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Africa Horn
Sudan rejects new US approach: Bashir advisor
2009-10-25
[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudan "rejects" the new U.S. policy toward Khartoum although it acknowledges the importance of its ties with Washington, an advisor to President Omar al-Bashir said in remarks published on Saturday.

"We categorically reject the U.S. strategy in its current form," said Mustafa Osman Ismail, a former foreign minister, quoted in local newspapers.

" We thought the Obama administration would pay attention to the credibility of the United States, but it has taken the same direction "
Mustafa Osman Ismail
The United States on Monday announced a new policy of "broad engagement" with Sudan but warned of a tough response if Khartoum ignores incentives to stop "abuses" and "genocide" in Darfur.

Ismail condemned the use of the genocide label for the war in Darfur, western Sudan.

"We thought the (Barack) Obama administration would pay attention to the credibility of the United States, but it has taken the same direction" as his predecessor, George W. Bush, he said.

Ismail said the international community has confirmed that the Darfur conflict did not amount to genocide.

"Our relations with the United States are undoubtedly important," he said, while stressing that ties must be based on mutual respect, common interests and non-interference in each other's affairs.

U.S. officials said Washington would engage in talks with members of the Khartoum government other than Bashir, who faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on charges of war crimes in Darfur.

Washington also said it would watch for "credible elections" scheduled for next year under a fragile 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended a north-south civil war.

In Khartoum, a top advisor to Bashir, Ghazi Salaheddin, on Monday described the genocide label as "unfortunate" but said that Obama's policy shift had "positive points."

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Africa Horn
Arab League to discuss charges facing Sudan leader
2008-07-19
Arab foreign ministers are expected to discuss a proposal Saturday calling on Sudan's president to hand over two Darfur war crimes suspects to an international tribunal in an effort to fend off the longtime leader's own prosecution on genocide charges, Arab diplomats said.

But it wasn't clear if the proposal would receive support during an emergency meeting Saturday of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo. Sudan also has shrugged off any deal that would send its citizens to the International Criminal Court.

"There will be no direct cooperation with the International Criminal Court, and the two Sudanese citizens will not be sent to The Hague," Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail said in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, late Thursday, according to the state-run Egyptian news agency. Phone calls to Ismail and other Sudanese officials on Friday went unanswered.

The meeting Saturday was called after the Netherlands-based tribunal's chief prosecutor on Monday announced genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity charges against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, accusing him of waging a campaign of extermination against three Darfur tribes that claimed up to 300,000 lives and drove 2.5 million people from their homes. A three-judge panel from the ICC is expected to take two to three months to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant.

The charges against al-Bashir came a year after the court indicted Sudan's humanitarian affairs minister, Ahmed Harun, who was formerly in charge of security in Darfur, and suspected militia leader Ali Kushayb on crimes against humanity.

During Saturday's meeting, Arab foreign ministers are expected to consider the proposal urging al-Bashir to surrender Harun and Kushayb to the ICC in return for asking the U.N. Security Council, which asked the court to investigate the Darfur conflict, to defer prosecution of al-Bashir for at least year, the Arab diplomats said. The diplomats, who were familiar with the discussions ahead of the meeting, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Deferring prosecution would allow time to build up the understaffed U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur to its full strength of 26,000. The court's statutes allow its judges to provide such leeway.

But the League's secretary-general, Amr Moussa, also said any Arab response would also take into consideration the view that al-Bashir should be out of the court's reach because Sudan does not recognize its authority.

The 22-nation Arab League is loathe to see what it regards as the humiliation of an Arab leader, and many Arab countries, including Syria, have reacted strongly to the court action.

"Sudan already has too many problems. New ones will only further complicate the situation and neither peace will be achieved nor justice will be done," said Lebanese columnist Abdel Wahab Badrkhan in an interview.

But key regional powerhouses such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt have made no firm commitment to support al-Bashir since the prosecutor's announcement. This could be an indication that heavyweight Arab governments might be fed up with al-Bashir, who has been ruling the war-stricken African nation for about 20 years.

Many also question the ability of a fractious Arab League to do anything to help Sudan in its confrontation with the ICC, especially since only three Arab League countries are signatories to the court -- Jordan, Djibouti and Comoros.

"All they can do is to issue a statement of condemnation to console the Sudanese president," wrote Abdel-Rahman al-Rashid, a leading Saudi columnist for the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Monday. "We must remember that the Arab League did not care about extermination of 300,000 Darfuris. It even refused to stand a moment of silence to the killings, displacements and burning."
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Africa Horn
Sudan rules out deal with ICC over Bashir warrant
2008-07-18
Sudan on Thursday rejected a deal with the International Criminal Court to hand over two indicted officials in exchange for dropping the court's arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo sought an arrest warrant for Bashir on Monday on suspicion of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, a move that some powers fear could derail the fragile Darfur peace process. "There will be no direct cooperation with the International Criminal Court and no sending any Sudanese citizens to The Hague," presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail told a forum on Thursday.

The decision to refer Darfur to the ICC came from the U.N. Security Council so any proposal to resolve the crisis should also come from there, he said. ICC judges are expected to decided in October or November whether to issue a warrant for Bashir's arrest. Ocampo asked the ICC for the warrant, accusing Bashir of a campaign of genocide in which 35,000 people were killed outright, at least 100,000 more died a "slow death" and 2.5 million were forced to flee their homes in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Sudan has asked Russia, China and members of the Arab League and the African Union to help it pursue a Security Council resolution suspending a warrant for Bashir for 12 months.
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Africa Horn
Sudan accuses US of raising tension between it and Security Council
2008-01-14
Sudanese President Adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail on Sunday accused the American administration for raising tension between Sudan and the Security Council on the background of the latter's condemnation of his country following the attack by elements of the Sudanese army on peacekeeping forces in the Darfur region.

Ismail told reporters here after meeting US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas Greenfeld that such condemnation of the Sudanese government could happen in Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere in the world, adding that such attack was preceded by the government's recognition and apology for the error and announced its intention to investigate the incident for the sake of enhancing confidence.

He added that the US stance in the Security Council was not right and its implications are going in the wrong direction, a matter that prompts the American administration review its attitude towards what is happening in Darfur and Sudan and to be more positive and willing to support the dialogue between Sudan and the United Nations, or between the government and armed movements in Darfur so that conditions in the enclave can return to normal.

Ismail pointed out that his meeting with the US official dealt with preparations ahead of the arrival of the US Administration official on Darfur and taking up his mission in the coming period.
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Africa Horn
Darfur rebels claim they shot down government MiG
2007-08-09
Darfur rebel commanders said on Wednesday they had shot down a government MiG 29 plane they say was bombing civilian villages in their areas in Sudan's Darfur region but the army denied any plane had been shot down.

"We have downed a plane - MiG 29 around 4.5 km south of Adila yesterday around 5 p.m. (1400 GMT)," commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr from the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality and Movement (JEM) told Reuters by telephone.

Adila is in the far east of South Darfur state. Last week the government accused the rebels of attacking the government-controlled town.

The Justice and Equality Movement said the government attacked their areas around Adila ahead of a U.N.-African Union mediated meeting of rebel factions in Tanzania to renew the peace process. "We are looking for the pilot," said Ashr. "We have the body of the plane."

Neither the United Nations, nor the AU, which is monitoring a shaky ceasefire in Sudan's arid west, could immediately confirm the report.

Sudan's army spokesman denied any plane had been shot down. "This is not true. All our planes are accounted for," the spokesman said.
"Lies! All lies!"
The rebels have brought down government Antonov planes and helicopters over more than four years of conflict in Darfur.

A U.N. report said the government had been bombing in Darfur up to the end of June, which would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions banning offensive flying.

Sudan on Tuesday said it would abide by a ceasefire but would defend itself against any attacks.

Presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters the government would attend any talks with the rebels "with an open heart and an open mind." Last year Khartoum signed a Darfur peace deal with only one of three rebel negotiating factions. Since the insurgents have split into more than a dozen factions.

Divided rebel factions agreed a broad common platform for peace talks in Tanzania this week, sitting together for the first time in more than a year. They want to discuss power and wealth sharing, and land and humanitarian security at future talks.

Ismail said any negotiations would use last year's deal "as a base." Rebels reject the deal and are demanding it should be renegotiated from scratch.

U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson travelled to Darfur on Wednesday, but Sudanese security forces refused to allow journalists or African Union personnel to accompany him. U.N. airport officials said the authorities were refusing to let any non-U.N. staff travel on U.N. planes.

One government source, who declined to be named, blamed internal governmental differences for the problem. "Some people think they can do what they like," the source said. "It makes us look bad." The United Nations declined to comment.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Moussa says Lebanese factions agree to establish unity gov' t
2006-12-15
Visiting Arab League (AL) chief Amr Moussa said on Thursday that Lebanese rival factions had agreed to establish a national unity government to resolve the current political crisis, the al-Arabiya television reported.
Is "unity" the new Arab meme thingy?
Their "stability" thingy was working out so well, too.
Moussa told a news conference that the parties had agreed on a cabinet of national unity, which would include opposition minority and majority members, but they wanted to discuss "guarantees" to make it work. "Another round of talks is needed to reach an agreement on the final version (of the national unity government)," Moussa added. "We want to reach a formula of no victor, no loser... a win-win situation," the AL chief said.
That makes even less sense than usual.
Moussa, who arrived here Tuesday, held talks with the major players in Lebanon's political crisis, including Seniora and Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

Opposition supporters have been camping out in central Beirut since Dec. 1, paralyzing the heart of the capital, in a bid to press Seniora for concession.

Moussa said, agreement has been reached on "calming down the street (protests) and halting demonstrations and escalation." He promised that he would return to Lebanon in "a few days" to continue his efforts aimed at settling the dispute between the Hezbollah-led camp that seeks to topple Premier Fouad Seniora's government and the majority that supports the current administration. "I hope that we will be able to finalize (a deal) before the holidays... in two weeks or so," Moussa added.

An Arab League envoy, Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail, told the same news conference that the two-week-old opposition sit-in in central Beirut would continue but there should be no mass demonstrations.
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Africa Horn
Sudan agrees to let AU troops stay
2006-09-05
Sudan has agreed to let African troops remain in Darfur, but only if they stay under African Union control and not that of the UN. The latest announcement appears to reverse Khartoum's ultimatum on Sunday to AU peacekeepers to leave after September 30. One African diplomat said the government softened its position because it realised expelling the AU would end implementation of an AU-brokered May peace deal between Khartoum and a rebel faction fighting government-supported militias.

“... a presidential adviser said on Monday that the UN mandate's goal was "regime change" in Khartoum...”
A US-British backed United Nations resolution, which Khartoum rejects, says more than 20,000 UN troops should take over peacekeeping from AU forces. AU troops were expected to fill the gap before the arrival of the United Nations and ultimately be absorbed into the UN operation, according to the resolution passed last Thursday. But Mustafa Osman Ismail , a presidential adviser, said on Monday that the UN mandate's goal was "regime change" in Khartoum.

"Sudan will not accept those troops to be transformed into part of a UN force," he said. "Monitoring the borders ... protection of civilians ... creating an independent judiciary has all become the responsibility of the international forces, so what is left for the government?" he said, referring to resolution clauses.
If the government had actually done anything along those lines, nobody would be talking about UN or AU troops.


AU troops say; "We're out of here"
The African Union (AU) has reaffirmed its intention to leave Sudan's Darfur region by the end of September when its truce monitors' mandate expires.
The AU wants the UN to take over the mission, but Khartoum rejects this.

"The AU Peace and Security Council met today (Monday) in Addis Ababa and decided to reaffirm that its mandate will end on 30 September in Darfur," Baba Gana Kingibe, the head of the AU mission in Sudan, said in a speech in Khartoum. Sudan had said the AU peacekeeping force should leave Darfur unless it drops plans for the UN to take over its mission. It asked the AU to clarify its intentions.
This clear enough for you?
AU deputy chairman Patrick Mazimhaka told the BBC that even if more money were forthcoming, political considerations made it difficult to stay longer. He was speaking hours after Sudan said the AU troops could remain if they accepted Arab League and Sudanese government funding. Khartoum had earlier insisted the troops leave by the end of the month.
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Africa Horn
Sudan: Government, eastern rebels sign cease fire deal in Eritrea
2006-06-21
(SomaliNet) The Sudanese government and rebels in eastern of the nation have signed a ceasefire deal in a meeting in neighbouring Eritrea, AFP reported Tuesday. The Sudan government and the rebels agreed to end hostilities to pave the way for a lasting settlement, the Eritrean mediators said.

For more than 10 years, the Eastern Front rebels, allied to other Sudanese rebel groups, have controlled Hamesh Koreb close to the Eritrean border. According to the Eritrean mediator Yemane Gebreab the talks so far had been friendly, serious and positive and that more substantive issues would now be dealt with. "We are only at the beginning of the road, we have a long way to go," Khartoum's representative Mustafa Osman Ismail said.
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Africa Horn
East Sudan talks to begin in Asmara after delay
2006-06-14
KHARTOUM - Rebels from Sudan’s east will open their first talks with the Khartoum government on Tuesday in neighbouring Eritrea, hoping to resolve the simmering conflict in the gold-rich area, officials said. Eastern rebels, allied with other regional Sudanese rebel groups, have controlled Hamesh Koreb, a small area on the Eritrea-Sudan border for around a decade. The east, which contains Sudan’s only port, is the only peripheral area not to have begun peace talks with Khartoum.

“The United Nations will be participating in the talks tonight,” U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said on Tuesday. U.N. observation of the talks is a key rebel demand.
The rebels must be both weak and clueless ....
The government delegation, headed by Presidential Advisor Mustafa Osman Ismail, is due to leave this evening to open the long-delayed talks in the Eritrean capital Asmara. The Eastern Front, an alliance of the main eastern political parties and rebel groups, have been trained in negotiation skills to be able to match the experienced Khartoum government.
How about training in weaponry and logistics?
One source close to the mediation said these initial talks were preparatory and no substantive negotiations were expected to begin as yet. The talks follow the highest-level visit from Eritrea in years to Sudan, as President Isaias Afwerki met Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir in Khartoum on Monday, agreeing to normalise relations.

Sudan’s east, like other regions in Africa’s largest country, complain of neglect by central government. The arid area has some of the highest malnutrition rates in Sudan. But the east is strategically important, containing the largest gold mine and Sudan’s main oil pipeline. Sudan will soon pump around 500,000 barrels per day of crude.

The former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), now partners in central government, are the main fighting force in Hamesh Koreb. But on Sunday they formally withdrew and handed over control to local government, a move their eastern allies dislike. The SPLM say they had hoped eastern peace talks would have begun last year and reached a deal by now. Analysts warn this could spark renewed fighting in the area.
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Iraq
Arab League Plans to Open Office in Iraq
2006-03-05
The Arab League will open offices in Iraq for the first time since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, part of its efforts to help reconcile the country's Sunni Arab, Shiite and Kurdish communities, the league's chief said Saturday.

The United States has been seeking greater Arab involvement in Iraq, hoping to give legitimacy to the current government. But Arab nations were long reluctant, fearing participation would be seen as condoning the U.S. invasion, which many of them opposed.

Iraq's new Shiite leadership was also suspicious of the Arab League, seeing it as biased toward Iraq's Sunni Arab minority.

But last year, the league made efforts to get involved. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa visited Iraq, then the league hosted a reconciliation conference in Cairo in November between Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders.

Moussa said Saturday that the league would an open an office "in the near future, urgently."

"The situation in Iraq is tragic, Iraq is facing dangerous challenges," he said at a gathering of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo.

The league is planning to sponsor a second reconciliation conference, this one in Baghdad, in June. The league representation office is expected to be opened by the time of the conference and will be headed by the Moroccan diplomat Mukhtar Lamani, Arab diplomats said.

Iraqi leaders are struggling to put together a government after December parliamentary violence amid a surge of violence -- much of it sectarian -- that has killed at least 500 people since last week.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive of the issue, also said Arab governments are discussing requests from the United States and Britain to send troops helping in peace keeping in Iraq. However, opposition to sending troops remains high among Arab governments.

An Arab League envoy, former Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, discussed with U.S. and British envoys in Iraq during a visit to Baghdad last month the idea of several Arab and Islamic countries sending some 1,200 soldiers each, the diplomats said.

No decision is expected by any Arab country before the June conference.

In a separate issue, Moussa underlined that the Arab League "will stand openly against any retreat in the peace process" with Israel -- an apparent attempt to pressure the radical movement Hamas, which is moving to form a new Palestinian government.

Moussa told the foreign ministers' gathering Saturday that a 2003 Arab League peace proposal -- based on a land-for-peace formula -- will remain the "fundamental base" for resolving the Middle East conflict.

A draft final statement by the ministers, obtained by The Associated Press, states a similar position, saying the Palestinian Authority "will remain a full partner in the peace process."

The ministers are also expected to repeat calls to declare the region a nuclear free zone in the face of increasing Western pressure on Iran to halt its uranium enrichment.
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Africa Horn
Sudan ready to drop bid to head AU
2006-01-24
KHARTOUM - Sudan said on Monday it was ready to withdraw its bid to head the African Union and avoid a division over its appointment that could sink Darfur peace talks and which critics say could damage Africa's credibility.

"We do not want to make any division in order to achieve an objective, so if that means that Sudan should withdraw, we will withdraw," Sudan's presidential adviser on foreign affairs, Mustafa Osman Ismail, told Reuters.
Stench was too much even for you, eh?
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Africa: Horn
Sudan: security tight for Garang funeral
2005-08-06
JUBA, Sudan - Thousands of Sudanese government troops and ex-rebel fighters deployed here Saturday ahead of the funeral of Sudan’s vice president and former southern guerrilla leader John Garang. As residents of Juba prepared a massive send-off for Garang, two planeloads of Sudanese soldiers, including members of the elite presidential guard, landed at Juba airport on Friday and were immediately deployed around town. Heavily armed troops with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles were positioned at 10-meter intervals on the streets of Juba, which was rocked by deadly violence after Garang’s death, an AFP correspondent said. Those soldiers joined fighters from Garang’s ex-rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) who entered Juba for the first time on Wednesday to help quell the violence and provide security for the funeral.

Half a million people, including Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir, South African President Thabo Mbeki, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni are expected to attend the service. Officials from the African Union and the United Nations were also expected.

Garang was killed on July 30 when Museveni’s presidential helicopter on which he was returning to southern Sudan from Uganda crashed in what Sudanese, Ugandan and SPLM/A officials had repeatedly said was an accident due to poor weather. But on Friday, Museveni said it may not have been an accident, becoming the first official of any government to publicly suggest the crash may have been the result of foul play. “Some people say accident, it may be an accident, it may be something else,” Museveni told thousands of mourners in the southern Sudanese town of Yei where Garang’s coffin had been brought in an airborne funeral procession to Juba. “The (helicopter) was very well equipped, this was my (helicopter) the one I am flying all the time, I am not ruling anything out,” he said, adding that an unspecified “external factor” could have been responsible.
He's also thanking his lucky stars and stroking his rabbit's foot.
Salva Kiir, Garang’s successor as SPLM/A chief declined to comment on the specifics of Museveni’s remarks but said no cause had been ruled out pending an international investigation of the crash. But in Khartoum and Juba, senior SPLM/A officials cautioned against making any assumptions about the cause of the crash as did a diplomat in Bor, Garang’s birthplace where his coffin was brought after Yei.
"Boss! We're going to need a new cover story real soon now!"
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail meanwhile called on Uganda to cooperate with the investigation into the crash. “(Garang’s) visit was to Uganda and the aircraft and its crew were Ugandan,” Ismail told the official SUNA news agency. However he expressed displeasure that the Ugandan authorities only informed Sudan about the disappearance of Garang’s helicopter several hours after they found out. Sudanese Information Minister Abdul Basit Sebdarat went further still, calling Museveni’s comments “extremely worrying”. “Uttering statements or speculations ahead of the investigation would harm the probe and the chances of finding the facts, the official SUNA news agency quoted Sebdarat as saying.
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