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News | Africa – Reuters.com
Sudan government, militia forces raze Darfur town – rebels
Fri 5 Oct 2007, 12:28 GMT
CAIRO (Reuters) – Sudanese government forces and militia groups razed a town in central Darfur where African Union soldiers were attacked, rebel leaders said on Friday, adding the troops were also threatening to raid a nearby town.
Sudan’s army and Darfur rebel movements blame each other for last week’s assault on the AU base in Haskanita in which 10 African Union soldiers were killed — the worst attack on AU troops since they deployed in Sudan.
On Friday rebel leaders said at least 100 people have been killed and thousands displaced in Haskanita since Wednesday by the Sudanese army and pro-government Janjaweed militia forces.
The figures could not be verified and Sudanese military spokesmen could not be reached for comment. AU forces have evacuated the area.
“They have burned down the whole village, not leaving a single hut,” Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr, commander of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), told Reuters by telephone. “Not less than 100 have been killed.”
As of Friday morning, government forces were still burning and looting parts of Haskanita, said Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, leader of a breakaway faction of JEM.
About 800 government and Janjaweed militia soldiers were moving toward the town of Andrav, 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from Haskanita, Ashr said.
“They are on their way to attack Andrav and they could reach it by evening,” he said.
International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died in Darfur with 2.5 million driven from their homes. Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect.
Washington calls the conflict genocide, a term Khartoum rejects and European governments are reluctant to use. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.
The ongoing violence is likely to cast a shadow over U.N.-AU mediated peace talks due to start on October 27 in Libya.
A joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force with 26,000 police and soldiers is due to deploy next year to absorb the AU’s 7,000 peacekeepers.
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.<
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Bush admin opposes Sudan divestment bill
Wed Oct 3, 2007 4:19pm EDTBy Rachelle Younglai
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bill that would allow U.S. states to divest from companies doing business in Sudan could hurt international efforts to end the violence in war-torn Darfur, Bush administration officials told a Senate panel on Wednesday.
The pending Senate bill aims to put economic pressure on Sudan to stop the violence in its western Darfur region, where an estimated 200,000 people have been killed since rebels took up arms against the government in 2003.
Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said the Bush administration was confident its sanctions were working and warned against legislative measures that might undo progress.
“We are concerned that some initiatives to increase economic pressure on Sudan will damage our relationship with our key partners rather than increase pressure in Khartoum,” Frazer told the Senate Banking Committee hearing.
But several senators voiced support for the bill and said they would work to get it passed.
Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey said he did not “understand how the State Department can come before committee and say this is inappropriate.”
Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, a bill co-sponsor and Republican presidential candidate, said: “We have a responsibility to ensure that genocide does not continue on our watch or on our dime.”
In July, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would protect investment managers who pull money out of key sectors in Sudan from lawsuits from disgruntled investors. It also calls on the U.S. government to list companies whose business in Sudan supports “genocidal practices.”
The companion Senate bill would allow state or local governments to adopt measures to prohibit any investment of state assets in the Sudanese government or in any company with a qualifying business relationship with Sudan.
That bill has yet to move out of the Senate Banking Committee, a crucial step in the legislative process.
DIVESTMENT
Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury’s sanctions arm, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, said a list would by nature consist of foreign companies whose activities in Sudan were most likely legal in their home countries.
“Such a list likely will be viewed by our allies as a U.S. government ‘blacklist’… and therefore as an unwelcome effort by the United States to expand the scope of our sanctions,” Szubin said in written testimony.
“Such a list seriously risks alienating the very countries whose assistance we need to maintain and increase international pressure on the Bashir regime,” he said.
U.S. companies are generally prohibited from investing in and conducting business in Sudan without a license from OFAC. Creation of a list of companies would also impose ongoing burdens on the agency that would divert resources from other activities, Szubin said.
Since 2005, 20 states have adopted Sudan divestment policies, according to the Sudan Divestment Task Force.
Activists have pressured investors to divest their holdings in companies such as PetroChina Co Ltd, whose parent company, China National Petroleum Corp, is helping Sudan drill for oil. Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas and India’s ONGC are also targets.
(Additional reporting by David Lawder)
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Al Jazeera
Senegal Threatens Darfur Pullout
MONDAY, OCTOBER 01, 2007
20:16 MECCA TIME, 17:16 GMT
Senegal has warned it could withdraw its peacekeepers from Sudan after 10 soldiers were killed when an African Union base in the Darfur region was attacked.
At least one Senegalese soldier was among the dead after what an AU spokesman called a “deliberate and sustained” assault on the Haskanita base late on Saturday.
“If they died because they didn’t have the arms to defend themselves, I will withdraw all the Senegalese,” Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal’s president, said on Monday
I am not going to send people to be slaughtered,” he said, adding he had ordered an investigation into the attack.
The AU has previously complained of a lack of equipment in Darfur, including attack helicopters and rapid response vehicles. They have also said their force was too small to contain the conflict in the vast region.
Security reassessed
Martin Luther Agwai , AU force commander, said the mission was making contingency plans and reassessing security but there was little more that could be done without getting additional equipment and troops.
“People did deployment on the premise that there was an [peace] agreement and they were coming to inspect and act as observers – there was no planning for people to be able defend themselves,” he said.
The African force of around 7,000 troops from 26 countries is due to be replaced later this year by a joint AU-UN force, consisting of 26,000 troops.
The African Union began its the investigation into the attack, which also left 40 peacekeepers missing, on Monday.
Noureddine Mezni, spokesman for the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), said: “The enquiry is under way and we will make its conclusions public. Those who carried out this attack will be strongly sanctioned.”
Seventeen other peacekeepers who were kidnapped in the raid were later discovered to the south of the base, Mezni said.
The Sudanese army and Darfur’s separatist groups have blamed each other for the attack.
It was the worst strike on AU soldiers since they deployed in 2004.
‘Outrageous act’
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, condemned the killings and called on Darfur’s warring sides to recommit to a settlement, ahead peace talks to be held in Libya on October 27, as well as preparations for a joint deployment of AU-UN troops.
“The secretary general condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent attack on African Union peacekeepers in Haskanita, south Darfur and calls for the perpetrators to be held fully accountable for this outrageous act,” he said in a statement.
Haskanita, in the far southeast of Darfur, has seen heavy fighting between the army, militias and rebels.
An alliance between Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) Unity faction has become the largest military threat to Khartoum in recent months.
Suleiman Jamous, a member of the SLA, said if his faction was involved in the attack it was a local decision, not ordered by the leadership.
“I have asked the leadership of SLA Unity to withdraw all the troops from the area, to where they can be under the direct control of the military command,” he said.
Saturday’s attack casts a shadow on AU-UN-mediated talks between the rebel groups and the government due to begin in Libya on October 27.
Bandits, militia splinter groups and tribal clashes also threaten any attempt to achieve peace and stability in western Sudan.
Source: Agencies<
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WLOX-TV – The News for South Mississippi:
Rebels overrun AU peacekeeper base in Darfur; killing 10
Associated Press – October 1, 2007 8:43 AM ET
HASKANITA, Sudan (AP) – African Union peacekeepers are searching Darfur for more than 20 of their own.
The soldiers went missing after an unprecedented attack on their base over the weekend. At least 10 peacekeepers were killed when about 1,000 well-armed rebel gunmen overran the base before dawn yesterday. About 150 peacekeeping troops were stationed there.
Officials say they do not believe the missing troops were taken hostage. Several have managed to contact the African Union force, which has sent rescue teams out to retrieve them.
Darfur rebels have grown increasingly hostile the 7,000 member African Union force. They accuse it of favoring the government and failing to protect civilians.
The AU denies it plays favorites. It complains that its forces are stretched thin and undersupplied.
The attack comes ahead of peace talks later this month aimed at resolving the Darfur conflict.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<
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Sharing a smoke with new found friends by the Li River, Guilin, China
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