The U.N. Secretary General Mangles It
The U.N. Secretary General’s latest report on Sudan gets it exactly wrong on the key issue of justice and Darfur. According to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon: The International Criminal Court’s actions have a major impact on Sudanese political dynamics and have diverted much attention at a time when outstanding issues related to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement require the parties’ cooperation and renewed commitment. While I am encouraged by the assurances of continued support by the Government, I am also concerned about remarks by some of its officials that the Government may redefine its relationship with UNMIS should an arrest warrant be ...
Fool Me Twice; Shame on Me
To follow up on Maggie’s excellent Zimbabwe post above, I wanted to highlight a gentle disagreement with a former colleague. Don Steinberg, a deputy president of the superb International Crisis Group (full disclosure: I used to work at Crisis Group so I might not be the most objective), has a new piece out on Zimbabwe this week. Don argues: The international community must show solidarity with this agreement and act quickly to shore it up. This is not the time for foot-dragging because we do not like all aspects of the agreement and really would prefer to see Mugabe get ...
The Government Takes Muhajiriya
According to reports off the wire, the Sudanese army is claiming to have captured the town of Muhajiriya in South Darfur. The reports sound credible, and our own analysts suggest that Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM, rebels that had been holding the town pulled out to positions 50 or 60 kilometers outside of Muhajiriya this morning. There were also additional aerial attacks by the Sudanese government this morning. Several large questions loom. What will happen to the civilians in the town? Why have the U.N. and the international community at large failed to respond to the repeated offensive aerial ...
The Cost of the LRA on Civilians
In case you missed it, a press release from our friends over at the Genocide Intervention Network. They note that since September 2008, the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, has killed more than 1,000 people in eastern Congo and 120 in south Sudan. Almost all of these deaths have resulted from deliberate LRA attacks on civilians. Since December alone, 130,000 people have been displaced around the district of Dungu in Congo. The LRA is truly a living horror ...
Susan Rice on Muhajiriya
From Susan Rice, as reported by Reuters: "The United States is gravely concerned by reports of intense aerial bombardment," U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters after a closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Darfur and other issues. "The (U.N.) secretariat reported 28 bombs dropped just this morning in Muhajiriya," she said. Rice said Sudanese forces were bombing the town even though the rebel forces had withdrawn to a distance of some 31-37 miles (50-60 km) from Muhajiriya and proposed turning the area into a demilitarized zone where U.N.-African Union peacekeepers, known as UNAMID, could deploy to protect civilians ...
African Union Declares Intellectual Bankruptcy: Mbeki to Head Darfur Panel
In case you missed it, the African Union, or AU, has decided who they want to lead a new panel on justice in Darfur: former South African President Thabo Mbeki. Given Mbeki’s disastrous role in dealing with the Zimbabwe crisis in southern Africa, the AU’s decision appears to be yet another effort by Jean Ping, the chairman of the AU Commission, to sweep accountability under the rug ...
Beijing’s Bad Idea
It sounds like the Chinese may again be mounting an effort at the UN to push for invoking Article 16 to suspend the war crimes investigation of Sudanese President Bashir. This should be a no-brainer for the new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and U.N. Ambassador, Susan Rice, to swat down. The Sudanese Government has done nothing to advance the cause of peace in Darfur, and its forces continue to mount bombing raids in Darfur as recently as yesterday, in violation of any number of existing agreements. When will Beijing understand that being a defense lawyer for Africa’s tyrants is ...
Stephen Lewis on Women and Peace
I and several of my colleagues attended the annual gather of the Institute for Inclusive Security several days ago. The keynote remarks were given by Stephen Lewis. Lewis is a very dynamic speaker. I may not agree with all of his policy recommendations, but what he has to say is provocative, thoughtful and very well worth a read. Lewis notes that since October 2000 there have been at least 35 major peace negotiations, “and not a single woman played the role of lead mediator in any of the negotiations.” ...
Enter the Peacemakers
The Obama Administration is in its earliest days, but it was certainly encouraging to see the President make an early visit to Foggy Bottom and the State Department. Many within the State Department feel the role of diplomacy had been increasingly marginalized over the last eight years, and the visit by Obama and Vice President Biden was clearly meant to change the tone. It is also telling that the President and Secretary of State Clinton used the moment to unveil two heavy hitter special envoys Ambassador Richard Holbrooke (for Afghanistan-Pakistan issues) and former Senator George Mitchell (for the Middle East) ...
The People Speak
We are pleased to announce that we have just delivered a petition to President Barack Obama – signed by more than 39,000 concerned Americans – asking him to take action on Congo. This is the largest ever call to action in the United States on Congo and underscores the growing strength of the Congo activist movement. You can read the press release here. This tremendous effort would not be possible without our friends and allies, including Oxfam America, Amnesty International, Bureau pour le Volontariat au Service de l’Enfance et de la Santé (BVES), Campus Progress at the Center for American ...
