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As Peace Mission Nears End, War in Sudan Intensifies    [

    Global Protests Call for UN Intervention in Darfur
    By Paul Majendie
    Reuters

    Monday 18 September 2006

    London - Demonstrators around the world staged a day of action Sunday to highlight the war in Darfur, a region of western Sudan where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million have been driven from their homes.

    In New York, a crowd in Central Park estimated by organizers at about 20,000 demanded that the Bush administration pressure the Sudanese government to stop the killings and displacements in Darfur and to allow a U.N. peacekeeping force to enter the country.

    "The world must act and it must do so now because time is not on our side," former secretary of state Madeleine Albright said.

    In London, Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders delivered a plea and said prayers outside the residence of Prime Minister Tony Blair, and demonstrators rallied outside the Sudanese Embassy.

    A string of protests and events to coincide with a "Day for Darfur" were held in several other European and U.S. cities, in Canada, Cambodia and around east Africa.

    In Rwanda, where hundreds of thousands of people perished in a frenzy of ethnic killings, survivors of the genocide called for action.

    "In 1994, the world left Rwandans to their fate and a million people were murdered. Today, the world must stop genocide in Darfur," said Freddy Umutanguha. "We survivors stand with the victims in Darfur. We know what it is like to lose our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. We know what it is like to lose everything and see all who are dearest to us destroyed."

    Governments abroad and humanitarian groups are pressing Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to accept a U.N. resolution to deploy more than 20,000 U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur.

    U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan warned last week of "yet more death and suffering, perhaps on a catastrophic scale" if the government in Khartoum does not allow international peacekeepers into the region.

    The mandate for 7,000 poorly equipped African Union peacekeeping troops expires on Sept. 30 and Sudan has said they would only be allowed to extend the mission if they remained under A.U. control.

    In a counter-protest in Khartoum Sunday to the global "Day for Darfur" events, dozens of Sudanese marched to U.N. offices to oppose new peacekeepers.

    A statement by the Sudan Council of Voluntary Agencies said a U.N. force would "only add to the complexity of an already volatile situation" and that funds would be better spent on development, confidence-building measures and peace-building.

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    As Peace Mission Nears End, War in Sudan Intensifies
    By Craig Timberg
    The Washington Post

    Monday 18 September 2006

Withdrawal of African Union troops deepens fears of worsening violence.

    El Fasher, Sudan - As the African Union prepares to abandon its troubled peace mission to Darfur, the region is descending ever more steeply into war.

    Fresh Sudanese government troops with machine guns slung over their shoulders patrol the streets of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state. Helicopter gunships based here rumble off into the countryside almost every day, loaded with rockets. And Darfur's fractured and frustrated rebel forces increasingly are fighting back against government forces.

    The intensity of the combat in Darfur, the western Sudanese region the size of Texas, has forced a new flood of civilians to flee their burned and bombed-out villages for sprawling camps on the outskirts of this and other cities. The estimated 2 million people already in such camps are settling in for the long haul, losing hope that they will ever return home.

    Hawab Abdallah Osman, 50, said her village about 45 miles northwest of here is now empty. Asked when she planned to return, she said, "Never."

    "There is bombing there," she said. "I don't think peace will come."

    Hundreds of thousands of people have already died in three years of war, which began when rebels attacked government installations in Darfur. The government responded by sending in army troops and arming a militia, called the Janjaweed, that has attacked rebels and civilians.

    The African Union, which launched an ambitious but poorly funded peace monitoring mission in 2004, is scheduled to leave Sept. 30, when its mandate expires.

    A proposed United Nations force of about 20,000 - over three times the size of the African Union's - has been blocked by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who says it is part of an effort by Western nations to "re-colonize" Sudan.

    "We don't want the United Nations back to Sudan no matter the conditions," he said Saturday in Havana, where he was attending an international summit of developing countries.

    A cease-fire agreement for Darfur was reached in May but has collapsed in the four months since it was signed in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. The government has repeatedly violated terms prohibiting military flights over Darfur and new troop deployments.

    The government also has failed to restrain the Janjaweed, which continues to rape, kill and pillage. Increasingly, the militiamen are doing so while wearing crisp green uniforms, distributed by the government.

    Civilians here say militiamen gallop their horses and camels into the camps for displaced people, sometimes within site of African Union troop positions. Rarely have the troops responded with force. In some cases, Darfur civilians, still smarting from deaths of friends and family members, have demonstrated angrily in front of African Union encampments.

    "This African Union, if there is fighting, they are running away," said Halima Idriss, 55, gesturing furiously as her orange head scarf flapped in the hot wind of a camp outside of El Fasher.

    The African Union's Peace and Security Council plans to review its decision to depart at a meeting in New York on Monday. But with its current mandate and resources, African Union officers express despair about their ability to keep peace when both the government and rebel forces are determined to return to war. Field commanders from the only rebel group that signed May's peace deal say they, too, are likely to resume fighting soon unless the United Nations sends its peacekeepers to Darfur.

    Speaking on condition of anonymity, the African Union officers muttered angrily about their failure to enforce calm while expressing greater fears. They used the words "genocide" and "Rwanda" to describe what they expect will follow their departure.

    Outside analysts also say that the African Union, while ineffective at peacekeeping, is serving as vital eyes and ears for the outside world at a time when the Sudanese government is making it more difficult for aid groups and journalists to operate here. With the African Union gone, they say, the last buffer will be lost against a bloodier assault in Darfur.

    "All predictions are that without witnesses, the slaughter will begin," said Eric Reeves, a Smith College professor who has closely monitored the Darfur conflict, speaking from Northampton, Mass. "As long as the A.U. stays in, they are powerless but they are witnesses."

    The African Union pullout would come shortly before the end of the rainy season, when flooded dirt roads typically dry out, allowing full-scale military maneuvering to resume after many weeks of limited mobility for both sides.

    John Prendergast, an Africa analyst for the International Crisis Group, said the United States and the United Nations have allowed the Sudanese government to outmaneuver them diplomatically. He acknowledged that the United Nations would have trouble deploying troops over the objections of the government but said tougher actions would persuade officials to allow the peacekeepers.

    "If we start acting, they will change their behavior," said Prendergast, speaking from New York, where he was preparing for a Darfur rally in Central Park. "It's very sad that the U.S. has not mustered the political will to head down that path."

    Little news of the political maneuvering reached displaced civilians in Darfur. They passed the day much as they have for months, in some cases for years. They took long, dangerous walks into the Janjaweed-controlled countryside to gather firewood. They rode their donkeys in search of grass for the animals to eat. They sought shade from the blistering sun under makeshift shelters made with reeds and plastic tarps distributed by international aid groups.

    And they waited for a peace few expect to come.

    Idriss, the Darfur woman who said she had lost faith in the African Union, expressed tentative hope that U.N. peacekeepers might do better. If they don't come, she said, she knows what will happen.

    "We will lose all the people of Darfur," Idriss said. "The killing is always going on."