UN pleads with Sudan over aid ban

[Cass]

Source: BBC

The UN secretary general has urged Sudan to rethink its decision to expel aid groups from its Darfur region.

Ban Ki-moon said the decision could cause "irrevocable damage" to the humanitarian operations in Sudan.

The order came after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir over alleged war crimes.
<...>
Among the international aid groups ordered out of Darfur are Oxfam, Care, Medecins Sans Frontieres and Save the Children UK.




Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7925509.stm

[struggle4progress]

1. Darfur: fears of crisis if aid agencies leave (AP)

By SARAH EL DEEB – 2 hours ago

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Even before Sudan's president expelled aid groups from Darfur following an international warrant seeking his arrest, diarrhea was spreading among newcomers at one of its largest refugee camps and people waited hours in line for water.

The picture at the Zamzam Camp grew even bleaker Thursday when no aid workers showed up, leaving residents to figure out how they would get life sustaining goods from sorghum seeds to running water and tents for the influx of new refugees.

"We are very concerned," said Ibrahim Safi, 34, one of 75,000 residents at the camp. "After God, we only have the organizations."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that Sudan's expulsion of 13 major aid organizations will cause "irrevocable damage" to humanitarian operations in Darfur and called on the government to urgently reconsider its decision ...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iZQb2negfyNKgNesbro4mnMW1AHAD96OA17O0

[struggle4progress]

2. A million face starvation as Sudan shuts down (The Times)

Rob Crilly at the Al Salaam camp, North Darfur

The little hospital built from plastic sheeting and wooden poles is not much to look at. Yet it serves 20,000 of Darfur’s suffering people, offering life-saving medical care to families who fled their homes with nothing.

Yesterday it was closed. Its patients were sent home and doctors and nurses told not to turn up for work. The Sudanese Government, having bombed more than two million people into the camps, is expelling aid workers in retaliation against a world that wants to arrest its President.

Aid officials warn that a humanitarian emergency is in danger of becoming a disaster. The move has put the supply of food to 1.1 million people in doubt, as the UN’s World Food Programme scrambles to find lorries to deliver sacks of grain. It had been using four of the expelled charities to get food to people in need. Outside the hospital – run by the International Rescue Committee until it was ordered out – a mother brushed flies from the face of her daughter. “My baby is sick,” Fatima Abdulrahmen said. “She has a fever and I brought her here and now I don’t know what to do. Who will help me now?”

The people who should be helping – the staff of 13 international charities including Oxfam, Médicins sans Frontières and Care – were boarding flights to the capital, Khartoum ...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5854944.ece

[Rage for Order]

3. I predict a strongly worded UN condemnation in Sudan's future

The UN is virtually worthless.

[Sultana]

6. Yep

They and the Arab League will turn a blind eye......again. Esp. w/ China's interest in Sudan (I want them out, hey China GTFO of my homeland).

This better not slip over to Southern Sudanese, 50+ yrs of civil war is too much for the region.

May God watch over and save the suffering from their suffering :(

[Posteritatis]

8. No thanks to certain P-5 members (nt)

[ohio2007]

9. UN fails to agree on Sudan action

Key powers at the United Nations have failed to agree on a statement asking Sudan to reverse its decision to expel aid agencies

.....
The key powers at the UN Security Council - Russia, China, France, the US and Britain - met to discuss a statement which called on Sudan to reverse the expulsions.

But diplomats say China, Sudan's key ally and trading partner, objected.

A delegation from the African Union and the Arab League is due in New York soon to ask the Security Council to suspend the war crimes case against Sudan's president.

The council is divided: China, Russia and African countries are in favour, says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan, at the United Nations.





http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7929805.stm

China policy;
no (Chinese) blood for oil


Yusaf suggests; Africa needs to submit to peace


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7wEctHyuc0

I could be wrong.

[MiaCulpa]

4. 1 Million face starvation in Sudan

Source: Raw Story - Stephen Webster

Even before the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan for alleged atrocities against his own people, the country's government was issuing caustic warnings to International aid agencies that they would not be "protected" should the court proceed.

On Wednesday, 10 of the leading humanitarian groups in Sudan, including Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) -- Doctors Without Borders -- announced their departure.

"The move has put the supply of food to 1.1 million people in doubt, as the UN’s World Food Programme scrambles to find lorries to deliver sacks of grain," reported the Times Online. "It had been using four of the expelled charities to get food to people in need."

"Charities reported that their bank accounts were being frozen. Doctors with Médicins sans Frontières were trying to contain two deadly outbreaks of meningitis before being expelled. Their clinics have closed."

"Unfortunately, Medecins Sans Frontieres is just part of a pattern now that's been established," reported Phillip Williams, a correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Company. "... organisations have been asked to leave - or ordered to leave, I should say, including Oxfam, which feeds 600,000 people, Mercy Corp., Save the Children, Norwegian Refugee Council, International Rescue Committee, just some of those. They've been given 24 hours to leave the country, and they've already started leaving the area. So, the big question mark: who is going to look after all those people now?"

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/After_government_retaliation_a_million_face_0305.html

---

Full article at the link...

-Diane

[Igel]

5. A good example of a Pyrrhic victory.

We will, of course, have a victory celebration?

[ohio2007]

7. Ayatollah Khatami condemns ICC ruling against Sudanese Pres.

Tehran, March 6, IRNA – Substitute Friday prayers leader of Tehran Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami here Friday condemned the arrest warrant issued by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

“The ICC arrest warrant issued against Sudanese President testifies instrumental use of international bodies,” Ayatollah Khatami said in his second sermon to this week’s Friday prayers congregation in Tehran University.

http://www5.irna.ir/En/View/FullStory/?NewsId=384931&IdLanguage=3

didn't see that one comming

[ohio2007]

10. United Nations: Sudan carried out mass-rapes in Darfur ( march 2008 )

The United Nations today accused the Sudanese government of being directly involved in the mass-rape of girls and women in the crisis-hit region of Darfur — a damning indictment of the part played by the country's Islamist dictatorship in the humanitarian catastrophe.

A report by the UN high commissioner for human rights says it has evidence that the Sudanese Army was involved alongside Arab militia in looting at least three towns, raping girls and women and killing at least 115 people.
snip
The study is the latest authoritative UN report, based on eye-witness testimonies and evidence from aid workers, suggesting that President Omar al-Bashir's administration is providing help and support to the brutal Arab janjaweed militia, who have reportedly robbed villages and murdered, raped or displaced their residents

snip

...armed men on camels and horses shot indiscriminately at Sirba’s residents and systematically torched and looted homes. Government troops did nothing to stop the atrocities, the report added.

In Sileia and Abu Suruj, eyewitnesses told UN investigators that Sudanese Armed Forces also took part in the pillaging.

“I witnessed SAF and janjaweed looting houses, shops and NGO offices,” an eyewitness was quoted as saying. “They would load the stolen goods in their cars and on their camels and horses and take them away.”

Human rights groups have long claimed that the oil-rich Sudanese government should be internationally isolated to punish it for its role in the crisis. However China, its biggest international investor, has refused to do so, despite threats of sanctions led by Britain and the United States.

snip

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article3591198.ece

The UN secretary general has urged Sudan to rethink its decision to expel aid groups from its Darfur region ?
lol
They got China in their corner ...top that