The Cosmic Paradigm Newsletter
by Mark Kimmel
February 27, 2008
A warm welcome to the many of you joining us for the first time, and a
special recognition to those who have related their story of contact with
our brothers and sisters from the star civilizations, know that you are
among friends.
Saturday is March 1st; remember to meditate as early in the day as possible.
Our brothers and sisters from the star civilizations, and the spirits and
celestials who are assisting us, have asked us to convey what we wish for
the new Earth. Be as specific as you like. Earth is already a unique sphere
in the galaxy; to a great extent, we who choose to go forward will determine
her future uniqueness. You see, by our intention, or our lack of intention,
we are already designing our future.
Lots of people, some long-time subscribers, are not receiving this
newsletter because they changed emails without notifying us. If you do not
get a newsletter for 6 weeks check your Spam or email us. If our publication
becomes less frequent, we will notify you.
Now for the message of this newsletter: My journey into the unconventional
(I was not yet ready for the paranormal) began in the 1960's when I was
introduced to John Boyle of the Institute for Executive Research. John
taught me was to relax into a less than fully conscious state, and to see
that I could become whomever I wished. In the 1970's, I joined Creative
Initiative and discovered the power of a dedicated, enlightened community.
In 1987 I was awakened (although I did not see it that way at the time) to
the path upon which I find myself today. In the 1996 I found a new way of
seeing the world through psychology. All of these opened me up from my
conservative upbringing, my equally stuffy and conservative business
career, and my belief that Earth was the lone outpost of human civilization.
As a tangent to my study of psychology, I started writing "Trillion" in
1997, thinking it was science fiction. In 2000, I visited Roswell and "knew"
something had happened there. In 2001, I watched in amazement as the
Disclosure Project unfolded on the stage of the National Press Club. In June
of that year, I spent a week with Steven Greer and was delighted and amazed
by all manner of UFOs. My eyes, mind and soul were opened to the larger
reality. In 2002, I published Trillion with my new appreciation of the
larger picture, but almost no corrections from the manuscript I had used as
my master's thesis of the prior year (where I got the ideas for that
manuscript I am just now coming to understand).
The reason I have gone through this progression is a) to show how my own
awareness developed, and b) because I have met lots of other people who are
just now becoming aware of the larger picture. I hope by seeing my struggle
to move beyond my stuffy, conservative background others may be encouraged
to take the leap into the new reality. How have you progressed? What were
the events that shaped your path?
Now, I look back on several years of experiences with out-of-body travel,
remote viewing, a whole raft of books and internet information,
conversations with incredible people who have shared their stories (many of
you), communications with non-humans, and most recently the ability to
transcribe words as they are given to me (automatic writing). This gift was
present as I wrote my books, I simply did not appreciate it.
All of this is leading to my perception of Earth's transition. When I first
came to understand the universe through awakened eyes, I saw cycles measured
in millions of years, and I saw contact between humans and peoples of other
star systems as something remote, not likely to happen to me. Then the
Disclosure project came along and not long thereafter September 11th, and I
dove into seeking the truth behind the headlines. The enslavement of
humanity took a couple of years to become totally real. I began to see the
many ways in which our lives were corrupted for the benefit of the elite. I
looked back at my earlier career as a venture capitalist and saw that there
were larger forces at work, and that not all of them were to my benefit.
With these realizations, I came to see the world changing very swiftly, and
I made preparations to plunge into the unknown.
Today, February 27th, I have come to see a bit different scenario. Very
little of the new Earth will come from that which we now know. We will
experience tremendous difficulties as the institution created by humans are
replaced with a different way of being. The debt-based, worldwide fiat
currency system will collapse. The governments of elitists and the power
hungry will be reorganized. Religions of victimization and dogma will
collapse under the weight of truth. Institutions like healthcare, science,
education, and legal will be changed by truth and love. The media and
entertainment will be replaced with something of real value. Violence will
be replaced with peace, both personal and between nations.
Yes, there will be earth changes, but not as great as once imagined. Yes,
the planet is warming, but it is not due to man's polluting the atmosphere,
rather we are returning to a temperate worldwide climate. Yes, we will
return to a time of harmony with the planet and everything and everyone on
her. Yes, we will require the help of our brothers and sisters from the star
civilizations to accomplish all of this. And yes, there will be a
bifurcation of mankind; many will decide not to go along with Earth to her
transformed state.
Rather than happening as a single catastrophic event, the transition will
happen over the next few years. Rather than being some future event, the
transition is already happening all around us. Rather then waiting to
participate, we are already participating by contributing our energy, and
with our intentions. Intentionally, or not, we are designing the transformed
Earth.
2012? Any way you measure it, 2012 is not far off, considering the magnitude
of the changes I foresee. Time is accelerating, so 2012 may be approaching
more quickly than our calendars indicate. Many indigenous people are
preparing for the change.
In the very near future, Earth will be rejuvenated, returning to the balance
she enjoyed before the light dimmed in the souls of her human residents,
before she became sick due to a lack of harmony. We humans, along with
everything else on this planet, are a slow form of energy, physical energy.
Even in our slowed state, we are constantly broadcasting who we are, what
are our intentions, and what we wish for everyone and everything else.
Interested in becoming more active? Interested in exploring why you are here
at this time and place? Find out how to use your energy. Join the Cosmic
Paradigm Network. In the coming months, we will be hosting a number of
Gatherings to allow those with experiences to interact with each other, and
to support those who are proactive.
http://www.cosmicparadigm.com/Join_CPN.html
In Truth, Love and Joy,
Mark Kimmel
___________________________________
My latest book, "Birthing a New Civilization," is available at
http://www.cosmicparadigm.com/AboutBirthing.htm
In it you will find much more of what I am communicating in my newsletters.
You can order the paperback versions of TRILLION, DECIMAL, & CREATING THE
COSMIC PARADIGM at: http://www.cosmicparadigm.com/Recommended_Books.html
You can see a video of one of my talks, at no cost, by going to Google:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=671058863658375786&q=mark+kimmel&tot
al=65&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
_____________________________________________
The information presented in this newsletter is based on what we believe to
be true. It is from reliable sources and our own personal experience. Copies
of earlier newsletters and special reports are available at
http://www.cosmicparadigm.com/
This editorial opinion is provided by Mark Kimmel. For breaking news,
information, personal stories, newsletters, and books relating to
extraterrestrials, implications of extraterrestrial contact, and the Cosmic
Paradigm go to http://www.cosmicparadigm.com/
To comment on this newsletter send your statement to cp@zqyx.org
Web site: http://www.cosmicparadigm.com/
Subscriptions to Newsletters and Cosmic Paradigm Network:
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Re-distribution and proper re-posting of this document is encouraged. Please
use proper net etiquette when doing so.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Speak up for real change Americans
Economic woes reveal a long-felt unease
By ADAM GELLER, AP National WriterMon Feb 18, 5:04 AM ET
Even when experts were declaring the economy healthy, many Americans voiced a vague, but persistent dissatisfaction. True, jobs were relatively plentiful over the last few years. It was easy to borrow and very cheap. The sharp rise in the value of homes and plentiful credit cards encouraged a nation of consumers to get out and buy. But to many people, something didn't feel right, even if they couldn't quite explain why.
Now the economic tide is receding, and the undertow that was there all along is getting stronger.
Take away the easy credit and consumers are left with paychecks that, for most, haven't nearly kept pace with their need and propensity to spend.
The frustration of $3 gas and $4 milk, the worries about health care costs that have risen four times the rate of pay, become much more real. The retirement security that is only as good as the increasingly volatile stock market seems much less certain.
Americans' declining confidence in their economy is triggered by a storm of very recent pressures, including plunging home prices, tightening credit, and heavy debt. But it is compounded by anxiety that was there all along, the result of a long, slow drip of worries and vulnerabilities.
"The economy is currently in recession or arguably close to recession and that's certainly weighing on the collective psyche," says Mark Zandi, chief economist of forecaster Moody's Economy.com. "But ... I do think there is an increasing level of angst that is more fundamental and is not going to go away even when the economy improves."
Much of that anxiety is the uncomfortable, but expected jolt of the economic roller coaster. During a downturn, people become less confident about keeping their jobs or being able to find new ones, meeting household expenses and about the prospects for the future.
But there may be more to it than just cyclical ups and downs.
What does the economic future hold? Many Americans feel increasingly unable to answer that question with assurance, and they appraise it with a sense that they are less in control of the outcome.
In Westminster, Colo., a Denver suburb, George Apodaca hears that uncertainty from the maintenance workers, drivers and others enrolled in the home budgeting class he teaches. Most have steady jobs, but are just getting by. They talk about challenges like the rising cost of getting to work or medical bills, not as new problems but as a continuing struggle.
"People in my class, they don't know what a recession means or what a boom means," says Apodaca, a counselor for Colorado Housing Enterprises. "They're worried about buying the groceries, buying the gas."
A year ago — months before economic alarms went off — nearly two of three Americans polled by The Rockefeller Foundation said that they felt somewhat or a lot less economically secure then they did a decade ago. Half said they expected their children to face an economy even more shaky.
Other polls have registered similar unease in the past few years, showing large numbers of Americans dissatisfied with the economy, and worried about retirement security, health care costs, and a declining standard of living.
The surprising thing about many of these readings isn't that they've recently skyrocketed. It's that in recent years they've registered consistently high levels of worry without ever seeming to ease.
"This has just been a period of great disconnect between what the aggregate economic statistics show and what leading politicians talk about and what ordinary Americans are feeling," said Jacob Hacker, a Yale University professor and author of "The Great Risk Shift," which charts increased economic insecurity. "I think people are saying, where did the gains go? Where did the boom go? And now that it's gone, what are we going to do?"
Those uncertainties have been submerged for the past few years. The war in Iraq and the threat of terrorism dominated, drawing attention away from day-to-day economic concerns. With employers adding workers, people's appraisal of the economy focused less on jobs, the long-standing measure of financial security.
Many people gauged their well-being in wealth — looking at the stock market, and much more broadly, the rise of real estate prices, said Susan Sterne, president of Economic Analysis Associates.
Americans borrowed freely against the value of their homes. But now there is nothing left to shield them from the insecurities rooted in the old measures of economic prosperity.
Except for the late 1990s, pay has been stagnant for more than a generation, barely keeping pace with inflation. In 1973, the median male worker earned $16.88 an hour, adjusted for inflation. In 2007, he earned $16.85.
For many families, the stagnation has been moderated by the addition of a second paycheck as more women went to work, and their pay rose over the same period.
But the largest gains went to workers at the top of the pay scale. Now, economic worries are rising fastest in households with smaller paychecks, and that chasm is widening.
"Over the past decades, whether inflation was much higher or lower, or incomes grew faster or more slowly, there has never been such a wide divergence in the experiences" separating richer households from poorer ones, Richard Curtin, the director of the University of Michigan's consumer survey said in summing up the most recent figures.
That insecurity shows in small, but telling ways. Shoppers at drug store chain Walgreens Inc. are increasingly bypassing name-brand cough syrups and pain relievers and choosing cheaper store brands. Wal-Mart Stores Inc noticed that many people who received its gift cards for the holidays used them in January to buy food and other necessities instead of extras.
The pullback by consumers contrasts with years of continued spending that long seemed to contradict mounting worries.
Worker optimism, which soared in the late 1990s, never fully rebounded after the last, brief recession. Although jobs again were plentiful, it became clear the new economy's opportunities came with few of the old assurances.
Rennie Sawade, the son of a Michigan auto worker, majored in computer science because he saw no future on the assembly line. He was rewarded with a job at Oracle Corp., but lost it in late 2005 when the company shifted his department's work to India. Sawade, who lives in Woodinville, Wash. near Seattle, has been unable to find a full-time replacement, instead jumping from contract job to contract job.
The contractor offers a 401(k), but contributions are entirely up to workers. When Sawade's wife was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last year he missed the equivalent of two weeks work — and pay — to take care of her. The job has health insurance but still left the family with a bill for more than $2,000. Contractors call to offer other jobs, but the pay is frequently disappointing, he says.
"It was pretty well known when I was working on my bachelor's degree that the auto industry was going to move overseas," he says. "Everybody said get into technology because you'll have a career. Now it looks like the same thing is happening to technology."
Cutbacks and changes by employers also have pushed heavy responsibilities on to workers, many who find themselves unprepared.
In the past decade, scores of companies have frozen or eliminated benefit plans providing a guaranteed pension. Many have replaced them with 401(k) plans whose future worth depends on workers' investment skill. Almost half of all households are at risk of coming up short in retirement, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
Worry also grew about the cost of health care, with good reason. Since 2001, the cost of health insurance has gone up 78 percent — about $1,500 more per year for the average family, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Over the same period, wages rose about 19 percent, and inflation about 17 percent. About four in 10 people polled by the group say they are worried about paying more for health care or insurance.
Even the consumption made possible by easy credit has helped turn up the financial pressure. The number of products — from air conditioners to cell phones — that Americans say they can't live without has grown substantially in recent years, according to the Pew Research Center. About 6 in 10 working Americans polled by the group say they don't earn enough to lead the life they want.
Economic confidence is, largely, a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more consumers believe the economy is heading downhill, the more likely they'll rein in spending that will contribute to a downturn.
"I think if people were generally more satisfied and less anxious perhaps they would be more resistant to thinking things were deteriorating rapidly," says Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center.
Maybe the downturn in optimism is temporary. Americans are voracious consumers and persistent optimists.
But some believe a fundamental change in behavior and mind-set is taking place. Since the early 1980s, consumers' contribution to the economy has risen from 63 percent, near where it had long hovered, to 70 percent. Baby boomers spent generously on growing families. Interest rates and inflation dropped, making homes and other assets worth more and cutting borrowing costs. The spread of easy credit promoted spending.
Now, those are drying up and the population is aging. Older households don't spend as much, and often assess the economy more conservatively. Over the next generation, that could drive consumers' contribution to the economy back down to the low-60 percent range, Zandi said.
"There were tail winds behind" the growth in consumer spending over the last 25 years, he says. "Now there are headwinds."
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
By ADAM GELLER, AP National WriterMon Feb 18, 5:04 AM ET
Even when experts were declaring the economy healthy, many Americans voiced a vague, but persistent dissatisfaction. True, jobs were relatively plentiful over the last few years. It was easy to borrow and very cheap. The sharp rise in the value of homes and plentiful credit cards encouraged a nation of consumers to get out and buy. But to many people, something didn't feel right, even if they couldn't quite explain why.
Now the economic tide is receding, and the undertow that was there all along is getting stronger.
Take away the easy credit and consumers are left with paychecks that, for most, haven't nearly kept pace with their need and propensity to spend.
The frustration of $3 gas and $4 milk, the worries about health care costs that have risen four times the rate of pay, become much more real. The retirement security that is only as good as the increasingly volatile stock market seems much less certain.
Americans' declining confidence in their economy is triggered by a storm of very recent pressures, including plunging home prices, tightening credit, and heavy debt. But it is compounded by anxiety that was there all along, the result of a long, slow drip of worries and vulnerabilities.
"The economy is currently in recession or arguably close to recession and that's certainly weighing on the collective psyche," says Mark Zandi, chief economist of forecaster Moody's Economy.com. "But ... I do think there is an increasing level of angst that is more fundamental and is not going to go away even when the economy improves."
Much of that anxiety is the uncomfortable, but expected jolt of the economic roller coaster. During a downturn, people become less confident about keeping their jobs or being able to find new ones, meeting household expenses and about the prospects for the future.
But there may be more to it than just cyclical ups and downs.
What does the economic future hold? Many Americans feel increasingly unable to answer that question with assurance, and they appraise it with a sense that they are less in control of the outcome.
In Westminster, Colo., a Denver suburb, George Apodaca hears that uncertainty from the maintenance workers, drivers and others enrolled in the home budgeting class he teaches. Most have steady jobs, but are just getting by. They talk about challenges like the rising cost of getting to work or medical bills, not as new problems but as a continuing struggle.
"People in my class, they don't know what a recession means or what a boom means," says Apodaca, a counselor for Colorado Housing Enterprises. "They're worried about buying the groceries, buying the gas."
A year ago — months before economic alarms went off — nearly two of three Americans polled by The Rockefeller Foundation said that they felt somewhat or a lot less economically secure then they did a decade ago. Half said they expected their children to face an economy even more shaky.
Other polls have registered similar unease in the past few years, showing large numbers of Americans dissatisfied with the economy, and worried about retirement security, health care costs, and a declining standard of living.
The surprising thing about many of these readings isn't that they've recently skyrocketed. It's that in recent years they've registered consistently high levels of worry without ever seeming to ease.
"This has just been a period of great disconnect between what the aggregate economic statistics show and what leading politicians talk about and what ordinary Americans are feeling," said Jacob Hacker, a Yale University professor and author of "The Great Risk Shift," which charts increased economic insecurity. "I think people are saying, where did the gains go? Where did the boom go? And now that it's gone, what are we going to do?"
Those uncertainties have been submerged for the past few years. The war in Iraq and the threat of terrorism dominated, drawing attention away from day-to-day economic concerns. With employers adding workers, people's appraisal of the economy focused less on jobs, the long-standing measure of financial security.
Many people gauged their well-being in wealth — looking at the stock market, and much more broadly, the rise of real estate prices, said Susan Sterne, president of Economic Analysis Associates.
Americans borrowed freely against the value of their homes. But now there is nothing left to shield them from the insecurities rooted in the old measures of economic prosperity.
Except for the late 1990s, pay has been stagnant for more than a generation, barely keeping pace with inflation. In 1973, the median male worker earned $16.88 an hour, adjusted for inflation. In 2007, he earned $16.85.
For many families, the stagnation has been moderated by the addition of a second paycheck as more women went to work, and their pay rose over the same period.
But the largest gains went to workers at the top of the pay scale. Now, economic worries are rising fastest in households with smaller paychecks, and that chasm is widening.
"Over the past decades, whether inflation was much higher or lower, or incomes grew faster or more slowly, there has never been such a wide divergence in the experiences" separating richer households from poorer ones, Richard Curtin, the director of the University of Michigan's consumer survey said in summing up the most recent figures.
That insecurity shows in small, but telling ways. Shoppers at drug store chain Walgreens Inc. are increasingly bypassing name-brand cough syrups and pain relievers and choosing cheaper store brands. Wal-Mart Stores Inc noticed that many people who received its gift cards for the holidays used them in January to buy food and other necessities instead of extras.
The pullback by consumers contrasts with years of continued spending that long seemed to contradict mounting worries.
Worker optimism, which soared in the late 1990s, never fully rebounded after the last, brief recession. Although jobs again were plentiful, it became clear the new economy's opportunities came with few of the old assurances.
Rennie Sawade, the son of a Michigan auto worker, majored in computer science because he saw no future on the assembly line. He was rewarded with a job at Oracle Corp., but lost it in late 2005 when the company shifted his department's work to India. Sawade, who lives in Woodinville, Wash. near Seattle, has been unable to find a full-time replacement, instead jumping from contract job to contract job.
The contractor offers a 401(k), but contributions are entirely up to workers. When Sawade's wife was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last year he missed the equivalent of two weeks work — and pay — to take care of her. The job has health insurance but still left the family with a bill for more than $2,000. Contractors call to offer other jobs, but the pay is frequently disappointing, he says.
"It was pretty well known when I was working on my bachelor's degree that the auto industry was going to move overseas," he says. "Everybody said get into technology because you'll have a career. Now it looks like the same thing is happening to technology."
Cutbacks and changes by employers also have pushed heavy responsibilities on to workers, many who find themselves unprepared.
In the past decade, scores of companies have frozen or eliminated benefit plans providing a guaranteed pension. Many have replaced them with 401(k) plans whose future worth depends on workers' investment skill. Almost half of all households are at risk of coming up short in retirement, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
Worry also grew about the cost of health care, with good reason. Since 2001, the cost of health insurance has gone up 78 percent — about $1,500 more per year for the average family, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Over the same period, wages rose about 19 percent, and inflation about 17 percent. About four in 10 people polled by the group say they are worried about paying more for health care or insurance.
Even the consumption made possible by easy credit has helped turn up the financial pressure. The number of products — from air conditioners to cell phones — that Americans say they can't live without has grown substantially in recent years, according to the Pew Research Center. About 6 in 10 working Americans polled by the group say they don't earn enough to lead the life they want.
Economic confidence is, largely, a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more consumers believe the economy is heading downhill, the more likely they'll rein in spending that will contribute to a downturn.
"I think if people were generally more satisfied and less anxious perhaps they would be more resistant to thinking things were deteriorating rapidly," says Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center.
Maybe the downturn in optimism is temporary. Americans are voracious consumers and persistent optimists.
But some believe a fundamental change in behavior and mind-set is taking place. Since the early 1980s, consumers' contribution to the economy has risen from 63 percent, near where it had long hovered, to 70 percent. Baby boomers spent generously on growing families. Interest rates and inflation dropped, making homes and other assets worth more and cutting borrowing costs. The spread of easy credit promoted spending.
Now, those are drying up and the population is aging. Older households don't spend as much, and often assess the economy more conservatively. Over the next generation, that could drive consumers' contribution to the economy back down to the low-60 percent range, Zandi said.
"There were tail winds behind" the growth in consumer spending over the last 25 years, he says. "Now there are headwinds."
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
US President calls for Darfur crisis to end
Bush calls for Darfur crisis to end
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Speaking on soil once stained with the blood of Rwanda's genocide, President Bush called Tuesday on all nations to step up efforts to end "once and for all" the ethnic slaughter still continuing in Sudan's western Darfur region.
The president said the U.S. is using sanctions, pressure and money to help resolve the Darfur crisis that Bush calls a genocide. But the president, frustrated at the lack of willingness of some other countries to do the same, sought to give his campaign for their increased involvement added weight by making pointed remarks on it from the Rwandan capital.
"The Rwanda people know the horrors of genocide," Bush said after meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. "My message to other nations is: 'Join with the president and help us get this problem solved once and for all.' And we will help."
Rwanda was the first to deploy peacekeepers to the violent Darfur region in a joint African Union-U.N. mission. The United States has trained nearly 7,000 Rwandan troops and spent more than $17 million to equip and airlift them into the region. The U.S. has committed $100 million to train and provide equipment for peacekeepers from several African nations deploying to Darfur.
"I'm not comfortable with how quickly the response has been," the president said.
Bush spoke after a somber visit to the haunting Kigali Memorial Centre. Exhibits there tell the story of Rwanda's 1994 genocide as well as other ethnic slaughter around the world. Mass graves on a trellis-covered hilltop outside hold some remains of about 250,000 people.
Over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were shot, clubbed and hacked to death in just 100 days by extremist Hutu militias incited by the then-government. It ended when Kagame's rebel forces ousted the Hutu government.
"It's a moving place. It can't help but shake your emotions to their very foundation," Bush said after walking through its rooms and gardens. "There is evil in the world and evil must be confronted."
Later, by Kagame's side, Bush displayed how shaken he was by what he saw. "I just can't imagine what it would have been like to be a citizen who lived in such horrors, and then had to, you know, gather themselves up and try to live a hopeful life," he said.
Bush also pushed Kagame on the continuing conflict in neighboring Congo, where Rwanda has a troubled history.
Many of the Rwandan genocide's perpetrators fled afterward into Congo, prompting fears here of a resurgence. As a result, Rwanda invaded Congo in 1998 and the back-to-back multination wars there killed a staggering 5.4 million people and decimated that country. Rwanda was accused of plundering Congo's resources before the war ended and it pulled its soldiers out in 2002.
Sporadic violence has continued to plague Congo's volatile no-man's-land in the east since, and some suspect Rwanda of still supplying armed groups there. Bush said he and Kagame talked "for a long time" about last year's peace accord between Rwanda and Congo and last month's fragile cease-fire forged between Congo's government and several armed groups. The U.S. helped broker both.
"The most important thing is to get results for the agreement and that's what we discussed today, on how to help bring peace to this part of the world," Bush said.
Bush also drew a parallel to Kenya, where long-simmering ethnic grievances are playing a role in postelection bloodshed.
December presidential elections, which foreign and local observers say were rigged, returned President Mwai Kibaki to power and unleashed weeks of fighting. Much of the violence — shockingly brutal in a country once considered among Africa's most-stable — has pitted other ethnic groups against Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, resented for traditionally dominating politics and business.
"We've got to pay attention to the warning signs," Bush said. "I'm not suggesting that ... anything close to what happened here is going to happen in Kenya. But I am suggesting there some warning signs that the international community needs to pay attention to."
Bush dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Nairobi on Monday to meet with Kibaki, the opposition leader, and former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who is mediating peace talks.
The Rwanda massacre haunted the international community, including the United States under then-President Bill Clinton, for not recognizing the danger and intervening faster.
Bush, pressed about what role his successor can play in preventing genocide, said the lesson is to watch for warning signs — and act.
"The United States can play a very constructive role," Bush said. "I would urge the president not to feel like U.S. solutions can be imposed upon African leaders. ... Don't come to the continent feeling guilty about anything. Come to the continent feeling confident that with some help, people can solve their problems."
Bush stood by his decision not to send U.S. troops to Sudan, but used some of his strongest language to date in blasting the slow pace of the international peacekeeping plan.
"If you're a problem-solver, you put yourself at the mercy of the decisions of others, in this case the United Nations" he said. "I am well known to have spoken out about the slowness of the United Nations ... it seems very bureaucratic to me, particularly with people suffering."
Summing up his advice to the next president, he said: "Take problems seriously before they become acute, and then recognize that there's going to be a slowness in the response if you rely upon international organizations."
Kagame said the United States should not be viewed as the world's problem-solver.
"The problems and the solutions for those problems should not be taken away ... from places where they are taking place," he said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Speaking on soil once stained with the blood of Rwanda's genocide, President Bush called Tuesday on all nations to step up efforts to end "once and for all" the ethnic slaughter still continuing in Sudan's western Darfur region.
The president said the U.S. is using sanctions, pressure and money to help resolve the Darfur crisis that Bush calls a genocide. But the president, frustrated at the lack of willingness of some other countries to do the same, sought to give his campaign for their increased involvement added weight by making pointed remarks on it from the Rwandan capital.
"The Rwanda people know the horrors of genocide," Bush said after meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. "My message to other nations is: 'Join with the president and help us get this problem solved once and for all.' And we will help."
Rwanda was the first to deploy peacekeepers to the violent Darfur region in a joint African Union-U.N. mission. The United States has trained nearly 7,000 Rwandan troops and spent more than $17 million to equip and airlift them into the region. The U.S. has committed $100 million to train and provide equipment for peacekeepers from several African nations deploying to Darfur.
"I'm not comfortable with how quickly the response has been," the president said.
Bush spoke after a somber visit to the haunting Kigali Memorial Centre. Exhibits there tell the story of Rwanda's 1994 genocide as well as other ethnic slaughter around the world. Mass graves on a trellis-covered hilltop outside hold some remains of about 250,000 people.
Over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were shot, clubbed and hacked to death in just 100 days by extremist Hutu militias incited by the then-government. It ended when Kagame's rebel forces ousted the Hutu government.
"It's a moving place. It can't help but shake your emotions to their very foundation," Bush said after walking through its rooms and gardens. "There is evil in the world and evil must be confronted."
Later, by Kagame's side, Bush displayed how shaken he was by what he saw. "I just can't imagine what it would have been like to be a citizen who lived in such horrors, and then had to, you know, gather themselves up and try to live a hopeful life," he said.
Bush also pushed Kagame on the continuing conflict in neighboring Congo, where Rwanda has a troubled history.
Many of the Rwandan genocide's perpetrators fled afterward into Congo, prompting fears here of a resurgence. As a result, Rwanda invaded Congo in 1998 and the back-to-back multination wars there killed a staggering 5.4 million people and decimated that country. Rwanda was accused of plundering Congo's resources before the war ended and it pulled its soldiers out in 2002.
Sporadic violence has continued to plague Congo's volatile no-man's-land in the east since, and some suspect Rwanda of still supplying armed groups there. Bush said he and Kagame talked "for a long time" about last year's peace accord between Rwanda and Congo and last month's fragile cease-fire forged between Congo's government and several armed groups. The U.S. helped broker both.
"The most important thing is to get results for the agreement and that's what we discussed today, on how to help bring peace to this part of the world," Bush said.
Bush also drew a parallel to Kenya, where long-simmering ethnic grievances are playing a role in postelection bloodshed.
December presidential elections, which foreign and local observers say were rigged, returned President Mwai Kibaki to power and unleashed weeks of fighting. Much of the violence — shockingly brutal in a country once considered among Africa's most-stable — has pitted other ethnic groups against Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, resented for traditionally dominating politics and business.
"We've got to pay attention to the warning signs," Bush said. "I'm not suggesting that ... anything close to what happened here is going to happen in Kenya. But I am suggesting there some warning signs that the international community needs to pay attention to."
Bush dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Nairobi on Monday to meet with Kibaki, the opposition leader, and former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who is mediating peace talks.
The Rwanda massacre haunted the international community, including the United States under then-President Bill Clinton, for not recognizing the danger and intervening faster.
Bush, pressed about what role his successor can play in preventing genocide, said the lesson is to watch for warning signs — and act.
"The United States can play a very constructive role," Bush said. "I would urge the president not to feel like U.S. solutions can be imposed upon African leaders. ... Don't come to the continent feeling guilty about anything. Come to the continent feeling confident that with some help, people can solve their problems."
Bush stood by his decision not to send U.S. troops to Sudan, but used some of his strongest language to date in blasting the slow pace of the international peacekeeping plan.
"If you're a problem-solver, you put yourself at the mercy of the decisions of others, in this case the United Nations" he said. "I am well known to have spoken out about the slowness of the United Nations ... it seems very bureaucratic to me, particularly with people suffering."
Summing up his advice to the next president, he said: "Take problems seriously before they become acute, and then recognize that there's going to be a slowness in the response if you rely upon international organizations."
Kagame said the United States should not be viewed as the world's problem-solver.
"The problems and the solutions for those problems should not be taken away ... from places where they are taking place," he said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Corruption continues
What did Sudanese President Bashir do with a world-infamous war criminal? He gave him a promotion.
Bashir has appointed the militia leader who helped orchestrate genocide in Darfur as a senior adviser on ethnic affairs.
This brash and consistent defiance of the U.N. won't stop - not as long as Bashir has China to protect him.
We must tell China that enough is enough, and our representatives can help. Leaders in Congress are gathering support for an official letter to President Hu of China letting him know that his indifference toward Darfur is unacceptable.
Click here to urge your representative to sign on to this bipartisan letter and send a strong message to China.
As you know, China is Sudan's largest trade partner and foreign investor. It is Sudan's biggest defender in the international community, and it is the regime's largest arms supplier. But China played a crucial role in getting Sudan to agree to a hybrid peacekeeping force last summer.
Simply put, China has the power to put an end to the games Bashir is playing.
Our representatives must pressure the Chinese government to lead the world community and end the violence in Darfur. Click here now to send your message to your representative.
After you have sent your message, please click here to ask your friends and family to join you in urging their representatives to engage China to bring peace to Darfur.
Thank you for your strong commitment to return peace to Darfur.
Colleen Connors
Save Darfur Coalition
Bashir has appointed the militia leader who helped orchestrate genocide in Darfur as a senior adviser on ethnic affairs.
This brash and consistent defiance of the U.N. won't stop - not as long as Bashir has China to protect him.
We must tell China that enough is enough, and our representatives can help. Leaders in Congress are gathering support for an official letter to President Hu of China letting him know that his indifference toward Darfur is unacceptable.
Click here to urge your representative to sign on to this bipartisan letter and send a strong message to China.
As you know, China is Sudan's largest trade partner and foreign investor. It is Sudan's biggest defender in the international community, and it is the regime's largest arms supplier. But China played a crucial role in getting Sudan to agree to a hybrid peacekeeping force last summer.
Simply put, China has the power to put an end to the games Bashir is playing.
Our representatives must pressure the Chinese government to lead the world community and end the violence in Darfur. Click here now to send your message to your representative.
After you have sent your message, please click here to ask your friends and family to join you in urging their representatives to engage China to bring peace to Darfur.
Thank you for your strong commitment to return peace to Darfur.
Colleen Connors
Save Darfur Coalition
Refugees on run to Cameroon
Trying to control the outrage I feel as this situation spills out of control and the rest of the worlds elite, the Geneva 5-6 countries, sit back and continue to do nothing. While our country watches millions and millions and yes now by most estimates BILLIONS being spent on staff and advertising to win a Presidential election. This is an epic humanitarian crisis and it is happening right now on our watch. Write to your local, state, and federal leaders and demand assistance for the more than 500,000 refugees caught in the crossfire of this madness of a corrupt Sudan government.
Chad refugees roughing it in Cameroon By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer
Thu Feb 7, 5:41 PM ET
The old school campus is dilapidated. There is little food, water from only a single tap, no toilets. Families sleep in the open or under tents made of scavenged tree branches and lengths of cloth used as skirts during the day.
To this have come thousands of refugees who fled Chad's capital when rebels advanced into the city. They found safety, but also squalor.
Home is just across the river, but they fear that going back would be just as bad, with markets burned, stores looted and reports that the rebels may be regrouping east of the capital, N'Djamena.
"If we go back, we're between the anvil and the hammer," said Ngarmbatinan Mbailemdana, a 23-year-old security guard who fled with his wife and two children to the Cameroonian town of Kousseri, just across the Chari River. "The country needs real peace before we go home."
The U.N. estimated that at least 30,000 people have fled the oil-rich country for Cameroon after fighting broke out over the weekend in N'Djamena, a city of about 1 million. International relief efforts have not yet been mounted.
Rebels who accuse President Idriss Deby of corruption and embezzling millions in oil revenue attacked Chad's capital Feb. 1 in pickup trucks mounted with guns. The uprising appears to be a power struggle within the elite that has long controlled Chad.
The rebels had advanced in a matter of days from their eastern bases near the Sudan border, but were repelled after bloody weekend battles. Refugees fear the fighting will erupt again.
Mbailemdana said Thursday he ventured back into N'Djamena two days earlier and found his house burned and saw bodies on streets. Others said they were going home during the day to check conditions, then returning to Cameroon to sleep.
Food in Kousseri is available only to those refugees who can afford it, and prices at local markets were rising because of refugee demand. A loaf of bread, which used to cost about 4 cents, has quintupled in price in recent days, residents said.
"The situation in Kousseri is really quite serious," Jennifer Nazaire, the representative for Catholic Relief Services in Cameroon, said in a statement Wednesday. "Chadians are pouring out of N'Djamena, and there's little set up to receive them at the moment. The Catholic Church in Kousseri, the local government, United Nations, and aid agencies are all scrambling to work out temporary and longer-term measures to host people."
Chadians were still leaving their homeland, although the flow was decreasing to a trickle.
Deby said his government had total control of Chad and urged the refugees to return. But French Defense Minister Herve Morin said Wednesday his intelligence showed a rebel support column was moving from the east to reinforce the insurgents.
Chadian Prime Minister Nouradin Koumakoye on Thursday declared a curfew in the capital and other regions of the country, effective immediately, to help restore order.
Refugee Mbaire Wanda said Chadian officials had visited Kousseri's makeshift camps to try to persuade people to go home.
"I don't think that people dare go home now," Wanda said. "How will people take care of their kids? The markets are burned. The pharmacies have been pillaged. There's no jobs and no money. There's no home to return to."
U.N. workers who were surveying the school Thursday said they were considering moving the refugees farther from the Chari for security reasons. Several Chadians were organizing themselves, including compiling a list of those taking shelter there, in anticipation the U.N. would soon step in.
The situation adds to an already daunting challenge for humanitarian workers in the region. While the recent violence pushed Chadians from their homes in southwestern Chad, earlier fighting between the government and rebels had displaced thousands in the east. Eastern Chad also is home to thousands of Sudanese, who have fled fighting in Sudan's Darfur.
No civilian planes — including aid flights — have been allowed into Chad since fighting around the capital started, and the relief group Save the Children said it was running out of food and supplies for camps serving more than 500,000 people — including displaced Chadians and Sudanese refugees — in eastern Chad.
The recent fighting also prompted Europe to postpone deployment of a force to protect refugees and aid operations in the east.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Chad refugees roughing it in Cameroon By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer
Thu Feb 7, 5:41 PM ET
The old school campus is dilapidated. There is little food, water from only a single tap, no toilets. Families sleep in the open or under tents made of scavenged tree branches and lengths of cloth used as skirts during the day.
To this have come thousands of refugees who fled Chad's capital when rebels advanced into the city. They found safety, but also squalor.
Home is just across the river, but they fear that going back would be just as bad, with markets burned, stores looted and reports that the rebels may be regrouping east of the capital, N'Djamena.
"If we go back, we're between the anvil and the hammer," said Ngarmbatinan Mbailemdana, a 23-year-old security guard who fled with his wife and two children to the Cameroonian town of Kousseri, just across the Chari River. "The country needs real peace before we go home."
The U.N. estimated that at least 30,000 people have fled the oil-rich country for Cameroon after fighting broke out over the weekend in N'Djamena, a city of about 1 million. International relief efforts have not yet been mounted.
Rebels who accuse President Idriss Deby of corruption and embezzling millions in oil revenue attacked Chad's capital Feb. 1 in pickup trucks mounted with guns. The uprising appears to be a power struggle within the elite that has long controlled Chad.
The rebels had advanced in a matter of days from their eastern bases near the Sudan border, but were repelled after bloody weekend battles. Refugees fear the fighting will erupt again.
Mbailemdana said Thursday he ventured back into N'Djamena two days earlier and found his house burned and saw bodies on streets. Others said they were going home during the day to check conditions, then returning to Cameroon to sleep.
Food in Kousseri is available only to those refugees who can afford it, and prices at local markets were rising because of refugee demand. A loaf of bread, which used to cost about 4 cents, has quintupled in price in recent days, residents said.
"The situation in Kousseri is really quite serious," Jennifer Nazaire, the representative for Catholic Relief Services in Cameroon, said in a statement Wednesday. "Chadians are pouring out of N'Djamena, and there's little set up to receive them at the moment. The Catholic Church in Kousseri, the local government, United Nations, and aid agencies are all scrambling to work out temporary and longer-term measures to host people."
Chadians were still leaving their homeland, although the flow was decreasing to a trickle.
Deby said his government had total control of Chad and urged the refugees to return. But French Defense Minister Herve Morin said Wednesday his intelligence showed a rebel support column was moving from the east to reinforce the insurgents.
Chadian Prime Minister Nouradin Koumakoye on Thursday declared a curfew in the capital and other regions of the country, effective immediately, to help restore order.
Refugee Mbaire Wanda said Chadian officials had visited Kousseri's makeshift camps to try to persuade people to go home.
"I don't think that people dare go home now," Wanda said. "How will people take care of their kids? The markets are burned. The pharmacies have been pillaged. There's no jobs and no money. There's no home to return to."
U.N. workers who were surveying the school Thursday said they were considering moving the refugees farther from the Chari for security reasons. Several Chadians were organizing themselves, including compiling a list of those taking shelter there, in anticipation the U.N. would soon step in.
The situation adds to an already daunting challenge for humanitarian workers in the region. While the recent violence pushed Chadians from their homes in southwestern Chad, earlier fighting between the government and rebels had displaced thousands in the east. Eastern Chad also is home to thousands of Sudanese, who have fled fighting in Sudan's Darfur.
No civilian planes — including aid flights — have been allowed into Chad since fighting around the capital started, and the relief group Save the Children said it was running out of food and supplies for camps serving more than 500,000 people — including displaced Chadians and Sudanese refugees — in eastern Chad.
The recent fighting also prompted Europe to postpone deployment of a force to protect refugees and aid operations in the east.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
How they stand on ending Poverty
See how the candidates stand on Poverty before casting your vote.
You're probably hearing a lot from politicians this week asking you to support one candidate or another for president. This email is different, because even though tomorrow is Super Tuesday, the two of us—former Senate majority leaders from opposite sides of the aisle—are putting politics aside to remind you that Super Tuesday is also a super opportunity to fight global poverty.
In deciding which candidates are ready to lead on issues like clean water, hunger and stopping global AIDS, knowledge is power. You can make a difference by visiting the On The Record website to learn more about the candidates' plans to bring strong American leadership to the historic opportunity we have to make poverty history.
http://www.onevote08.org/ontherecord?id=225-3323616-W8i1Od&t=2
For ONE, Super Tuesday is a major landmark in an effort that started in June, when the two of us reached across party lines and joined 2.4 million ONE members to send a clear message to the presidential candidates—fighting poverty is not a partisan issue and must be a priority for the next president of the United States.
Out of that belief and desire to change our politics came ONE Vote '08, an historic initiative to make ending extreme poverty and global disease powerful issues at the voting booth in 2008.
The result of your tireless advocacy since then has changed the policy debate, the presidential campaign and the future for some of the world's most vulnerable people. From meeting the candidates on the trail in states like New Hampshire and Iowa to writing letters and making phones calls across this country, you've built a movement, taken action and put the fight against extreme poverty and global disease on the political map.
That's no small accomplishment, and Super Tuesday is our chance to finish strong. Before you go to vote, please take a few minutes to look at the On The Record website or send it to a friend who might not know where the candidates stand on these policies that can save lives.
http://www.onevote08.org/ontherecord?id=225-3323616-W8i1Od&t=3
On the site, you can check out the responses the presidential candidates submitted to your demands for real leadership on our issues and decide for yourself which candidate is best prepared to help the world's most vulnerable people build a better future.
In this whirlwind of politics and punditry around Super Tuesday, it's important to remember where we've come from. In this era of polarization, no one thought a Republican and Democrat could come together to speak as one about our opportunity to end the most brutal suffering we see around the world.
Much more inspiring is the action you've taken, joining 2.4 million ONE members to make ONE Vote '08 a success and doing something once thought impossible—making extreme poverty and global disease important issues in 2008. That's what makes us proud to wear these white bands and call ourselves ONE members.
Thank you for your continued involvement in ONE Vote '08 and for everything you've done for ONE and the fight to make poverty history
Best wishes,
Senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle
ONE Members and ONE Vote '08 National Co-Chairs
You're probably hearing a lot from politicians this week asking you to support one candidate or another for president. This email is different, because even though tomorrow is Super Tuesday, the two of us—former Senate majority leaders from opposite sides of the aisle—are putting politics aside to remind you that Super Tuesday is also a super opportunity to fight global poverty.
In deciding which candidates are ready to lead on issues like clean water, hunger and stopping global AIDS, knowledge is power. You can make a difference by visiting the On The Record website to learn more about the candidates' plans to bring strong American leadership to the historic opportunity we have to make poverty history.
http://www.onevote08.org/ontherecord?id=225-3323616-W8i1Od&t=2
For ONE, Super Tuesday is a major landmark in an effort that started in June, when the two of us reached across party lines and joined 2.4 million ONE members to send a clear message to the presidential candidates—fighting poverty is not a partisan issue and must be a priority for the next president of the United States.
Out of that belief and desire to change our politics came ONE Vote '08, an historic initiative to make ending extreme poverty and global disease powerful issues at the voting booth in 2008.
The result of your tireless advocacy since then has changed the policy debate, the presidential campaign and the future for some of the world's most vulnerable people. From meeting the candidates on the trail in states like New Hampshire and Iowa to writing letters and making phones calls across this country, you've built a movement, taken action and put the fight against extreme poverty and global disease on the political map.
That's no small accomplishment, and Super Tuesday is our chance to finish strong. Before you go to vote, please take a few minutes to look at the On The Record website or send it to a friend who might not know where the candidates stand on these policies that can save lives.
http://www.onevote08.org/ontherecord?id=225-3323616-W8i1Od&t=3
On the site, you can check out the responses the presidential candidates submitted to your demands for real leadership on our issues and decide for yourself which candidate is best prepared to help the world's most vulnerable people build a better future.
In this whirlwind of politics and punditry around Super Tuesday, it's important to remember where we've come from. In this era of polarization, no one thought a Republican and Democrat could come together to speak as one about our opportunity to end the most brutal suffering we see around the world.
Much more inspiring is the action you've taken, joining 2.4 million ONE members to make ONE Vote '08 a success and doing something once thought impossible—making extreme poverty and global disease important issues in 2008. That's what makes us proud to wear these white bands and call ourselves ONE members.
Thank you for your continued involvement in ONE Vote '08 and for everything you've done for ONE and the fight to make poverty history
Best wishes,
Senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle
ONE Members and ONE Vote '08 National Co-Chairs
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Violence erupting in Chad
Chad rebels say they seized eastern town By MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press Writer
55 minutes ago
Chadian rebels said they had seized an eastern town in an area housing more than 400,000 refugees along the border with Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region, but the government said Sunday it had repelled the attack.
Rebel spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah said he had no other information because he had been fighting all day in N'Djamena, the capital of the former French colony in Central Africa, where rebels were battling for a second day to oust President Idriss Deby.
"We defeated the garrison there and took Adre at around 4 p.m.," Koulamallah said.
But Chad's Gen. Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour said government forces fought off the attack, and claimed that Sudanese troops were involved.
Speaking on Radio France Internationale, Nassour said the troops attacked Adre from the ground and air, fighting alongside insurgents and militias. He called it "a declaration of war" by Sudan.
The governments of Chad and Sudan accuse each other of backing the other's rebel groups.
The U.N. refugee agency has 12 camps in that area for 420,000 refugees from Darfur and Chadians displaced in the spillover from the violence in Sudan.
The rebels arrived on the capital's outskirts Friday after a three-day push across the desert from Chad's eastern border with Sudan. Backed by 250 pickup trucks mounted with machine guns, between 1,000 and 1,500 insurgents entered the city early Saturday, quickly spreading through the streets.
A French military spokesman, Capt. Christophe Prazuck, said the fighting resumed around dawn Sunday, and government forces were using tanks and helicopter gunships to try to push out the rebels, who were battling back with assault weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
A foreign aid worker described the scene in N'Djamena on Sunday as "bloody and chaotic" with bodies littering the streets and looters breaking into shops during lulls in the fighting.
Gunfire could be heard coming from the area around the presidential palace, said the aid worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with reporters.
The U.S. State Department condemned the rebel's attempt to seize power.
"We call for calm in the capital and support the (African Union's) call for an immediate end to armed attacks and to refrain from violence that might harm innocent civilians," spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The violence has endangered a $300 million global aid operation supporting millions in Chad, and also delayed the deployment of the European Union's peacekeeping mission to both Chad and neighboring Central African Republic.
Chad has been convulsed by civil wars and invasions since independence from France in 1960. The recent discovery of oil has only increased the intensity of the power struggles in the largely desert country, and another Chadian rebel group launched a failed assault on N'Djamena in 2006.
The rebels currently fighting in the city are believed to be a coalition of three groups. The biggest is led by Mahamat Nouri, a former diplomat who defected 16 months ago, and a nephew of Deby's, Timan Erdimi. They have long been fighting to overthrow Deby, whom they accuse of corruption. Deby, himself a soldier, has seen many defect from the army, where morale is low.
The rebels are also angry with the president for not providing what they consider enough support to insurgents in Sudan's Darfur region, some of whom are from Deby's own tribe, the Zaghawa, who are found in both Chad and Sudan.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
55 minutes ago
Chadian rebels said they had seized an eastern town in an area housing more than 400,000 refugees along the border with Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region, but the government said Sunday it had repelled the attack.
Rebel spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah said he had no other information because he had been fighting all day in N'Djamena, the capital of the former French colony in Central Africa, where rebels were battling for a second day to oust President Idriss Deby.
"We defeated the garrison there and took Adre at around 4 p.m.," Koulamallah said.
But Chad's Gen. Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour said government forces fought off the attack, and claimed that Sudanese troops were involved.
Speaking on Radio France Internationale, Nassour said the troops attacked Adre from the ground and air, fighting alongside insurgents and militias. He called it "a declaration of war" by Sudan.
The governments of Chad and Sudan accuse each other of backing the other's rebel groups.
The U.N. refugee agency has 12 camps in that area for 420,000 refugees from Darfur and Chadians displaced in the spillover from the violence in Sudan.
The rebels arrived on the capital's outskirts Friday after a three-day push across the desert from Chad's eastern border with Sudan. Backed by 250 pickup trucks mounted with machine guns, between 1,000 and 1,500 insurgents entered the city early Saturday, quickly spreading through the streets.
A French military spokesman, Capt. Christophe Prazuck, said the fighting resumed around dawn Sunday, and government forces were using tanks and helicopter gunships to try to push out the rebels, who were battling back with assault weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
A foreign aid worker described the scene in N'Djamena on Sunday as "bloody and chaotic" with bodies littering the streets and looters breaking into shops during lulls in the fighting.
Gunfire could be heard coming from the area around the presidential palace, said the aid worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with reporters.
The U.S. State Department condemned the rebel's attempt to seize power.
"We call for calm in the capital and support the (African Union's) call for an immediate end to armed attacks and to refrain from violence that might harm innocent civilians," spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The violence has endangered a $300 million global aid operation supporting millions in Chad, and also delayed the deployment of the European Union's peacekeeping mission to both Chad and neighboring Central African Republic.
Chad has been convulsed by civil wars and invasions since independence from France in 1960. The recent discovery of oil has only increased the intensity of the power struggles in the largely desert country, and another Chadian rebel group launched a failed assault on N'Djamena in 2006.
The rebels currently fighting in the city are believed to be a coalition of three groups. The biggest is led by Mahamat Nouri, a former diplomat who defected 16 months ago, and a nephew of Deby's, Timan Erdimi. They have long been fighting to overthrow Deby, whom they accuse of corruption. Deby, himself a soldier, has seen many defect from the army, where morale is low.
The rebels are also angry with the president for not providing what they consider enough support to insurgents in Sudan's Darfur region, some of whom are from Deby's own tribe, the Zaghawa, who are found in both Chad and Sudan.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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