Friday, April 16, 2010

Darfur: every celeb’s favourite African war

I had come for an adventure’, says freelance foreign correspondent Rob Crilly of his time in Sudan. ‘Changing the world or saving Darfur were not part of my agenda.’ This characteristically frank and unpretentious comment captures the core strength of his book Saving Darfur: Everyone’s Favourite African War: its honesty.

That honesty means that Crilly refuses to ignore awkward facts that don’t fit the accepted narrative about the ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. His fair-minded efforts to understand the motivations of the various actors involved ultimately lead him to challenge head-on the over-simplifications and distortions perpetuated by many Western journalists and Save Darfur campaigners. ‘By focusing on criminalising a government and making military intervention the top priority’, he argues, ‘[the Save Darfur Coalition] has made peace more elusive and increased the suffering of ordinary Darfuris’. His challenge springs, not from having some axe of his own to grind, but from the good reporter’s desire to really nail the story.

Crilly conveys the excitement and glamour of the foreign correspondent’s work, sometimes in unpromising circumstances. His most animated account of pursuing elusive leads and racing to scoop his rivals concerns the apparently trivial story of Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher in a Khartoum school who was arrested in 2007 for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear ‘Mohammed’. When a snooty US colleague dismisses this light human-interest piece as a frivolous distraction from the serious stories needing to be told about Darfur, Crilly’s robust retort is: ‘I think you are talking bollocks.’ Insisting it is a ‘bloody great story’, Crilly recounts his ‘elation’ at being in the right place at the right time to reap fame and fortune from telling the tale. And, as he chases down the story, it turns out that this minor episode of cultural misunderstanding yields valuable insights into the workings of the Sudanese political system.

Gibbons was released after the intercession of two British Muslim peers, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Lord Nazir Ahmed: it was not lectures and threats that produced a result but ‘an appeal to common sense’, which offered President Omar al Bashir a face-saving way out instead of backing him in to a corner. Might this tell us something about the international approach to Sudan over Darfur, wonders Crilly – that shrill Western hectoring is actually counterproductive, making an already shaky regime feel even more threatened?

This is not to suggest that Crilly is in any way sympathetic to Bashir’s government. He frequently deplores its cruelty and vividly describes the suffering it has caused. What he does not do, however, is demonise it as an evil regime hell-bent on genocide. Instead, he suggests that Bashir has pursued a strategy of ‘counter-insurgency on the cheap’, in the words of Sudan scholar Alex de Waal. Crilly’s encounters with Sudanese soldiers reveal an unreliable military with doubtful loyalties – the army is full of Darfuris and also includes men from southern Sudan who until recently were themselves at war with the government. Recruiting proxy militia forces – the Janjaweed, or ‘devils on horseback’ – with promises of land and money, and giving them ‘the chance to loot and steal’, argues Crilly, ‘seemed to be the way a government with a thin grip on its vast country fought for survival’. Previous Sudanese presidents did much the same thing, he notes, and so did the British when they were Sudan’s imperial rulers.

Although this is a personal account, full of colourful anecdotes and wry asides, Crilly resists the temptation to put himself at the centre of the story. Since the early 1990s the fashion has been for Western journalists to use other people’s wars as a backdrop for their own existential voyages of moral self-discovery. Crilly’s more down-to-earth approach shuns the simplification and narcissism of that emotive and ‘attached’ style of journalism. Arriving in Sudan in September 2004, shortly after then US secretary of state Colin Powell had described the situation in Darfur as ‘genocide’, Crilly quickly finds that the war as understood in the West is ‘slipping out of focus’, as ‘black and white certainties’ start ‘mixing into grey’. Rather than seeking, as so many have done, to speak on behalf of the victims of conflict, Crilly’s aim is to ‘broadcast the real voices from the aid camps, the rebel villages and the Arab camel markets’.

Crilly meets the civilian victims of indiscriminate government bombing raids and brutal Janjaweed militiamen. But he also seeks out the voices of those who go ‘un-vox-popped’ in most reporting because they do not easily fit into reductionist accounts of a ‘genocide in Darfur’ perpetrated by ‘lighter-skinned Arabs’ against ‘black Africans’. He talks to the Arabic-speaking victims of rebel attacks, for example, and to former militia members who have defected to the rebels, discovering not an epic tale of Good versus Evil but a more prosaic and more complex story of shifting allegiances and ambiguous divisions. ‘Delving into context’, he finds, ‘showed that rational actors were at work, defending the interests of both sides’.

Equally, while he listens sympathetically to the rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, he instinctively mistrusts their ‘glowing media profile’ and refuses to gloss over the rebels’ political fragmentation, their attacks on African Union peacekeepers, obstruction of humanitarian aid and recruitment of child soldiers. Unlike many of his colleagues, Crilly exercises proper journalistic scepticism when courted by media-savvy rebel groups who want to appeal to an international audience. Instead of simplifying the picture, his objective is to ‘tease out… loose ends, to complicate, and correct, the story of Darfur’.

Of course, complexity does not always go down well with newspapers eager for attention-grabbing headlines (Crilly wrote for The Times and the Daily Mail, among others). ‘Hmm, it’s a bit “Inside Baseball” isn’t it?’ was the response of editors who thought his attempts to present a more nuanced picture were too laden with esoteric detail. Sometimes they would even insert terms such as ‘black’ and ‘African’ into his articles in order to make them conform to the clear but misleading narrative that dominated news coverage. ‘[I]t was only after a couple of years covering the conflict that I began to object,’ he recalls, ‘pointing out that everyone in Darfur was black and African.’ While candid about his own mistakes, Crilly is highly critical of Western media coverage of Darfur – especially the simple-minded moralism of crusading journalists such as Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times.

The main focus of criticism, though, is the celebrity campaigners and human rights activists of the Save Darfur lobby – the target of the book’s ironic title. He pokes fun at some of their media-friendly stunts, such as the 2008 ‘Day for Darfur’ when celebrities smashed up toys to symbolise the suffering of Darfuri children – ‘Matt Damon took a baseball bat to a dolls’ house… Thandie Newton blowtorched a Barbie.’ But his criticism is deadly serious. It was the campaigners and ‘celebrity diplomats’ who did most to ‘[turn] Sudan’s desert conflict into the world’s favourite African war’, yet they did so only by simplifying and distorting it. In the process, Crilly concludes, far from ‘saving Darfur’ the campaigners have actually made things worse.

By exaggerating death tolls and depicting this ‘messy war’ as the ‘first genocide of the twenty-first century’, he argues, the activists and celebrities bear much of the responsibility for framing Darfur as a problem demanding drastic solutions – not quiet diplomacy but UN troops, not patient mediation but arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC). It is a timely point. The book’s publication this month coincides with the ICC’s decision – welcomed by the Save Darfur Coalition – to re-examine the possibility of adding the charge of genocide to its indictment against President Bashir. Coming just ahead of elections in Sudan scheduled for this spring, the court’s move to further criminalise the country’s president is unlikely to improve the chances of a negotiated peace settlement.

Even though it was ‘the search for adventure’ that took Crilly to Darfur, he says that in the end it also became his ‘favourite African war’. After five years of trying to get inside the minds of the rebels, militiamen and refugees, they got under his skin too. Crilly was honest enough to admit that ‘the more I travelled through Darfur the more it seemed everything I knew about it was wrong’, and to reappraise his preconceptions in light of experience. Save Darfur campaigners should read his book and do the same.

Philip Hammond is reader in media and communications at London South Bank University, and is the author of Media, War and Postmodernity, published by Routledge in 2007. (Buy this book from Amazon(UK).)

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Kyrgyzstan Revolution Threatens Afghanistan War’s Premier Air Hub

by Mohammed A. Salih,
Kyrgyzstan has entered a phase of uncertainty with a new opposition-led government in place following two days of street clashes between police and anti-government protestors. Some opposition leaders have called for the closure of a U.S. airbase in the country that is a supply link for its operations in Afghanistan.

A former Kyrgyz foreign minister, Roza Otunbayeva, told CNN on Wednesday that she is now in charge of an interim government following the apparent overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The whereabouts of President Bakiyev is unknown but unverified reports have suggested he might be in the southern city of Osh, or in Manas airbase, the base used by the U.S. military.

Thousands of people took to the streets in major cities across the country over the last two days, protesting against corruption and increasing utility costs. The protests turned violent, especially in the capital Bishkek on Wednesday, where nearly 40 people were killed and 400 other injured, according to ministry of health sources. However, opposition leaders told the Associated Press that 100 people have been killed.

Anti-government demonstrators have reportedly seized the state security headquarters and television as well as other institutions, in what opposition leaders have called a new revolution.

The interim leader, Otunbayeva, is a seasoned politician who was a foreign minister before the country’s Tulip Revolution five years ago. She also served in various positions during the Soviet era, including ambassador to Malaysia.

Political turmoil is nothing new to Kyrgyzstan. In 2005, Kyrgyz protestors toppled the government of Askar Akayev following disputed parliamentary elections. Akayev’s ouster was due to deep public dissatisfaction with corruption and authoritarianism in his government. He had ruled the country since its independence after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1990.

The news of ongoing unrest in the central Asian republic has been received with concern by Washington. The U.S. embassy in Bishkek said it was "deeply concerned" about "civil disturbances" in the country, in a statement released on Wednesday.

Saying that the situation in Kyrgyzstan was "still very fluid", John Kerry, the chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, expressed "regret for the loss of life" in the country and called on all sides to be "calm and refrain from violence". He called upon Kyrgyz parties to address the "underlying political, economic and social issues" in a "transparent process that brings stability and fundamental rights to all."

The U.S. State Department said that transport operations at the Manas military installation outside Bishkek have been "functioning normally." The U.S. military has used the base over the past several years as a staging post for its operations in Afghanistan. Despite the call for the base’s closure by opposition leaders reportedly in charge now, it remains to be seen whether the new government will take practical steps toward that end.

There are worries in the U.S. that the new opposition-led government may increase the rent for Manas base by renegotiating the terms of its agreement with the U.S., according to Foreign Policy’s Cable blog. Such a renegotiation, Cable said, may offer Russia an opportunity to influence an agreement over the base.

Last year, the country’s parliament, in which opposition parties had a powerful presence, voted to close the base due to a failure of U.S. and Kyrgyz governments to agree on a higher rent for the facility. According to some reports, Bishkek’s decision to close the base had been motivated by a promise of a lucrative aid package from Russia.

Moscow has been increasingly concerned about the U.S. military’s prolonged stay on its neighbor’s soil.

But after President Barack Obama’s personal intervention, Washington agreed to triple the rent from less than 20 million dollars per year to 60 million. Kyrgyzstan renewed the contract but renamed the base a "transit center" and imposed a condition on the U.S. to use the Manas base for the transit of "non-lethal" goods to Afghanistan.

Some have speculated about a possible Russian role in the current situation in Kyrgyzstan. Russia had reportedly caused a spike in gasoline and fuel prices in Kyrgyzstan by imposing new customs duties on petroleum products exported to the small central Asian nation.

"Many political experts in Bishkek believe Moscow is punishing Bakiyev for his administration’s failure to evict American forces from the Manas air base," David Trilling and Chinghiz Umetov wrote Tuesday in the New York-based EurasiaNet, a news and analysis website on Eurasian nations.

President Bakiyev, who was initially known as a pro-U.S. figure, started to play Moscow and Washington against each other. Although he came to power following the Tulip Revolution with a promise of democratic and transparent governance, he soon started to turn Kyrgyzstan into a one-party state.

The country was run by a small clique of President Bakiyev and his relatives, sparking widespread frustration among Kyrgyz. In recent months, the government had increased its crackdown on the opposition and its media.

Kyrgyzstan, one of the poorest republics of the former Soviet Union, has been an economically impoverished nation since its independence in 1990s.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Russia Sends Paratroopers to Air Base in Kyrgyzstan

http://www.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/World/040810_kyrg01_monster_397x224.jpg
A protester covered by Kyrgyz national flag walks in front of Kyrgyz government headquarters on the central square in Bishkek.


Russia is sending paratroopers to its Kant military base in the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan as the Kremlin gave its support for the self-declared provisional government, Russian news service Ria Novosti reported Thursday.

The approximately 150 paratroopers' goal is to protect the families of Russian military staff in Kyrgyzstan, Ria Novosti quoted General Staff chief Nikolay Makarov, after protests in the capital of Bishkek left dozens dead and hundreds wounded.

"The president has decided to send two companies of paratroopers there and some 150 people have arrived in Kant," Makarov, who is with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague for the signing of a new arms deal with the U.S., was quoted.

The Russian airbase was put on high alert, according to Defense Ministry sources, while the U.S. said its Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan is continuing to function.

Russia's Kant base, 12 miles east of Bishkek, has been operating since 2003 and has some 400 Russian military personnel.

Russia is supporting the new provisional Kyrgyz government, opposition protesters who took power in the capital and several other regions in the ex-Soviet republic, according to Ria Novosti. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reportedly spoke to the new opposition premier, Roza Otunbayeva, who requested economic support from Russia.

"It is important to note that the conversation was held with Otunbayeva in her capacity as the head of a national confidence government," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Ria Novosti.

Russia is ready to assist Kyrgyzstan with humanitarian aid.

Otunbayeva, the former foreign minister, said parliament was dissolved and she would head the interim government. She said the new government controlled four of the seven provinces and called on President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to resign. She said he had fled Bishkek to seek support in the central Jalal-Abad region.

Thousands of protesters have clashed with security forces throughout the country in the last two days, driving out local governments and seizing government headquarters.

Otunbayeva told a press conference the provisional government will work for six months to stabilize the situation, prepare changes in the constitution and hold presidential elections.

Since coming to power in 2005 amid street protests known as the Tulip Revolution, Bakiyev had ensured a measure of stability, but the opposition said he did so at the expense of democratic standards while enriching himself and his family.

He gave his relatives, including his son, top government and economic posts and faced the same accusations of corruption and cronyism that led to the ouster of his predecessor, Askar Akayev. Many protesters were also outraged at huge hikes in prices for electricity and gas heating that went into effect in January.

Kyrgyz Govt Ousted, Opposition Vows ‘People’s Government’

US Halts Flights Out of Air Base Amid Unrest
by Jason Ditz,


As enormous numbers of opposition supporters continue to poor into the streets of Bishkek, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has fled aboard a small plane. Bakiyev is said to have fled to the south, where he retains popularity, and has refused to concede defeat. The leaders of the uprising have now taken control of Kyrgyzstan and are in the process of installing what they are calling a “people’s government.”

MP and former Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva confirmed that she was installed as the interim president of what she described as a “caretaker government.” The government will be in power for 6 months. She said interim defense and interior ministers have been appointed and that they will soon draft a new constitution and hold elections. She said she had yet to hear from Bakiyev but urged him to resign.

Bakiyev came to power in the 2005 Tulip Revolution, a revolution backed by the US State Department. Interestingly enough most of the opposition leadership involved in the apparent takeover of the government was also heavily involved in that color-coded revolution.

The exact policies of the new government are unclear, but the Social Democratic Party seems to be taking most of the important positions and centered the uprising around allegations of endemic corruption in the Bakiyev government. The opposition was said to have been supported by the Russian government (Otunbeyeva herself is a former Soviet Ambassador) who is reportedly pledging humanitarian aid.

The sudden regime change is being watched closely by the US, whose air base in Manas is a vital source of supplies for the Afghan War. The military has temporarily halted all flights out of the nation, citing “security reasons.” Whether the base is in long-term jeopardy remains to be seen, but given the new government’s close ties to Russia (and the old regime’s close ties to the US) it may well prefer to have only Russian bases in the nation.