March 29, 2024

Archives for October 2009

Abu Garda is in the dock, but he is not the only one under scrutiny

It has been a fascinating week at the ICC with the Confirmation Hearing in the Prosecution’s case against Darfur rebel leader, Abu Garda. The Prosecution is charging him with three counts of war crimes (murder, intentionally directing attacks against a peacekeeping mission, and pillaging) with respect to the 2007 attack on the African Union peacekeeping […]

Getting Congress focused on sexual violence against Darfuris

A great effort underway by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today in D.C. They are giving a lunchtime briefing to Members of Congress on sexual violence against Darfuri women and girls. In the (unlikely) event that any members of Congress or their staffers are reading this, I urge you to attend.This issue is not covered […]

New security commission: A face-saver for Gosh, or something more sinister?

In the ‘one to watch’ category, is a meeting that took place in Khartoum last week of a new governmental body called the National Security Consultancy Commission. The Sudan Tribune reports Bashir saying that the commission’s work is “to develop its work and seal coordination among them [the existing security agencies]”.  The first meeting was […]

In the Totally Random Stuff category

Not Sudan related, but a quick plug for a request from a friend who has done some wonderful Darfur advocacy work over the years and is currently a Teach for America teacher in a desperately under-resourced school in Mississippi. His students need books. If you are in a position to help, please read on

Supporting students in Mississippi

FROM DANIEL MILLENSON [Please contact Daniel directly at the email provided if you want the “wish list” of books he refers to] Dear Friends and Family, As many of you may know, I am currently serving as a 2009 Teach For America corps member in rural Mississippi, teaching 12th grade English and a class of […]

We are failing these women

When I was in Khartoum earlier this year, I went to the courtroom where Lubna Hussein was being tried under the Public Order Offense laws for wearing trousers. As readers of this blog will know, the public scrutiny of Lubna’s case was such that the court eventually backed off sentencing her with a flogging, and […]

Bashir’s campaign goes online

Check it out: http://www.albashir.sd/e/index.php As part of preparations for his bid to renew his Presidency in the upcoming “democratic” elections of 2010, Bashir has taken his campaign online (complete with a dove of peace floating above his name). Note though, the target audience. Firstly, while Khartoum has a high rate of internet usage, the bulk […]

Time for a truce between Gration & the activists?

A day after all the hype and anticipation of the Sudan Policy Review announcement, I thought I’d share a few thoughts. Staff at Enough , GI-Net and Save Darfur have come out with disciplined, uniformly positive but cautious reactions to the Review (although as pointed out on Sahel blog,  John Norris and John Prendergast at […]

Working in parallel

What I liked most about the Obama administration’s Sudan Policy Review document was something very simple: the clear articulation of three objectives (Darfur, CPA, counter-terrorism) and a commitment not to trade them off against each other. In particular was nice to see the CPA getting equal billing with Darfur (I have a column on this […]

Fudge the analysis, fudge the policy

I think what surprises me most about the Sudan Policy Review is that a document that contains so many of the basic principles found in any “policy 101” textbook (mix of carrots and sticks, escalating series of responses, verification before acceptance etc.) took so long to be concluded. But the length of time it took […]