IAFHR - Darfur

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur - We can not remain silent

2008-12-15T08:19:00.001-08:00

As we approach this holiday season, a lot of families from the fours corners of the world are wondering how they are going to make ends meet as a result of the global economic downturn. For most families in the developed world, this holiday season will be worse than last year. Their children will go to bed a little hungrier, they probably won’t have any new toys, with excuses that Santa had the flu or that he lost the map to their house being a prevalent excuse amongst the poorer sections of our communities.

Regardless of our individual financial situation this holiday season, the best gift to give our children will be a combination of a hug and a kiss followed with the meaningful words of “I love you.” It is hoped that our children will garner more from the knowledge of our love for them than the message that they might receive from our purchase of expensive gifts for them. They might still be disappointed that they did not receive the latest Wii game or Barbie and Ken activity set but the many disappointments will hopefully be short lived.

As we are consistently told at this time of year, the holidays are a time for thinking about those that are less fortunate than we are. Our religious leaders speak of the need to reflect on the poorer sections of our communities, of the need to reach out to our neighbors in a show of compassion and love, and to share what little we may have with those less fortunate.

In certain parts of the world though, this holiday season will be no different than last year. There will be no presents, no Santa Claus, but more depressing, there might be no food. For most of the children and their parents in these parts of the world, life will continue to be lived in utter nightmarish circumstances. Most are living on a day by day basis and they are suffering the effects of mass hunger and poverty and the concomitant effects of poverty. Instead of waking up to presents, some children will wake up to participate in combat as soldiers – child soldiers. There are roughly 200,000 child soldiers in Africa alone, young children that have been kidnapped from their families and forced to commit horrendous crimes against their own people. Young girls are also kidnapped and forced to become sex slaves.

In Darfur, children are used by the Janjaweed militia to commit murder and rape. Other children are on the receiving end of this brutality.

There is no greater crime than the sexual exploitation, manipulation, mutilation, or rape of a child. In Western nations, when similar crimes are committed against children, there is utter public revulsion and promises by the civil authorities to bring the culprits to justice. Such justice is usually swift and warranted. But when sexually-based crimes are committed against children in the developing world, the cries for help usually fall on deaf ears, with little action been taken against the perpetrators of these horrific crimes. The rapists usually go free.
Darfur is a rapist’s playground and a victim’s hell. There are substantiated reports that children, some as young as four years of age are being raped on a daily basis. Women, young and old, are gang raped and left to fend off the stigma that comes with being the victim of this kind of brutality. Many victims of these crimes become pregnant, which leads to further stigmatization and in most cases, abandonment. The children born as a result of these attacks are commonly known as “enemy” children. They become stigmatized, and in most cases suffer horrendous abuse, abandonment, discrimination and infanticide.

The perpetrators of these crimes are not “men in long coats,” hiding in dark alleys or stalking the streets looking for victims. No, the perpetrators of these crimes are mostly soldiers, paid public servants in the service of the Sudanese government. Uniformed soldiers or civilian clad militias, they act with impunity, but mostly they act like animals, and that is probably a slight against animals.

The utilization of rape in Darfur is part of the overall tactical strategy incorporated by the Sudanese government to annihilate Darfur’s native Black African population. With the murder of close 700,000 innocent Darfuri men, women and children, Darfur represents the first genocide of the 21st Century. Not only has genocide been committed, but mass war crimes and human rights abuses have also been committed. Not only have the native Darfuri population been targeted, but those working with the various NGOs as well as UN peacekeepers, serving with UNAMID, have been attacked and murdered by the Janjaweed. These attacks and the continuing hijacking of aid convoys fall under the realm of war crimes. Still, the international community debates the appropriate action to be taken against the Sudanese President, al-Bashir, and his government.

In January, 2009 it is envisioned that the judges of the International Criminal Court will defer the issuing of a warrant for the arrest of President al-Bashir. The postponement of this warrant will be a major coup for the African Union, along with other organizations and individual nations, such as certain nations who serve as permanent members of the UN’s Security Council. The reason given by these organizations and nations for the requested postponement is their considered opinion that the issuance of the warrant will destroy the “on-going” peace initiatives. As far as most concerned groups are aware, there is no constructive peace process currently under way in regards to solving the conflict Darfur. Irrespective of whether the warrant is issued today or next year, Al-Bashir will be arrested and he will face an international criminal court where he will be prosecuted for the actions of his government and for the genocidal actions of his forces in Darfur.

Last week the international community “celebrated” the 60th Anniversary of the famous Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As noted during the celebrations, most of the 30 articles, as outlined in the UDHR, had been ignored by most countries were either non-internal and internal conflicts occurred over the past 60 years. While most of those dignitaries representing the nations that led the celebrations spoke ever so eloquently about the initial reasons behind the UNDR and its formation, their very nations have been major supporters of regimes that have totally ignored the principles set forth in the UDHR, examples of which we have witnessed during conflicts in Darfur, Chad, Rwanda, Bosnia, Burundi, Cambodia, to name but a few.

Nowhere in the world has there been a total disregard for the UDHR principals, or any other international charter protecting the rights of civilians, than in Darfur. It is time for the international community to live up to its words and promises to implement the actions that are required to save the lives of over 4 million innocent civilians, whose lives are currently under immediate treat of death.

Over the weekend, the UN held its annual “Climate Change” conference in Poznan, Poland where billions of dollars were promised to curb the growing trends in the earth’s destruction. What is remarkable about this is the fact that nobody is stepping up to the plate to donate the few million dollars it will take to curb the destruction of the native Black African population in Darfur. The future generations that we are trying to save through our proposed responsible approach to climate change will hopefully look back with shame at the fact that we did nothing to save the current generation in Darfur and in other areas of conflict, because we were prepared to put money into economic gains rather than in to the preservation of human life.

The International Alliance For Human Rights will be staging the “Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur” to enhance global awareness of the need to take appropriate action in Darfur and to call on the international community to implement its promises to safe guard human life now! For more information, please contact David Nolan at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or shoot him an email at dnolan@spinmillgroup.com.

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur - Do we really care?

2008-11-13T11:19:00.000-08:00

70 years ago last weekend, the Holocaust began. On the night of November 9th-10th, 1938 Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues were attacked by Nazi stormtroopers, hell bent on purifying Germany of its Jewish population. Nearly 90 Jews were murdered and close to 30,000 Jewish men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. This event in German history is known as Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass.

This week, as the German government remembers this part of its sordid past, the rise and influence of far-right groups is causing alarm across the whole of Europe and amongst the member states of the EU in particular. Racial hatred, not only in Europe, is quickly rising it ugly head again against the backdrop of mass increases in global immigration, global unemployment and mass uncertainty pertaining to the global economy.

How then, can we expect the international community to fix the problems that are currently destroying Africa if their own people are increasingly hostile towards offering refugees from Africa’s many conflicts refugee status or political asylum in EU and other states? As we have witnessed, vast populations are being wiped off the face of the earth from conflict and nobody seems to give a dam. Both the UN and the EU have deployed large peacekeeping forces to various trouble spots in Africa but with stark differences between their forces.

The EU force (EUFOR Tchad/RCA) that is currently deployed in Chad is mandated to protect the innocent Darfuri refugees that have attempted to escape the conflict in Darfur. EUFOR is equipped with the latest military technology and weaponry. The main proponent behind this force was the French government. Why, of all places, was the French government calling for a special EU peacekeeping force to be deployed to Chad? The French army was already on the ground in Chad prior to EUFOR’s deployment in 2007. If the French already had a strong military presence in Chad, was there a need for it to push for EUFOR’s formation and deployment? The answer is quite simple. There are major oil contracts in place between the Chadian and French governments. While French military deployment in Chad had nothing to do with protecting innocent refugees from Darfur, it had everything to do with protecting its oil interests there.

When Sudanese-sponsored rebels launched major attacks against Chad and threatened to overrun the country, France was fearful of losing one of its major sources of oil. It could not afford to let the President of Chad, Idriss Déby be overthrown by rebels because France had invested considerable amounts of money there to secure the flow of cheap oil. It couldn’t increase its own troop numbers in this, one of the poorest countries in the world without arousing suspicion as to why it was taking this action. This resulted in the French government proposing to the EU that, because of the large numbers of Darfuri refugees entering Chad and because of the attacks from the Sudanese rebels on these refugees, a special force was needed to protect them, hence the deployment of EUFOR. This became a huge PR coup for the French because everybody thought that they were going in to protect the refugees. But they were not. They were going in to protect their own national interests and they didn’t care about the Darfuri refugees – they haven’t done anything that’s measurable in reference to supporting UNAMID in Darfur itself.

The same happened with the DR Congo in 2006, but it was based largely on a conspiracy by a large number of EU states to protect the flow of mineral resources from DRC – minerals from DRC earn billions of dollars a year (Tantalum, used in the production of cell phones, pagers, PCs, automotive electronics, jet engine components, chemical process equipment, nuclear reactors, missile parts, orthopedic implants, and camera lenses, sells for close to $160,000 per metric ton) – and these EU states were not prepared to see a decline in the availability of these minerals because of rebel fighting nor is the EU prepared to allow this mineral rich country fall into the hands of the main rebel leader, General Laurent Nkunda, hence the call for an increase in the current strength of both its police (EUPOL) and military (EUSEC) missions to DRC.

The big picture is this – we can allow millions of people to die but we can not allow a disruption in the continuous flow of much needed minerals that are vital to industrial strength and development in the EU, the US and Asia. In 1994, Rwanda had no mineral resources and was of no strategic (military or otherwise) importance so the international community allowed close to 1,000,000 innocent men, women and children to be murdered. Burundi was the same, Ethiopia was the same and Somalia, well, all we have to do is look at the hands on hands off approach that the international community has adopted towards that country.

The strange thing is, in Darfur, which has large oil reserves, the international community is neglecting its obligations to protect close to 4,000,000 innocent men, women and children. In nearly six years of conflict, it has stood by and allowed close to 700,000 innocents to perish at the hands of a genocidal regime and still, it does nothing. Why? Why has this approach been taken? When the UN announced its intentions to deploy a peacekeeping mission to this hell on earth, the Sudanese government hesitated (and still does to this day) to allow non-African countries to deploy troops as part of the UN peacekeeping force, UNAMID. But the Sudanese government did allow the Chinese government to deploy a battalion of troops as part of this force – why? Why, to this day, does the Sudanese government refuse to permit EU nations contribute troops to UNAMID? Again, the answer is oil and other mineral resources that come from Sudan. China is Sudan’s biggest oil customer. The Chinese, along with its allies, have basically told the international community, specifically the EU and the US, to back off from harassing Sudan’s government. Nobody wants to offend the Chinese and get their bad side. Economically, it could be disastrous.

Other nations have taken similar approaches to the interference in Sudan’s “internal” issues. The Russian government has considerable relationships with, not only the Sudanese government, but with other countries in the developing world that are rife with conflict. These relationships are built along trade agreements that are primarily focused on the supply of Russian military equipment and technology. Russia supplies close to 60% of the major conventional weaponry that is used by the Sudanese government to kill innocent civilians in Darfur. It supplies air force pilots to the Sudanese government in the bombing of all targets (strategic/non-strategic) in Darfur. While China and Russia are the main winners, from a financial view point, from the conflict in Darfur, a host of Western and other Asian nations are responsible for the supply of weapons and weapon technologies to Sudan in contravention of UN Security Council Resolutions 1591 and 1556.

It has been reported that a vast number of countries have directly sold weaponry and military technologies to Sudan while even a greater number of producers of weaponry and military technologies have indirectly supplied their products to Sudan. The current embargo on Sudan requires that all nations do their utmost to prevent arms from entering Darfur and therefore all weapons and military technology producing countries must take all appropriate actions to ensure that their products do not reach Darfur either directly or indirectly through third-party nations. It has been recommended that these nations investigate how their weapons and weapon technologies have ended up in Sudan and to name the third party nations involved.

The following is a list of the nations who are direct suppliers of weapons and weapon technologies to Sudan:

Belarus, China, Cyprus, India, Iran, Kenya, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovakia, Spain, and Turkey

The following is a list of weapons and weapon technologies producing nations whose products have directly or indirectly been supplied to Sudan:

Australia, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States of America

So a solution to the crisis in Darfur calls for a lot of nations to make internal sacrifices in terms to forgoing huge financial deals for the benefit of the innocent civilians caught up in the conflict in Darfur. This may explain the lack of a concerted effort on the part of the international community to engage in a tactical and strategically pressurized approach to force Sudan to halt its ambitious drive to eradicate the native Black African people from Darfur.

While leading celebrities and others may have pointed the “big finger” at China as the nation most responsible for supporting Khartoum’s genocidal ambitions, no nation appears to be free from blame for the prolonged humanitarian catastrophic nightmare that is Darfur. But the fact remains that China and her sister in crime, Russia, have given diplomatic cover to the Sudanese government at the UN due to their continued economic-based relationship in Sudan and this has clearly given the Sudanese government carte blanche to fulfill its desires in reference to Darfur without retribution from the international community.

In May, 2000 in Kimberley, South Africa, a process was instituted by the diamond producing countries of South Africa to stem the flow of conflict (blood) diamonds onto the international markets. This process, known as the Kimberley Process, was adopted to ensure that the trade in conflict diamonds could be halted and that those buying diamonds, whether wholesale or retail, could be assured that their diamonds had not contributed to violence. It was only in 1998 that the UN first identified that diamonds mined in certain African countries, that were either in a state of war or internal conflict, were being sold to finance that war/conflict or a warlord's activity.

Diamonds are not the only valuable commodity that has help to fuel wars or conflicts. Today, a product called gum arabic is helping to finance wars and conflicts in a number of African countries, most notably Sudan. Sudan is the primary global exporter of this major product and the global production of all gum arabic is heavily controlled by the Sudanese government. What makes gum arabic such a key product is the fact that it is a key ingredient used in several industries, primarily the food and beverage industry, and to a lesser extent in the painting, photography, printmaking and pyrotechnics industries. Without gum arabic we would not have syrups for our coke cola and other soft drinks nor would we have gummy candies like gumdrops or marshmallows or M & M's or most notably, chewing gum. The industries that rely on gum arabic are numerous and if Sudan was to withdraw its trade agreements with the West pertaining to making this product available, the global economic impact would be catastrophic. So we can say that Sudan basically has the international community over a barrel.

So the question arises, “Can we also make a case for Blood Ingredients?” These are products, such as gum arabic, that are produced in war/conflict zones that help finance the continuation of hostilities. Maybe we could call it the Coke Cola process, whereby people, when they buy a coke in a store or order one with their meal in a restaurant, can be guaranteed that the coke that they are drinking does not contain a product that has helped to finance the murder of millions of people.

One last item, which is now a clear indication of what is happening in Darfur and why it should be to the center of the stage at the bastion of global diplomacy, the UN. The Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Mr. Luis-Moreno Ocampo, under the clear direction of the UN Security Council and with the authorization given to him and his office under UN Security Resolution 1564, indicted the President of Sudan, President Al-Bashir on three counts of genocide and a host of other crimes. The findings of the International Criminal Court make it official that genocide had and continues to be committed in Darfur, therefore the UN should publicly identify the conflict in Darfur as genocide. The issuing of an international arrest warrant for President Al-Bashir is currently pending.

Regardless of the ceasefire declared by Al-Bashir on Wednesday, November 12th, the ICC will soon issue an arrest warrant so that he can face justice for the injustices that he committed, by authorizing his forces to do so, against his own people.

The International Alliance For Human Rights will be staging The Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur, a global concert event to enhance global grassroots awareness of the conflict in Darfur and to demand that the international community take the appropriate action required to bring about a quick cessation of the conflict. For more information, please contact David Nolan at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or email him at dnolan@spinmillgroup.com.

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur – Death Continues to Flow

2008-10-31T02:33:00.001-07:00

Africa is alive! It is alive with death and destruction. Over the last few months we have witnessed major catastrophic events on this forgotten continent that have seen the lives of millions of people put at risk of starvation, murder and disease. During the summer, we witnessed the total collapse of Somalia and the mass exodus of thousands of people from its capital Mogadishu.

This week, the war raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo has seen tens of thousands of people displaced and walking towards the paths of death and disease. In the eastern city of Goma, there have been reports of large scale rapes and murder, and while there is currently a highly tenuous ceasefire, the main rebel leader, General Laurent Nkunda has threatened to take the city unless the UN can maintain the ceasefire. While the UN peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo is the largest UN peacekeeping mission ever launched, the Special Representative of the Secretary General for the peacekeeping mission in the Congo, Alan Doss, stated that the UN Mission was being stretched to its limits and that the current number of peacekeeping troops on the ground was totally inadequate based on the scale of the conflict.

In Darfur, the near forgotten conflict, the situation has now reached levels whereby millions of people are now in eminent danger of death from murder, disease and starvation. The UN mission in Darfur, UNAMID is totally under strength and is targeted for attacks on a daily basis. Both the mainstream government forces and their militia, the Janjaweed, regularly target UN troops.

Some highlights of this past week’s horrors in Darfur:

On Wednesday, October 29th, South African troops serving with UNAMID came under attack. One soldier was murdered and one was injured while securing a water point near the Kassab Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp.
On Monday, October 27th, the BBC reported at that at least 40 innocent civilians had been murdered in recent clashes in the area of Muhajiriya, in Southern Darfur and that as a result of intense attacks by the Janjaweed, over 12,000 civilians had been displaced.
On Thursday, October 23rd, Reuters reported that clashes in the Northern Darfur between the various warring factions had resulted in numerous deaths.
On Wednesday, October 22nd, Uganda’s Daily Monitor reported that close to 30,000 Ugandan children, who were forcibly conscripted into the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda, were sold in Darfur. These children are being used as child soldiers, porters and others have been sold as sex slaves to the Sudanese government troops and Janjaweed militia.

Over the last few months, attacks on the UN peacekeepers have been committed on a regular basis with many peacekeepers returning home in coffins. The UNAMID mission is under continued pressure as the troop commitment levels to this force are well below the number that was promised by the UN and the logistical commitment from donor nations is basically non-existent. So what we have in Darfur is a UN force that is greatly undermanned and disgustingly ill equipped.

Meanwhile, the Janjaweed and the Sudanese government forces in Darfur continue to attack the non-Arab civilian population. Thousands of people are dying on a daily basis, both from violence and disease. Volunteers with the international NGOs continue to be attacked and aid convoys are continuously hijacked. The rape of women and young girls continues unabated and young boys are kidnapped to be utilized as child soldiers.

The UN continues to issue its weekly Security Council reports on the crisis in Darfur and with each report the recorded death rate increases. It is estimated that by December 31st, 2008 close to one million will be dead as a result of the conflict in Darfur with a further estimated 4 million people fighting for survival.

The most recent reports from the UN have clearly stated that all crimes now being committed in Darfur are being designated as war crimes or crimes against humanity and therefore the organizers and perpetrators of these crimes should be indicted by the International Criminal Court.

The international community has admitted that it identifies the fact that Sudan has failed in its obligations pertaining to erga omnes and that the UN has identified its own failures in relations to Security Council Resolution 1674 which reaffirms the provisions of paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document regarding its responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. While the resolution commits the Security Council to action to protect civilians in armed conflict, the UN acknowledges that it can not even protect its own peacekeepers in Darfur.

While the debate pertaining to genocide may also be forgotten on the international diplomatic front as it pertains to the crimes being committed in Darfur, it is important that the principals behind the declaration of genocide made by General Colin Powel on behalf of the government of the United States of America be reviewed. This is due to the fact that while the UN Security Council announced in its 2005 report on Darfur that the International Criminal Court found “reasonable grounds to believe that the individuals identified [in the UN Security Council Resolution 1593] have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes," there was no finding of sufficient evidence to prosecute for genocide. However, in its most recent report on the conflict in Darfur, the International Criminal Court found sufficient evidence to file ten charges of war crimes against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two counts of murder.

What we must remember is the fact that genocidal acts need not kill or cause death against those members of a targeted group. Genocide also covers the acts of causing serious bodily or mental harm, prevention of births and transfer of children. Basically speaking, any acts committed as part of a policy to destroy a group’s existence can be classified as genocide or at least politicide.

Because the Sudanese government has been committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur for nearly six years, the leaders of this government now act with impunity and as the focus of the international community shifts back and forth between the various global crisis, many more innocent Darfuris will die today.

It is time for the international community, primarily the members of the UN Security Council’s P5 to come together and find a solution to the conflict in Darfur, and that solution will hopefully include the issuing of an international arrest warrant for the President of Sudan and all others indicted by the International Criminal Court. Until this solution is found, it is important that a blanket embargo be placed on all exports/imports with Sudan. All investment companies, all oil companies and those companies involved in the infrastructural development of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum and all other Sudanese regions allied to Khartoum need to be placed under this blanket embargo.

We can’t use the excuses that we used in regards to ignoring the genocides of Bosnia and Rwanda, its too late for that. When the conflict in Darfur ends, and it will end, the true facts will one day be released that will hopefully shine a light on who and what nations conspired with and were complicit in the destruction of the native Black African population of Darfur. There will be no rocks big enough for the culprits or their coconspirators to hide under.

The International Alliance For Human Rights, a New York-based humanitarian focused group will be focusing its efforts on enhancing global awareness on the conflict in Darfur when it stages the Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur.

For more information, please contact David Nolan at dnolan@iafhr.org.

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur - Death Marches On

2008-05-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Today thousands of men, women and children will die. Today hundreds of women, girls and young children will be raped and mutilated. Today our world leaders continue their inadequate silence to the ongoing carnage in Darfur.

The crimes being committed in Darfur are an affront to civilization. Apart from those that will die, many hundreds of thousands will suffer from the concomitant effects of this conflict. These affects include contracting diseases such as HIV/AIDS, drug resistant TB and the ever present and dangerous malaria, which are highly prevalent in Darfur. Another factor which is increasing the prevalence of these diseases is the fact that aid convoys delivering food and emergency medications are hijacked on a daily basis and the number of convoy drivers being murdered continues to grow.

Most of all, the children that survive the conflict, including some adults, will suffer long term neurological side effects from their experiences and it is these effects that may form the basis of bitter and prolonged resentments which may lead to future conflicts in the region.

Darfur has now become unsafe for the continued deployment of aid agencies and other related humanitarian volunteers, hence the indigenous black African people are, is some places, being left to fend for themselves. Because there is a total lack of the most basic and appropriate care, due to the fact that Darfur continues to be devoured by mass human rights abuses, children will die in the arms of strangers tonight.

Though the history of warfare may have thought us many lessons, the rules developed from these lessons are continuously broken. Prior to World War II, two ground breaking conventions, The Hague and The Geneva Conventions were instituted to protect the rights of innocent civilians, wounded soldiers, and POWs during times of war or internal conflict. Their aim was also to protect peace loving nations from aggressive wars. It was based on the total disregard of both these conventions that the triumphant Allied powers initiated the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremburg in 1945, to prosecute all parties that the Allies deemed to have played a major role directly or in support of the European Axis Powers, primarily as that support related to the Nazis’ destruction of Europe and its citizenry. The institution of aggressive war policies, but more importantly, crimes against humanity, specifically as it related to the attempted annihilation of any or all ethnic groups deemed to be enemies of the Nazi ideology system, identified as those committed against the Jews, gypsies, Poles, Russian POWs and Catholics, formed the basis of the need to set up the IMT.

Bringing the Nazi leadership to trial was not an issue, as most of the leadership were either dead or had been captured by the Allies. Later trials were held for those that were either directly responsible or part of the general apparatus to cleanse Europe of those ethnic groups outlined for destruction. Though many members of the SS and Gestapo escaped Europe after the war and were aided in their evasion for long periods of time, those that committed the most heinous of crimes have eventually been brought to justice. Still, though they may be quite old, some are still living with the support of sympathetic nations.

One item, in reference to the Nazi war machine, that caused major discord amongst the key prosecutors at Nuremberg as they prepared the criminal indictments, was the culpability of the major industrialists who supported the Nazi regime. The argument put forward in support of prosecution was that many corporations empowered the Nazis to gain control of Germany, purely for self gain. They knew that Hitler would once again galvanize the industrial strength of Germany to deliver on his promise of global dominance to the German people. Every German industrial sector was suspected of playing a major role in the growth of Nazism. Upon review of countless documents in support of indicting Germany’s industrialists, a decision was made by the prosecution team, under the tutelage of Robert Jackson, the Chief US prosecutor at Nuremberg, that any corporation and its owner/s, irrespective of industry, who made a profit in support of the Nazi war machine and who utilized the services of slave labor, would face trial at Nuremberg for war crimes.

What caused most revulsion during the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal were the descriptions of how the young Jewish children were treated and how most went to their deaths. Over 1.5 million Jewish children were murdered during the Holocaust. Most were gassed at the death camps upon their arrival, some were kept for experiments at the hands of sadist physicians, and some were worked to death under the Nazi’s slave labor regime. The total figure represents many future generations who were wiped off the face of the earth because some lunatics decided that, because they were Jewish, they were not worthy of living.

The story of Anne Frank has captivated the world over, due primarily to how she suffered greatly throughout her short life. Anne’s story, as we know, was her very own, captured through her thoughts and experiences in the diary she kept. Today, her diary is as famous as the Bible and when one reads the story of Anne Frank, and cries for the millions of children and adults alike, who died both mercilessly and needlessly at the hands of the Nazi regime, one can not help but proclaim that no child should have to live life the way that this little girl lived.

What is most poignant about the Diary of Anne Frank is not only the fact that it was written by a young girl who would die during the Holocaust, but the fact that it speaks of a young girl’s views of hope, of love, of anger and of the most important relationships that we, as humans, develop during our lifetime.

Nothing affects our moral thinking more than learning of the intentional harm to children. Nothing can prepare us for the images of children that have been brutally treated by vicious, soulless individuals. Yet, as we in the West enjoy the comforts that so many of us have been blessed with, our leaders seem to continuously sidestep the horrors being experienced by young children and many others in Darfur.

Armed with the knowledge of what are daily occurrences in Darfur, we must strip away the shells of uselessness that we feel and stand together as the voices of hope for the people, and in particular the children of Darfur. Children should not be used as soldiers, they should not be sexually mutilated and they should not witness the mass destruction of life.

Today in Darfur there are many stories similar to that of Anne Frank, only it is not an attic where the children are confined, but refugee camps. To venture outside these camps means rape, mutilation or even death.

On Sunday, May 4th, Sudanese government jets bombed a school killing close to a dozen children. The UN has a no-fly zone over Darfur, but as is evident from the events of May 4th, the UN and the international community in general refuses to endorse it.

So as the death toll in Darfur continues to rise, and the Sudanese government continues to act with impunity towards its native black African population, the question arises “who, along with the Sudanese government ministers and members of the Janjaweed militia that have already been indicted by the International Criminal Court at the Hague, will pay for the crimes that have been committed since the conflict in Darfur began in 2003?” A significant number of EU and US-based corporations have played significant roles in the economic and industrial support and growth of the Sudanese regime. These corporations may be held financially responsible for their support of the Sudanese regime. It may take many years, but as we have witnessed with the recent US court rulings pertaining to civil proceedings being brought against multinational corporations that supported the apartheid regime in South Africa, corporations that support, or have supported genocidal regimes are no longer safe from criminal or civil action. Financial retribution to the innocents of Darfur may not replace all that they have lost, but it may help them to restore some form of normalcy to their lives.

The International Alliance For Human Rights will be staging the biggest concert ever held to raise awareness of the crisis in Darfur. The “Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur” will be calling for fundamental action to be taken to help enhance protection for the native black African population, with an ultimate call for a cessation of hostilities to be enforced by the joint UN/AU hybrid force that is currently being deployed in Darfur.

For more information, please contact David Nolan at dnolan@iafhr.org or 212.695.7022, ext. 315. Make your thoughts known – visit our blog at http://iafhr-darfur.blogspot.com.

Darfur - Increase in Crimes Against Women

2008-04-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

When nations go to war, it is expected that the participating nations will adhere to the rules of war which including the utilization of appropriate weaponry, the proper treatment of prisoners of war and safe guarding the passage of civilians, ensuring that no harm come to them from the opposing forces.

When there is internal conflict in which various ethnic groups fight amongst themselves it always happens that the rule books are thrown to the wind. As we have seen in numerous internal conflicts over the last sixty years, countries that have undergone tumultuous regime changes have done so at the expense of its civilian population. From Cambodia to Bosnia, internal conflict has resulted in mass genocide with the culprits brought before various international criminal tribunals. This only happens once the hostile regime has been overthrown and a new democratic government installed.

It is the destruction of the civilian population and the unabashed refusal of regimes to adhere to the Geneva Conventions surrounding the stated protection of the civilian population that must be addressed by the international community if the growing episodes of genocide are to be stopped.

Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary General of UN announced on Saturday, April 5th that violence towards the civilian population in Darfur had deteriorated to new levels. The use of sexual violence towards women and young girls has increased dramatically over the last six months. The newly deployed UN-AU Hybrid Force is not providing the appropriate levels of security for women or young girls and therefore the Sudanese government forces and sponsored militia are basically free to carry out these horrendous crimes against innocent civilians.

One can only imagine the effects that these crimes have on their victims. The long term, mental issues that are associated with rape and other forms of abuse are known to have a detrimental affect not only for the victim, but for the immediate family. The feelings of guilt, lack of trust towards other human beings can and often does lead to early death, either at the victims own hand or through the decline of the physical person.

As a man, a husband and a father, I loath the thought of harming another human being. In Darfur, the female section of the community is solely responsible for collecting firewood and other items that require them to travel, on foot, outside the refugee camps. The reason for this is the fact that if men are to undertake these tasks, their lives are placed in immediate danger, so it is considered wiser to let women and young girls be raped and mutilated rather than have the men killed.

While attending a conference at the UN during the latter stages of 200, I heard first hand accounts from women that had been sexually violated in other conflict areas, primarily Darfur, Bosnia and Burma. They were ostracized from their communities, they felt that they had become worthless, because having lost their virginity, they were considered spent, unclean and no good to a man who might previously have been considered a suitable husband.

The worst situations concern those victims that become pregnant after being raped. They must bring a child into the world and watch that child grow up only to be reminded every day, for the rest of their lives, that the child’s father is the perpetrator of the most vicious crime that can be committed against women. According to the witnesses who spoke at the UN conference, when the victim is ostracized from her community, she will often go in search of the perpetrator so that she may stay with him, because no one else will have her. This can also result in a ready made army for future conflicts, with the child from an early age being told stories of how its mother’s tribe didn’t want her and how that child must grow up to take revenge. It is a cycle that we in the developed world are not too familiar with.

While the focus of Darfur has drifted to the back pages of our daily newspapers, due to the increase of media attention on Tibet, Kosovo and other growing concerns, this has allowed the Sudanese government to step up its actions in Darfur, as the old saying goes “while the cat’s away, the mice will play.” This is the situation that Mr. Ban blames for the upsurge in violence against women.

I would like to invite you to take a moment to reflect on the situation in Darfur. During your time of reflection, think of the innocent men, women and children who face a horrific future if we don’t do something to change the course of their lives.

The International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope for Humanity will stage the largest concert of its kind in New York City. This concert, to be held in the coming months, will help to raise awareness of the situation in Darfur and it will also call on the international community to take action to stop what can only be described as a nightmare.

For more information, please call 212.695. 7022, ext. 315 or email dnolan@spinmillgroup.com. (http://iafhr-darfur.blogspot.com)

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur - Update 03/18/08

2008-03-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

The rainy season is quickly approaching Africa and little has been done to stem the flow of death in Darfur. While it has quickly disappeared from the news headlines, the situation in Darfur is now at a critical point based on a few issues.

First is the potentially disastrous short supply of food aid. Over the last few months, about 50 supply trucks have been hijacked, with many of the drivers murdered. To date, there are still 13 drivers missing. Trucking companies that had previously worked with the World Food Program are refusing to supply convoy drivers because of the lack of security being provided for the convoys. The World Food Program also recently announced that it may have to suspend its Humanitarian Air Service at the end of March because of the lack of funding. This means that the lives of those Darfuris living in refugee camps in remote parts of Darfur will be placed at greater risk because they will be cut off from food and medical supplies. NGOs, whose services are very much needed in these remote parts, utilize the air service because it is the only way to transport staff to these camps. The situation in Darfur will get worse when the rainy season starts. This news does not paint a good picture.

The other news coming out of Darfur is the fact that fighting has increased between the Sudanese government forces, including the Janjaweed and local rebel groups, which has resulted in hundreds of deaths. International sources are now convinced that the Sudan government will fulfill its mandate to eradicate Darfur of the ethnic black African population and resettle Darfur with black Arabs that are loyal to Khartoum.

The issue of the UN-AU Hybrid Force continues to increase due to the lack of interest of non-African nations to provide troops to this much needed force. There are still only 9,000 UN-AU troops deployed in Darfur, most having changed their green AU berets for the blue beret of the UN. The current state of the force has ensured that the massacre of innocent men, women and children will continue, based on the fact that the force is dreadfully undermanned, logistically inadequate and the African Union in general has been grossly manipulated by Sudan to the point that AU pressure on Sudan to halt its crimes against humanity in Darfur is almost nonexistent.

So what does all this mean? It means an evitable escalation in the deaths of innocent men, women, and children. It also means the continuation of mass rape of women and young girls, some as young as four years of age. But most of all, it appears that the international community has moved its attention to other issues that are of greater concern to its membership, including the current situation in Kosovo, the recent Chinese clampdown in Tibet and the worsening global financial situation.

The message that the international community appears to be sending out to the people of Darfur resembles something along the lines of “You missed your turn! We have other much more important issues to work on at the moment. Hang on and we will come back to you when we get a chance to.” Again, Africa is put on the back burner while “white” issues are placed before the millions of people that face imminent death and destruction in Darfur. The international community can not allow instability in any part of Europe, hence the drive to calm the worries of Serbia as they pertain to Kosovo and its declaration of independence last month. In regards to Tibet, the Chinese government’s clampdown on the Tibetan fight for independence has drawn global attention because of the force used by China and the accusations of human rights violations in Tibet.

Kosovo, Tibet and other major happenings across the world has worked very well to give the international community some relief in relation to its lack of action in Darfur. If attention keeps sliding from one issue to the next, it means that all the issues, irrespective of where they are happening, will go unresolved which will lead to further unrest. That is why it is of great importance that the power of the global community, which comprises of every man, woman and child everywhere, be brought into action to help the international community to focus on resolving all the issues, not only those it deems most important to the stability of global affairs.

It is with this in mind that the International Alliance for Human Rights, together with Hope for Humanity will stage the largest concert ever held to enhance global awareness of the situation in Darfur and the plight of the millions of innocent men, women and children who face imminent death if we fail to act on their behalf. Join us as we prepare to stage the Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur in New York City. For more information on this global event, please email David Nolan at dnolan@iafhr.org or call him at 212.695. 7022, ext. 315. You can also add your comments of support on our blog at http://iafhr-darfur.blogspot.com

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur - Update 03/06/08

2008-03-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

The air attacks came first, then the attacks by the ground forces followed by the death squad militias on their tails, rounding up the innocent civilians, some for immediate execution others for transportation, to be used as prostitutes or child soldiers. This is not the German invasion of its European neighbors during the early stages of WWII but the recent events in Darfur. Hundreds were killed and many more disappeared. Again the question arises, what in God’s name is the international community doing to protect the lives of the innocent civilians in Darfur? The answer quite simply is nothing. International aid has been cut off from numerous refugee camps which also mean that many more innocent civilians now face imminent death not only from these murderous militias but from disease and starvation.

The European Union’s peacekeeping force (EUFOR) initiated its deployment to Chad last month after a number of delays stemming from the recent Sudanese sponsored rebel attacks on the Chadian government and the attempted coup that was thwarted by the Chadian government with the overwhelming support of the French military.

EUFOR’s mission to Chad is very important as its deployment is primarily aimed at providing much needed security for the Darfuri refugees that are being housed in camps just inside the Chadian border. Even though these refugees are inside Chad, they come under regular attack from Sudanese sponsored militia, which cross the border into Chad on a regular basis. It is hoped that EUFOR’s mandate will allow for both offensive and defensive action to be taken in order to safeguard the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Darfuri refugees that are in the Chadian camps.

Over the last the few days, French forces serving with EUFOR mistakenly drove into Sudan and came under fire. One EUFOR soldier was reported missing and on 03/05/08 his body was found by Sudanese forces in the area and upon the handover of his body to the appropriate parties, it will be shipped home to France for burial.

One issue that might prevent a successful EUFOR mission is the fact that the force is so heavily influenced by France, and with France independently providing major support to the Chadian government to protect French financial, trade and mineral trade agreements, France has become a major target of Sudanese-sponsored rebels that have withdrawn to Eastern Chad in preparation for a massive offensive to be launched in the immediate future.

We recently witnessed Steven Spielberg’s withdrawal from his role as the creative advisor of the Beijing Olympics that are due to start this coming August. If Mr. Spielberg had declined this position when it was first offered to him in 2006, the impact would not have been as great as it has now become, due to the fact that, with only a few months to go, the Chinese government will find it extremely difficult to find a notable replacement for Mr. Spielberg. The withdrawal of such a prominent global celebrity has placed the spotlight on China’s role in Darfur. China is viewed a major supporter of the Sudanese government, based primarily on economic, military and mineral trade agreements that are in place between the two nations. The details surrounding these trade agreements are considered top secret at the behest of the Chinese. The criticism of China stems from its failure to appropriately influence Sudan to stop its regime of annihilation of the native black African population of Darfur.

One item that is very important and that must not be overlooked is the fact that China is not the only country with economic ties to Sudan and it is not the only country to underutilize its influence in Sudan to stem the flow of blood in Darfur. While the safeguarding of innocent lives should be of utmost importance to the international community, it is not when to do so would interfere with global economies. No one country can be highlighted as the sole conspirator in Sudan’s mass murder of innocent men, women and children in Darfur. The international community, as a collective body is complicit in this crime. The main leaders of the international community, the group commonly referred to as the “G8” group of nations have all been silent in reference to Darfur. The main religious bodies have been extremely silent in reference to the crimes being committed in Darfur. The Vatican, under the current papacy, hasn’t been this quiet since the Holocaust and the papacy of Pious XII. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of world’s second biggest religion, has been more concerned about England’s adoption of Shira law than voicing his concern of the mass murder of the innocent civilians in Darfur.

What is causing the silence? Well, it can be said that this silence is based on the various economic and strategic ties to Sudan that are in place with most G8 nations. NATO considers Sudan an ally in the war against terrorism. Today’s strategic alliance between NATO and Sudan is in stark contrast to the views held by President Bill Clinton, when in 1996 he ordered that the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, be bombed because Sudan was viewed as a safe haven for Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, including Osama Bin Laden and a major support base of other global terrorists.

While the US and the EU have instituted embargos against Sudan, embargos only work if all nations participate in the implementation of those embargos and if those embargos are not selective trade embargos. Take for example the US and EU trade agreements with Sudan that allows Arabic gum from Sudan to be exported for use in the manufacture of chewing gum, soda, and other gum-based products. An embargo of Arabic gum would result in a major loss of jobs and revenues for the global economy. So we can say that the trade embargos instituted by the US and the EU are selective trade embargos, ones that will not affect their economies.

Major European and US based financial institutions have all greatly invested in Sudan. The withdrawal of these investments could be a major blow to an already shaky global economy, let alone a major catastrophic move for the African continent.

So the big question is “Is it right to highlight and criticize one country’s role in reference to its support of a regime such as that in Sudan?”

Well, the answer has got to be a resounding NO! Just to reiterate, the international community as a whole, has been negligent in allowing the crisis in Darfur to deteriorate to its current point. If we start pointing the finger at individual nations, what then can we say about other crisis areas that are even less talked about today and the roles of Western nations in those areas? Western nations have also been particularly complicit in previous genocidal events such as the French government’s support of the Hutu regime in Rwanda during the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi, the British and American support of General Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile, during the 1980’s, that resulted in thousands of innocent civilians being murdered. Most of all, if we look at the activities of American and European companies in Sudan, and the major profits that they have amassed from doing business in Sudan, they can also be accused of being complicit in the events leading to the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children in Darfur and the potential loss of millions of lives if their support for the Sudanese regime continues.

People are now talking of boycotting the Beijing games but that will achieve nothing as far as influencing change in Darfur. It will only enable smaller nations to win more Olympic medals but that is about it. If the Olympics were being held in the US this year, how many countries would be calling for a boycott of the US games based on its war in Iraq and Afghanistan and its treatment of prisoners both in Iraq and in Cuba.

The loss of lives in Darfur can only be stopped through the initiation of combined global efforts that will influence the Sudanese regime to change its course of action in Darfur. The large scale conferences, meetings, planning sessions and other accumulated rhetoric have to stop. There needs to be a fully implemented solution-based formula developed for Darfur, based on regional economic redevelopment, education, communication and most importantly, equality. This formula may also call for a self-styled autonomous independent state of Darfur. Maybe if more time was spent on action instead of talking, life might be different for millions of innocent civilians caught up in this needless conflict in Darfur.

On March 23rd, 1943 during a House of Lords debate on the Allied Declaration of December 17th that outlined a plan of action pertaining to the treatment of Jewish refugees that were trying escape from Nazis Europe, Lord Samuel, an English peer of Jewish decent, stated that “The declaration of the United Nations was made on December 17. Today is March 23rd, and, so far as is publicly known, nothing has happened except discussions, conferences and exchanges of notes. We are glad to learn that measures are afoot for securing close cooperation between this country and the United States. But there seems to be a great danger that action is liable to be lost in the sands of diplomatic negotiations…

While the governments prepare memoranda and exchange notes and hold conferences, week after week, month after month, the Nazis go on killing men, women and children.”

So as we can see, the rhetoric and lack of action is nothing new. Dialogue during the initial stages of unrest, is extremely important and in most cases it is very helpful because it has the ability to stop the progression to all out conflict. But when third party sponsored dialogue fails to encourage a strategy of communication and cooperation amongst potential warring factions, the international community has a responsibility to take action to prohibit the progress to war. When it fails to take these necessary steps, the international community then becomes responsible for this failure and any future events associated with the conflict.

Dialogue has failed Darfur. To date, no appropriate action has been taken on behalf of the innocent civilians of Darfur and it is time for action. Military intervention will not work, but the coming together of the global community, the ordinary people of the world, to voice their concerns at the progression of the conflict in Darfur will certainly be of greater help than our diplomatic leaders continuing their dialogue.

The International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope for Humanity will stage the largest concert of its kind ever held to help enhance global awareness of the conflict in Darfur.

The response to our call for help has been incredible and we need it to continue. For information on how you can help, please email dnolan@iafhr.org or call 212.695.7022, ext. 315.

2008-02-12T21:30:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

When a serious wound festers and is not tended to by the appropriate people, it can become gangrenous. This can lead to amputation or death. The conflict in Darfur has become gangrenous and it is now spreading beyond its borders because the international community has not appropriately focused its capabilities on resolving this conflict which enters its sixth year later this month.

Darfur has festered and the conflict has spread into neighboring Chad. While member nations of the African and the European Unions, as well as the UN Security Council have become very alarmed by the spread of the conflict into Chad, the fact is that the international community was warned on many occasions that if it did not address the conflict in Darfur, its likely spread to it neighboring countries was inevitable.

Since the initiation of the conflict in Darfur, the international community has not only treated it as a non-significant conflict but it has treated the people of Darfur as a non-significant race. Thus due to the international community’s lack of interceptive action in Darfur, the conflict has now erupted to a level that will have major implications not only for the innocent men, women and children of Darfur, but it has the potential to greatly impact major military and economic relationships between the Chadian government and its former European colonial powers.

Over the weekend of February 1st, it was reported that heavily armed rebels, supported by the Sudanese government, had launched a major offensive in Chad and were reputed to have taken large sections of the Chadian capital, N’Djamena. It was also reported that the Chadian President, Idriss Deby was holding onto power by his finger tips. The French government offered to evacuate Mr. Deby but he refused this offer. French officials in N’Djamena did manage to evacuate close to 500 non-essential French personnel and other foreign nationals.

The rebel forces withdrew from N’Djamena on Monday, January 4th to give the civilian population time to evacuate the capital. This withdrawal was also initiated to give the rebels time to rearm in order to launch a massive offensive.

A number of key non-governmental organizations operating in the Darfuri refugee camps in Chad have stated that the distribution of nearly $300m in aid is in danger of being disrupted. Should this happen, the lives of many of the Darfuri refugees in Chad will be put at great risk.

The newly formed EU Chad-bound peacekeeping force has had its deployment delayed. This force, dominated by the French, will have the responsibility of protecting Darfuri refugees in both Chad and the Central Africa Republic, but will now not be deployed until a level of stability can be maintained in Chad and God only knows when that will be.

The time has now come whereby the international community has to take a good look at its failings in Darfur. On numerous occasions over the last five years it was stressed upon the UN to take action in Darfur and it ignored all pleas for help, due mainly to the financial implications such actions would have on many member nations of the UN. As a result of this inaction, we have witnessed yet again the major destruction of human life, with the deaths of close to 600,000 innocent men, women, and children, the displacement of 2.5 million people, the lives of a further 4 million innocent civilians being placed in grave danger, and the daily occurrence of large scale rape and mutilation of women and young girls, some as young as four years of age.

During the week of January 28th, the United Nations appointed George Clooney as a UN peace envoy due to his incredible work on behalf of the people of Darfur. Mr. Clooney’s name can now be added to list of internationally renowned celebrities that have been utilized by the UN to cover up its own inadequacies. It can be expected that the UN will pass the baton to these celebrities whose roles with the UN, while they might seem highly prestigious, will result in great frustration on behalf of the celebrity and little or no action on behalf of the UN. We have witnessed the utilization of celebrities throughout the history of the UN that resulted in nothing of substance being achieved.

George Clooney deserves all the accolades that have been bestowed on him but he does not deserve to be used by an organization that has failed in Darfur, where he and a large number of his colleagues have succeeded in heightening global awareness of the conflict there.

Join with the International Alliance For Human Rights and Hope for Humanity Alliance International as we take the initial steps to enhance global awareness of the conflict in Darfur and what is likely to happen if the international community continues to do nothing. The Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur will also raise the global call for action to save and protect the innocent men, women and children whose cries for help have so far gone unanswered. You can email dnolan@iafhrl.org for more information or just call 212.695.7022, ext. 315.

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur - Update

2008-02-12T21:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

Over the last few days, the situation in Darfur has entered its darkest hour in the history of the five year conflict. Sudanese government troops, with the support of its militia, the Janjaweed, launched major aerial and ground attacks in numerous refugee camps and villages in Darfur. Hundreds of civilians have been murdered. The UN announced on Sunday, February 10th that Darfur is at its closest point to all out war than it has been in five years. Since the initiation of this latest round of intense fighting, over twelve thousand Darfuri refugees have crossed the border into Chad, increasing the number of refugees in Chad to close to one million.

Ever since the conflict in Darfur started in 2003, the international community has consistently been informed of the ongoing situation there. Many NGOs, human rights organizations and world renowned celebrities have been working diligently to inform the international community of the plight of the innocent men, women and children that have been caught up in the drive to eradicate the native black African population of Darfur. With all the accumulated information at their disposal, the international community has done nothing to stop the bloodshed.

What is laughable is the fact that on Friday, February 8th, the Sudanese government signed the Status of Forces Agreement which sets out the legal framework for the joint United Nations – African Union Hybrid Force (UNAMID) to operate in Darfur. The Sudanese government lifted certain restrictions pertaining to the movement of UNAMID personnel in Darfur and most importantly it also lifted certain communications restrictions that the Sudanese government had placed on the force. The Sudanese are still refusing to allow troops from non-African nations to be deployed as part of UNAMID and this is causing a major embarrassment to the UN because with the restrictions on the makeup of UNAMID, the UN will not be able to attain its desired deployment goal of 26,000 troops.

Why the Status of Forces Agreement is laughable is the fact that if all out war is declared in Darfur, UNAMID’s objective will be unachievable and most of its current contributing nations may have no choice but to withdraw their troops, because Darfur will no longer be a peacekeeping operation. The operational ability of UNAMID has also been severely disrupted from its initiation because the required logistical support has not been forthcoming from those nations that promised such support.

We have to ask ourselves, what will the big producers in Hollywood call the movie that they make about Darfur and how many Oscars will it win? That seems to be the way episodes of mass human rights and genocide go today. Schindler’s List, Hotel Rwanda, Sometime in April, Blood Diamond, Cry Freedom, to name but a few, are all movies that have been made about genocide, mass human rights abuses and the inability of the international community’s to take action to halt abuses against innocent civilians.

Just as individuals and groups today are working relentlessly to influence the international community to take action in Darfur, during the Holocaust similar bodies of concerned groups were reporting on a daily basis to the allied powers the murderous deeds being committed against the European Jews. For example, on August 8th, 1941, Mr. Gerhart Riegner of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva, dispatched a telegram to Howard Elting, the American Vice-Consul in Geneva and to H. B. Livingston, the British Consul in Geneva as well as to the World Jewish Congress in both London and New York in which it was stated that “We have received an alarming report stating that, in the Fuehrer’s Headquarters, a plan has been discussed and is under consideration, according to which all Jews in countries occupied or controlled by Germany numbering 3-4 millions, should, after deportation and concentration in the East, be at one blow exterminated, in order to resolve, once and for all the Jewish question in Europe.” This telegram was part of the overall campaign to alert the allies of Hitler’s plan as it pertained to the destruction of European Jewry.

Groups such as the World Jewish Congress, the Palestine Office (Geneva) and some governments in exile, worked not only to highlight what was happening to the Jews, but also to the Poles, Russian POWs, Roman Catholic Priests, and all those that fell foul of the Nazis. The warnings and pleas for help fell on deaf ears. The allies, primarily the British, were concerned that any action would only endanger the lives of their soldiers and aircrews that were being held as POWs in Germany.

Also during the Holocaust, a letter that was past on to the Polish government in exile and read out on the BBC by Szmul Zygielbojm, a member of the National Council of the Polish government in exile raised such public concerns that even those suffering the worst of the London blitz started to call for action on behalf of the Jews of Europe. The letter was written by a woman in the Warsaw ghetto, during its liquidation and the mass deportations to Treblinka, to her sister in the Lodz ghetto. The letter read “My hands are shaking. I cannot write. Our minutes are numbered. The Lord knows whether we shall see one another again. I write and weep. My children are whimpering. They want to live. We bless you. If you get no more letters from me you will know that we are no longer alive.” (Please see Martin Gilbert’s AUSCHWITZ AND THE ALLIES, A Devastating Accounting of How the Allies Responded to the News of Hitler’s Mass Murder.)

Information regarding the Nazis’ plan pertaining to the destruction of the European Jews during the war was past on to the allies almost on a daily basis. The allies inaction, due to their own concerns, has ensured that the promise of “never again” will be forever broken. This is evident by the development of genocidal conflicts in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda, to name but a few cases in point, whereby the international community stood by and did nothing to stop the mass slaughter of innocent civilians.

In Darfur, the lack of intervention by the international community is primarily related to the potential loss of economic, mineral and military trade agreements by the most powerful members of the international community. Neither racism nor economic concerns are excuses for inaction. Those in power that have the ability to stop the slaughter of the innocent civilian population in Darfur, but don’t use it may be considered just as guilty as those who perpetrate these acts.

The International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope for Humanity Alliance International will be staging the biggest concert event ever held to enhance global awareness of the conflict in Darfur and we will be calling on the international community to stop with the rhetoric and initiate action to save the millions of lives that are currently at risk in Darfur. For more information on how you can help, please email dnolan@iafhr.org or call 212.695.7022, ext. 315.

Darfur - Lost with no news

2008-01-28T12:57:00.001-08:00

Dear Friends:

If we take a look around the world today and try to determine the most pressing issues that we face, we may have great difficulty in this process. From global warming and the unsettling future of the global economy to conflicts in the Middle East, Pakistan and Kenya, the world is a hot bed of unrest and from the direction we are heading it appears as if things are only going to get worse.

As we know, the US is heading for a disastrous recession which is already having a knock on effect on the global markets, with the major banking institutions having reported record breaking loses over the last two quarters.

The war in Iraq continues to drain US and British military and economic resources and the global standing of the US continues to deteriorate as the highly flawed mission in Iraq continues to consume the lives of innocent civilians and the young men and women of the armed services. The situation in Afghanistan is no better and the turmoil in Pakistan is bringing the country closer to civil war.

President Bush last week completed a major visit to the Middle East, which will ensure the strengthening of US-Mid East economic ties. These relationships will continue to grow strong based on the arms deals implemented between the US and the governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain.

Mr. Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister is on the closing stages of his Far East visit which saw the British government enhance economic relationships between China and India.

Most people in the US seem to be consumed by the tabloid issues facing those in celebrity circles. Most recently we experienced the death of Heath Ledger, the young Australian-born actor who died on Monday night in Manhattan. There is great speculation as to the cause of his death. Also, over the last couple of months we have experienced the Brittany Speers saga. We have heard about Brittany’s younger sister who is expecting a baby sometime this year. We also had the “trauma” of Brittany locking herself in a bathroom with her terrified young son while she was on a cocktail of drugs and booze. Not only are these stories grabbing the headlines but the writer’s strike is up there too. There is now major concern regarding the Oscars and whether they will go ahead or not.

Who really cares about any of this? What impact does any of this have on our lives? The answer to the first question is apparently a lot of people because this kind of gossipy news tends to sell a lot of magazines and brings in large viewers to the news programs. The answer to the second question is a definitive “none.”

Ask anybody on the street what they think of the following and I am sure that they will look at you with a blank stare:

The recent election victory of Mikhail Saakashvili that has increased hostilities between NATO and Russia, because of Mr. Saakashvilli’s wish for Georgia to join NATO.
The effect that the global credit crunch, caused by the US sub-prime market collapse, has had on the global economy (Citigroup announced on 1/14/08 a loss of nearly $9.5 billion.)
How President Kinaki of Kenya has brought a once “stable” of African democracies to the brink of civil war.

To reiterate there are many issues facing the world today, but one of the key issues that has gone silent and that has not gone away, is the conflict in Darfur. Earlier this month, the new UN-AU Hybrid Force was deployed to Darfur. In actual fact, the AU force that was already on the ground in Darfur just exchanged their green AU berets for the blue UN berets. The force currently numbers 9,000 troops and they have already been attacked by Sudanese ground forces. What is really telling is the fact that the Sudanese government continues to put hurdles in the deployment of further troop numbers by not agreeing to the deployment of non-African troops in the region – so why have they allow the deployment of a battalion of Chinese troops?

While the US and British governments have announced major trade agreements with the largest growing economies, specifically China and India, it is these countries and other new trade partners that are partially responsible for the growing situation in Darfur.

When all is said and done, the international community has gone silent on Darfur. Is this a conspiracy based on the new trade agreements recently executed? Maybe, but is global trade more important than a global commitment to respect human rights and to ensure that innocent men, women and children are not slaughtered?

What we know to date about the conflict in Darfur should be enough to implement a diplomatic assault on the Sudanese government but for some unknown reason nothing is been done to stop the quick progression of death in Darfur. The statistical data continues to change on a weekly basis with the following being reported:

600,000 related deaths since the conflict began nearly five years ago
2.5 million people displaced, living in refugee camps either in Darfur or in Chad or the Central Africa Republic
4.5 million people in dire need of both medical and food aid
The mass rape and torture of women and young girls (some as young as four years of age)
The withdrawal from Darfur of extensive NGO operations based on the continuing security issues
The mass kidnapping of young boys to be used as child soldiers
The total destruction of whole generations of Darfuri people
The wall of silence of our global leaders

To make matters worse, the Sudanese government recently appointed Musa Hilal as an advisor to Abdel Basit Sabderat, the Sudanese Federal Affairs Minister. Mr. Hilal is the leader of the Janjaweed which has committed mass human rights abuses in Darfur and Mr. Hilal has been indicted by the International Criminal Court of war crimes. Mr. Hilal’s appointment has been seen by human rights groups not only as a slap in face to the victims of Darfur but also to the UN.

It has also been reported that the number of hijackings of critical aid conveys in Darfur has increased whereby the NGOs on the ground in Darfur estimate that further lives will be lost due to these hijackings. So far this year, 22 trucks have been hijacked and 18 drivers have gone missing. There has also been a huge increase in the number of violent attacks on other convey personnel. The trucking companies contracted by the UN and other organizations to deliver the much needed aid are now refusing to send any more personnel or provide any more trucks for the mission in Darfur until security is beefed up. The current situation in Darfur has seen the near depletion of ration stores in some camps and it has been reported that if action is not taken soon to secure the aid convoys, thousands of lives will be placed in great danger, especially in the lead up to the rainy season which starts in May.

On Monday, January 21st, we celebrated the life of one of the most globally influential men of the 20th century, the Rev’d Dr. King. People from around the world are familiar with the words “I had a dream,” in the famous speech given by Dr. King. Unfortunately, a lot of people in Darfur are living a dream, one which could be classified a nightmare and one from which most will never wake from, unless we all find the courage to do something about it.

The International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope for Humanity Alliance International have set the plans in motion for the biggest concert event ever held to enhance global awareness of the conflict in Darfur. We will call on the international community to be more proactive in bringing about a cessation of violence in Darfur. We must not allow the world to forget what is happening in Darfur but most importantly the international community must answer the cry for help that they have so far failed to hear.

For more information on the Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur and how you can help us, please send an email to dnolan@iafhr.org or call 212.695. 7022, ext. 315.

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur - Update

2008-01-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

The New Year starts and already Sudan is in the news. A 33 year old American diplomat John Granville was shot five times as he returned home from a New Year’s Eve party in Khartoum. His driver died instantly while Mr. Granville died later in hospital. The US State Department and the FBI are sending a team of investigators to help solve the murder. The Sudanese government believe that the attack on Mr. Granville was not terrorist related but with anti-US and anti-Western feelings running extremely high in Khartoum due international criticism of Sudan due to the ongoing conflict in Darfur, it is highly likely that the murder of Mr. Granville could be anything else but terrorist related.

On January 1st, 2008 the seven thousand member strong African Union force traded in their green berets for the blue beret of the UN, who has now taken over the peacekeeping mission as part of the UN-AU hybrid peacekeeping force. The total force in Darfur now numbers 9,000 troops which is well short of the expected 26,000 force agreed upon by the UN Security Counsel. The Sudanese government has still not approved the deployment of non-African troops and it has also said that it would not approve the deployment of air support, in the form of helicopter gun ships, to be used as an extra layer of security by the new hybrid force. That doesn’t seem to make any difference because no nation has stepped up to the plate to donate these much needed aircraft.

On Friday, December 28th, 2007 the Sudanese government complained to the UN Security Counsel regarding the reported attacks on Darfur by Chadian government forces, with the support of a number of Darfuri rebel groups. It is currently not known who these attacks were aimed at, but early reports suggest that the attacks targeted pro-Sudanese militias. The Chadian government has denied that any such attacks have taken place.

February, 2008 marks the fifth anniversary of the conflict in Darfur and it appears that the conflict will continue due to the shifting of international focus on the growing number of global conflicts. With Kenya, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Pakistan all making headlines, the list of global conflict and possible conflict zones continues to grow. As we all know, international action will only be taken if a conflict results in a severe consequence to the dollar, the Euro or the Yen. This means that thousands or possibly millions of people will continue to suffer and die as a result of global inaction due to their lives being worth nothing.

Although 2008 has gotten off to a bleak start, the International Alliance For Human Rights, in conjunction with Hope for Humanity Alliance International will be working towards a global, grassroots attitudinal change in how we, the people of this planet, better deal with conflict, both on a regional and a global level. Both organizations are working with a number of affiliated individuals and like-minded organizations to incorporate change for the future. Our vision of change encompasses less rhetoric and more action, bringing together those that have first hand experience of conflict and those that have power and will to affect change.

As most of you are aware, the International Alliance For Human Rights together with Hope for Humanity Alliance International will be staging the largest concert event ever staged to enhance global awareness of the conflict in Darfur. Over the next few works, you will be hearing a lot more about the concert, themed the Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur. It is time for us all to live up to the old cliché of “Never Again,” only from this year on, we will start the process of instituting that promise in earnest.

For information pertaining to the IAFHR and the Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur, please call David Nolan at 212.695. 7022, ext. 315 or just shoot an email at dnolan@iafhr.org

The crimes that people get away with

2007-12-11T13:23:00.000-08:00

Friends:

Imagine one fine Saturday your little girl goes out to play with her friends. She is living a carefree and happy existence. She plays with her Barbie dolls, she loves to play dress up but most of all, she enjoys watching Dora the Explorer on television. Your little girl is your pride and joy. She is your life. You think that you would do anything to protect her. A short while later, she runs back into the house, all bloodied and in shock. She has been raped. She has been mutilated. Her life has been ruined. As a parent, you want vengeance. You want the culprits brought to justice. She tells you that a group of men, one after the other, had taken turns to “hurt” her.

Now imagine that there is nothing that you can do about what has happened to your little girl. You find out there are groups of men going around your neighborhood, raping women and children. The police are powerless to do anything about it. You find out that nobody will ever be brought to justice. You feel that your world is falling in around you. As a parent, your ability to protect your child has been taken away from you. Nothing you can do will heal your daughter. The psychological effect on your daughter will remain with her for the rest of her life. The shame that you experience based on your inability to protect your angel will never leave you.

As we know, a horrendous crime like this would never go unpunished in the US, in the UK or anywhere in the western world. But in Africa, more specifically in Darfur, it is happening on a daily basis. Young girls, some as young as four years of age, are being raped under the very noses of the African Union forces that have been deployed to Darfur to help protect them.

Added to the already horrible situation in Darfur, the rape of young girls is a crime that should defy belief that man can commit these crimes. The international community sits by and does nothing to stop what is happening to the innocent Darfuri people. The government of Sudan laughs in the face of international criticism and knows that it is well protected by its friends who are senior members of the international community.

Rape is not the only human rights abuse that is occurring in Darfur. Mass attacks on the civilian population by the Sudanese supported militia, the Janjaweed, is in contravention of the Geneva Conventions that govern war and the treatment of civilians during times of war, in particular Geneva Convention IV, Article 3., Section 1 that primarily deals with the treatment of civilians.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has strongly urged the Sudanese government to hand over the two main people that it feels are responsible for the mass human rights abuses being directed against the innocent civilians in Darfur. They are Ahmed Haroun, Sudan's human rights monitor (believe it or not) and the Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb. Indictments were issued in February, 2007 against these men. As the Sudanese government refuses to identify the authority of the ICC, it is also refusing to hand over these two monsters.

In reference to the stalled peace talks that were initiated in Libya back in October, the UN is currently attempting to get them restarted with active participation of all concerned parties, only this time Egypt has offered to host the talks. The UN has also been highly critical of the Sudanese government’s slow progress pertaining to land distribution and troop approval for the yet to be deployed UN/AU Hybrid Force.

What makes progress in Darfur so difficult is that on the one hand, the UN is playing with kid gloves in reference to how it is dealing with Sudan and on the other hand, its very own apparatus, the ICC, is pushing for the arrest of the main bodies responsible for the nearly 600,000 deaths to date, the displacement and ill-treatment of 2.5 million displaced persons and for placing the lives of over 4 million people in jeopardy. It is a classic example of the right foot not knowing what the left foot is doing. The strong presentation given last week to the Security Counsel by the chief prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, certainly guarantees an increase in the lack of cooperation given by the Sudanese government to finding a solution to the conflict in Darfur. So what this means is that there will be more delays pertaining to the deployment of UN/AU Hybrid Force and it is not likely that any of the near 56 Sudanese officials that are under indictment by the ICC will ever face a court of international justice for the crimes, that they are responsible for, that have been committed against the innocent Darfuri civilians.

On a larger scale, and a much more shameful scale, little girls will continue to be raped. They will continue to cry in the arms of their parents who will continue to remain powerless in the face of such horrendous abuses being committed against them and their children.

Together, we must act. The International Alliance For Human Rights in conjunction with Hope for Humanity Alliance International, will stage the largest concert ever held to help enhance global awareness of the horrors of Darfur and to enhance the international community to get off its ass and do something, anything, to help stop what is happening to the young children and their innocent parents in Darfur. Talking, talking and more talking will not work! We need action, the people of Darfur need action and without action hope will continue to fade from the eyes of these innocent people.

Contact David Nolan at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or just respond to this email highlighting the ways in which you may help.

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur - We will not fail

2007-11-15T16:18:00.000-08:00

Who likes failure? Kids fail exams in school. Sports teams fail in their desire to win championship titles. But should the international community, specifically the United Nations, fail to put together an international peacekeeping force, more importantly, should the UN be allowed to fail in its ability to save the lives of the millions of men, women, and children of Darfur?

On Wednesday, November 14, 2007, the head of the UN peacekeeping department, Mr. Jean-Marie Guehenno, announced the UN-AU Hybrid Force to Darfur will fail, whenever it is deployed, because the force is still in the development stages, with no support from western nations and because there has been no offer of logistical support, primarily aerial logistical support from any country in West.

Now, as a peacekeeping mission, the UN-AU Hybrid Force needs six attack helicopters and eighteen transport helicopters. The Sudanese government has still not given its “approval” to the makeup of the force and most of those countries that it has approved, do not meet the standards for deployment with the UN.

A few questions arise in reference to these points and the first relates to the six attack helicopters. What on earth does a peacekeeping force require SIX attack helicopters for? I am not naïve, but SIX attack helicopters? It shows that the UN is concerned about sending troops to Darfur without the appropriate military hardware because it believes it is going to be very dangerous for any outside troops that are deployed there. If SIX attack helicopters are required, then one can only imagine what type of heavy ground equipment will be required. Tanks, surface to air missiles, air to ground missiles, mortars, Special Forces even. Is this the environment that the UN intends to send peacekeepers into? Is it any wonder that no western nation has volunteered troops for this mission because even the UN envisions it as a highly dangerous mission. The last time the UN got involved in such a mission was in Somalia in the early 90’s. That force had to be rescued by the US military and it turned out to be a disaster for the US. The second question pertains to the explanation that contributing countries may have to give to their citizens when large numbers of their sons and daughters in the military return home in body bags. Why did you (the government of the contributing country) send our troops to Darfur knowing very well that the situation was so volatile? But with all that said and done, the UN-AU Hybrid force is the only solution other than a full scale military assault on Darfur by NATO, the EU or worse, the US.

The last question that springs to mind is why is the UN waiting on the Sudanese government to give its approval to the make up of the hybrid force? Countless resolutions have been passed at the UN that enables it to send a peacekeeping force to Darfur without the Sudanese government’s approval. Is the UN afraid of insulting or worse, alienating the Sudanese government due to its lack of support or movement in reference to the hybrid force? For God’s sake, what the bloody hell are those guys in New York waiting for?

What needs to happen, and happen very quickly, is:

The UN needs to inform Sudan that the deployment of the UN-AU Hybrid Force is imminent, with or without Sudan’s approval.
The UN needs to give the force an extended mandate so that offensive action, as well as defensive can be taken to defend the lives of the innocent civilians and the members of the deployed force
All militias and rebel groups need to be informed that any actions taken against the UN-AU Hybrid Force will be met by swift action against any side that perpetrate such actions.
This may include:
The arrest of all rebel and militia commanders
The initiation of quick or special proceedings at the International Criminal Court in the Hague
The freezing of all assets held outside the country
An enforced blanket ban by all countries or businesses doing business with Sudan
Retaliatory actions against the forces responsible for carrying out such actions

To move on to another issue. In Britain also on Wednesday, November 14, 2007, the Law Lords, the country’s highest court, overturned a court of appeal’s ruling that allowed three asylum seekers from Darfur to stay in Britain. What this new ruling means is that the three asylum seekers will now be returned to Sudan. Previously failed asylum seekers have been tortured and then murdered upon their return to Sudan. How in the name of God could the highest court in Britain return these three innocent victims to a certain death?

The three asylum seekers in question were due to be sent to a refugee camp in Darfur but they escaped Sudan and found their way to Britain, where they filed asylum applications. In Wednesday’s ruling, the Law Lords announced that sending refugees to camps in the Sudanese region of Darfur was not "unduly harsh" resettlement, therefore their applications for asylum were denied and now they will be repatriated to Sudan.

For those of you who read these emails, you will know that the situation in Darfur is very critical. Can you help? More importantly, do you want to help? If you do, shoot me an email and tell me how you want to help.

You will also know that the International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope for Humanity is staging a global concert event early in the New Year titled the “Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur.” This event will see the biggest names in music coming together to voice their support and hope for the innocent men, women and children of Darfur. The event will also see some of biggest stars in the fields of sports, movies, general entertainment coming together to voice their concern that we, as a global family, need to do more that talk, if the situation in Darfur is to be resolved. If we come together and put our voices together as one, WE WILL NOT FAIL!

Please forward this email to all your friends, families, and associates because it is important that we act NOW!

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur - Join Our Efforts

2007-11-12T17:19:00.000-08:00

Death is an important, but factual stage of life. It usually occurs when a person has reached an age where their grandchildren are running around, demanding to be brought for ice cream after dinner and where they get to reflect upon their life with a mixture of happiness and sadness but most of all contentment. Fond memories of a full life are to be stored in their minds – memories of family and friends, their births, their weddings, their funerals.

It is not uncommon for life to end before this envisioned conclusion. In the western world, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and sudden death syndromes are the major culprits in ending life abruptly. We go to great lengths to prevent our early decline from these causes of early death. We exercise, we eat healthy foods and we have regular checkups with our family physicians. This enables us to prolong our lives.

But there are certain places in the world where lives are cut short by war and human rights abuses and where lives are scarred forever. One of those places is Darfur.

We should all be fairly familiar with what is happening in Darfur today. Close to 600,000 men, women and children have died as a result of mass human rights abuses that have been committed by the Sudanese government. 2.5m people have been displaced and 4m people are in dire need of food and medical aid.

The Darfur Peace Talks in Libya have resulted in nothing being resolved due to the fact that seven of the main rebel groups were not in attendance. Even though the Sudanese government announced a cessation of hostilities during the peace talks, it carried out a number of aerial bombing raids and ground attacks during which dozens of people were killed.

This past week, the Sudanese government expelled the head of the United Nations humanitarian operation in South Darfur, Mr. Wael al-Haj Ibrahim. The expulsion arose because of the government troop’s round up of thousands of refugees from Nyala refugee camp. Mr. Ibrahim urged the refugees not to return to their villages and former homes, which was the Sudanese government’s plan of action, because it was unsafe to do so. Mr. Ibrahim was accused of interfering in the internal mechanisms of Sudan and it was based on this that he was expelled.

Again, Sudan has shown total disregard for the operations of the United Nations and appears totally hostile to this global organization. So while we have peace talks, while the UN threatens sanctions, and while the emergency break has been applied to the deployment of the UN-AU hybrid force, come February, the conflict in Darfur will enter its sixth year. How will we answer our future generations’ condemnations of our inaction?

As the former US Ambassador to the UN recently stated, “There is a lot of rhetoric from the international community, but nobody has the stomach to do anything about Darfur.”

This past summer, former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others traveled to Darfur to highlight the urgent need for international action to save the millions of lives that are at risk in Darfur. They tried to help, but they failed. The Sudanese government patted them on their heads and told them to be on their way – thanks for stopping by.

There is a great phrase “strategic importance.” What does this mean? Since when should we ignore human cries for help based on their country not being of “strategic importance?” Sudan is part of the axis of evil that the world was told about after September 11th, 2001. We have since been informed that Sudan is part of the partnership to combat terrorism and has become a strong alley in that war on terrorism that seen over 3,000 thousand American lives lost in Iraq and countless injuries to young men and women whose lives have been changed forever.

In 1996 President Bill Clinton bombed Sudan because it was a major sponsor of fundamentalist Islamic terror groups but more specifically because it was giving refuge to Osama Bin Laden. Sudan, a Wahhabist Islamic state, is still a sponsor of terrorism. Part of that sponsorship program is directed towards its own people, those that do not conform to the Wahhabist beliefs of the country’s leaders.

There are countries and multinational companies that are supporting the Sudanese regime. Over the last four years, Sudanese infrastructure has experienced an investment of $10b. Investment and financial companies are investing in corporations that are making billions of dollars, not only in Sudan, but in other conflict areas in Africa. Unbeknown to a great number of the global population, their retirement funds are coming, in large part, from companies supporting the conflicts in Africa.

Now, we all understand that we all want to live a comfortable life. We all need money, for most, there is a need for cheap goods, and we all need financial security. But should we achieve all this through the blood of innocent men, women and children? Should we excuse those companies that are making blood money? If so, are these companies any worse than those that used slave laborers during the Holocaust? Would we have made money from the blood of Jewish children if we knew what was happening to them in the death camps of Europe?

So who can stop the tide of death in Darfur? You can! You can help stop what is happening in Darfur, because if we fail to stop what is happening in this place that is commonly referred to as “hell on earth,” it will quickly spread further than Darfur. The Central Africa Republic and Chad have already become embroiled in the situation in Darfur, with the Sudanese government’s sponsored militia, the Janjaweed, running missions into these countries to attack the Darfuri refugees and local tribal areas.

If things in Africa are to change, the attitudes of those in the developed world must change. The international community is concerned about global warming. But we are witnessing the initial effects of global warming today in Darfur. We have the opportunity to do something about it.

The International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope for Humanity will stage the biggest concert of its kind to help stop the horrors that we are witnessing in Darfur. The Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur will be staged in New York and will feature some of the biggest stars from the world of entertainment. For more information, please call me, David Nolan at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or email me at dnolan@iafhr.org. To voice your concerns, please visit our blog at http://iafhr-darfur.blogspot.

Who Guards Innocent Civilians against UN troops

2007-11-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

A phenomenon is taking place with the deployment of UN peace keeping forces – more and more peacekeepers are committing sexual assaults against women and young girls.

On Friday, November 2, the UN reported that 108 Sri Lankan troops were being repatriated to Sri Lanka after being found guilty of committing sexual assaults against young girls and women in Haiti.

We can now add Haiti to the list of other UN peacekeeping missions where allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against UN troops. Other missions include Sierra Leon, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Liberia, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kosovo and East Timor. More than 800 UN troops were recently suspended amid claims of committing sex abuse in Ivory Coast.

The news coming from Haiti is very disturbing in that while these troops are repatriated for “inappropriate” sexual actions, they face court martial in their home countries only when the allegations have been substantiated. What this means is that most troops walk free from court and in most cases, they are discharged from their country’s armed forces.

This is not a good enough response to the allegations pertaining to the rape of women and minors. Facing prosecution in their home countries disqualifies due process, because those making the allegations are more likely to be absorbed into the general population of the mission area, never to be heard from again, thus enabling the accused to claim that their prosecutions are unfair due to the fact that their ability to cross examine the alleged victims is not possible.

The usual charge brought against the UN troops on their repatriation is the charge of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline; they are given a few days detention in a military brig and dismissed. This was the case in 2002 when an Irish solider, serving with the UN in Eritrea was found guilty of making a pornographic movie using underage local prostitutes. The solider, an NCO spent 16 days in military detention and was dismissed from the Irish defense forces.

More recently, UN troops have been accused of abusing young girls in Southern Sudan. A number of Bangladeshi soldiers serving with the UN in the region were sent home due to allegations made against them.

In a book by three UN field workers, titled "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story from Hell on Earth", chronicles the experiences of a doctor, a human-rights official and a secretary in U.N. operations in Cambodia, Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, Liberia and Bosnia. In one controversial volume, it is alleged that some U.N. officials demanded that 15 percent of their local staff's salaries go directly to them instead; that Bulgaria sent freed criminals to serve as peacekeepers; and that incompetent U.N. security has cost lives.

This all leads to the question, “Can UN peacekeeping missions be trusted to provide the level of competency to protect innocent civilians from rouge elements within those missions?” I don’t think so and if the UN does not move to set up its own internal disciplinary code of conduct, in which it tries and convicts the rapists, child molesters and all those that are found to have committed serious crimes, from within its own missions, the trust placed in the “Blue Helmets” and the “Blue Flag” will quickly be lost.

Roust! Roust! The Round Up Has Started!

2007-10-31T22:22:00.001-07:00

It has started! The round up of the native black Darfuri people from the refugee camps in Darfur has begun. Armed Sudanese troops surrounded the camp at Nyala, south Darfur and started to load the civilians onto the back of waiting trucks. The troops were not only armed with heavy weapons, but they were also armed with rubber hoses and sticks that were used to force the civilians on to the trucks.

When UN personnel tried to intervene in the forced evacuation of the Nyala camp, they were prevented from doing so.

Supposedly the forced evacuation of the camps had been planned since June, when the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir announced that he wanted to close what he termed "these museums of despair."

According to James Smith of the British charity, the Aegis Trust, "This could be the start of a long-term plan, to change the demographics of the region, under the noses, and in the presence of the United Nations, that won't be able to do anything about it. The government can get away with this kind of population movement, this illegal population movement, without firing a shot."

A number of human rights groups have stated that they fear that the forced relocation will open the way for ethnic cleansing.

So where have the Sudanese government shipped the evacuated the refugees from the Nyala camp? Nobody knows. Those UN and NGO staff members of the ground were just informed that they were being shipped to a safer camp. Have the Sudanese government built a new camp, possibly a new Auschwitz or a new Bergen Belsen?

This past weekend we witnessed the attempt at peace talks between the Sudanese government and the Darfuri rebel groups. These so called peace talks are going nowhere. What can they achieve when the Sudanese government institutes the initial stages of ethnic cleansing? Who will talk to these mass murderers in the future?

As we have seen, the UN is now considered a nonentity in Darfur. How can it be considered anything else when it is prevented from helping the people of Darfur? What has empowered the Sudanese government to ignore the UN and prevent it from intervening to save the lives of the evacuated refugees?

The UN, the AU, the EU and the US have been talking about the issues of Darfur for over four years now. Nothing has been achieved. How long must the international community entertain the Sudanese government before it is too late to save the millions of innocent civilians that are dying in Darfur?

Is it reasonable to think that we can force the Chinese government to take the appropriate and necessary action to enhance the Sudanese's government willingness to stop the mass human rights abuses in Darfur? Could we encourage US and multinational companies to divest, not only in Sudan, but in the sponsorship of the 2008 Olympic Games that will take place in China?

We must act to stop the further deterioration of the situation in Darfur. We can not sit back and watch while millions of innocent men, women and children continue to be butchered, raped and mutilated.

The International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope for Humanity will host the upcoming Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur. We ask that you support this major global event. We also ask that you join with us in our call for global action to save the innocent civilians of Darfur. For further information, please email dnolan@iafhr.org or call him at 212.695.7022, ext. 315.

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur - Libyan Peace Talks Repositioned as Consultative Talks

2007-10-31T22:17:00.000-07:00

Sitting around, talking about peace, announcing ceasefires, talking economic development - the question is, how can the situation in Darfur be resolved if the main rebel groups are not participating in the peace talks that are currently underway in Libya?

While the international mediators appear to have come to the conclusion that the talks are doomed to failure, the Sudanese government have grasped the absence of the seven main rebel groups as an opportunity to insinuate that if the peace talks collapse, the reason will be that these rebel groups are not interested in peace. The truth is that the Sudanese government wants peace but on their terms and their terms don't correlate with their actions in Darfur over the last four years.

The rebel groups that are participating in the talks do not represent the majority of the Darfuri people and are basically without the support of the people whom they claim to represent.

The sponsor of the talks, Colonel Gaddafi, has also started out on the wrong foot by claiming that the situation in Darfur is basically about tribal divisions and tribal jealousies. What is wrong about this analysis is the fact that Darfur is plainly about oil and the desire of the Sudanese government to clear Darfur of the ethnic black African tribes of the region. If we look at the history of the Darfur, the various tribes have always gotten along. They have always traded goods with each other and they have always sorted out their differences by having negotiations between the various tribal chiefs.

The nations that have created the issues in Darfur have been silent in the lead up to the peace talks and they have remained silent during the first days of talks. These nations, primarily China and Russia have not voiced their support for the talks and have not been part of the search for a solution. These nations and others continue to support the Sudanese regime and they support similar regimes, not only in Africa but in Asia and South America that have seen the continuation of mass human rights abuses.

As we have witnessed over the last few months, there has been a surge in the growth of groups calling for world peace through the implementation of non-confrontational means that primarily include open dialogue, but how long can we go on talking about what needs to be done? Are to wait for thousands more to die? Are to witness the rape and mutilation of thousands more women and children? Are to wait for all young boys to be kidnapped and used as child soldiers?
Without the involvement of the outside influencers in these conflict areas, primarily in Darfur, the situation is not going to change. Without applied pressure being placed on these nations, the situation is also not going to change. With your help, the International Alliance For Human Rights (IAFHR) will not be silenced. With your help, the IAFHR will be the voice of the innocent victims of Darfur. With your help, the IAFHR will tell the world of the crimes that have been committed because of the greed associated with certain nations' desires for natural resources.

As the UN committee working in reference to the Kimberly Process announced in 2000, "When resources are found in Africa, people are going to die." Why does this have to be? The IAFHR, together with Hope for Humanity will help set out a plan that will ensure that this is no longer the norm for the people of Africa. We must arrest the world's bigoted and racist views of Africa and of the African people as a whole. The future of mankind is uncertain, but we must ensure that we do not further enhance our decline or that of people whom some notable people, primarily a recent Nobel Laureate, have determined are not worth the effort because they lack the intelligence capable of surviving this world.

A shocking event took place over the weekend pertaining to a French NGO, Zoe's Arc. Nine volunteers of this NGO supposedly kidnapped 103 Darfuri and Chadian children from a Chadian refugee camp. These volunteers claimed that the children were orphans and that they were in dire need of medical aid in Europe. When the volunteers and the children were stopped before they boarded a chartered plan for Paris, they were all given medical exams by UNICEF who declared that all the children were in sound medical form with respect to the conditions that they had been living in, and that they were not orphans.

The Chadian government has announced that they will prosecute all those associated with this event and that they will be charged with kidnapping, the attempting selling of children's' organs and committing an international crime in relation to transporting children across international borders for use in possible pedophilia acts.

This event has brought all the NGOs working in Chad and Sudan under an unwanted spot light. What were these people thinking of as they abducted these children? In a special BBC Worldwide news report on Sunday, October 28 the children reported that they were promised an education, candy and cars - four and five year olds being promised cars?

It is time for global action to save the millions of lives that are at risk in Darfur. The International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope for Humanity is staging the largest concert ever held for the innocent victims of Darfur, the largest humanitarian crisis facing the world today. For more information, please call David Nolan at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or email him at dnolan@iafhr.org.

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur - The Tripoli Peace Talks Face a Quick Death

2007-10-24T18:04:00.000-07:00

Darfur continues to stream in and out of the headlines in the build up to the peace talks that are scheduled to take place in Tripoli, Libya starting on Saturday, October 28th.

Meanwhile, the situation in Darfur continues to deteriorate. The security situation is so dangerous that a number of NGOs have pulled their operations from the region. This necessary move has expedited the deaths of thousands of men, women and children and it has increased the pain and suffering of those that are left behind.

To make matters worse, it has been announced that there are now seven rebel groups that have pulled out of the Tripoli peace talks. The Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) one of the main rebel groups said that it would not participate in the masquerade, referring to the Tripoli talks. The Sudan Liberation Movement, the most important rebel group, has also withdrawn from the talks because they said that the atmosphere was not "conducive" to success.

This news ensures that the Tripoli talks with follow the same path as all the other peace initiatives that were doomed to failure even before they got started. What doesn’t help is the fact that the chief moderator of the Africa Union stated that the neither the UN nor the AU was going to dictate what “sort of peace plan” would be implemented in Darfur, that it was the sole responsibility of the parties involved to determine this. I believe that this is a very poor effort to disguise the fact that the Sudanese government will have the ultimate say pertaining to the direction of peacekeeping operations in Darfur.

The key sponsor of the Tripoli talks, Colonel Gaddiffi, “simplified” the conflict in Darfur by comparing it to a “quarrel over a camel.” I have never witnessed an argument over a camel but I wonder how many people have died over a camel. He also extended blame for the continuing human suffering in Darfur on the NGOs and other aid agencies. To clarify this statement, he said that if these groups were not in Darfur, the displaced refugees would have to move back home. This would enable them to get back to looking after themselves.” Does this make sense? I didn’t think so either.

To date, only one country outside of Africa has offered to send troops as part of the UN-AU hybrid force due for deployment in Darfur in mid to late 2008. That country is Thailand. No western country, as of yet, as offered to supply any of the logistical support requirements or the military capabilities for the successful deployment of the force and to enhance its ability to carry out its mission.

The following are some of the things that have happened over the past few days in relation to Darfur.

Financial Institutions under Pressure Not to Make Profits from Business Interests in Sudan

A number of financial institutions are now being placed under great pressure to back away from making blood money in Sudan. Leading human rights groups and world renowned stars have demanded that UBS, the Swiss-based bank, not participate in the placement of PetroChina on the Shanghai stock exchange.
UBS issued a statement stating that it can not discuss the work of its clients – how bloody convenient!
It is important that further pressure be place on these types of institutions that care only about making money and not about saving lives. As we know, PetroChina is a major sponsor of the Sudanese government and it has been behind the funding of both the civil war in Sudan that ended in 2005 and it is also behind the funding of the conflict in Darfur.
PetroChina is not the only company making billions of dollars from the pain and suffering of the millions of innocent civilians in Darfur. It is time that all those companies that continue to make blood money from their business interests in Sudan, are publicly shamed for being complicit in the mass human rights abuses in Darfur.

Sudanese Spy Arrested in Germany

An agent for the Sudanese government was arrested in Germany on October 23rd. The agent, who was not named, was arrested for forwarding information on Sudanese dissidents and critics living in Germany back to the government in Khartoum.
My good friend, Dr. Eric Reeves who has been an outspoken critic of Sudan since the initiation of the mass human rights abuses in Darfur, has been on the receiving end of international operations by the Sudanese government against him and he has received numerous threats against his life for his criticisms of the regime.
All the unsung hero’s that are working towards highlighting the plight of the innocent victims in Darfur need to be protected, whether they are in Africa, Europe or wherever.

The International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope For Humanity, will be staging the largest global concert event ever held to raise awareness about the conflict in Darfur. Please support the upcoming Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur. For more information please call David Nolan at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or email him at dnolan@iafhr.org. Feel free to add your voice and ideas to our blog at http://iafhr-darfur.blogspot.com/

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur – What now?

2007-10-20T01:41:00.000-07:00

In 1933 when the Nazis came to power in Germany, nobody would have thought that twelve years later Europe would be in ruins, that 50 million people would be dead as a result of another world war and that a name would be given to a crime that had been occurring for centuries and that name was genocide. Of the 50 million deaths, 6 million were attributed to the wanton destruction of a people based on their religious beliefs. The population of European Jews was decimated due to the desire of the Nazis to rid Europe and the world of Jews.

Genocide, as defined by the Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal, set up by the allies in 1945 to try the Nazis and their co-conspirators for crimes against humanity, includes the following actions:

Incitement to ethnic hatred
Demonization of the target group
Radicalization along ethnic or religious lines
Distribution of weapons to extremist groups
Preparation of lists of those to be exterminated

The debate amongst the international community pertains to whether genocide has occurred in Darfur. While that and many other subjects, centered round Darfur continue, one thing that can not be denied is the fact that Darfur is in chaos. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children will soon die in this hell due to global inaction.

The Tripoli Peace Talks, scheduled to start on Saturday, October 27th, were placed, this week, in great jeopardy of accomplishing their primary objective – an end to the nightmare of death, rape and the destruction of the entire population of the native black African Darfuri people.

This past week we have witnessed the murder of a number of UN staff members. It is amazing that while the UN tries to talk with the Sudanese government in regards to stopping the horrors in Darfur, some of the people that are working to alleviate the pain and suffering in Darfur are being murdered.
The UN staff members that were murdered were contract drivers for the World Food Program (WFP). Not only were they butchered to death, but their cargos were looted. The cargo consisted of food and medical aid.

The increased barbarity towards NGOs has resulted in numerous NGOs closing down their operations in Darfur and in turn this has resulted in a great number of Darfuri people being placed in greater danger of death.

While the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon has been trying to maintain a level of hope pertaining to the Tripoli talks, some senior level diplomats associated with these talks have highlighted the general consensus that the talks will fail, due to the recent events in Darfur that pertain to the killings of the UN staffers and the murders of the 10 African Union troops last week.
What is exacerbating the situation is the total distrust of the various parties that are due to participate in the talks. With close to twenty four rebel groups, all vying to have their grievances addressed in Tripoli, confusion is mounting about who should actually attend the talks. Because the Southern Sudanese parties have withdrawn from the national government in Khartoum, some observers have stated that President Bashir does not represent or speak for the national government and therefore has no right to attend the talks as the national leader.

Due to the recent events in Darfur, it is looking less likely that there will be an early deployment of the yet to be established UN-AU hybrid force. Mr. Ban recently criticized President Bashir because his government has not yet provided a comprehensive response to a list of nations that have offered to supply troops to this force. Because of the Sudanese government’s major attacks on villages in Darfur this week, many nations who had proposed supplying troops to the hybrid force, are now rethinking their desire to do so. The hybrid force is a peacekeeping force, but as the world can see, there is no peace to keep in Darfur. Unless there is a willingness on behalf of the entire international community to find a solution to the conflict in Darfur, nothing will change for the innocent civilians of this region of Sudan who have experienced so much pain and suffering.

On Tuesday, October 16th, my colleague and I attended a conference at the UN regarding the use of rape as a government strategy in conflict. During the conference, it was highlighted that the war in the Balkans was the first time that rape, used by the Serbian forces against the innocent Bosnian civilian population, was identified by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN as a war crime.

Listening to the testimony of the Darfuri delegation at the conference, pertaining to the evidence of sexual exploitation in Darfur, was horrifying. Women and children are raped on a consistent basis. The fact that this crime is happening and the international community just talks about finding a solution is wrong. The act of rape, committed as part of a government’s strategy to annihilate an ethnic group during a time of war, is a key ingredient of genocide. Those responsible for authorizing the rape of women and children are therefore guilty of war crimes.

During the UN conference that I attended, I was shocked to the point of despair when hearing what the consequences of rape and the sexual exploitation of women and children are. As a father of a five year old girl, knowing that children, some as young as four years of age, are being raped on a daily basis makes me very angry.

During the conference, the members of the delegation who addressed the audience spoke about the need for greater involvement by the international community to find a solution to Darfur. The question I had was, “How can one expect the international community to work harder to find a solution to the conflict in Darfur, when key members of that community are highly complicit in the situation in Darfur because of their continued support of the Sudanese government?” Multinational companies are also complicit in the situation in Darfur because of their continued investment in the Sudanese economy. As we have witnessed, on Thursday, October 19th, Mr. Warren Buffett sold his shares in the Chinese oil company, Petrochina because of the share price. It is estimated that he made $3.5 billion from offloading of his shares. Some news reports stated that the reason why he sold these shares was due to pressure from numerous international human rights organizations, but Buffett highlighted that the reason why he sold his shares was because of the price they were at. I tend to believe the reason that Buffett gave.

With key members of the international community continuing to do business with the Sudanese government and with private individuals still prepared to make billions of dollars in blood money from Sudan, it is very obvious that it is going to take something extraordinary for these states and individuals to change their strategy in relation to Sudan.

During the weekend of October 12th, at a conference in Monteral, Canada, titled Can the World Stop Genocide?, the famed French writer, Gerard Prunier, stated that Genocide can also be stop by those directly involved. He also stated that we should all be prepared to “Give War a Chance.”

As Prunier stated, "When you see a dictatorial regime heating up, everyone starts talking, talking, talking ... and by the time the talking stops, either matters have quietened down or they have happened."

According to Prunier, that is the crux of the problem, it is difficult for politicians or the military to intervene in a situation that has not yet evolved into a crisis.

Prunier’s solution upset a number of world renowned thought leaders and diplomats when he stated that "Genocides can only be stopped by the people directly involved - and usually that means people involved in the war that accompanies most mass killings. And if it is the government committing the genocide, the solution is to arm the rebels. It won't be clean. It will be messy but it is more likely to stop the mass killing than international intervention."

To support his argument, Prunier highlighted that the Holocaust only ended when the allies destroyed Hitler's regime, that the killing fields of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge were only stopped when the Vietnamese army moved in and that the genocide in Rwanda only ended when the Tutsi rebels overthrew the extremist Hutu regime.

Mr. Prunier’s ideas may be viewed as extremist, but when you look at the current state of affairs in Darfur, diplomacy has not worked, talking has not worked. Sanctions and other embargos have not worked. This is all due to the fact that certain countries and certain industries continue to support the Sudanese regime.

The International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope for Human believes that the conflict in Darfur can end if there is a mobilization of the grassroots global family to call for a complete cessation of the mass human rights abuses. The Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur will accomplish this goal as well raising much needed funds for NGOs that working under extremely harsh conditions in the refugee camps, both in Darfur and in the neighboring countries of Chad and the Central African Republic.

What must also be achieved is the indictment, by the International Criminal Court of those nations, multinational corporations and individuals that have continuously made billions of dollars in blood money from their support of the Sudanese regime.

We also believe that all current and future conflicts in Africa can end if a percentage of the billons of dollars spend on the extraction of oil and gas can be redirected to the development of renewable energy sources.

If we continue to do nothing or say nothing about the continuing conflict in Darfur, future generations will look back on us in shame. Shame because we knew what was going on and we did nothing about it.

The International Alliance For Human Rights together with Hope for Humanity will not be shamed, we will not stay silent and we will not let the innocent men, women and children in Darfur go on suffering.

On behalf of the IAFHR and Hope for Humanity, I solemnly ask that you support the Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur. For more information on this global concert event and other related events, please contact me at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or send me an email to dnolan@iafhr.org.

With your support, we can ensure that never again, means never again.

Darfur - How many rebel groups are there?

2007-10-11T23:42:00.000-07:00

When major conflict erupted in Darfur four years ago, there were just two major groups - since then the insurgents have splintered into a confusing array of competing factions, some of which have launched a surge of violence as disparate groups jockey for position ahead of peace talks with the Sudanese government in Libya on 27 October.

SLM/A
The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) was initially the name of a militia led by ethnic Furs which emerged from the unrest that followed a devastating famine in 1987 when an Arab alliance was established and armed by Khartoum to oppose the African farming communities of the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit peoples.

At the time of the February 2003 insurrection, the SLA reconstituted itself as the Darfur Liberation Front, renaming itself in March as the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).

The SLM split along tribal lines in November 2005 after a power struggle between Minni Arkou Minnawi (an ethnic Zaghawa who controlled the military arm) and Abdel Wahid Mohamed Ahmed al-Nur (an ethnic Fur who controlled the political wing).

Minnawi faction
Mr Minnawi was the only rebel leader to sign the 2006 DPA after which he accepted a government role as special adviser to the president, triggering fears of a sell-out to Khartoum.

His group has been losing strength as fighters formerly loyal to Minnawi deserted to join other anti-Khartoum groups (among them the Greater Sudan Liberation Movement, G19, Abdel Shafi Faction and SLM-Unity)

Abdel Wahid or Al-Nur faction
Abdel Wahid al-Nur himself is now in exile in Paris and is said to have lost control of the largest group of rebels fighting under the SLM name who are instead under the control of Ahmed Abdel-Shafi, and is known either as SLM-Classic, or SLM-Shafri faction.

Mr al-Nur refused to sign the 2006 Darfur peace agreement (DPA) and is threatening not to attend the Libyan peace talks unless the United Nations-African Union hybrid peacekeeping force is deployed and can guarantee security on the ground in Darfur.

SLM-Unity faction
This faction, possibly led by Abdallah Yehya, has a broad tribal base across North Darfur and is drawn from the Group of 19 commanders who formerly cooperated with Nur until the 2006 peace talks when they split, fearing a sell-out.

SLM-Unity has been blamed for much of the recent violence, including the 29 September attack on an AU base near Haskanita, in which 10 AU soldiers were killed.

Suleiman Jamous is seen as one of the key SLM-Unity figures and was their peace negotiator - currently based in Chad.

Other SLM splinters
The situation on the ground is changing frequently but among the self-styled groups that have split from the SLM are: the Greater Sudan Liberation Movement/Army; two factions calling themselves Free Will; and another known as the National Movement for the Elimination of Marginalization.

JEM
The origins of the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) are rather different, though like the SLM it too is in the process of disintegration.

The group was founded by African Darfuri Muslims loyal to Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi, whose National Islamic Front (NIF) backed President Omar al-Bashir's 1989 coup against Sadeq al-Mahdi.
It was led by an intellectual, Khalil Ibrahim Muhammad, who wrote ' The Black Book: Imbalance of Power and Wealth in the Sudan' about the disproportionate numbers of Arabs in powerful positions.
He was allegedly ousted in January 2007 by Idris Azraq, as head of the Jem presidential council.
Jem has fragmented into at least five disparate groups, of which the most significant is the NMRD.

NMRD
The National Movement for Reform and Development broke away from Jem in 2004 and is led by former Jem Chief of Staff Jibril Abdel Karim Bari, known as Tek, (who once served as a colonel in the Chadian President Idriss Deby's republican guard), an ethnic Zaghawa from the Kabka clan (like his NMRD co-founders Hassan Abdullah Bargo and Mahamat Ismail Chaibo).

Tek is on the UN sanctions list for alleged war crimes.

The NMRD is said to have incorporated the splinter group led by Mohamed Saleh (which left Jem in 2005 and reportedly merged with the NMRD last year).

National Redemption Front
This was the name given to an umbrella grouping of Darfuri rebel groups opposed to the DPA and founded with Eritrean backing in mid-2006. At the time, led by Ahmad Ibrahim Diraij, it was supposed to include Jem, the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance and the G19.

Other Jem splinters Very little, other than their names, is known about the composition, leadership and numbers of the lesser Jem breakaway groups: Jem Peace Wing, Field Revolutionary Command and Popular Forces Troops.

(This information is possible thanks to the BBC)

2007-10-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, October 10th, the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon criticized the Sudanese government's use of red tape to delay the deployment of the hybrid UN-African Union force to Darfur. To date, the Sudanese government has refused to approve a list of troop-contributing countries and the UN is being prevented from obtaining land for offices and accommodation in Darfur.

Mr. Ban outlined in his criticism of Sudan that their actions were not contributing to an atmosphere conducive for the peace talks in Libya. It has also been reported that based on the current delays initiated by the Sudanese government, the deployment of the UN-AU hybrid force will now not take place until the end of summer, 2008.

A report released on October 10th stated that over a 15 year period, 1990-2005, $300b had been spent on wars in Africa. This is amount cancels out the total amount of international aid given to Africa during the same period.

The report, complied by a group of NGOs, showed that the while the number of wars in Africa has declined, spending on the current wars has increased. It is estimated that a combined total of $18b per year is spent fighting wars in Africa. The pharmaceutical, oil, diamond, gold and financial industries are the main sources of financing all wars in Africa.

In Sudan, the Sudanese government has spent billions of dollars in its ethnic cleansing campaign in Darfur. The mass human rights abuses being committed in Darfur are allowed to continue because of the continued support of the multinational companies that are complicit in sponsoring the Sudanese government. China, Russia and India, to name but a few, who provide state funding for certain industrial operations in Sudan are also complicit in the attempted annihilation of the innocent ethnic black African population in Darfur.

While the actions of the international community have left a lot be desired, pertaining to its totally inadequate response to the crisis in Darfur, over the last few years greater focus has been placed by the international community on global warming and its future effects on the earth and mankind.

The Oscar winning movie "An Inconvenient Truth," made by Al Gore, won international acclaim for its approach in highlighting the current and future effects of global warming. On July 7th, this year, the "Live Earth" concert series was held in numerous cities across the world to further enhance Al Gore's message pertaining to global warming and the possible consequences of the international community's inaction.

On Monday, October 10th the High Court in London stated that the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" had at least nine scientific errors and that if the movie was to be distributed to schools in the UK it would require accompanying documentation highlighting the errors made in the movie. Some the errors include:

Mr. Gore's assertion that a sea-level rise of up to 20 feet would be caused by melting of ice in either West Antarctica or Greenland "in the near future". The High Court found that this was "distinctly alarmist" and it was common ground that if Greenland's ice melted it would release this amount of water - "but only after, and over, millennia".
Mr. Gore's assertion that the disappearance of snow on Mount Kilimanjaro in East Africa was expressly attributable to global warming - the court heard the scientific consensus was that it cannot be established the snow recession is mainly attributable to human-induced climate change.
Mr. Gore's reference to a new scientific study showing that, for the first time, polar bears had actually drowned "swimming long distances - up to 60 miles - to find the ice". The court said: "The only scientific study that either side before the court can find is one which indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned because of a storm."

So while Al Gore's movie-documentary went to great lengths to prove the catastrophic effects of global warming if we fail to do anything about it, some of the data was flawed and incomplete which begs the question, which part of "An Inconvenient Truth" was not embellished?

Darfur is happening now! There can not be an embellishment of the facts which are:

600,000 innocent men, women and children have been murdered or have died as a result of the crisis in Darfur
2.5 million innocent men, women and children are displaced in refugee camps spread throughout Darfur, Chad and Central Republic of Africa
4 million innocent men, women and children are on the verge of death because the international community refuses to take the most basic, but appropriate action to stop the crisis in Darfur.
Attacks on innocent men, women and children continue to happen on a daily basis.
Young children are raped and mutilated and some are kidnapped to be used as child soldiers.
A mass number of deaths, on a level not seen since the Holocaust, is quickly approaching.

Darfur represents the current effects of the world's ever growing demands for natural resources that primarily include oil and gas. Darfur also represents the great lengths that various governments will go to in order to fulfill their own domestic needs.

The international community refuses to take action against third party governments that sponsor the Sudanese government. This is based on the fact that these third party governments are major players on the international political stage and their influence is required to enforce sanctions on the Sudanese government.

How long are we going to allow the international community to turn a blind eye to Darfur and allow members of the international community to continue to be complicit in the mass extermination of Darfur's native black Africa population?

It is our responsibility to stand up and take action. No one person can influence change, but one thousand or better yet, one million people can.

Sudan has long been identifed as a sponsor of global Islamic terrorism. It is a breeding and training ground for Wahhabist Muslims who are trying to spread the message of death to non believers throughout the world. The alliances that Sudan has formed with Iran and Syria predate the crisis in Darfur, but they are as strong now as ever before. Sudan must be stopped and influenced to stop by us, members of the global family, joining together to influence chage.You are invited to support

The International Alliance For Human Rights and Hope for Humanity and the upcoming Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur. For further information, please call David Nolan at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or send an email requesting information on how you can help to dnolan@iafhr.org.

Medecins Sans Frontieres withdraws from Muhajiriya, Darfur

2007-10-11T12:53:00.000-07:00

The horror in Darfur continues amid the ever growing human suffering.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) announced today that they have withdrawn all their staff from the town of Mahajiriya in Southern Darfur due to heightened attacks from Sudanese government troops. It was reported that dozens of innocent civilians were murdered over the weekend in these planned attacks.

The evacuation of the MSF staff means that thousands of innocent civilians have been left without medical or food aid. With the region around Mahajiriya being so dangerous, it is not possible for the people that have been left behind to travel safely to other towns to seek refuge and therefore they are left to face the onslaught from the Janjaweed that are backed up by the Sudanese troops.

It has also been reported that Sudanese government troops are on the verge of carrying out similar attacks on the towns of Kornoy, Um Baru, Kutum and Tine in northern Darfur. Observers on the ground report that a strong build up of troops is occurring close to these towns and that attacks are imminent.

These current attacks by the Sudanese government and their sponsored militia, the Janjaweed, have thrown the Tripoli peace talks that are scheduled to take place later this month, into chaos. The Sudanese Liberation Front, one of the main rebel groups, has refused to participate in any talks with the government unless the attacks on innocent civilians and the remaining NGOs stop.

Both the US and UK governments have announced that they will seek to impose sanctions against those groups that refuse to participate in the Tripoli peace talks. This announcement appears to be quite ridiculous based on the fact that all the rebel groups have been calling for a more direct and firm approach to be taken by the international community against the Sudanese government to force them to stop the attacks and to withdraw all troops from their current locations.

With the withdrawal of MSF from Muhajiriya and with the imminent attack on other towns, more NGOs will feel the need to withdraw for their own security and this will lead to a further increase in deaths and the further destruction of hope for peace, which continues to evaporate on a daily basis.

The news from Darfur is not good and most importantly, the likely success of the Tripoli peace talks has diminished and hope for an early deployment of the UN-AU hybrid force has declined.

What this news tells us today is that no workable peace accord will be signed later this month, based on the continuous and horrendous acts currently being committed by the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed in Darfur.

The Senegalese government announced on Oct 8th that it would soon withdraw its troops from the current AU peacekeeping force deployed in Darfur. This is based on the murder of three of its troops last week by the Sudanese government. The withdrawal of the Senegalese troops, which is an important member of the African Union, will be a severe setback to the formation and deployment of the hybrid force.

Unless the UN, the EU and the US take a stand against the Sudanese government and its outside influencers, there will be no deployment of a UN-AU hybrid force in Darfur and if this happens, other NGOs will follow the same path that MSF has taken and most will ultimately find that the security situation in Darfur is too dangerous for a continued presence in Darfur, hence the 4 million innocent civilians in dire need of aid will quickly transfer to the ever increasing death category.

Join the International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope For Humanity in supporting the upcoming Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur. For more information please call David Nolan at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or email him at dnolan@iafhr.org.

Blood Money - People in Darfur Continue to Suffer

2007-10-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

Darfur

Multinationals Continuing to Make Large Profits at the Expense of Human Life

The current situation in Darfur represents the worst humanitarian crisis facingthe world today in that:

600,000 thousand people are dead
2.5 million people are displaced and in refugee camps
4 million people are on the verge of death
Thousands of women are raped
Thousands of children are raped, some as young as four years of age
Thousands of children are kidnapped and are now child soldiers
The world sits silent

There are numerous multinationals making a “killing” from their involvement in Sudan. Some are headquartered in the US and the EU; others are headquartered in China, Malaysia, India, Russia and other nations. , although some are not directly involved in Sudan, are complicit in the above listed situation due to their support of the Sudanese government.

Imagine that during the Holocaust, the Nazi leadership decided to invest billions of dollars in renewing a section of Berlin that was bombed by the allies. The redevelopment included building villas for the leadership and their friends, shopping malls, a championship golf course and a few hotels. The idea behind the redevelopment was to show the world that things were normal in Berlin in particular and throughout Germany in general and it was the aim of the Nazis to ensure that senior Nazis, their families, their friends and some wealthy business men a place to relax and enjoy life away from their hectic schedules. Meanwhile, millions of people were being butchered to death by these very samepeople in places called Bergen-Belson, Treblinka and most horrifying, Auschwitz.

In order for the redevelopment of Berlin to continue in a timely fashion, companies from around the world were working with the Nazis to meet their deadlines and were being paid very handsomely by the Nazi killers.

In Sudan’s capital Khartoum, this exact situation is occurring today. $4 billion is being invested in the development of a new project that seeks to develop several thousand acres in downtown Khartoum. This development is called the Al-Mogran Development Project and it is taking place where the Whiteand Blue Nile Rivers meet to form the Nile. Due to the discovery of oil, the Sudanese government has a surplus of over $1 billion that has allowed it to help fund the initial stages of the Al-Mogran Development Project. Started in2004, Al-Mogran is expected to be completed in 2014.

There are numerous multinational companies hired as major contractors to ensure that the Al-Mogran Development Project is completed on time. Most of the companies are utilizing their Asian offices to take attention away from their involvement in Al-Mogran. We must contact these companies and tell them to withdraw their involvement and cooperation with the murderous Sudanese regime immediately. There are a number of other business categories that are making great profits from the blood of the innocent civilians in Darfur. These categories include the oil, gas, and investment industries. It might be assumed that the companies have blood on their hands, but unless their actions are highlighted in the international media and pressure is plied against them, they will continue to profit from a country where people are living on a day to day basis.

We all have a moral obligation to stand up and say is enough is enough, stop the death and destruction in Darfur and if we don’t, then we are just as complicit as these corporations in supporting the Sudanese government in their drive for a native black African-free Sudan. On Saturday, September 29th, the African Union (AU) force in Darfur suffered a major blow when Darfurian rebels launched a major attack against a company ofNigerian and Senegalese troops. Ten soldiers were killed, seventeen were badly injured and forty troops are missing, reportedly kidnapped. It was secretly reported that the troops were unarmed and very badly equipped which again highlights the deficiencies of the current AU force that have been so overwhelmed by the tasks set them in Darfur.

The governments of both Nigeria and Senegal have informed the AU that it is very likely that they will pull their troops from the AU force in Darfur. This has dealt a major blow to the current formation of the joint UN-AU Hybrid Force, whose deployment has been delayed again, probably until early spring, 2008. Next week the AU and the UN will meet in Ethiopia to discuss the progress in the formation of the hybrid force and then will present the final deployment plan at the scheduled peace negotiations to be held in Libya at the end of October. It has already been announced that at a great number of the rebel groups have refused to attend these negotiations, creating further problems for the success of the peace talks. There are currently “24” rebel groups in Darfur, creating a situation that continues to cause headaches at the UN.

If we look at what all this means in reference to the government of Sudan and to the innocent civilians in Darfur, well the picture is bleak. The Sudanese government is happy because the deployment of the UN-AU hybrid force continues to be delayed based on the problems that some monitors in Darfur have blamed on the government. Not only is the delayed deployment of the hybrid force bad news for the civilians in Darfur, but the withdrawal of current AU forces will speed up the rate of death for many hundreds of thousands of those in the refugee camps in Darfur. It will also leave them and the NGO’s exposed and vulnerable to attack from the Janjaweed, Sudanese troops and rebel groups. We need to get up do something about this. The International Alliance For Human Rights needs your help! We are staging The Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur that will bring the crisis to global attention. For more information, please call David Nolan at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or respond to this email pledging your support for this global concert event. Call today!!!!

Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur - Refugees from Darfur refused entry

2007-10-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

During the last few days, we have witnessed a few disturbing items relating to the crisis in Darfur. A number of countries have refused entry to refugees from Darfur. The reason for refusing entry primarily relates to the inabilityof already admitted refugees to “integrate” into the host country. A number ofcountries have also found it hard to verify that those seeking asylum or refugee status are actually refugees from Darfur.

On October 3rd, the Australian government announced that they are placing afreeze on the settlement of all African refugees, primarily those from Darfur, because of the trouble most had in integrating into Australian society. A lotof city and town leaders have branded the refugees from Darfur as criminals and have used such language to play into the fears of local communities to win support for their stance.

There is a national election looming in Australia and this announcement by theImmigration Minister, Kevin Andrews, has drawn widespread criticism from majoropposition parties. The current government has been criticized for playing into the minds of those xenophobic voters, which some opponents of the current administration have claimed carried the Howard administration into government during the last election.

It was reported on October 2nd, that the British Immigration Service was sending a great number of refuges from Darfur back to Sudan due to those seeking refugee status could not prove that they were refugees from Darfur, or that they warranted refugee status. The most disturbing aspect of this uncompassionate act is the fact that those refugees that were deported from the UK were put on planes and flown back to Khartoum. Upon their arrival back in Sudan all were arrested. Most were beaten to near death and some were murdered.

These are just two of the examples that highlight how much the international community does not want to bring the crisis in Darfur to their own door steps. It seems to be a continuous trend that when people need help, we tend to only want to help from an arms length.

When the Irish landed on the shores of England and America during the mass exodus from the Irish famine, they were unwelcome in both countries. When the Jews where streaming out of mainland Europe, both prior to and after the commencement of WWII, a number of allied countries refused to take Jewish refugees primarily because of their own deep rooted anti-Semitism. Due to their inability to gain refugee status, a great many Jewish men, women and children were forced to return to the port of their departure, which resulted in a great number of them being sent to the death camps.

Today we are witnessing the same deep rooted distain for those who seek refugee from death. It is not enough that we give a few dollars to buy food and medicine for those caught up in the crisis in Darfur, we need to stand up for the innocent victims that are living this nightmare of death, rape and mass human rights abuses. We need to give them refuge, we need to let them know that there is life outside Darfur and Sudan but most importantly we need to show those who are perpetrating and supporting the Sudanese government that the international family of concerned people will not remain silent, that one day they will answer for the crimes that they have committed and sponsored in Darfur. By taking this stand, we will not only show the parties responsible for the creation of the crisis in Darfur that they will be held accountable for their actions, but most importantly, we will be informing the innocent victims of Darfur that the world has heard their cries for help.

The International Alliance For Human Rights, a New York-based not for profit organization, together with Hope for Humanity ask you support the upcoming Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur, to be staged in New York. For more information please call David Nolan at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or send an emailto dnolan@iafhr.org.

Companies still doing business in Sudan as of Spring 2007

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Multinational Companies Operating in Sudan

Total SA

ISS Relationship Classification

Equity

Summary

Not currently active in Sudan, but has plans to restart operations soon, without regard for human rights situation in Darfur.

Details

Total SA is a large oil company based in France. In 1980, Total acquired a 32.5% share in the rights to Block 5 in Southern Sudan, one of the largest and richest oil fields in the country, along with partners Marathon Petroleum Sudan Ltd (32.5%), Kufpec Sudan Ltd (25%) and the national company Sudapet (10%)1. Total conducted seismic surveys of the field between 1980 and 1985, but suspended its operations in Sudan in 1985 due to security concerns, before beginning drilling operations in the country2. However, Total maintained ownership of its share of the Block 5 concessions, meeting yearly with representatives of the Sudanese government in Khartoum and paying license fees to ensure their continued commitment to the contract3. With the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement in Sudan’s brutal civil war between the North and South of the country in 2004, Total began making preparations to return to the country. Complications arose, however, when the SPLM (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement) granted the oil company White Nile the rights to a portion of Block 5, and Total contested this move. Despite this ongoing dispute, Total appointed a permanent representative to Sudan in Khartoum on February 1st, 2005, and began work to rehabilitate its Bor base in block B and in the summer of that year4. Total has been somewhat responsive to the concerns of NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group concerning the effects of their operations on the human rights situation in Southern Sudan, holding a conference on sustainable development in Southern Sudan in June of 2005, but it has not addressed the Darfur.

1 Total Corporate Website – History of Total’s Prescense in Sudan, accessed 2/28/2006 at
http://www.total.com/en/group/corporate_social_responsibility/ethics_governance/ethics/history_sudan_7581.htm
2 Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights. Human Rights Watch, 2003, accessed at
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudan1103/27.htm#_ftn1467
3 The Khartoum-SPLM Agreement, Sudan’s Uncertain Peace. International Crisis Group, July 25th, 2005. Accessed at http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3582&l=1 4Total Corporate website – as above. situation at all. Even in Total’s response to our letter of January 19th, 2006, there is not one mention of Darfur. The company is eager to restart its operations in Sudan now that the security situation in Southern Sudan is somewhat stable, and appears to be ignoring the situation in Darfur to this end. The fact that they have been responsive to human rights concerns in the past, however, makes them a good candidate for further shareholder action.

Royal Dutch Shell

ISS Relationship Classification

Equity

Summary

Shell is not engaged in the oil and gas exploration business in Sudan, but does operate a network of retail sites selling petroleum products throughout the country. They have ceased selling aviation fuel in Sudan due to human rights concerns, and do not appear to have plans for future expansion in the country.

Details

Shell has been present in Sudan since 1928, although it is not engaged in oil & gas exploration in the country. It operates a network of about 45 service stations and employs about 130 people in Sudan5. In 2001, Shell faced heavy pressure from European humanitarian groups to stop selling aviation fuel to the Sudanese government, fuel that was used in government attacks on civilians in the Sudanese North-South civil war. Shell promised to stop selling aviation fuel to the Sudanese government in May of 20016, and recently sold their entire aviation fuel business in Sudan to Petronas7. The NGO Christian Aid has raised some concerns about Shell’s ownership of equity in Chinese oil firms that are involved in the oil business in Sudan. According to Christian Aid, Shell invested $430 million in Sinopec, a Chinese oil company active in Sudan in 20008. Several institutions have sold their shares of Sinopec as part of Sudan divestment programs, and a Yale report identifies the company as a ‘Major player’ in the Sudanese

o 5 November 17, 2005 Meeting with Royal Dutch Shell (RD) – Sudan Activities CalPERS Memorandum, November 17th, 2005. Accessed at http://www.calpers.ca.gov/eip-docs/about/board-calagenda/ agendas/invest/200512/item09b-03.pdf
6 List of International Companies Involved in the Sudanese Oil Industry. European Coalition on Oil in Sudan. Accessed at http://www.ecosonline.org/back/companies.html%20on%203/1/2006
7 CalPERS Memorandum, as above.
8 The Regulatory Void: EU Company Involvement in Human Rights Violations in Sudan. Christian Aid, May, 2001. http://www.christianaid.org.uk/indepth/0105suda/sudan.htm oil industry9. The CalPERS Memorandum notes that in November of 2005, Shell “indicated that they do not own equity in Chinese energy companies doing business in Sudan.” Based on this statement, they either have since sold their investment in Sinopec, or (mistakenly) do not consider Sinopec to be an energy company doing business in Sudan. It would be good to ask them about this investment specifically in future correspondence. Shell indicated at the CalPERS meeting that they have not considered selling their remaining assets in Sudan, but also did not appear to view Sudan as an area for much future expansion. From the November 17th memorandum: “Royal Dutch has been selling its assets in Sudan. The refinery business was sold in 1992. The chemicals business was sold shortly thereafter. RD’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) business was sold in 1994. The aviation fuel business was recently sold to Petronas. The question was raised to RD about the prospects of Sudan having the potential to produce oil at levels comparable to Nigeria over the next 5-10 years. RD indicated that their external sources on the subject are not providing information or data that would support that outlook.”

Novartis AG

ISS Relationship Classification

Equity

Summary

Novartis is a Swiss healthcare and pharmaceutical company, which according to ISS has an office in Khartoum.

Details

In September of 2005, NYC Comptroller William Thompson sent a letter to Novartis along with several other companies (the list was based on research from CSAG), urging each to "...review its business ties to Sudan , examine any potential financial and reputational risks, and report its findings to shareholders."10. According to a report by the Novartis Foundation, Novartis helps to supply free medicines to conflict zones

9 An Analysis of Select Companies’ Operations in Sudan: A Resource for Divestment. Yale Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility, December, 2005. Accessed at http://www.acir.yale.edu/YaleLowensteinSudanReport.pdf

10 Thompson Announces List of Companies Urged to Review Business Ties to Sudan Due to Human Rights and Terrorism Concerns. New York City Comptroller Press Office, September 7th, 2005. Accessed at http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/press/2005_releases/PR05-09-103.shtm%20on%203/1/2006 world, including Southern Sudan in 200511. Very little other information regarding Novartis’ business in Sudan was publicly available at the time of this writing. Unlike Total and Shell, Novartis does not appear to have been addressed about the human rights implications of its presence in Sudan very often, probably because the fact that it is a healthcare company. Nonetheless, it would be good to get an official response from the company regarding the nature of their business in the country.

SKF AB

ISS Relationship Classification

Equity

Summary

SKF is manufactures bearings, seals, and related products, and has an agreement with an independent distributor, Aziz Enterprizes, to market its products in Sudan.

Details

According to SKF’s distributor list12, they have a distribution agreement with Aziz Enterprises, based in Khartoum. Aziz Enterprises is listed by several business directories as an importer primarily of bolts and nuts. Very little other information is available about the company, or about SKF’s operations in Sudan. A future letter to SKF and/or Aziz Enterprises should inquire about the primary customers of the imported products, and specifically, whether the Sudanese government is a large customer for these parts.

China's role in Darfur

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It is the goal of the IAFHR to initiate a global campaign of divestment of the Beijing Olympic Games, scheduled to take place in September 2008. As the Chinese government is a major supporter of the Sudanese government and due to the fact that it has invested close to $10b in the development of the infrastructure of Khartoum, China is greatly complicit in the mass human rights abuses that continue to be committed in Darfur. Under no circumstances should any multinational corporation or government benefit from the mass extermination of an ethnic group and they should definitely not benefit from the rape and mutilation of women and children, some as young as four years of age. We need your help, we need your commitment and the people of Darfur need your voice.

2007-09-25T14:03:00.000-07:00

The crisis in Darfur needs to end and we need your help to stop it now.