So I just watched the story on Sudan

[BayCityProgressive]

on CNN. That is the most heartbreaking thing I have ever seen. It literally makes me physically ill to think we are spending all of our resources in Iraq while millions of people starve to death in a crisis we could have helped prevent.

[jayavarman]

1. At least

the US wants to do something to stop the tragedy, whereas the European union just said today that it was not genocide, inferring that it is an internal Sudanese matter.

Horrible Situation- Would it make sense for US to act unilaterally in this situation?

Interesting question.

[Darranar]

2. What, precisely, does the US want to do to stop the tragedy? n/t

[jayavarman]

3. I don't know, really.

But at least Powell has been trying to focus world attention on Sudan.

[Darranar]

4. Powell is talking about it, yes...

so is everyone else, it isn't like the EU has ignored the situation entirely.

I doubt the EU or the US will actually do anything substantial regarding the genocide though.

[jayavarman]

5. Sad but true.

I am proud that my Sec. of State is doing his bit to try to focus world attention on the situation in Sudan . . . & I was very disheartened to read today that Europe seemed to think it was 'no big deal' . . . Well, maybe not 'no big deal', but they said that the atrocities do not constitute genocide.

[seemslikeadream]

6. ARMS TRANSFERS TO THE GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN

Here's the problem


IV. ARMS TRANSFERS TO THE GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN

A number of states have supplied arms, military equipment, or military training to the government of Sudan, or have failed to prevent their nationals from providing arms or services to Sudan. Very few of these transfers have been publicly documented (for example, via submissions to the U.N. register on conventional arms). Below we list some of the transfers that have surfaced; they are by no means exhaustive, but merely indicative of the scope of the trade. Human Rights Watch has written to a number of governments to inquire about particular transfers or training arrangements. The replies received are referred to below.

China

The People’s Republic of China, which has sold arms to successive Sudanese governments since the early 1980s, became one of the country’s principal arms suppliers in 1994 and remained so into 1998, largely because China had what Sudan wanted and attached no conditions, other than monetary ones and oil concessions, to their sale. Chinese weapons are relatively cheap, and much of what Sudan has been purchasing is fairly old stock. In perhaps one of the most significant transactions, China is said to have sold the government of Sudan SCUD missiles at the end of 1996 in a deal underwritten by a $200 million Malaysian government loan against future oil extraction, according to a high-level Sudanese defector, who claimed the deal, which he said he witnessed, was arranged by Sudan’s state minister for external relations, Dr. Mustafa Osman Ismail.83 SCUD missiles are notoriously inaccurate medium-range rockets that have been used against civilian population centers in past conflicts, such as the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War and the 1991 Gulf War.

more
http://www.hrw.org/reports98/sudan/Sudarm988-05.htm

Security Concerns Raised by Arms Transfers from Candidate Countries
Open Letter to European Union (E.U.) Foreign Ministers, Commissioners Prodi, Verheugen and Patten and High Representative Javier Solana
October 19, 2001



Czech Republic. In 2000 the Czech Republic delivered surplus tanks sold to Yemen despite concerns that they might be illegally diverted, as had happened a year earlier with tanks from Poland. The Polish tanks disappeared en route and were reportedly delivered to Sudan, which is under an E.U. embargo. In 2001 the Czech government initiated negotiations for further arms sales to Yemen.
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/10/arms-eu-ltr1019.htm

Poland, too, engaged in the arms trade with Yemen, with confirmed exports in 2001. A 1999 shipment of Polish tanks to Yemen was diverted en route and reportedly delivered to Sudan, sparking an international scandal that drew attention to the risk of weapons diversion and the responsibility of arms exporters to evaluate more carefully potential arms clients.

· In May 2002, a criminal investigation was opened against a major Bulgarian arms company alleged to have been involved in illegal weapons deals with the government of Sudan, which is subject to an E.U. embargo. The case also served as a reminder of the need to take formal action to stamp out potential conflicts of interest, after Bulgaria's foreign minister announced that the company had ignored his requests that he be removed from the board of directors following his election to public office. He accused the company of seeking commercial advantage from its association with a top public official.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/smallarms/2002/1011arms.htm

According to press reports in South Africa, Mezosy was arrested on an Interpol warrant but was also ‘suspected of trafficking arms from the Czech Republic to several African states, including Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia’.29 According to a report in The East African, Mezosy was suspected of supplying modern weapons, such as AK-74’s and old US leftovers from the Vietnam War to conflicting countries in Africa. 30 The weekly
reported that this could be deduced from a personal computer database of Mezosy, which referred to a great number of African countries.

http://www.nisat.org/publications/armsfixers/Chapter4.html

Between 1992 and 1994 Cenex, a Polish company, sold $4.3 million (US) worth of small arms and light weapons to Somalia, the Sudan and Croatia, using Latvian territory as part of its smuggling route. (5)

http://www.research.ryerson.ca/SAFER-Net/regions/Europe/Lat_JY04.html





International arms trade $800 billion annually - largest business in the world.


Twice the second placed - illegal sale of drugs $400 billion a year


82 armed conflicts between 1989-1999 - 79 took place within national borders - arms not needed for self defense.


Reality is most arms are used on ordinary people by forces in the government or close to it.


159 wars fought since WWII - 9 out of 10 in developing world - more than 20 million people - were civilians.


War brings starvation - Biafra, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Chad, Sudan, Liberia and Somalia.


Until there is a radical reassessment of the arms trade and its consequences, millions more will be directly or indirectly killed by this lethal business.


The bottom line is that there is a lot of money to be made in weapons, and this motivates arms manufacturing.


To add to high profit margins, all arms manufactures are heavily subsidised and protected by their governments.


Free trade agreements - nearly always exempt from military spending


Industrialised countries will always be able to subsidise their corporations through defense contracts and grants for weapons research.

[seemslikeadream]

7. Arms Dealer Wanted in Africa, Needed in Iraq

MERCHANT OF DEATH
Viktor Bout standing near an airplane.

Published on Friday, May 21, 2004 by the Inter Press Service
Arms Dealer Wanted in Africa, Needed in Iraq
Coalition forces find new uses in Iraq for an arms dealer they had branded a villain in Africa.

by Julio Godoy

PARIS - Arms dealer Viktor Bout was the merchant of death wanted for feeding conflicts in Africa - until Iraq happened.

Today the United States and Britain are using his extensive mercenary services in Iraq. The condemnation of his role in the diamond wars and other conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa over the past ten years is being silently erased.

The Tajikstan-born Bout would be an embarrassing ally to acknowledge publicly. But the coalition partners are showing him exceptional favors as he does some of their job for them.

The UN Security Council drafted a resolution in March to freeze the assets of mercenaries and weapons dealers who backed ousted Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. Bout should top that list, French diplomatic sources say. But the diplomats and UN sources say the United States has been working to keep Bout off that list.

U.S. officials have indicated unofficially that the reason is that Bout is useful in Iraq, the sources told IPS.

The tanks were believed to have been transported by one of Bout's air freight companies in a deal conducted through Pakistan's secret service. The deal was uncovered by the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR in Kabul, Der Spiegel reported.

more
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0521-12.htm

GALLERY OF INTERNATIONAL ARMS DEALERS

By Matthew Brunwasser

Victor Bout is the poster boy for a new generation of post Cold War international arms dealers who play a critical role in areas where the weapons trade has been embargoed by the United Nations.

Now, as FRONTLINE/World reports in "Gunrunners," unprecedented U.N. investigations have begun to unravel the mystery of these broken embargoes, many of them imposed on African countries involved in bloody civil wars. At the heart of this unfolding detective story is the identification of a group of East European arms merchants, with Victor Bout the first of them to be publicly and prominently identified. The U.N. investigative team pursued leads that a Mr. Bout was pouring small arms and ammunition into Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the Congo, making possible massacres on a scale that stunned the world.



Despite being pursued for years by a flinty group of private and government arms investigators, a positive visual ID of this United Arab Emirates-based arms merchant only became available when two Belgian journalists ran into him at an airstrip in remote rebel-held Congo. And it was only recently that his name became familiar in the United States, following press reports of his role in arming the Taliban regime in Afghanistan five years ago. If not for this link to Afghanistan, it is probable that Bout would still be a low-profile character in the clandestine world of illicit arms trading.
more

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/bout.html

VICTOR BOUT
FACT SHEET
BORN:
1967, Dushanbe, U.S.S.R. (now Tajikistan); an ethnic Russian.

PASSPORTS:
At least five, two of which are Russian and one Ukrainian.

ALIASES:
Often referred to in law enforcement circles as "Victor B.," as he is thought to have at least five aliases: Butt, Butov, Badd, Bulakin and others.

EDUCATION:
Graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, Moscow.

PREVIOUS CAREER:
Until 1991, served as an interpreter in a now-disbanded military transport aviation regiment in Vitsebsk (now Belarus). Translated for U.N. peacekeeping force in Angola, 1987. Left the military as a lieutenant.

LANGUAGES:
Russian (native), Farsi (Persian, also the language of Tajikistan), English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Xhosa, Zulu.

MOST RECENTLY:
Last seen at liberty in Moscow in March, 2002.

CRIMINAL RECORD:
June 2000: Charged with forging documents in the Central African Republic and convicted in absentia. Charges were later dropped; no explanation was given.
February 2002: Belgium issued an arrest warrant for Bout on money laundering charges.
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/bout.html

Jean Bernard Lasnaud



By Julia Reynolds, Center for Investigative Reporting
with William Kistner and Omar Lavieri in Buenos Aires

UPDATE: Just days after the publication of this Web-exclusive report on May 23, Jean Bernard Lasnaud was arrested in Switzerland in response to an Interpol request. Swiss authorities contacted the Argentina courts, where the current judge on the case quickly requested Lasnaud's extradition. If sent to Argentina, Lasnaud will face 22 years in prison on charges of arms smuggling and "abuse of authority."

As this FRONTLINE/World report pointed out, the U.S. had broken from standard practice and never took even basic steps toward detaining Lasnaud. If he finally faces the Buenos Aires courts, it is hoped Lasnaud's testimony will help shed light on how a wanted international arms smuggler was able to spend a decade living openly in the U.S.

Note: After Lasnaud's arrest, his Web site was taken off the Internet.

In the fall of 2001, international arms broker Jean-Bernard Lasnaud was at ease, sounding more like a seasoned entrepreneur than a fugitive from justice.

"Business has been terrible since September 11," he laughed, during a telephone interview with FRONTLINE/World. "I'm going to give it up and buy a hot dog stand in New York City."



Personable and easy-going, he was in the business of selling tanks, rocket launchers and SCUD missiles from a luxury condo in a gated South Florida community.


JEAN BERNARD LASNAUD FACT SHEET


JEAN BERNARD LASNAUD
FACT SHEET
BORN:
March 12, 1942, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

ALIASES:
Bernard Lasnosky, Jean-Fran�ois Bernard, Fran�ois Laroche.

BIGGEST KNOWN ARMS DEAL:
Illicit sales of Argentinean weapons in the 1990s estimated to have totaled $100 million, including government bribes and payoffs.

SUSPECTED CLIENT COUNTRIES:
Croatia, Ecuador, China, United States, and Somalia.

CLAIM TO FAME:
Accused of brokering sales of 6,500 tons of Argentinean weapons to Croatia and Ecuador in the mid-90s, in violation of U.N. and international embargoes. Faxes signed by Lasnaud document his involvement in and intimate knowledge of the deals. Lasnaud's Argentine partner, Capt. Horacio Estrada, was found shot dead in his Buenos Aires apartment soon after speaking to an investigating judge in the case. Some Florida law enforcement officials suspect that Lasnaud is a protected asset of the CIA or some other U.S. agency.

PURSUED BY:
Argentina.
Interpol has an active warrant for Lasnaud's arrest and extradition to Argentina. The U.S. Department of Justice has refused to pick him up, citing "insufficient evidence" that Lasnaud knew his shipments contained arms.

CONNECTION TO UNITED STATES:
Until recently, lived in Fort Lauderdale. His son Alexandre, a south Florida attorney, recently served a six-month sentence in federal prison on obstruction of justice charges.

MOST RECENTLY:
In spring 2002, Lasnaud suddenly left his Florida residence and said he was "traveling outside the U.S." An Interpol source says his ability to travel freely is "highly unusual."
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/lasnaud.html

Leonid Minin


By Matthew Brunwasser


The scene in Leonid Minin's hotel room on the night of August 4, 2000 could have been taken from a Quentin Tarrantino film: Minin, a pale Ukrainian, abundantly fleshy and naked, freebasing cocaine, flanked by a quartet of Russian, Albanian, Italian and Kenyan prostitutes. A pornographic film flickers in the background. Minin, the majority owner of the Europa Hotel in Cinisello Balsamo, a small town outside Milan, Italy, has transformed his two-room suite into a bedroom/office and den of debauchery.

Then, without warning, the police arrive at Room 341, putting an end to the party and derailing the career of a prominent international gun smuggler and high-level leader of the so-called "Odessa Mafia."

Although local police supposedly raided Minin's hotel on a tip from an unpaid prostitute, FRONTLINE/World has acquired a report that shows the Milan customs police had had Minin under surveillance since 1992 while investigating an international criminal organization involved in laundering international drug money through the foreign bank accounts of Italian businessmen. The report also says that in 1997 Italian intelligence services conducted a "complex investigation on a criminal group of Ukrainian origins associated with the so-called 'Russian Mafia' and involved in international arms and drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion and other offenses. This group is headed by the Ukrainian businessman Leonid Minin."

Incriminating Evidence

That hot August evening in Cinisello Balsamo, police found $500,000 worth of uncut diamonds. Later analysis found most came from Russia -- no African origins could be confirmed despite the diamond scales later found in Minin's Liberian office. They found a duffel bag filled with more than $35,000 in American, Italian, Hungarian and Mauritian currency. From a briefcase and piles scattered around the rooms, police collected 1,500 documents -- in Russian, Ukrainian, French, German, Dutch, English and Italian -- relating to Minin's wide variety of business operations. Specific findings included documents on his dealings in oil, timber and consumer goods; an inquiry by Minin into providing Nigeria's mobile phone network; a follow-up by a colleague on Minin's proposal to sell a Ukrainian aircraft carrier to Turkey; an offer from Minin's Beijing representative asking him to ascertain whether Liberian President Charles Taylor would be interested in establishing diplomatic relations with mainland China; correspondence between Minin and President Charles Taylor's son "Chuckie"; and a record of a $10,263.02 payment to Marc Rich, best known for his 11th-hour pardon from President Clinton on charges of fraud and extortion. Rich's oil company, Glencore, once shared a London phone number with one of Minin's companies Galaxy Management.
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/minin.html

LEONID MININ FACT SHEET


LEONID MININ
FACT SHEET
BORN:
December 14, 1947, Odessa, U.S.S.R. (Ukraine).

PASSPORTS ISSUED:
U.S.S.R.
Russia (2/2/95)
Germany (1/14/90; Igor Limar, 2/8/90)
Bolivia (2/9/89)
Israel (3/6/75; 11/6/94)

ALIASES:
Leon Minin, Wulf Breslav (DOB: 7/10/44), Leonid Bluvshtein, Leonid Bluvstein, Igor Osols, Vladimir Abramovich Kerler, Igor Limar.

KNOWN BUSINESS ACTIVITIES:
Oil, electricity, timber, small arms, Russian icons, diamonds and gems (Russian and possibly African), consumer goods, prefabricated homes. Investigated in several European countries for money laundering and cocaine trafficking.

LANGUAGES:
Russian (native), Ukrainian (native), English, German, French, Italian.

PASTIMES:
Cocaine, $500-a-night prostitutes.

MOST RECENTLY:
Presently in Vigevano prison outside Milan, Italy. Faces possible 12 years. Still no decision on trial date.

more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/minin.html




A Lendu child soldier waits in a camp for news of his next deployment. Battles are raging 13 miles to the north of his position.


Sarkis Soghanalian


In an interview with FRONTLINE/World co-producer William Kistner in March 2001, Sarkis Soghanalian, one of the world's most accomplished arms salesmen, gave his unapologetic and seasoned views on the international arms trade and U.S. policy. A veteran of many Cold War arms deals, Soghanalian has seen wars, rebel movements and ideological conflicts become U.S. priorities and then fade into history. He speaks frankly about his role in helping the United States pursue its interests. He is confident that every deal has been undertaken with the approval of the U.S. government.

STARTING OUT IN THE LEBANESE CIVIL WAR

What brought you into this business?

I'm from Lebanon, and my family came to Lebanon from what is now called Turkey in 1939 or 1940, but at the time it was Syria. And the education was not at a very high level. But we had to find work. I went to work with the French army. I skipped school in 1944 and worked with a tank division. So I grew up with it, adapted to it from childhood and kept going.

It's been in your blood since you were young.

Being an Armenian, you are raised fighting to survive. Since we survived the Turkish massacres, a genocide like that of the Jews and others, we were the first generation with such a background. So you can say it was in my blood and in my dreams. As a young man you like nothing more than weapons. Women were secondary, as at that age we didn't know anything about that.

more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/soghanalian.html

SARKIS SOGHANALIAN FACT SHEET


SARKIS SOGHANALIAN
FACT SHEET
BORN:
1929 or 1930 in Syria, in a region that is now part of Turkey; raised in Lebanon.

PROFILE:
An ethnic Armenian, Lebanese citizen, has lived for more than 20 years in the United States as a permanent resident; last reported in Los Angeles. Has or has had offices in Paris, Athens, Amman (Jordan) and Miami. Weighs about 300 pounds. Walks with a limp and suffers from heart disease.

CLIENTS:
Has armed Saddam Hussein of Iraq (about $1.6 billion), Gen. Anastasio Somoza and the Contras in Nicaragua, Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri (Argentine junta leader), Mobutu Sese Seko (former dictator of Zaire, now Congo), Christian Fallange Militias in Lebanon, and many others. As owner of the air transport company Pan Aviation, he leased a plane to Ferdinand Marcos for his planned return to the Philippines during the unsuccessful 1987 military coup; sold an American C-130 cargo plane to Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi; and rented planes to the CIA, allegedly for Contra operations involving drug trafficking. In the 1980s, he sold the Iraqi army $280 million worth of uniforms, in partnership with former U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew, former Attorney General John Mitchell and Nixon's former chief of staff, Jack Brennan. When the U.S. manufacturer was found to be too expensive, Mitchell had former President Nixon write a letter, successfully urging Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to manufacture the uniforms.

HAS COLLABORATED WITH:
The CIA, the FBI, the State Department and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Helped break a counterfeit $100-bill printing operation in Lebanon and tried, unsuccessfully, to negotiate the release of U.S. hostage Terry Anderson in Lebanon.

MOST RECENTLY:
In 1999, air-dropped 10,000 Kalashnikov rifles to Colombia's FARC (Fuerzos Armandas Revolucionarias de Colombia) guerillas -- leftist insurgents aligned with cocaine traffickers. (The United States recently sent $1 billion in aid to help the Colombian government defeat them.) Soghanalian says the deal was meant for Peru. It later emerged that the CIA had approved the deal and that it was organized by the disgraced former Peruvian intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos, who was on the CIA payroll for years and is now in jail on arms and drug-trafficking charges.

CRIMINAL RECORD:
1977: Bilked $1.1 million from British competitor Boca Investments by reneging on a transfer of machine guns to Mauritania.: Was convicted in 1982 of wire fraud in connection with the case; sentenced to five years' probation and forced to pay restitution.
1986: Arrested for possession of five unregistered machine guns and two unregistered rocket launchers in 1984 at Miami International Airport. Also charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. A federal judge dismissed all charges in 1988.
1991: Convicted on six counts of conspiring to export arms to Iraq without the required federal licenses, a violation of the U.S. Arms Control Export Act. The case, which included two former officials of Hughes Helicopter Corp., involved the sale of 103 combat helicopters and two rocket launchers in 1983 during the Iran-Iraq War. In 1992 he was sentenced to six years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The U.S. attorney had asked for maximum of 24 years and a $240,000 fine.
1993: A federal judge reduced the conviction for sales to Iraq from six and a half years to two years; prosecutor would not explain. Soghanalian's attorney later said it concerned intelligence Soghanalian gave to U.S. law-enforcement officials to break up a $100-bill counterfeiting operation in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon.
2001: Sentenced to time served (10 months) of a possible five-year sentence for wire fraud involving stolen cashier's checks. Released on recommendation from U.S. attorney's office in exchange for "substantial assistance to law enforcement" in an unspecified investigation.

MORE
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/soghanalian.html
Monzer Al Kassar

By Matthew Brunwasser

This case study details the expert machinations of Monzer Al Kassar in breaking the U.N. arms embargo on Yugoslavia. Distancing himself from his activities through intermediaries, he appears fully confident of avoiding any legal liability.
The case illustrates how Al Kassar and his associates tried to obscure the money trail of an illegal arms sale through various bank transfers, and it clearly establishes Al Kassar's role as the broker arranging the sale of Polish arms to Croatia and Bosnia during the wartime arms embargo on Yugoslavia. The information presented here is drawn from the report of a Swiss judicial investigation into Al Kassar's financial activities.


ANATOMY OF AN ILLEGAL ARMS DEAL

On June 5, 1990, Monzer Al Kassar and his wife opened an account, number 1964, at the Audi Bank in Switzerland. Al Kassar and his wife used their real names and both signed the documents, highly unusual for a bank account that would later be used in an illegal arms deal. The initial purpose of the account is unknown. The bank records from this account and others would later become evidence used by a Swiss prosecutor to freeze Al Kassar's proceeds from the illegal sale of Polish arms to Croatia and Bosnia.

Subsequent events provided the necessary ingredients for an embargo-breaking arms deal: a war, an attempt by the international community to stop it, and a broker able to work around it. Croatia and Slovenia declared themselves independent from Yugoslavia in June 1991. A bloody civil war ensued. The United Nations Security Council voted on September 25, 1991, to impose an arms embargo on Yugoslavia, whose constituent republics were not yet recognized by the international community as independent countries. Bosnia declared its independence in March 1992, which was followed by an even more bloody and complicated civil war.


more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/a ...

MONZAR AL KASSAR



BORN:
Nabek, Syria, 1945.

LANGUAGES:
Arabic, English, Spanish.

KNOWN PASSPORTS:
Syrian, Argentine, Brazilian, Algerian and British; Spanish permanent residency.

INVOLVED IN KNOWN ARMS SALES WITH:
Argentina, Austria, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chad, Croatia, Guatemala, Iran, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Panama, Poland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria, the United States and Yemen.

ADDITIONAL KNOWN OR SUSPECTED ACTIVITIES:
Large-scale trafficking in cocaine, hashish and stolen cars. Widely investigated for arming various Palestinian terrorist groups and involvement in terrorist attacks in the 1980s. Offered French anti-ship cruise missile technology to Iran in 1997. Was offered the opportunity to broker the sale of $1.11 billion worth of submarines by the Argentine Defense Ministry. Falsely accused of many things (such as the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland) by conspiracy theorists in books and on the Internet.

CONNECTIONS:
Has had dealings or involvement with Oliver North and Gen. Richard Secord (Iran-Contra); the International Bank for Credit and Commerce (BCCI); former Argentine President Carlos Menem; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and its leader, Ahmad Jibril; Abu Abbas, leader of another PLO extremist splinter group, the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF), who orchestrated the Achille Lauro hijacking; the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Command (PFLP-SC) headed by Georges Habash; the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) headed by Naif Hawatmeh; and Abu Nidal, leader of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, a.k.a. Black September or Arab Revolutionary Brigades.

MOST RECENTLY:
Travels freely and lives comfortably in his hilltop mansion in Marbella, Spain, on the Costa del Sol. Known to have huge real estate and construction holdings; has gold mines and other interests in Argentina. Says he has not sold weapons for 12 years.

ALLEGED CRIMINAL ACTIVITY:
First arrested in Yabroud, Syria, for stealing cars.
1972: Arrested in Copenhagen for trafficking in hashish.
1974: Sentenced to 18 months in prison for selling hashish in the United Kingdom.
1977: According to a Swiss judicial investigation, his criminal career began to develop quickly at this point, as he established links with mafia groups, the PFLP-GC (extreme anti-Israel PLO wing) and the PLO, which helped him traffic arms, drugs and stolen cars, arm various terrorist movements, and get rich.
1984: Expelled from United Kingdom for drug and arms trafficking.
1985: In France, sentenced to eight years in absentia for operating a "criminal terrorist organization."
mid-80s: In Germany, fined $150,000 for possessing illegal passports.
1992: Swiss bank accounts frozen at Spain's request. Investigations begun for money laundering, lack of vigilance in financial operations, false documents and false foreign certificates. Arrested in Spain on charges of piracy and providing weapons for the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship by PLF terrorists, in which American Leon Klinghoffer was murdered.
1993: Released after serving nine months, on $15.5 million bail.
1995: Acquitted of all charges in Achille Lauro case.
2000: Indicted in Argentina for obtaining documents under false pretenses in the course of his 1992 acquisition of an Argentine passport with the help of high-level Menem administration officials.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/a ...


There will be no peace in Africa while this trash is allowed to continue.

[jayavarman]

9. Also, all props to you for your research

you are the (wo?) man . . . I can't wait to dig into your links.

[seemslikeadream]

13. Thanks jayavarman

Just stuff I've been collecting for awhile now, see post #12

George Monbiot
Tuesday March 23, 2004
The Guardian

A charter to intervene

First is that any force with the power to intervene will have interests that extend beyond the liberation of the oppressed. It will use the intervention to further those interests. This was demonstrably the case in Haiti last month, when the US used the restoration of order as a pretext for deposing a disobedient leader. As Noam Chomsky says: "One choice, always, is to follow the Hippocratic principle, 'First, do no harm.' If you can think of no way to adhere to that elementary principle, then do nothing." As it is impossible to send in an army and do no harm, or to exercise power in another nation without affecting the balance of power elsewhere, this surely means that it is always better to do nothing.

In which case, it is better for the powerful nations to stand back and watch as the Ugandan army and a handful of paltry militias carry out mass killings in the Democratic Republic of Congo; the rich world's decision not to intervene effectively in Rwanda was the right one; Nato should not be sending reinforcements to Kosovo this week. Is hypocrisy always worse than cynicism? Chomsky would appear to say yes. But I would rather a flawed power intervened in a flawed manner in the Congo than no one intervened at all.

The second argument against intervention is that it will only ever be exercised against the weak. As David Rieff points out, it is impossible to conceive of force used against Russia on behalf of the Chechens, or against China on behalf of the Tibetans. Humanitarian action will always be a matter of victors' justice. But there are surely circumstances in which victors' justice is better than no justice at all. Just because other countries cannot invade the US to free the Chagos islanders does not in itself constitute a case against invading Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein.

The third argument is surely the strongest. This is that as soon as we accept that an attack by a powerful nation against a weak one is legitimate, we open the door to any number of acts of conquest masquerading as humanitarian action. As Chomsky points out, Japan claimed that it was invading Manchuria to rescue it from "Chinese bandits"; Mussolini attacked Abyssinia to "liberate slaves"; Hitler said he was protecting the peoples he invaded from ethnic conflict. It is hard to think of any colonial adventure for which the salvation of the bodies or souls of the natives was not advanced as justification.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1175621,00.html

:hi:

[jayavarman]

8. Arms trade is a shady business, I agree, but look

at the horrors that the Khmer Rouge were able to accomplish through starvation & axe handles.

The brutality that man is capable of visiting on his brothers knows no bounds . . .

[seemslikeadream]

10. Yes but we're selling those axe handles

to Africa.

The Lost World War

The war on Iraq is not the only war in the world and it is not the only war being fought for our material benefit. Western consumers’ seemingly insatiable demand for mobile phones, laptops, games consoles and other luxury electronic goods has been fuelling violent conflict and killing millions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). By Erik Vilwar.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is possibly the most mineral rich place on earth – though this has proved a curse to the people of the Congo. The Congo holds millions of tons of diamonds, copper, cobalt, zinc, manganese, uranium (the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were built using Congolese uranium), and coltan. Coltan, a substance made up of columbium and tantalum, is a particularly valuable resource – used to make mobile phones, night vision goggles, fiber optics, and micro-capacitors.

What is Coltan?
Coltan looks like black mud, but is three times heavier than iron and only slightly lighter than gold. It is found in abundance in eastern Congo and can be mined with minimal equipment. Coltan is vital to the high tech economy. Wireless electronic communication would not exist without it. The ‘mud’ is refined into tantalum – a metallic element that is both a superb conductor of electricity and extremely heat-resistant. Tantalum powder is a vital component in capacitors, for the control of the flow of current in miniature circuit boards. Capacitors made of tantalum are found inside every laptop, pager, personal digital assistant, and mobile phone.1 Tantalum is also used in the aviation and atomic energy industries. A very small group of companies in the world process coltan. These include H.C.Starck (Germany, a subsidiary ot Bayer), Cabott Inc. (US), Ningxia (China), and Ulba (Kazakhstan). The world’s biggest coltan mines are in Australia and they account for about 60% of world production. It is generally believed, however, that 80% of the world’s reserves are in Africa, with DRC accounting for 80% of the African reserves.2

The human costs of this conflict have been horrific. According to the UN, up until last September, in the five Eastern provinces of DRC alone, between 3 and 3.5 million people had died directly because of the war. 4 Many were killed and tortured but most died of starvation and disease. The destruction of farms has resulted in malnutrition and starvation. Millions of people have been forced from their homes. Years of war have led to a social environment in which men abuse women on a staggering scale and children become instruments of war, forced to work in mines and conscripted into armed forces. Surveys in Butembo found that 90% of people were living on less than 20 cents a day and only one meal. 5

http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue13/issue13_part3.htm


War in Congo has claimed over three million lives since 1998 alone.

While we should perhaps applaud the New York Times and Boston Globe and other major media for having finally reported something on the inhuman conflict in Congo—which is also driving the extinction of the great apes, the deforestation of the vast Congo Basin, and hence global climate mayhem—we must also recognize that the imperatives of corporate profit have insured that four years of western military and economic exploitation of Congo have taken place completely off the radar screen of the American public.

War in Congo has claimed over three million lives since 1998 alone. Innocent civilians have been brutalized, massacred, raped and tortured by all parties to the conflict. It began with the U.S.-sponsored invasion of Rwanda in 1994, and followed with two subsequent U.S.-sponsored invasions of Congo (in 1996 and 1998). These are not the simple "civil wars" declared by the western press. Even the Rwanda "genocide" (in 1994) has to some extent been manufactured in the American mind to serve the mythology of tribalism. Meanwhile, American green berets and military advisors and Pentagon officials have participated from blackboard to battlefield.

Sierra Leone, Angola, Sudan, Rwanda and Congo/ Zaire are wars where factions are armed with U.S.-made weapons (M16s, SAMs, tanks); where U.S. covert forces undertake brutal secret missions and psychological operations—accountable to no one—behind the headlines. They are wars where the Central Intelligence Agency is deeply and maliciously entrenched in subverting democracy and orchestrating chaos that is expediently advertised—as such—by our dubious media. At the roots, however, these are wars like any other war.

Essential to the superalloys and weaponry of the global economy of war are Congo’s cobalt, uranium and columbium tantalite (coltan). Cobalt is elemental to nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons, tank armor, industrial furnaces and aerospace, and for 50 years the CIA has insured the free flow of cobalt out of Congo. The human devastation in poverty, disease, torture and massacres is uncountable. Adjectives do not describe the suffering. Similarly, coltan is essential for cellphones and children’s playstations, and companies like Sony and Nokia have been cashing in on this windfall—paid in human blood.

Congo's four-and-a-half-year long civil war has led to factional fighting among myriad groups, some employing children. (Photo: AP)

Child soldiers in Congo

Child soldiers with weapons wait for instructions in an ethnic Hema militia camp near Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo, June 16, 2003. REUTERS/Antony Njuguna

A child soldier practices with a machine gun in an ethnic Hema militia camp near Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo, June 15, 2003. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen

Child soldiers holding machines guns look out from a window in an ethnic Hema militia camp near Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo June 15, 2003. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/photoalbum/1074859618.htm

Handicap International raises mine awareness around world

street theatre is used to raise awareness in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo.

People prepare to mark a zone for clearing in Kisangani.

Signs in Kisangani warn people not to step in a minefield.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/photogallery/HIgallery.htm

[gottaB]

11. hatari ya kufa is right

it's a dangerous business, selling axe handles

keep up the good work, seemslikeadream

[seemslikeadream]

12. Thanks gottaB Here is the reason I became so obsessed with Africa

Child soldiers on the road to Fataki, Eastern Congo.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2097314/entry/0/fr/ifr/


One little paragraph I read 17 months ago.


In August 1996, Sutton’s bulldozers, backed by military police firing weapons, rolled across the goldfield, smashing down worker housing, crushing their mining equipment and filling in their pits. Several thousand miners and their families were chased off the property. But not all of them. About fifty miners were still in their mine shafts, buried alive.


Poppy Strikes Gold

Tuesday, April 8, 2003

By Greg Palast,
From The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (Penguin/Plume, 2003)


Some of the loot for the Republican effort in the 1997-2000 election cycles came from an outfit called Barrick Corporation. The sum, while over $100,000, is comparatively small change for the GOP, yet it seemed quite a gesture for a corporation based in Canada. Technically, the funds came from those associated with the Canadian’s U.S. unit, Barrick Gold Strike.....

They could well afford it. In the final days of the Bush (Senior) administration, the Interior Department made an extraordinary but little noticed change in procedures under the 1872 Mining Law, the gold rush-era act that permitted those whiskered small-time prospectors with their tin pans and mules to stake claims on their tiny plots. The department initiated an expedited procedure for mining companies that allowed Barrick to swiftly lay claim to the largest gold find in America. In the terminology of the law, Barrick could “perfect its patent” on the estimated $10 billion in ore—for which Barrick paid the U.S. Treasury a little under $ 10,000. Eureka!

How did he go from busted stereo maker to demi-billionaire goldbug? The answer: Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer, the “bag man” in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostage scandals. The man who sent guns to the ayatolla teamed up with Munk on hotel ventures and, ultimately, put up the cash to buy Barrick in 1983, then a tiny company with an “unperfected” claim on the Nevada mine. You may recall that Bush pardoned the coconspirators who helped Khashoggi arm the Axis of Evil, making charges against the sheik all but impossible. (Bush pardoned the conspirators not as a favor to Khashoggi, but to himself.)
more
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=207&row=4


George Bush Sr., father of the president, even had an intimate connection with one of these plundering corporations.

But this is not mentioned in the commercial media, which, as usual, go even further than indifference to insult the fallen head of state, while speculating on the breakup of the Congo.

The industrial enterprises that set up AMFI, according to Baracyetse, "are interested in the contract for the construction of the orbital platform around the world that is destined to replace the Russian station MIR."

This project is part of the $60-billion so-called National Missile Defense system that George W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Vice President Richard Cheney are pushing so vigorously. Building the space station will require many of the rare metals found in eastern Congo.

Another big player in the eastern Congo is Barrick Gold Corp., headquartered in Canada. It is the world's second- largest gold producer after Anglo-American of South Africa.

http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Company/kabila1.htm

[jayavarman]

14. I think i heard an interview with some of those miners on the radio

a few months ago

Just crazy . . . .I was speechless.

[seemslikeadream]

15. Today is the Day of Killing Anuaks”

Another story

Keith Harmon Snow

Crimes Against Humanity, Acts of Genocide and Ongoing Atrocities Against the Anuak People of Southwestern Ethiopia

A Genocide Watch and Survivors’ Rights International Field Report

25 February 2004

“The Ethiopian Government knew that something wrong had happened… the truth was all known. And yet they refused it…. They should have said ‘Look, we are not in the picture, but we will go investigate. But to say that it was all baseless, when people have died…!”

“I think that somebody somewhere conceived an idea, that the best thing is—finish with the Anuaks. How they do it, is what I can’t understand. How they really came to this conclusion, at a time when we have had the experience of Rwanda, I can’t understand….”

“I hope that we, all of us, the international community, can help in nipping this violence in the bud. Otherwise we will have fire in our hands.”

http://traprockpeace.org/anuak_report_25feb04.doc

[seemslikeadream]

18. What happens in Ethiopia affects what happens in Sudan

However, the Anuak population exists in perpetual fear, afraid of accessing medical services, attending schools, visiting restaurants, etc. An EPRDF helicopter has allegedly been deployed since February 3 for security operations and for air assaults against Anuaks. EPRDF have reportedly blocked all roads to Pochalla, Sudan, to prevent the flight of refugees. Nonetheless, Anuak civilians, especially from Dimma, are still making their way through the bush to Pochalla, Sudan.
.............


An independent inquiry is required to establish whether the actions described in this report were ordered, encouraged or condoned by the Ethiopian government, and whether there was intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a substantial number of people of the Anuak ethnic group. If there was such intent, these massacres should be prosecuted under Ethiopian and international law as acts of genocide. Other serious crimes against humanity have also been committed by the Ethiopian Government against the Anuak ethnic group. There is also evidence that crimes against humanity have been committed by the Ethiopian Government against other ethnic groups, particularly Sudanese Nuer and Dinka refugees in the Gambella region.

A thorough independent investigation into these atrocities is a priority. The inquiry must begin immediately because of reports that EPRDF military forces are exhuming mass graves and destroying evidence of their atrocities in the Gambella region.

With 20,000 Ethiopian troops poised on the Sudanese border, ready to cross into Sudan to hunt down Anuak supporters of the Gambella Peoples’ Liberation Force, the situation already has international dimensions and should be placed on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council because it is a threat to international peace and security.

The specter of genocide still hovers over the Anuak land. Ethiopian troops are allied with highlander militias. These groups are still murdering and raping unarmed Anuak civilians, including young children.

The government forces responsible for these genocidal acts cloak their intentions as “anti-terrorist” or “counter-insurgency” operations. Whatever the pretext, Anuak civilians living in the Gambella region face the threat of being murdered, "disappeared", tortured, raped, or subjected to other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment

more
http://traprockpeace.org/anuak_report_25feb04.doc

[theboss]

16. I really blame the EU more than the US for these sorts of messes

First, Europe is largely to blame for the historical problems in Africa, which I think gives it a deeper moral obligation than the US. Secondly, this would seem to be an opportunity for the EU to present it's better model for intervention abroad in opposition to the US's twofold plan of attacking only in the national interest and acting primarily militarily.

The major problem with the EU that no one wants to talk about is that none of its member-states have the capability any longer of projecting forces anywhere in the world for either military or humanitarian interventions. Britain has the ability to some degree but it views the EU as some sort of strange cousin that you have to talk to at family reunions.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Africa has become non-news.

While our "news" media feed us endless pap about the latest sex-scandals of celebrities, and does "investigative reporting" on the dangers of toe-nail fungus, and touts scientific breakthroush in skin cream, the tragedies of neo-colonial Africa are ignored, except for the 10 second mention, before the screaming sports announcer.

[theboss]

19. When was Africa ever in the news?

The only time it ever makes the news is when the slaugther reaches Biblical levels or some celebrity discovers a crisis there (Hello, Sir Geldolf).

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. Or, when we score some glorious victory over the commies.

Like when we assasinated Patrice Lamumba and installed that lover of mankind Mobuto. Or, when our current VP announces that Mandela is one of them dirty commies threatening "vital American Interests".

[bigtree]

21. On top of all of the suffering

a plauge of locusts is heading their way. Seriously.

[seemslikeadream]

22. Sudan Trying to Keep Darfur Promises-U.N.

By Nima Elbagir
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Raids by Sudanese forces and Arab militiamen have worsened a desperate situation in Darfur, rights groups say, but the United Nations said Khartoum was making serious efforts to keep pledges to curb the violence.

The United Nations has told Sudan to curb marauding Janjaweed militia or face sanctions, but rights group Human Rights Watch said Wednesday fresh atrocities disproved Sudanese claims security was returning to the western region.

"In many rural areas and small towns in Darfur, government forces and the Janjaweed militias continue to routinely rape and assault women and girls when they leave the periphery of the camps and towns," the New York-based group said in a report.

Janjaweed raped six girls aged 13 to 16 and beat other women at a militia checkpoint in western Darfur in July, it said.

more
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5942326

Sudan tries to cover up human rights abuses

August 11 2004 at 05:36PM

Cairo - Sudan's government is pressing people not to report human rights abuses in Darfur, Amnesty International said.

The government has arrested 49 people since June 30 for speaking out about rights abuses in Darfur, the London-based rights group said. The detainees were residents of camps for displaced people.

Most of them were detained after talking to foreign visitors.

At least 15 men at a displaced people camp in el-Fasher, north Darfur, were arrested after US Secretary of State Colin Powell visited the camp on June 30. Some five men from the same camp were arrested after a visit by French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier on July 27, Amnesty reported.

Most of them were detained after talking to foreign visitors
Sudanese Justice Ministry officials in Khartoum declined to comment on the Amnesty charges.
more
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=vn20040811093700925C782571

[seemslikeadream]

23. Check out the very current Department of Energy country analysis on Sudan!

Sudan
With the completion of a major oil export pipeline in July 1999, Sudanese crude oil production and exports have risen rapidly over the past few years. Sudan's estimated oil reserves have doubled since 2001, with crude production reaching an estimated 345,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) in June 2004. Energy Minister Awad al-Jaz said in May 2004 that he expected crude production to reach 500,000 bbl/d in 2005.

Note: Information contained in this report is the best available as of July 2004 and can change.

GENERAL BACKGROUND
Sudan gained its independence from Egypt and the United Kingdom in 1956. The current government, led by General Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, came to power in 1989 after overthrowing a transitional coalition government. A new constitution was adopted on January 1, 1999. Multi-party presidential and parliamentary elections were held in December 2000, and President Bashir and his party won an overwhelming victory, tainted by a boycott by all main opposition parties. In October 2003, President Bashir ordered the release of all political prisoners and lifted the ban on Sudan's main opposition party, the Popular National Congress (PNC).

Despite considerable natural resources, Sudan is among the world's poorest countries. Traditionally, Sudan's economy has been mainly agricultural - a mix of subsistence farming and production of cash crops such as cotton and gum arabic. With the start of significant oil production (and exports) beginning in late 1999, however, Sudan's economy is changing dramatically, with oil export revenues now accounting for around 73% of Sudan's total export earnings. Sudan no longer relies on expensive imported oil products, which has helped the country's trade balance, while foreign investment has started to flow into the country.

Sudan's economic performance has been strong over the past few years. In 2002, the country's real GDP grew by 5.0%, increasing to 5.6% in 2003 and forecast to reach 6.5% in 2004. Meanwhile, inflation has slowed dramatically over the past few years, from an average 110% between 1991 and 1996 to 8.3% in 2002 and 7.7% in 2003. Exports have grown sharply since 1999, when the oil export pipeline was completed, although the country ran a current account deficit of $727 million in 2003.

more
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/sudan.html

[seemslikeadream]

24. Sudan: Darfur Destroyed

The government of Sudan is responsible for “ethnic cleansing” and crimes against humanity in Darfur, one of the world’s poorest and most inaccessible regions, on Sudan’s western border with Chad. The Sudanese government and the Arab “Janjaweed” militias it arms and supports have committed numerous attacks on the civilian populations of the African Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups. Government forces oversaw and directly participated in massacres, summary executions of civilians—including women and children—burnings of towns and villages, and the forcible depopulation of wide swathes of land long inhabited by the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa. The Janjaweed militias, Muslim like the African groups they attack, have destroyed mosques, killed Muslim religious leaders, and desecrated Qorans belonging to their enemies.

The government and its Janjaweed allies have killed thousands of Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa—often in cold blood—raped women, and destroyed villages, food stocks and other supplies essential to the civilian population. They have driven more than one million civilians, mostly farmers, into camps and settlements in Darfur where they live on the very edge of survival, hostage to Janjaweed abuses. More than 110,000 others have fled to neighbouring Chad but the vast majority of war victims remain trapped in Darfur.

This conflict has historical roots but escalated in February 2003, when two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) drawn from members of the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups, demanded an end to chronic economic marginalization and sought power-sharing within the Arab-ruled Sudanese state. They also sought government action to end the abuses of their rivals, Arab pastoralists who were driven onto African farmlands by drought and desertification—and who had a nomadic tradition of armed militias.

The government has responded to this armed and political threat by targeting the civilian populations from which the rebels were drawn. It brazenly engaged in ethnic manipulation by organizing a military and political partnership with some Arab nomads comprising the Janjaweed; armed, trained, and organized them; and provided effective impunity for all crimes committed.
more
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/darfur/index.htm

[seemslikeadream]

25. "We Could See Villages Burning Along the Road"

Nurse

"We received 80 wounded people, including children, that we had to take care of urgently. There were numerous bullet wounds. A vast majority of the wounded were civilians. In the first days of the attack, we received a woman with her three-month-old baby, both wounded by bullets. We tried to transfer her to El Genina hospital. The car in which she left was attacked by Janjaweed (militia); everyone except her and her baby were killed. She managed to reach the hospital and she and the baby are doing well. There are very few men among the displaced. Among the women, at least 17 were victims of rape. People are raped, beaten or killed. From what we could see, there are heavy massacres and violence in the region.

During the attacks around Mornay, we couldn't move out of the town, helicopters and bombings prevented it. We were just the two of us, one logistician and one nurse, to provide heavy health care to the wounded ... It is the first time I faced such a dilemma. As a nurse, I am not trained to do surgery or other medical tasks, but was it ethical not to do anything? So, we did all we could. We created a ward with 15 beds for the wounded, provided the displaced with some water, gave some basic essential items and started nutritional assistance.


Darfur - a child eats "plumpinut," a high-calorie nutritional supplement made from peanuts.
The nutritional situation is worsening. We saw cattle dying in the streets. People have to go farther and farther away to get food, and because it is so dangerous, they go in groups of 50. When we arrived, about one-third of the families had stocks of Sorgo (a cultivated grain). But how long will it last? At first, we screened 4,000 children for malnutrition. Now there are more than 12,000. We are treating 300 severely malnourished children and providing supplementary food to 1,200 more. We are trying to reach villages where people say there are others with no assistance - up to 40,000 people in villages like Kerenik, Abila, Sisse, and Soulou that we couldn't reach but where others say the situation is terrible.
more
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/voices/sudan_03-2004.shtml

[0rganism]

26. Wisdom of small children: my five year old's solution to the Sudan crisis

(I posted this yesterday, but it fell off the bottom real quick. Maybe someone will read it here.)

Monday night, my son watched the news with my wife and me. They had Christine Amanpour reporting from Darfur, about the problems the refugees faced from starvation and murdering militias. During the commercial break, I turned to my son and asked, "How would you solve this problem?"

His immediate answer: "We should get the people out of there."

My question: "Where should we put them?"

He thinks for a few seconds, then his answer: "Washington."

Without any prompting at all, he's capable of seeing the obvious solution that eludes our statesmen. Instead of trying to bring food and medicine to keep people alive in a war-torn wasteland, bring the people out of the wasteland to live where the food and medicine already are.