The Road to the Horizon

[i-sudan%20oil%20fields]
75% of the oil reserve in Sudan, perhaps 6.5 billion barrels, is located in South Sudan (Source).

Since the "second" Sudan war between the North and South started in 1983, an estimated 2 million civilians were killed, and at least 4 million were displaced at least once.

During the war, aid agencies set up one of the largest, most costly and complex humanitarian relief operations ever, "Operation Lifeline Sudan", running a "relief pipeline" from Kenya (and partially Uganda) into the South. An operation which was often criticised as "fueling the conflict".

True or not, I guess "Operation Bulletline Sudan" fueled the conflict much more: While Russia -mostly through proxies- and China -mostly thru "oil-for-bullets" deals- made good business of arms deals with the North, the "West" kept "an extensive arms pipeline" running to the South during the whole conflict.
For years, the world kept their eyes closed, as business was good: selling weapons dearly, and getting cheap oil, I mean, what more can one wish?

This US arms supply to the South continues to run up to this very day, mostly through Kenya, one of the strongest US proxies in the region. Meanwhile, Russia and China continue to supply Khartoum. What will this lead to? An expanded conflict border zone where North and South Sudan dispute oil fields.

Aren't we lucky there is an embargo for selling arms to Sudan?

PS: this map might indicate the oilfields more clearly (Tnx @MFB)

[i-How many children have you killed today, Mr.President?]
There are no coincidences in life. Certainly not if they concern politics. Once again, UN and US politics have only one letter of difference.

KABUL: The United States and other foreign powers are engaged in preliminary talks with the Taliban about a possible settlement to the near decade-long war in Afghanistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday. (Source)

The UN Security Council has split the international sanctions regime for the Taliban and al-Qaida to encourage the Taliban to join reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan. (Source)

[i-Sri Lanka Killing Fields]
We have been highlighting the plight of civilians caught up in the Sri Lanka civilian war since 2007. Back in 2009, after the last Tamil stronghold fell into the hands of the government, I published a post called "The killing fields of Sri Lanka".

Channel 4 just released a video, with the same title, documenting repetitive and systematically executed war crimes committed by both the government and Tamil fighters against unarmed civilians, clearly marked medical facilities and other non-combat targets.

It shows a forensic investigation into the final weeks of the quarter-century-long civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the secessionist rebels, the Tamil Tigers.

Captured on mobile phones, both by Tamils under attack and government soldiers as war trophies, the disturbing footage shows the extra-judicial executions of prisoners; the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian camps; and dead female Tamil fighters who appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused and murdered.

The film is made and broadcast as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon faces growing criticism for refusing to launch an investigation into 'credible allegations' that Sri Lankan forces committed war crimes during the closing weeks of the bloody conflict with the Tamil Tigers.

In April 2011, Ban Ki-moon published a report by a UN-appointed panel of experts, which concluded that as many as 40,000 people were killed in the final weeks of the war between the Tamil Tigers and government forces.

It called for the creation of an international mechanism to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed by government forces and the Tamil Tigers during that time.

This film provides powerful evidence that will lend new urgency to the panel's call for an international inquiry to be mounted, including harrowing interviews with eye-witnesses, new photographic stills, official Sri Lankan army video footage, and satellite imagery. (Full article)

[i-Aisha Khadaffi]

Aisha Khadaffi, "the man's daughter", filed a law suit against NATO. Legal papers were submitted to the prosecutor's office in Brussels her French lawyer.

Ms Khadaffi's four-month daughter, Mastoura, was one of Khadaffi's four grandchildren killed during a NATO bombing raid. (Even though Berlusconi - for one credible news source- alleges this to be propaganda)

The lawsuit is quoted saying "The target was a civil building inhabited by civilians and was neither a command post nor a military control [centre] of the Libyan regime" (Source)

It will be interesting to see how the Belgian court system will react, knowing how fast they backed out of the lawsuit against Bush, Powell, Cheney et al, during the Iraq war. It only took Bush to hint at moving NATO out of Brussels, for Belgium to change the law on war crime law suits.

At least Khadaffi's lawsuit might shed a juridical light on whether NATO steps out of its legal boundaries by providing a tad more than a mere air blockade and safeguarding of humanitarian corridors. Which it grossly does, according to me.

And mean while, we stand by and watch worse happening in Syria and Bahrain.


Picture courtesy Mohamed Messara/EPA

[i-US tank cartoon]

A week ago, it seemed that a military intervention in Libya was far fetched. Less so today.

That raises the question of the norms the international community uses to determine for which countries it should intervene.

If it is:
- use of unreasonable armed force against civilians
- atrocities against civilian population
- instigating civil war
- causing a mass exodus of civilian refugees

... then Israel should have been "invaded" a long time ago, I guess.

Certainly when we think of using internationally banned weapons against civilians and civilian targets (use of white phosphorus in densely populated civilian areas of Gaza), economic sanctions against Israel would have been justified. As well as expelling them from all kinds UN committees, a Security Council condemnation, engaging the ICC to prosecute Israeli government officials, and implementing a no-fly zone over the country...

So what are the prediction when this will all happen? For Libya, probably within the next week. For Israel, probably never.

Ok, but then how about a military intervention in Ivory Coast? Or a no-fly zone above Sudan?


Cartoon courtesy Al Jazeerah

Here is some breaking news, fresh from the presses... It seems we are not winning the Holy War on Terror in Afghanistan. Surprise-surprise... And even worse: we have not been winning it since end 2001 neither.

The timelapse video above is based on the famous WikiLeaks documents, listing military incidents. The darker the red, the more incidents..

Is it just my impression, but are those dark red blobs just getting bigger and bigger as time went by?
Wanna make predictions for 2011?

Video discovered via ReadWriteWeb

[Loband: Object Removed -]

Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base.
That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British "Grand Slam" which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare.

[i-Afghanistan tank]

From the viewpoint of the warriors, the logic of the humanitarian era is simple: Without violence and devastation, no aid. And the more ghastly the violence and the more complete the devastation, the more comprehensive the aid.

link[i-link]Update:
The results are out. See this post.

A week ago, I called for nominations for the "2009 Humanity's Shame List", a top-10 highlighting the last year's events we, humanity as a whole, should be ashamed of.

As of now, until December 31st, you can cast your vote at the bottom of this post, to stress the importance of the individual disgraces.

Here are the nominations:

1. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): The international community ignored the widespread violence against civilians, mostly women and children. Meanwhile the largest UN Peacekeeping force in the world was unable to make a significant difference in the world's biggest human catastrophy.
2. Sudan: The international community failed to execute the international arrest warrant for the Sudanese President, accused of genocide and crimes against humanity. Non-action allowed the Darfur genocide to continue, tolerated the expulsion of a dozen NGOs on allegations of spying. Meanwhile Khartoum arms fractions in South Sudan, preparing for a new war.
   
3. Copenhagen: Where the world's political leaders failed to come up with a significant agreement to protect the environment.
4. Somalia: The international community failed to stop the politicization of the civil war, with the US through its proxy Ethiopia, and some Arab states through their proxy Eritrea who did nothing but put oil on the fire. Meanwhile the donor community failed to provide sufficient aid to sustain the feeding centers and refugee camps.
5. Zimbabwe: The international community failed to pressure Zimbabwe's government to provide sufficient social security, social safety nets and proper social welfare to its citizens, turning what once was the breadbasket of Sub-saharan Africa, into a well of hunger and human suffering.
6. Afghanistan: The international community and the UN underestimated the level of corruption during the elections, trying to cover it up while supporting Karzai, ignoring all reports of large scale fraud.
7. Pakistan: Armed interventions in the Swat province plunged the country into chaos, riddled with suicide attacks, displacing over 2 million people, with no hope of a longer term peace settlement.
   
8. US: Continued their short sighted armed interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, plunging any country they touch, into chaos. Further mixing humanitarian and military causes, continues to put the lives of aidworkers at stake.
9. Sri Lanka: The international community failed to highlight the crimes against humanity and genocide the Sri Lankan government covered up during the last weeks of their civil war in an attempt to exterminate the Tamil population as a whole, locking up all civilians in camps which are rated as 'inhumane'.
10. Palestine: the Gaza blockade, implemented by Israel and Egypt and endorsed by most governments, collectively punishes 1.5 million refugees by inhibiting education, reconstruction, health and nutrition to allow the people to break out of a vicious circle of abuse. Hamas is cruelly and strategically using the Gaza situation to its political advantage. Israel used the highest grade weaponry to indiscriminately kill civilians, target aid organisations and schools.
11. Guinee: Where the government violently suppressed protests through whatever means, including widespread rape.
12. World hunger: We allowed a record of 1 billion people to go hungry, while the world is producing sufficient food.
13. GMO seed and food market manipulation: Monsanto and Cargill further monopolized the seed market, using the US government to introduce GMO food and seeds into developing countries. Shame on Monsanto for single-handedly causing the autumn corn harvest in South Africa to fail.
14. LRA: For their atrocities in DRC, Uganda, Chad and Sudan, with an international community unable to stop the abduction of children as sex slaves and child soldiers, widespread rape and indiscriminately killing amongst civilians.
15. Ethiopia: Wide spread famine taking gigantic proportions, despite a decade of aid efforts. Press and NGOs were closely monitored not to make the disaster "too public". Meanwhile, as a US proxy, Ethiopia continued their shady role in the Somalia crisis, discriminating their in-country political opposition and keeping a close lid on their civil war in Ogaden.
16. Iran: Rigged elections caused widespread protests, violently suppressed by the government killing innocent civilians to secure the government's handle on internal and external affairs.
17. Belgium: Administrative Kafka-ian hurdles paralysed the government in providing inadequate shelter and protection for the homeless and the asylum seekers during the severe winter.
18. North Korea: for their scare tactics, failure to cooperate with any common sense, and their wide spread human rights violations.
19. ASEAN: looking seeking to improve trade relations, but at the expense of basic rights across the entire region, the US plays along. Genocide in Burma continues.
20. Neocolonialism: EU, Middle East and Far East countries are buying up and leasing land in Africa either for biofuel production, or production of their own food. Despite the fact that those countries do not produce enough food for their own yet.
21. Aid agencies: for not being accountable for the $100 billion a year, failing the world's poor.
22. China: for equivocating in Sudan for the sake of oil resources, circumventing the international arms embargo for Sudan and Zimbabwe, and being a main stumbling block at the Copenhagen summit.
23. The international community: for being schizophrenic at the cost of human suffering in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, DRC, Myanmar and so on, and so on.

US plans for Afghanistan - Click on image to enlarge[i-US plans for Afghanistan - Click on image to enlarge]
It's officially called "COIN" abbreviation for "COunter INtelligence".

Should probably be called WIN: "Without INtelligence".
Or HOTOSOFET: "HOw TO Stimulate Our Failing Economy Through foreign wars".

According to a recent figures, one gallon oil costs the invading troops $400. The annual expenditure of one soldier is almost one million US dollar. Yearly, the presence of US troops in Afghanistan costs $103 bn, including the troop surge recently announced by Obama.

According to the Sept 21 2009 Congressional Research Service Report, there are 73,968 private contractors working for the US military in Afghanistan. (Full)

The Afghanistan conflict[i-The Afghanistan conflict]
No explanation needed.

Source: Ari Rusila

[i-Good Morning Afghanistan]
It's that time of the year again, where we have "Top Ten's of the year" and "2009 in review" flying left, right and center.

Some good stuff, though: the Boston Globe released an excellent series "2009 in Photos", like this picture showing US troops receiving a "Good Morning, America" wake-up call from Taliban positions in Afghanistan's Kunar province.

Picture courtesy AP Photo/David Guttenfelder

[Loband: Object Removed -]
I love the scene where they use helicopters to stop guys on a motorbike. I guess its one way to deal with traffic congestion in the Afghanistan country side. Sigh.

Discovered via Transitionland and Wired

[i-link]

Tens of thousands of detained refugees from the war in Sri Lanka are threatened by the imminent arrival of monsoon rains in the north of the country, according to an internal United Nations document.

The UN believes that about 66,000 people held in the vast Menik Farm internment camp since May face a humanitarian disaster when the rains start, bringing the spectre of disease. Officials have urged the government to move those whose tents are most likely to be flooded by a mixture of rain and sewage. (Full)

I worked in Afghanistan before the war, and went back into the country right after the Taliban left Kabul.

All in all, I spent quite a few months working with Afghan men and women, and got to appreciate them as people. They had been through hell in the decennia before the war, and when Western forces "liberated them from the Taliban", their hopes were high to have peace at last.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Today, the insecurity and repression of individuals is probably even more precarious than during the Taliban times. Even more so for the women.

When I flew into Kabul two days after the Taliban left, I saw on Western TV station how news bulletins were announcing that the women finally threw off their burkas, I looked out of the window and saw no changes.

I left Afghanistan late 2002, and according to this video, things only got worse for Afghan women...


[Loband: Object Removed -]

Discovered via One Peaceful World

Support to fractions at war in a country where a third country has a political, or economical interest is not new. We have seen it throughout the Cold War, we witnessed it in Afghanistan and Iraq throughout the past decennia. We have seen it in South and Central America. We still see it in Africa every day: support coming from Europe, China and more often than not, from the US makes its way through different channels and ends up with "proxies", military opposition fractions as if those were "fighting a war on behalf of"...

This video questions in how far the US is already engaging in a war with Iran, through its proxies, operating out of Iraq's Kurdish region, at the Iran/Iraq/Turkey border.

[Loband: Object Removed -]

Video courtesy current.com

[i-LRA child soldiers]
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) was founded back in 1987 as an armed opposition against the Ugandan government. At that time they based themselves in South Sudan, but operated mainly in Uganda.

They became mostly known through their numerous abuses and atrocities against civilians, including the abduction, rape, maiming, and killing of defenseless people. They regularly kidnap children to enslave them as child prostitutes and soldiers in there so-called "army".

Since they were pushed out of North Uganda in 2005, the LRA has been terrorizing civilians in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), South Sudan and Uganda, hopping over the borders.

In February this year, the Ugandan army - apparently aided by the US - tried to root out the LRA from DRC. The LRA retreated, killing 900 civilians in the process (Full)

Even just a few days ago, the LRA kidnapped around 135 villagers, including children, during two attacks in DRC's North East. (Full)

I invite you to look at this excellent video, one of the very few interviews ever made with Kony, the LRA's leader.
It stroke me how the LRA seems to be mostly a loosely knit group of bandits, clearly with a wide network of informants, held together by the Thuraya telephone network. There is no clear goal nor ideology behind the LRA. When Kony was asked "why are you fighting?", he answered "for democracy", but it did not go any deeper than that.

Add to these impressions that their overall troop strength is estimated anywhere between 500 and 3,000 soldiers (half of them estimated to be women and children), I am left with only two, but fundamental questions:

1. How come nobody has been able to smoke out this gang of bandits (wanted by the ICC - International Criminal Court by the way)? In this day and age where technology exists and is routinely used to track the movement of people using satellite phones? Why is there an apparent unwillingness of the international community to make an end to these atrocities, which, to top it all up, continue to contribute to the instability in Eastern Congo, one of the longest lasting conflicts in Africa?
   
   
2. Who supports these rebels? They would not be able to operate without the financial and logistics backing of an entity. What entity? Who would contribute to an instable South Sudan, Uganda and DRC? Khartoum?
   

Every Red Cross vehicle in the world is emblazoned with a logo of a Kalashnikov with a red line through it - No Guns on Board. The Red Cross symbol alone should - but alas is not - be the only protection aid workers need, as the Red Cross (or Crescent) symbol is enshrined in international law signifying that the bearer takes no part in hostilities. (Full)

More Pictures of the Day on The Road.

Picture courtesy Paul Conneally, a fellow aid worker and blogger

Two years ago, Al Arabiya producer Nabil Kassem was asked to put together a documentary film on Darfur.

What he witnessed there, and recorded in this film, were scenes of unspeakable brutality and untold suffering.

The movie never made it to the airwaves. That is why we publish it on our blog.



If you are interested in Darfur, check out Darfur Now!

More on The Road about Darfur, Sudan and genocide

Video courtesy europenews.dk

[i-swat valley refugees]

There is always something going on, somewhere in the world, that keeps us, aidworkers, busy. Here is what is on our mind these days:

• 8,000 Somalis are displaced in one day of fighting around Mogadishu (Full)
• A rebellion seems to be on the raise in Nigeria (Full) and Niger (Full)
• Relief agencies still don't have full access to the displaced civilians after the Tamil was defeated in Sri Lanka. (Full)
• Southern Sudan seems to fall back into violence (Full)
• ...while in Darfur, the war is flaring up again (Full)
• Pakistan's offensive in the Swat valley displaced 2.3 million people, with aid agencies scrambling to cope. (Full)
  

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