Mandate Darfur conference invited Eric Reeves to serve as an adviser

Yesterday, I noticed at the foot of an opinion piece by Eric Reeves (author of "A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide") that he was invited by the organisers of the Mandate Darfur conference to serve as an adviser. You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried. No wonder Khartoum cancelled!

Seriously, with so many contentious issues on its plate, I can't see how the Sudanese government can manage at this stage to get involved in a conference of 300 civilians who are not part of the Doha talks. I can barely keep up with reading the vast array of news reports on stuff that Sudan is being bombarded with left, right and centre, not to mention the crucial Abyei boundary issue, ICC and thousands of heavily armed criminals crawling around everywhere, threatening to destabilize the whole country and derail the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

Why didn't the Mandate Darfur conference go ahead without the Sudanese government and was weasel Turabi invited as a participant, I wonder. (Web definitions for weasel: a person who is regarded as treacherous or sneaky).

See Eric Reeves' commentary at Christian Science Monitor, 27 May 2009: Stand up to Sudan's thugs - Men with guns can't be the only ones at the peace table