I'm a peaceful man. Talk to most people and I think they will say I'm generally a laid back, easy going guy. With few exceptions, I don't believe violence is an answer to anything. I've never been in a physical fight in my life, but have broken up one or two. Despite this, I truly believe if you put Joseph Kony next to me and gave me a pistol, I could put a bullet in his head and sleep peacefully that night.
Many of you, especially those who I befriended on this trip, especially in Africa, know who Kony is. For those of you who do not, an introduction is order.
After the overthrow of Tito Okello by the NRM forces led by Yoweri Moseveni in 1986, Uganda was thrown into chaos. Okello had been an ethnic Acholi from northern Uganda, and the Acholi dominated military had been harsh in their treatment of the insurgency and the areas associated with it.
After the rebellion, many from this region began to fear (and at times with good reason), a backlash against the north and the Acholi people. A number of groups were formed to resist this new government in Kampala. The most successful, making it all the way to Jinja before being defeated, was the Holy Spirit Movement headed by Alice Lakwena. Lakwena (the name of her advising spirit - a dead Italian army officer) anointed her troops with shea butter, telling them it would cause bullets to bounce off them. This group did remarkably well against the new government, coming within 60 miles of Kampala before the army decisively showed that shea butter was not match against artillery and machine guns.
After the demise of the Holy Spirit Movement, any number of groups attempted to step into the void of northern resistance. One group and leader soon dominated - the Lord's Resistance Army (the LRA) and Joseph Kony. Kony, a relative of Alice Lakwena, claimed to have inherited the same spiritual gifts as Lakwena including the guiding voices that motivated the other. He promised to resist the south-dominated government, and to purify the Alcholi people. His guiding principles were a strange blend of spiritualism, a fundamentalist version of Christianity (especially a bizarre interpretation of the 10 Commandments), traditional Alcholi beliefs, and increasingly Islam.
The LRA soon established a reputation for brutality, with most of their attacks targeting civilian, not military targets. The LRA has generally not been an army that recruits. Instead they have kidnapped thousands of civilians, almost exclusively Alcholi and most frequently children, pressing them into service as servants, wives, and soldiers. The experiences of these children are staggeringly brutal and cruel. Beatings, killings, and other forms of torture are commonplace. Some have been forced to kill other abductees as object lessons, sometime using only their teeth or clubs. Reports of children having to watch, or even kill, their own families have been reported, in some instances, the children being forced to eat the boiled flesh of their own parents. These stories are horrible and heart rending. I encourage you to read more to educate yourself. I have a Danish friend, Theo, who has been interviewing former child soldiers and abductees in northern Uganda. I also encourage you to read "Scars of Death", a report on child abductees' stories by Human Rights Watch written in 1997. (SEE ABOVE LINK)
Despite the targeting of civilians and the terrible atrocities wrought by the LRA, there has been a reluctance to resist the LRA or cooperate with the Ugandan government by many Alcholi in the north. Many Alcholi see a massacre of LRA by government forces to be a massacre of victims, as most of their soldiers are (or were) children abducted from villages and towns in the north. The moral complexity of this is agonizing, as it is clear that many of these victimized children are the ones now doing much of the atrocities the LRA are accused of committing. There is still a strong resentment towards the Kampala government of Museveni as well, which is seen as very anti-Alcholi, and is yet another complication in resisting the LRA. The LRA, for their part, has been very good at avoiding being drawn into direct confrontations with the brunt of Uganda's forces. Kony and his forces have migrated between Southern Sudan (where they have reportedly been supported by the government of Khartoum because they engaged in conflict with the Southern Sudanese rebel group the SPLA), northern Ugandan, the Congo, and even some reports of being in the Central African Republic.
As a result of this conflict, now approaching 20 years, hundreds of thousands of people have fled their villages and towns in fear of their lives. For years now, these people have been living in IDP camps (Internally Displaced People). These camps can have tens of thousands of inhabitants, living in crowded, dirty, desperately poor circumstances. While initially set up for increased security, there have been hundreds of reports of LRA attacks, crime, even incidents where it is claimed the UDF, the ones charged with protecting the inhabitants, have been the perpetrators
Food is scarce, with much of the population of these camps relying on meagre government handouts and assistance from the World Food Programme. It is painfully clear that without the assistance of the World Food Programme, there would be massive malnutrition and deaths. The WFP announced this past winter that it was running out of money and unless it received an injection from outside sources, it would have to cut back on already dangerously low levels of calories per person.
While living in Kampala, I had met many people working or volunteering for various NGO's operating in Uganda. Many of these were centred in the north, with Gulu being the most common place. As I lived in Uganda, I had been learning more and more about the LRA, the conflicts in the north, and the general situation facing many of the common people. I had met people who worked in the IDP camps trying to alleviate some of the worst conditions. I knew people who worked with former abductees and child soldiers, trying to counsel them and aid them in transitioning back into society. This was particularly difficult because often these child soldiers had seen their families killed and had no one to go home to. They were often wracked with guilt over the atrocities they had seen or committed themselves, and often were viewed with distrust or animosity by people back in the towns.
Since coming to Africa, my opinions on NGO's has been challenged. While I feel there are undoubtedly many NGO's that are doing good work in Africa, I feel many are causing more problems in the long run than they are solving. I am not alone in this, as an increasing number of books and studies have found many NGO's to be participating in something amounting to humanitarian colonialism
Those agencies, I believe, who come to Africa, maintain huge expatriate staffs, and have massive, expensive, and ultimately, unsustainable projects are doing more damage than good. While undoubtedly well intentioned, I believe there is occasionally a lingering, vaguely racist, belief that the natives can't help themselves, therefore we will come in and do it for them. Nine months in Africa has shown me clearly that there is nothing inherently stupid, incapable, or lazy about the people I have encountered. What is needed is education and opportunity, and a level playing field. Sustainable, African driven development is needed. To put it another way - they need shoes, but they don't need us to tie their laces.
I believe it is important to think for yourself. I have always tried to reinforce in my students the need for critical thinking, awareness of bias, checking of sources, et cetera when forming opinions. As such, I felt it important to go to Gulu myself and see some of what I could. I wanted to meet with some NGO's, see Gulu, and try to understand more of the situation. I will say this up front - I am an ignorant child compared to most of the African and foreign people who have dedicated their lives to the situation in northern Uganda, but I still feel the need, whenever possible, to see and understand for myself.
On the way to Gulu, I was reminded once again, that many parts of Africa are not "tame" by Canadian standards. On the bus, about an hour from Gulu, I received a text message from a friend asking if I was ok and had made it to Gulu yet. I jokingly replied "Not there yet. But so far no one has shot at us yet." It was about twenty minutes later when the man next to me opened his newspaper and the headline "Passengers Survive Bus Shooting in Gulu" popped out at me. With the exception of a few near accidents (the norm, not the exception in Uganda) I arrived without incident.
Over the next few days, I had a chance to renew some old acquaintances, and make some new ones. I managed to connect with James, an American working with an NGO called Invisible Children that I had met in Kampala. He invited me to meet him and some others for dinner that night. Invisible Children is an NGO that was started after the popularity of a documentary of the same name was filmed in northern Uganda and released in America to significant attention. Some had accused the documentary of being sensationalistic; stylish but lacking substance and hard facts. Regardless, it was instrumental in bringing attention to the plight of northern Uganda, and soon after Invisible Children the NGO was founded. I had also met a number of people who worked with other organizations in the north, and Invisible Children was not held in high regard. The enthusiasm of those volunteering and working with Invisible Children combined with the generally negative opinion of those outside the organization, made me curious to know more about them.
That night at dinner, I met up again with an American named Peter. Peter was formerly a soldier who served in the original Gulf War. His experiences there and personal convictions, have led him to become a conscientious objector. Shortly after 9/11, he became an air marshal in the U.S., flying undercover on domestic flights to prevent any other acts of hijacking. He had come to Uganda looking to volunteer. Once there, he found himself also wanting to learn more about the country and its issues. Peter had arranged to go to one of the IDP camps the next day where Invisible Children had a project running. I was kindly asked to come along.
The next morning, Peter and I met and went out to the headquarters of Invisible Children. We spent a bit of time there, meeting staff and learning more about the scope of IC's projects. I asked James what he knew and thought about the reason for the poor localized reputation that Invisible Children had.
His honesty and his answers impressed me. He said, frankly, that mistakes had been made. In the heady atmosphere of the documentary's success, a general invitation had been made to Americans -"Come to Africa, see Uganda, help!" The call was answered, and many Americans came to northern Ugandan hoping to do good. Unfortunately, many of these came with a profound lack of political and cultural understanding, and with a sense of behaviour that was a source of upset to many of the Alcholi in the north as well as the NGO community.
Invisible Children said they realized their mistakes, and were working hard to repair relationships and improve the practices of the NGO. People could no longer simply pay money and show up to volunteer. Volunteers were screened and went through a six week education and training process. Their bracelet campaign (people from the camps made bracelets that were sold in America to fundraise) had been expanded, and they had some excellent initiatives centred around education they were developing. I was impressed, both with their candidness, and with the organization's willingness to accept criticism and make changes. More organizations need this willingness to learn and change.
The trip to the IDP camp was interesting. The camp we went to was very close to Gulu town, and to my understanding, one of the best maintained and well off. We were taken to a large hut where about 30-40 people were making bracelets that would be sent to the States to be sold to fund projects and development in the camps. After about 30 minutes, we returned to Gulu.
The next day, Peter and I went to an orphanage out of town run by a catholic group. We met two young American volunteers, Nick and Haley, who showed us around. We went over to the baby house where the youngest orphans lived. It was feeding time when we arrived, and as a result of their creative and energetic methods of transferring food to their mouths, it was bath time after. I was able to take some photos, and was quite moved by the little ones. Most of these children had been orphaned due to the fighting that had scourged the countryside, although some had been abandoned due to desperate economic conditions and the inability of their parents to care for them.
Some people have pointed to the issue of tribalism as one of the major issues facing Africa. There is undoubtedly a feeling of mistrust by people of the north concerning people from the south and especially the west (which not coincidentally Museveni comes from). I have heard people in the south make disparaging remarks about the Alcholi in the north, ranging from their violent natures to the women being somehow less beautiful. While in Gulu, I had the opportunity to meet (again, thanks to Peter) an Alcholi man who worked for OCHA (the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). Over dinner, he told us about the challenges faced by those in the north. He had lost brothers and sisters to the LRA. He was passionate about the need for change and peace in the north. He said the biggest problems were other Ugandans. He said the people in the south were stupid, but the people from the west were the worst. I gently made the observation that many people believed that tribalism, and a mistrust of other tribes in Uganda was one of the major issues facing the country. "You are absolutely correct. But people from the west are still bad people, and you can not trust them." This type of sentiment is rife, and hard to argue against.
In December 2003, the UN Secretary General for Human Affairs, Jan Egeland described the humanitarian situation in Northern Uganda as the "worst forgotten and neglected in the whole world". There is some hope. The LRA recently agreed to extend a truce with the Ugandan government to the end of June (2007), and resume peace talks. In the past, these talks have often been an opportunity for Kony and LRA to regroup and re-arm. One hopes this time can possibly give real results. Surprisingly, the people in northern Uganda are the ones least interested in seeing Kony be brought to justice (a few years ago, at the request of the Ugandan government, Kony was indicated as for Crimes against Humanity by the International Criminal Court in the Hague). They are more interested in peace first, then justice.
I only spent a few days in Gulu. I did not have enough time to fully grasp the scope of what is happening here. This has been a long entry, but it doesn't remotely scratch the surface of the issues in this beautiful country of wonderful people with a heart rending past and present.
I will say this, I will keep trying to learn more. You should too.
Nay Moderator
Number of posts : 8189 Location : AUSTRALIA Registration date : 2008-11-06
Subject: Re: Pure Evil - Alive and Killing Thu Oct 07, 2010 5:23 am
Donna, did you know that the Dateline presenter George Negus is very well-known and well-respected in Australia? He's an ex-60 Minutes and Foreign Correspondent journalist and is now on Dateline (SBS).
E.T.A: Here's another link through that Dateline story from 2002. http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/webextra/id/600791/n/Manhunt
DonnaKat Head Cheese, Pantry Raider, Your Everlovin' Forum Administrator
Number of posts : 9607 Location : In my skin Registration date : 2008-10-28
Subject: Re: Pure Evil - Alive and Killing Thu Oct 07, 2010 7:04 am
I didn't know that, thanks for the info.
andrea Elevator Doesn't Go Up to the Top Floor
Number of posts : 448 Location : Austria / Carinthia / Klagenfurt Registration date : 2010-04-20
Subject: Re: Pure Evil - Alive and Killing Thu Oct 07, 2010 5:51 pm
some story wow !
DonnaKat Head Cheese, Pantry Raider, Your Everlovin' Forum Administrator
Number of posts : 9607 Location : In my skin Registration date : 2008-10-28
Subject: Re: Pure Evil - Alive and Killing Sat Oct 16, 2010 9:32 am
I follow Machine Gun Preacher on Facebook. This morning they posted this YouTube video. Apparently George Clooney is now involved.
greyeyegoddess Permanent Resident of the Home of the Sanely Insane
Number of posts : 5150 Location : Heart of the Bay, CA Registration date : 2008-10-29
Subject: Re: Pure Evil - Alive and Killing Sat Oct 16, 2010 2:07 pm
Oh????
Nay Moderator
Number of posts : 8189 Location : AUSTRALIA Registration date : 2008-11-06
Subject: Re: Pure Evil - Alive and Killing Sat Oct 16, 2010 4:30 pm
Thanks, Donna.
Clooney has been involved for a few years now. In fact, this isn't his first trip to Darfur/Sudan. He and Don Cheadle, along with Matt Damon, drew the public's attention to Darfur about 3 years ago with a fundraiser at Cannes, a documentary 'Sand and Sorrow' and a book 'Not On My Watch'. They've both received peace Summit awards for their work.
I really enjoy seeing celebrities using their name and power for good causes ... without ego and appearance fees attached.
The one above is another documentary I wouldn't mind seeing.
I will continue this thread when the deluge of Butler appearances passes.
Nay Moderator
Number of posts : 8189 Location : AUSTRALIA Registration date : 2008-11-06
Subject: Re: Pure Evil - Alive and Killing Sat Oct 16, 2010 4:37 pm
Here's the 3 part video diary kept by George Clooney and his father Nick when they visited together in 2006. Clooney Snr of course is a well known news journalist in your part of the world.
Nay Moderator
Number of posts : 8189 Location : AUSTRALIA Registration date : 2008-11-06
Subject: Re: Pure Evil - Alive and Killing Mon Oct 18, 2010 5:27 am
This morning as I walked towards the hut that poses as the organisation's office, I saw something I had not noticed before. The ground beneath my feet was quite literally littered with live rounds of ammunition and spent cartridges. Hundreds lay (and still lie) partially embedded in the muddy earth camouflaged, with only the occasional one or two daring to reveal their red copper heads from just above the brown clay surface.
The detritus of urban conflict lies as a reminder of the skirmishes that occurred between militia warlords just 18 months ago, in which over 200 people died during two days of heavy fighting. I say this not out of excitement, nor in an effort to show how difficult it is to be stationed here, but rather out of concern as to the volatility in the region.
Of course, I knew the situation would be extremely complicated before my arrival, and I also knew if anything were to happen I would be one of the first to be extracted to safety. In fact as I type,evacuation plans are being readied, but what of the people that would be left behind? What about my local office colleagues? The school children I wave to when I go jogging in the evening? The old man I buy water from in the market?
The briefings and reports I previously viewed on a two dimensional black white surface transform to take on an all together human dimension. And you can't help but ask yourself, what is being done to prevent this? Security Council meetings and paperwork... paper... paper... and more paper?
On the ground you do what you can, obviously to the best of your abilities, but you know you can only do so much. Like a patient in intensive care it requires constant attention, but sometimes far bigger forces are at play. Yet despite the early warning systems sounding their alarms quite LOUDLY for some time, the response is unbearably slow.
Earlier on in the day, a local office worker cheerily smiled in exultation at the news of the rescued 33 Chilean miners. She went on to say how amazing it was for her to see humanity united all across the globe; mobilised to save human lives no matter how difficult the situation.
She said this, as her country teeters on the brink of civil war .The international community remains somewhat incoherent in approach failing so far to release the necessary resources, technical expertise, and pressure to drill through this process and attempt to extract peace in what is an already very precarious and risky operation.
The drilling has started, but the clock is ticking. We have equipment, we have tools, we have plans, we have people... knowledgeable people... but it is not enough... and time is fast running out...
kayanne Complete Loss of Marbles
Number of posts : 1041 Registration date : 2010-03-30
Subject: Re: Pure Evil - Alive and Killing Mon Oct 18, 2010 9:07 am
Quote :
I really enjoy seeing celebrities using their name and power for good causes ... without ego and appearance fees attached.
Absolutely agree, Nay!
I'll have to print out the article and read it when I have some down time. Thanks again.
Nay Moderator
Number of posts : 8189 Location : AUSTRALIA Registration date : 2008-11-06
Subject: Re: Pure Evil - Alive and Killing Sat Jan 08, 2011 6:24 pm
Hello, I'm back
Today is a momentous day in Sudan's history. Today, the people of South Sudan vote in a Referendum to decide whether to they will secede from the north.
I hope and pray that it is a democratic, peaceful and just process for all Sudanese, in their home land and abroad.
Just for something a little unusual, here are two articles about the Referendum from two vastly different view points.
SOUTHERN SUDAN'S REFERENDUM INSPIRES HOPE OF A BETTER LIFE
By Alan Boswell | McClatchy Newspapers
JUBA, Sudan — Pots and pans stacked on top of an empty bed frame are among the few possessions Teresa Peter brought with her to start a new life. Her family is originally from a remote area of southern Sudan, but she grew up in Sudan's capital Khartoum.
"We heard people say that Sudan is separating into north and south, and if we stayed we would get stuck up there," she said. "Everyone is trying to get back."
On Sunday, southern Sudanese begin voting in a weeklong referendum in which they are widely expected to opt to secede from the north and form a new nation. Divorce is usually a messy business, and Teresa Peter is one of those stuck in the middle of Sudan's big split up.
Fearing being cut off forever from a homeland she barely knows, Peter, her husband, and their kids took most of their life savings and bought passage on a barge from Khartoum — where she had lived her entire life — to Juba, Sudan's southern capital, which she had never seen.
Sitting now amidst the material remnants of her old life, she begins nursing one of her children as a swarm of flies buzz on and off her feet, a courtesy of ad hoc piles of trash strewn nearby. Her husband stands idly by, dressed in a soiled orange body suit he wore as an assistant builder in Khartoum.
"Life in Khartoum was difficult. Some days he would come find work and come home with money, others days we would have nothing," she said.
Peter's journey to Juba is being repeated thousands of times as southern Sudanese flock back to their homeland after years of absence from a war-torn region where a civil war that began in 1983 ended six years ago in a U.S.-brokered peace deal.
It was a conflict born from racial, religious, political, and economic grievances, divided chiefly along Sudan's mostly southern African tribes and Sudan's northern Arabs who have dominated Sudan's government since independence.
In the 1990s, the war escalated, as Sudan's new Islamist government declared a holy war against the southern rebels. In a pre-cursor to tactics later employed in Darfur, Arab and southern tribal militias were used to raze southern Sudan's civilian base, forcing southerners to flee into government-controlled towns or flee altogether.
Where Teresa Peter is from, on the border with northern Sudan, the easiest place to go was northward, into the belly of the enemy. Many others were taken north as captives, forced into slavery. Those who risked flight south or east became refugees in Kenya, Uganda, or Ethiopia, if they survived. Some two million are thought to have died in the conflict.
Now, everyone expects southern Sudanese to choose independence in the referendum. Secessionist sentiment is nearly universal, and the little scattered polling and focus group data that does exist suggests the final tally will find more than 95 percent of voters favor separation.
On the eve of the vote, ecstatic anticipation grips Juba, where signs are the final rallies call the vote southerners' "final walk to freedom." Elsewhere, the vote has been symbolized by two handcuffed fists breaking free from their shackles.
Still, the challenges ahead are monumental.
More than 120,000 southerners living in the north have returned to the south in recent months, according to the United Nations. Like Peters, they've come with almost nothing, to destinations not much better off than those they left. Some are going to their ancestral villages, but others, like Peter's and her family, have decided that after years of city slum life, such a transition is asking too much.
"My husband said this will be the center of the new country, so we came here so he can get a job," Peter said.
For 31 days, they have camped with a handful of other returnees on Juba's port on the White Nile, less than a hundred yards from where they disembarked. They ran through their measly savings before reaching the end of their journey, meaning the pile of possessions is all they have left.
"We've been living out of the hands of others," she said, nursing an infant as two other children looked on.
Life in Juba is expensive, due in part to the artificial boom of aid dollars and foreign presence, but also because almost all goods must be imported; the war destroyed all industry here.
Life elsewhere in southern Sudan also will be difficult. The country is the size of France, but it has no paved roads to connect its towns and cities. Its terrain is a mixture of swamp, floodplains and dense tropical forest. Development is near nil. Fewer than 5 percent of the population attended grade school during the war, and infant mortality rates hover around 10 percent across much of the region.
"Poverty levels are high, life is very hard," said Melinda Young, head of aid agency Oxfam in southern Sudan. "The issues that hinder people's daily lives in southern Sudan will continue over for the next several years or more, regardless of whatever the political result of the current process is."
After the hardship they have known so far, the long road ahead does not look nearly as steep to southerners as it may from the outside. Stability, if achieved, means development that, even if slow, is a welcome start. And they expect help: most of Sudan's half a billion barrels a day of oil production comes from the south, which should fall into the new southern state's hands following secession.
The government, led by former rebels, has promised to use the funds to invest in agriculture and infrastructure. Such a policy would require a change in current trends. During the six-year peace period, most of budget went to the military.
Peter remains optimistic.
"I'm happy here. It's not like the north. Here we are welcome, and my children are free to do what they want," she said.
"Once my husband gets a job, we will move into a home. And then we can start again."
(Boswell is a McClatchy special correspondent. His reporting is supported in part by a grant from Humanity United, a California-based human rights foundation.)
Today, south Sudan will hold a referendum on whether or not it should remain a part of Sudan.
The landmark referendum is a key part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended decades of war between the northern government and the rebel forces from the southern region.
Today’s referendum will mark a significant event in the history of Sudan. It can also be viewed as a dangerous process started by the West and the Zionist regime.
This process can be analyzed in line with the efforts made by the United States and other Western countries to make the Islamic world smaller.
The separation of south Sudan from northern Sudan will affect the geopolitics of the Islamic world and will create a new Israel in the heart of Sudan.
Since the independence of Sudan from Egypt and the United Kingdom in 1956, Britain has always sought to separate south Sudan from the north due to the oil reserves in the south. South Sudan has 85 percent of the country’s oil reserves.
There was always a permanent presence of British spies in missionary delegations in south Sudan, who sought to encourage its residents to convert to Christianity. Their activities were part of the long-term plans of the West and Britain for the secession of south Sudan.
The fact that south Sudan is located on the shores of the Nile River and the discovery of uranium, copper, and magnesium reserves in the region have encouraged Britain, the United States, and other Western countries to make efforts to separate this region.
The Zionist regime is also playing an active role in this process because the separation of south Sudan would pave the way for an Israeli presence in the region.
Israel is making efforts to start dam construction activities on the Nile River in south Sudan by building bases in the region so that it will be able to blackmail northern Sudan, Egypt, and other African countries located on the shores of the Nile River.
The separation of south Sudan, which is going to be put to a referendum today, has been endorsed by the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations since 1990.
To make the preparations for this secession, the West and the United Nations imposed a brutal war on the residents of southern and northern Sudan, which began in the 1980s and officially ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005.
During the war, tens of thousands of Muslims residing in south Sudan were killed by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), led by John Garang, and more than a million Muslims were compelled to migrate to the north.
Moreover, the social pattern in south Sudan is quite different than the social pattern in other regions of the country.
The influence of tribal leaders, known as sultans, is greater than the local governments’ influence, and this will make the situation of south Sudan more complicated in the future if it secedes from the north.
Through reliance on the members of the tribe, each sultan has formed a local government and an army, and this complex tribal system will increase the possibility of a civil war breaking out in the south.
In addition, the U.S. and Britain have built a number of military bases in south Sudan to provide military training to the Christian youth of the region.
On the other hand, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir due to his anti-U.S. stance.
The ICC has claimed that Bashir had a role in the attack on the base of the African Union peacekeepers in Sudan’s Darfur region in September 2009.
Ten AU soldiers were killed and 50 were reported missing after armed men launched an assault on an AU base in Darfur, the worst attack on AU troops since they deployed in western Sudan in 2004.
So the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Bashir and ordered Interpol to arrest him, which contravenes international law.
This action was taken because Bashir strongly opposed the separation of south Sudan from the north. In fact, the arrest warrant was issued to compel the Sudanese president to accept the result of the referendum.
Bashir recently announced that he would accept the result of the referendum if the people of south Sudan vote for secession from the north. The fact that Bashir’s recent trip to the south was called his farewell journey also indicates that south Sudan will definitely secede.
In addition, leaders of south Sudan have openly announced that they will establish political relations with the Zionist regime after the region secedes, which means that they have given the green light to an Israeli presence in the region.
Unfortunately, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) have not taken any measures to prevent such an ominous incident from happening, an incident which brings to mind the establishment of the Zionist regime in 1948.
The leaders of all Muslim countries must be invited to an emergency meeting of the OIC in order to find a way out of the current crisis and to prevent the separation of south Sudan from northern Sudan.
Number of posts : 3506 Location : Texas, Our Texas Registration date : 2008-10-29
Subject: Re: Pure Evil - Alive and Killing Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:27 pm
So northern Muslim Sudan wants the southern oil and minerals and to keep Jews out, and southern non-Muslim Sudan wants to not share southern oil and minerals with the northern Muslims and wants Jews to help develop their country.
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Subject: Re: Pure Evil - Alive and Killing 
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