Annan urges more aid for Sudan

In need of aid: Kofi Annan says western nations have been tight-fisted.

UN secretary-general Kofi Annan is pressing governments for more aid for the troubled Darfur region, as the Security Council considers threatening the Sudanese Government with sanctions over its role in the humanitarian crisis in the region.

Mr Annan has written to the leaders of 11 key European, Asian and Gulf nations.

He says nations have so far been too tight-fisted in addressing the situation in Darfur, where Arab militias have killed tens of thousands of African villagers and driven more than 1 million more from their homes.

A UN emergency appeal in March requested $US349 million in aid for the western Sudanese region.

UN officials say so far, less than half of that has been donated, with 70 per cent of that coming from just four donors - the United States, the Netherlands, Britain and the European Commission.

On Tuesday, the United States toughened its draft resolution to threaten unspecified sanctions against the Sudanese Government in 30 days if it failed to fulfil its commitments to disarm the Arab militias and give relief workers full access to the region.

UN, US and European Union officials blame the armed groups, known as Janjaweed militias, for murder, rape and pillaging in Darfur.

The Sudanese Government is accused of backing the Janjaweed.

Sudan denies this and protests outsiders meddling in its affairs.

US envoy Stuart Holliday told Security Council members on Tuesday to expect a vote either Thursday or Friday on the draft after a final round of talks on Wednesday afternoon.

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By In Solidarity 29 July 04

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Sudan vows to resist Darfur intervention

A crowd of boys welcomes the arrival of a convoy of Red Cross trucks carrying food and supplies to a camp between Chad and Sudan.

The Sudanese Cabinet has put all government institutions on alert after vowing to face down any foreign intervention in the Darfur crisis.

Ministers have ordered the "political and strategic mobilisation of all government institutions", Agriculture Minister Majzub Al Khalifa Ahmed said after an emergency cabinet meeting.

Mr Ahmed says ministers also decided to "strongly resist all [UN Security Council] resolutions calling for despatching international forces to Darfur".

"The Government will from now on harden its attitude in rejection of any foreign intervention in Darfur and will notify the international community of this position," he said.

"The Government will appropriately deal with any soldier who sets foot on Sudanese territory."

Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail later re-iterated that Khartoum was prepared to face down any foreign intervention in Darfur, by force if necessary.

"We are not looking for confrontation and we hope that we will not be pushed to that," Mr Ismail told reporters in Ankara.

"But if we are being forced to do so, if we are being attacked, definitely we are not going to sit silent. We will retaliate or we will hit back."

Premature

At the same time, United States Secretary of State Colin Powell said it was too soon to talk of military intervention in Darfur.

Speaking to reporters on his way to Egypt, Mr Powell called such talk "premature", adding that he believed the Sudanese Government still had the ability to take action to bring the violence there under control.

Australia and Britain have both expressed readiness to commit troops to an international intervention force in Darfur.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on the weekend that there was a "good chance" Australia would send "a small number" of troops to Darfur as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force.

The US is looking to introduce a new resolution on Darfur in the UN Security Council later today.

By In Solidarity 27 July 04

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Annan, African leaders to hold Sudan talks

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will hold talks with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and other African leaders on peace initiatives in Sudan and Ivory Coast on Thursday, a Nigerian spokeswoman said.

Mr Obasanjo organised the talks in the Ghanaian capital Accra in his capacity as chairman of the African Union (AU), his spokeswoman Remi Oyo said.

"A meeting has been scheduled in Accra on Thursday this week, to be attended by UN Secretary-General and some African leaders including President Obasanjo, to discuss some peace initiatives in Sudan and Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)," Ms Oyo told journalists in the Nigerian capital.

Mr Obasanjo has also sent former Nigerian president Abdulsalam Abubakar as his peace envoy to Sudan and Chad.

Fighting in Sudan's western Darfur region has uprooted more than one million people, many of them fleeing to neighbouring Chad.

The AU had been hoping to send 270 troops to protect 60 AU cease-fire observers in Sudan's Darfur region by the end of July, but the plan has been dogged by confusion over their exact role.

Diplomats worry about the possibility of clashes between an AU force and troops of member state Sudan.

Nigeria itself has prepared 120 troops for the mission.

Darfur rebels walked out of peace talks earlier this month after Khartoum rejected its preconditions for talks, including the disarmament of pro-government Janjaweed militia.

The Accra talks will also offer Ivory Coast rebels a chance to sit down with the Government to defuse a crisis that has already killed thousands and left more than a million displaced in two years.

By In Solidarity 27 July 04

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Same boat

The Premier, Bob Carr, relies on a militia. A gang of bikies and our Police Service, to show all of us he is no murderer. He should be taken to the task along with his partners in crime like Clive Small to account for those people who like my self have been maliciously assaulted and who have complained, without any service and those who cannot speak for themselves who were murdered, like Terry Falconer. Terry murdered in custody.

Like Ms Rebecca Bernauer murdered before she could give evidence against police and like all the youths that died of a heroin overdose after police sold heroin for a slimy mackeral. .

People who can prove that there has been an attempt on their life by the NSW Police Service and the bikies. Those who are still alive to prove it ought to be given the right to prove it before their taken away at the hands of the government.

The evidence my friends you have received by fax but not completely investigated by those who refuse to have it done. Directives issued to our democratic agencies and institutions by the government who veto complaints. Complaints that have either been interfered with or directed not to be looked at.

For instance who is going not only to check the vehicle registration numbers and be trusted to do so? The perpetrators? I do not think so.

Our political leaders are all messed up because they do not see equality as omnipotent when they make decisions for all of us. In other words they are not in the Same Boat.

Bob Carr, if you are in the same boat go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go and do not collect $200.

Throwing people on the scrap heap because of your own policies that do not work. First you want a taxpayer and when that fails you want a garbage bin (jail) for our young and old alike. How about a new policy? What you see is what you get.

Try leading by example and answer the allegations I put to you.

1. How many NSW Citizens, who have stood in the way of your political agenda did you murder?

2. How many times did your police-bikies and militia repeatedly assault NSW citizens?

3. How many times did you convict innocent NSW Citizens?

4. How many times did you set up NSW Citizens for crimes they never committed?

By Gregory Kable 20 March 2002

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