Darfur

Next, Back, Thread Ahead: Darfur ... , Thread Back: Charles Taylor.

Monday, May 1, 2006

Sides in northern Sudan:
Government: Omar Hassan al-Bashir, president / Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, vice president / Dr. Magzoub El Khalifa, spokesman / Jamal Ibrahim, foreign ministry spokesman / Amin Hassan Omar, spokesman
Janjaweed: government supported militias / aka Janjawid, Jinjaweed etc. / "armed men on horseback", "devils on horseback"
JEM - Justice and Equality Movement: Ahmed Tugod, chief negotiator / Ahmed Hussein / Khalil Ibrahim, a leader / linked to opposition Hassan al-Turabi
SLM - Sudanese Liberation Movement: aka SLA - Sudanese Liberation Army
SLM - Abdul Wahid faction: Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur, leader / Ahmed Abdul Shafi, vice chairman
SLM - Minnah faction: Minni Arcua Minnawi, leader / Saifaldin Harun, spokesman
AU - African Union: peacekeeping troops / Denis Sassou Nguesso, chairman / Alpha Oumar Konare, commission head / Baba Gana Kingibe, mission head (?) / Maj Gen Collins Ihekire, Nigeria, force commander / Noureddine Mezni, Tunisia, spokesman
UN - United Nations: Jan Egeland, emergency relief coordinator

Issues: government imposition of Sharia law, arab/black rivalry (all are Muslim), squabbling over oil money, semi-autonomous status like southern Sudan, disarmament of pro-government Janjaweed militia, and integration of rebels into the Sudanese army

Sides in Chad:
Government: Idriss Déby (Idi), president / MPS - Patriotic Salvation Movement
FUC / FUCD / UFDC - United Front for Democratic Change: armed rebels, Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim, president, umbrella group, linked to Sudan
RDL - Rally for Democracy and Liberty:
SCUD - Platform for Change, Unity and Democracy: Yaya Dillo Djérou, coordinator
CNT: Hassan Salleh Al Gadam, president
FIDEL: Abdelwahit About, secretary general
FNTR: Babikir Ismail, representative
Group of 8 December: Abakar Tollimi, coordinator
CNR: Almado Awad Mardo, chargé of defense
FRRRT: Yaya Batit Ali Al-Mahmoudi, president

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Another mystical smile; this one in a photograph by Claire Soares of a woman selling soap in a market in N'Djamena, Chad.

Claire Soares is interesting - turns out to be a writer as well as a photographer. A piece in the Christian Science Monitor: Some hope Chad's vote will bring calm. Skeptics abound., and two more photographs of women worth looking at, one of an avocado seller, and one of a girl with a pan on her head (I can't quite see how it stays there).

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Islamic fundamentalist Omar al-Bashir presides over this carnage as just about an absolute despot, has done so since a coup in 1989.

Sends his army to camp near Labado, a town of 20,000, which he burns to the ground using helicopter gunships firing incendiary shrapnel rockets. These photos by Brian Steidle - they are a bit large so they may take a minute to view - worth the look. More of his photographs at: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Some few people are returning to Lobado. Meanwhile, the UN might get around to sanctioning four others: Gaffar Mohamed El-Hassan, air force commander and arms dealer to Janjaweed militias; Sheikh Musa Hilal, Janjaweed leader; Adam Yacub Shant, SLA (Sudan Liberation Army) commander; and, Gabril Abdul Kareem Badri, one of the leaders of the National Movement for Reform and Development.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Three articles so far on the subject by Gwynne Dyer:
June 2004: State of war
June 2004: Sudan — peace in the south, war in the west
January 2005: Sudan deal, a Pandora’s box on borders

A little basic geography (naming the parts):
Sudan itself: Jamhuryat es Sudan, Sudan, Soudan, Súdan, Sudão, Sudán, Republiek Sudan, Republic of the Sudan, República do Sudão, República del Sudán, Republikken Sudan, Sudánská Demokratická Republika, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

Divided into more-or-less autonomous North and South; 9 Regions or Provinces, 26 States or wilayat, and 133 (who knows how many) districts.

A nightmare of similar-but-not-quite-the-same names. I don't think there is another table like this anywhere, and even this is not quite 'on' - I know already that the Darfur capital 'Geneina' is often called 'Janaynah' and half a dozen other variants.

This is where Google Earth could really have done some service - and this is precisely the area where they completely miss the boat.

NORTH:

Province / State	aka	Capital
Ash Shamālīyah	Northern, Ash Shamaliyah, Ash Shamālī, Nord	Al Damar
Ash Shamālīyah	Northern, Ash Shamālī, Nord	Dongula
Nahr an Nīl	River Nile, An Nīl, Nil, Nile, Nile River, Nilen, Nilo	Al Damar
Kassalā	Kassala, Ash Sharqī, Ash Sharqīyah, Eastern	Kassalā
Al Bahr al Ahmar	Red Sea, Mar Rojo, Mar Rosso, Mar Vermelho, Mer Rouge, Röda Havet, Rødehavet, Rotes Meer	Port Sudan
Kassalā	Kassala, Cassala, Kessala	Kassala
Al Qadarif	Gedarif, Gadarif, Gedaref, Gederaf	Gedarif
Dārfūr	Darfur, Darfour	El Fashir
Shamāl Dārfūr	North Darfur, Dārfūr ash Shamālīyah, Darfur Septentrional	Al Fashir
Gharb Dārfūr	West Darfur, Dārfūr al Gharbīyah	Geneina
Janūb Dārfūr	South Darfur, Dārfūr al Janūbīyah, Darfur Méridional, Southern Darfur	Nyala
Kurdufān	Kurdufan, Kordofan, Cordofão, Kordofam, Kòrdofan	El Obeid
Shamāl Kurdufān	North Kordufan, Kordofan Septentrional, Kurdufān ash Shamālīyah, North Kordofan	Al Obeid
Gharb Kurdufān	West Kordufan, Kurdufān al Gharbīyah, Gharb Kurdufun, Western Kordofan	Al Fula
Janūb Kurdufān	South Kordufan, Kurdufān al Janūbīyah, Janub Kurdufun, Kordofan Méridional, South Kordofan	Kadugli
Al Khurţūm	Khartoum, Al Khurtum, Cartum, Jartum, Khartum	Khartoum
Al Khurţūm	Khartoum, Cartum, Jartum, Khartum	Khartoum
An Nil al Azraq	Blue Nile, Al Wusţá, Al Awsat, Central	Wad Medani
An Nīl al Abyad	White Nile, An Baḥr al Abyad, Nil Blanc, Nilo Branco	Rabak
Sinnār	Sennar, Sinnar	Sinja
Al Jazīrah	Gezira, El Gezira, Gezeira	Wad Medani
An Nīl al Azraq	Blue Nile, Nil Bleu, Nilo Azul	Al-Damazin

SOUTH:

Bahr al Ghazal	Bahr al Gazal, Bahr el Ghazal	Wāw
Gharb Bahr al Ghazāl	West Bahr al Ghazal, Bahr al Ghazāl al Gharbīyah, Bahr el Ghazal Occidental, Western Bahr el Ghazal	Wāw
Shamāl Bahr al Ghazāl	North Bahr al Ghazal, North Bahr al Gazal, North Bahr el Ghazal	Awil
Warab	Warap	Warab
Al Buhayrāt	Lakes, Al Buhayrah, Al Buhairat, Buheirat, El Boheirat, El Buhayrat, El Buheyrah	Rumbek
A`Ālī an Nīl	Upper Nile, A`Ali an Nil, Alto Nilo	Malakal
Al Wahdah	Unity, Wahda	Bantio
Junqalī	Jungoli, Jonglei, Jonglie, Jonqley, Junglei, Jongley	Bor
A`Ālī an Nīl	Upper Nile, Nil Supérieur	Malakal
Al Istiwā'īyah	Equatoria, Al Istiwaiyah, Al Istiwā'ī, Equatória	Juba
Gharb al Istiwā'īyah	West Equatoria, Al Istiwā'īyah al Gharbīyah, Équatoria Occidental	Yambio
Bahr al Jabal	Bahr el Gabel	Juba
Sharq al Istiwā'īyah	East Equatoria, Al Istiwā'īyah ash Sharqīyah, Équatoria Oriental	Kapoita

'Sudan' itself derives from a word for black people; Bahr el Ghazal - river of the gazelles; Darfur - home of the Fur, tribal name; Gezira - the island, referring to the area between the White and Blue Nile; Khartoum - "the snout, from the shape of the land where the White and Blue Nile rivers meet.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006
I wonder and wonder about it - Why is it happening? Why is it going on for so long? Why doesn't someone stop it? Can no one stop it? Trite bourgeois questions maybe, but you have to start where you are. In order to understand I must be able to imagine it somehow.

Nation against nation; faction militias against everyone; tribe against tribe; person against person. I came on some photographs (which I cannot now find) of violence at wells where farmers and herders compete for water. Then a paragraph in Tim Flannery's book, The Weather Makers caught me: "Pretend, for a moment, that you are a camel herder living in the Sudan. For all of your life you have known nothing but bad seasons, and in desperation you turned your herds into the lands of the farmers with whom you once intermarried and traded, where the livestock trample crops and sow discord." And yesterday I revisited Solzhenitsyn's thought that, "the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being."

Lake Chad has been dwindling towards the point of extinction for 40 years according to these NASA snapshots. I can imagine the kinds of pressures this puts on the people who live there - it must literally turn brother against brother. Lake Chad is not in Darfur of course, it is about 1,200 kilometres to the west, but some digging today shows me that there is huge competition for water in Darfur as well. I found some good maps at: UNOSAT - Satellite Imagery for All (there is a little joke here for people who know of Brasilian forro music), and: CDE - Centre for Development and Environment, one of which is a detailed map (it is a large pdf and takes a fewminutes to download for display) of Al Geneina at: Darfur - Al Geneina.

For now I am imagining global warming slowly drying the place out and creating violent anarchy; people aligning tribally and with jinjaweed warlords for some semblance of security and to struggle for diminishing resources; and a national and international matrix of power games on top of that.

I wonder what Gwynne Dyer thinks of Darfur? Stopping for now with this woman's beautiful smile, more later ...

Tags: Sudan Geography, Darfur, Claire Soares, Gwynne Dyer, Lake Chad, SLM, JEM, Omar al Bashir, Collins Ihekire, Ihekire.