No no, we're well-defended by our politicians here in America! It can never happen here.
Posted on 03/19/2004 11:46:49 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - A senior U.N. official said Friday that fighting in western Sudan has intensified in recent weeks, accusing Arab militia of systematically attacking villages and raping women. Mukesh Kapila, the U.N. resident coordinator for Sudan, said that attacks against tribes in the Darfur region were "close to the definition of ethnic cleansing." "In my view this is the world's greatest humanitarian crisis and possibly the world's greatest humanitarian catastrophe," Kapila told The Associated Press. "There has been systematic burning of villages and displacement of the population. There are reports of women being raped, other men and women disappearing." The U.S. envoy to Sudan, former Sen. John Danforth, also described the situation in Darfur as a "a true humanitarian disaster." He said the crisis would have to be resolved before there can be normal relations between the United States and Sudan. In one reported attack by the militia on Feb. 27, more than 100 women were raped in Tawilaa, a village in North Darfur, Kapila said, adding that his information was coming from international and Sudanese aid workers in the region. Fighting has wreaked havoc across Darfur - a region the size of Iraq - since February 2003, when rebels took up arms and said they wanted a greater share of power and wealth in Africa's largest country. The rebels accuse President Omar el-Bashir's Islamic government of arming and supporting the Arab militia, and carrying out a scorched-earth policy in the impoverished, underdeveloped region. The government has denied the allegations. But Kapila said the government could "exercise greater influence on the militia to curb the attacks on civilians." The traditional inhabitants of Darfur are Muslims from African tribes, but the region is also home to Arab nomads. More than 800,000 people, mostly of African descent, have been forced to flee their homes and unknown numbers of civilians have been killed in the violence. Kapila, whose 14-month assignment in Sudan will be finished at the end of March, called on the warring parties to agree to a cease-fire, which, he said, should be internationally monitored. Danforth spoke after meeting negotiators at peace talks in Kenya between the Sudanese government and rebels fighting a 21-year civil war in southern Sudan. The war in Darfur has intensified as those talks have inched toward their conclusion. More than 110,000 Sudanese have fled to eastern Chad to escape the violence. --
"Eyewitnesses detail the grisly consequences of Khartoum's strategy of famine, bombings, rape, torture, kidnappings, and slavery. Cabling the State Department, an Ethiopian mission officer reported that "all [south Sudanese] arrivals were naked but for rags around their waists; all had the dull concentration camp stare of the starving. . . . They compared poorly with pictures of Nazi concentration camp victims." Writing to Pope John Paul II, Philip Thon Leek, director of the Friends of African Children Educational Foundation, reported that "over 1.5 million [now almost three million] lives have been lost and at least four million have been internally displaced and over one million are refugees."
"Slavery too has reappeared. According to a 1993 State Department report, the "government of Sudan forces routinely steal women and children. Some women and children are kept as wives. Others are shipped north where they perform forced labor or are exported, notably to Libya." In his scathing 1994 report to the UN Commission on Human Rights, special investigator Gaspar Biro confirmed that the north is kidnapping women and children and selling or using them as concubines or slaves. Biro also notes that the present regime allows the crucifixion of children as young as seven.
"Outside of South Sudan, over a million south Sudanese remain trapped in refugee camps, primarily in neighboring Kenya and Uganda. While family members and friends have lost their lives, these survivors have lost their way of life. Those who once were self-sufficient and productive are now landless, homeless, assetless, and bereft of hope. Last year, William Ajjugo formed an organization called Operation Nehemiah for South Sudan to help reach these refugees. Ajjugo's focus is on economic and spiritual development to help restore conditions necessary for self- sufficiency.
"There is little question, however, about the long-term solution for South Sudan, and, indeed, for the entire country. Natural catastrophe is not what is depriving people of their homes, their lands, and their lives. The problem is war, and this particular one is about two cultures that are radically incompatible: fundamentalist Islam and orthodox Christianity. The former is willing to stop at nothing in order to realize its dream of an entire Sudan brought under the hegemony of a literally applied shari'a. The latter, meanwhile, proclaims death as preferable to conversion to Islam in any of its forms, which it sees as betrayal of Christ. Indeed, just as the north has in recent years become increasingly fundamentalist in its Islam, so the south has become increasingly fundamentalist in its Christianity. Last year, Christianity Today reported that over 75 percent of all south Sudanese consider themselves "born again." Evidence abounds that within all Christian groups, ranging from Catholics and Anglicans to nondenominational movements, genocide has brought not abandonment of faith, but renewal. In South Sudan, Christian martyrdom has as well drawn Christians of all traditions closer together.
"The long-term solution to Sudan's troubles is to acknowledge that Sudan is not, nor was it ever, one nation. It was, it is, and it will continue to be two. As William Ajjugo says, "We are already separate culturally and spiritually. Why not politically?" In 1990, the Bush Administration unsuccessfully supported a proposal for a UN referendum regarding the issue of self-rule for South Sudan. Supporters of the referendum proposal hope to convince Congress to push the White House into taking up the issue once again. South Sudan has some friends in Congress, such as Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), but their efforts are limited by lack of grassroots American knowledge, let alone support, of South Sudan. The logical place to garner such support is among American Christians. But as Wolf told syndicated columnist Mary McGrory in 1993, while church people deluged his office regarding politically correct issues concerning Latin America and other arenas, on South Sudan, "I hear silence."
"It is time to break that silence."
-----------------------------------------------
end of article.... if we don't do something... coming soon to a lot of our former allies, followed by us...
No no, we're well-defended by our politicians here in America! It can never happen here.
Won't work here. Too many of us civilized civilians have guns. (...and will continue to have regardless of the law.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.