Friday, September 15, 2006

updates on Darfur

"Darfur Trembles as Peacekeepers' Exit Looms"
 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/world/africa/10darfur.html?_r=2&oref=login&oref=slogin
 
 "What happened in Rwanda, it will happen here," said Sheik Abdullah
 Muhammad Ali, who fled here from a nearby village seeking the safety
 that he hoped the presence of about 200 African Union peacekeepers
 would bring. But the Sudanese government has asked the African Union
 to quit Darfur rather than hand over its mission to the United
 Nations. "If these soldiers leave," Sheik Ali said, "we will all be
 slaughtered."
 
 "Darfur: Waiting for the slaughter"
 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article1603856.ece
 
 Rasha Ibrahim Adam and her children may be about to die - just as she
 thought they had all escaped to safety.
 
 The 38-year-old mother of four children is one of the latest to flee
 the bombs from the Sudanese government that have dropped on their
 homes. Today, she finds herself in one of the dusty, benighted refugee
 camps that litter the region of Darfur. She sits in her once bright
 red tob - a wrap-around dress - that has been faded by the sand-laden
 wind that blows across al-Salaam camp on the edge of the town of
 el-Fasher.
 
 She was one of the 50,000 people who swelled the scorched camps for
 the "internally displaced" in the past month - bringing to about 2.5
 million the number of children, women and men now homeless in a
 conflict that has dragged on for three years without an end seemingly
 in sight. Until now, that is. Because an end is in sight for the
 Darfur camps - where at least 300,000 black African farmers have been
 slaughtered by the Khartoum government and its Arab proxies, the
 Janjaweed militia, whose name means "devils on horseback". One of
 those who died was Rasha's husband, Adam.
 
 It could be an end so terrifying, it defies the imagination.
 
 "Annan issues stark message to Security Council about impending
 catastrophe in Darfur"
 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=19789&Cr=Sudan&Cr1=Darfur
 
 Mr. Annan said the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will
 have to drastically scale back their humanitarian operations in Darfur
 unless the security situation improves.
 
 "Can we, in conscience, leave the people of Darfur to such a fate? Can
 the international community, having not done enough for the people of
 Rwanda in their time of need, just watch as this tragedy deepens?" he
 asked.
 
 "Food crisis looms in North Darfur"
 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/44ebc5a1f83bc561ec2c739dd59de162.htm
 
 On Wednesday, NRF rebels clashed with government forces south of
 Tawilla. An Antonov plane and two helicopter gunships reportedly
 bombed Dobo Al Umda Dobo and Dobo Al Madrasa town and the surrounding
 villages. The number of casualties is unknown.
 
 "If a United Nations force is not deployed soon, something much worse
 is going to happen here," the SLM/A commander added.
 
 "Rebels Say They May Abandon Darfur Pact"
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/13/AR2006091301996.html
 
 Abdulrahaman Abdallah, a commander of the rebel group's military
 police, said that without a strong international force here, "the
 government will go back to its strategy, which is genocide, and
 inevitably we will go back to the bush."
 

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