Israel Bombs Sudan (Socialist's Out There Perspective)

Recent revelations and events in Sudan continue to expose the ongoing campaign, by imperialist governments and "civil society," to demonize and isolate Sudan. CBS News reported on Mar. 26 that Israel had attacked a convoy of trucks in Sudan in January. They claimed these trucks were carrying weapons from Iran to Hamas, a Palestinian resistance organization. It was later reported by ABC News that Israel had in fact conducted three different strikes on targets it claimed were carrying weapons to the Gaza strip.

The Sudanese government has maintained that these convoys were carrying humanitarian aid, not weapons. While either scenario or a mix of the two is possible, quibbling over the cargo misses the most critical point. Israel obtains massive shipments of U.S. arms on a regular basis, and over the next decade has $30 billion worth of military assistance pledged to it by the United States. The recent Gaza massacre demonstrated how these weapons are likely to be used. Using U.S.-supplied high-tech weaponry and illegal munitions such as white phosphorous shells, Zionist forces killed over 1,400 Palestinians. By comparison, just 13 Israelis died, the largest number from friendly fire.

Even prior to the invasion, the Israeli military power maintained a suffocating blockade of the Gaza Strip. The massacre has greatly worsened the humanitarian crisis there.

The Israeli insistence that Palestinians have no right to resist this aggression, and that the Sudanese have no right to support the Palestinian people, reveals the imperialist double standard. Those it supports can kill and murder with impunity, while those who oppose their aims are isolated and attacked. So it is with Sudan.

The current Sudanese government has always been a supporter of the Palestinian national liberation struggle. It has led the increase in trade between China and the continent of Africa. China is the largest investor in Sudan’s oil, its chief industry. Sudan has also maintained ties with Iran and supports Hezbollah. All of this places the African nation at odds with the interests of U.S. and European imperialism.

Wrapping themselves in a cloak of "humanitarianism," imperialist powers, with the assistance of so-called "civil society," have manipulated the situation in Darfur to whip up a fury of outrage against Sudan and its leaders. This process culminated in the recent indictment for war crimes of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court.

Rather than improve the situation, these actions have in fact worsened conditions for the people of Darfur. On the one hand, the government has banned a number of "human rights" groups from providing aid in the camps. In camps controlled by rebels opposed to the Sudanese government, there have been efforts to prevent the government from providing aid altogether.

With a referendum looming in 2010 over the status of the southern part of the country, the sharpening of the conflict over Darfur threatens more violence all over Sudan. Sudan now faces continued attempts at diplomatic isolation, as well as brazen violations of its sovereignty such as the Israeli air strikes. Progressive and revolutionary-minded people in the United States should demand "Hands Off Sudan!" The campaign against Sudan will only lead to greater suffering for all the people there.

Well damn...they have an organization ...and activists...

U.S. demonstration demands "Hands off Sudan!"

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Party for Socialism and Liberation

Protest responds to ICC arrest warrant for President Bashir

In response to a decision by the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, demonstrators gathered in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. The demonstration denounced the ICC’s ruling, and imperialist efforts aimed at destabilizing and recolonizing Sudan along with other parts of Eastern Africa.

The demonstration was organized by the Give Peace A Chance Coalition, a community-based organization dedicated to raising awareness of the effects of U.S. foreign policy on Africa and Africans in the Diaspora. Demonstrators held signs that read, "Hands off Sudan," "Down with the ICC," and "ICC is a racist court."

The ICC warrant was issued for war crimes and crimes against humanity for alleged atrocities committed in the Darfur region of Sudan. The ICC has never before issued an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state. Like the United States, Sudan is not a signatory to the treaty that established the ICC.

Like the United Nations, the ICC serves the interests of the imperialist nations that dominate it. Since its establishment, the ICC has opened only a handful of investigation into war crimes—all of them in Africa.

The warrant is aimed at strangling the Sudanese government into submission to Washington and other Western imperialists. It is part of a racist effort to paint President Bashir as an evil dictator—a typical imperialist campaign strategy.

The imperialist disinformation campaign was a central theme of the press conference which followed the demonstration. Speakers included Hodari Abdul-Ali, Executive Director of GPAC and Chair of the Social Justice Task Force for the Muslim Alliance in North America; Akbar Muhammad, Found of Youth 4 Africa Foundation; Dr. Kaukab Siddique, author and Amir of Jamaat Al-Muslimeen organization; and Bob Brown of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party. Brian Becker, the National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), also spoke in solidarity with the Sudanese people.

The speakers urged demonstrators and the public not to trust the disinformation campaign regarding the crisis in Darfur, which has been repeatedly characterized in the imperialist countries as "genocide" carried out by the Sudanese government. In reality, the campaign was constructed at the behest of U.S. and British imperialism and is being carried out by well-funded Zionist organizations.

There are several enduring internal conflicts in Sudan. In Darfur, a struggle exists between farmers and nomadic herders who are forced to compete for land. There is real hunger and suffering in Sudan—much of it the result of the plunder of African land by the former colonial power and continued imperialist aggression. However, the charge of a coordinated genocidal attack against the people of the Darfur region led by the Sudanese government is a fabrication.

Sudan is the largest country in Africa and an oil-producing nation, making it a particularly valuable prize for the bankers and corporate owners in the United States and Britain. Washington and other imperialist forces aim to take advantage of the suffering of the Sudanese people in order to carve up and recolonize Sudan and other parts of Eastern Africa.

A true solution to the crisis cannot come from the imperialist nations who seek only to exploit the Sudanese land and people. It must come from the people of the region who have the right to determine their future without the interference of the former colonizing powers. Hands off Sudan!

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Al-Queda needs an additional base to go along wiht Somalia and the nice one in Pakistan....

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