JEM, Waging Peace and Darfur Child soldiers
On 5 August 2008 the Sudan Tribune published an article by the head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)’s Bureau for Training and Strategic Planning, Abdullahi Osman El-Tom (http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article28152). The paper ” Waging Peace: A credible NGO? ” included a number of allegations against the human rights organisation Waging Peace.
Below is the text of an email received by the Sudan Tribune in response to the above mentioned article.
1) In his article Mr El Tom implies that Waging Peace’s report on child
soldiers displayed partiality towards the government of Sudan. Waging
Peace would like to reassert the fact that it is an independent British
Human Rights Organisation with no links to the government of Sudan (or any other government) against whose human rights record it has taken a highly critical stance.
2) Mr El Tom alleges that the conclusions drawn in Waging Peace’s report
were inaccurate, however the findings have been corroborated by the UN Secretary-General and the UN Special Rapporteur on Children and Armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, who has also commented on JEM’s use of child soldiers.
3) Mr El Tom was incorrect in his claim that Waging Peace interviewed only two informants. Waging Peace has not publicly revealed details of those they collected testimony from in order to protect their identities,
however their names have been passed on to those international judicial
bodies considering using the testimonials as evidence in their
investigations.
4) In his discussion of the case of Rachid, Mr El Tom alleges that Waging
Peace used the child’s case as a fundraising tool. This is not the case,
all money raised for Rachid went directly to pay for costs relating to his
treatment. These expenses are monitored by external auditors.
5) Mr El Tom falsely states that Waging Peace and Children of Fire ordered Khadmalla to fly back to Chad after a week in South Africa. In fact the UNHCR, the Massaleit community in Chad and Khadmalla decided prior to her departure that she would stay in South Africa for a week only, so as to
return to her granddaughter in Chad.
6) The UNHCR informed Waging Peace that Rachid and Khadmalla spoke no Arabic, it was not a false assumption on the part of the organisation as Mr El Tom alleges.
7) The Chief of the Massaleit community accepted that the false translator was responsible for the communication problems raised between Khadmalla and Waging Peace. Legal proceedings against this individual are currently underway. All the operations that Waging Peace raised funds for were a success and Rashid is now back in Chad and looking forward to supporting his family in the future.
8) Mr El Tom’s assertion that Waging Peace organised the first meeting of Darfuri women in the UK is incorrect. A Waging Peace representative who
speaks Arabic was present, but played no part in the event’s organisation or content. Since Waging Peace was asked to take over the coordination of the group, it has put extensive information together, trained mentors and will be resuming activities with the women in September 2008.
9) Mr El Tom alleges that he saw pictures exhibited by Waging Peace in
Geneva. In fact the pictures that Waging Peace collected have never been displayed in Geneva. However, Waging Peace did receive an email on 24th July 2008 from Mr El Tom in which he commented that their drawings “are excellent and I have included them in my talks on Darfur before”. Waging Peace’s drawings have now been accepted as contextual evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court and are being exhibited worldwide to raise awareness about the crisis in Darfur.
Louise Roland-Gosselin, Executive Director of Waging Peace