> CBS's influential news
> program, SIXTY MINUTES, does a Darfur expose piece.
>
> It will have an impact on U.S. public opinion, which is generally
> ignorant about Darfur.
>
> I would doubt if 75 percent know much of anything about it--perhaps 90
> percent is more accurate.
>
> An aspect of the real politik U.S. diplomatic relations with The Sudan
> is that Sudan supplies intelligence about Al Qaida which previously was
> based in The Sudan.
>
> The death figure used by SIXTY MINUTES is 300,000 with 2 million
> refugees.
>
> The documentary is quite effective, and my Wife actually
> asked me to change channels when the Janjiweed were described as
> murdering, raping, burning and throwing dead bodies into Darfur's
> villages' wells.
>
> If the street Arab people were aware of what is going-on in Darfur, I
> can't think they'd be so apathetic.
>
> If I were a propaganda honcho, you better believe the Arab people would
> know.
>
> They are not an unemotional people.
>
> I perceive the "West" would prefer not further
> peeing-off Arabs, and thus will probably not intervene militarily.
>
> Gas per gallon here in Georgia is as low as $1.96 retail per gallon
> regular unleaded.
>
>
>
> http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/20/60minutes/main2111909.shtml
>
>
> CBS) It hardly seems possible, but the genocide in Darfur is taking a
> turn for the worse. The government in Sudan has launched a new
> offensive, maybe trying to finish what it started three years ago. As
> correspondent Scott Pelley reports, more than 300,000 people are dead
> and more than two million are refugees in the Sahara.
>
> To understand what is happening in Darfur, 60 Minutes came upon on the
> story of a boy named Jacob. We know him only because his name is on
> schoolbooks found in the ashes of his home. Jacob's village was wiped
> out. Our team saw his books in a museum. We didn't know whether Jacob
> was alive or whether we could find him. But we decided to try. Our
> search turned into a remarkable journey into a place we were forbidden
> to travel looking for a boy swept up in the 21st century's first
> genocide.
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The search for Jacob began at the United States Holocaust Memorial in
> Washington D.C. Dedicated to never letting genocide happen again, it
> now finds itself with fresh evidence in a new exhibit.
>
> John Prendergast brought the remains from Jacob's village to
> Washington and to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. In the
> Clinton White House, he led a team that imposed economic sanctions on
> Sudan. Now, he's with the private, International Crisis Group,
> pressing for action in Darfur.
>
> "We found in a book bag, a series of notebooks," Prendergast explains.
> "Clearly the kid who was doing math and spelling homework and the
> teacher has corrected it with a red pen."
>
> The kid, Jacob, must have been 16 when his village was destroyed. 60
> Minutes packed his books and left on a 7,000-mile journey.
>
> One reason the Sudanese government is getting away with murder is that
> the scene of the crime is about as far away as a place can be. 60
> Minutes hired a bush plane to drop the team in Chad along the Sudan
> border. There was no runway, just rocks marking a strip in the Sahara.
> There are no roads either. We crossed with Jacob's books during the
> rainy season when all the rain of the year falls in just a few weeks.
> But this wasn't the hard part.
>
> Our problem was, Jacob's story starts in a place we were forbidden to
> go. Darfur is occupied by government troops. Jacob's town, Hangala,
> is 50 miles inside. The U.S. State Department warned 60 Minutes not to
> try to go there.
>
> If our team could get to Hangala, rebels who call themselves the
> National Redemption Front could help. It's their families who are
> being massacred. They agreed to give us cover to Hangala.
>
> And so 60 Minutes crossed the border. We asked the Sudanese government
> for permission to come into Darfur but we didn't get it, no surprise.
> The Sudanese have been trying to keep reporters and other observers out
> of this area. They've intensified that effort lately. In just the
> last few weeks two journalists have been captured making this run.
>
> You can look at it this way: back in 1944, the Germans didn't want
> anybody coming in and seeing their death camps. Today in Sudan, the
> government doesn't want anybody coming in and seeing what amount to
> death villages.
>
> It's a five hour trip, but in the rainy season the gun trucks sank to
> their axels. We dug them out, and did it again every hour or so. In
> time, we picked up speed. It was a good thing. Five hours turned to 12.
> By the time we reached Hangala, there were 45 minutes of daylight left.
> The rebels put scouts on the high ground and surrounded the village.
>
> Before the attack, Hangala was a typical village, with a population of
> roughly 500; afterwards, the entire village was burned down.
>
> Asked why the entire village was destroyed, Prendergast says it's a
> message. "It's a message to non-Arab people in Darfur. 'We do not
> want you in Darfur.'"
>
> It's a message delivered by Sudanese troops and a racist Arab militia
> called the Janjaweed.
>
>
> Continued
>
> 1 | 2 | 3
>
>
>
>
>
> Produced By Shawn Efran
> ©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
>
>
> Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not CBS News
> stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A
> reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of
> Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.
>
>
>
>
> Robert Cohen wrote:

>> I predict the "Associated Press" will be also be expelled from Sudan:
>>
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Sudan-UN-Darfur.html?hp&ex=1161576000&en...
>>
>>
>> Sudan Gives U.N. Envoy 3 Days to Leave
>> E-MailPrint Save
>>
>> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>> Published: October 22, 2006
>> Filed at 3:08 p.m. ET
>>
>> Skip to next paragraph
>> Related
>> Sudanese Army Says U.N. Envoy Is Declared Persona Non Grata (October
>> 21, 2006)KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- The Sudanese government Sunday ordered
>> the chief U.N. envoy out of the country after he wrote that Sudan's
>> army had suffered major losses in recent fighting in Darfur.
>>
>> Jan Pronk was given 72 hours to leave -- an order that is likely to
>> complicate international efforts to halt the killings, rapes and other
>> atrocities in the strife-torn region of western Sudan.
>>
>> ''The presence of the United Nations is vital to hundreds of thousands
>> of citizens of the Darfur region,'' said a European Union spokesman,
>> Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, in Brussels.
>>
>> In a statement distributed by the official Sudan News Agency, the
>> country's Foreign Ministry accused Pronk of demonstrating ''enmity to
>> the Sudanese government and the armed forces'' and of involvement in
>> unspecified activities ''that are incompatible with his mission.''
>>
>> In New York, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary-General
>> Kofi Annan had received a letter from the Sudanese government asking
>> that Pronk be removed from the post.
>>
>> ''The secretary-general is studying the letter and has in the meantime
>> requested that Mr. Pronk come to New York for consultations,'' Dujarric
>> said.
>>
>> Pronk, a blunt-speaking former Dutch Cabinet minister, drew sharp
>> criticism from the Sudanese armed forces after he wrote this month in
>> his blog, www.janpronk.nl, that Sudan's military had suffered heavy
>> losses in recent fighting with rebels in northern Darfur.
>>
>> ''Reports speak about hundreds of casualties in each of the two
>> battles, many wounded soldiers and many taken as prisoner,'' he said.
>>
>> The Sudanese armed forces said Thursday that those remarks amounted to
>> ''psychological war against the Sudanese army'' and declared that Pronk
>> was ''persona non-grata.''
>>
>> One day later the military demanded an official apology.
>>
>> Even before the blog appeared, Sudan's government had been at odds with
>> Pronk over Western efforts to get Sudan to allow a U.N. force of 20,000
>> troops to take over peacekeeping in Darfur from a 7,000-member African
>> Union force.
>>
>> Violence has risen dramatically in recent weeks in Darfur, where more
>> than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in three
>> years of fighting.
>>
>> U.N. officials have said the African Union force is too small and
>> ill-equipped to cope with the violence and protest civilians from rape,
>> murder and pillage.
>>
>> But President Omar al-Bashir has rejected a U.N. peacekeeping force,
>> branding it as simply a bid to restore colonial rule.
>>
>> Despite the move against Pronk, the official news agency said Khartoum
>> was ''committed to cooperate'' with the U.N. and would work with a new
>> envoy ''in accordance with signed treaties with the U.N. and the
>> current principles of international law.''
>>
>> In Geneva, Switzerland, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Heuze noted that Pronk's
>> comments were on his private blog and reflect ''only his personal
>> views.''
>>
>> Britain condemned the decision and urged the Sudanese to reconsider.
>>
>> ''This step is counterproductive and will contribute nothing to solving
>> the problems of Sudan,'' Lord Triesman, the Foreign Office minister for
>> African issues, said in a statement.
>>
>> Last June, the Sudanese suspended the work of all U.N. missions in the
>> Darfur except UNICEF and the World Food Program after claiming the U.N.
>> had transported a rebel leader in violation of agreements.
>>
>> The next day, the government reversed the decision following a meeting
>> between a representative of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry and the
>> United Nations.
>>
>> Darfur, a largely arid plateau in western Sudan about three-quarters
>> the size of Texas, has been in turmoil since February 2003, when ethnic
>> African tribes rebelled after years of neglect by the Arab-dominated
>> government in Khartoum.
>>
>> The government responded with a military campaign in which
>> pro-government Arab militia, the Janjaweed, are alleged to have
>> committed widespread atrocities. Khartoum denies supporting the
>> Janjaweed.
>>
>> A peace deal this year was signed by the Sudanese government and the
>> main rebel group, the Sudanese Liberation Movement.
>>
>> But a breakaway faction and another rebel group rejected the deal and
>> fighting has escalated, causing increasing numbers of aid workers to
>> withdraw, leaving the refugees without food and medicine.
>>
>> U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said Sunday that the United States
>> should do more to help stem violence in Darfur.
>>
>> ''When you have situations involving genocide, it is important for us
>> as a world community -- and the United States is the world's sole super
>> power -- for us to take that seriously, and to make commitments of
>> resources to deal with it,'' Obama told NBC's ''Meet the Press.''
>>
>> Pronk, 66, served several terms in the Dutch parliament and served in
>> the Dutch Cabinet under two prime ministers. He was appointed as U.N.
>> special representative for Sudan in June 2004.
>>
>> More Articles in International »Need to know more? 50%% off home
>> delivery of The Times.More Articles in International »
>>
>>
>>
>> nytimes.com/movies
>>
>>
>>
>> Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" is "highly theatrical and yet also
>> intimate and informal"
>>
>>
>> Also in Movies:
>> 'Shortbus' - "as utopian visions go, it doesn't got much better"
>> 'Infamous' - "quick-witted, stylish and well-acted"
>> 'Man Push Cart' - "an exemplary work of independent filmmaking"
>>
>>
>>
>> Inside NYTimes.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Robert Cohen wrote:

>>> An illustration or example of how the alleged genocide is
>>> reported/unreported:
>>>
>>> http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w061016&s=braude101806
>>>
>>> Why are Darfuris being expelled from Dubai?
>>> Native Speaker
>>> by Joseph Braude
>>> Only at TNR Online | Post date 10.20.06 Discuss this article (10)
>>> Printer friendly
>>> E-mail this article
>>>
>>>
>>> Dubai, United Arab Emirates
>>>
>>> Darfuri native Hasan Najila is hardly a household name among Arab TV
>>> viewers, but his condemnation of the genocide being perpetrated by the
>>> Sudanese government appears to have made waves. A furniture exporter
>>> and ten-year resident of the United Arab Emirates, his career as a
>>> public dissident began two years ago as a frequent contributor to the
>>> major networks' call-in talk shows--notably the daily audience forum
>>> "Minbar Al Jazeera." Within a few months, the Iranian-owned
>>> Arabic-language network Alalam took notice and invited him to appear on
>>> a live program. Other stations, including Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya,
>>> followed suit, and, soon, hardly a week would go by without Najila's
>>> voice or face popping up on one channel or another. "His Arabic is
>>> superb and he makes a compelling case to Arabs and Muslims," says Abu
>>> Bakr Al Gadi, an Arab native of Khartoum who lives in Qatar. "Any
>>> fair-minded person would be persuaded to oppose the Sudanese government
>>> after hearing him out."
>>>
>>> Network executives and sympathetic listeners weren't the only ones
>>> taking notice of Najila, however. Last February, Khartoum's ambassador
>>> to the UAE phoned Najila at home and warned him to end his media
>>> appearances--a warning he chose to ignore. "I felt safe to speak out
>>> because I lived in Dubai," he explains. A month later, however, Dubai
>>> customs agents conducted an intrusive search of Najila's personal
>>> effects upon his return from a trip to nearby Kuwait. Then, in April,
>>> Dubai's security services interrogated him about possible contributions
>>> to Darfuri rebel groups, his professional dealings, and his personal
>>> life. "They questioned me six hours per day for five days straight," he
>>> recalls. Never charged with any crime, Najila was nonetheless released
>>> with clear instructions: pack up and leave the city-state for good.
>>> "They ordered me to get out within two weeks and not come back," Najila
>>> says. When he moved on to Qatar, he left behind his business, his stock
>>> holdings, everything.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Najila isn't the only prominent Darfuri expat to be kicked out of the
>>> UAE recently. At least six others have had their residency status
>>> revoked in the last two years. All had been known within the Sudanese
>>> community as Darfuri opposition figures. And, though it's difficult to
>>> prove outright, the strong implication is that the expulsions came at
>>> the behest of Khartoum.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> t's understandable that the government in Khartoum would be concerned
>>> about Darfuri expats' activities in the Gulf states. They're among the
>>> wealthiest per capita Darfuri diaspora communities in the world, and
>>> they are fairly well-integrated into Arabic-speaking Gulf society--well
>>> placed, in other words, both to drum up support for Muslim victims of
>>> the Janjaweed and perhaps to contribute financially to Darfuri refugees
>>> or rebels. Many of the 7,000 who now live in the UAE, for example,
>>> arrived 20 years ago or more to stock the nascent UAE army. As the
>>> armed forces gradually recruited more locals to join their ranks,
>>> Darfuris moved into the private sector--leveraging family and personal
>>> ties to Sudan and Chad as a gateway to trading networks in central
>>> Africa. Moreover, since Dubai now hosts either headquarters or studio
>>> offices for most major Arab satellite networks, the potential is
>>> immense for well-spoken, well-connected Darfuris like Najila to work
>>> the Arab TV talk-show circuit, reaching tens of millions of
>>> impressionable viewers and possibly convincing them that Arab
>>> solidarity with Khartoum is woefully misguided.
>>>
>>> Najila, who had run a trading company that moved home furnishings
>>> through Dubai into central Africa, has much in common with six other
>>> Darfuris who lost their residency over the last two years. Ibrahim
>>> Ahmad Ibrahim had been a well-known shipping merchant in Dubai since
>>> 1995. Jibril Ibrahim Muhammad, an economics PhD and import-export
>>> merchant, is the older brother of Khalil Ibrahim Muhammad, who leads
>>> one of the two main Darfuri opposition groups. Hasan Adam Wadi had been
>>> a lawyer in Abu Dhabi with wealthy local clients. Abd Al Jabbar Ab Bakr
>>> Bashir had been a partner in a successful Dubai tourism company.
>>> Mustafa Tayrab, another merchant, was an outspoken supporter of
>>> Darfur's "Tahrir" rebel movement. All had been known within the
>>> Sudanese community as Darfuri opposition figures. "By kicking us out,"
>>> explains the seventh evictee, businessman and Darfuri Justice and
>>> Equality Movement supporter B'shara Sleyman, "the government here has
>>> intimidated all Darfuris from raising their heads too high."
>>>
>>> But why would the UAE bow to pressure from Khartoum to kick out legal
>>> residents? The consensus among Darfuris I've spoken with is that the
>>> UAE cooperates with Khartoum's security apparatus as much due to
>>> personal loyalties as Arab politics. Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir,
>>> who lived and worked in Abu Dhabi as a military advisor in the 1980s,
>>> is commonly credited as one of the architects of the UAE's armed
>>> forces. From his presidential palace in Khartoum, he is believed to
>>> maintain close relations with the Emirates security apparatus he left
>>> behind. Cozy relationships like these elsewhere in the Middle East have
>>> long been known to blur the legal borders of sovereignty between benign
>>> Arab governments and their more brutal neighbors. Witness Jordan in the
>>> early '80s, where Iraqi opposition activists faced the daily fear of
>>> being shipped off to Baghdad for interrogation by Saddam's intelligence
>>> services--thanks to a gentleman's agreement between the latter
>>> president and the late King Hussein. Or behold Lebanon under Syrian
>>> military rule--where voices hostile to Damascus easily faced
>>> retribution in Lebanon, by order of Damascus.
>>>
>>> But, while Arab leaders have consistently backed the Sudanese regime in
>>> the United Nations and the Arab League, not every Gulf security
>>> apparatus seems to be as reflexively cooperative with Khartoum as that
>>> of the UAE. In Qatar, I was impressed to read acerbic criticism of
>>> Khartoum and strident support for Darfur's Justice and Equality rebel
>>> movement in the local newspaper, Al Watan. The author of the essay,
>>> Sudanese opposition activist Abu Bakr Al Gadi, regularly brings
>>> together Darfuri, Beja, and Arab Sudanese elites to his home in Doha
>>> for political discussions. One such meeting I attended culminated in
>>> commitments by several guests to advance the Darfur issue through media
>>> outreach. Gadi himself attempts to lobby Qatari nationals in government
>>> to think critically about their Sudan policy. (I watched him make the
>>> case one afternoon to a senior official in the country's justice
>>> ministry.) He, too, has received a telephone threat from the local
>>> Sudanese ambassador. But that was over a year ago, and no Qatari
>>> security officials have come knocking on his door.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> o be sure, the UAE has made charitable contributions to the people of
>>> Darfur, among many other needy peoples. To the government's credit,
>>> airlifts of food and medicine were dispatched to central Sudan last
>>> year by the emirs of Dubai and neighboring Sharjah.
>>>
>>> But the UAE has also cultivated an image as a country committed to
>>> international norms of civil society and the rule of law, a cut or two
>>> above the Arab police states to its west. Evicting Darfuri residents
>>> and intimidating the Darfuri community into silence threatens that
>>> image. Not only should UAE officials restore Hasan Najila's good
>>> standing as a resident of Dubai, along with that of the other evictees
>>> if they wish to return; they should serve notice that all Darfuris
>>> within their borders have the same right to make their case to Arab
>>> publics that Palestinian and other guest workers do. Such are the
>>> standards of fairness to which all globalizing countries should
>>> aspire--without prejudice against a beleaguered people suffering under
>>> the knife of Islamist terrorism.
>>>
>>> Joseph Braude is the author of The New Iraq: Rebuilding the Country for
>>> Its People, the Middle East, and the World.
>>>
>>> Printer friendly Get FOUR FREE WEEKS
>>> of The New Republic.
>>> E-mail this article
>>> Discuss this article
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> RELATED LINKS Waiting Game
>>> Can a U.N. resolution stop the genocide in Darfur? web only Out of Time
>>> The United Nations and Darfur