New Attacks on a Civilian Camp in Darfur

The Sudanese Armed Force’s attack yesterday on Kalma Camp in South Darfur that reportedly left dozens dead is the latest example of the need to enforce and strengthen the Darfur arms embargo. Kalma Camp is home to some 90,000 people who have been left homeless as a result of the violence in Darfur. The camp has long been a hub of unrest and is “awash with weapons” according to a BBC report.

The continued flow of weapons into Darfur greatly complicates the work of the international peacekeeping mission in Darfur, known as UNAMID, and further hinders the ability for the dormant peace process in Darfur to begin again. Ironically, the attacks on Kalma Camp occurred the same day the new United Nations-African Union Joint Mediator for Darfur, Djibril Bassole, officially took up his new post in Sudan.

For too long the Security Council has stood by and let weapons continue to flow into Darfur in violation of the arms embargo it implemented on the region. This is irresponsible and shameful. The Council ought to react strongly to this latest round of violence in Darfur by taking steps to enforce the arms embargo and expand it to cover all of Sudan as well as rebel groups operating in or from Eastern Chad.

Peacekeeping Helicopter is Attacked in Darfur

News today that a UNAMID helicopter was attacked in Darfur is the latest evidence of the need to enforce and expand the Darfur arms embargo. UNAMID is the name for the beleaguered United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur. While unconfirmed, it appears that the helicopter was attacked by rebels operating in Darfur. For too long rebel groups have faced little criticism or negative consequences for the role they play in helping to sustain the violence in the region as most attention is on the Government of Sudan. It is time for the Security Council to get serious about enforcing the Darfur arms embargo by punishing all violators. Without tough concrete action on the part of the Security Council more attacks on UNAMID are likely to occur.

President Bush Urges China to do More to Help End Darfur Conflict

President Bush revealed that in private conversations with President Hu on Sunday he urged China to do more to help end the conflict in Darfur. Human Rights First has been pressing President Bush to raise concerns about China’s military and political relationship with the Government of Sudan during his time at the Beijing Olympics.

U.S. Olympic Athlete Speaks Out in Beijing Against China's Relationship with Sudan

While President Bush has thus far remained conspicuously silent in Beijing on China’s military, economic, and political relationship with the government of Sudan, not all American’s have. Lopez Lomong, a member of the U.S. Olympic Team, today in Beijing criticized China’s support of the government of Sudan, which has committed countless atrocities in Darfur. It could not have come from a better person than Mr. Lomong, a refugee from Sudan who was recently granted U.S. citizenship and selected by members of the U.S. Olympic Team to carry the American flag at the Opening Ceremonies. As a child Mr. Lomong survived terrible atrocities in his native South Sudan and spent years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving to the U.S.

Mr. Lomong’s prominent place at the Opening Ceremonies is a public relations disaster for China which has worked hard to ensure that its relationship with Sudan is not in the news headlines during the Olympic Games. China’s attempts to stifle criticism of its links to the Sudanese government during the Olympic Games was most pronounced when it revoked the visa of Joey Cheek—a former Olympiad and co-founder of the advocacy group Team Darfur—which prevented him from traveling to Beijing for the Games. Mr. Cheek has played a central role in raising public awareness about China’s relationship with the government of Sudan. But China could not stop Mr. Lomong, who is also a member of Team Darfur, from speaking out in Beijing. Nor will China be able to stop other Olympiads who might decide to speak out during the Olympic Games.

We can only hope that President Bush will have the same resolve as Mr. Lomong while he is in Beijing to criticize the Chinese government for its support of the government of Sudan, and insist that China do more to help end the violence in Darfur. The first step China should take is to immediately halt its arms sales to Sudan.

President Bush Speaks Selectively on Chinese Human Rights Abuses

President Bush expressed concern last night about human rights in China. He talked about the need for the government of China to extend religious and political freedom to its people, which is undoubtedly true; there is no question that China’s domestic human rights record could and should be much stronger. We appreciate President Bush’s willingness to raise human rights on the eve of the Olympics, but find it disappointing that he declined to address China’s role in supporting human rights abuses internationally. As an acknowledged emerging superpower, China is responsible for ensuring that its foreign policy and practices do not support human rights violations abroad. Thus far, China’s willingness to promote human rights in countries with the worst abuses, such as Sudan, is more rhetorical than actual. China claims to do everything within its power to seek an end to the conflict in Darfur. But, for example, Beijing still is the major provider of small arms to the government of Sudan. Some of these weapons make their way to Darfur, where they fuel terror and violence against civilians. (See Human Rights First’s report, Investing in Tragedy, for more). The government of Sudan has openly defied the arms embargo on Darfur, stating that it will transfer weapons within the country as it sees fit. Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has been accused of genocide by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and may yet be charged with multiple counts of that crime. Yet China continues to sell weapons to Beijing. The government of China knows the weapons may be going to Darfur, and until it stops sending them, it simply is not doing everything it can to resolve the conflict. Of course President Bush knows all of this too, and he should have raised it when he had the eyes of the world—and China—on him. There is still time for President Bush to speak out while he is in Beijing. Hopefully he will not the this opportunity completely escape him, the people of Darfur deserve nothing less.

Two New Papers Focus Attention on China's Arms Sales to Sudan

Human Rights First has issued a new background paper outlining some of the implications of the charge by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court that Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has committed genocide. By publicly invoking genocide, the Prosecutor has focused the legal context for governing responses to the crisis on the Genocide Convention. Under the Genocide Convention, States’ are legally obligated to take all measures in their power to prevent and stop ongoing genocide. Countries such as China and Russia that arm Sudan and thus fuel the capacity of its government to sustain the alleged genocide campaign are bound by the Convention to take all possible action, including immediately suspending arms transfers. Sudan’s supporters may also be obligated to cease other kinds of support to Khartoum, such as political cover, and use their political or other influence to try to prevent or stop the potential genocide in Darfur.

The Prosecutor’s request for an arrest warrant against President Bashir informs States of the credible risk of genocide in Darfur, and thus triggers their obligation to act to prevent it or ensure they are not complicit in committing it. Last Thursday, the court survived the first major challenge to its efforts to bring President Bashir to justice, when the UN Security Council successfully resisted significant pressure by China, Russia, and others to include language that would have suspended the ICC proceedings within a resolution to extend the mandate for the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur. The Security Council, which has frequently been stymied in its ability to intervene to stop the crisis in Darfur by permanent members Russia and China, has the authority to suspend the ICC deliberations on this matter for a year at a time if they are judged to endanger the promotion of peace and security.

You can read the background paper by clicking the link below:
ICC%20Charges%20in%20Darfur%20and%20the%20Gencoide%20Convention.pdf

The Arms and Security Initiative of the New America Foundation released a briefing paper today finding that China has been the "most egregious violator" of the Darfur arms embargo. The briefing paper aguments some of the findings in a report issued by Human Rights First in March that details China's economic, military and political relationship with the Government of Sudan.

President Bush: Tell China to Halt Arms to Sudan

In route to the Olympic Games President Bush is giving a mixed message as to whether he will confront Chinese President Hu about China’s ongoing economic, military, and political support to the Government of Sudan. In March, Human Rights First reported that between 2003 and 2006 China was providing Sudan with some 90% of its small arms, the weapons of choice for government sponsored militia in Darfur, called Janjaweed, who carry out much of the killing, raping, maiming, and forced displacement of civilians in Darfur.

Michael Abramowitz of the Washington Post reports that yesterday during an interview with Mr. Bush onboard Air Force One the President said that Beijing should be doing more to pressure the Government of Sudan to stop the killing in Darfur. But Paula Wolfson of Voice of America also reports that yesterday Mr. Bush was pushing back on talking politics at the Olympic Games saying “I view the Olympics as an opportunity for me to cheer on our athletes. It’s an athletic event.”

Human Rights First does not believe Mr. Bush should get a free pass on confronting China about its arms to Sudan while he is visiting Beijing for the Olympics. After all, while Mr. Bush is taking in sports, millions of Darfuris continue to suffer due to the ongoing violence in the region, which is propelled in part by the continuous access to weapons that parties to the conflict have. You can urge Mr. Bush to use his trip to the Olympics to insist that China halts all of its arms sales to Sudan by taking action here.

UNAMID Renewal Negotiations in the Security Council Expose Serious Divisions Over Darfur

On July 31st the Security Council passed resolution 1828, renewing the beleaguered peacekeeping mission in Darfur known as UNAMID. The fact that the resolution passed in the late afternoon on the day it was scheduled to expire points to its contentious nature and illustrates the deep divisions within the Council related to Darfur. Indeed, several diplomats involved in the resolution’s negotiations described them to Human Rights First as very divisive. One diplomat present during the Council’s negotiating sessions observed that “nearly every word in the resolution was being closely studied and debated.”

At issue was the desire of several Security Council members (led by Libya, China and South Africa) to use the UNAMID renewal resolution as an opportunity to suspended for twelve months the charges brought by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The Prosecutor has charged Mr. Bashir with multiple counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The charges are now being reviewed by a pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which will decide whether or not to issue a formal arrest warrant for Mr. Bashir.

In the end, the UNAMID renewal resolution narrowly escaped having a provision included in it that would have temporarily suspended the ICC prosecution of Mr. Bashir (read more about it here). But this has far from ended the debate. Sources tell Human Rights First that China is leading efforts to introduce this contentious issue in the Security Council again in the near future. You can be sure China’s allies on the Council will rally behind such efforts. This makes it all the more important that those countries on the Council committed to the principles of justice and accountability redouble their efforts to ensure that the ICC is able to carryout its work without obstruction.

An early draft of the UNAMID renewal resolution included a provision which demanded that all parties to the conflict in Darfur fulfill their obligations to relevant Council resolutions with a specific mention of resolution 1591. (Resolution 1591 expanded the Darfur arms embargo to cover all parties to the conflict, including the Government of Sudan.) However, even this weak language reportedly faced objections by the Chinese, Libyans and Indonesians and was stripped out of the resolution as part of the negotiations. This points to the challenging work ahead for both Security Council members and advocates who wish to see the Darfur arms embargo enforced and expanded.

After years of neglect, the Darfur arms embargo needs serious attention from the Security Council if the embargo is to be taken seriously by all parties to the conflict. Indeed, those who violate the arms embargo have faced far too few negative consequences from the Council for their actions. The Council will have a particularly important opportunity to reverse this trend at the end of September when a new report on adherence to the embargo is submitted to the Council by the Panel of Experts. In the weeks leading up to the release of this new report, Human Rights First will be working to ensure that Council members are poised to respond appropriately and forcefully to what is expected to be new evidence of regular violations to the embargo.