Let's Hope This One Works: Sudan Signs Cease-fire Agreement with Darfur Rebels

[Jamila]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...1jan11,1,563645.story?coll=la-headlines-world


Sudan, Darfur rebels agree on truce
From Reuters
January 11, 2007


KHARTOUM, SUDAN — Sudan's government and Darfur rebels have agreed to a 60-day cease-fire and a peace summit sponsored by the African Union and the United Nations as steps toward stopping the violence in western Sudan, visiting New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday.


Sudan also agreed to let foreign journalists visit Darfur after a two-month ban and to remove a requirement for exit visas for humanitarian workers, one of the biggest obstacles to the world's largest aid operation.


Sudan's president, Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, "agreed to the start of a peace process that includes a 60-day cessation of hostilities," Richardson said.


The African Union-U.N. peace summit is to be held no later than March 15.


Richardson said the rebel commanders he met in Darfur had agreed to the cease-fire, which would begin on a date to be set by the U.N. and the African Union, which are jointly mediating Darfur peace efforts.


A statement by the Sudanese government and Richardson said Sudan would not use military aircraft painted white, a color usually reserved for humanitarian groups, and that Darfur rebel commanders could safely call for a conference in the field to be monitored by the African Union and the U.N.


Experts estimate more than 200,000 people have been killed and an additional 2.5 million displaced since mostly non-Arab rebels in Darfur took up arms in early 2003, accusing the government of neglect. Khartoum rejects Washington's description of the violence by pro-government forces as genocide.


African Union forces have been unable to stem the violence, but Sudan rejects a Security Council resolution authorizing U.N. peacekeepers to take over the mission in Darfur.

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For the sake of the people of Darfur, let's pray that this one sticks.

 

[Liesje]

We need a crossing fingers smiley. I have a friend/classmate/person I tutored who has already lost half of his siblings (he has 17) and most of his adult relatives to this travesty.

 

[redhotswami]

#T()*#)(@$@()$HR@)!!!!!!
17 siblings?????? omg that hurts just thinking about it.


oh but seriously, that is very tragic. i'm praying on this one.

 

[Jamila]

We need a crossing fingers smiley. I have a friend/classmate/person I tutored who has already lost half of his siblings (he has 17) and most of his adult relatives to this travesty.

Thank you for your concern about this SERIOUS matter, Liesje.

 

[Angela Harlem]

do you reckon they will stick to this, jamila?

 

[redhotswami]

i was being serious, i am praying on this. this is the first time i've heard some hope for an end to the violence since the peace agreement was signed last year...and approximately this day i believe....i may be a few days off.

 

[Liesje]

Haven't other peace attempts resulted in broken promises (and an assassination attempt?)?

Well, there's a first for everything....

#T()*#)(@$@()$HR@)!!!!!!
17 siblings?????? omg that hurts just thinking about it.

Yep, I think his father had four wives. But my friend is a really cool dude, very friendly and talkative. I also tutored him for a computer class. He was in my marketing class and people would always make excuses for skipping meetings, like their car broke or they felt sick. One time he was gone and the next meeting, he apologized profusely. He had made contact with his family and several of his brothers had gone missing. It really puts things in perspective. At the very least, I've learned not to take so many things for granted. I'm just sorry it has to come to this to learn that lesson.

 

[redhotswami]

Haven't other peace attempts resulted in broken promises (and an assassination attempt?)?

Well, there's a first for everything....



Yep, I think his father had four wives. But my friend is a really cool dude, very friendly and talkative. I also tutored him for a computer class. He was in my marketing class and people would always make excuses for skipping meetings, like their car broke or they felt sick. One time he was gone and the next meeting, he apologized profusely. He had made contact with his family and several of his brothers had gone missing. It really puts things in perspective. At the very least, I've learned not to take so many things for granted. I'm just sorry it has to come to this to learn that lesson.

I couldn't imagine what it would be like to receive that phone call that must be so devastating to experience. I think I take for granted that my family are safe in homes and doing fine. I hope this conflict will end soon. Too many people have been displaced and killed. A roof over my head has never been an uncertainty for me...I can't imagine what that is like.

Like you said though, that really does put things into perspective. College can be such a sheltered life, unless one makes a special effort to be proactive and involved in things going on outside the campus, it is really easy to be completely out of the loop like that.

 

[Jamila]

do you reckon they will stick to this, jamila?

My gut reaction to this news, Anna, is "no" - this agreement will probably not to stuck to by both sides, but then, that is where faith has to come in.

I pray that I'm wrong.





Here is how the UN is seeing this situation:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6255617.stm



UN envoy hopeful on Darfur peace

Sudan's government remains committed to a hybrid UN and African peacekeeping force for Darfur, a UN envoy says.





Jan Eliasson said Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir had also agreed with him that the Darfur conflict could only have a political not military solution.

On Wednesday, the government agreed to a Darfur ceasefire but Mr Eliasson said it was not clear to what extent rebel groups would be party to it.



At least 200,000 people have died in Darfur in the past four years.

Some 7,000 African Union troops on the ground have not been able to prevent the conflict worsening.



A peace agreement was signed last May between the government and one leading rebel group but violence has continued, with rival rebels refusing to sign.




Meeting rebels

The announcement of the 60-day ceasefire came after a visit this week by senior US politician Bill Richardson.


Correspondents say it is not clear exactly when the ceasefire will begin or which rebel groups have agreed to it.



The government has been accused of mounting a major offensive in recent months.

Mr Eliasson, the UN envoy for Darfur, said he planned to meet rebel leaders when he goes to Darfur later on Friday.



"President Bashir and all other officials I met here told me that there will not be a military solution to the Darfur problem and I hope I will hear this from the non-signatories," AFP news agency quotes him as saying.



The UN has a three-part plan to strengthen the African Union force with UN troops.

Mr Bashir has consistently opposed any large UN deployment, only agreeing to a hybrid force.



He has always insisted the problems in Darfur are being exaggerated.

The peace mission will first be augmented by dozens of UN experts and then expanded into a hybrid force, with UN troops providing logistical and other support.



The Darfur conflict began in 2003 after a rebel group began attacking government targets, saying the region was being neglected by Khartoum.

The rebels say the government is oppressing black Africans in favour of Arabs.
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Let's continue that somehow this ceasefire will overcome the divisions that exist currently in this situation.

 

[Angela Harlem]

He has always insisted the problems in Darfur are being exaggerated.

 

[verte76]

I hope this holds. Those people have been through hell.

 

[Jamila]

I completely agree with you, verte.

 

[ShellBeThere]

Is it working yet?
Last I saw on the news, aid groups were about to start pulling out because they are apparently being *targeted*, not just caught in the crossfire..

 

[Jamila]

I don't know either, ShellBeThere - I think the situation in Darfur is so hard to really substantiate.


Here is an article about the situation that you were talking about.


Thank you for your concern for Darfur.


http://www.savedarfur.org




Darfur aid 'on brink of collapse'

Fourteen UN aid agencies working in Sudan's troubled Darfur region have warned that their relief operations will collapse unless security improves.



Humanitarian workers, they said, are "holding the line" for the survival and protection of millions in Darfur.

But they need "solid guarantees" of security from all the parties involved in the conflict to be able to continue.



Violence in the western region of Sudan has claimed more than 200,000 lives and led 2.5 million to abandon their homes.



"The UN and its humanitarian partners have effectively been holding the line for the survival and protection of millions," the UN agencies said in the joint statement.

"That line cannot be held much longer."



The UN said that their humanitarian operations in Darfur, which employ almost 14,000 aid workers and costs more than $1bn (£0.5bn, 0.7bn euros), had saved hundreds of thousands of lives since it began in mid-2004.



Shifting frontlines

But the agencies, which include the World Food Programme (WFP), Unicef and the World Health Organisation, said that "malnutrition rates are edging perilously close to the emergency threshold."

Security fears led to the distribution of double food rations in some areas in the month of December, and also prevented some 47,000 people in need being reached, WFP said.



The agencies said that the primary victims of Darfur's conflict are civilians who suffer due to "repeated military attacks, shifting frontlines and fragmentation of armed groups."

A total of 12 aid workers have been killed in the last six months, the statement said - more than the number in the previous two years combined.



Also in the last six months, 30 compounds operated by relief groups, including non-governmental organisations and charities, were directly attacked by armed groups.

The Sudanese government says the instabilty and number of deaths in Darfur have been exaggerated by the west.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6272093.stm
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Please do whatever you can to help the People of Darfur.