After splendid isolation in the hotel, writing and editing from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. with breaks only for food, the evaluation report was finalized on Monday, June 25th. We submitted it in the afternoon to our UN counterparts via…

The flight back to Khartoum was uneventful although there was an amusing episode as the straggling Westerners ended up being taken from the airport to the AMIS check-in center on the back of a flatbed truck. On the steamy wooden…

I had an unexpected surprise in El Fasher at an UNMIS meeting, when a human rights protection officer I met with turned out to be a former student. He organized a small dinner party for our last night in Darfur,…

My dreams are filled with sand and rocks. The sand is everywhere. It is inescapable. You find it between your toes in the evening and dust storms carry it to your breakfast table. In this environment of arid heat, human…

I’m beginning my third full day in Nyala. I spent all of yesterday at the AMIS (African Union Mission in Sudan) CIVPOL (civilian police) compound interviewing trainers and former trainees. I also observed portions of an in-mission training. The peacekeepers…

It was physically quite tough to be in Fasher. There is the heat, the road conditions, and an ongoing question about one can find basic amenities, such as a fan, running water, an operating toilet, a place to buy water,…

I left the hotel at 6 a.m. to take the flight to El Fasher. There are nice-looking UN jets at the airport but it is the African Union planes that curry soldiers and civilians to Fasher each day. It was…

We’ve just finished our second day here in Khartoum. Our time has been spent in briefings and initial interviews, and dealing with a mind boggling host of administrative issues. I needed to pass basic and advanced security tests in order…