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September 9
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Paul Salopek, an interpreter, and an accompanying driver were arrested on
August 6 in Darfur; they were on a "freelance assignment" for National Geographic, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Salopek is charged with espionage, illegal transfer of information, and entering the country without proper
documentation. The Sudanese regime is well-known for its repression of the free press and its mistreatment of journalists
who put the government in a negative position.
Governer Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Salopek's home state, said that chances of obtaining
the journalist's release were very good.
African Union Quits Sudan
September 9
On Tuesday, September 5, the African Union announced a plan to withdraw its small force of 7,000 soldiers
from Darfur; the AU has provided the only certain protection (although greatly limited) to those suffering in Darfur. It is
prepared to fully withdraw by the end of September unless United Nations peacekeepers intervene to provide badly need support
for the financially strapped AU mission.
The most shocking development is that the Sudanese government has plans to deploy national troops in Darfur, claiming that
they will take over the mission. Suspicion is highly justified, since the brutal Janjaweed militia is state-sponsored. Lacking
adequate funds, however, the AU has no choice but to leave Darfur on the brink of a horrible precipice: the possibility that
by October 1, there will be no foreign military force in Darfur.
AU officials, reiterating their decision to completely extricate their 7,000 troops, did say that negotiations were continuing,
and that they were based on the possibility of a UN takeover. If an AU evacuation takes place without the UN ready to step
in, the bloodiest chapter of this conflict may be yet to come if the al-Bashir government is successful in its plans to replace
the AU with Sudanese troops.
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On August 6, Paul Salopek,
a Chicago Tribune journalist, was jailed in Sudan on various charges, one of which was espionage.
Paul Salopek.
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On September 5, the
African Union promised to withdraw its 7,000 troops from Darfur if they are not reinforced by UN peacekeepers by the end of
September. The Sudanese government plans to deploy its national military into the region.
AU peackeepers patrol Khartoum on May 14, 2006, the day of a peace agreement.
Rwandan AU troops patrol Darfur.
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