Omar Bashir Indictment: AU has Betrayed Africa

It is disgusting and appalling that African rulers congregating in Sirte (Libya) vowed to stand by Sudanese President, Omar Bashir. African rulers have once again proved to be hypocrites and indifferent altogether as far as human rights are concerned. Sadly, Rwandan strongman, Paul Kagame who claims to have stopped the genocide in Rwanda, too, concurred with this megalomania whilst his country suffered the same genocide as Darfur. It's unfortunate. Africa did not learn from what transpired in Rwanda.

Again, looking at how genocide was committed in Rwanda, who knows? Maybe Kagame has smelt a rat before ICC knocks on the door. The Swahili have a saying that when you see your colleague being shaved without water, rinse your head. African rulers wrongly think ICC is there to foster colonialism and interfere in their affairs thanks to taking on one of theirs. This does not help AU. And if reality is openly faced, chances are, African rulers were manipulated by the current chair of AU, Libyan Muammar Gadaffi.

If Bashir did not commit genocide in Darfur, why is he afraid of facing the ICC? Given that genocide was committed under his watch and order, Bashir can do anything but not to appear before the tribunal. This reminds me of one cartoon showing him driving over thousands of human skulls but still asking: do you have any evidence to prove that my Janjaweeds committed genocide in Darfur?

In its vague bagatelle, AU averred, "The AU member states shall not co-operate... relating to immunities for the arrest and surrender of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to the ICC." This betrayal was applauded and received by Sudan as a breakthrough in getting away with genocide Sudan committed to Darfur.

When AU, then OAU, was founded, its aim among others was to unify and ultimately emancipate African countries from the yoke of colonialism and all sorts of humiliation, degradation and inhumanity. But as days go by, AU has proved to be the opposite thanks to Africa being ruled by dictators, thieves and killers. Ironically, black colonialists are on the helm. AU's goals have changed from fighting colonialism to defending it as its members are home-grown colonialists.

One would expect AU to issue a statement with regards to what is going on in Gabon where the son of the former tyrant is bracing himself to replace his father. AU is expected to chart the way for Zimbabwe whose prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, recently came back with empty hands after western countries failed to live up to their promise of rebuilding Zimbabwe after embracing the government of national unity.

Many African countries have betrayed Darfur as it bleeds to death. They are adding more insults to injuries by ganging up with Bashir. With such nugatory stance, AU has proved to be a gang of dictators in power as far as emancipation and unification of Africa are concerned. It's totally failed to solve crises in Darfur, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Though noises are made on unification of Africa, looking at how our potentates behave, this is a day dream if AU can conspire with and connive crimes like genocide in Darfur.

AU should have shut up and put up rather than taking side. This won't help begging Africa so to speak. Of all African countries, Botswana and Kenya did the right thing by not consenting to this betrayal and shame. In law, the perpetrator of any offence is criminal and liable as the conspirator. Since genocide in Darfur has all blessings of AU, the AU must be held responsible for it. Even its bagatelle was passed without voting.

Donor countries that strongly support ICC must suspend their aid to all African countries that shamelessly support this perilous stance that butchers its own people it is duty bound to protect. African countries that signed the instrument establishing ICC must be reminded of their obligations.

Despite the fact that African rulers allege that ICC is interfering in their affairs, no sane mind can consent to this. The so-called 'their affairs' ICC is alleged to interfere with are the same that caused genocide in Rwanda. Why do African rulers forget easily? Under Idi Amin, Uganda suffered a lot thanks to the same pretext of not interfering in the affairs of the country. It also happened in Zimbabwe as Robert Mugabe sent the country to purgatory as the same AU stood by him.

AU can wrongly assure itself that it will save and protect Bashir but history will one day persecute him. He has been given visas to travel in the continent without any hitch and fear but time will come when some countries will see the light and take on him as it happened in Liberia. By fully or partially supporting Bashir, indeed, AU has proved how awkward it is.

By Nkwazi Mhango Mhango is a Tanzanian living in Canada. He is a Journalist, Teacher, Human Rights activist and member of the Writers' Association of New Foundland and Labrador (WANL)

Khartoum's Jihad, a Multifarious War

Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 14:26:26 +0300

The original date of the its publication was Thursday Dec. 6, 2007

Khartoum's Jihad, a Multifarious War Kharoum, Sudan - New Sudan Watchdogs Today (NSWT) has learned from reliable sources that Khartoum is gearing up for a multifaceted war. NCP Authorities and top Islamists in Khartoum have ordered the army to deploy hundreds of tanks, armored personnel carriers, and tens of thousands of troops, militias, and Mujihadeen along the North-South border for possible invasion of the South Sudan in this coming dry season in anticipation of the declaration of independence by the South Sudanese authorities. Islamists are also looking for possible ways to transport militias, mainly South Sudanese trained in the North and intelligent units to areas off limit to SPLA forces. The mission of these militias and intelligent personnel is to indentify weak corridors that could be used to bring in foreign fighters from neighboring countries to help in the Islamic regime?s war. The following are five fronts in this war planned by the Islamic Oriented Regime in Khartoum.

1 - Ground attack by infantry forces to size all the oil rich states in the South backed by massive airstrikes all over the Southern towns and villages. 2 - Assassination of prominent Southern political leaders by Southern Sudanese affiliated with National Islamic Front. 3 - Targeting of civilians by militias in different states of the South Sudan. 4 - Infiltration of GOSS, SPLM, and SPLA. 5 - Political campaign and media disinformation of Muslims from around the world, particularly, the Middle East to secure political support.

These are the five fronts which Islamists in Khartoum code named ?Arqhan al Islamiya? or Five Pillars of Islam for the Total Liberation of the Land of Allah.

With the ground and air assault which would involve a close to one hundred warplanes, most of them made in China and Russia, the NIF hope that this massive fire power from the air would pulverize SPLA bases, destroy roads and bridges, and disrupt communication links before the militias moved in. Once this first phase of the war is completed, the army would then start a scorched earth campaign. Militias would round up civilians and put them in what Islamists called peace camps like the ones in Darfur. These camps would be sealed off and hidden away from the curious eyes of the international community and aid agencies. When this is done, the remnants of the SPLA that may be dug in to resist the invasion would have no choice but to surrender or leave with the rest of the civil population to settle in neighouring countries as refugees.

Khartoum Islamist diehards think that the war would be an easy war. They believe that SPLA is weaker than ever before because the weapons it has in its arsenal are the Soviet era weapons and are in poor condition. Technic ally, it is assumed that they are no march against Chinese made tanks WZ-123, Type 98, ZTZ-99, and Russian T-90s which are mostly assembled in Khartoum and given Islamist names like Bashire and Zubeir.

New Sudan Watchdogs Today (NSWT) has obtained credible information pertaining to the training of South Sudanese in their thousands by the National Islamic Front/National Congress to cause insecurity and tribal infighting all over the South Sudan. These elements are also instructed to assassinate key SPLM leaders and army commanders wherever they can find them. The aim of the plot to assassinate South Sudanese political leaders as well as high ranking military officials by using South Sudanese before or during the war for what Islamists call the Total Liberation of the Land of Allah is to create leadership vacuum and a possible power struggle among different tribes in inhabiting South Sudan.

It is a common saying these days among Islamists in Khartoum that? in the absence of a formidable SPLM leadership in the South which is holding South Sudanese together like glue,? the war to liberate South Sudan from the infidels and their Zionists backers cannot last more than six weeks. If this strategy succeeds, the NIF hope that it will manage to create infighting in the ranks of the SPLM/SPLA, win other factions to its side, hence rendering the remaining ones helpless, or simply create more factions as it did during the eighties and nineties respectively. . Another side to this stratagem is a culture of tribalism and revenge among South Sudan?s Tribes. Arab Islamists know that South Sudanese tribes are more loyal to their tribal roots than to their cause as Southerners. Southerners are also known to be good at revenging their tribal members killed by other tribal members. Therefore, if, for example, a Dinkawi assassinate an important Nuerawi, or Shilukawi, an Azandi or a fellow Dinkawi and vice versa, it?s possible the chain and the cycle of revenge will continue and Islamists assume that the few who may manage to stay away from this cycle of killings may be distracted to fight the real war and if they do, they will be no march against its war machines. Simply put, they themselves will either leave the South to seek shelters in neighbouring countries as refugees or caught up in the middle of the tribal fiasco and mayhem.

The third front is the front that would destroy civilian population. This front would comprise of tens of thousands of Murahleen, Southern based militias, fighters from landless Arab nomadic tribes from Chad and Mauritania, guerrillas from Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and elements of the Lord Resistant Army from Uganda. The goal of this front is to target civilians in various states of South Sudan especially in Upper Nile, Northern Bhar al Gazel, Western Bhar al Gazel, Western Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, and Jonglei states respectively. Islamists in Khartoum believe that civilians in South Sudan have been the power base of rebellion during the last war and targeting them will deprive the Sudan People?s Liberation Army (SPLA) of its lifeline and support, thus guaranteeing a quick victory to the Islamic circles. The recent decree issued by President Omar El Bashire to Mujihadeen and Popular Defense Force (PDF) to regroup and report to training camps was only the tip of the iceberg.

Concerning the infiltration of the SPLM and all the other institutions of South Sudan, NIF has somewhat failed to find true infiltrators who can do the job right. However, the few who are working for the NIF to cause insurrection, civil disobedience, and insecurity have minimal support from the local population and have hard times finding useful recruits in the army of South Sudan. So far, the activities of the infiltrators are confined to their tribal areas and localities. Nonetheless, even in these localities, local population has resisted their subversive activities for fear of a reprisal attack from the SPLA forces once they are discovered. And more importantly, the local population has learned a lot during the war and few are bent to sell their rights and freedoms for the sake of money to the NIF. This explains why Khartoum is courting regional rebel groups like the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Eritrean rebel groups like Harakat al Khalas al Islami or Islamic Salvation Movement formerly known as Harakat al Jihad al Islami, Chadian insurgents, and Central African rebel groups for support in the war against the South in return for military aid once the South is liberated from the infidels.

Another well planned front is the massive political campaign and media disinformation the Islamic government in Khartoum is designing. The obvious reason is that, authorities in Khartoum always portray themselves as defenders of Islam and Arab culture in its entirety and they hope that any threat to Islam would bring Arabs and Muslims on their side. Moreover, NIF predict that in case the war breakout between the North and the South after the two sides failed to implement the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA), or in case the South declares independence, it would be defined by millions of Muslims in Egypt and the Arab World in particular as a move designed by Zionists and the Americans. This move would be interpreted as a political manoevre aimed to undermine Islam and the Arab interest in Africa. Evidently, Islamists in Khartoum know that an independent South Sudan would not go well with Arabs especially Egyptians who see an independent South Sudan as a threat to their survival as Muslims.

In conclusion, Islamic Fundamentalists in Khartoum are counting on American relationship with the Middle East as an important weapon to use. With the Americans bogged down in Iraq, Islamists think that it would be a fatal political miscalculation on the part of United States to intervene militarily; therefore, America and the West in general will have their hands tied. In this scenario, the two would possibly use diplomacy for fear of tipping off their delicate relationship with their allies like Egypt and Saudi Arabia during this crisis. After all, Islamists hope that a quick and decisive victory would leave America and the world stunned and eventually, there will be no room for diplomacy to save the infidels from the South and the marginalized Areas of the Sudan from Islamists of Khartoum?s Jihad.

gracetito

SRI Lanka: Canada Should Learn from Rwanda

SRI Lanka: Canada Should Learn from Rwanda

The Canadian government has been silent about the ongoing Genocide in Sri Lanka against the Tamil people, and its silence only helps the oppressor, the Sri Lankan regime responsible for the mass killing. This is the same regime that deported Canadian Member of Parliament Bob Rea. Canada’s silence demonstrates an attitude of indifference, lack of humanity, inaction. The silence of the international community allowed the death of thousands of Armenians who lost their lives under the Turkish government in 1914, six million Jews isolated, in camps without food under the state of terror and finally killed by the Adolf Helter in 1930s, 750,000 of Cambodians put to death under the Khmer Rouge leadership in 1975, thousands of Tibetans who suffered humiliation under the current Chinese regime, almost a million Tutsi Rwandans massacred by the Hutus groups in 1994, currently millions of Burmese innocent civilians still suffered slaughter and man-made famine by the regime in Burma supported by China, 400,000 of the African tribes burned to death by the Khartoum regime in Darfur. No one came to rescue them. The world leaders still sing Never Again, but Never Again is taking place in Sri Lanka, Burma, Tibet, and Darfur. The truth is written on the New England Memorial, but today it remains unexercised in the face of genocide.

“When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.

Then they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists, I did not protest; I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, I did not speak out; I was not a Jew.

When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me”.

Like Darfur Genocide, the Sri Lanka Genocide happened right before our eyes on TV and the internet. World leaders watched with knowledge of the intentions of the perpetrator - the intent to kill, to eliminate Tamil people, to starve Tamil children and women, to rape Tamil women and girls, to isolate Tamil men. The international community including Canada, the author of the Right to Protect (R2P), failed to respond to prevent, protect, and to save innocent lives. Had the Canadian government learned any lessons from Rwanda Genocide? The Darfur Genocide in slow motion? It is time for the Canadian government to act now than to say sorry in the future, leave behind the attitude of indifferences, the only remedy to attitude of indifference is to take action and take lead in preventing ongoing Genocide in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Tibet, and Darfur, and to show that R2P can save lives.

The Canadian government needs to discern between Tamil freedom fightes and humanity. Humanity has no political colors, humanity is to prevent death, and protect life, and save life. The Canadian government should take the position of upstander, not that of the bystander who does nothing when Genocide is happening in Sri Lanka, Darfur, Tibet and Burma. The failure to do so means creating mass refugees and Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) in camps without food security and medical attention, raping of women and girls. It means that human rights abuses will continue against the Tamils people, deportation of government officials will increase, and Tamil freedom and self-determination will be lost.

As a middle power, Canada needs to show leadership in the world so that the victims of ongoing Genocide in Sri Lanka will know that they’re not alone, not forgotten. Their voices shall be heard, and Canada will not be in wrong side of History. I hope that the Harper government will do the following: a) Fast track immigration process to the refugees so that they can join their love ones in Canada by send in additional immigration officers; b) Table peace talk resolutions to the UN Security Council to determine the future of Tamil under the federal state of Sri Lanka, or a two state alternative; c) Send in Non-Partisan Fact Finding Mission to visit the refugees, and IDPs and assess their needs; consult with other governments to put pressure to Sri Lanka regime to allow humanitarian aids to IDPs and refugees, and; d) form a committee of elected officials from European Union (EU), Canada, and the U.S to listen to the aspirations of Tamil peoples. Can Stephen Harper help make this injustice against innocent Tamil children, women, and men visible?

By Justin Laku

Will Africa Let Sudan Off the Hook?

March 3, 2009 Op-Ed Contributor

Will Africa Let Sudan Off the Hook?

By DESMOND TUTU Cape Town THE expected issuance of an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan by the International Criminal Court tomorrow presents a stark choice for African leaders  are they on the side of justice or on the side of injustice? Are they on the side of the victim or the oppressor? The choice is clear but the answer so far from many African leaders has been shameful.  Because the victims in Sudan are African, African leaders should be the staunchest supporters of efforts to see perpetrators brought to account. Yet rather than stand by those who have suffered in Darfur, African leaders have so far rallied behind the man responsible for turning that corner of Africa into a graveyard.  In response to news last July that Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the court’s chief prosecutor, was seeking an arrest warrant for President Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the African Union issued a communiqué to the United Nations Security Council asking it to suspend the court’s proceedings. Rather than condemn the genocide in Darfur, the organization chose to underscore its concern that African leaders are being unfairly singled out and to support President Bashir’s effort to delay court proceedings. More recently, the Group of 77, an influential organization at the United Nations consisting of 130 developing states and including nearly every African country, gave Sudan its chairmanship. The victory came after African members endorsed Sudan’s candidacy in spite of the imminent criminal charges against its president.  I regret that the charges against President Bashir are being used to stir up the sentiment that the justice system  and in particular, the international court  is biased against Africa. Justice is in the interest of victims, and the victims of these crimes are African. To imply that the prosecution is a plot by the West is demeaning to Africans and understates the commitment to justice we have seen across the continent.  It’s worth remembering that more than 20 African countries were among the founders of the International Criminal Court, and of the 108 nations that joined the court, 30 are in Africa. That the court’s four active investigations are all in Africa is not because of prosecutorial prejudice  it is because three of the countries involved (Central African Republic, Congo and Uganda) themselves requested that the prosecutor intervene. Only the Darfur case was referred to the prosecutor by the Security Council. The prosecutor on his own initiative is considering investigations in Afghanistan, Colombia and Georgia.  African leaders argue that the court’s action will impede efforts to promote peace in Darfur. However, there can be no real peace and security until justice is enjoyed by the inhabitants of the land. There is no peace precisely because there has been no justice. As painful and inconvenient as justice may be, we have seen that the alternative  allowing accountability to fall by the wayside  is worse. The issuance of an arrest warrant for President Bashir would be an extraordinary moment for the people of Sudan  and for those around the world who have come to doubt that powerful people and governments can be called to account for inhumane acts. African leaders should support this historic occasion, not work to subvert it.  Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

 

The implication of an arrest warrant for a setting president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir

The implication of an arrest warrant for a setting president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir

The implications for the indictment and the warrant of arrest for Sudanese Field Marshall Omar Al-Bashir, the military ruler who is criminal to his core, are immense.  Since his violent usurpation of power in a military coup under the umbrella of the National Islamic Front (NIF).on June 30, 1989, that overthrew an elected government of the then prime minister, Sadiq Al-Mahdi; Al-Bashir and the NIF governed the country through an Islamist dictatorship that promoted global terrorism, human rights abuses and fostered an Islamic religious fundamentalism.  This military junta intentionally launched, orchestrated, and knowingly enabled a consistent pattern of gross human rights abuses against the Sudanese civilian population in the South, the Nuba Mountains, and Darfur. 

President Omar is not only responsible for gross human rights abuses and the genocide in Darfur that has killed more than two hundred thousands of African tribes and continues to displace millions of others.  He is also responsible for arming, training and paying Janjweed Arabs to kill and displace non-Arab tribes in Darfur. Furthermore, in South Sudan, Omar Al Beshir is responsible for human rights abuses in South Sudan, especially the Hidden Holocaust which is now known as the Juba Killing of 1992, in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan.  

President Omar Bashir re-instated slave-raiding in South Sudan using it not only as a policy of terror, aimed directly at non-combatants, but also as a tool designed to make them flee their territory as the main targets of slavery abductions are women and children. This is in keeping with his assimilation project in South Sudan, Nuba Mountains, and Darfur. Captured South Sudanese were reared as Muslims and given Arabic names. Women who were raped by their Arab captors gave birth to Arab children ensuring the propagation of Arab lineages (for documentation of rape as a weapon of war in the Nuba Mountains, see: African Rights, Facing Genocide: the Nuba of Sudan, London, 1995, pp.221-42 ).

The mandate of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is to indict and issue arrest warrants against individuals such as Al Beshir, but not the state. This is designed to bypass the question of sovereignty, which is an obstacle in the United Nations Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Security Council.

So far the ICC is showing no signs of relenting or postponing the decision to issue an arrest warrant.  This is sending a strong message to the rest of the African dictators that they can run but cannot hide from the ICC forever. The ICC issued an arrest warrant so that president Al-Bashir will follow Charles Taylor, the architect of most of Liberia’s problem, to face justice. In addition, for the international community to have faith and confidence in the ICC, and for its credibility to be respected and be taken seriously by human rights violators such as President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, of Zimbabwe; President Husni Mubarak, of Egypt; Joseph Kony, of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), operating with near impunity in Uganda; the former President of Ethiopia, Mengistu Haile Mariam, who has taken refuge in Zambia; and so many others, it should arrest Al Beshir and bring him to justice.

 However, the issue of Al Beshir’s arrest warrant may cause much costly damage to western interests in Africa and other parts of the world since Sudan is a state sponsor of terror; and it has links with terror organizations such as Al-Qaeda, Mujahidin fighters, Hizbollah, Palestine Islamic Jihad, Egypt’s al-Gama’at al-Islamiyya, Hamas, other groups of Algerian extremist Islamists, and the Government of Iran, whose stated goal is to wipe the State of Israel off the world map. Sudan, also, has provided Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, and Osama Bin Laden refuge, in the mid 1990s.  Based on these linkages, there will be attacks on the western interests by one of these groups, and the terrorist organizations will use local populations in Africa to attack western embassies, companies, development organization, schools and kidnap western citizens working abroad (the abductions of Ambassador Robert Fowler and Louis Guy are classic examples of Al-Qaeda’s kidnap strategy). These terror groups will even attempt to hijack planes reminiscent of 9/11. As such, it is imperative that the International community prepare itself for all possible attacks.

Furthermore, Western countries, the United Nations Security Council, and the Intergovernmental Agency for Development (IGAD) States must design strategies to ensure that President Omar Bashir and the NIF will not throw the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)  into a trash basket, as previous Northern regimes had done with South-North treaties.

If the ICC issues the arrest warrant, then the possibility of Omar Al Beshir remaining the ruler of Sudan will be severely limited, and the NIF may elect a hard-liner to replace Al Beshir. Conversely, the NIF will appoint Salva Kiir, presently the first Vice President, as President, but technically a buffer to advance NIF’s agenda, and to make unity attractive to the South Sudanese. Since Kiir will be the first Southern Sudanese person to govern Sudan, NIF may try to persuade southerners that there is no longer any need for a Referendum in 2011. The question is: will the hard-liners accept Salva Kiir as a replacement for President Omar Al Beshir?

Most likely, Al-Bashir will resign to give an opportunity to the NIF hard-liners to bypass the implementation of the CPA, the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), and the Doha Agreement. The outcome will, then be war. With CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, GENOCIDE, and VIOLATIONS OF THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WAR, will President Omar Al-Bashir be arrested?  Will the Sudanese people see the dawn of a new beginning without the hitherto consistent pattern of gross human rights abuses against the Sudanese civilian population in the South, the Nuba Mountains, and Darfur?

 

Justin Laku

Andrew M. Manis: When Are WE Going to Get Over It?

Andrew M. Manis is associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia and wrote this for an editorial in the Macon Telegraph. Andrew M. Manis: When Are WE Going to Get Over It? For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask: "When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color? Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk." Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood. We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster. But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama." Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?" How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites? How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations? I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do? How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight? Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here's my three-point plan: First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people. Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama. Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice, "We HAVE overcome." ************************************** It takes a Village to protect our President!!!

The future of the South Sudan

On January 9th, 2005, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) and the Khartoum regime (NIF) signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Kenya, after twenty three years of Sudan’s second civil war; one which took over two millions lives and internally displaced more than six million people. The civil war in the Sudan is one of the Africa’s longest, bloodiest and most inflexible conflicts.

Civil wars have been fought in Uganda (1981-86), Ethiopia (1974-91), Rwanda (1990-94), Liberia (1990-93), and Mozambique (1980-93. These were expressions of oppressed or excluded groups fighting their way from the periphery into power at the center to free themselves from oppressive rule by those who had been controlling the center.

In Southern Sudan, power sharing has been absent with regards to the separation of religion from the state, sharing of the natural resources, equality and justice among the Sudanese people. Despite that the CPA, power is still centralised in Khartoum; a point of tension and conflict is the identity of Sudan as an African nation. Despite its geographic location in the Continent and majority African population, the majority of power is held by 39% of its population who are Arabs. These are the main reasons behind the first and the second civil wars in 1950s, 1960s, and 1983s. Oil, Slavery and war against terrorism have placed the Sudan on the CIA, FBI and international community’s scrutiny, particularly with discovery of oil in the Southern Sudan in 1979. The Khartoum regime gave Osama Bin-Laden save haven in the Sudan, and Bin Laden planned September 11^th in Sudan with the support of Khartoum regime and its officials.

In the four years since the SPLA/M assumed power in the Southern Sudan, the security situation has not seen significant improvement. The Lord’s Resistance Army’s (LRA) military activities are still active in Central and Western Equatorial States. The Government of the South Sudan (GoSS) has failed to protect its citizens, and has been unable to disarm the Dinka tribesmen who continue to terrorize Central, Eastern, and Western Equatorial civilians in Magwi County, Nimule, Yei, Yambio, and other part of Great Equatorial; furthermore, the Dinka tribesmen deliberately allowed their cattles to grazed on the great Equatorial farming land. The people of South Sudan are divided by power as well.

Most of the GOSS cabinet, deputies ministers, attorney generals, as well as the senior officers in the police force, prisons, military, civil and foreign service are from the Dinka tribe, including founder of the SPLA/M and the president of the South Sudan. Dinkas in the SPLA constitute the largest portion of the military personnel’s within the movement. The Dinka are able to use their domination to suppress other Southern Sudanese tribes instead or share the power with them just as like Arabs did before 2005. The Dinkas plan appear to be gain control over the natural resources of South, to rule over the rest of the South, kill, and imprison anyone or group who opposes the ill-conceived notion of “Dinka Born to Rule”. The classic example is the appointment of hard-line proponent of Dinkas nationalism Able Alier as a ‘born to rule advisor’ to Salva Kiri Mayardit, for the purposes of implementing the policy of Dinkas domination over others tribes.

Since the beginning of 2009, Eastern & Central Equatorial civilians have been killed, the Great Equatorial girls and Women have suffered rape. The SPLA high officials have been appropriating Central & Eastern Equatorial lands and selling them to Somalian businessmen - leaving the land owners homeless and displaced. The culture of corruption is rampant with development money leaving South Sudan and end up in the foreign accounts in Canada, the U.S.A, Europe, and Australia.

The pattern of events is symptomatic of the lack of good governance and leadership within the SPLA/M. The GoSS has failed in educating the public in the importance of the democracy, fair elections, good governance whose components include accountability, legitimacy, democracy, equality, inclusiveness, transparency, coherency (conflict resolution), effectiveness and efficiency, and rule of law. The SPLA/M under the Dinkas regime have practiced democratic tribalism to gain greater power, rather than serve all of South Sudan through good governance. The international community and the donor states must intervene before it is too late.

With regards to the future of South Sudan and the referendum on sovereignty of the South; there appear to be two possible lines of development. One possibility is that the Dinkas’ partnership and cooperation of the NIF confers authority and power with the Dinkas to rule the South. The second possibility is that the bid to block the referendum in South succeeds, and the South remains part with the North. However, indications on the ground suggest that the referendum will take place but is not likely to be fair. In this case, civil war is likely to be the outcome.

Policy recommendations:

What could be done to rescue the situation in the South Sudan? Donor states must put pressure on the SPLA leadership to implement their commitments to good governance and full representation of all Southern Sudan tribes in the GoSS;

The European Union (EU), the International Criminal Court (ICC), the human rights organizations, the US State department, and the United Nations human right commission, must form a South Sudan-Fact Finding Mission Human Rights Committee to investigate the crimes committed against the great Equatorial citizens;

The rights of the victims must be protected, and those committing crimes against humanity be brought to justice. All the lands taken by force from the great Equatorial must be giving back to their owners.

“The racial theory brought Hitler and his friends to conclusion that the Germans as the only fully valuable nation, must rule over other nations. The English, racial theory brings ChurchHill and his friends to the conclusion that nations speaking the English language, being the only fully valuable nations, should rule over the remaining nations of the world”. The same theory brought Salva Kiir Mayardit and his friends to conclusion that people speaking Dinka language are the only people worthy to rule over the remaining of the South Sudan. Donor states and the international community at large must take these recommendations seriously.

What South Sudan needs an understanding and realization of the Baganda concept of edbemde ery’obuntu - the democracy of freedom for a community and its individual members to be treated in a humane and civil manner? This would include freedom from severe political or social disorder, freedom for ordinary individuals to have their complaints and opinions heard by those in power, and fair and equal treatment by authorities. Equality of treatment is paradoxically based on the disorder and injustice produce by inequality.

Justin Laku