Friday, September 29, 2006

Sudan balks at giving US envoy a visa

Reuters report via ST 29 Sep 2006:
"He (U.S. special envoy) has not been granted a visa yet. Certainly, I think Andrew (Natsios) would very much want to travel to Khartoum. We are having some difficulties now with the Sudanese government," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, who declined to provide specific details.

McCormack said the United States would continue to put pressure on Khartoum to accept a 20,000-strong U.N. force to replace about 7,000 poorly funded African Union troops struggling to keep the peace in the arid region. "We think it is important that other states apply similar pressure to the Sudanese government," said McCormack.

Asked about Malloch Brown's reported comments, McCormack said the senior U.N. official should "apply himself to the task at hand rather than giving speeches."
I wish aggressive Americans could hear how primitive they sound this side of the pond. Is it any wonder now Sudan balks at issuing Americans full entry visas? Talking of warmongers, Eric Reeves pens another cryptic ream, weirdly titled "Khartoum Strong-arms, Negotiates to Retain Control of Darfur Security - The National Islamic Front will continue to determine the military and security dynamic throughout Darfur and eastern Chad". Who are such pieces aimed at? The rebels? Note, he tells his readers "the AU decision announced by Konare very likely paralyzes further movement toward non-consensual deployment for both military tactical reasons and political reasons." And he concludes by saying, quote: "If we wait to see the full scale and consequences of an inevitable AU failure to provide security for Darfur, we will be waiting while too many hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings die." "If we wait" eh? Who is the "we"? What is he suggesting? I think Eric Reeves is dangerous.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ingrid, I really hate the guy. He's so stuck up and arrogant.

Also notice that he still refers to the ruling party as NIF and not NCP. By doing so he always tries to reinforce the association between Bashir's dirty deeds and the word (Islamic) in the middle of NIF. Go figure!

Ingrid J. Jones said...

Hello Drima, thanks for your thoughts. Much appreciated, especially since I thought I was the only one with such views! I'd often wondered about Reeves' references to NIF and suspected he did it to drive home to readers the word "Islamic" in a hateful context. Stuck up and arrogant is right - notice how he puts quotation marks around the words "Sudanese government." I can think of no kind words to adequately describe Eric Reeves so I chose the word "dangerous" because that is how I have felt about him ever since I started paying attention to what was flowing from his poison pen. I'm surprised Smith College still allow him to use their name.