Fredericton Peace Coalition

Abousfian Abdelrazik is renewing his call for a meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and Public Security Minister Peter Van Loan in light of chilling memos obtained under the Privacy Act.

The Harper government was warned shortly after it came to office in 2006 that Sudan’s notorious military intelligence agency was ready to “disappear” Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen, unless Ottawa allowed him to go home, The Globe and Mail has learned.

Canadian, jailed in Sudan at the recommendation of CSIS, to head home on April 3.

‘Children as young as six are being sexually abused by peacekeepers and aid workers, says a leading UK charity. “They grabbed me and threw me to the ground and they forced themselves on me… I tried to escape but there were 10 of them and I could do nothing,” she said.’

The star-studded hue and cry to Save Darfur and “stop the genocide” has gained enormous traction in U.S. media along with bipartisan support in Congress and the White House. But the Congo, with ten to twenty times as many African dead over the same period, is not called a “genocide” and passes almost unnoticed. Sudan [...]

Though Washington’s sanctions on Sudan give the impression of a tougher stance, this Baltimore Sun article reveals that the US has “soft-pedaled the sanctions” so that Sudan will continue helping the CIA with intelligence in Iraq. Former director of African affairs for the National Security Council John Prendergast argues that the Bush administration’s cooperation with [...]

The contrast in western attitudes to Darfur and Congo shows how illiberal our concept of intervention really is

Gérard Prunier: The Darfur conflict, which has already left 400,000 dead, has destabilised Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic. At a summit in Cannes last month, all three countries agreed to respect each other’s territorial integrity, but the diplomatic activity conceals an international political deadlock over potential oil wealth.

This Global Research article discusses the concept of humanitarian intervention and the different actors involved – as well as their associated motivations – in pushing for intervention. In the case of Darfur, the author argues that a complex web including corporations, nongovernmental organizations and Western media outlets are all complicit in pushing governments to act [...]

Among the 33 “forgotten” areas in dire need of funding are Afghanistan and Sudan, it says.