Jump upon the peace train - Sudan's UN envoy says Darfur activists are warmongers in a race to stop peace train

According to reports copied here below, Sudan's UN Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem says Enough Project's activists are warmongers and war traders in a race with time to stop the peace train which is already moving to its destination.  Heh. Peace train.  I like.

Everyone jump upon the peace train


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Copy of blog post from John Prendergast's Enough Project:
Sudanese Ambassador Reacts to Enough’s Latest Paper
Posted by Laura Heaton on Dec 01, 2009

Even before our most recent Sudan strategy paper went public yesterday, the Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations had a strong reaction to our recommendations:

"Those war mongers and war traders are in a race with time to stop the peace train which is already moving to its destination. Their report exposes their bankruptcy and the fact that realities on the ground .... defeated their sick mentality."

These remarks are inadvertently revealing - they just go to show that the ruling National Congress Party is living in a dangerously self-constructed reality. This morning we put out a statement enumerating a handful of facts from the ground that contradict the ambassador's optimistic assessment. Peace train indeed.

Hat tip: GV - Ndesanjo Macha
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Peace Train by Cat Stevens - YouTube



Hat tip: spreadingourwings.blogspot.com

Peace Train by Cat Stevens - Lyrics

Now I've been happy lately,
thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be,
something good has begun
Oh I've been smiling lately,
dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be,
some day it's going to come
Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a peace train

Oh peace train take this country,
come take me home again
Now I've been smiling lately,
thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be,
something good has begun

Oh peace train sounding louder
Glide on the peace train
Come on now peace train
Yes, peace train holy roller
Everyone jump upon the peace train
Come on now peace train

Get your bags together,
go bring your good friends too
Cause it's getting nearer,
it soon will be with you

Now come and join the living,
it's not so far from you
And it's getting nearer,
soon it will all be true
Now I've been crying lately,
thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating,
why can't we live in bliss

Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
come take me home again

~Cat Stevens (Source: Flickr)
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Sudan's UN envoy says Darfur activists are "warmongers"

Copy of a report from Reuters Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:04am EST
Report urges sanctions against Sudan ruling party
By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The United States and other world powers should impose sanctions on key members of the Sudanese government for refusing to end violence in Darfur and south Sudan, a report by an anti-genocide group said on Monday.

Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem reacted angrily to the report, calling the Enough Project, a Washington-based anti-genocide group, "war mongers."

The Enough Project's report said there was a risk of a new civil war and warned that nationwide elections next year and a 2011 referendum on whether the oil-rich and semi-autonomous south should secede from the Khartoum-led north would not be free and fair.

The report placed the bulk of the blame on the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who was indicted in March by the International Criminal Court for suspected war crimes in Sudan's remote western region of Darfur. The report called for sanctions.

"Without a firm response from the international community, led by the United States, full-scale nationwide war is inevitable," said the report, written by Enough Project co-founder and former U.S. State Department and National Security Council official John Prendergast.

"This should involve a special outreach effort to China because of the vulnerability of its oil investments should war resume in the South," the report said. "The United States must, then, organize and lead a multilateral diplomatic surge in Sudan aimed at negotiating and consolidating national peace."

It recommended "multilateral asset freezes aimed at key members of the NCP who have enriched themselves as a result of the oil boom of the last decade in Sudan." The report also supported travel bans and denying Khartoum access to the debt relief it has been lobbying for.

Sudan's U.N. envoy Abdalhaleem rejected the report.

"Those war mongers and war traders are in a race with time to stop the peace train which is already moving to its destination," he told Reuters. "Their report exposes their bankruptcy and the fact that realities on the ground .... defeated their sick mentality."

DISAPPOINTMENT

The head of Save Darfur, a separate coalition of more than 180 religious, political, and human rights organizations, backed the main conclusions of the Enough Project report.

"Coordinated multilateral action is crucial to promoting peace in Sudan, and that action has to deal with the reality that the core of the problem is the ruling National Congress Party's seeking to maintain its domination of power and wealth," Save Darfur president Jerry Fowler told Reuters.

"It is difficult for me to see how a strategy that doesn't include pressure could succeed," he said.

Behind the complaints of Darfur activists is disappointment with U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, which took nearly 10 months to formulate and announce a new Sudan policy that they worry is not being implemented aggressively enough.

That strategy calls for renewed U.S. economic sanctions on Sudan, but also offers Khartoum new incentives to end violence in Darfur and the South ahead of polls next year.

The former head of the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur said earlier this year that the six-year conflict in Darfur was essentially over.

But that assessment was contradicted by a recent report of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said that fighting between the Sudanese army and rebels continued, civilians remained at risk, and peacekeepers were routinely harassed by government forces. [...] 

(louis.charbonneau@thomsonreuters.com; +1 212 355 6053; Reuters Messaging: louis.charbonneau.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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Thought for the Day

People all over the world Join hands, Start a love train, Love train ...