Daily Darfur: Wave of Arrests in Darfur Camps

by Michelle . · 2009-08-10 03:58:00 UTC
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US-based Darfuri activist Mohamed Suleiman is raising the alarm over a wave of arrests of tribal leaders in IDP camps in Darfur. Mohamed posted a list of both arrested and threatened leaders on his blog, and recently wrote for Change.org about the threats against Darfuri leaders.

The exact motivation for the latest wave of arrests is unclear, but follows close on the heels of the murder of a camp leader and his wife last weekend. Radio Dabanga reports that residents of the camp requested UNAMID's intervention after 26 people were arrested without charge by government security forces, but were denied.

Arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, and torture are a common tactics of the regime in Khartoum, despite international attention and provisions for improvement under the country's interim constitution, which was adopted following the end of the North-South civil war in 2005. (Of recent fame, journalist Lubna Hussein is was arrested in Khartoum for violation of a sporadically-imposed law prohibiting women from wearing pants.)

International attention, it seems, has yet to translate into sufficient pressure on Khartoum to change its ways. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that world leaders and certain American envoys seem more inclined to offer rewards while ignoring bad behavior.

Quickies

Chidi Annselm Odinkalu, of the OSI Justice Initiative and the Darfur Consortium, offers a complex and nuanced view of the complications of international justice in Sudan. (Will likely come back to this one later --- it's a lot of mull over early in the morning.)

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is calling for an independent inquiry into the use of rape as a weapon of war in Sudan, Chad, and the DRC.

Secretary Hillary Clinton reportedly discussed Sudan and Zimbabwe during her meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma...no idea of the details of that conversation, however.

Sudanese presidential adviser Ghazi Salah Al-Deen, lucky possessor of the Darfur file, will travel to Libya this week to discuss less-than-fruitful attempts to organize Darfuri rebel factions behind a unified negotiating platform.

The UN World Food Programme joined the chorus of voices expressing serious concern over rising violence in South Sudan.

[File Photo from Reuters: Darfuri women pray in a makeshift mosque in Abu Shouk IDP camp. The camp's omda and his wife were murdered by unknown assailants last week. ]

Michelle . has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns.
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