Daily Darfur: Sudanese Agents in US Cause Trouble for Darfuris

In an update from sources inside Darfur, Stop Genocide Now reports that Janjaweed forces are "roaming the city [El Fasher, North Darfur] freely and assaulting citizens," IDP camp residents are being forced to attend pro-Bashir rallies, and retributions --- including at least one murder --- are being exacted against outspoken leaders from the IDP communities. I found this update particularly troublesome:

"A Darfuri activist in Midwest (U.S.A.) told me this morning that GoS security agents are looking for her sister in Nyala (South Darfur). She said her sister has no political affiliation or activities. She believes that Government of Sudan's agents in U.S.A. has a hand in what is going on to her family back home. (All demonstrations supporting ICC decision on 4th of March in major U.S. cities by Darfuris in Diaspora were taped by GoS agents). This Darfuri activist is a student in a university. She told me she cancelled all classes today just to keep calling her relatives in Sudan, Arabian Gulf countries, to follow up situation in Darfur."

Why is the US government allowing this? We may not be able to put an immediate end to what's happening on the ground in Darfur, but we can control what is happening on our own soil.

For those of you in the LA area, join Stop Genocide Now and allied activists as they camp out in front of the Federal Building to demand US action on Darfur. And, to find out how you can support SGN's upcoming trip to refugee camps in Chad, click here:

More Mutterings from the White House

In a meeting yesterday, President Obama told China's top diplomat that "the promotion of human rights is an essential aspect of U.S. global foreign policy," and discussed, among other things, the ongoing crisis in Darfur.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about a letter sent by a coalition of activist groups, lead by Save Darfur, in the White House Press Briefing on Wednesday --- and in particular, if President Obama plans to send an envoy to Sudan:

"Q    Would he send somebody to talk to Bashir about it? Would he do something at the U.N. beyond talking to Ban Ki-moon?

MR. GIBBS: We may have more on that later in the week, but I don't have any update on that now."

So will we hear something today? Sure would be nice.

Never Say Never

UN Secretary Genocide Ban Ki-moon commented that it's not "too late" for Bashir to seek a deferral of his arrest warrants from the UN Security Council, but only if "necessary measures" were taken:

"Ban said that before the arrest warrant was issued he had urged Bashir to take credible ‘domestic judiciary measures' to implement a 2005 Security Council resolution referring the Darfur issue to the ICC.

'That's the only way which can be regarded as meeting the requirement of Article 16,' he said.

Ban did not elaborate but appeared to be suggesting that Khartoum should take legal action against two other Sudanese men, Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kushayb, indicted by the ICC in 2007 over Darfur. Sudan has not so far prosecuted them."

The mandate of the ICC only allows it to pursue cases when national courts have failed to do so themselves. But Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, said that the prospects of legitimate trials within Sudan are "somewhere between less than zero and negligible."

I would throw my hat in with South Sudan and Uganda, whose leaders both told reporters that any talk of a deferral for Bashir must be tied to demonstrated strides towards peace.

Other items of note...

Three international aid workers with the Belgian contingent of Medecins San Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) are still missing, after being abducted from a guarded compound on Wednesday night. Two Sudanese national staff kidnapped along with the ex-pats were released shortly thereafter. Out of concern for its remaining staff in Darfur, MSF withdrew almost all international staff from programs in Darfur. For more thorough updates on the humanitarian situation in Darfur, please see Change.org's Humanitarian Relief blog.

Listen to a refugee's account of his flight from Darfur:

"The way they killed the kids, is like, they take the kids and put them inside the hut and they lock the door, and they burn the hut and all those kids burn inside."

[Photo from AFP: Sudanese women shout slogans during a protest in Khartoum against the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir over alleged war-crimes in Darfur.]