Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

Sudan Trumpets Museum of May 10 Militia Attack, Omdurman as Indictment of Chad

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press in Africa: News Analysis

OMDURMAN, June 4 -- There are piles of pickup trucks with rocket launchers on the back heaped burned-out in Khalifa Square in Omdurman, a five minute drive from the Presidential Place in Khartoum.  The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, part of the "state apparatus" which the International Criminal Court says is complicit with war crimes in Darfur, has produced a 60-page picture book entitled "The Aggression of Chad government on Omdurman, 10 May 2008."

   Sudanese Major Jamal told Inner City Press that the vehicles and weapons, including equipment for Katyusha rockets and even poison darts, belonged to the Justice and Equality Movement and were purchased for them by Chad. He pointed to a picture of armed fighters on a pickup in front of a mosque, which he identified as the Sheikh Dawoud Adbullah Komba Mosque in Chad. They came from Chad, he said, and they fired on mosques and stores and civilians. As the square is ringed by pictures of President Omar al-Bashir, the intended meaning of the briefing could not have been clearer: Sudan is a victim of aggression, by an outside force which itself recruits child soldiers in violations of the laws of war. Why aren't JEM and the Chadian government being indicted by the ICC?

   Khalifa Square, resonating with history for example of Ali Mahdi who fought the British and others, has been turned into a theme part, a sort of Mad Max militia museum. Major Jamal first read a speech standing at a lectern in a tent, and then answered questions while giving a tour of exhibits around the three sides of the square. First there were the vehicles. The leaders of JEM, he said, drove in cars which still have roofs. Lower-level fighters were in vehicles without windows or tops, many with rocket launchers mounted on the back. He said the government captured 90-some such vehicles, out of a total of 300 or more which attacked.

Mahdi's grave in Omdurman, rockets, rebels and Security Council not shown

   How such a convoy could have driven in from Chad or Darfur without being spotted and confronted, at least with Sudan's attack helicopters, remains unclear. The exhibit makes much of the range of Sudanese forces which stopped the incursion at Omdurman. But sources tell Inner City Press that the Army was slow to react, and most of the fighting was by police and security forces, some in civilian dress but wielding sub-machine guns.  Regarding who funded the attack, alongside Chad sources point the finger north, to a member of the Security Council. We wil have more on this.

   Major Jamal showed sacks of powder he said was sorghum flour brought by the insurgents. He showed what he said were captured identity papers, including a work permit for World Vision. He showed a uniform with a incongruously new-looking "Tchad" patch sewn on the sleeve. He showed a passport that appeared to even have an exit visa in it ("Sortie").  Given that Sudan charges $151 for a visa to visit the country, at least if one comes from New York, one of Maj. Jamal's interlocutors joked that high visa fees may have been relevant to the attack.

  The exhibit includes gruesome photographs of charred bodies, blood-splattered houses, and at least 18 vacant-eyed child soldiers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was eager to present these children to the press, but they are one hour from Khartoum, and the time proposed conflicted with a press conference by members of the UN Security Council. These members, who traveled on June 3 to Juba in South Sudan and each signed the book of condolences and tribute to fallen leader John Garang, might want to make it their business to check out Omdurman.  It is not everyday that dozens of burned out war trucks are piled up in a square under a large photograph of Ban Ki-moon. We will have more on this.

Footnotes:  UNMIS computers were unable to play two CD-DVDs which the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave  entited "The Chadian Forces and its [sic] Aggression on Omdurman, Sudan" and "The Terrorist Justice and Equality Movement." Those urging more ICC action on Sudan, on the other hand, have put their materials streaming on the Web, including most recently a 17-minute film just put online by the Aegis Trust showing blurry-faced survivors of attacks on three towns in Darfur naming Ahmad Harun as providing money and orders to Ali Kushayb, to directed looting and killing. Click here to view the film. On this we will have more as well.

UN-analysis: What now is the UN's role inside Sudan? While Security Council members met with officials of the Sudanese government on Wednesday, UN staff facilitated the transmission of that government's message to the traveling press. It went beyond translation, to promises to provide official numbers of the dead at Omdurman. "The UN is providing propaganda," one attendee muttered. While Inner City Press thinks that reasonable minds can differ on this, probably the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could and should have found its own translator and even facilitator for this material.

   But some parts of the UN system clearly work closely with Sudan's security forces. In fact, they are becoming similar. A UN-accredited journalist's attempt to cover a meeting of the UN Development Program held in the same overpriced hotel where the Security Council is staying was rebuffed by uniformed guards. "This is for UNDP only," the guard said, ejecting the reporter. UNDP in Sudan: the Press is not invited.

* * *

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

Search innercitypress.com  Search WWW (censored?)

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

            Copyright 2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com -