On January 1 the African Union Mission in Sudan (Amis) handed over to the hybrid United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, known as UNamid. The transfer marked the end of the African Unions (AU) biggest, most challenging and, some say, most controversial and ambitious peace observation and peacekeeping operation.
To appreciate the significance of Amis one must think back to the moment of its birth, early in 2004. The AU had been constituted barely 18 months earlier and its first full chairperson, President Alpha Omer Konare, had been in office for just six months. Article 4 of the Constitutive Act of the AU, which mandates intervention in cases of humanitarian crisis or grave human rights abuses, was to herald a new era in which Africa would not hesitate to act decisively to solve African problems.
While the world debated what to do about Darfur and focused on humanitarian activities, Africa acted. The AU dispatched diplomats to Ndjamena to negotiate a ceasefire and organised the troops necessary to monitor it. The first Amis troops arrived barely six weeks after the ceasefire was signed, surpassing the speed of any peacekeeping operation in recent years. While the UN has to follow complex, time-consuming procedures before sending peacekeepers, the AU won immediate commitments of troops from Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa.
AU troops walked into a difficult situation. The Ndjamena ceasefire was violated by both parties from day one and the agreement itself did not contain essential provisions, such as maps of the parties positions, vitally important for effective monitoring of the ceasefire. Nonetheless, in the first months of the Amis deployment, morale and energy were high and its influence was appreciable.
The first Amis force leadership was vigorous and creative, constantly bending the rules to warn the warring parties against military actions and flying across Darfur at a moments notice to show that the AU meant business. Within a few months the Amis mandate was revised to allow its troops to protect civilians -- but only if, during the course of their regular monitoring activities, they encountered civilians under immediate threat. The mandate was still much too restrictive.
Other problems surfaced too. Amis lacked sufficient translators. It lacked sufficient civil affairs officers and sufficient political liaison officers. It was short of equipment and increasingly short of funds and the troops often didnt get paid on time.
Darfur in 2004 was the worlds toughest peacekeeping assignment because it amounted to keeping the peace in the middle of a continuing war. Thrown on to the front line of this challenge, African soldiers responded with bravery and steadfastness. They operated in conditions of danger and lived in conditions of hardship. In the early months the level of atrocities in Darfur dropped and the humanitarian operations were ramped up.
By late 2005 Amis faced mounting problems and came under frequent attacks. The AU troops were easy game -- insufficiently armed and unable to defend themselves effectively against the highly mobile, well-armed and determined groups operating in their own terrain. Troops that could not defend themselves were not able to protect the civilian population of Darfur. The small but effective activities undertaken by Amis in its early months, such as conducting patrols to protect women gathering firewood, were overshadowed by a general deterioration in the missions capacity. Balance of this kak at the linkie.
Of all the activities and products generated by the intelligence community, none has proven to be as problematic over time as NIEs, which represent the collective wisdom and judgment of the 16 agencies that compose the intelligence community.
Al Watan newspaper of Kuwait has disclosed that president Bashar al Assad considers Lebanon a Syrian territory but run by rebels that threaten the Syrian regime. Diplomatic sources to Al Watan that Assad considers the Lebanese majority rebels that took away part of Syria. This separation according to Assad threatens the existence of the Syrian regime and this is why he is intent on punishing the majority through his support to the opposition.
Diplomatic sources said that the United States, its Arab and Europeans allies firmly reject the attempts by President Assad to deal with Lebanon as a Syrian territory that was separated by rebellion from the Syrian motherland.
The sources said that Assad deliberately thwarted until now the Arab and international mediators because they treat Lebanon as an independent, sovereign and a free nation.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
You just know ISRAEL will accept this line of thinking, and exclusive of IRAN considering SYRIA future IRANIAN TERRITORY.
#5
CALLER: Well, it kind of hurts for me to talk about.
GLENN: I know it does. I'm here to hold your hand through it.
-LOL! Beck's snarks are hilarious. I'm surprised he's on the channel that he is & they let him get away w/the conservative view points. Prolly because he's actually pulling in ratings and offsetting the rest of the crap.
#7
"Did you know you can have a log rhythmic exponential spiral on a moment's notice, actually no notice."
I had no idea that logs could be so dangerous! WE'RE DOOMED!!!
#11
Gawd, I thought I was reading a segment of Jay Leno's "Jaywalk". What a Moron.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/15/2008 14:23 Comments ||
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#12
"GLOBAL WARMING ...the science is not settled on how to solve it, the science on what we can do, thats where the fascism comes in".
Looks like Fascism will have to wait until the Sun formally begins expanding = Moon explodes circa 2030 to officially formally turn Communist Totalitarian - you know, Democratic Capitalist = Communist Capitalism.
*TOPIX/REDDIT [past] > FASCISTS ARE LEFTISTS article.
As said long ago, iff one believes that Jesus Christ + Prophets-Judges are the "LIGHT" or LIGHT OF THE WORLD", etc. Bible labels, ergo for Secularism, etal. to kill the Christ or convert to evil = WEAKENING/KILLING THE SUN, e.g. KILLING HUMANITY IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY, correct??? GOD TO SECULARISTS, ATHEISTS, etal. >
OOOOOOOOPPPPPSSIES,CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCorrectness - YOUR BAD!
AL PACINO {Devil-Lucifer]TO KEANU REEVES [AntiChrist-Lawyer] - "CONSIDER THE SOURCE, SON [Sun]" The "Man Upstairs" is the GREATEST VOYEUR/DIALECTICIST OF US ALL!? D *** NGED MOON + INNER PLANETS KEEP CRASHING/BUMPING INTO EARTH ALL OVER THE PLACE.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
