Volume 15
November 4, 2004Hello, everyone. First thing, let me relay Allyson's thanks to everyone who's been sending her care packages. She's gotten a bunch of them over the last month, and she really appreciates all of them. She's been sharing the goodies with her co-workers, and they are never without DVD movies to watch. It's very sweet of all of you to send these little reminders of home to her.
This edition of the Ally Report will be the last one until late November, but there’s a wonderful reason for this: On Saturday, I fly to Africa to spend Allyson’s two weeks of vacation with her. We’re spending three days in a safari camp in the Masai Mara in Kenya, and then about a week on an island off the coast of Kenya. Needless to say, I’m pretty happy at the prospect of seeing her.
Allyson took off from Garsila today, flying first to Nyala, then to Khartoum and finally, on Sunday, from Khartoum to Nairobi, Kenya.
The question I’m asking myself, though, is whether Allyson will be able to get back to Garsila when our vacation is over. There has been (and you might have seen this in the newspapers; it’s been there, buried beneath the election coverage) a distinct increase in violence among the Janjaweed, and the government has begun to try and place blame on the aid organizations for the crisis in Darfur.
Allyson gave me the first news of this a couple of weeks ago in an email where she detailed her work on outreach missions into villages around Garsila:
“I'm on one of the outreach teams now, Team 2 to be specific, along with Dr. Harris, or Dean, as I call him, because nobody goes by ‘doctor’ here. We head out in the mornings to two of our outreach sites, Delieg and Bindisi. Delieg, we have been going to since the beginning. Bindisi is newer. I really enjoy it although it's really hard work. Delieg is malaria, malaria, and malaria. I help Dean see all the fever/malaria cases and also run the SFC and TFC (the feeding centers). In Bindisi, so far, I just run the SFC/TFC. It’s a more unstable area and the last time I was there (we're there at each 3 days) the workers in the SFC/TFC took me aside and told me that one of the ladies who works with us (she distributes the food ration) went out to her field and discovered Janjaweed grazing their cattle. She tried to run them out, and they started to beat her. They also raped her 12-year-old daughter, who was with her. So yes, this crap still goes on, although not as bad as it was. There have also been some security problems, although not in our area. In North Darfur, there was an anti-tank land mine that blew up a Save The Children vehicle. You may have heard about it on the news. I don't think there are any landmines here.
“Apparently, as it gets dry the lands mines get packed down and go off after the rainy season. Also there have been armed robberies and kidnappings on the road that we take to get to Nyala, which is why we have the plane now and will not be taking that road anymore. Today we heard gunfire as we were traveling to Delieg, and we stopped the cars, but it turned out to be the army with target practice.”
In the last week or so, the Sudanese government leadership has turned its ire on the aid organizations. Here is a story from last week by Agence France Presse:
Source: Agence France-Presse
Date: 28 Oct 2004Sudan's Beshir says aid agencies are 'real enemy' in Darfur
KHARTOUM, Oct 28 (AFP) - Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir has launched an attack on international humanitarian agencies in the troubled Darfur region, calling them enemies in comments published Thursday.
"Organizations operating in Darfur are the real enemies," the official Al-Anbaa daily quoted Beshir as saying, without elaborating.
"The conspiracy against Darfur is not new," he added, in remarks to representatives of native administrations in Darfur.
The president also accused the West of fuelling the 20-month conflict in the region that has left tens of thousands of people dead, displaced more than 1.4 million others from their homes and forced a further 200,000 into Chad.
"Western countries are funding the unrest in Darfur," Beshir charged, adding that there were also other elements that wanted to "explode the situation" in the region, again without elaborating.
He argued that those "claiming to be concerned" about the crisis were "liars and hypocrites. They are all enemies."
Beshir and other officials in Khartoum have repeatedly accused NGOs of proselytising in Sudan and charged that the West was fueling the conflict in a bid to plunder the country's resources.
The United Nations says the conflict between the government, backed by proxy Arab militia, and ethnic minority rebels has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis.Beshir's government has come under mounting pressure over its involvement in what Washington has termed genocide and has been accused of hampering the relief effort.
The UN Security Council has also passed resolutions demanding that Khartoum disarm and disband marauding militias or face sanctions on its vital oil industry.
Beshir insisted that the crisis was a "Sudanese issue" and "not the responsibility of the Security Council" or any other party.You might also have seen stories recently about Sudanese government police taking people out of the IDP camps in Western Darfur. (Here is a link to the most recent piece in The New York Times.)
I don’t send you this news to worry you, but it is reality for Allyson and her colleagues. The good news is that she and her team have been safe so far, they are getting regular security briefings, and they are taking every precaution. The better news is that she flew out of there today and I’ll get to see her on Sunday night.
I can’t wait.
Until around Thanksgiving,
Chuck
Links to Aid Organizations
Doctors Without Borders UNICEF International Red CrossInformational Links
CIA Sudan Factbook United Nations Passion of the Present New York Times (Africa section)
NPR "Fresh Air" program on Darfur The Guardian's Darfur Diary
Last updated Wednesday, January 19, 2005