Something very sad and serious. Please read.

[funkyab 10+ year member]

This is an email I received from a close friend and colleague working in Sudan. Some of you may know that the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the President based on crimes against humanity and as a result he is expelling humanitarian aid agencies from the country.

Don't ask for cliffs. Either read it or do not. It is important people on the outside know what is happening there.

-----------------------------

Dear all,

I still don’t want to believe it’s true, but ACF (my employer) and at least 12 of the other biggest humanitarian agencies in Darfur have been expelled by the Sudanese authorities. I’m on a plane to Paris tonight. I think this is the saddest thing I’ve ever witnessed.

Everything has been like nightmare since 4pm Sudanese time Wednesday 4th of March. We were in front of the TV watching the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing a warrant of arrest for the Sudanese president. We had expected demonstrations and possibly fighting, so we closed the office for 2 days and us expats were hibernating in our guesthouse. Half an hour after the ICC announcement we received a phone call from our Head of Mission in Khartoum: We’d been told to close all activities, give all property and assets to the authorities and leave the country. The same message was given to 12 other major NGOs, MSF, Save the Children, Oxfam, NRC... The authorities say we’ve used our work as a cover to collect evidence against the president and given it to the court.

http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article30396

Everything was chaos. We had to pack up, find out how to leave Nyala. We have a base in the rural area not far from Nyala, but depending on helicopter to go there, and we had 3 expats and some Sudanese staff there we needed to get out. It was a mess, gathering the most important work documents to bring, burn the others, delete everything from our laptops, phones ringing and radio communication non stop. At one point we were informed that the authorities of South Darfur don’t want to follow the orders from Khartoum and they want us to stay. In a short and naive moment I was thinking: Maybe this is good news! Maybe they realize the consequences if we leave!!!’ But then I realised we were held like hostages and they just didn’t want us to leave until they had taken all money and assets they could get. National Security came in armed vehicles to our office, beat our guards and took the keys and said everything belongs to them now. We have a big base here, over 400 staff, we had over 20 vehicles, communication equipments, computers. (in case you’re in doubt I can promise they won’t use these things to treat sick children)

Everything happened during 24 hours. We were 5 expats in the house. I didn’t have so many practical tasks (the others were admin/log/base coordinator and were rushing around like hell). I just walked around confused and had more than enough time to think about the feeding centres and the children and the mothers I had seen only the day before. Eventually we also got hold of the Team Leader of my project, she is Sudanese but from Khartoum and live in an ACF house, so she would join us for the evacuation. When she left the house she was beaten and harassed by NS: ‘Are you sure you’re Sudanese, why do you work for the foreigners, why do you dress like that (she is a ‘city girl’ from Khartoum and doesn’t cover her hair), why do you live alone, Sudanese women don’t do that, what about the guards of your house, do they sleep in your bed at night etc etc etc. They asked what was her position in ACF and she said she worked with child care practices (the project I am (was) managing), and they immediately said ‘Oh, you work on **** issues!’ The fact that they said that straight away shows that they had all info about our programs all the time. Probably directly from some ACF staff. We know that they have spies in all international organisations.

Finally, almost exactly 24 hours after the ICC announcement we were transported by UNAMID (the ‘peacekeeping’ troops in Darfur) to the airport. They collected all the expats that had been expelled. A convoy of 10 UNAMID cars. It’s the most horrible and sad thing I’ve experienced. At that point we had 2 senior Sudanese ACF colleagues in the house who were informed about everything and will have to inform the 400 others... I will always remember their faces when we left. We left them and they’re left with more shit than I want to think about. The trip to the airport was horrible. People in the street stared with worried looks at this long convoy of UNAMID vehicles with crying aid workers – they probably didn’t know what was going on but surely understood that this is probably not good news. I had associations to clips I’ve seen before the Rwanda genocide, the whole international community leaving and then hell breaks loose, with no witnesses left. The last thing I heard is 60-80% of humanitarian work in Darfur has been stopped. There are organisations left there, but they don’t know if they’ll be next to be thrown out. It’s a tragedy, nothing else.

The airport in Nyala was like a well organised crime scene. National Security took all laptops, phones, communication equipment, personal external hard drives, cameras, ipods. I was among the few lucky and kept my hard drive, but many lost everything, photos and everything from years back. It was a grotesque scene, the piles of laptops towered up, the sea of electronically equipment, and knowing that it will all be used to equip the army to launch more powerfully against the displaced people and others in Darfur. They justify it by saying that we are criminals now, illegally in the country, and all our equipment is official property of the authorities.

We came to Khartoum late Thursday night. We are 40 expats here, in a house for 15. The authorities have frozen all our bank accounts and taken everything in the safes (this is the biggest mission ACF has, so I promise the bank accounts are not pocket money). They have taken our office and all assets and have the keys. A couple of the staff are allowed to go to the office escorted by NS. (the rest of us are not allowed to leave the house). We try to find a solution to pay salaries for the staff in Darfur. The staff allowed to go to the office have to sit behind the confiscated laptop with a NS guard behind them while working on budget/staff list issues. After 1 hour of negotiation we were allowed to use a little bit of the money in our safe to buy food for all the people in the guesthouse (it’s a detail compared to the rest, and we have water and biscuits enough to survive for a while, but just to show that it really feels like we’re hostages.) Everything is like a surreal dream. I just went to get some water and overheard one from the logistic department on the phone with NS giving a description of the size of our fridges. It’s such a bloody party for them getting hold of all our stuff.

I was exhausted on Friday and managed to sleep, for me it was like ‘out of Nyala’ = ‘it’s over’. But while I was half a sleep in the middle of the day someone comes running into my room going ‘They’re coming here they’re coming here, hide everything you have of personal electronic equipment!!! So again back to panic-mode... Some colleagues left to Paris already last night and again same thing at the airport in Khartoum, they take whatever they can get. We’re giving all the valuable personal equipment we have left now to the French embassy to ‘smuggle’ it safely to Europe. It’s just sickening.

I just want to go back to my colleagues, the 7 women in my team that were both friends and colleagues. One of them is due to deliver her baby one of these days, and I’d so been looking forward to seeing her baby, I had brought gifts etc from my last stay in France and now I just imagine NS going through it all... I have worked so much the 6 months I have been here – it has been so much difficulties and back and forth, but now things were starting to come together and I really felt we were moving forward. The day before the ICC announcement we got our ‘Technical Agreement signed by the authorities – this is the document we have been fighting for since I arrived and the paper giving us the green light to work here. It’s like a bad joke.

What I enjoyed about this job is having daily contact with the beneficiaries, the children in the feeding centres and their mothers. I realize I’m one of the few expats here to have that experience. I don’t want to go all sentimental here, but I am worried about individual children now, it’s like ‘but what will happen with little Hassan, Sarah, Adam, Samira, Yasmin....’

It’s like being on the sideline and watching a perfect example of how international politics on the highest level is filtering down and hitting the little displaced child within hours.

It’s just tragic and unreal. When I was watching the news from the Hague and ICC (in what seems like years ago) I was first happy to see that Darfur is on the top headlines and that the international community cares. And now the effect is that the displaced people are more left alone than ever, and with fewer and fewer left to witness what happens now...

Click to read more...

 

[funkyab 10+ year member]

I have no reason whatsoever to go ‘poor me’ compared to the hundreds of thousands we’re leaving in the shit. But it feels like I lost my whole life within hours: My job and my project that really was my ‘baby’, colleagues and friends, my room I’d finally settled in, my whole Nyala life is over. I just want to go home to Nyala, wake up in my bed and be stressed about the February monthly report and the quotation requests I sent to the log department... I want to go to the camps and see if Khadija is able to walk again now, if Mariam has become strong enough to play, if Abdul is still refusing to eat... I want to see Asma (my colleague that I was closest to) with her newborn baby, I want to be with the people I shared house with eating the horrible pizza the cook used to make for us, I don’t don’t don’t don’t want this to be true.

No one expected this. None of the international NGOs. But when I think about it I don’t understand why it came as such a surprise to all of us. A ruling president still with all power and control of the country (well almost) is announced as a criminal. Of course he uses his power to throw out whoever he believes is supporting ICC’s decision. I just hope the Sudanese that were working for us will not get in trouble now. I’m not so sure... The consequences of this are SO far reaching... Workplaces, family-income, the local companies we used as suppliers... And all our beneficiaries, first of all. The last thing I heard was that some of the ACF staff in Nyala came to the feeding centres and the office, they were stopped by NS who said ‘ACF doesn’t exist anymore’, but they’re fighting – they know now they’ve lost their job but continue voluntarily with the activities to still help as many as possible. I am proud and impressed of them, but it is a David and Goliath fight that can’t last for long...

It feels like being in the middle of a historical event. This is big, it is important, but when I check the news pages of course I see that noone really cares. It shouldn’t surprise me, but it still makes me angry.

I cannot think ahead. I know I am on a plane tonight and that I’ll be in Paris for some days. We are 13 people leaving tonight. All of us will have left Sudan by Wednesday I think. We still have all our passports confiscated in the office, so there’s some small hindrances left, but normally we should get them without problems.

I try to think ahead, other jobs, with ACF or others, Norway, holidays, but I don’t want to think about it. I just want my normal life back and I just want to go home to Nyala.

Big hug to all of you – and also to let you know that lot’s of you are on my ‘emails to write’ list and I am very very sorry I’ve been such a completely useless email writer.

 

[dafobbishon3 10+ year member]

this is really long. i didn't bother. :[

 

[infamous_e46 5,000+ posts]

That's fked up man

 

[MorningWood]

The more you say, the less people remember.

 

[chaunb3400 10+ year member]

cliffs?

 

[bigbangtheory 5,000+ posts]

I am bored, but not that bored.

 

[peas247 10+ year member]

not happenin

 

[WillyG4444 10+ year member]

I started, but couldn't finish //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif The tone seems like it's sad though. Cliffs would make us happy //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/veryhappy.gif.fec4fed33b4a1279cf10bdd45a039dae.gif

 

[bose301s 5,000+ posts]

A lot of the African continent is pretty f'd up right now. It is absolutely horrendous what is happening in Sudan and Darfur and under leaders like Mugabe. I definitely feel for all of the people, but there isn't much we can do sadly.

 

[LouDEnougH? 10+ year member]

Cliffs?

 

[mcsoul 10+ year member]

Cliffs?

Africa's all f*cked up.

 

[mattf 5,000+ posts]

Too long to read for me.

 

[billjones42 10+ year member]

This brought a tear to my eye. Not cuz it's sad, but cuz it's sad that you care this much. If everyone cared about our own country as much as you care about this crap, our country would be in good shape.

 

[mazzasec 5,000+ posts]

Spam