March 28, 2024

Archives for September 2009

The way forward

The big takeaway for me from the trip to Darfur this weekend was that the Special Envoy is facing a communications breakdown. In a situation like Darfur, where the IDPs in the camps are so networked into the global media and advocacy organizations this messaging problem is no superficial matter – it has a substantive […]

John “JJ” Hamilton

Truest of Aussie larrikins. Due irreverence and lack of tolerance for bullshit.  Walkabouts in the Volvo – Mt Keira to the Wollongong North surf beach. Deep bass voice, resonating out across the theatre. Pesto-making, pot-smoking, out on the verrandah watering the herbs. Best of all, mine. You went out in style – I would have […]

BBC/PRI Interview

Link to interview about trip to Darfur with Gration is up.

Costs & benefits

Hi all I’m writing this from Frankfurt airport. My plane is delayed and I just found out my Uncle – the closest person I have to my Dad, who died when I was a kid – has had a heart attack back in Australia. I’m feeling desperately far away and there is nothing I can […]

Back to Darfur

Hi everyone I’m heading back to Darfur (which means this blog will once again become inaccessible to me). But this time, I’m not going solo. I will be accompanying U.S. Special Envoy, Scott Gration. The schedule for the trip is up on the U.S. State Department blog. Darfur policy under the Obama Administration (whenever it […]

She Wears the Pants

By Rebecca Hamilton Lubna Hussein, the Sudanese woman found guilty of the crime of wearing trousers, may not have won her case, but she has done one important thing: made the Khartoum regime fear the world’s response. Lubna Hussein’s trial for the “crime” of wearing trousers went ahead in Khartoum yesterday morning. It was her […]

Update on Lubna

The BBC is reporting she has been jailed for refusing to pay the fine. The phone number I spoke to her on earlier in the day seems to have been disconnected. Now is the time, more than ever before, to ensure the spotlight doesn’t fade.

Lubna: Case not closed

As was entirely predictable, today a Sudanese court tried to save face – saying it would not flog Lubna Hussein for wearing trousers (something it didn’t want to do given the global attention on her case) but trying to maintain that she was still “guilty” by fining her 500 Sudanese pounds. No doubt they hoped […]

Mission Not Accomplished

By Rebecca Hamilton Two weeks ago at El Fasher airport in Darfur, I watched Sudanese soldiers load up an Antonov bomber, in full view of the U.N. plane I was seated inside. The recent headline-making comments of the outgoing U.N.-African Union force commander, Gen. Martin Luther Agwai, that the war in Darfur is “over,” therefore […]

Lubna’s trial is on Monday Sept. 7

Somehow I got my dates wrong. I just spoke to Lubna (who is sounding good, and very much cheered at the prospect of the Sudanese who are rallying in support of her in London today). Her trial is on Monday (not today as I previously stated). Read Lubna in her own words  in a piece […]