May 14, 2008
The Khartoum attack explained some more
It looks like opinion is slowly swinging behind options 5 and 8 - see last but one entry.
Here is Alex de Waal on Khalil Ibrahim, leader of JEM, the Darfur rebel force that attacked Khartoum over the weekend, from Making Sense of Darfur:
Over the last two years, Khalil has repeatedly stated his intention to storm Khartoum, and observers have not taken him seriously. It was an error not to listen to Khalil’s statements: his ultimate aim and grand strategy have been consistent over the years. In the last four days, Khalil didn’t succeed in either pulling off a coup or instigating a mass uprising. But he has threatened to try again and let us be clear that he is serious. The sheer audacity of his action has won him acclaim among many Sudanese who aspire for revolutionary change in their country.
Meanwhile Omdurman is still under curfew and reports of arrests continue to come in. As a friend said in an email, I would not want to be a Darfuri in Khartoum right now.
Posted by aheavens at 4:58 AM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2008
Fair trials for all
Minister of Defense: Captured rebel elements will receive fair trial
Khartoum, May 12 (SUNA) - The Minister of National Defense, General Abdul-Rahim Mohamed Hussein, on Monday said who were arrested and who had been involved in the recent attack on Omdurman will be brought to fair military trial.
And as for anyone arrested who wasn't involved in the recent attack ...
Posted by aheavens at 7:37 AM | Comments (0)
The Khartoum attack explained
So, after hours of exhaustive interviews, in depth research and the refining of my own expert analysis, I have at last come up with the motive behind JEM's shock attack on Khartoum.
It is any one of the following 10 explanations. Or perhaps a combination of 1, 2 and 3. Or 5 and 8. Or just 7, with the understanding that the secondary target could also be El Fasher, al Obeid, or the Meroe Dam.
- A bloody PR move to get JEM some headlines
- Retribution – to bring some of Darfur's suffering to Khartoum
- Humiliation of Khartoum and exposure of holes in its security system
- Chad-backed revenge for the two Khartoum-backed rebel raids on N'Djamena
- The move of a mad, power-hungry warlord
- A move to break the stalemate in the Darfur peace process AKA Operation Longarm
- Distraction while JEM prepares for an offensive on El Geneina
- A genuine coup attempt
- The first stages of a coup attempt to test for support among army and opposition
- Creating chaos in the capital leading to the breakdown of the state
Now that we have a clear understanding of the reasoning behind the attack, surely it is time for the international community to step up efforts for a solution.
Posted by aheavens at 7:22 AM | Comments (1)
May 11, 2008
A multi-million mistake
This is going to be very awkward for someone.
Sudan's state news agency SUNA put out this statement earlier today, offering a multi million reward for the capture of Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - the Darfur rebels who attacked Khartoum this weekend.
250 Million Assigned as Prize for Arresting Khalil Ibrahim
Khartoum, May 11 (SUNA) - A senior military source in the General Command of the Armed Forces announced that 250 million pounds are assigned as prize for any person who arrests the fleeing Khalil Ibrahim or inform about his place through the telephones 999. 99193, 0183-767557 and 0120977053. He appreciated the citizens' alert and unlimited and fruitful cooperation with the security authorities.
In today's money, 250 million new Sudanese pounds is worth about $125 million - not a bad reward. Hardly surprisingly, many people took the story and ran with it.
The only trouble is that they are not new Sudanese pounds. They published the figure using the old currency by mistake. 250 million old Sudanese pounds is worth 'only' about $125,000.
You have to feel sorry for whoever ends up risking their lives to detain Darfur's most powerful rebel leader then doesn't quite end up the millionaire he thought he was going to be.
Posted by aheavens at 7:54 PM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2008
Attack on Khartoum
About half an hour ago we could still hear the dull thudding of aerial bombardments coming in over the Nile from behind our house.
The Darfur rebel group the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) launched their attack on Omdurman, a city a few miles north of Khartoum, this afternoon. Their aim was clear. "We are now trying to control Khartoum. God willing we will take power, it's just a matter of time," senior JEM commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr told Reuters by telephone.
I was flying back from Juba, capital of southern Sudan, when it started, and only found out what was going on when I turned on my mobile phone as I got off the plane at Khartoum's domestic terminal at around 5pm.
The airport itself seemed calm. But outside, the main Africa Road dual carriageway was packed with soldiers and traffic police. The lanes heading into the city centre, towards the fighting, were empty. The lanes heading south away from the fighting were bumper to bumper with cars. There was no panic. But people were clearly keen to clear the area.
The government had just declared a 5pm-6am curfew so the only thing to do was to head home before they shut down the streets. When I arrived at the gate, our Sudanese neighbours came out to welcome me back with an Alhamdulillah and offered to take us in if there was any trouble.
Being close to the action doesn't always give you a particularly clear picture of what is going on. The country's main mobile network was not working – either overloaded or shut down. Our internet connection was still up but the people I really needed to contact were offline. The only thing to do was watch the helicopters circling ahead and listen to the bombardments that seemed to drift closer and further away, depending on the wind.
After a while we got the Thuraya satellite phone up and running and got through to the government and some of the rebels. Here is the Reuters report that I contributed to. State TV started showing pictures of dead bodies and blood on the streets of Omdurman. The sun set and the bombing stopped.
Just a few random thoughts:
- Khartoum has always managed to stay insulated from most of the really horrific stuff going on in the country, particularly in Darfur. When we first arrived, I lost count of the number of people who assured us that is was “the safest city in Africa”. That reputation has taken a hit in recent months with the worries about an upsurge in terrorist activity. After today, that reputation is dead and buried. For the first time, Darfur has come to Khartoum.
- It is scary how quickly this happened. Look at any map and you'll see that the Chadian border is a long way away from Khartoum. Two days ago, the Sudanese army put out a statement saying that a body of rebels was heading towards North Kordofan – a vast open region in between Darfur and Khartoum. Most people scoffed at the announcement saying it was a clear propaganda ploy to distract attention from the recent bombing of a Darfur school. But two days later, the guns were blazing in our back yard. The Khartoum government is now saying that they had the rebels under surveillance all the time and were totally prepared. But I can't believe anyone thought JEM would get here in the first place, never mind this fast.
- JEM have warned in the past that they want to take the conflict beyond Darfur's borders to Kordofan and then further to every area in Sudan that they say the government has neglected. Is that now what we are facing? No longer a 'Darfur' conflict – instead something much more national and, with Chad's increasing involvement, international?
Posted by aheavens at 8:11 PM | Comments (1)
May 9, 2008
Andrew Heavens was doing so well dealing heroin ...
Jealousy over drug profit led to killing
Sydney Morning Herald - May 8, 2008ANDREW HEAVENS was doing so well dealing heroin that when he refused to hand over some clients to his supplier he was killed, a court has heard.
The alleged supplier, Scott Alan May, 27, is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court for murder after he allegedly ordered his close friend Ryan Burns to shoot Mr Heavens during a late-night meeting at Callan Park on May 2, 2003.
In his opening address, the Crown prosecutor, Anthony Cook, SC, told the jury that Mr Heavens, 31, was a successful supplier and user of heroin and that by the period leading up to his murder had many customers and a high turnover of the heroin he was selling.
The perils of ego-surfing.
Posted by aheavens at 10:49 AM | Comments (4)
May 7, 2008
HIV positive - HIV negative
Anti-AIDS campaign in Switzerland (photo by d'n'c')
Anti-Aids campaign in Wau, southern Sudan (with added road sign)
Posted by aheavens at 4:04 PM | Comments (1)
May 5, 2008
Sudan snapshot #2: School-on-a-camel near Al Meganis
NEAR AL MEGANIS, Sudan - It is not every teacher who can pack up their school in a matter of minutes and stack it on the back of a camel.
But Hamad Abdullah Saleh is not every teacher.
He is the lone man at the head of a school of 61 children, all members of Sudan's nomadic A-Hamda tribe who spend large parts of the year covering miles upon miles of land across the neighbouring states of White Nile and South Kordofan.
And when the 61 students move, Hamad Abdullah Saleh moves with them, with his blackboard strapped to the back of his school camel, and his small stock of cattle trailing behind.
"As long as it is school time, I travel with them," says Hamad, a tall, white-robed man in his late 50s who spent most of his earlier career teaching children who stay in one place – White Nile State's main town of Kosti.
"The first thing we do when we arrive in a new place is unload the blackboard. Then the community spends a day collecting wood and straw for the building. Then we start teaching.
"I have to leave my family behind in Kosti. But I took on this new job as a new challenge. The children are good students. And it is very fulfilling."
Saleh's Mohammad Hamad nomadic school is the first educational establishment that the A-Hamda group has ever had...
Posted by aheavens at 11:22 AM | Comments (1)
Sudan snapshot #1: Playing with grenades in Malakal
MALAKAL, Southern Sudan - Temene Chamou was playing with her two young cousins when she found the interesting looking metal box underneath a pile of rubbish.
The 10-year-old took it back to her home in Malakal, on the banks of the White Nile in South Sudan, and tried to open it by pulling on a rod, fixed into what appeared to be its lid.
The explosion ripped of most of her right hand, burned her face from chin to forehead and peppered her body with shards of shrapnel.
One metal spike hit the head of her four-year-old cousin Emanuel David, missing his left eye by 5mm. Another fragment lodged itself in the neck of her other cousin, Habiba David, aged three, stopping just short of his windpipe. The boys' baby sister Angelina, who was also is the room at the time, was burned all the way up her right arm.
Officials are still not sure whether the interesting box was a grenade or an old-fashioned landmine, set off by some sort of fuse.
What they are certain of is that it was one of the millions of explosive objects that still litter the land around Malakal and other parts of South Sudan, all leftovers from decades of fighting in Africa's largest country...
Two months after the explosion their wounds may have started to heal, but the memories are still raw.
Temene's mother describes how the whole community rushed out of the huts when they heard the explosion and had to hunt for the boys after they ran out of the family compound in a blind panic.
Temene still has to go back to hospital every few weeks to have her bandage changed. She has regained her good humour and greets visitors shyly with an awkward left-handed handshake.
Ten minutes drive across town, yet another young body has been cut and torn by what, in technical jargon, is known as ERW – explosive remnants of war.
Augustino threw a stone at a cow he was trying to catch on open ground outside his family's home. The stone fell short, hitting a hidden mine that sprayed him and three of his friends with shrapnel.
All four survived but all four are permanently scarred on their faces, torsos, arms and legs.
Posted by aheavens at 11:17 AM | Comments (1)