AID GROUPS RETURN TO DARFUR

Sudan has authorised four aid agencies expelled from the country in March to return to troubled Darfur, says the UN’s humanitarian chief John Holmes. The four groups – named as Care International, Save the Children, Mercy Corps, and Padco – were among 13 organisations expelled in March. Mr Holmes said all the groups had the opportunity to seek readmission.

About 300,000 people have died and two million been displaced in the six-year conflict in Darfur, the UN estimates. Mr Holmes said Sudan had agreed to allow NGOs to go back to Darfur provided they registered under slightly changed names and logos.

“That possibility is there for all the organisations which were expelled and some of them already have taken advantage of it. They now got very recently new registrations and will be restarting their operations,” he said. The Sudanese government expelled the aid groups in March, following the announcement that President Omar al-Bashir was being indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes.

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BBC: BASHIR REJECTS ICC CHARGES OVER DARFUR CRISIS

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has said the international arrest warrant issued against him for war crimes in Darfur is part of a plot against Sudan and denied responsibility for large-scale killings there. Bashir told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Thursday that the fighting in Sudan’s western Darfur region began as an insurrection and that he had had a responsibility to send troops to fight the rebels there.

Much of the fighting was between local tribes, and allegations of large-scale killing by government forces and government-backed militias were hostile propaganda, he said. United Nations officials say the six-year conflict in Darfur has resulted in up to 300,000 deaths and the displacement of more than 2.7 million people. The International Criminal Court in the Netherlands has issued a warrant against Bashir for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

“The ICC ruling is fundamentally null and void,” said Bashir. “For us the ICC’s ruling is a political one,” he added, saying of the ICC charges against him: “This is all lies.” “We do not recognise the court,” he stated. “We refuse to negotiate with them, and we will not hand over anyone.” The ICC has issued arrest warrants for two senior Sudanese officials who Khartoum has refused to send to The Hague to stand trial.

“I challenge anybody to bring me evidence that proves the Sudanese armed forces attacked and killed citizens in Darfur,” Bashir said. Dismissing U.N. estimates of the number of deaths in the Darfur conflict, Bashir said the toll “did not reach 10,000.”

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SUDAN’S AL-BASHIR SURE TO FACE GENOCIDE CHARGES: PROSECUTOR

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said on Monday he is confident the court’s judges will soon charge Sudan’s president with genocide and three Darfur rebels with war crimes. A three-judge panel at The Hague-based court in March issued a warrant for the arrest of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity for deportations and mass killings in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

While they charged Bashir on seven counts of crimes in Darfur, two of the three judges deemed the evidence insufficient to support genocide. In an interview with Reuters, the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said he had clarified the case to the point that it should meet the judges’ high evidence threshold. “It’s more than enough for the arrest warrant phase,” he said.

Moreno-Ocampo said that the judges had required that he go beyond the normal criteria for an arrest warrant — sufficient grounds for belief of guilt — and remove any doubt that Bashir had tried to exterminate at least one specific group of people, normally the threshold for a guilty verdict.Without giving details, Moreno-Ocampo said he had clearly established that link. Also, one of the two judges who had balked at the genocide indictment has been replaced, he added, increasing the likelihood the panel of judges will take a fresh look at his request.

The Sudanese government has rejected Moreno-Ocampo’s charges and is refusing to cooperate with the court. Khartoum has retaliated by expelling 13 foreign and three domestic humanitarian aid agencies, accusing them of collaborating with the ICC.

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WE ARE NOT READY FOR DARFUR RAINY SEASON: UN

The expulsion of international NGOs means aid agencies are not as ready as they could be for the rainy season in Darfur but a humanitarian crisis is not imminent, a senior U.N. official said on Sunday. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir expelled 13 international aid agencies after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in March on charges of masterminding war crimes in Darfur.

Some parts of Darfur, a region roughly the size of France in western Sudan, become very difficult to reach during the rainy season which starts in a few weeks. Rain floods unmade roads and tracks and rivers swell. Many of the camps, where some 2 million people headed after the violence drove them from their homes, lie in flood plains.

Speaking to reporters at the end of a trip to Sudan including Darfur, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said: “We are not as ready as we would like to be. Normally before the rainy season, the agencies, NGOs working there would be pre-positioning food and other goods…because it becomes very difficult to move them around once the rainy season started.” Because of the expulsions, those efforts were delayed because it took a while to regain access to warehouses where these goods are kept, Holmes said.

About 4.7 million people rely on humanitarian aid in Darfur, a conflict in which U.N. officials say as many as 300,000 people have died in almost six years of ethnic and political violence. Khartoum says 10,000 have died. “We now have access, we’ll be working extremely hard to make up for lost time. But we’re not in as good a position as we would have been otherwise,” Holmes said.

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SUDAN READY TO RESIST ATTACK ON ITS TERRITORY

Sudan said on Sunday it was ready to repel any attack on its territory, a day after rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement, which Khartoum accuses Chad of supporting, were involved in a clash in Darfur. Chad said it had halted an attempted rebel advance on its capital last week following fierce fighting in the east. N’Djamena has accused Sudan of igniting the clashes by sending armed groups over the border.

Khartoum denies these charges and has in turn, accused Chad of supporting JEM rebels, which attacked the Sudanese capital on May 11, 2008. Sudan has accused Chadian President Idriss Deby of involvement in that attack. “National Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein has affirmed the readiness of the armed forces to repel any aggression on Sudanese lands, pointing to the movements of JEM on the north western border with support from the Chadian government,” the Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) reported.

Hussein made those statements in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, SUNA said. On Saturday JEM rebels clashed in North Darfur with forces loyal to former rebel Minni Arcua Minnawi, the only Darfur rebel to sign a peace deal with the government in 2006. UNAMID spokesman Noureddine Mezni said another brief battle took place on Sunday.

Minnawi leads a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army and became a presidential assistant after the 2006 peace agreement. The fighting in Chad, in which N’Djamena said 225 rebels and 22 government soldiers were killed, threatens a peace deal Chad and Sudan signed in Doha only last week in which they agreed to normalise relations and reject support for rebels hostile to either of them. The two countries resumed fragile diplomatic relations last November after cutting them in May.

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FARROW ENDS DARFUR PROTEST FAST, BRANSON TAKES OVER

Mia Farrow has ended her hunger strike to show solidarity with the people of the war-hit Darfur region of Sudan, because of “health concerns”. In a statement posted on her website the 64-year-old said: “I have been instructed by my doctor to stop my fast immediately due to health concerns.” The actress fasted for 12 days over the Sudanese government’s decision to expel foreign aid agencies. On Friday entrepreneur Richard Branson took over Farrow’s hunger strike. “I’m honoured to be taking over the fast for the next three days,” he said in a statement on his blog.

“We cannot stand and watch as one million people suffer. “We all need to stand up and demand that international aid is restored and that the people of Darfur are protected and given the chance to live in peace.” Farrow said doctors had advised her that if she continued fasting she was at risk from enduring seizures.

The star said she felt “fortunate” she could end the fast, because “the women, children, and men I am fasting for do not have that option”. She added she is hoping to get “justice and peace for the people of Darfur”. Thirteen aid groups were expelled in March after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir.

Mr Bashir is accused of orchestrating atrocities against civilians in Darfur. The government has been fighting rebels in the region since 2003. The UN says that up to 300,000 people have died during the conflict and 2.7 million driven from their homes. Farrow, who was once married to Frank Sinatra and later had children with Woody Allen, drank only water during her fast.

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UN PEACEKEEPER SHOT DEAD IN DARFUR

An international peacekeeper has been shot dead in Sudan’s Darfur region, in an apparent bid to steal his car, the joint UN-African Union mission said.

He was shot outside his home on Thursday night in the south Darfur town of Nyala as he was parking his car, Unamid officials said.

Details of the dead man’s nationality and rank were not given.

Sudan announced earlier that it was inviting new aid groups to work in Darfur in a move welcomed by the UN.

It expelled 13 foreign aid groups in March after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

But on Thursday, the Minister for Humanitarian Assistance, Haroun Lual Ruun, said Khartoum would invite new non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to Darfur and allow UN agencies and NGOs currently operating there to “expand their existing operations”.

A number of gunmen attacked the peacekeeper, Unamid spokesman Kemal Saiki said.

His car was later found abandoned 7km from Nyala.

Rudolph Adada, the Unamid special representative, condemned the attack

“Attacks against peacekeepers are considered war crimes,” he said.

Before the latest killing, Unamid had suffered 34 deaths since it began operating in Darfur on 31 July 2007, its website records

As of 31 March, it had a total of 15,351 uniformed personnel on the ground plus 919 international civilian personnel.

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SUDAN HARON WANTED BY ICC, TO HEAD KEY REGION

Sudan has chosen Ahmed Haroun, wanted by the International Criminal Court on Darfur war crimes charges, as governor of a sensitive north-south border province that contains key oil fields, state media said on Friday. State news agency SUNA said President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had named Haroun to lead the province of South Kordofan, which includes the contested border town of Abyei, site of clashes between northern and southern armies last year.

A spokesman for the former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement had no immediate comment on the move, saying the appointment was Khartoum’s to make. North and south Sudan, whose conflict is separate from the ongoing violence in Darfur in Sudan’s west, have had a troubled relationship since signing a peace deal in 2005 to end two decades of civil war.

The International Crisis Group think tank said in October the peace deal was at risk in South Kordofan, which had “many of the same ingredients” that sparked the conflict in Darfur. Scores of people were killed and more than 50,000 displaced last year when northern and southern armies clashed in Abyei. Both north Sudan and the country’s semi-autonomous south claim the town. At stake is control over nearby oilfields and a pipeline funnelling crude to Sudan’s Red Sea coast.

Sudan says it produces 500,000 barrels of oil a day, a figure which it hopes to raise to 600,000 in 2009.

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SUDAN GIVES WAY FOR MORE AID GROUPS

Sudan’s government says it will invite new aid groups to work in Darfur and allow those still operating there to expand their activities. The UN’s head of humanitarian affairs welcomed the move. Sudan expelled 13 foreign aid groups in March after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Meanwhile, the backer of a conference on Darfur says it may be cancelled because of opposition from Sudan. The UN says that up to 300,000 people have died during the conflict in Darfur and 2.7 million driven from their homes. Sudan had agreed last month to allow some aid back into Darfur following its expulsion of humanitarian groups.

On Thursday, the minister for humanitarian assistance, Haroun Lual Ruun, said Khartoum would invite new non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to Darfur. He also said it would allow those UN agencies and NGOs remaining in the Sudanese region to “expand their existing operations”.

“I think what we’re hearing… is that new NGOs with new names, new logos, if necessary, can come in ”
John Holmes UN humanitarian chief .

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CHAD BLAMES SUDAN ON ATTACK, 2 DAYS AFTER PEACE ACCORD

Chad’s government has accused Sudan of launching a military attack, two days after the neighbours signed a reconciliation agreement in Qatar.

Communications Minister Mahamat Hissene said Khartoum was behind a “planned aggression”, reported AFP new agency.

A BBC correspondent in Chad says he is referring to alleged Khartoum support for Chad rebels, a common claim. Sudan promptly denied the latest allegation.

In Doha on Sunday, Sudan and Chad agreed to end hostilities.

“While the ink has yet to dry on the Doha accord, the Khartoum regime has just launched several armoured columns against our country,” the communications minister told state radio, reported AFP.

The two countries have long been at odds amid mutual allegations of support for insurgents in each other’s territory, especially near the war-torn Darfur region along their common border.

Sudanese army spokesman Osman al-Agbash promptly rejected Tuesday’s claim, telling AFP: “What is happening now inside Chad is between the Chadian army and the Chadian rebels. Sudan has no relation with this.”

The BBC’s Celeste Hicks in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, says there has been rebel movement in recent days in the east of Chad, but it is not clear if the insurgents have gone on the offensive.

She says the last time Chad’s rebels launched a significant attack was on the eastern town of Goz Beida in June last year.

Chad has on a number of occasions since then accused Sudan of egging on the rebels, she says.

In May 2008, Khartoum accused N’Djamena of backing Darfur-based insurgents who launched an unprecedented attack on the Sudanese capital.

Chad denied any involvement and in turn accused Sudan of having backed a push by rebels on N’Djamena three months earlier that reached the gates of the presidential palace before being repulsed.

Solving the dispute between the two countries is seen as a key step in solving the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Many Darfur rebels are from the same ethnic group as President Idriss Deby, and ever since their uprising began, he has been accused of offering them support.

Although Khartoum has repeatedly denied backing the rebels, analysts note the insurgents have operated out of Sudanese territory for several years.

Sunday’s talks were brokered by Qatar and Libya, which have been leading reconciliation efforts between Chad and Sudan after they renewed diplomatic relations in November after a six-month rift.

N’Djamena and Khartoum also shunned each other diplomatically for four months in 2006 after an attack by rebels on Chad.

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