So what? The U.S. criticizes Sudanese Genocide!

Quote of note:

Ibrahim Ahmed, a Sudanese political analyst, said it was clear that there was no legal basis for saying genocide was under way in Darfur, otherwise the U.S. administration's lawyers would have adopted the term.

"But what is equally obvious is that the American public thinks that it is genocide and therefore getting Congress to rule on this was a politically expedient way of mollifying public opinion while circumnavigating the legalities," he added.

Yasir Abdullah, a journalist from northern Sudan, said the U.S. Congress and administration did not understand the roots of the Darfur conflict and were dealing with it very superficially.

"They are biased and have their own agenda. Sanctions will not harm the government, they will harm the people. Have they not learned this yet?" he told Reuters.

Sudanese Criticize U.S. Genocide Resolution
Fri Jul 23, 2004 06:58 AM ET
By Nima Elbagir

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese Arabs Friday slammed a U.S. congressional resolution declaring genocide in the western region of Darfur, while Darfuris asked what Washington would do now to make it safe for them to go back home.

"Is Iraq not enough? Do they want to destroy us too? ... America wants everyone who is Arab (in Sudan) to pay. They do not understand anything," said Ismail Gasmalseed, a 34-year-old driver in Khartoum.[P6: Sorry, dawg, but in Iraq we had no proof. With you, we do. On the other hand, this shows the loss of moral standing the neocon's handling of Iraq has caused the USofA.]

The U.S. Congress approved the resolution Thursday and its supporters hope it will help mobilize the international community to protect Africans in Darfur from Arab militias.

But the accusation of genocide is highly controversial and has not been formally adopted by the U.S. administration, the United Nations, Darfuri rebels or most of the humanitarian organizations working on the ground in the remote region.

The Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, have been driving non-Arab villagers off their land in Darfur in an extension of a long conflict over farmland and grazing. The conflict has displaced more than one million people in the region.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on July 23, 2004 - 10:12am :: Africa and the African Diaspora
 
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Agreed prom6. A smoking gun on this. Black Christians as victims. Powell has failed in the response. We should provide assistance to these lands and help them establish new soveriegn nations.

The Saudis are expanding their empire, and Buscho will say nothing. Iraq and Sudan, the horn of Afica, and Chad...

Kill out the people and claim their lands using new oil technology...

Here is our chance to take the fight to Al Qaeda on thier terms.

If one were a rich extremely wealthy person, perhaps starting a new contractor army, getting the available minority soldiers ready to leave the Army's stop-loss to sign on as advisors will happen.

Iran/Contra all over...this time someone should side with the people who deserve the aid . Too bad p6, BCCI is out they would finance you. Certainly (if we ever rollback Iraq) the contractors will focus there.

Some over the top assistance, and advisory leadership, of inherent inhabitants of a land for which they are soveriegn should occur here.

Posted by  Mr.Murder (not verified) on July 23, 2004 - 11:02am.

Actually, there's not much here to pin on Powell, as the conflct has been going on for decades:


The pattern of conflict changed from low-intensity, small-scale outbreaks from the 1950s to the 1970s, to high-intensity, persistent and large-scale battles in the mid-1980s. The earlier conflicts were predominantly clashes between nomadic groups over accesss to pasture and water, or theft of animals. Since the mid-1980s there has been a more systematic drive by the nomads to occupy land in the central Jebel Marra massif, on the scale of a civil war, with entire villages wiped out and thousands of lives lost on both sides. While drought-stricken livestock herders attempt to survive by encroaching on the fertile central zone, the Fur have fought back to retain what they see as "their" land.

http://www.sudanupdate.org/REPORTS/PEOPLES/Darf.htm

Posted by  dof (not verified) on July 24, 2004 - 9:37am.