Darfur

29 May 2007 -- U.S. officials say President Bush will announce new economic sanctions against Sudan Tuesday to pressure Khartoum to stop the violence in its western Darfur region.

The officials say Mr. Bush will ban another 31 Sudanese companies from doing business in the U.S. or having access to the U.S. financial system. The officials released a draft of Mr. Bush's speech to the media late Monday.

The draft shows Mr. Bush also will call for a new U.N. Security Council resolution that would expand an arms embargo to all of Sudan, not just Darfur.    » read more »

23 May 2007 -- Early next month, 13 Sudanese attorneys will participate in a program to help them represent victims of the genocide in Darfur in front of international tribunals. The training session in London is being sponsored by the litigation section of the American Bar Association (ABA). It will provide advocacy skills similar to those needed at the International Criminal Court in the Hague (ICC), which is currently pursuing arrest warrants for two Sudanese government officials cited for their alleged involvement in grave atrocities in Darfur.    » read more »

Bill ensuring no investment in Sudan among 18 signed today

May 11, 2007 -- A bill ensuring the state’s retirement funds won’t be invested in companies doing business in Sudan was signed today by Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius.

“The horrific genocide taking place in Sudan is well-documented, and we want to have nothing to do with companies that are doing business in that nation so long as its government does nothing to stop the killing,” said Sebelius.    » read more »

Latest report on ICRC activities in the field

10-05-2007 -- While peace talks concerning Darfur continue, the ICRC remains focused on its humanitarian work in the region. It maintains its flexiblility in coping with the prevailing insecurity as it attempts to reach rural communities in need. Unfortunately, many people remain beyond the ICRC's reach and their needs go unmet.

Gereida    » read more »

10 May 2007 -- Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni and South Sudanese President Salva Kiir have reportedly given the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels an ultimatum of one week to gather at the designated assembly point in Ri-Kwangba or risk being attacked by the armies of both countries. But Observers say the ultimatum is ill timed, given the fragile nature of the current peace talks between the rebels and the Ugandan government. The Kampala government disagrees saying the ultimatum would not jeopardize the current ongoing peace talks in Juba.    » read more »

Call on President to Send Clear Message to Sudan That They Must Ensure Continued Humanitarian Access

May 8, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC - House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) and Senator Russell D. Feingold (D-WI) sent a letter to President Bush yesterday, urging him to deliver a strong message to the Sudanese government that they are expected to follow through on all agreements regarding continued humanitarian access to the more than two million Darfurians who depend on international relief groups for survival.    » read more »

08 May 2007 -- Rights group Amnesty International has accused China and Russia of breaching a United Nations arms embargo by letting weapons into Sudan that were then used in the Darfur region.

An Amnesty report published Tuesday expresses dismay that two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council were allowing weapons to flow into Sudan.

Russia and China have dismissed the allegation.

Amnesty International urged the U.N. to strengthen the existing arms embargo on Darfur.    » read more »

08 May 2007 -- A US Congresswoman says strengthening African Union (AU) forces and divesting US companies doing business with Sudan should be a priority. Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee represents Texas and is serving her seventh two-year term in the House of Representatives. She serves on several key House committees and subcommittees. They include the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health.    » read more »

May 7, 2007 -- Washington, DC - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today joined a bipartisan group of Senators and members of the House of Representatives in calling on President Bush to enforce the promise by the Sudanese government to facilitate humanitarian operations in Darfur. In a letter to President Bush, the members of Congress outlined their concerns about humanitarian workers' access to over two million displaced Darfurians and the need to enforce the Joint Communiqué agreement between the government of Sudan and the United Nations.    » read more »

May 1, 2007 -- Washington, DC - Continuing her efforts to push for an end to the genocide in Darfur, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton joined a bipartisan group of senators in calling on China to step up pressure on Sudan to end the crisis in Darfur that has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and displaced millions more.    » read more »

April 30, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC - In a letter sent today to Chinese President Hu Jintao, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE) led 96 Senators in calling on China to use its influence to help end the violence in Darfur. The letter also urges President Hu not to extend interest-free loans to the Sudanese government, which is currently engaged in a military offensive against Darfur that humanitarian groups estimate has cost 400,000 lives.    » read more »

02 May 2007 -- The International Criminal Court, ICC, at The Hague in the Netherlands has issued arrest warrants for a Sudanese government minister and a militia leader accused of war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region.

The arrest warrants charge Ahmed Haroun, Sudan's secretary of state for humanitarian affairs and a former minister in charge of Darfur, and Ali Kosheib, a leader of the Janjaweed militia, with 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture, and rape.    » read more »

23 April 2007 -- Violence in Sudan's embattled Darfur region has dealt another blow to the world's largest aid operation. Oxfam and other non-governmental organizations announced Monday, they will suspend all but essential humanitarian activity in Um Dukhun, western Darfur, following a series of attacks by unknown armed men on aid workers. Noel King has this report from Khartoum.

The suspension of activity will affect 100,000 vulnerable people in western Darfur - a volatile region that borders Chad and the Central African Republic.    » read more »

April 18, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today called immediate intervention in Darfur, "a moral obligation" and argued that financial sanctions against the Khartoum government are long overdue.

Senator Biden made his remarks after a speech in which President Bush was expected to announce additional sanctions against the Sudanese government, instead offering another chance to abide by U.N. sanctions.    » read more »

20 April 2007 -- Five countries have offered to supply soldiers and police for a United Nations mission to support a beleaguered African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. From U.N. headquarters, VOA's Peter Heinlein reports diplomats are hoping to have a full support package in operation by September.    » read more »