Chad, Sudan and a risky western game – ISN
February 3rd, 2008
refugee camp in Chad (ISN)
China and the West at odds in Africa over oil and refugees, as EU troops stay at home for now.
By Simon Roughneen
With Chad’s capital N’djamena possibly set to fall to a coalition of Sudan-backed rebels, the implications for the United Nations/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) remain unclear.
The likelihood is that the establishment of a client government in Chad will give Sudan’s National Congress Party (NCP), the dominant component of the Khartoum government, more scope to impose its will on Darfur, where UN peacekeepers are struggling to make any impact with their apparently stillborn mission.
Khartoum’s policy on Darfur was made very clear by its reaction to the insurgency that broke out in the region during 2003. By 2004, the Sudanese army and its Janjaweed militia vanguard were in the midst of a scorched-earth campaign that has left at least 200,000 dead and around 2.5 million languishing in camps, with another 240,000 refugees in Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR). (more…)
French role threatens Chad force neutrality – The Irish Examiner
February 1st, 2008
Last Monday foreign ministers proclaimed the imminent deployment of EUFOR – the ‘neutral and impartial’ military humanitarian mission to Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR). In the days since, developments in Chad and elsewhere have underlined just dangerous and complex a region the almost-4000 Europeans are to work in.
The first batch of what will be 400 Irish troops saw their deployment postponed last night, as fighting continued close to N’djamena, after Chadian rebels drove all the way from their Darfur base to within 60km of the capital, in the few days since the EU announcement. (more…)
Chad’s complexities a barrier for Eufor – The Irish Times
February 1st, 2008
Refugee camp in Chad (Irish Times website)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0202/index.html
Events in Chad have postponed the deployment of the Irish-led EU force. Simon Roughneen explains why, if the troops ever are deployed, they will enter a hornet’s nest of competing and overlapping national, regional and international interests.
The UN-mandated European Union force due in Chad and the Central African Republic aims to protect refugees from Sudan’s scorched-earth Darfur region and displaced people within eastern Chad itself.
These are noble and necessary goals, but are easier said than done.
Best intentions aside, the EU force, known by its acronym Eufor, will be seen as a protagonist in a nasty and convoluted power-play, with Chad’s civil conflict dovetailing with that in Darfur, and an escalating Sudan-Chad war, where the two sides are backed by China and France respectively. (more…)
EU enters Chad powderkeg – The Irish Catholic
January 31st, 2008
EU troops ready for deployment (EU Observer)
With 400 Irish troops set to deploy to Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) next month, confusion and looming violence threaten to undermine the almost-4000-strong EU force (EUFOR), writes Simon Roughneen
“I will be there in uniform, without arms, with a UN logo. The EU will be there with arms, with the EU logo. The French [troops stationed in Chad for more than two decades and who support Chadian President Idriss Déby] will be there, with the same uniforms as the French working for the EU, but with a French logo, and with a different interest, etc., etc.”
This from Lieutenant-Colonel Jan Vall, deputy chief of the military liaison officers of the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), which was set up under the same UN Security Council resolution that mandated the EU to send what is a priori a refugee protection force to these remote and desolate central African countries.
A quick trawl of NGO websites shows a fresh recruitment drive for PR and information personnel needed in Chad, as aid agencies fret about how distinguish themselves from EUFOR and the new UN mission, not to mention the 1200 French soldiers there on a bilateral basis, supporting Chad’s unelected and unpopular President in a civil war that is fast turning into a full-blown international conflict between Chad and Sudan. (more…)
In Sweden, client key to beating prostitution – The Irish Examiner
December 17th, 2007
Sweden’s eight year legal regime is leading the war against the sex industry, writes Simon Roughneen in Stockholm
Old church, downtown Stockholm (Simon Roughneen)
According to Stockholm Police Detective Inspector Per Englund, Sweden’s novel counter-prostitution regime has ‘reduced street work dramatically’.
Walking that city’s former red-light district – close to Högtorget metro station – Englund’s analysis seemed spot-on. Maybe it was the chilling and incessant winter rain, but only a handful of nightowls scurried along the gothic-dank dusk streets, seemingly seeking shelter from the Swedish winter.
In 1999, Sweden passed legislation that criminalises the buying of sex, while decriminalising the sale. In other words, the (mostly) men who pay for sex are the culprits – not the (mostly) women selling. After a slow start, better
enforcement by police now means that, ‘we have only 100-200 women on the streets in the capital’, as Englund told The Irish Examiner.
He says that Swedish brothels and massage parlors – which proliferated while Sweden experimented with legalised prostitution in the late 20th Century are now ‘reduced to a few here and there. But my team is working against this all the time.’ (more…)
EU envoy: Malay policy ‘discriminatory’ – ISN
July 4th, 2007
EU envoy’s comments on Malaysian economic and social policies cause furor and focus attention on alleged discrimination in advance of trade talks and parliamentary elections.
By Simon Roughneen in Kuala Lumpur
The senior European Commssion (EC) representative in Malaysia has become embroiled in a row with government ministers over critical remarks made about the country’s economic policy. The remarks have heightened tensions and focused minds on internal Malaysian political and economic issues in the run-up to the EU-ASEAN trade negotiations and are seen as an implicit intervention in Malaysian party politics in the lead-up to elections, which could be held later this year.
Thierry Rommel, head of the EC Delegation to Malaysia, accused the Malaysian government of maintaining a discriminatory and protectionist economic policy. In a widely reported speech made on 21 June to the EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Rommel asserted that: “Malaysia claims that these are infant industries that need to be protected [...] but is the Malay-centered policy that drives protectionist polices.” (more…)
Sinn Féin: A bad day at the office – ISN
June 7th, 2007
With Sinn Féin faring poorly in Ireland’s recent elections, the party’s long-term ambitions are in jeopardy.
For the high jump? Gerry Adams campaigning in Co Wexford (Irish Independent)
Commentary by Simon Roughneen for ISN Security Watch
“Tiocfaidh ár lá!” is a well-known Irish rallying cry in Sinn Féin neighborhoods in Northern Ireland. Translated into English as “Our Day Will Come,” this piece of political eschatology points to the day when Northern Ireland will form part of a unified all-Ireland state joined to the Republic of Ireland, which takes up most of the island.
But after a dismal performance in the 24 May parliamentary election in the Republic, Sinn Féin’s meager four seats in the new Irish Parliament (out of 166 up-for-grabs) means that the day envisioned remains somewhat distant.
While Sinn Féin’s role in Northern Ireland is relatively well-known, and its ambitions to merge the mini-province with its larger neighbor to the south are long-held, less clear to outside observers is its presence in the Republic of Ireland and the centrality of its Dublin strategy for achieving its aims in Belfast.
Sinn Féin had hoped to gain 10 to12 seats in the Republic – potentially enough to make itself a viable coalition partner for the larger parties. Becoming even a minor coalition partner in a sovereign state – which has been Europe’s most dynamic economy for almost a decade – has been a long-standing ambition for the party. (more…)
Despite IRA report, Ulster might still say No – ISN
October 11th, 2006
Discussion aimed at reviving Northern Ireland’s dormant political institutions will take place this week in Scotland, but a deal is not assured.
Source CAIN (Copyright Peter Moloney)
By Simon Roughneen
A report released last week gave a remarkably positive assessment of the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) self-emasculation, 14 months after it declared an end to its three-decade war against Northern Ireland’s status as part of the UK.
The report, released by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), an Irish-British intergovernmental watchdog set up to monitor Ireland’s paramilitary groups, stated: “It [the IRA] is now firmly set on a political strategy, eschewing terrorism and other forms of crime. In this process there has been a loss of paramilitary capability.”
However, various vested interests on the part of all protagonists may combine to scupper a potential deal this week, as the British and Irish governments and Northern Ireland’s main political parties discuss reviving the devolved government set up after the 1998 peace agreement.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is the largest on the Protestant-British side of Northern Ireland’s communal divide – and is the last hold-out against a deal, which will be pushed vigorously by both governments and by Sinn Féin at St Andrews in Scotland this week. (more…)
Stalemate in Northern Ireland – ISN
August 16th, 2006
With deadlock in Northern Ireland, the Irish and British governments could override local institutions in a potentially-destabilizing maneuver aiming to make parties cooperate.
By Simon Roughneen in Dublin
One year after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) announced the end to its almost-40 year armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, political progress remains piecemeal in the long-divided region.
The IRA’s ongoing reticence to disarm was a key constraining factor in Northern Ireland’s slow-moving peace-building process. But now despite the organizations’ disarmament, ongoing wrangles have prevented the revival of the regional political institutions, which give Northern Ireland significant devolved authority from London. These institutions remain core aspects of the 1998 ‘Good Friday’ peace agreement.
The British and Irish governments have stated their intention to put some of the institutions into ‘cold storage’ if a 24 November deadline for restarting devolution is not met by the political parties. (more…)
“I Escaped the Janjaweed, but we have no protection here” – The Irish Catholic
July 25th, 2006
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern TD visited Sudan and Darfur between July 2-5. His visit must now result in Ireland taking a proactive role in international efforts to resolve the political and humanitarian crisis in the region, including diplomatic intervention with Russia and China, writes Simon Roughneen.
IDP woman, northern Darfur (Simon Roughneen)
Harian Abdullah was on her way to the wadi about a half a mile from Fata Borno camp for displaced people in Darfur.
“Like all the women here, I have to go to collect firewood so we can cook and have light in the camp. I walk there most days to get some fuel. Two days ago, I was on my way down to the trees”, she says, pointing towards a green oasis about half-way between her shelter and the nearby clinic where GOAL provides healthcare and nutrition services to the camp-dwellers.
“It was not yet dark. I saw five men moving out from near the trees. I stopped for one moment as I did not recognise them. They were about 500 meters away. I turned and ran back. They ran as well, but stopped soon afterward once I got close to the camp.”
However, making the trek to the camp edge for firewood is a hazard that Darfur’s women face daily, across the vast region. With 2 million people crammed into sprawling and uncomfortable camp settlements, Harian’s dilemma is a recurring one for Darfur’s women.
In the camps, with minimal facilities, firewood is needed for cooking – otherwise the often malnourished and illness-prone people will go without food, exacerbating other health complications resulting from conflict and displacement.
However as Harian’s narrow escape describes, these vital chores carry a huge risk. (more…)
