U.S. and European Media

November 12, 2022

Reuters: Darfur rebels say oil field hostages released. Darfur rebels on Monday said they had released five hostages seized during a raid on a Chinese-run oil field and repeated threats to attack more foreign operators in the energy-rich area. The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said it had handed over the three Sudanese, one Egyptian and one Iraqi to tribal leaders at 10 a.m. local time (0700 GMT). JEM chairman Khalil Ibrahim told Reuters: "They are now on their way to el-Muglad in west Kordofan where they will be received by the U.N. and the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross). "I want to tell other petroleum companies, particularly Chinese companies, that they must now leave the area. If they don't leave they will become military targets. "The announcement came three weeks after JEM attacked the Defra oil installation, run by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company in Kordofan, neighbouring Darfur. China's CNPC has the biggest stake in the group, alongside India's ONGC, Malaysia's Petronas and Sudan's state-owned Sudapet. JEM said it launched the attack to send a message to Chinese oil companies that it claims fund Khartoum's military through the revenues from their explorations.  He said no ransom had been paid for the release of the five men, who were in good health. JEM had decided to release them, he added, following appeals from the U.N. and Egypt. "Also JEM has no interest in capturing civilians."

New York Times: My Network, My Cause. In 2003, as Howard Dean's presidential bid surged, the Internet was hailed as a decisive new factor in electoral politics. In 2007, the explosive growth of online social networks seems poised to drive a similar upheaval in the world of philanthropy. A flood of new ventures -- like Bill Clinton's MyCommitment.org and Dollars for Darfur, an initiative by two high-school students -- aim to use Web-based communities to raise money for charitable causes. Until recently, philanthropic groups could accomplish little online beyond highlighting problems and trumpeting goals and programs, said Allison Fine, a senior fellow at Demos. Dollars for Darfur began after Nick Anderson, a high-school senior in Mount Hermon, Mass., visited South Africa on a school trip last year and became interested in the humanitarian crisis. He and a classmate, Ana Slavin, decided to use the Web to raise awareness among other students and money for the cause.  ''We were using these social networks every day,'' Mr. Anderson said. ''It was a big part of our lives. And we knew there were millions of other teenagers checking them two or three times a day, too.'' Their campaign, now part of the Save Darfur Coalition, an umbrella group of national religious organizations, raised $306,000 during the last school year. Mr. Anderson, who is now a youth ambassador for Oxfam America, visited the Abu Shouk refugee camp in Darfur this summer. A second Dollars for Darfur drive, aiming to raise $375,000, is under way.  SaveDarfur.org is one of the top draws at the Causes on Facebook Project, added to Facebook, the social networking site, when it was opened to outside software developers in May.

New Mexico Business Weekly: State Investment Council divesting from Darfur.  The New Mexico State Investment Council is pulling investments from seven corporations doing business in Darfur. It will also ban investments by the $16 billion state permanent fund in more than a dozen others that have business relationships with the Sudanese government.  New Mexico holds about $45 million in seven companies identified by the Sudan Divestment Taskforce as the worst offenders in the ongoing civil war in the African country, which has killed more than 200,000 and displaced another two million people. The companies are: China National Petroleum, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (NYSE: SNP), Lundin Petroleum (of Sweden), Weatherford Ltd. (NYSE: WFT), Wartsila (of Finland), ALSTOM (Pink Sheets: ALSGY) (of France) and Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding (of Japan). Gary Bland, state investment officer, said he is directing portfolio managers to liquidate the investments as soon as practicable. The managers also will closely monitor half a dozen other companies on the Taskforce's secondary watch list. "Today, New Mexico is standing up for what is right, by joining the forces actively seeking to protect Sudan's innocent citizens and press for the end of the civil war," Bland said in a prepared statement. "We are also sending a strong message to the corporate world that New Mexico will not accept investment profits that come at the expense of innocent lives lost to genocide." Bland said the vast majority of the state's investments are in a handful of stocks held by external international managers, who have a "whole range of prudent investment alternatives." The group's strategy is to focus only on what it calls the most "egregiously offending companies." It advocates targeting for divestment companies that have business relationships with the government or government-created projects, impart minimal benefit to the country's poor and have expressed no significant corporate governance policy regarding the current situation in Darfur.

Oregon Daily Emerald: A voice for Darfur. Mohamed Yahya spoke of his personal losses in the ongoing genocide. More than a decade before the slaughter in Darfur appeared in national newspaper headlines, the Sudanese government-supported "Janjaweed" militia burned a Massaleit village in Darfur to the ground. Of the thousands of people killed in attacks that day, 21 were relatives of Mohamed Yahya. "It is so sad, not because I lost my family members," Yahya said, but because so many years later the conflict continues to take lives in Darfur. On Saturday, Yahya spoke in Eugene and held a burning torch during a Lane County Darfur Coalition hosted event, "Bring the Olympic Dream to Darfur." The coalition held Saturday's torch relay as a part of an international effort to bring attention toward China's support of Sudan as Beijing gears up to host the 2008 Olympic Games under the slogan, "One World One Dream. "The events opened with a prayer from Lyda Pierce of the First United Methodist Church. "May leaders of nations, tribes, parties and bands work together for a peace that benefits all," Pierce said.

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The Darfur Daily News is a service of the Save Darfur Coalition.  To subscribe to the Daily News, please email [email protected]. For media inquiries, please contact Ashley Roberts at (202) 478-6181, or [email protected].