SFRC hearing live: The Continuing Crisis in Darfur (C-SPAN 3 online)

[Muttocracy]

I missed the beginning but it's on now:

http://c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan3_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS3

can also open a stand-alone player from that page

Hearing info and speakers
http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/hearings/2008/hrg080423a.html

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1. woman from the UN just had a very nice comment about it being our shared responsibility

I hope I can find that archived on SFRC site or YouTube later.

Menendez and Biden were not so kind to Bush et al in comments earlier....

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2. Biden "when a nation commits genocide it forfeits its right to sovereignty" nt

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3. Menendez pushing on issue of Chinese arms sales into Sudan despite embargo nt

paraphrasing... we're letting them get away with so many things... maybe because they own so much of our debt.

Glad to hear him come out and say it! Bush's war debt is crippling us in so many other ways.

[gateley]

8. As you know, Menendez has been impressing me a lot lately --

and as you know, :7 - Joe ALWAYS impresses me!

[Muttocracy]

4. archived on c-span

rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/intl/intl042308_darfur.rm

[gateley]

7. Thank you!

I'm glad this Committee cares -- the administration certainly doesn't.

[seemslikeadream]

5. Darfur is reported to have the fourth largest copper and third largest uranium deposits

http://globalpolicy.igc.org/security/issues/sudan/2007/0525forget.htm

Merchants of death

The United States, acting through surrogate allies in Chad and neighboring states has trained and armed the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army, headed until his death in July 2005 by John Garang, trained at the US Special Forces school at Fort Benning, Georgia. By pouring arms into first southeastern Sudan and since discovery of oil in Darfur into that region as well, Washington fueled the conflict that led to tens of thousands dying and several million driven to flee their homes. Eritrea hosts and supports the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the umbrella NDA opposition group, and the Eastern Front and Darfur rebels.

There are two rebel groups fighting in Sudan's Darfur region against the Khartoum central government of President Omar al-Bashir - the Justice for Equality Movement and the larger Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). In February 2003, the SLA launched attacks on Sudan government positions in the Darfur region. SLA secretary-general Minni Arkou Minnawi called for armed struggle, accusing the government of ignoring Darfur. "The objective of the SLA is to create a united democratic Sudan." In other words, regime change in Sudan.

The US Senate adopted a resolution in February 2006 that requested NATO troops in Darfur, as well as a stronger UN peacekeeping force with a robust mandate. A month later, President George W Bush also called for additional NATO forces in Darfur. Genocide? Or oil? The Pentagon has been busy training African military officers in the US, much as it has trained Latin American officers for decades. Its International Military Education and Training program has provided training to military officers from Chad, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Cameroon and the Central African Republic.

Much of the arms that have fueled the killing in Darfur and the south have been brought in via murky, protected private "merchants of death" such as the notorious former KGB operative, now with offices in the US, Victor Bout, who has been cited repeatedly in recent years for selling weapons across Africa. US government officials strangely leave his operations in Texas and Florida untouched despite the fact he is on the Interpol wanted list for money laundering. US development aid for all Sub-Saharan Africa, including Chad, has been cut sharply in recent years while its military aid has risen. Oil and the scramble for strategic raw materials is the clear reason. The region of southern Sudan from the Upper Nile to the Chad border is rich in oil. Washington knew that long before the Sudanese government.

Chevron's 1974 oil project

US oil majors have known about Sudan's oil wealth since the early 1970s. In 1979, Jafaar Nimeiry, Sudan's head of state, broke with the Soviets and invited Chevron to develop the country's oil industry. That was perhaps a fatal mistake. UN Ambassador George H W Bush had personally told Nimeiry of satellite photos indicating oil in Sudan. Nimeiry took the bait. Wars over oil have been the consequence ever since. Chevron found big oil reserves in southern Sudan. It spent $1.2 billion finding and testing them. That oil triggered what is called Sudan's second civil war in 1983. Chevron was the target of repeated attacks and killings and it suspended the project in 1984. In 1992, it sold its Sudanese oil concessions. Then China began to develop the abandoned Chevron fields in 1999 with notable results. But Chevron is not far from Darfur today.

Chad oil and pipeline politics

Condoleezza Rice's Chevron is in neighboring Chad, together with the other US oil giant, ExxonMobil. They've just built a $3.7 billion oil pipeline carrying 160,000 barrels per day from Doba in central Chad, near Darfur, via Cameroon to Kribi on the Atlantic Ocean, destined for US refineries. To do it, they worked with Chad "President for life" Idriss Deby, a corrupt despot who has been accused of feeding US-supplied arms to the Darfur rebels. Deby joined Washington's Pan Sahel Initiative run by the Pentagon's US-European Command, to train his troops to fight "Islamic terrorism". Supplied with US military aid, training and weapons, in 2004, Deby launched the initial strike that set off the conflict in Darfur. He used members of his elite Presidential Guard, who come from the province, providing them with all-terrain vehicles, arms and anti-aircraft guns to aid Darfur rebels fighting the Khartoum government in southwestern Sudan. The US military support to Deby in fact had been the trigger for the Darfur bloodbath. Khartoum reacted and the ensuing debacle was unleashed in full, tragic force.

Washington-backed NGOs and the US government claim unproven genocide as a pretext to ultimately bring UN/NATO troops into the oil fields of Darfur and southern Sudan. Oil, not human misery, is behind Washington's new interest in Darfur. The "Darfur genocide" campaign began in 2003, the same time the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline began to flow. The US now had a base in Chad to go after Darfur oil and, potentially, co-opt China's new oil sources. US military objectives in Darfur - and the Horn of Africa more widely - are being served at present by US and NATO backing for African Union (AU) troops in Darfur. There NATO provides ground and air support for AU troops who are categorized as "neutral" and "peacekeepers". Sudan is at war on three fronts, against Uganda, Chad, and Ethiopia, each with a significant US military presence and ongoing US military programs. The war in Sudan involves both US covert operations and US trained "rebel" factions coming in from south Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia and Uganda.

Darfur is reported to have the fourth largest copper and third largest uranium deposits


http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-232DHG%20OPED%20THE%20US%20WAR%20IN%20DARFUR <1>.htm

Darfur is reported to have the fourth largest copper and third largest uranium deposits in the world. Darfur produces two-thirds of the world’s best quality gum Arabic—a major ingredient in Coke and Pepsi. Contiguous petroleum reserves are driving warfare from the Red Sea, through Darfur, to the Great Lakes of Central Africa. Private military companies operate alongside petroleum contractors and “humanitarian” agencies. Sudan is China's fourth biggest supplier of imported oil, and U.S. companies controlling the pipelines in Chad and Uganda seek to displace China through the US military alliance with “frontline” states hostile to Sudan: Uganda, Chad and Ethiopia.

Israel reportedly provides military training to Darfur rebels from bases in Eritrea, and has strengthened ties with the regime in Chad, from which more weapons and troops penetrate Darfur. The refugee camps have become increasingly militarized. There are reports that Israeli military intelligence operates from within the camps, as does U.S intelligence. Eritrea is about to explode into yet another war with Ethiopia.

African Union (AU) forces in Darfur include Nigerian and Rwandan troops responsible for atrocities in their own countries. While committing 5000 troops for a UN force in Darfur, Ethiopia is perpetrating genocidal atrocities in Somalia, and against Ethiopians in the Ogaden, Oromo and Anuak regions. Uganda has 2000 U.S.-trained troops in Somalia, also committing massive atrocities, and the genocide against the Acholi people in northern Uganda proceeds out of sight. Ethiopia is the largest recipient of U.S. “Aid” in Africa, with Rwanda and Uganda close on its heals. France is deeply committed to the Anglo-American strategy, which will benefit Total Oil Corp.



AU troops receive military-logistic support from NATO, and are widely hated. Early in October 2007, SLA rebels attacked an AU base killing ten troops. In a subsequent editorial sympathetic to rebel factions (“Darfur’s Bitter Ironies,” Guardian Online, 10/4/07) Smith College English professor Eric Reeves espoused the tired rhetoric of “Khartoum’s genocidal counter-insurgency war in Darfur,” a position counterproductive to any peaceful settlement. To minimize the damage this rebel attack has done to their credibility Reeves and other “Save Darfur” advocates cast doubt about the rebels’ identities and mischaracterized the SLA attackers as “rogue commanders.” However, there is near unanimous agreement, internationally, that rebels are “out of control,” committing widespread rape and plundering with impunity, just as the SPLA did in South Sudan for over a decade.



Debunking the claims of a “genocide against blacks” or an “Islamic holy-war” against Christians, Darfur’s Arab and black African tribes have intermarried for centuries, and nearly everyone is Muslim. The “Save Darfur” campaign is deeply aligned with Jewish and Christian faith-based organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel. These groups have relentlessly campaigned for Western military action, demonizing both Sudan and China, but they have never addressed Western military involvement—backing factions on all sides. By mobilizing constituencies sympathetic to the “genocide” label and the cries of “never again” they do a grave disservice to the cause of human rights.



Darfur should be placed in a wider context and the role of the United States


1997 Sudan map (by Petroconsultants s.a) showing southern Sudan oil concessions and blocks offered in North Dafur and elsewhere.

Legend to 1997 map above

USAID Map of Sudan and southern oil concessions , without other blocks 8-15:



http://grassrootspeace.org/traprock_blog/2006/06/19/open-letter-on-witnessing-darfur-a-benefit-for-the-people-of-darfur /
Open Letter on Witnessing Darfur - A Benefit for the People of Darfur
Traprock Peace Center homepage

TO: The attention of co-sponsor Mayor Claire Higgins

RE: An Open Letter about the June 21, 2006 event:
Witnessing Darfur: A Benefit for the People of Darfur

Sunday, 18 June 2006
Dear Friends,

We are writing to express our concern over the upcoming June 21 event:
WITNESSING DARFUR, to be held at Smith College, for which many local
and national religious, cultural or political organizations are co-sponsors (see
bottom). Like you we deeply believe in the need to alleviate the
people of Darfur’s suffering, however, we strongly feel that the
position being taken, which many local organizations have supported,
namely that the Islamic government of Sudan is committing genocide
against the “African” people of Darfur, does not accurately reflect or
fully address the complexities and realities of the situation.

We strongly believe that the situation in Darfur should be placed in a
wider context and the role of the United States and other external
actors MUST be acknowledged and dealt with honestly if there is to be
peace and stability in Darfur, Sudan or indeed an improvement of basic
conditions. We encourage people to think carefully and examine the
history of humanitarian aid organizations before making any financial
contributions: it is well documented that certain organizations
working in Sudan have been involved in very dubious activities
counterproductive to expressed or publicized humanitarian aims.

We respectfully ask that people actively seek out and examine
different points of view. We emphasize that we are not trying to
malign or attack either any sponsor of this event, the producers of
the film(s) to be shown, or speaker Dr. Eric Reeves of Smith College;
rather we are calling for an open dialogue now and in the future. If
the U.S. wants to end the violence in Darfur and elsewhere its first
step should be to stop participating in it. We believe that our first
step as US citizens and residents should be to speak openly and
honestly and to hold the US government accountable. We find it
increasingly difficult to do so within the United States: can we
expect that it will be done in a far away, oil-rich country like
Sudan? (Petroleum is one of Darfur’s several coveted resources.)

We respectfully encourage all those who wish to allocate funds for aid
in Darfur to do so, but to donate only after careful examination of ALL
the facts. We respectfully ask the Community Foundation of Western
Massachusetts to HOLD all Sudan Aid Funds received, to date, or
subsequently, for the same reasons. We call on co-sponsor Mayor Clare
Higgins and the town of Northampton to hold a public hearing,
immediately, where the entire spectrum of issues can be openly and
publicly aired. Given the gravity of the situation and people’s desire
to alleviate the very real suffering in Darfur, we ask the sponsors of
this event, and people concerned about the Darfur situation, to press
for this hearing to occur immediately.

We urge you to read the SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION we have provided
below; this is by no means an exhaustive or comprehensive sampling of
relevant issues. We also ask that you circulate this letter widely,
forward to your organizations’ mailing list, to all interested
parties, and the press.


Five different perspectives on the ongoing crisis in the Darfur


http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=15665
http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=15782

Five different perspectives on the ongoing crisis in the Darfur region explore the ethical and political questions behind popular calls for humanitarian intervention and regime change in Sudan. Panelists include Co-Director of the IAC in New York, Sara Flounders; Professor of Anthropology, Dr. Elliot Fratkin; investigative journalist, Keith Harmon Snow; researcher on war crimes, Dimitri Oram; and Associate Professor of Anthropology, Enoch Page; and concludes with a panel discussion. This event on the crisis in Darfur was held on July 6, 2006 at Smith College in Massachusetts

[Muttocracy]

6. thanks - that's a good chunk of stuff to bookmark and read! nt

[Muttocracy]

9. Biden put some photos of Darfur on his web site today

mostly from NY Times

http://biden.senate.gov/press/gallery/photos/?id=47933abd-755e-476c-a13d-1aebd4fe0527