News III

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Listening Comprehension
News III
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• Where is Sudan located?
• What is the ethnic composition of Sudan?
• What conflict is taking place in Sudan's Darfur
  region?
• How did this conflict start?
• How has this conflict impacted the country and
  its people?
• What is the potential fate of the refugees?
• How have the Sudanese government, the United
  Nations, the international community and the
  United States responded to the Darfur crisis?
• What is the status of the conflict?

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War in Darfur
UN Force for Darfur Faces Challenges
                                             
Chinese peacekeepers prepare for their UN mission to Sudan, 16 Jan 2007 file photo
The international community has thrown its
support behind the United Nations resolution
authorizing a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force in
Darfur. The force is to be in place by January. 
But some experts say getting the troops in place
will be a difficult task. Anita Elash reports for
VOA from Paris.
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The U.N. resolution that passed on Tuesday calls
for 26,000 peacekeepers, to be sent to the
western Darfur region of Sudan. Some 200,000
people have died in the region and another 2.5
million have been displaced since fighting began
four years ago. The government of Sudan is
accused of arming Arab Janjaweed militiamen
against ethnic African rebels, and until this
week, it had stalled efforts to deploy a U.N.
peacekeeping force
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Today, we're taking you to the North African
nation of Sudan. It borders the red sea and other
countries you see here. Our focus is on Sudan's
Darfur region, where a deadly conflict broke out
in 2003, and continues today despite
international efforts to stop the violence. A
recent peace-deal was supposed to disarm the
Janjaweed militia, and give the country's rebels
a place in the Sudanese government. But on the
ground, things haven't changed much, for refugees
of the violence. Daryn Kagan explains the forces
dividing the country.
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It is the greatest humanitarian crisis in the
world today. More than 200 thousand people dead
according to some estimates. More than 2 million
left homeless. The U.S. calls it genocide. The
victims are black Sudanese peasants men, women
and children. The attackers Arab militias known
as the Janjaweed. Human Rights Watch accuses
Sudan's Arab government of ethnic cleansing.
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It began three years ago. The black Africans
launched a violent rebellion. They were demanding
an official position in government and a share in
Sudan's new-found oil wealth. The Arab government
responded by arming the Janjaweed and allowing
them to systematically kill, rape and burn down
entire villages in a scorched-earth campaign.
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Somalia
Flag
Coat of arms
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officially the Republic of Somalia
the Gulf of Aden
center for commerce
1974 as a member of the Arab League
joined other African nations when it founded the
African Union
founding members of the Organisation of the
Islamic Conference and is also a member of the UN
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Capital(and largest city) Mogadishu
Official languages Somali, Arabic
Government Government Coalition Government
 -  President Sharif Ahmed
 -  Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke
Independence Independence from Britain and Italy 
 -  Date 26 June and 1 July 1960 
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British Somaliland became independent on June 26,
1960, and the former Italian Somaliland followed
suit five days later. On July 1, 1960, the two
territories united to form the Somali Republic
July 1976 when the real dictatorship of the
Somali military commenced with the founding of
the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party
Conflict broke out again in early 2006 between an
alliance of Mogadishu warlords known as the
Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and
Counter-Terrorism (or "ARPCT") and a militia
loyal to the Islamic Courts Union (or "I.C.U."),
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On January 31, 2009, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed
was elected as president at the Kempinski hotel
in Djibouti. Former Prime Minister Nur Hassan
Hussein of the Transitional Federal Government
and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed signed a power sharing
deal in Djibouti that was brokered by the United
Nations. According to the deal, Ethiopian troops
were to withdraw from Somalia, giving their bases
to the transitional government, African Union
(AU) peacekeepers and moderate Islamist groups
led by the ARS. Following the Ethiopian
withdrawal, the transitional government expanded
its parliament to include the opposition and
elected Sheikh Ahmed as its new president on
January 31, 2009. Sheikh Ahmed then appointed
Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, the son of slain
former President Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, as the
nation's new Prime Minister
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Lack of Effective Somali Government Root of
Piracy Problem, Experts Say
Piracy off the coast of Somalia has become a
multi-million dollar business as armed Somali
gunmen attack all sorts of vessels - from small
pleasure crafts to giant oil supertankers -
transiting the region. The pirates are not
interested in the cargo or crew. They only want
ransom money that can reach several million
dollars per vessel.
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In an effort to combat piracy, naval ships from
the United States, the European Union, China,
Russia, India and others have been dispatched to
the region - especially to the Gulf of Aden. But
analysts, such as J. Peter Pham with James
Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, say
the pirates have changed their tactics.
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"However, perversely, because of that increased
international presence in the Gulf of Aden, the
pirates have shifted their operations to the
western part of the Indian Ocean,'" he said. "And
that presents a problem, because the
approximately two dozen ships from various navies
of the world, including the United States, the
European Union, Russia, China and others, cannot
possibly cover the more than one million square
miles of the area that the pirates have now
shifted their operations onto," he said. 
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International navies can do little
Many analysts say increasing the international
naval presence in the region will do little to
stem the piracy problem.Experts say pirates
operate from well-known bases on the Somali
coast.Peter Chalk, a maritime security analyst
with the RAND Corporation, says the naval
presence does not address the problem of the
coastal Somali communities."For the coastal
communities, the pirates are the major economic
influx to their livelihood. Piracy is stimulating
local economies in many of these areas. A whole
trade is emerging around the logistics to provide
for ships when they are in port," he noted. "And
it's rumored that at least 20 percent of ransom
payments are re-invested back into coastal
communities. So the coastal communities
themselves have no vested interest in turning in
the pirates and have a great deal of interest in
protecting them," he said. 
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The option of attacking pirate bases
Analysts such as Retired U.S. Army Colonel Ralph
Peters say it may be necessary to attack the
pirate bases in Somalia."So what you could do
is when you have identified a village or port
town that is clearly supporting piracy, you go in
and destroy every vessel in the harbor. That
would help. It would get people's attention.
Because if you are not willing to punish people
severely for crimes and are not willing to affect
the livelihoods of those who support the
criminals, you are not going to get real
results," he said.
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J. Peter Pham says the pirate bases are well
known."Ninety percent of the Somali piracy
occurs out of two ports, Eyl and Haraardheere.
We know where they are. We even know who the
pirate leaders are because they use their
fabulous wealth to build huge and rather
ostentatious mansions that are there for everyone
to see," he said.But analyst Peter Chalk
questions whether attacking Somali territory is
the right answer.
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"What I hope does not happen is that we get a
dramatic response - we start sending a military
force, particularly on land - because the
possibilities of civilian casualties are
enormous. In the end, this is simply a form of
crime," he said. "It's a law enforcement problem
and to have a military solution to a law
enforcement problem, in my opinion, is not the
way to go. And you are almost certainly going to
create a situation far worse than the one that
you are confronting at the moment," he added. 
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Somali good governance key to solution  Chalk
says one way to address the problem is for the
international community to provide the countries
around Somalia - Kenya, Djibouti and Yemen - with
coastal patrol boats to confront the pirates.
But virtually all analysts agree that to defeat
piracy the international community must address
the root of the problem Somalia itself, which
has been without an effective central government
since 1991.  "Ultimately, there can never be a
solution to the disorder at sea without a
resolution of the statelessness and lack of an
effective government on Somali territory, on
land. Because that is what gives the pirates an
opportunity to essentially have a safe haven for
their piracy," said analyst J. Peter Pham.Pham
and other analysts say that without an effective
system of governance in Somalia, piracy will
continue to flourish. But they say that for now,
very few governments have shown much interest in
addressing Somalia's problems.