Africa News Digest
Rebels in Darfur Mount New Offensive After UN Meeting
A press release from the embassy of Sudan in Washington states that the security protocol signed in Abuja, Nigeria, Nov. 9, has been violated by the insurgents 19 times, six in North Darfur State, 12 in South Darfur State, and one in West Darfur. These attacks have been especially concentrated in the period since the UN Security Council met in Kenya Nov. 18-19 to address Sudan issues.
The most serious of these breaches was the attack on and taking of the town of Al-Tawila, west of El-Fasher Nov. 22. Khartoum says it was done by the Justice and Equality Movement; all other sources say it was done by the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA). The government reacted with bombing raids. Alpha Konare of the African Union harshly criticized the SLA and the French Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, in which 30 police officers and six civilians, including a doctor, were killed and seven police trucks were seized.
The New York Times Nov. 27 absolved the Anglo-American governments of any responsibility, quoting weasel words from Jan Pronk, the top UN envoy for Sudan: "There is little that any outside authority, including the UN Security Council, can do to influence an insurgency group. 'There's not much leverage,' Pronk said in an earlier interview. The Council has threatened economic sanctions against Khartoum for its part in the civil war."
The Sudan embassy's press release explained the motivation of the insurrectionists by quoting Alan J. Kuperman of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (Washington Post op-ed Sept. 28): "They coldly calculate that the longer they fight and provoke government retaliation against their civilians, the more the international intervention on their behalf will be."
A statement from the World Food Program Nov. 26 said that the high level of fighting in Darfur has cut 300,000 people off from food aid, and the food supplies and aid workers are bottled up in El-Fasher.
South African Evidence Piles Up Against Sir Mark Thatcher
South African telephone records and taped discussions show Sir Mark Thatcher and British businessman Greg Wales discussing financial coup arrangements for Equatorial Guinea, South African authorities have revealed.
Meanwhile, the Equatorial Guinea government has now officially added Thatcher's name to those being charged in the coup attempt. Other names added include David Hart, former top adviser to Sir Mark's mother, Margaret Thatcher, and consultant for Boeing Corp.; Lord Jeffrey Archer, former Conservative Party chairman; Tim Spicer, head of Aegis Defense Systems, which now has the largest private security contract in Iraq, and former Executive Outcomes mercenary; Tony Buckingham, the financier and founder of Executive Outcomes; David Tremain and Eli Calil, two businessmen; Greg Wales; and Severo Moto, whom the coup was meant to install in power in Equatorial Guinea.
Thatcher has announced he will make an appeal to the British government to prevent his extradition to Equatorial Guinea, for fear he might be tortured and not survive the harsh conditions of the nation's prisons.
"I will never be able to do business again. Who will deal with me?" Thatcher told the British-oriented U.S. magazine Vanity Fair. "Thank God my father is not alive to see this." He went on to say that he felt "like a corpse that's going down the Colorado River and there is nothing I can do about it."
Thatcher appeared in a South African court Nov. 26 in his first hearing on charges of breaking South Africa's anti-mercenary laws. Although he was able to have his South African trial postponed to April 2005, he will have to face questioning from prosecutors from Equatorial Guinea, who will be coming to South Africa for that purpose.
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