeeping mission established in 2008 under VII of the United Nations Charter to protect civilians in Darfur region. The mission’s current strength stands at 88% of its total 26,000 authorized strength, but it says its job to secure the remote area is difficult in the absence of a peace deal between Khartoum and rebels.

Meanwhile, Sudan’s official news agency SUNA reported on Thursday that SAF’s commander-in-chief of the western military zone had declared the areas of Tabit and all areas in east Mara Mountains “completely devoid” of rebel forces.

Darfur conflict broke out in 2003 after rebels belonging mostly to African ethnic groups took up arms against the government. At least 300,000 people died and 2.7 million lost their homes since the conflict erupted, according to UN estimates.

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

Sudan army surrounds, threatens to burn down UNAMID camp

Source: radio dabanga

SHANGIL TOBAYA

January 28, 2011

A Sudanese army force of 200 soldiers on 40 vehicles surrounded the exit of an UN – African Union military camp yesterday in Shangil Tobaya. A senior officer at the head of the force then threatened to burn down the military camp and an adjoining refugee camp. The threat came at about 6:00 p.m., after the UN forces unsuccessfuly tried to prevent the army from threatening and arresting refugees at the neighboring camp. The army arrested three people in the camp.


“The SAF commander at the scene stated that they were carrying out their duties and intended to persuade the IDPs to return to their original camps. He then threatened to burn down the makeshift camp and UNAMID team site, if the peacekeepers continued to interfere,” UNAMID reported in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

The makeshift camp next to the UNAMID base sheltered thousands of people who had fled during the events of December 2010.

UNAMID also reported that it was unable to complete a “verification mission” from its Shangil Tobaya base to Tabit, where fighting broke out Monday, due to “resumption of aerial bombardment in the area.”

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

Two Sudan journalists in court, risk death sentence

Source: reuters

By Khaled Abdelaziz

KHARTOUM| Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:47am EST

(Reuters) - Sudan has charged two journalists with trying to overthrow the government, a crime punishable by death, for publishing an article saying the impoverished east of Africa's largest country may secede.

Sudan's oil-producing south voted this month in a referendum on secession from the north, promised under a 2005 peace accord which ended decades of civil war. It now looks set to become independent on July 9.

Many in the north blame the split on Khartoum's failure to share power and wealth with marginalized areas.

The western Darfur region is in the throes of an eight-year insurgency and the east has the country's deepest levels of poverty despite hosting its only port and largest gold mines.

"The accused were practicing their rights to express their opinion freely as guaranteed under the constitution and the many charters of human rights which Sudan has signed," Mutasim al- Amir, one of the defense lawyers, told Reuters on Thursday as the journalists made their first court appearance in Khartoum.

The hearing was postponed as some witnesses were still in the eastern city of Port Sudan, where the accused were first arrested before being transferred to the capital.

Both journalists work for a weekly paper published in the east called Sout al-Bar'out, named after a religious leader.

Khartoum has brought eight charges against them, the most prominent being trying to overthrow the constitutional government, an offense punishable by death.

On January 9, the first day of voting in the south's referendum, the paper published an article saying the marginalization of the east could give rise to calls for secession there.

The editor-in-chief of the paper, Abu Eisha Kazim, and the author of the article, Abdel Gadir Bakash, were arrested the following day, they said.

(Additional report and writing by Opheera McDoom; Editing by Maria Golovnina)

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

Sudan army bombs Darfur, threatens peacekeepers: UN

Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:52pm GMT

By Andrew Heavens

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's army bombed rebel positions in Darfur and later surrounded and threatened to burn down a refugee camp and peacekeeping base nearby, the region's joint U.N./African Union mission said on Thursday.

The incident took place as Washington's envoy to the United Nations, Susan Rice, criticised Khartoum for obstructing peacekeepers and said the international force needed to take a more aggressive stance in the region.

Darfur has been hit by sporadic fighting almost eight years after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government, accusing it of marginalising Darfur.

Violence, while down from the mass killings seen at the start of the conflict, has risen over the past year after rebels walked out of floundering peace talks and one insurgent force, which had signed an accord with Khartoum, went back to fighting.

Darfur's UNAMID peacekeepers on Wednesday sent out a mission to investigate the site of recent fighting between the government and rebels close to the north Darfur town of Thabit, UNAMID said in a statement on Thursday.

"(The) verification mission ... was unable to complete its mission yesterday (Wednesday) after the resumption of aerial bombardment in the area," said the statement.

UNAMID spokesman Kemal Saiki confirmed the bombing was by "the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) air force".

Later on Wednesday, a group of 200 Sudanese government soldiers in 40 vehicles arrived at UNAMID's camp in the nearby settlement of Shangil Tobay, UNAMID said.

"(The soldiers) surrounded the team site's exit as well as the adjacent makeshift camp, where thousands of civilians recently displaced by the December 2010 clashes have settled," read the statement.

The Sudanese army detained four displaced people at the camp, said UNAMID.

"The SAF commander at the scene ... then threatened to burn down the makeshift camp and UNAMID team site, if the peacekeepers continued to interfere. The UNAMID Blue Helmets stood their ground and the SAF troops eventually departed," said the statement.

A U.N. official said the government soldiers had wanted to search the refugee camp for rebel fighters but the UNAMID force there stopped them. No one was immediately available for comment from Sudan's army.

Susan Rice on Wednesday said UNAMID had to be more aggressive in protecting civilians and ensuring humanitarian aid workers had access to needy people in Darfur.

"We expect UNAMID ... to be very active and, when necessary, aggressive in fulfilling its mandate to protect civilians," Rice told reporters, adding that Washington has been "frustrated and dismayed by repeated instances of UNAMID being denied access and its freedom of movement restricted."

UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari told the U.N. Security Council via video link that he informed his military and police chiefs on January 4 that the force "would adopt a more robust posture and no longer create the impression of seeking permission for movement."

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

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

......................................................
January 27, 2011
US Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough.
The full discussion can be found here.

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

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

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

First Satellite Images Available of SAF Troop Deployments Near Sudan’s Volatile North-South Border

1/27/11 | Enough Project

WASHINGTON, DC — The Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) has confirmed that the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, has deployed company-sized units of troops equipped with light armor and artillery in areas of South Kordofan around the oil-producing Abyei region and other strategic areas along Sudan’s volatile North-South border. However, the project’s first report also indicates that the SAF troops do not appear prepared for imminent forward movement.

Source: satellite-sentinel-project-provides-images-troop-presence-around-sudan

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

Our humanity in the balance

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