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
September 4, 2009 by 1 Comment
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 […]
Something to watch for in ICC Lubanga case
September 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment
There’s been a curious development at the ICC since I was away that is worth keeping an eye on for those interested in following the precedent-setting decisions of the court’s first trial – against DRC militia leader, Thomas Lubanga Dyillo. In essence, representatives of the victims are trying to get in charges of sexual slavery […]
Lubna and her domestic supporters
September 2, 2009 by 1 Comment
This ran anonymously in Foreign Policy while I was inside Sudan. A quick scan of google news today unfortunately supports the suggestion that the international spotlight on this may be fickle, but I remain confident that Lubna’s supporters in Khartoum will be out in full force when her trial resumes on Friday (see correction – […]
“The perfume of the good guys”
September 1, 2009 by Leave a Comment
August 15, 2009 Tonight I took my “driver” to watch his football team (Merriek) play Zambia’s Zesco team in the African Cup. I put “driver” in inverted commas, because this gentleman – who looks to be pushing 80 – is so much more than the role he appears to assume when he gets into his […]
Lubna: “It’s not about the trousers”
August 29, 2009 by 2 Comments
Next Friday, September 4, is the third time Lubna Hussein will be going to court for the “crime” of wearing trousers. I met with Lubna a number of times when I was in Khartoum, and will be posting some background on her in the coming days. When I left, Lubna insisted on seeing me off […]
August 28, 2009 by Leave a Comment
BBC/PRI’s “The World” gave me the opportunity to talk about my time in Darfur. If you are in the U.S. you can listen on the radio, otherwise the audio link will be up on their site in a few hours. After the interview, a friend in Darfur sent the following comment: Gen. Agwai’s remarks (that […]
Key issues from my visit to Darfur
August 28, 2009 by 4 Comments
I’m still digesting my pages and pages of notes, and ordering my thoughts, so take this as a non-exhaustive list: 1. Collapse of GBV services following the expulsion of the humanitarians If there was one issue I could get a spot on CNN to talk about, it would be this. I had an inkling of […]
Welcome to Khartoum
August 27, 2009 by 4 Comments
Rarely have a felt such a deep-seated sense of rage, as came with flying into Khartoum by night. It was the lights – the number of them, like a fairyland. These were not the kind of piecemeal lights here and there among a few locations lucky enough to have a generator. No, Khartoum is clearly […]
More on the ‘war is over’ comments
So my mate Rob Crilly has written a post I need to respond to regarding my remarks on General Agwai’s comments. Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m not sure we are substantively in quite as much disagreement as Rob would like to think. He agrees with most of my comments, before concluding “But Bec charmingly […]