Darfur

Two days ago I had the privilege of being featured on the Al Jazeera English show, The Stream, where I got the chance to critique the simplistic and biased media narrative on Sudan, something I’ve been blogging about right here for the last five years, especially in the early days in 2006 and 2007 as some of you old-time readers know.

Here’s my main appearance posted below, and here on this page is the full episode that was broadcast.

It was a short segment so I didn’t have the time to elaborate as much as I’d have liked, and I also had to specifically focus on the media narrative. More importantly, now that I’ve watched myself, I’m afraid that in trying to be civil on TV, I might have come across as too soft on the Khartoum regime because I didn’t highlight the extent of the violent atrocities it has committed and indeed continues to commit against various marginalized groups in the country.

Luckily, I have this blog where I can elaborate as much as I’d like and state things more clearly.

The following is a list of links to resources which will give you a nuanced understanding of important background information and critical factors that affect the ongoing horrendous violence that’s unfolding.

• This is the NY Times article I referred to in my appearance, and it contains a criticism of Save Darfur and the rather unhelpful narrative it’s been pushing, along with the Enough Project. It’s an absolute must-read, and so is the Sudan-part of this Slate article.
• In April 2006, the Washington Post published an excellent article challenging numerous misconceptions that have been spread about Darfur by media outlets and pushed by the Save Darfur Coalition. The article is called 5 Truths About Darfur, and it’s a must-read.
• In 2007 I wrote a blog post that’s still relevant today called Darfur: The Reality, the Agenda & the Proposed Solution, which I’m sure many of you will find eye-opening.
• To understand the recent history of Sudan-US relations, check out Official Pariah Sudan Valuable to America’s War on Terrorism, and this article which underscores the tensions between Republicans and Democrats in pursuing a coherent and effective Sudan strategy.
• On the issue of ethnicity and religion being factors, you may want to read my article at Comment is free in The Guardian, called Ending Sudan’s Identity Crisis to get a much better sense of the complex situation.
• Finally here’s an argument for why economic sanctions on Sudan, which negatively affect us the people more than anyone else, should be lifted, and why Sudan should be removed from its now-unfair designation in the US State Department’s list of terrorism-sponsoring countries.

If you dig into just those articles above, you’ll begin to understand the danger in the confrontational approach pushed by organizations like Save Darfur and Enough Project. They might be well-meaning, but politically, their strategy has been damaging and polarizing, leaving little room for positive engagement and normalization of relations with the United States.

And if they, Nicholas Kristof and George Clooney disagree with me, then I’d be happy to engage with them in a friendly debate and discussion.

To their credit, I believe that we all share the same goal of a peaceful Sudan in which all heinous atrocities would stop, and the Khartoum government would beheld accountable for its brutal actions. However, we clearly have very different strategies we’d like to see implemented to get there.

Simply put, Sudan is a fragile country, and if the aforementioned advocates have their way, we could witness the making of another Somalia. And it won’t be pretty.

Finally, looks like the annoying divisions within the US State Deparment on what to do about Sudan are bye bye. There will be more internal arguing to come for sure but this is a pretty good step.

Here’s the new policy outlined here.

Call me a genius, but long time readers will know that I’ve been calling out for a more balanced approach for a long time, very similar to the one being espoused by the new policy.

Maybe Obama’s people have been secretly reading this blog.

The Save Darfur Coalition’s idiotic promotion of military intervention has been dumb from the start. Same goes for the more recent proposed La La Land appeasement approach of new key Obama people.

However, both combined have produced something in the middle that I believe is much better than anything we’ve ever had before. Tough action and credible real threats are needed, but so are some carrots.

Because, as we can see with terrorism-related stuff, the NCP has been very cooperative in recent years, but that still didn’t get Sudan removed from the US State Department’s list of terrorism-sponsoring countries, which up until now made a lot of people within the NCP reluctant in pursuing further cooperation to resolve things in Darfur.

Anyways, for now, this is all lovely and wonderful, but it’s still ink on paper.

Following up on this is what’s needed, while making sure the whole execrise doesn’t deginrate into mere lame naive appeasement. Don’t think the latter will happen though, with people like John Prendergast keeping a watchful idea.

Here’s to a fruitful new American Sudan policy.

The following interview would not have been possible without the help of Sudanese Optimist. Both of us would like to thank the ambassador for taking the time to do it. He was incredibly nice and kind to us, and we wish him all the best.

We encourage the mainstream media to use this interview, provided that they appropriately credit Sudanese Optimist and The Sudanese Thinker as their source.

On the technical side, I’m loving the magic of Skype and Audio Hijack. May God bless this age of citizen journalism.

I won’t be publishing an analysis of the ambassador’s answers, some of which at the very least to say were… erm, interesting. But then again, I’m not surprised. He is the ambassador after all, and it’s his job to represent the position of the government.

The questions we asked were:

1. What do you think are the motives behind the ICC decision?
2. What is the current mood in the US/Sudan regarding the ICC indictment? Is it a mood of fear, nervousness, anger, etc…?
3. Why do you think there has not been a national, Arab and African court set up to try those who have committed war crimes in Darfur?
4. Do you think the expulsion of the 13 NGOs is temporary or permanent? How were they involved?
5. Do you think the upcoming elections will still happen?
6. What are Al-Bashir’s current options after the ICC indictment? Is it realistic for him to remain president?
7. What is the United States’ stance on the ICC indictment? What is your outlook on the diplomatic relations between Sudan and the US?
8. Are you optimistic about the future?

Here are the ambassador’s answers. I’ll leave the analysis to you.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Hey George Clooney, I hope you and your well-meaning but rather sadly incompetent liberal friends at Save Darfur  and Enough Project are happy.

Great, the arrest warrant has been issued, now what? Huh, now what?

What about you Nicholas Kristof?

Listen guys, I appreciate your well-meaning sentiments. I really do. We all pretty much agree on the goals: a peaceful, stable, and democratic Sudan.

Where we sharply part ways is on the means, and to put it bluntly, I think yours are utter shit.

(New York) - The Sudanese government’s announcement that it will expel 10 international aid agencies places the lives of more than 1 million people in Darfur at risk, Human Rights Watch said today.

What’s your plan now Clooney and Co.?

Sit back and wait for the super reliable UN and so-called international community to pursue… yeah, what’s that thing called again, wait, let me remember, oh yeah “aggressive diplomacy”…

… to change  the evil hideous ways of our deeply “beloved” Omar Hassan al-Bashir, aka the “protector” of Sudan and Islam waging a jihad of pure awesomeness against the Evil Western Zionist Piggy Ape CrUSAders, right?

Seriously, what’s your plan?

Lobby, what’s his name again, yeah, President Barack Hussein Obama to do something, anything right? Pursue “aggressive diplomacy” too right?

Right.

As if the economy is in such wonderful shape and American tax payers are in the mood for another US-led military adventure abroad.

Ladies and gentlemen, I wish my predictions were wrong, but it is precisely because of the above quoted text that I’ve been reluctant to support the ICC warrant as explained in this previous post of mine.

For the millionth time, the pursuit of justice is highly important but not at the great risk of endangering the very people facing the injustice in the first place.

Alex De Waal, a true Sudan-expert and scholar who’s actually lived in Darfur and written numerous books on Sudan agrees (HRW’s Richard Dicker and Scholar, Mediator Alex de Waal Debate ICC Indictment of Sudanese President for Mass Killings in Darfur).

Julie Flint agrees too. She’s another real Sudan-expert, unlike the other experts or so-called Sudan experts who are dangerously out of touch.

Here’s to hoping the humanitarian situation doesn’t worsen into a disaster.

Thanks to the lovely Sudanese Optimist, I found this AlertNet link which features a number of Sudanese bloggers. I was also just kindly notified by Global Voices Online that CNN’s Inside Africa covered their roundups of the Sudanese blogosphere.

Awesome.

Keep’em coming fellow Sudanese bloggers. Heck, tell your Sudanese friends to start blogging too. We could certainly use a litte more activity around here.

Here are the thoughts of Sudanese bloggers so far in reaction to the ICC’s arrest warrant for our lovely dictator. First, let’s check what Nesrine at Cif thinks of this:

Toothless and badly-timed as the indictment of Sudan’s president may be, morally we cannot afford not to support it.

… The timing was unfortunate. Many in the Arab world are still reeling from the recent incursion into Gaza and governments are continuing to capitalise on anti-western sentiment. The ostensible hypocrisy of targeting Bashir when apparently Israel and the west are impune renders his martyrdom on the altar of international double standards convenient for Arab or African heads of state living in their own glass houses.

[click to continue...]

This is an open thread to discuss the upcoming ICC decision on the arrest warrant for dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir. It’s expected to be announced in a matter of hours.

Here’s my analysis. Here’s the in-depth one by Enough Project. It’s awesome, but they’re placing too much hope on the international community and the UN I think.

Dear fellow Sudanese bloggers, drop a link to your own blog post on the matter in the comments section so that it will get noticed by the media. I’ve got a number of journalists emailing me, and they’re all interested in hearing what we Sudanese bloggers have to say about this.

Everyone else, share your thoughts, if any. This is potentially history in the making. Meanwhile, I’m gonna go find me some pop-corn.

Let the “entertainment” begin!

UPDATE: Ooo, surprise of the century! So what’s gonna happen now? Will Bashir get overthrown by Salah Gosh or something? Dum dum dum… the plot thickens! Oh yeah. More pop-corn please.

UPDATE: This is bad news, and I’m not surprised at all by it. Here’s the latest from Rob Crilly’s Twitter stream:

10 NGOs being kicked out of Sudan altogether. Include Oxfam, Care, ACF. Got calls seconds after ICC presser started

hearing it may be 13 NGOs, probably cannot confirm at this time of night

Getting increasingly irritated by celebrations for the ICC. People should check out what’s happening here, not listen to Save Darfur

NGOs appealing. Will Khartoum have the balls to see it through? Masters of reversing decisions, centre overruling regional authorities etc

laptops and phones being taken from charities here now

More here.

It’s been seven months since news broke out about the ICC’s pursuit of an arrest warrant for Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir, charging him with genocide and war crimes against humanity, a move that brought about entertaining Sudanese reactions.

Seven months, and it seems to me that there are some who can hardly wait for the issuance of this arrest warrant as if it’s some kind of magical solution that’s going to bring peace and stability to Darfur.

[click to continue...]

I’ve had my issues with the Save Darfur Coalition previously, but this looks like a good initiative. If you’re American, get on board and sign. It only takes less than a minute. And it’s the least we could do.

It’s a conspiracy to try and seem fair, don’t be fooled.

This week the ICC prosecutor submitted a sealed application to the judges requesting an arrest warrant be issued against three Darfur rebel leaders whose names were not disclosed.

The counts against the rebel leaders included war crimes of violence to life, intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a peacekeeping mission and pillaging.

The U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Richard Williamson in an interview with Reuters welcomed the ICC move against rebel groups.

“I believe that for justice to be credible and for restorative justice to take place, all sides who commit crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide have to be held to account” the US official said.

Conspiracy, I tell you!

By far one of the best articles on Sudan I’ve come across in recent weeks. Great analysis.

… in the past few weeks three newish factors have coalesced to create a set of circumstances that could shake the country up: for better, if matters are handled carefully, or for much worse. The first is the prospect of national elections next year; the second is the beginning of proceedings against President Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide over Darfur; and the third is the election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. Each of these factors, on its own, would not bother Mr Bashir much. But the three together are now putting considerable pressure on him to change course in Darfur and get serious about peace with the south.

Keep reading it here.

(hat-tip: Nobody)

… I mean the Muslim and Arab hypocrisy in regards to the Darfur conflict. He succinctly says what I’ve been hammering across here for ages together with some active commenters.

~*~

Muslim minority: Hey, there are Muslims getting killed in Darfur.

Muslim majority: Really? By the evil Joooz?

Muslim minority: No, by other Muslims.

Muslim majority: …

In the grand scheme of things, China’s indirect involvement in the Darfur conflict deserves all the scrutiny it can get, but in the microcosm, this is completely uncalled for and unacceptable.

Sudan denied yesterday that they were killed during a rescue operation but Beijing said they were killed after clashes with Sudanese troops. Khartoum insists the kidnappers panicked when a helicopter hovered overhead.

Also, Sudan accused the Justice and Equality Movement of abduction and the killing, while the rebels dismissed the accusations saying Misseriya people were behind the murder.

It’s still unclear who is responsible for the murders, but I don’t see any motivations the government can have for doing this.

Dear Darfur rebels,

I hope I’m wrong but if you were behind this, then way to go. First it was your attack on Khartoum, and now, it’s this. You do realize, there are better ways to get your point across right? Clearly, this isn’t one of them. It only does more harm than good to your supremely legitimate cause.

My condolences go out to the families of the workers.

Oh well, at least they’ve managed to flee from all the killing and bloodshed.

May they find peace and stability in their new home, and may the filthy butchers who drove them away and slaughtered their people face the fates they deserve.