Northern Sudan is one of the country's most marginalized regions. It's currently home to the largest hydroelectric construction project in Africa - the Merowe Dam. While the dam has the potential to drastically increase electricity production for Sudan, the project has come at a massive human cost, forcibly displacing thousands of people from their communities.
Over the past few weeks, I've heard from international aid agencies operating in Sudan that government officials were escalating their pattern of repression in the region by blocking humanitarian access to the populations forced out by recent flooding caused by the dam. A report I received today from the NGO International Rivers is even more disturbing:
We just learned that Uta Simon, a representative of the UN's Khartoum
Monitoring Mission, was arrested today while she was visiting the
area which is currently being flooded by the Merowe Dam. We learned
from contacts in Sudan that Uta and two fellow travellers were
arrested at 2:45 pm local time in Kabna village, Nile State, by Nile
State police forces. Villagers suspect that Uta and her colleagues
were brought to Adama town....
The Sudanese authorities have closed the affected area off to aid
agencies, journalists and presumably the UN. UN Special Envoy Sima
Simar was prevented from visiting the Merowe project area in the past....
The arrest of Uta Simon and her colleagues is a scandalous attempt to
prevent any relief and support from reaching the people affected by
the Merowe Dam. It is also a blatant interference in the UN's
humanitarian mission.
Learn more about the current situation in Merowe at the blog of Peter Bosshard, Policy Director of International Rivers.
Those who look to the indictment as a tool of justice are certainly wrong. The real thing is that the western world is worried of Sudanese role in letting the "Yellow" Chinese play on their African backyard. Let them first just "blame" the killer of children in Qazza. and the tortured Iraqui at the American president. They will NOT
Posted by: A SUDANESE | February 22, 2009 at 01:05 PM
This is a quite inappropriate reply to this news headline on an innocent women working for the United Nations being arrested. I am sure that even the government noticed that such an arrest was not a terribly good idea. But to abuse this news post in order to waffle about the role of China in Sudan is not only missing the point of the indictment, but a tasteless affront to the innocent victim.
Posted by: Bo Peterson | March 08, 2009 at 08:40 PM
In turn, the form of the previous reply IS appropriate indeed, in that the many misspellings and the fact that the last sentence just suddenly ends nicely reflect the degree of thoughtfulness of the post.
Posted by: Bo Peterson | March 29, 2009 at 01:18 PM
What a majorly and severely fucked-up country.
Posted by: Dean Mason | April 14, 2009 at 08:43 PM
Would that not be a good reason to stop UN aid to Sudan?
The president is laughing at the International Criminal Court, innocent UN employees are arrested and brought in very serious and difficult situations: So what exactly is again the justification of sending more aid? Should one not wait until the people of Sudan have found a way to get rid of the president? If they elect him again, fine, but why using tax payers money from all over the world to stabilize this regime?
Posted by: Dean Mason | April 17, 2009 at 09:25 AM
I very much agree. Aid must to a much larger extent be linked to certifiable criteria for political conduct, e.g., as far as human rights are concerned. It is as simple as that: No fulfillment of the criteria, no money.
Posted by: Ulf Weinstein | May 09, 2009 at 05:33 PM
Yeah, right, and human rights organizations are kicked out of the country, people who put their life at risk to help. To start a UN trade embargo could possibly help. Interesting: Irak was being bombed, and what is happening in Sudan is far worse, yet Hussein was the bad guy. Compared to al Bashir, Saddam looks like an innocent schoolboy.
Posted by: Dean Mason | May 17, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Well, a military intervention with UN mandate seems like a good plan to me.
Posted by: Claude Grangier | June 01, 2009 at 11:05 AM
How dare they arresting an innocent women, essentially working for them, not against them?!
Posted by: Hans Thomas | July 17, 2009 at 08:10 PM
Fortunately, she was released.
Posted by: Jens Eisert | July 25, 2009 at 10:04 PM
Well, if one really has to enter such regions, one should not be too surprised if this happens.
Posted by: Marius Koehler | October 14, 2009 at 10:37 AM
I really don't know if this is positive or not, because thanks to the dam there is less marginalized regions, but the quantity of persons affected by this increased too much during the last year. Definitely this is to difficult to give a verdict.
Posted by: Kamagra | November 17, 2010 at 06:54 PM
why they arrest her?
is a violation to the human rights!
this should not be happend
luckly they release her by now, thanks god
Posted by: Miami Office Space | April 09, 2011 at 10:12 PM
It's an important blog and this topic captured my attention because most of the NGOs operating in Sudan are UN agents such as World Food Program; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation and the United Nations Development Program, all of them are doing the best to improve the country. 23jj
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