AU

 Hello African Union!

I found this article on CNN.com (see below), which talks about how the relationship between the government of Chad and the Sudanese government has changed since Darfur refugees have fled to Chad.  CNN reports that the Prime Minister of Chad is calling on the international community to expell the refugees in order to curb violence in the East region of the country.

This article and the issue of refugees fleeing to Chad brings up some important questions to be considered when examining the Darfur crisis:  To what extent is the crisis a domestic problem and to what extent is the crisis an international problem?  Does the Sudanese government have the right to claim sovreignty in dealing with the crisis or is international intervention appropriate?

These are just a few things to consider when you’re reading the article.  Also, it might be interesting to read more about refugees in Chad, so you may want to check out more on CNN.com and other sites.
-Vice Chair Beth Dukes

[article retrieved on 2-12-2008 from  http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/02/11/chad.refugees.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch]

N’DJAMENA, Chad (AP) – — Chad’s prime minister on Monday blamed the influx of some 300,000 refugees from the neighboring Darfur region for his country’s worsening tensions with Sudan and he demanded the international community move them out.

Refugee camps in eastern Chad house about 300,000 people who fled vioelnce in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Prime Minister Nouradin Koumakoye warned that if the refugees are not transferred elsewhere, Chad’s government would expel them on its own.

Koumakoye repeated charges that Sudan is fomenting violence here because Darfur refugees are sheltering in eastern Chad. Chadian rebels often clash with government forces in the east and attacked the capital earlier this month before being driven off, but Sudan denies any involvement.

“We are being attacked by Sudan because of these refugees,” Koumakoye told reporters in N’Djamena, the capital.

“We demand that the international community transfer the population (of Sudanese refugees) from Chad to Sudan to free us,” he said. “We want the international community to look for another country so that the Sudanese can leave. If they cannot do it, we are going to do it.”

Chad has threatened previously to expel the Darfur refugees, who have fled five years of fighting between the region’s ethnic African rebel groups and Sudan’s Arab-dominated government.

After attacks by Chadian rebels in April 2006, President Idriss Deby said he would force them back into Sudan if the international community did not take action to prevent Sudan from destabilizing his country. Deby backed down a few days later under intense international pressure.

Over the weekend, about 12,000 more Darfur people fled across the border into eastern Chad after air strikes by the Sudanese military on several towns.

An estimated 280,000 Sudanese already were living in camps in eastern Chad, and the United Nations says some 140,000 Chadians in that area also have been displaced by violence linked to the Darfur conflict.

Chad previously accused Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir of backing the rebel attack on N’Djamena in a bid to prevent deployment of a European Union peacekeeping force in the border region.

The 3,700-strong force is intended to protect refugees and humanitarian workers along Sudan’s borders with Chad and the Central African Republic, but a planned December deployment was delayed by supply problems. The recent fighting in Chad’s capital further delayed the force.

In an interview late Sunday with The Associated Press, the commander in Chad of the EU force, Brig. Gen. Jean-Philippe Ganascia, said he hoped its initial units would arrive by the end of February and the entire force within three months.

Ganascia also said that had the EU peacekeepers been in place, they would not have intervened in Chad’s internal conflict except to defend civilians.

Chadian rebels, who accuse Deby of corruption and embezzling millions in oil revenue, attacked the capital February 2-3, advancing from their strongholds in the east in trucks mounted with machine guns.

The rebels were repelled after bloody battles, but French military officers reported fighting between rebels and government troops in central Chad as recently as Friday.

Nonetheless, the capital’s airport was being reopened, a sign the government believes normalcy is returning. Security officials at the airport said the first commercial passenger flight was expected Tuesday, an Air France plane

Dear Delegates,

My name is Beth Dukes and I’m a second year here at Berkeley majoring in Political Economy of Industrialized Societies and minoring in Public Policy and perhaps French.  I will be one of your vice chairs in the African Union.  I am actually new to MUN this year and am excited to continuing learning the ins and outs of MUN and the Berkeley tournament.  I am especially excited to be a part of African Union!

I’d now like to make a few comments on the Darfur conflict, one of the two topics you will be debating in committee.  The Darfur conflict refers to the crisis in this western region of Sudan where the Sudanese government-supported Arab militia group, Janjaweed, has targeted non-Arab Sudanese populations and has killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of these individuals.  Because the violence in this area is based on Ethnic divisions, the United States government and others have deemed it genocide.  The UN, however, has been unable to declare the conflict genocide—and therefore has had a harder time taking action in the region—because of certain country’s dependence on Sudan’s oil.  Some important questions to think about when addressing this issue are: is this conflict genocide, and if so, what makes it genocide; as the African Union, how does this conflict affect your continent and people; and what can you do to resolve this conflict and what kind of foreign aid does Africa need?

We hope to get your brains working and the ball rolling for your research.  Good luck with everything and feel free to post questions here.

Beth Dukes

Hi future African Union debaters, my name is Taylor Wiegele and I am one of your vice chairs for BMUN’s 56th session! I’m a sophomore in the College of Chemistry here at Cal studying Chemical Engineering. I’m an avid Cal sports fan and was among the many that cried themselves to sleep at night following the demise of our football program this year. I’m also an out-of-state student from Shawnee, Kansas (about 15 minutes south of Kansas City). I’m looking forward to working with all of you in March and want to give you another point to consider concerning the water crisis in Africa:

As an issue that gets little to no international (let alone domestic) attention, how can the African Union raise awareness and mobilize people to change the water crisis in Africa?

Excited,
Taylor Wiegele

Dear Delegates,

It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the 56th session of Berkeley MUN and specifically the African Union. We hav not launched this committee in a few years and I am very excited about bringing it back for the 56th session. The committee will be a small one, strictly comprised of African nations and focusing on african issues.

This year we will discuss the crisis in Darfour and Africa water rights. You should find the topic synopsis posted on: http://bmun.net/documents/bmun56/committees/AU56.pdf

The purpose of this blog is to stimulate debate, have, engage with your fellow delegats, start forming caucus groups and reach out to us about any questions that you may have.

Let me end by quickly introducing myself. I am Lina El Houssamy, a fourth year student, double majoring in business administration and economics and I am going to be your head chair. This will be my 8th year doing MUN and the conclusion to a truly amazing MUN journey; I look forward to ending this journey with a great committee and stimulating debate from you delegates.

Cant wait to see you all in March!

Lina

P.S Coming up: Introductions from your vice chairs and how to write a good topic synopsis!

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