Weekly News Update 3/2/09

DARFUR
1. Genocide Intervention Network recently released an analysis of fatalities due to violence in Darfur from January 1 - September 8, 2008. The persons included do not include those who have died due to hunger and disease (up to 80% of Darfurian deaths) and other sources of violence, including sexual violence. According to GI-Net's statistics, approximately 150 people have died due to violence per months.
To see more, please see Alex de Waal's critique at: http://www.ssrc.org/blogs/darfur/2009/02/26/data-for-deaths-in-darfur/

2. Recently, the Chairman of the African Union has blamed foreign forces for conflicts in Africa. Specifically, he has referenced the recent meetings between Darfurian rebel leaders opening offices in Tel Aviv and holding military meetings there. Ha'aretz, a major Israeli newspaper, published an article stating that a leader of one of the rebel groups in Sudan's Darfur region recently visited Israel to discuss with a senior Israeli official the situation in the Sudan. Currently, Israel houses upwards of 600 refugees, whom Olmert's regime granted asylum and work permits.
To see more, please see http://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2009/02/au-chairman-hard-evidence-proves-israel.html

3. Columbia University's Professor Mamdani, a native Ugandan and the Chair of the Council for Development of Social Science Research in Africa, says that defining the Darfur conflict as the West traditionally has as Arab vs. African is misconstrued. He states, "When the Save Darfur movement claims that this violence is African versus Arab its explanation is not historical or political. Its explanation basically is that the Arabs are "race-intoxicated" and they are just trying to wipe out the Africans. The Save Darfur movement does not educate the people they mobilize about the history of Darfur. It does not educate them about what issues drive the conflict. So they know nothing about the politics of Darfur, the history of Darfur, the history of the conflict. All they know is that Darfur is a place where "Arabs" are trying to eliminate "Africans". That's all. Darfur is a place where "evil lives", so they have completely "moralized" the conflict and presented it as a struggle against evil. This evil is thus portrayed as ahistorical, or trans-historical, living outside of history — except that evil is said to live in this place called Darfur and Sudan."
To see more, please visit: http://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2009/02/defining-darfur-conflict-as-arab.html.

4. 5000 rebels are congregating on the Sudanese side of the Sudanese-Chadian border, awaiting the world on the ICC's indictment of Bashir. The international community fears that should Bashir be indicted, the rebels will act. JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim has vowed to topple Bashir, stating "we are not going to ask to control Darfur and Kordofan through peace talks if they [the government] are not going to give it - we'll take it."
To see more, please visit: http://www.google.com/reader/view/#search/congregating/1.


SRI LANKA
1. The LTTE does not want to agree to peace talks with the government. Thousands have fled from the North in the Vanni pocket, on the run from fighting in the North, including shelling. Those fleeing are often separated from their families and have no idea of their villages' fates. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns of health epidemics, should the current health issues continue to deteriorate as they are.
To see more, please visit: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/TUJA-7P47XH?OpenDocument&RSS20=18-P.