South American bad boy, Hugo Chávez has just completed a world tour love fest which included Libya, Iran, Algeria, Syria, Turkmenistan, Belarus and Russia.South American bad boy, Hugo Chávez has just completed a world tour love fest which... more
Waving a stick in the air in front of a supportive crowd of thousands, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir punched the air to roars of support.
He looked little like a man on his first full day as an international fugitive - following an arrest warrant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The true criminals are the leaders of the United States and Europe... One day we will take them to justice
President Omar al-Bashir
Some 10,000 protesters crammed themselves into central Khartoum in support of the president, following the issuing on Wednesday of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.
'Real criminals'
Instead Mr Bashir scoffed at the warrant, telling the mass rally in the packed downtown district of Khartoum that Western leaders were the real criminals.
Omar al-Bashir: "We will not succumb to colonialists"
"The true criminals are the leaders of the United States and Europe," he told the crowds to loud cheers.
He in turn accused the United States of genocide against the Native American Indians, as well as in Vietnam and in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.
"One day we will take them to justice," he added.
It was not clear if the president was joking, but the crowd loved it.
According to the United Nations, some 300,000 have died in Darfur since the conflict erupted in 2003 and more than two million have been displaced - figures strongly rejected by Khartoum.
Street party
At one point, the dancing 65-year-old even gave tongue-in-cheek thanks to the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo - for bringing the Sudanese together on the streets.
We will show you what we are made of
Sudanese protester
The roads were clogged far out from the centre with busloads of protesters travelling to the demonstration, singing in support of Mr Bashir as they went.
Not all support Mr Bashir. There is little love lost for the leader in those areas affected by the long years of fighting with Khartoum, such as Darfur, the east or the south.
But here in the heart of government loyalists, there was almost a party atmosphere.
A group of women chanted "Down with Ocampo", while a column of school-children shouted, "Down, down America".
'Western spies'
But others grew angry when Mr Bashir accused Western nations of neo-colonialism, and directed their anger at the few foreigners in the crowd.
Sudanese women hold pictures of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during a speech delivered by al-Bashir at the entrance of the presidential palace in Khartoum, Sudan Thursday, March 5, 2009
Some Sudanese want foreigners out of the country
"We will fight anyone who thinks they can stop the president," said one demonstrator.
"We will show you - the Western nations - what we are made of," a colleague added.
Asked what they thought of the expulsion of 10 aid agencies accused by Khartoum of collaborating with the ICC, protesters seemed not to care.
"We don't need Western spies," one spat.
Amnesty International has warned that more than 2.2 million vulnerable Sudanese face the risk of starvation and disease if the expulsions continue.
But as the angry protesters closed in with a threatening manner, the message was clear: "All foreigners go, all of you, go now," they shouted.
Other Sudanese rushed to offer reassurance that foreigners were welcome, but had a similar attitude.
"We just need a Sudanese solution to a Sudanese issue," one elderly man eBy Peter Martell
BBC News, Khartoum
Waving a stick in the air in front of a... more
Il 4 marzo 2009 la I Camera Preliminare della Corte Penale Internazionale ha accolto la richiesta del procuratore Luis Moreno Ocampo del luglio del 2008 ed ha emesso un mandato d'arresto a carico del Presidente del Sudan Omar al Bashir per crimini contro l'umanità e crimini di guerra commessi in Darfur. Non sono stati confermati, invece, i tre capi d'accusa per atti di genocidio indicati nella richiesta del procuratore....Il 4 marzo 2009 la I Camera Preliminare della Corte Penale Internazionale ha accolto... more
Sudan's president told thousands of cheering supporters on Thursday, March 05, an international call for his arrest on war crimes charges was a colonialist ploy and announced the expulsion of 10 foreign aid agencies.Sudan's president told thousands of cheering supporters on Thursday, March 05, an... more
For all the charity and humanitarian aid that's been poured into the Darfur region, and all of the celebrities pleading for change -- it seems nothing has changed. People are still dying, atrocities continue, and the war worsens. This sense of futility is what makes the project we're sharing with you today so interesting.
The ultra-low-budget documentary "Christmas in Darfur?" follows the challenges two amateur filmmakers (and their limited crew) face as they attempt to make a film about what it was like for aid workers to spend their holiday season in this war-torn African desert. Boing Boing Video guest correspondent Sean Bonner interviewed the film's director Jason Mojica about that experience, and we bring you that conversation today, along with clips from the finished film.
Driven by the desire to understand the gap between all the global attention to Darfur and the worsening conditions there -- and with no experience in filmmaking, or any connections in Africa -- the filmmakers' guileless approach takes them deep into the refugee camps of Chad.For all the charity and humanitarian aid that's been poured into the Darfur region,... more
"Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has angrily rejected the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against him. Mr Bashir told thousands of cheering supporters in the capital that Sudan would not "kneel" to colonialists. He said he defied outsiders to come to Sudan and talk about human rights.
He is accused of two counts of war crimes and five of crimes against humanity in Darfur, in the first ICC warrant for a serving head of state.
Mr Bashir, 65, told a rally in the city's Martyrs Square: "We are telling the colonialists we are not succumbing; we are not submitting; we will not kneel; we are targeted because we refuse to submit."BBC reporting today:
"Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has angrily rejected the... more
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. He is the first sitting head of state the court has ordered arrested.The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for Sudanese... more
The Sudanese government is preparing to hold peace talks with rebels in Darfur. The six-year-long conflict has killed an estimated 600,000 people, and Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir faces genocide charges.The Sudanese government is preparing to hold peace talks with rebels in Darfur. The... more
It’s been a few years now since we decided that it was a Good Idea to check out some camps for Darfur refugees to try to figure out what exactly was going on in that particular slow-motion apocalypse, so we begged for money, shopped for body armor, got an impressive array of immunizations, bought a bad-ass first aid kit, hit up anyone we could for advice and headed out to Darfur (or at least right next to Darfur) to make a movie and figure this whole thing out.
So, now that we’re back and we’ve finished our movie, it’s time to ask what the rest of the world has accomplished in Darfur in the meantime. As far as we can tell, it looks like just about everyone has decided to be Very Deeply Concerned about Darfur. In a surprisingly effective global effort, the international community has produced copious amounts of concern, circumspection and caring. So much, in fact, that roughly 14.8 metric tons of concern per day is being produced for each refugee camp, along with more than 140 liters of circumspection and 6.7 bushels of caring per annum for each and every refugee, war widow, internally displaced person, and so on.
Just kidding!!! The international community has produced nowhere near that amount of caring or concern and, in any case, even if the world were that concerned, it still wouldn’t matter a single bit.
Even with the avalanche of press attention, celebrity public-service announcements, diplomatic notes, Congressional junkets, international condemnation, well-intentioned and occasionally baffling protests, heady conferences, solemn books and magazine articles, and a bewildering array of conflict resolution efforts, negotiations, and peace talks, it doesn’t look like much of anything has actually been done to actually stop a murderous tinpot dictator with an inexplicable desire to acquire some exceedingly desolate real estate using a impressive collection of remarkably brutal genocidal tactics.
(Click the link to read the rest of G. Ryan Faith's piece)It’s been a few years now since we decided that it was a Good Idea to check out some... more
Clooney hosted a fundraiser at his friend Roger Jenkins’ home in London on Thursday and invited 100 of his closest friends. A ticket to attend the gala was $14,575, which netted over $14 million.Clooney hosted a fundraiser at his friend Roger Jenkins’ home in London on... more
Some 40,000 civilians have been displaced in Darfur in the last two months by fighting between Sudanese government forces and rebels in the northern and central parts of the wartorn region, said the U.N. on Saturday.
The estimate is based on witness accounts, a brief assessment mission and reports by the Sudanese government and aid agencies working in the area, said Gregory Alex, the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in North Darfur.
"No emergency assistance has gotten to these people," said Alex. "For the last five or six weeks, they have been living off assistance they are getting from other people ... or what they can scrounge for."
Most of the newly displaced are living in the desert rather than in refugee camps, said Alex. Many of them had been displaced by fighting before but had returned ahead of the recent attacks, he added.
More than 2.5 million people have been displaced in Darfur and up to 300,000 killed since ethnic African groups rebelled against the Arab-dominated national government early in 2003.
A recent round of fighting began in August when government troops attacked rebel-held areas along the border with Libya in northern Darfur — sometimes accompanied by aircraft and Arab militias.
In September, the fighting moved south toward more populated areas. But the U.N. and aid workers said they have had little access to the areas because of the continued tension.
Some villages in the Jebel Marrah area in central Darfur were totally emptied by the September fighting, said an international aid worker, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government harassment.
The locals in the area were warned ahead of the fighting and about 10,000 of them fled before it broke out, said the aid worker. Some of the villagers have begun to return to their farms for the harvest season, he added.
Government officials have said the recent offensive in August and September was targeted at bandits that had increased attacks against U.N. agencies and aid convoys.
But rebel groups have said the government was trying to clear them out of strategic areas to change the balance of power on the ground ahead of peace negotiations.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir recently launched a new peace initiative at a conference attended by international supporters. But the rebels boycotted the meeting, saying it was a sham intended to rally support for the president, who is facing charges of genocide in Darfur by the International Criminal Court.Some 40,000 civilians have been displaced in Darfur in the last two months by fighting... more
Join The Roots of Humanity on the 27th of every month in asking the unified, persistent question that has the answers collectively needed, within it.
We ask on behalf of our human siblings lacking in access to the most basic of communication tools, or barred from communication by their governments:
Am I Not Human?
Download this month's ebook: 'Where Do We Go From Here'
Join The Roots of Humanity on the 27th of every month in asking the unified,... more
Nyala - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday ordered the release of 89 youths arrested by his government after an attack by Darfur rebels on Khartoum two months ago.
"I order the authorities to release those children and take care of them and take care of their education," Bashir told a crowd of thousands in Nyala, southern Darfur, on the second leg of a visit to the war-torn region.
His visit comes a week after ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused Bashir of instructing his forces to annihilate three non-Arab groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and using rape to commit genocide.
His regime is trying to persuade the UN Security Council to freeze possible legal proceedings should ICC judges actually issue an arrest warrant, on the grounds that it could jeopardise peace prospects.
Two weeks ago, the special UN envoy on human rights in Sudan, Sima Samar, urged the government not to prosecute the 89 "child rebels", recommending that they be treated as victims of war, not as combatants.
UN agencies and journalists have visited the 89 juveniles at a detention facility outside Khartoum, where they appear to be in good health.
Sudan says the children aged from 11 to 17 were press-ganged into a Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement that attacked Khartoum.
Sudan earlier pledged to accord the children all rights, including special courts should they face legal proceedings. Nyala - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday ordered the release of 89... more
Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir danced before thousands of supporters in Darfur on Wednesday, defying a possible arrest warrant for genocide on a heavily-protected visit to the war-torn area.
Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir danced before thousands of supporters in Darfur on... more
During a rare visit to Darfur Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir said he is "not worried" by International Criminal Court accusations against him. The Sudanese leader is accused of running a campaign of genocide that killed 35,000 people and at least another 100,000 through a "slow death".During a rare visit to Darfur Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir said he is "not... more
President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan has been charged in the International Criminal Courts. The ICC charges against al-Bashir include genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan has been charged in the International Criminal... more
