NYT: Misreading The Truth In Sudan

[reorg]

Misreading The Truth In Sudan

By Sam Dealey
New York Times
08 August 2004

El Fasher, Sudan - Tucked behind the featureless hills that rise abruptly from the Saharan sands outside El Fasher, Musa Khaber sits cross-legged beneath a parched tree in the early dusk. Clothed in a flowing white djellaba and turban, Mr. Khaber, a Janjaweed militia leader, is guarded by armed followers, their guns trained nervously on the meeting spot.

Mr. Khaber is a wanted man. It is Janjaweed bands like his that the international community accuses of waging a proxy war for Sudan's government against rebellious African tribes in Darfur. Seventeen months into this conflict, some 30,000 people have died and more than one million have been forced from their homes.

It is also bands like Mr. Khaber's that expose three myths of one of the worst humanitarian crises - that the Janjaweed are the sole source of trouble and are acting only as proxies for Khartoum; that the conflict pits light-skinned Arabs against black Africans; and that the Sudanese government can immediately end the war whenever it wishes. Until the international community puts aside these simplifications, no sustainable solution can emerge.

(...)

It may be clear to Washington that Khartoum controls the conflict, but in Darfur the situation is more complex.

(...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/opinion/08dealey.html
(free registration required)

http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/9435.html

[papau]

1. militias now pursue age-old vendettas - yep - quite a few family

members talk like that!

One of the reasons to avoid family - some in the family - except at weddings and funerals.

:-)


It is good the 95% of the family has the idea that life is better if you put the past behind (but God forbid you ever forget) and go on with the words "no problem" always on your lips.

:-)

[reorg]

2. Some persons may think it is appropriate

to make fun of human slaughter and war.

Nobody here, including yourself, I'm sure, would ever do that.


So what is your motive for these awkward remarks?

[papau]

3. Bitter memory - is the motive -- when you see a lot of death over 200 yr

old events, one gets bitter

Hard to convey in a post.

But indeed - I do know - have "seen/heard the talk" - the revenge for the evil done to a great great great great grand Aunt - discussions.

As late as the 1970's.

I think it has ended in the US - but I wish it would end everywhere.

Darfur as a revenge for History - rather than brown Arab killing Black farmer - is not an improvement on the current situation. And the cry for more time because of this new reason seems illogical.