Gethin Chamberlain

Gethin Chamberlain is a photojournalist covering India and South Asia for The Observer. Now based in New Delhi, he was previously a London-based foreign correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph and, before that, chief reporter for The Scotsman, where he was named Journalist of the Year and Reporter of the Year for his coverage of the war in Iraq. He has also worked for a number of British tabloid papers, including the Daily Record and The Sun, and is now available for editorial and photographic freelance assignments. Look here www.gethinchamberlain.com for cuttings and here www.newsandpics.com for photography

This blog is now dormant.

Afghan leaders steal half of all aid, says US military Needy fail to get goods meant to woo them from the Taliban

BY GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN

28 January 2007, The Sunday Telegraph

CORRUPT POLICE and tribal leaders are stealing vast quantities of reconstruction aid that is intended to improve the lives of ordinary Afghans and turn them away from the Taliban, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

In some cases, all the aid earmarked for an area has ended up in the wrong hands. Defence officials in the United States and Britain estimate that up to half of all aid in Afghanistan is failing to reach the right people.

Nato forces in the south of the country say some Afghan police are guilty of corruption and will steal aid if it is handed out. Tribal and mosque elders have also been accused of seizing goods, including building materials and fuel, and selling them in markets.

A Pentagon official said thousands of cars and trucks intended for use by the Afghan police had been sold instead.

Last week, the US and European Union announced plans to spend an additional pounds 7 billion on assistance to Afghanistan, of which pounds 1.5 billion will be earmarked for reconstruction.

A committee of MPs is to investigate the corruption, which has dogged operations in Afghanistan since the Taliban were driven from power in 2001.

James Arbuthnot, chairman of the Commons defence select committee, said the matter needed to be urgently addressed. ‘Corruption is something we will be examining, he said.

Nato commanders in southern Afghanistan are deeply concerned at the level of corruption but have resolved to press ahead with reconstruction projects in the hope of winning over the local population and improving security.

In one recent example in Kandahar province, aid distribution went ahead despite fears that it would be stolen. Sergeant Major Denis Tondreau, in charge of delivering Canadian army aid to the Pashmul area, said the Afghan police unit in one village was known for corruption and extortion. ‘I have been told that if I bring aid to Pasab the police will steal it, he said. ‘They are just a bad, bad unit… extortion, corruption and use of drugs.

But people in the area said tribal and mosque elders were also guilty of stealing aid. In the nearby town of Panjwaii, workers said aid distributed by Nato’s provincial reconstruction teams had not reached the ordinary people.

Abdul Ghany, 20, said: ‘When the soldiers came here they gave things to the rich people. The elders took things for themselves and we received nothing.

Noor Ullah, a police intelligence officer in the neighbouring Zharey district, said tribal leaders had to be persuaded that the aid was not intended for them alone. At a heated meeting he warned them: ‘The equipment is not to rebuild your own homes, it is for the mosques and the whole village. It is not for individuals, it is for the community. It is not for you to take and sell it.

Aid and reconstruction work are seen as key elements of the Nato strategy in Afghanistan, and were cited by the British Government as the main reason for deploying thousands of additional troops last year.

On Friday, Nato foreign ministers signalled that they would boost their military and economic contributions amid calls for more investment in development projects to win the support of the Afghan population.

Liam Fox, the Conservative defence spokesman, said he had heard first-hand of corruption affecting the reconstruction programmes when he visited Afghanistan last summer. ‘There is increasing corruption from top government officials down, which is making efforts to get reconstruction off the ground much more difficult, he said.

Charles Heyman, a defence analyst and former British Army major, said millions of pounds earmarked for reconstruction were being siphoned off. ‘It almost comes with the programme, he said. ‘You have to build in an element of that into any programme because you know it will leak into people’s pockets.

A joint report by the Pentagon and the US state department, circulated to congressional committees last month, concluded that the Afghan police force was corrupt to the point of ineffectiveness. One Pentagon official told The Sunday Telegraph that police officers had stolen and sold at least half of the equipment supplied by the US, including thousands of cars and trucks.

The Department for International Development said progress had been made. ‘We work closely with local people, the governor and representatives of the national government in drawing up projects, to make sure that what we do meets the needs of local people, said a spokesman.

Among the projects funded by the department are the purchase of uniforms and winter coats for the Afghan police, a hospital generator and a mortuary.

But it confirmed that some of the pounds 2 million allocated to projects intended to help internal refugees had been diverted to build vehicle checkpoints.

Kandahar

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Canadian soldiers rest up during patrol into Taliban-held territory, Kandahar, December 2006

Peacekeepers in Darfur pay fighters $1m a year

By Gethin Chamberlain in north Darfur, for The Sunday Telegraph
 

The African Union is paying out more than $1 million (£550,000) a year to warring factions in Darfur who are involved in blatant breaches of the peace deal it is supposed to be monitoring.

The cash-strapped organisation has been obliged to hire representatives from the Sudanese army and rebel groups in an attempt to negotiate access to the areas which they control.

Under the peace agreement signed in Abuja in May, the 7,000-strong African Union (AU) force is supposed to have freedom of movement across Darfur. Instead, staff say they cannot move without the permission of the various factions, who are using the cash paid out by the AU to fund their operations while simultaneously hindering attempts to safeguard civilians.

Col Richard Lourens, the South African officer, who commands the AU sector around the town of Kutum in north Darfur, said he had to give 24 hours’ notice to enter some areas.

“It is very frustrating. The peace agreement states that we have freedom of movement,” he added. “It is totally against the agreement that we don’t. We cannot monitor freely, we can only monitor in consultation.”

The AU mission in Sudan is so short of cash that its own staff have not been paid since August. Yet it is handing over salaries of $2,700 a month to dozens of representatives of groups that signed the peace agreement, including the Sudanese army, Sudanese Liberation Army Mini Minawi faction, Justice and Equality Movement, and the Free Decision Front.

Officially, every group sends its own representatives to each of the AU’s eight sector headquarters to help monitor and investigate ceasefire violations. But their most important role is to sanction the movement of AU troops.

If the AU wants to run a convoy between two of its bases, it must secure the permission of every group that holds territory along the route. If one objects – which happens regularly – the mission cannot go ahead.

One AU officer described how the Sudanese army uses its representatives to keep AU troops in their bases while civilians are being attacked.

“They get their representative to tell us that they have heard there will be an attack on our base,” the officer said. “That means we spend the night waiting for something to happen, while they get on with attacking whatever target they are going for. If we hear firing, the rep tells us that they have run into a group of rebels. The rep says it is too dangerous for us to go out in case we are caught up in the crossfire. So we have to wait until they say it is safe to go out – and by then it is all over.”

The officer said rebel groups used the same ploy to prevent access to their areas when they were involved in military action, informing AU commanders that it would be too dangerous for their troops to venture out.

James Smith, chief executive of the Aegis Trust for genocide prevention, said the AU was being forced to pay to have its own work disrupted.

“It is outrageous that the AU, deprived of cash even to pay its own soldiers, should have to pay $1 million a year to negotiate safe passage,” he said. “It reflects the absurdity of the situation in Darfur: the government of Sudan claims to be the peacemaker, yet has further armed the janjaweed (Arab) militia it was supposed to be disarming and now holds the AU to ransom, while it undertakes further offensives.”

The end of Ramadan has brought an expected upsurge in violence as the Sudan’s government and its janjaweed allies attempt to secure a military victory over the rebels. Scores of civilians, including 27 children, were killed in attacks on eight settlements in the Djebel Moun area of west Darfur last week. The United Nations said the attacks involved about 500 janjaweed members, riding horses and camels and supported by Land Cruisers mounted with machine-guns, prompting Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, to call again for all sides to respect the peace agreement.

“The attacks on settlements, including a camp harbouring 3,500 displaced persons, caused scores of civilian deaths and forced thousands to flee the area,” he said.

The African Union’s mandate runs out on December 31 and in its place the UN Security Council has voted to send a 22,500-strong peacekeeping mission to Darfur, with a stronger mandate to use military force to end the fighting.

Sudan’s government, however, opposes any UN intervention and wants the AU to continue its mission.

Last week, President George W Bush gave the first hint that the US might accept a compromise, when he omitted any specific mention of the UN in calling for “an effective international force” in Darfur.

Publishers wishing to reproduce photographs on this page should phone 44 (0) 207 538 7505 or e-mail syndication@telegraph.co.uk

05/11/2006

Tax ruling will save UK drinkers billions

By Justin Stares in Brussels and Gethin Chamberlain
 

British shoppers will soon be able to buy cut-price alcohol and cigarettes from the Continent without leaving home, as a result of an extraordinary legal test case that threatens to blow a multi-billion pound hole in the Treasury’s coffers.

The European Court of Justice is expected to rule next week that goods can be bought in other EU states and delivered to the door while only the duty levied in the country of origin is paid. This is often a fraction of that charged in Britain.

If, as appears likely, the court rubber-stamps a previous adjudication by its advocate general, shoppers will be free to use the internet or mail order companies to find the best bargains around Europe and have them shipped home for their own consumption.

The potential savings are huge: 200 cigarettes purchased in Latvia cost only £7.20, a saving of about £43, while several European countries charge no duty on wine.

Businesses across Europe are gearing up for the changes, but the British Retail Confederation warns that UK businesses will lose unless action is taken to harmonise duty rates across the Continent.

The Treasury earns £15 billion a year from excise duty on alcohol and cigarettes — enough to pay the running costs of the Home Office, the Foreign Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Tax experts believe the ruling, due on November 23, will hasten moves towards single rates of tax across the EU and hit ferry companies, which rely heavily on “booze cruises”.

Legal advice drawn up by the accountants Ernst & Young says: “The judgment… is likely to allow individuals to purchase alcohol over the internet or by telephone from other EU member states and to have their purchases delivered to them at home, while still paying low duty rates in the country of purchase.

“Retailers and distributors in EU member states with low alcohol duty rates are likely to be able to increase direct sales of alcohol to customers.”

The dramatic change in British tax policy hinges on an attempt by a Dutch group to have wine they had bought in France shipped home, without physically accompanying their purchases. The Dutch government levied alcohol duty on the wine, but after a legal challenge the European court’s advocate-general, Francis Jacob, found it had been wrong to do so.

A number of European governments, including Britain, have urged the court to reject the adjudication. But in 80 per cent of cases the court upholds the advocate-general’s decision, and Charles Meechan, an Ernst & Young director, said: “All the evidence is that the ruling will not go the UK’s way.”

Britain has one of the highest excise rates in Europe and shoppers are expected to rush to take advantage of the ruling, which cannot be appealed against and would take immediate effect. At present, Britons can bring alcohol and tobacco with them into the country if they can show it is for personal consumption.

Jeremy Beadle, the chief executive of the Wine and Spirits Trade Association, said the case could have a serious impact. “The key disincentive until now has been that you have to travel with the goods.”

HM Revenue and Customs refused to comment on the case but the Euro-MP Charles Tannock, the Tory spokesman on the duty-free trade, said: “This is going to be a huge embarrassment to Gordon Brown and his tax-raising attempts. It will also increase pressure on member states to harmonise excise duty. If we are going to have a single market this must be permitted.”

15/11/2006

 

‘I hate myself for being involved in this war’

By Gethin Chamberlain in Kutum, north Darfur
 

Bullets kicked up the dust in front of the armoured car. Another round flashed overhead, close enough for its high-pitched whine to be heard.

	Cpl Mohammed Adam Dahir: ‘Everyone wants it to end’

The African Union fuel convoy moving west across Darfur had driven straight into a firefight between the Sudanese army and rebels, in which the army was coming off worst. As mortar rounds exploded ahead, an injured government soldier crawled weakly towards his machine gun truck while another lay dead in front of a battered yellow lorry.

Three years after it attempted to quell a rebellion in its western Darfur region by unleashing a nomadic Arab militia known as the janjaweed – literally “devils on horseback” – Sudan’s government has lost control of the war.

The suffering inflicted, in terms of hundreds of thousands dead and more than 2.5 million people displaced, has left Khartoum ostracised by the international community. More worrying for Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir is that his army is demoralised and reluctant to fight on.

Sitting with his AK-47 at the guardhouse outside the Fata Burno camp for internally displaced people in north Darfur last week, Cpl Mohammed Adam Dahir said the army no longer had the stomach for the fight. “Even I hate myself, being involved in this war,” he said. “Everyone wants it to end.

“I totally condemn what is going on. At the beginning of the war, I saw so many atrocities. I was helping to bury the dead. I don’t want to stay in the army. I don’t like it here because there is injustice and inequality. There is no protection for the civilians.”

Cpl Dahir’s words confirm the suspicions of Jan Pronk, the United Nations envoy, who was controversially expelled by Khartoum for claiming that Sudanese army morale was plummeting after defeat in two battles. The UN said yesterday, however, that Mr Pronk would return to the country until his contract expires at the end of the year.

The government had accused Mr Pronk of trying to undermine its authority, but the view given to The Sunday Telegraph from troops on the ground suggests that he was right about low morale. Cpl Dahir, 47, joined up 18 years ago and should be demobilising to rejoin the wife and five children he rarely sees. However, his commanders say that there are not enough soldiers and he must stay on.

Sixteen of them live in the rough brick building next to the camp. The army is supposed to send them food and water, but that stopped long ago.

“I am tired of it all,” said his comrade, Cpl Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim. “I am worried about my family. They don’t have enough food or money.” None of the soldiers had seen the army attack civilians, they said. It was the janjaweed, their ostensible allies, who were to blame.

“What upsets me most is they kill the innocents and take their property,” said Cpl Dahir. “The janjaweed are pro-government, but they go where there are people and animals and take the opportunity to fight for their own interests.”

As he spoke, the secretary of the camp, Mohammed Yusuf Adam, reported that the janjaweed were in fields nearby, trying to steal livestock from locals. Cpl Dahir did not get up. “I will write a report and file it,” he said. “Later I will take soldiers and try to drive them away.”

An hour earlier, in the Kassab camp at Kutum, residents told African Union police that the janjaweed had snatched three women who were out collecting firewood that morning. Despite the fact that abducted women are usually raped, the police said they did not have the resources or authority to intervene.

What is happening in Darfur is not strictly genocide, but a scorched-earth policy in which the government has exploited ethnic and tribal rivalries. The result is that vast swathes of the country are depopulated. Crops go to seed next to burnt-out villages, where the population has fled to refugee camps around the main towns. Yet even there, they are not safe.

In August, the UN Security Council voted to send a 22,500-strong peacekeeping force to Darfur to take over when the African Union’s mandate runs out on December 31. Few believe that it will meet that deadline, even if Khartoum drops its opposition.

Meanwhile, the African Union has to muddle through with its force of 7,000 soldiers. Hamstrung by obstacles placed in its path by Khartoum, it has neither the manpower nor the resources for the job, and cannot move along the roads without permission from the rebels or the government.

Every time it makes progress, an armed faction appears to complicate the situation further. “People need to be noble, they need to want peace,” said Col Richard Lourens, the South African commander of the African Union force in Kutum, north Darfur.

“But there is a sneakiness in this country. It is like the HIV virus. Every time you build up immunity they change form.”

It was one of his convoys that came under fire last week as The Sunday Telegraph travelled with it. Getting caught in the crossfire is a common hazard of their mission, as is getting bogged down on the rough, sandy roads.

“Going nowhere slowly,” one of the soldiers joked, as the detachment prepared to spend another night by the roadside. It is the name of a popular South African television programme, but it could equally sum up the African Union mission.

“If I had another 1,000 men, then ‘Wow’,” said Col Lourens. “If the janjaweed broke wind, I would know they broke wind.”

The African Union can barely make ends meet. The soldiers have not been paid since August and, at Kutum, they live on a monotonous diet of rice and goat.

Like many of his colleagues, Col Lourens would be happy if the UN dropped plans to send in its own force and instead funded an enhanced African Union force under a tough new mandate.

But while the diplomats wrangle, the warring factions continue to strengthen their hands.

“As long as the government of Sudan has power it will hold on to it,” said Col Lourens. “But others also want land and power. They are prepared to see their people suffer and be displaced. Where is the will for peace?”

Publishers wishing to reproduce photographs on this page should phone 44 (0) 207 538 7505 or e-mail syndication@telegraph.co.uk

Sudan masses its troops for a decisive strike on Darfur

By Gethin Chamberlain in El Fasher, North Darfur

The soldier pushed at the bomb with his foot, rolling it through the dust towards the white Russian-built Antonov aircraft standing on the runway of El Fasher airport.

The plane was being loaded for another bombing run, as Sudanese government forces gear up for a military onslaught when Ramadan ends today or tomorrow.

	A government soldier sits near a pile of weapons in northern Darfur

Crude but effective, the Antonovs are back in the air over the villages of Darfur, just as they were during the initial pogroms that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced more than two million. When they reach their targets, the soldiers lower the ramps and kick out the bombs – which look like munitions used in the Second World War – to explode on those below.

New arrivals at the El Salaam camp outside Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, describe how the Antonovs and helicopter gunships attacked their villages, forcing them to flee.

“I saw about 10 bombs falling,” said Adam Ishag, who fled his village of Hila Babkeir after it came under attack. “They exploded beside the houses and two were destroyed. We took the children and we ran away.”

The troubled western region of Sudan is entering a new and dangerous period. The Darfur Peace Agreement, signed in the Nigerian capital Abuja in May, largely at the urging of the international community, is widely perceived to have failed. Fighting has escalated and the rebel groups, which splintered acrimoniously after the signing, are once again looking to present a united front.

In recent weeks, the Sudanese government has been engaged in a frenetic game of diplomatic brinkmanship, trying to convince the international community that there is no need for a United Nations peacekeeping mission to Darfur, approved by the Security Council in August. Yet despite that, its army and its Arab militia allies, the Janjaweed, are reported to be massing in the north. The rebels, and UN officials, believe that a major attack is imminent.

Planes carrying soldiers have poured into El Fasher airport, bringing with them vast quantities of weapons. On Wednesday evening, traffic in the centre of town ground to a halt as a military convoy, perhaps 100 vehicles long, rolled by – some packed with men, others with machineguns and rocket launchers.

Both the government and the rebels – many now fighting under the banner of the newly formed National Redemption Front – fear that if the UN does take over from the hopelessly stretched African Union (AU) force, then there will be little chance of seizing more territory. If they have to renegotiate the peace agreement, they intend to do so from a position of strength.

“It is a stand-off with the US and some European governments, including Britain,” said Ghazi Atabani, a Sudanese presidential adviser, in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph last week. His government argues that it is now fighting a legitimate “war on terror” against those who refused to sign up to the peace deal. But Mr Atabani conceded that talks would have to come. “Even if you win the military battle, it is a loss,” he said. “In the end, it will just lead to another rebellion.”

Yet military victory itself is far from certain. UN and AU sources report that the Sudanese army is demoralised and vulnerable. It has suffered two heavy defeats in the past month – including one in which 3,000 troops were reportedly routed in 20 minutes.

Unlike the earlier war in southern Sudan, which pitched mainly Muslim government forces against Christian and animist rebels, Darfur is an almost exclusively Muslim conflict. “It is not a question of religion this time, it is a question of power,” said Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, an aid worker and fierce critic of the government.

The AU has said it does not want to stay on after December 31, when its mandate runs out. And there appears no prospect of a UN force of 22,500 troops arriving before spring.

For those caught in the -middle, life is looking desperate. Aid workers cannot operate effectively; at least a dozen have been killed since the peace deal was signed. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that 500,000 people are now cut off from aid.

“Life has always been precarious in Darfur,” said a spokesman. “It will never be an easy place to live. But it doesn’t have to be the living hell it is now.”

24/10/2006

Divisions intensify as families join rebels

By Gethin Chamberlain

The man who governs the war-torn state of North Darfur has revealed that some of his own family are now supporting rebel groups fighting against the Sudanese authorities.

In a rare interview, Osman Yusuf Kiber, Wali of North Darfur, said the conflict had become so complex that families were being torn apart by divided loyalties.

The conflict in Darfur is often explained as a clash between black African farmers and government-backed Arab nomads. But Mr Kiber said it reflected more complex divisions in Darfuri society.

“My own village has been destroyed,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “It was burned by rebels. My brothers and relatives have been killed.”

Despite that personal tragedy and the divisions the conflict had caused within his own family, he said he believed the Sudanese government was right to continue its campaign against those who had refused to sign up to the Darfur Peace Agreement. “It is a war,” he said. “So if that [Sudanese air raids] has happened it is because the government has a duty to defend its people.”

Mr Kiber said that only when both sides were prepared to negotiate would there be an end to the killing. Even then, the legacy of the conflict would long outlive the fighting: “There is a local social problem because if families are split there will be personal enmities.”

The solution, he said, lay reverting to traditional tribal systems for resolving disputes. “It is difficult for the international community or the government to solve – people themselves must do it.”

He opposed any intervention by the UN and called for the African Union to be given more resources to build up its own Darfur mission – a view that has been echoed by the Sudanese government in recent days.

Britain, like the United States, is convinced that a UN force is needed. But the Sudanese presidential adviser, Ghazi Atabani, rejected the prospect. “UN troops would be targeted and become an instrument of instability.”

The Sudanese government has been wrong-footed by pressure to back down. Nigeria’s president, Olusegun Obasanjo, is pressing President Omar al-Bashir to compromise. But Khartoum has been taken aback by the criticism from such an unexpected source, and claims that those involved have been bought off by the West. “African countries can change their views and positions very quickly, depending on the incentives they get,” Mr Atabani said.

21/10/2006

‘Das ist uncool’ – Germans fight back against English invasion

By Gethin Chamberlain

The deliberate mangling of the German language by generations of comedians has kept the British laughing since the end of the Second World War. Now the Germans are desperately trying to defend their tongue against a modern English invasion. While the French have been fighting a losing battle against Franglais for years, the Germans are only now beginning to take seriously the threat to their language from the rise of Denglish – the bastard child of Deutsch and English.   Germany is taking a stand against Denglish Angered by the emergence of such phrases as “Das ist cool” (that is cool) and “Eine tolle latte to go” (one large milky coffee to take away), German politicians and academics are demanding that their language be enshrined in the country’s constitution to save it from extinction. “Trendy pseudo-English produced daily by apparently brainless advertising agencies, marketing experts and computer salesmen is pouring forth like a poisonous porridge of magma which is burying a whole cultural landscape beneath it,” warned the writer Matthias Schreiber in Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine. In the brave new world of Denglish, Germans can “chatten” on the internet, “brainstormen” in business meetings and visit the “Job-Center” if the brainstormen proves unsuccessful. The rise of Denglish persuaded state authorities in Bavaria, concerned about drinking in schools, to coin the slogan, “Be Hard, Drink Soft!” Meanwhile Lufthansa claims “There’s no better way to fly”. Such developments have promp-ted Norbert Lammert, Germany’s conservative parliamentary president, to launch an initiative that aims to win constitutional protection for the German language. “Many countries, not only France, have done this,” he said. “Last May, the American Senate declared English to be the country’s official language to prevent Spanish assuming this role.” (Filed: 08/10/2006)