This an interesting press release from the Sudanese Embassy at DC regarding the Darfur issue. I agree with it but not fully however.
THINK ABOUT YOUR ACTIONS
PRESS RELEASE | Friday, April 28, 2006
(EMBASSY OF THE SUDAN.Washington, D.C. 27 April, 2006)
In the early 1990s some individuals and organizations attempted to exploit negative aspects of the civil war in Southern Sudan, specifically inter-tribal abduction exacerbated by the war, to create a huge industry called “Slave Redemption.” In the interim millions of dollars have been donated by well-intentioned Americans, including school children, to obtain freedom for their fellow human beings.
As it became more certain that a negotiated peace was within reach to end the North-South conflict, meticulous reporting by The Irish Times, The Independence and The Washington Post concluded that “Slave Redemption” was a fraudulent campaign, designed to defraud people of their money. A segment on CBS’s Sixty Minutes, hosted by Dan Rather, interviewed that movement’s co-founder, Jim Jacobson, who said “it is a hoax, a staged story and a circus.” The Reverend Mario Riva, an Italian Priest who lived in Southern Sudan for decades said “most of the time slave redemption was a trick.” (See the video on our website www.sudanembassy.org).
Contrary to the claims of the slave redeemers that about 200,000 slaves were redeemed, research by the pro-SPLM institute in Kenya, the Rift Valley Institute, concluded that during the two decades of the civil war the total abductees never exceeded 1100. The Slave Redemption industry became defunct soon thereafter.
The only factory in Sudan that produced medicine to combat malaria and tuberculosis, which was labeled a chemical weapon facility owned by Osama bin Laden, was completely destroyed by American missiles in 1998. The allegations that the factory produced chemical weapons turned out to be completely unfounded. Indeed, Sudan now cooperates closely with the US and others in the war against terrorism.
The immoral tactics of sensational campaigns and bogus allegations of those campaigns, which are focused on increasing US hostility toward Sudan, have cost the Sudanese people years of killing and destruction… They have undercut peace and hampered unity.
The Sudan Coalition, a “bipartisan entity” as its members strive to describe it, deserves credit for prolonging the miseries of all Sudanese throughout the civil war by pressuring the Clinton Administration to pursue an irrational policy toward Sudan. In April 2001 former President Carter said “the people in Sudan want to resolve the conflict. The biggest obstacle is the U.S. government policy. Any sort of peace effort is aborted basically by policies of the United States. Instead of working for peace in Sudan, the U.S. government has basically promoted a continuation of war.”
Today, the organizers of the April 30th rally include veterans of the Sudan Coalition. As part of their protest they are targeting the peace negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria, which, by all accounts, will reach a successful conclusion in the very near future. By implication, the message that will be sent by the demonstrators to the Darfur rebels is: Don’t Make Peace. The US supports you. These are the same misdirected, naïve tactics that delayed a peace deal in Sudan for more than eight years. Yet we are certain that delaying peace is not the reason why so many of you are motivated to participate in this rally.
Emily Wax of The Washington Post recently reported on Sunday, April 23, that: “in September 2004, then-Secretary of State, Colin L. Powell referred to the conflict as “genocide”. Rather than spurring greater international action, that label only seems to have strengthened Sudan’s rebels; they believe they don’t need to negotiate with the government and think they will have U.S. support when they commit attacks.” She also noted “although the conflict has also been framed as a battle between Arabs and Black Africans, every one in Darfur appears dark-skinned, at least by the usual American standards.”
The situation in Sudan is not comparable to apartheid in South Africa. The Darfur conflict, which is tragic and must be resolved as quickly as possible, is not the world’s worst. The Washington Post reported last year that 3.5 million people were killed in the last four years in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The recent Council on Foreign Relations 56th report on these issues noted that the figure in the DRC was closer to 4 million. More than 1.4 million Somalis are suffering today in one of the worst famines to hit that region. One concludes that the hostility toward Sudan is propelled by ethnic, religious and ideological hatred, not humanitarian concerns.
The manipulation of good hearted people who care deeply about Sudan, through the use of disinformation about Slave Redemption, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and other false allegations, is wrong and counterproductive. It was wrongheaded years ago and remains the same today.
There is a human tragedy today in Darfur that will be most effectively and quickly addressed through peace negotiations, not rhetoric. Peace will not be achieved by sending the wrong message at just the wrong time to the perpetrators of that tragedy, the Darfur rebels, who demonstrated their goals and methods through violent attacks in Southern Darfur earlier this week.
(Source)
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
