'Sudanese planes bombed village while President undertook Darfur peace mission'
By Rob Crilly
July 25, 2008
The Times
Original Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4400657.ece

Government planes were bombing targets in Darfur even while the Sudanese President toured the war-torn region on a peace mission, according to rebel sources. 
A commander with a government-allied faction of the Sudan Liberation Army said that three people died in an attack on a village in South Darfur on Wednesday. At about the same time President Omar al-Bashir was addressing 20,000 people in Nyala, the regional capital, with a message of peace and promises of development. 
He is waiting to find out whether he will face charges of genocide, murder and crimes against humanity after the International Criminal Court's prosecutor last week outlined the case against Mr al-Bashir. 
A two-day visit to Darfur this week was designed to help cement a coalition of allies who have promised to support Sudan at the United Nations. 
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“We want to send this message to the world: we are the people of peace, we want peace ... we are the only ones who can achieve peace in Darfur,” said President al-Bashir during his two-day tour. 
But yesterday Mohamed Dirbeen, military spokesman of the Sudan Liberation Movement, told Reuters: “Government planes were bombing the village Karbala 40 km south of el-Fasher. 
“The bombing killed three people and injured eight.” The attack will confirm the sceptics' view that President al-Bashir's trip was nothing more than a publicity stunt by a man facing arrest for his role in the Darfur violence. 
His trip ended on Thursday. In the morning he opened a school, clinic and power station in Nyala amid chaotic scenes before travelling on to El Geneina, capital of West Darfur. 
Several hundred cars, pick-ups and buses crammed with government officials, international diplomats and journalists followed his whistle-stop tour. 
Bashir himself travelled with heavy security. He was followed by technicals — pickups fitted with heavy machine guns — while helicopter gunships circled overhead. 
Snipers watched proceedings from roofs at each of his rallies. 
He stayed well away from the sprawling aid camps where rebels command overwhelming support. 
An aid worker in Darfur reported that the scenes of celebration were carefully stage managed. 
Too Huge World, a blogger who posts anonymously for fear of reprisals, said that people were being paid to attend the rallies: “Bashir's lackeys are sending buses and trucks to pick up people from all the surrounding villages. 
The latest United Nations estimate suggests that 300,000 people have died since rebels took up arms against the government in 2003. 
Much of the killing occurred in the early years when Khartoum launched Arab militias, known as Janjawid, on a scorched earth campaign. 
The death rate has slowed in recent years as the war fragmented into a series of tribal conflicts but a low-level bombing campaign against rebel targets continues. 
In the past fortnight bombing has been reported in the Jebel Moon area of West Darfur — a stronghold of the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) — and in South Darfur. 
Two months ago Jem fighters came close to entering Khartoum after a Blitzkrieg assault on Omdurman, the capital's neighbour across the Nile. 
United Nations reports seen by The Times suggest that a convoy of 120 Jem vehicles recently left their safe haven in Chad for Darfur. 
No one was available from the Sudanese Armed Forces to confirm or deny recent attacks. 
A spokesman for a joint UN and African Union peacekeeping mission said that it had received reports of daily bombing during the past week, but could not confirm the Karbala incident. We do not have forces in those areas,” said spokesman George Ola-Davies.