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Saturday, July 09, 2011

Congratulations South Sudan

Congratulations to the Republic of South Sudan, the world's newest nation, which achieved independence today. To the country's government: it took you a long time to get to this day. Don't screw it up.

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posted by Brian @ Saturday, July 09, 2011   0 comments

Friday, July 11, 2008

Sudan's dictator to be indicted on war crimes and genocide charges

Both the BBC and the Associated Press are reporting that Sudan's military dictator Omar el-Bashir will be indicted next week by the International Criminal Court. The Hague tribunal is expected to hand down charges of crimes against humanity and genocide related to massacres in Darfur, almost universally believed to be sponsored by the regime. Bashir's deputy is also expected to be indicted by the ICC.

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posted by Brian @ Friday, July 11, 2008   0 comments

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Genociders offended by deaths

No, this is not a story from The Onion.

According to the BBC, the Sudanese dictatorship wants $40,000 compensation for four Arab nomads killed when a grenade went off as they tried to retrieve the body of a French peacekeeper.

Quips Mike, a reader of this blog: "I understand Khartoum are going to pay a similar sum for each Darfuri killed...."

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posted by Brian @ Thursday, March 13, 2008   2 comments

Monday, December 03, 2007

Teddy bear 'infidel' pardoned

I don't mean to be insensitive but Sudan is one [mess]ed up place.

You have a military dictatorship that refuses to uphold a peace deal that ended a long civil war in the south of the country. One that sponsors a genocide in the west of the country.

But the rent-a-mobs want a teacher to be murdered for naming a teddy bear.

I realize there's more to it. Clearly, the dictatorship doesn't want the planned UN peacekeeping force to be deployed in Darfur... a mission which it has been resisting for years. So authorities whipped up this tempest about a British teacher who let her class name a teddy bear Mohammed... a boy in the class named Mohammed suggested the teddy bear have the same name.

This tempest in a teapot allowed the regime to whip up pseudo-religious and nationalist fanaticism that would give it an excuse to resist the UN force a little longer.

Plus, the decision of the dictator, Gen. Omar al-Bashir, to pardon the teacher makes him look like the good guy. It made him look like a moderate, bravely resisting the hysterical rent-a-mobs (which his regime was probably instrumental in creating in the first place)... illustrating yet again that religious extremism is dangerous regardless of who does it.

I guess when you're sponsoring genocide, you need all the good PR you can get... no matter how you get it.

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posted by Brian @ Monday, December 03, 2007   1 comments

Friday, June 15, 2007

Turabi the reformist?

The Christian Science Monitor ran one of the more surprising articles I've read in a while. Hassan al-Turabi was once the most powerful man in Sudan. He inspired a coup by Islamist military officers and, as parliamentary speaker, imposed Islamic Sharia law in the country. He also invited Osama bin Laden to live in the country during the 1990s.

Yet Turabi has recently advocated the use of traditional music and dance for Islamic worship... [and] encouraged the people of Darfur to oppose the government of President Omar al-Bashir.

The latter part might not be that surprising, since Gen. Bashir threw his former close ally in prison a few years ago. But the still influential Islamic scholar also recently declared that Muslim women didn't need to cover their hair with a veil.

"In Islam, the government is based on consultation and consent," he says. "We don't have a church. We don't have angels who come down to govern. When we imposed Islamic law [in 1991], we wanted to introduce religion so that it could supplement law, to mobilize religion in every citizen, because God is close to you and can guide your actions. To uproot corruption, people want to be democratic, they want to be equal under the law."

He also refers to the rebellion in Darfur as "just a fight against a state that denied justice."


He argues that his interpretation of Islam is merely changing with the times, though it makes one wonder if times have really changed that much in merely 10 years. As a result, there not surprisingly remain questions about Turabi's true motives. Many wonder if he's truly become a reformist or is merely adopting a new populist line to replace the Islamist populism of the 1990s. Change of heart or opportunist?

Only time will tell.

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posted by Brian @ Friday, June 15, 2007   0 comments