A veteran who served in Europe during World War II not only managed to grab an interesting prize — a globe that belonged to Hitler — but recently sold it for $100,000 at auction.
Genocide should have priority
“We must agree, at a continental level to start with, on the menu for action in case of the threat of genocide. What non coercive measures to take, the threshold for intervention, and the operational principles in the case of intervention in advancement of human security. We must determine that genocide is a threat to our collective security, and give it the priority it deserves in our institutional security architecture at national, regional and continental level. We must move it from the margins of the security agenda to the centre, and mobilize the requisite resources for it.”
— President Paul Kagame’s Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region, Ambassador Richard Sezibera, speaking at a five day workshop for the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa.
A host of factions
As the Darfur peace talks continued, even without the key rebel leaders, the Herald Tribune takes note of the fact that hoping to bring both “sides” of this conflict together is an utter misnomer. The fact is, the rebel groups themselves have fractured and splintered into so many different factions that it’s almost impossible to tell who should be at the negotiating table.
It’s not easy being a Darfurian rebel, especially if you’re a member of the B team. Instead of being praised for coming here in the interests of peace, as the world begged them to do, they have been gaped at, criticized for being ineffective and dogged by questions about where the big guys are, like Abdel Wahid el-Nur, a founding father of Darfur’s rebellion, and Khalil Ibrahim, the commander of one of the strongest rebel armies, both of whom are boycotting the talks.
But the reality that international negotiators are beginning to grudgingly accept is that the rebels here in Sirte, Libya’s government center, represent the facts on the ground. After years of fragmentation and isolation, Darfur’s resistance movements have broken down into a fractious bunch of men, many of whom have never met before, who hail from different corners of the land and who belong to different tribes and command their own little armies.
According to the United Nations best estimate, the rebels have fractured from two main groups into twenty-eight separate causes. This recent Libyan attempt at peace talks only managed to bring seven of those leaders to the table.
Peace talks for Darfur falter
Darfur peace talks that were planned for this weekend have been effectively shutdown as the main rebel leaders boycotted the meeting. The current talks are part of a pre-negotiation phase that would lead to more in-depth discussions in the next couple of weeks.
It was hoped that negotiations between rebel leaders and government forces would break the deadlock in the four and a half year conflict in Darfur.
But many of Darfur’s rebel leaders stayed away from the talks. Some distrusted the role of Libya, which is seen as being too close to the Sudanese government. This view was reinforced earlier this month when Col Gadafy dismissed the conflict in Darfur as a “quarrel about a camel”.
Opening the talks on Saturday, Col Gadafy noted that both key rival leaders, Abdul Wahid al-Nur and Khalil Ibrahim, were absent. “These are major movements, and without them we cannot achieve peace,” he said.
Even as the talks began, Reuters reported that Sudanese forces were attacking areas along the Chad border.
Rebels from two factions, which did not attend the talks, said on Monday the government had attacked the Jabel Moun area along the Chad-Sudan border on Saturday, the very day the government announced a ceasefire.
“At the same time they were announcing that there is a ceasefire there was aerial bombardment in Jabel Moun,” said Justice and Equality Movement commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr.
Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) commander Jar el-Neby confirmed there had been an attack but offered no details.
A Sudanese army spokesman, however, denied the reports.
This is the same pattern that has played out any number of times over the last seven years. The majority of rebel groups continue to distrust the government’s intentions for peace, while Khartoum continues to treat negotiations as a form of bait to attack rebel positions and the civilian population.
VHM presents Voyages
This Sunday (October 28) marks the start of the Virginia Holocaust Museum’s Fourth Annual Film Series. The first film of the season is the award winning French film Voyages.
Reverberations of the holocaust continue to shape the lives of Jewish women in this three-part drama. The first story centers on Rivka (Shulamit Adar), who can’t find the strength to leave her insensitive husband. In the second story, Regine (Liliane Rovere) learns that the father she thought was killed in a concentration camp is alive. In the last tale, Vera (Esther Gorintin) travels from Moscow to Tel Aviv and makes an important new friend.
The film starts at 2:00 and admission is free.