Aid workers’ expulsion is a risk to life in Darfur

James Reinl, United Nations Correspondent
Last Updated: March 11. 2009 8:30AM UAE / March 11. 2009 4:30AM GMT
People queue for measles vaccinations by Médecins Sans Frontières in Sudan. Kevin PQ Phelan / Medecins Sans Frontieres via AP NEW YORK //

The expulsion of relief workers from Sudan’s western province of Darfur could spawn outbreaks of killer diseases and see water supplies dry up within days, the UN’s aid director says.

Sir John Holmes said Darfur’s humanitarian crisis was poised to deteriorate rapidly following the government’s “unexpected” decision to throw out 13 foreign agencies that ran life-saving aid projects.

The expulsion of aid workers by the Sudanese president, Omar al Bashir, is widely seen as a politically motivated response to an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC), although this is denied by Khartoum.

“This decision is likely to have a major impact on millions of people in Darfur who need a daily basis of life-saving humanitarian assistance,” Sir John, the UN’s undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, said on Monday.

“Our major concerns are in the field of water, where water installations have been managed by international non-governmental organizations … If they disappear, how is that job going to be taken up? It may not affect water delivery today, but it certainly will in a few days if the maintenance is not done and fuel is not provided.”

A spokesman for one of the aid groups forced to vacate Darfur said some tanks in Darfur’s refugee camps “will only provide water for a week or 10 days” before supplies dry up and refuges are left thirsty.

“After that, it is a question mark, and we are just trying to figure that out because we have no international staff remaining,” the spokesman said. “The logisticians, the engineers and the co-coordinators of these operations have already left the country.”
Food stockpiles are expected to sustain Darfur’s 4.7 million aid-dependent people over coming weeks. Additionally, the expulsion of foreign specialists could lead to outbreaks of meningitis in refugee camps, Sir John said.

One of the targeted aid groups, Médecins Sans Frontières-Netherlands, had been responding to a meningitis outbreak by vaccinating people in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, when aid workers were ordered to leave. Sudanese officials told a dozen other aid groups and three charities last week that their operating licenses had been revoked amid allegations they had collaborated with ICC prosecutors.

The expelled groups include Oxfam GB, Care International, ¬Médecins Sans Frontières, Mercy Corps and Save the Children.

Mr. al Bashir, who seized control of Africa’s biggest country in a coup in 1989, has accused the UN and aid organizations of conspiring to destabilize his power base as part of a new “colonialism”.

Khartoum announced expulsions only hours after ICC judges issued a warrant for Mr. al Bashir’s arrest based on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. About 300,000 people have been killed and at least 2.7 million forced from their homes since fighting erupted in 2003, with most of the displaced now holed up in refugee camps in the vast, arid region.

In inhospitable terrain and tackling what has been dubbed “the world’s worst humanitarian disaster”, aid workers distribute sorghum and other staples and provide medical care, clean water and sanitation.

Sudanese officials have confiscated aid workers’ vehicles, mobile telephones and computers, and threatened the remaining staff by their “intimidating behavior”, the humanitarian chief said.

Sudan’s UN ambassador, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, said the government would have no problem filling in any gaps in aid distribution created by the expulsion of aid workers.

But Mr. Holmes said neither the Sudanese government nor the UN – nor Darfur’s remaining aid groups – “have the capacity to replace all the activities that have been going on”.

Government allegations that charity workers provided witnesses and helped ICC prosecutors build their case were “far fetched and implausible”, Mr. Holmes said.

A coalition of forces, including the Arab League and the African Union, has urged the Security Council to invoke an article of the ICC rules and delay proceedings against Mr. al Bashir for one year. Critics say the court’s first arrest warrant against a sitting head of state will deepen the Darfur crisis and destabilize a peace process between Khartoum and the country’s Christian-dominated south.

UK: Reconstruction of Gaza

LOCATION Sharm el-Sheikh
SPEAKER Foreign Secretary, David Miliband
DATE 02/03/2009
Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, made a speech at the Gaza reconstruction conference in Sharm el-Sheikh.

We are here because the Gaza conflict was a disaster for the Palestinian people. It cost 1400 lives. It deepened division between the West Bank and Gaza. It fuelled despair and rage across the region. It exposed the weaknesses of our peace process.

Our responsibility is not just to rebuild gaza, but to work to prevent further conflict. So in 2009 we need to do things differently.

There must be:

1. Physical reconstruction in the West Bank and Gaza: visble signs of progress to give people hope.

2. Political reconstruction to give the Palestinian people a single government.

3. International engagement of a wholly different order, led by an energised US Administration, and energetically backed by the whole international community.

4. And a convincing peace plan

Aid is desperately needed for short term humanitarian relief and long term reconstruction. Prime Minister Fayyad has powerfully set out the scale of the challenge and also the right plan to meet it. The UK is proud to support his plan. All of us here are fortunate to have him as a partner.

My colleague Douglas Alexander, the British International Development Secretary, announced yesterday that of the 0m pledged in Paris in 2008, Britain would dedicate m for "early recovery" activities in Gaza to add to the m extra resources given since the Gaza conflict by the UK.

But we need more than pledges of aid. The aid needs to get in; it needs to be well spent; and then it needs to be sustained. Otherwise the saga of reconstruction and destruction will go on and on.

The aid we commit needs the sustained cooperation of Israel for it to enter Gaza. The UK strongly supports the humanitarian framework which has been developed by the UN. I congratulate Secretary General Ban and his team for their work. UNSC Resolution 1860 spelt out the need for comprehensive opening of crossings on the basis of the 2005 Movement and Access agreement. It must be put into practice.

But there will be only limited physical reconstruction without political reconstruction. The Palestinian people need a single government across the Occupied Territories. Gaza cannot be left until last.

In 2009 that government needs to be dedicated to humanitarian assistance, physical reconstruction and election preparation. That is why we support the efforts of Egypt to help create a non factional interim government. Those in the region who stand in the way of that government through maximalist demands and defiant ultimatums do no service to the Palestinian people, or to themselves.

For real and enduring progress on the ground, we need a plan to realise the goal of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state, not more processes that fail to achieve the goal.

Next year the Palestinian people need to be able to turn out and vote in an election where a realistic prospect of statehood is on the table. If not, then those who claim violence is the answer will find recruitment easy.

That is why I strongly welcome the commitments of President Obama, the activism of Senator Mitchell, and today's eloquent speech by Secretary Clinton.

14 months ago Prime Minister Olmert said that if a Palestinian state was not agreed in a year, it would become unrealisable. Today, the goal is further adrift. Violence, including rocket attacks has intensified; settlements have expanded; despair has grown.

The UK believes that the route to a Palestinian state lies through a comprehensive regional approach. The Arab Peace Initiative sets out the vision.

But the truth is that the very idea of a peace process has lost credibility in Israel and the Arab world. So we are at a point of decision.

Defense companies see growth in "soft power"

The Wall Street Journal noted: As the Obama administration pledges a new focus on "soft power," defense contractors are expected to pick up the pace on diversifying beyond airplanes and satellites. Soft power, defined as "getting what you want through attraction," requires new approaches to foreign policy, and defense companies are rushing to adapt. "We recognized five or so years ago that the industry was changing and that the government was looking at more than just hard power," says an executive at Lockheed Martin Corp., which is currently training African peacekeepers along with rival Northrop Grumman Corp.