UN Coucil May Act in Sudan

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UN Council may act in Sudan
 
By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council may adopt a resolution this week
sending peacekeepers to relatively calm southern Sudan but take no action against perpetrators
of atrocities in Darfur.

The United States decided on Tuesday to split its draft resolution on Sudan into three parts,
with only the peacekeeping force for southern Sudan fairly certain of approval.

The two main measures on the Darfur region -- sanctions and a venue to try war crimes
suspects -- face opposition.

"We were literally running out of time on Sudan and we felt strongly that we had to move
ahead," Anne Patterson, the acting U.S. ambassador, told reporters.

http://www.eastafricanews.com/

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1. Bah...

The failure of the UN to act in the Sudan is giving the growing chorus of their critics in this country more ammunition.

The unwillingness to step in hard when obvious atrocities are being committed, and the ROE that hamstrings their people on the ground make a better case for the ineffectiveness and therefore irrelevance of the UN to Joe Sixpack better than all the RW speeches ever could.

I too am amazed at the unwillingness to act and pandering in this case to regional elements. The UN is literally braiding the rope with which it will be hung.

I support the concepts behind the UN, but the current crew there is destroying the promise without any help from its enemies.

[seemslikeadream]

2. Researcher Islamic Institute for Human Rights

By Matt Tirman

The causes behind the conflict in the Sudan are numerous and commonly misconstrued by those of us in the West. While religion remains one of the most divisive issues in the conflict, to define this on and off again half century conflict as a war of Muslims against Christians is misleading. There are, however, powerful voices from the United States (mainly Evangelical Christians in elected office) who view the conflict as another Muslim crusade against a Christian minority. Radical voices from the Islamic community have also been a major player in helping to perpetuate the war in Sudan by providing mercenaries, money and arms to help the Islamist government defeat the rebels. The politicizing of such a deadly conflict as led to myopic policies toward Sudan by governments in Europe, the Americas and Middle East.

While dismissing religion as an impetus for the continuance of armed conflict in Sudan would be dangerous, relying on doctrinal beliefs as the only cause is equally if not more troubling. When Sudan gained independence from Britain in 1956 it was a country divided not only by an Islamic north and Christian south, but also a more prosperous politically involved north and a rural, apolitical south. The lack of educational opportunities for southerners, coupled with rigged elections throughout the country created a general mood of discontent, which led to the first of many internal conflicts. The most recent civil conflict, which began in 1983, was attributed to draconian policies imposed upon the south by the government in Khartoum, along with the continued desire to gain full autonomy from the north.



Proliferation of Small Arms

The armed conflict in Sudan has been fueled not only by ethnic hatred, gross disparities of wealth, education and health services, but also by the proliferation of small arms to the various warring factions. While a UN embargo has done much to curtail the flow of legal arms transfers, Sudan's porous borders and willing buyers have provided arms dealers and other gunrunners with an enticing open market. The Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers defines small arms, "as any weapons, such as automatic rifles, high powered pistols and others, that can be easily operated by a single person." Both the SPLA and the Sudanese government have come to rely on illegal weapons purchases from a multitude of different suppliers. Western Sudan, especially in and around Darfur have become a virtual small arms bazaar and transit point to central and western Africa. Arms move freely between the borders of Libya, Chad, CAR and most significantly Uganda. The availability of arms in Sudan has led to a steady rise in banditry along Sudan's highways and has made the lives of UN and other humanitarian workers exceedingly difficult. The buying and selling of illegal arms is not limited to opposition groups or quasi government backed militias. The Sudanese government, which has pledged to stem the flow of illegal arms into its country, is said to have ties with numerous arms dealers throughout Africa, the Middle East and the former Soviet Bloc. According to NISAT, the Islamist government in Khartoum has used illegally purchased arms to aid Islamic Fundamentalists in Egypt and to fight SPLA soldiers in the south. Neither the UN, nor any other governmental body has any idea about how many of these small arms there are throughout the world. The Ak-47, which has become every rebel leader and Che Guevara wannabe's weapon of choice, is the cheapest and most widely available assault rife. While it is nearly impossible to account for the total number of AK-47s in circulation, identifying the manufacturers of this weapon is not. China, Russia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic account for a large number of AK-47's throughout the world. This weapon, along with many like it, fall into the hands of despotic regimes, brutal rebel armies and arms dealers who are in large part responsible for capitalizing on the deaths of millions of people a year. Human Rights Watch, an American based human rights watchdog, details the numerous failures of the government in curtailing the flow of weapons into Sudan. In its 2002 situation report on Sudan, HRW calls on the government to live up to its word, and begin destroying its stockpiles of anti-personnel landmines and explosives of that nature.

Gross Violations of Human Rights

Human rights monitors from the non-governmental and public sector have documented violations of human rights perpetrated by governmental forces as well as the SPLA. In its effort to root out southern forces, the government has pursued a policy of blind intervention, which has led to the indiscriminate aerial bombing of churches, aid stations, villages and other civilian structures. With money generated from over 500 million dollars in oil sales in 2002, the government has purchased itself more advanced weaponry including attack helicopters, surface-to-surface missiles and Russian fighter jets. In turn, this weaponry is used to defend oil fields and clear peoples like the Nuer from their to pursue new oil interests. Amnesty International has been highly critical of foreign oil investors such as China National Petroleum Company and Tailsman Energy, a Canadian energy firm. These investors have provided the Bashir government with millions of dollars to pursue oil exploration in the Upper Nile and Western Nile valley, which has led to the government's scorched earth policy of removing indigenous people from the land. Rebel groups like the SPLA and the Ugandan based Lord's Resistance Army are also consistent abusers of human rights. During the height of the civil war in the 1980's the SPLA recruited children from refugee camps, used coercive means to extract information from villagers and tribal members in the south and to this day continue to hinder humanitarian efforts. The LRA, a Christian militia that some suspect is still financed by the Islamist government in Khartoum, has done much to further destabilize the situation in Equitoria. HRW and the ICG have documented numerous accounts of abuses committed by the LRA including murder, forced conscription and the deliberate targeting of Sudanese in the south.

Child Soldiers in Sudan

The number of child soldiers fighting on the side of the SPLA and the government have decreased significantly in years, however, both sides in the conflict are guilty of continuing to recruit children as young as 12 to fight their battles. The Sudanese government has signed and ratified the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict in late 2002, and the SPLA endorsed the protocol in 1995. The Watch List on Children and Armed Conflict put out a report in March 2003 detailing the status of children in Sudan. In its thirty-four page report, the Watch List examines human rights abuses perpetrated by both sides, the general health of children throughout Sudan, gender-based violence and a plethora of other information. The report notes that children in the south of Sudan, especially in Equitoria and Bah-al Gazer are particularly at risk when it comes to forced recruitment by opposition forces. Refugee camps based in the south as well as in Uganda have been prime recruitment centers for the Lord's Resistance Army, a Christian extremist group that has been fighting a decade long war against the Ugandan government. While the government of Sudan maintains a policy of universal conscription, which requires all men at age 17 to serve in the armed forces, government backed militias have not hesitated in forcing children as young as 10 into service. The most notorious of these militias is the Popular Defense Forces (PDF) who enjoys the support of the President Bashir and his military cadres.
http://www.iifhr.com/Armed%20Conflict%20Program/armsuda...

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3. ARMED CONFLICTS REPORT 2003

Arms Sources:

There is growing evidence that the Khartoum government is using oil revenue to buy new and heavier weapons. In January 2002, Sudan signed an agreement with Russia in which Sudan was given rights to manufacture Russian battle tanks in exchange for oil concessions. Other recent arms suppliers include China, Iraq, Libya, former Soviet bloc states (especially Khazakhstan), Yemen, and increasingly, Iran. Opposition groups have received military assistance and weapons from Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Uganda.

"Sudanese government oil revenues rose from zero in 1998 to almost 42 percent of total government revenue in 2001. According to the government, 60 percent of the US $580 million received in oil revenue in 2001 was absorbed by its military for foreign weapons and a domestic arms industry."

"The external actors most directly involved in arming the Government of Sudan have been China, former Soviet bloc states, South Africa and Iran, while Iraq has been a key provider of technical assistance and military training, and Malaysia has provided crucial funds for arms purchases. ... Iran’s role as a direct arms supplier increased as the government faced escalating military challenges from the opposition in 1997. Another country that has supported the government of Sudan, at least until 1995, is France, which pursued a policy unique among western nations. Its support has included sharing satellite intelligence with Sudan on SPLA movements in 1994, as well as providing military training and technical assistance, and assisting the government of Sudan in negotiating access to neighboring francophone states to carry out attacks on the SPLA. ...

For their part, the Sudanese opposition groups, operating under the umbrella of a coalition known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), have received political, military and logistical support from key neighboring states. Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Uganda appear firmly behind efforts to overthrow the current Sudanese government and install the opposition in its place in Khartoum. They have been engaged in arming and training Sudanese opposition forces ...."

more
http://www.ploughshares.ca/CONTENT/ACR/ACR00/ACR00-Sudan.html