Where’s Kony?

Almost every day, it seems, I am getting a new report from different journalists about where Joseph Kony, that meglomaniacal leader of the Lord’s Resistence Army is.

For there part, Kampala insist that he has now been successfully chased out of Uganda, and, to be fair, he probably has. Just a few straggling remnants of the LRA exist there now.

Over the past six months, we’ve been hearing lots about how he is terrorizing folk in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the message we’re getting from Kinshasha is that the authorities there can’t really be arsed to do anything about the chap.

Recent reports also suggest that he is wreaking havoc in the Centralised African Republic. Again, the government there has troubles that they consider more urgent than dealing with the lone renegade, although it does seem that there is a lot of unnecessary suffering going on there.

Then there’s South Sudan, of course, and the government there are trying to get a lot of political capital out of the supposition that Khartoum is funding Kony’s murderous rampages there again. I wanted to publish something on this, but I’m also very keen not to become part of the GoSS propaganda machine.

And also there are reports of Kony heading for Chad and Darfur (such reports come from the Ugandans), although the UN operation in Chad tell me they have heard no such thing.

So he’s clearly a very busy man at the moment, trying to destabalise about half a dozen countries in central Africa. But no one really seems to know where he is.

The likeliest country playing host to him seems to be the CAR. But there may also be some truth in the fact that he’s stirring up trouble again in South Sudan.

But don’t bother searching the picture above. He’s not there. I’ve looked.

Bashir’s holiday plans

I wonder where Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir likes to go on holiday.

When Osama bin Laden, America’s most-wanted man, lived in Sudan in the 1990s, he is rumoured to have favoured trips to the northern deserts.

A new book written by his estranged wife – Living With Osama Bin Laden – suggests that he used such excursions as training exercises for his boys, to toughen them up for when the Jihad against the Western infidels eventually began. They were forced to sleep in trenches without covers, that kind of thing.

I don’t think that Osama ever entertained the notion of booking his family on a trip to Disney World in Florida.

Al-Bashir must face a similar dilema. After all, it’s hard being a wanted man. Of course, it would be rather hard for him to justify to his bodyguards a trip to Europe. So that’s kind of off-limits.

But one would think a quick sojourn in an African nation would not be off the cards.

After all, the African Union have all rallied together and, worried about one of their own being tried in The Hague (setting a dangerous precedent for other renegade African leaders) have refused to support the International Criminal Court’s indictment. This week (or perhaps early next week) the AU will come out with a new report, recommending that local courts – possibly with some foreign support – try Sudanese war crimes suspects instead. Somehow can’t see that working.

But this presents something of a problem for AU nations, such as Uganda, who are not only a signed-up member of the ICC but also a member of the AU. Uganda’s situation is particular interesting, since they are hosting a conference next year that will look at updating the ICC’s mandate.

ICC members are obliged, under the Rome Statute, to take reasonable steps to arrest court indictees should they fall with their jurisdiction. But, in contradiction of this, the AU is telling members to grant Bashir free passage across the continent.

It’s a tricky one.

A couple of months ago, Ugandan officials – who were subsequently reprimanded by President Yoweri Museveni – made unsettling noises about needing to arrest Al-Bashir if he set foot in the country. He had, at that point, been sent an official invitation to attend a conference there. He subsequently declined.

A couple of weeks ago, he declined a separate invitation from Uganda to attend a conference on African refugees.

This follows on from a previous invitation to visit South Africa, which Bashir also declined.

Then, this week, Bashir announced that he would not be attending the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, to be held in Nigeria.

Most other leaders, who were invited, have been able to attend these events.

Which made me wonder about my initial question: where, exactly, does Bashir go on holiday? I’m thinking probably the north desert, or maybe he pops over to Saudi Arabia or Yemen from time to time. Egypt might be another idea, though they can be a trifle unpredictable there.

Ironically, one of the places that Al-Bashir would be able to escape the court’s reach is America. Since Washington never signed up to the Rome Statute, they are under no international obligation to arrest any indictee that seeks entry to the country.

How nuts is that.

http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/23567Li

Homeless in Den Haag

I was in the supermarket this evening, waiting in line to pay for my purchases, when I saw just behind me a Dutch guy, looking a tad on the scruffy side.

He had all the hallmarks of being homeless – scruffy dirty jeans, low-cut top revealing area of chest, unkempt and matted hair, crate of booze under the arms.

He was jabbering at me in Dutch.

“Don’t make eye contact, don’t make eye contact,” I kept telling myself.

And I didn’t make eye contact. Paid for my groceries. And left.

But, as I was thusly avoiding eye contact, I saw that he was turning his attention elsewhere.

Firstly, to two attractive blond women. He was jokingly taking their rolls of toilet paper and saying something in touch that must have been absolutely fantastically funny, because the blond women – rather than telling him to eff off – were rolling around in laughter. I was construing his behaviour as sleazily flirtateous, but it might not have been.

Then he had some banter with the cute checkout girl, who seemed (judging from the pleasant exchange) to know him.

He was a little whiffy, adding to his homeless persona – though, of course, I have no firm proof that he was.

But all of this reminded me of an incident some months ago in Italy, where the snobbyness of people in the supermarket, where the attritude shown towards the homeless both saddened and horrified me.

I think there are a lot of points I like about this country.

Sudan is Arabic, says the UN

I have just spent some time trying to find information about Sudan on the website of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

As one might expect, I began my search for this in the “Africa” regional section.

I had no luck there, however. South Africa was followed by Swaziland.

Unperturbed – since I know that the UNDP have an office in Sudan – I kept looking.

What I found was a separate regional section entitled “Arabic States”.

No, I thought. Impossible.

But, yes. Quite possible. Of course. Anything is when it comes to the UN.

Sudan was indeed lumped in with all the Arabic states, nestled between Somalia and Syria.

Since the whole conflict has been about the Arabic government asserting its authority over the non-Arabic population (and no one really knows how big either side is, due to dodgey or out-dated censuses), UNDP’s decision to label Sudan as Arab is incomprehensible, incompetent and irresponsible.

In other words, no less than what I would expect from the organisation.

Publicity hound

Abu Garda, who stands accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of committing crimes against humanity in the Darfur region of Sudan, is a wiley old bean.

He is so far the only person indicted by the ICC that has voluntarily given himself over to The Hague’s probing.

His “confirmation of charges” hearing began this week, and can be followed on the court’s website.

A somewhat farcical hearing it is true – with lawyers bickering over the most irrelevant details, and allegations of peace-keepers’ deaths being lamentable but nevertheless a somewhat trifling matter for the court to be dealing with.

But for the man in the box, the trial is proving extremely useful.

Abu Garda, accused of being a generally all-round bad sort of rebel, is using the world’s attention on him to highlight the really serious problems that his people are facing at the hands of the government, and to justify the cause he is fighting for.

Moreover, since he came to the ICC voluntarily and has not been forcibly arrested, he is free to come and go as he pleases.

As soon as things look as though they might be getting a little too hot, he can simply disappear into the wilds of Darfur again.

Message duly delivered.

What a wiley old coot.

Dutch culture

Last night, I tried to buy a female colleague of mine a drink. For no other reason than we were standing at the bar together.

At the same moment, she tried to do the same. For no other reason than we were standing at the bar together.

So we were both standing there with our 20 euro notes waving in the air. And which one did the barman decide to reach for?

Hers.

In almost any other culture I’ve experienced, the barman would have, without doubt, taken the man’s money.

Is this some new Dutch equal opportunities liberalism, I’m now encountering? The woman has just as much rights to pay for the drinks as does a man?

The Other Face of Al Qaeda

It’s rare these days that I find an article about Sudan actually worth reading. It’s even rarer that I include a raw link in this blog to another’s work, without additional commentary.

But, for anyone interested in researching extremist groups in Sudan, the following link to a very well-researched article is worth reading.

http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=18281

The strippenkaart

One of my most enduring memories of times that have been spent in The Netherlands over the years – and there have been a worrying number – is that of the unique strippenkaarten.

This is a card for the local bus and tram network that spreads throughout the country, and works in a delightfully old-fashioned way. Basically, you have a strip of 15 tickets (or more if you buy a larger one). Each time you go somewhere, you must make sure that you punch the correct ticket, according to the length of the journey, by folding the strip at the correct place.

So, for example, to travel from work to central station, it would cost me three strips.

Now, I hear, much to my dismay, that a new system is coming in, which will be much more along the lines of London’s Oyster card. Already, the machines are in place to make the switch-over.

This is a great shame. Whilst few people lamented the decline of the old London ticket system, the switch-over in the Netherlands will be a far greater loss.

Here is a unique, quite beautifully original system. An ancient system steeped in nostalgia. A system which, for me, holds so many wonderful memories.

Yes, it will be a sad day when it goes.

Inefficient food aid

Like many aid agencies in the world, the WFP is woefully short of funding, so much so that it is powerless to head off starvation and suffering in some parts of the world.

The last time I wrote anything remotely critical about NGOs or UN organisations, I was brutally savaged by comments in this blog. I was shocked by such strength of response, and it made me realise how intolerant such organisations are of criticism, a fact that I find both disturbing and tragic.

So, in the interests of my own protection, I should first make the comment that, actually, I think the WFP is doing a rather good and necessary job. Whilst other NGOs may be faffing around with their own highly-dubious projects, and it is not entirely clear who they are serving, the WFP is keeping people alive. On the ground. And that is important.

The recent reports that the WFP needs more money – hey, don’t we all? – have certainly been put about to elicit the sympathiser of donors, who might then be willing to loosen their purse strings, which have been tied quite tightly in the wake of this relentless financial crisis.

But I would argue that perhaps the WFP should consider instigating more efficient food-distribution programmes, which demand less expenditure for the same effect.

One only hands to spend a little time digging and probing in Port Sudan to find out how wasteful the WFP food-distribution programme is. WFP workers will also tell you this, if you give them a few beers beforehand. But they’ll never say it on-the-record.

Last night, I met someone who used to live in Port Sudan in the 70s. When she first arrived there, she met someone who offered her two huge bags of flour at a very cheap price – enough to bake bread rolls for quite some time. When she got home and opened the bags, she discovered that the containers inside said “Refugee Camp”.

And this kind of thing still goes on. Darfur is a very long way from New York, from where most of the food aid comes. By the time it arrives at it destination, some estimate that at least 50% has been lost, through bribes or unscrupulous individuals that pilfer it.

That’s a lot of money down the drain. And money that, right now, it would seem the WFP can ill-afford to lose.

Effective PR

When I first went to Sudan, the most oft-quoted statistic I heard was that 200,000 people had been killed as a result of the fighting. This was according to the UN – and the “as a result” part was extremely important, since it took into account famine and disease that was caused by the persistent levels of insecurity.

A little while later, this statistic, at the insistence again from the UN, was upgraded to 300,000 (highly speculative and simply taking account of the fact that the first statistic came from circa 2005).

Now, we are hearing, on almost every newstory that quotes the 300,000 figure, that the government believes the number to be closer to 10,000. Of course, we’re actually talking about apples-and-pears here, since the UN statistic considers those that died “as a result” of the fighting, whilst the government figure doesn’t. But that’s never mentioned.

Now this is effective PR. I know some government PR hounds in Sudan, that were lobbying very intensely to prevent this wild guess of 300,000 people being branded about as though it were the de facto truth. The fact that they have now managed to get, everywhere, western journalists to include the 10,000 figure as well is pretty impressive.

But that just goes to show how PR works. You only need one established media outlet to report the figure, with a certain amount of authority, and then everyone is doing it.

The same way that everyone now compares the size of Darfur with the size of France, even though a much closer approximation would be Spain.