Daily Darfur: He Said What...?

Is Scott Gration becoming a spokesman for the government of Sudan? From While We Wait:

"The Special Envoy of the President of U.S.A., General Scott Gration, visited IDP camp in Kass area (West Darfur). He met with some refugees in the camp. A leader said to Radio Dabanga that the American Special Envoy asked them to return to their original villages and catch up with the rainy season to farm their lands. The refugees told the Special Envoy that the janjaweed who drove them from their villages are still there occupying their lands, the Leader told Radio Dabanga."

If this assessment of Gration's visit is true --- that he actually asked IDPs to return, rather than perhaps asking about their thoughts on the prospect of returning --- it would seem that the envoy is peddling Khartoum's will throughout Darfur.

Repatriation for most will not be a simple matter of "going home" --- violence has substantially decreased in recent years, but insecurity is still rampant. (Armed bandits, not just politically-motivated actors, account for a large portion of the problem.) Furthermore, in many cases, it is unknown what the IDPs have to return to: Many villages were destroyed and land appropriated during the peak of the violence in 2003 - 2005.

Here's to hoping that Gration's comments were misinterpreted or taken out of context. I know from my own conversations that many IDPs and refugees would return if they could --- living in a camp being the necessary-but-less-than-favorable option.

Quickies

The beleaguered Ugandan foreign ministry official who sparked a bit of international drama last week over public comments that his government would arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir may lose his job over the incident, if Khartoum has its way.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concerns over rising violence in the Chad-Sudan border region. He noted that the government of Sudan took the appropriate diplomatic action by referring Chad to the UN Security Council, rather than retaliating militarily, after the Chadian air force conducted cross-border bomb raids, but condemned recent Sudanese government air raids on rebel positions in Darfur. Ban wrote that the recent deterioration of relations between the two neighbors, particularly since a Sudanese-back Chadian rebel incursion in early may, "is setback for the security of the broader region."

Randy Newcomb, head of Humanity United, chides the Obama administration for being too "slow to translate rhetoric into action," and defends the role of the Save Darfur movement.

A Ugandan peacekeeper gave an account of his time in Darfur:

"Ngako says that part of their challenge was to manage the expectations of the displaced people. The displaced persons expect the UN police to protect them against constant attacks from robbers and rebels yet the UN mandate did not extend to that level.

Ngako says that continued attacks disrupt the little confidence between the people in camps and the Sudan."

The government of Sudan will reciprocate JEM's prisoner release.

[Photo: US envoy to Sudan Scott Gration speaks during a press conference at the ministry of foreign affairs in Khartoum on April 2, 2009.]