Defend Darfur Dallas

November 05

Save Darfur's Darfur Daily News
Daily News: Wednesday, November 5, 2008
 
Bloomberg: Obama's Win Raises Expectations of Poor, Minorities (Update1). Barack Obama's election as the first black U.S. president was feted worldwide as the ultimate breakthrough for minorities, the poor and the dispossessed, buttressing faith in American democracy and upward mobility. Abdellatif El-Boni, a political science professor at Omdurman University in Sudan , said "Obamism" could inspire a mood of reconciliation in places like Sudan 's strife-torn Darfur region, where as many as 300,000 people have been killed and close to 3 million forced from their homes.

Daily Press Briefing

UNITED NATIONS
The noon briefing included the following report:

UNAMID DELIVERS MORE EQUIPMENT TO DARFUR
-The African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) reports that UNAMID police undertook yesterday their ninth convoy from the UN Logistics Base in El Obeid to Darfur to bring much needed equipment and vehicles to the mission area.
 
-The convoy comprised 39 vehicles, including seven trucks of contingent-owned equipment and three trucks of humanitarian relief.
 
-The 900-kilometer journey took place over some of the worst terrain in the region, particularly during the rainy season.
 
-The mission says these convoys are also an opportunity for UNAMID police to make contact with the local population along the route, as well as develop better working relations with the local police.
 


1:26 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

Save Darfur's Darfur Daily News
Daily News: Tuesday, November 04, 2008
 
Associated Press: US may airlift African peacekeepers to Darfur. The U.S. envoy for Africa said Monday that Washington was ready to airlift as many as 4,000 peacekeepers, including Ethiopians and Egyptians, for the joint U.N.-African Union mission to Darfur . The mission started deploying in Darfur in January but remains at less than half of its 26,000 authorized capacity, and has complained of Sudanese government stonewalling and transport problems.
 
Reuters: US praises Sudan for speeding Darfur peacekeeper roll-out. A senior U.S. official on Monday praised Sudan for speeding up the deployment of peacekeepers in Darfur but stopped short of saying it had done enough to win support over a war crimes probe. The top U.S. diplomat for African, Jendayi Frazer, struck a rare positive note saying Khartoum had shown "energy" and more flexibility in getting international troops into Sudan 's violent west. But the United States still needed to see more action on the ground to resolve the five-year conflict, Frazer told reporters at the end of a two-day trip to Sudan .
 
Reuters: Sudan Journalists In Hunger Strike Over Censorship. More than 150 Sudanese journalists and support staff Tuesday started a 24-hour hunger strike to protest against censorship by state security services, media executives said. They added three opposition newspapers would shut down for three days, and writers from other publications would withdraw their columns to highlight a growing crackdown on media. "We are being censored every day," said Ajras al-Huriya newspaper's general manager Saleh Ahmed Mohammed Elhag at the protest launch. The daily Ajras al-Huriya is closely linked to the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the main political party in the south and part of a national coalition government set up after the peace deal.

Daily Press Briefing: Monday, November 3, 2008

STATE DEPARTMENT
The daily press briefing conducted by Robert Wood, Deputy State Department Spokesman, mentioned the following about Darfur :
 
QUESTION: Jendayi Frazer is at – apparently in Khartoum today? What is she doing there?
MR. WOOD: That’s correct. She is in Khartoum . She’s meeting with Sudanese Government officials, talking about the Comprehensive Peace Agreement as well as Darfur .
QUESTION: Why?
MR. WOOD: Why? Because they’re important issues and we want to see the situation improve on the ground.
QUESTION: And is there, you know, some hope or there are some discussions right now or –
MR. WOOD: Well, she’s going to have discussions with officials –
QUESTION: Was there something scheduled or –
MR. WOOD: This was an update in the schedule. I just found out about it this morning that that’s where she is, so once we get a little bit more detail, we’ll be happy to provide that.
QUESTION: Okay.
 
UN
The highlights of the noon briefing conducted by Michelle Montas, Spokesperson for Secretary Ban Ki-moon, did not mention Darfur .
 
UN News released the following story:
 
Worsening violence deepens humanitarian crisis in Chad , UN relief wing warns
 
3 November 2008 – Volatile security conditions and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the area around Dogdor in eastern Chad threaten the lives of 26,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), United Nations humanitarian officials warned today.
 
“Humanitarian operations remain suspended in Dogdor, with the exception of urgent activities such as responses to medical emergencies and the provision of drinking water,” said Philippe Verstraeten of the Office of the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Chad .
 
A number of aid agencies suspended almost all operations last month, affecting the provision of health services, the supply of clean water, and the delivery of nutritional supplements among other activities aimed at assisting the most vulnerable.
 
Eastern Chad currently shelters 315,000 refugees – the majority being Sudanese escaping from the conflict in Darfur – and 180,000 IDPs, all of whom depend on aid to survive.
 
The humanitarian agencies have pleaded with the Government to provide security to their staff and assets while asking the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad , known as MINURCAT, to reinforce its presence in those areas closest to Chad ’s eastern border with the Sudan , including Dogdor.
 
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes also urged the Government to “step up its efforts to improve security conditions in those areas, in the interest of the protection of civilians, so that full-scale humanitarian operations may soon resume.”
 
“I call on the Government of Chad to work closely with humanitarians on these issues, and I furthermore call on all belligerent parties to allow humanitarian activities to continue without hindrance,” added Mr. Holmes, who is also Emergency Relief Coordinator.
 
Mr. Holmes is slated to travel to Chad later this year amid a humanitarian crisis that is affecting over half a million refugees and IDPs and shows no sign of receding.
 


5:03 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

Dallas Morning News Blog
From Jeff Weiss's Religion Blog:

'Tents of hope' for Darfur -- after the election, the genocide will still be going on
8:57 AM Mon, Nov 03, 2008
Jeffrey Weiss 

From my e-box:
A number of groups, including the Dallas Peace Center , the Holocaust Museum , Art for Darfur , and Defend Darfur Dallas have been participating in a year-long national project called Tents of Hope. People from all over Dallas , church youth groups, high school students, etc., have been painting our two refugee-style canvas tents to send a message of hope to the people of Darfur . The tents will travel to Washington , D.C. for a "Gathering" on November 7th-9th. The tents will be set up on the National Mall in front of the Capitol Building to raise awareness of the crisis. At the same time the Save Darfur Activist Leadership Conference and the STAND Student Leadership Conference will take place nearby. The tents will then travel to Darfur to be used as classrooms.
The outfit that's quarterbacking the local effort is Defend Darfur Dallas. The national Tents of Hope project itself is here. Tents of Hope is asking for individual congregations to participate in an "Interfaith Weekend of Prayer and Action for Sudan" on November 7-9. Read about it here, including an explanation of how to join in.

Nothing else seems to have worked. Maybe tents and prayers will help.


4:58 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

Save Darfur's Darfur Daily News
Daily News: Monday, November 2, 2008
 
Reuters: Darfuris march in The Hague to back court's action. More than 100 Darfuris marched through The Hague on Friday to show their support for the International Criminal Court's (ICC) move to indict Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. "We've come here to support the ICC and to support justice because without justice, there will be no peace," said Mohammed Ismail from the Darfur Union, a civil society group that helped organise the demonstration. The ICC's top prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the global court's judges to issue the warrant in July, accusing Bashir of orchestrating a campaign of genocide in Darfur that has killed thousands and forced millions from their homes.

Agence France-Presse: JEM to mull Qatar proposal for Sudan peace talks. The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), militarily the most powerful rebel group in Darfur, will send delegates to Qatar to sound out plans for possible talks with Sudan , a JEM official said on Saturday. "JEM has made it very clear that its delegation will go to Doha to give a first-hand explanation, and the position of JEM regarding the Darfur problem, and the Sudan problem as a whole, and at the same time listen to the Qataris to see what their initiative is," Tahir el-Faki told AFP by telephone from London. Darfur rebel groups have been critical of Arab-led peace efforts, saying they were designed to save Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir from international court proceedings for alleged war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
 


4:53 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

October 28

Save Darfur's Darfur Daily News
Daily News: Tuesday, October 28, 2008
 
Associated Press: Sudan: Kidnappers kill 5 Chinese oil workers. Kidnappers who abducted nine Chinese oil workers killed five of them execution-style on Monday, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Two other abducted workers managed to flee, while two remain in captivity, ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq said. Jerry Fowler , the president of the New York-based Save Darfur Coalition condemned Monday's killings and urged that those responsible be brought to justice.



7:55 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)