He obviously hasn’t heard about the crimes taking place in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.

From the Associated Press:

Prosecutor charges Sudan president with genocide

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor has filed genocide charges against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

The charges filed Monday include masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in Darfur with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is asking a three-judge panel to issue an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir to prevent the deaths of those still under attack in Darfur from government-backed janjaweed militia. He says the genocide is continuing and must be stopped.

GENEVA, June 20 (UNHCR) - People across the world were celebrating World Refugee Day on Wednesday amid a call on the global community to help the world’s displaced and a warning that their numbers were set to rise.

In New York, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in his first World Refugee Day (WRD) message as UN chief that international solidarity was crucial to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of refugees and others forcibly displaced.

“As we mark World Refugee Day, let us recall what sets these families, children and elderly apart from others on the move around the globe. The difference is that they cannot go home. To ensure that they are cared for and protected until they can, let us offer them our support and understanding,” he said.

High Commissioner António Guterres was in Africa Wednesday to celebrate the annual event, while UNHCR Goodwill Ambassadors such as Angelina Jolie, Adel Imam, George Dalaras, Muazzed Ersoy and Osvaldo Laport have also lent their support with interviews, appearances and campaigning. There was no specific theme this year, but many countries chose their own.

Global WRD celebrations kicked off in New Zealand. In Wellington, an official ceremony was held at Parliament House while on a nearby soccer pitch a team of celebrities took on a World Refugee All Stars XI. Exhibitions, lectures, panel discussions and a refugee youth work expo were scheduled in other parts of the country.

Across the Tasman Sea in Canberra, Australia, World Refugee Day (WRD) flags flew in the parliamentary zone while the Captain Cook Fountain and other monuments were spotlighted in blue. A spectacular light show was also planned in Switzerland, where acclaimed artist Gerry Hofstetter gave the media a sneak preview on Tuesday of four bridges - one in each of the main linguistic areas of the Alpine nation - that he has illuminated with UNHCR logos, messages and images.

More at Reuters

Heckuva job Bush!

From Reuters:

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq has emerged as the world’s second most unstable country, behind Sudan, more than four years after President Bush ordered the U.S. invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, according to a survey released Monday.

The 2007 Failed States Index, produced by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, said Iraq suffered a third straight year of deterioration in 2006 with diminished results across a range of social, economic, political and military indicators. Iraq ranked fourth last year.

Afghanistan, another war-torn country where U.S. and NATO forces are battling a Taliban insurgency nearly six years after a U.S.-led invasion, was in eighth place.

“Iraq and Afghanistan, the two main fronts in the global war on terror, both suffered over the past year,” a report that accompanied the figures said.

“Their experiences show that billions of dollars in development and security aid may be futile unless accompanied by a functioning government, trustworthy leaders, and realistic plans to keep the peace and develop the economy.”

The index said Sudan, the world’s worst failed state, appears to be dragging down its neighbors Central African Republic and Chad, with violence in the Darfur region responsible for at least 200,000 deaths and the displacement of 2 million to 3 million.

The authors of the index said one of the leading benchmarks for failed state status is the loss of physical control of territory or a monopoly on the legitimate use of force.

Other attributes include the erosion of legitimate authority, an inability to provide reasonable public services and the inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community.

Foreign Policy magazine is published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think tank. The Fund for Peace is an independent research group devoted to preventing and resolving conflicts.

From the Palm Beach Post

WASHINGTON - Sudan has denied a visa for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson to visit the country, which has been accused by the U.S. government since 2004 of genocide in the Darfur region.

The denial was the first for a member of Congress but the third this week for a U.S. government delegation, Nelson’s office said.

“The Sudanese government clearly has reversed its long’standing position of allowing official visits and engaging in dialogue,” Nelson said in a statement. “Preventing a U.S. senator from visiting Darfur won’t stop the international community from pressuring the Sudanese to end the genocide and other atrocities.”

The U.S. Embassy in Sudan informed Nelson’s office of the denial this week.

Nelson spokesman Bryan Gulley said the senator’s office was told that two administration delegations also were denied visas, but he did not have specific information about what agencies were involved.

A spokesman for the Sudanese Embassy in Washington did not return phone calls Wednesday.

Instead of going to Sudan, Nelson said he plans to visit refugee camps on the Chad border with Sudan during the Memorial Day recess. Nelson is a member of the Senate committees on foreign relations and intelligence.

Gulley said he did not believe the visa denial was linked to a bill passed during the Florida Legislature’s recent session calling for the state pension fund to divest itself from any Sudanese investments.

Not good…….

KASSAB, Darfur - Sudanese troops barred the U.N. humanitarian chief on Saturday from a refugee camp whose residents have been raped and attacked by gunmen suspected of belonging to pro-government militias.

The convoy carrying John Holmes was halted at a checkpoint about a mile outside the Kassab refugee camp, and he was told he lacked the proper papers for a visit there.

“I’m frustrated, annoyed, but it’s not atypical of what happens here,” Holmes told journalists traveling with him. He said he had obtained all the necessary clearances from the government in Khartoum.

The soldiers at the checkpoint briefly prevented a car carrying journalists from leaving after Holmes turned back. The journalists were only allowed to leave after the troops confiscated a videotape from a U.N. television cameraman.

Holmes, on his first trip to the region, said Friday he pressed Sudanese officials to grant better access to aid workers trying to help Darfurians amid widespread complaints that humanitarian groups face constant obstacles from the authorities in reaching victims of the conflict.

Continued at YahooNews

From the Nation:

The Wars of Sudan
Alex de Waal

When history repeats itself for a third time, it is beyond tragedy. Since its independence fifty-one years ago, Sudan has suffered two civil wars between North and South, each of them as bloody as–and much longer than–today’s crisis in the western region of Darfur. Quietly, Sudanese military planners are preparing for a third round of that war. Just two weeks before violent clashes erupted in the Southern city of Malakal at the end of November, Salva Kiir, the president of Southern Sudan–who is also first vice president in Sudan’s Government of National Unity–issued a stark warning: “The war will return to the South if peace is not achieved in Darfur, and that is really our fear.” He repeated the warnings in a speech January 9, the second anniversary of the agreement that brought peace to Southern Sudan. Kiir’s alarm is good reason to intensify international efforts over Darfur–but he is also putting us on notice to pay attention to a looming nationwide crisis.

There’s no doubt that President Omar al-Bashir and his cabal of security chiefs bear the major responsibility for bringing Sudan to its current state of despair. Certainly urgent action is needed to stop the killing in Darfur, which first aroused the conscience of the Western world in 2003, spurring a well-organized mass movement and student campaign to “save” the region. The impulse among Western activists and policymakers to entertain regime change, and to pressure and punish those whose misdeeds have inflicted so much death and destruction, is understandable. But punitive and interventionist measures carry a high risk of sparking intensified conflict or bringing about government collapse–either of which would have calamitous humanitarian consequences. American leadership to avert such disasters is needed now.

Continue reading here

The UN said today that it would launch an investigation after the Daily Telegraph reported allegations that UN personnel have abused children in southern Sudan.

Peacekeeping and civilian staff based in Juba are accused of picking up young children and forcing them to have sex.

Members of the United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Sudan are facing allegations of raping and abusing children as young as 12, The Daily Telegraph reported today.

The abuse allegedly began two years ago when the UN mission in southern Sudan (UNMIS) moved in to help rebuild the region after a 23-year civil war. The UN has up to 10,000 military personnel in the region, of all nationalities and the allegations involve peacekeepers, military police and civilian staff.

The first indications of possible sexual exploitation emerged within months of the UN force’s arrival and The Daily Telegraph has seen a draft of an internal report compiled by the UN children’s agency Unicef in July 2005 referring to the problem.

This paper has learnt of more than 20 victims- accounts claiming that some peacekeeping and civilian staff based in the town are regularly picking up young children in their UN vehicles and forcing them to have sex. It is thought that hundreds of children may have been abused.

Read more here