Thursday, July 13, 2006

A dying peace deal in Darfur - The Boston Globe (John Prendergast)

So called "Sudan experts" seem to feed off each other and hearsay, regurgitating it into mainstream media to further their own cause and bamboozle readers in the process. They sound like clones on a game of some kind to get attention. Are they all Blair/Bush haters or what? Bad mood. Trying to track news, see hundreds of reports but only a scrap of it is hard news. It's hard work and time consuming trawling through so much rubbish. Mainstream media are letting us down. Lazy bums. Don't believe much of what I hear or read in the news.

Excerpt from an opinion piece (A dying peace deal in Darfur - The Boston Globe July 13, 2006) by doom merchant John Prendergast, senior advisor at the International Crisis Group (who pays for the food on his table?):
The specific security guarantee every Darfurian talks about is a United Nations force that will ensure the Janjaweed disarm, and that will protect refugees and help them return home.

[...]

It is time for serious pressure. The United States should tell regime officials it will work multilaterally to impose targeted sanctions, help the war crimes investigations of the International Criminal Court, and support the divestment movement that seeks to have companies stop doing business with Sudan.
Eh what? Every Darfurian? How would he know? After reading that line and his calls for sanctions, prosecutions and divestment, I couldn't take a word of the piece seriously. Most of the displaced Darfurians can't even read or write, what would they know when it comes to political issues beyond what power crazed rebel leaders are feeding them? And, while I am at it, there is no such thing as the so called janjaweed. Calling for "janjaweed" to be disarmed is like calling for "insurgents" in Iraq to be disarmed in one fell swoop. It's much more complicated, involving different tribes, tribal leaders and a culture going back to the year dot. They live on a different planet. Only they can sort it out. Get it? [Afterthought: shame them into sorting it out] See July 13 2006 Darfur: What Should the U.S. Do? (Bill Fletcher Jr).

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