Darfur

Africa Rejects Criminal Court Order on Sudan, Moves Toward Unity

Tue, 07/07/2009 - 01:09 — Glen Ford

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

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The International Criminal Courts narrow preoccupation with crimes by Africans, as opposed to every other people on the planet, has had a unifying effect on the continent. By consensus agreement, the 53 nations of the African Union agreed to ignore the ICC's directive that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir be arrested by member states. Said the AU's commission chairman: “If you don’t want to take into account our proposals…we are also going to act unilaterally.”

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Darfur “Genocide” Lies Unraveling – Only 1,500 Darfuris Died in 2008, Says African Union

Wed, 06/24/2009 - 07:25 — Bruce A. Dixon

darfur again

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

For more than five years, the Save Darfur Coalition has used a slick and star-studded multimillion dollar ad campaign to paint a horrific vision of 400,000 dead in a black vs Arab war of extermination. No historic or political causes are offered for this scenario; it's genocide a case of good vs. evil demanding our attention and action. But the big lies underpinning the Save Darfur campaign are coming undone. Reporters, scholars and even US envoys are returning from the region affirming that if there ever was a genocide in Darfur, and there may not have been, there isn't one now. The British government has even ruled that Save Darfur cannot, in that country, use the figure of 400,000 dead which it throws around in all its US advertisements, cause it just ain't true.

The Real Darfur Story: A Political Conflict, But Not A Genocide

Mon, 06/15/2009 - 23:22 — Anonymous

A Review of a new book by Mahmood Mamdani

The Save Darfur Coalition has convinced a large portion of the American public that “genocide” is underway in Darfur, the western Sudan. As propagandists, the coalition has done a highly effective job. Among the few public intellectuals in the U.S. to debunk the genocide story is Prof. Mahmood Mamdani, of Columbia University, who concludes, “There's no attempt to eliminate a people here. This has been a conflict over land.”

Women in Darfur: We Saw No Evidence of Genocide

Wed, 06/10/2009 - 02:24 — Anonymous

By Afshin Rattansi

George Clooney, Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Cindy Crawford, Bono, Michael Caine, Claudia Schiffer, Bob Geldof, Hugh Grant, Mia Farrow, Mick Jagger and so many others have expressed their solidarity with the people of the oil-rich region of Darfur. A few weeks ago, Democrats John Lewis of Georgia, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Lynn Woolsey of California, Donna Edwards of Maryland, and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts were all arrested as they demonstrated against the Sudanese government. When Colin Powell used the word genocide in 2004, it kicked off $1 billion-a-year international aid program, much higher than that afforded Somalia or Congo. But why?

Is There A Save Darfur Industrial Complex?

Wed, 05/06/2009 - 10:19 — Bruce A. Dixon

Sudan |
Darfur

By BAR Managing Editor

Bruce A. Dixon

What does it mean for Africa when right wing end-of-the-world-is-near evangelical Christians join forces with the Robert F. Kennedy Center For Human Rights? What does it mean for African Americans when Bush, Obama, and nearly all last year's presidential candidates from both parties encourage the continuation of an African civil war rather than a political settlement between the parties? What does it mean when 21st century PR firms employ FaceBook, slick viral marketing and millions of dollars to create a simple, satisfying, feel-good excuse for military intervention on the African continent?

Sudan/Darfur is Test Case for Obama’s “Humanitarian” Aggression

Wed, 04/01/2009 - 07:19 — Glen Ford

out of iraq into darfur by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir had no choice but to expel the western "aid" organizations that had merged with the American propaganda machine aimed at regime change in Khartoum. Obama operatives like UN Ambassador Susan Rice have for years been "eager to blockade Sudan's ports" and to launch "selective" bombing raids against Sudan. When imperial doctrine claims the right to intervene whenever disasters overtake sovereign countries - and proceeds to create and exacerbate those disasters - then no government is safe against regime change. President Obama "appears to be fine-tuning a ‘humanitarian' interventionist doctrine that is applicable to any point on the planet."

What's Really Happening In Darfur?: An Interview with Mahmood Mamdani

Wed, 03/04/2009 - 01:27 — Isma’il Kushkush

The picture of the conflict in Darfur as "Arab-on-black" or even "black on black" genocide tells more about the U.S. than it does about Darfur, Sudan, or Africa. It is a false picture, brought to us by the corporate U.S. media to justify one of Uncle Sam's (maybe even Uncle Barack's) oil and resource wars in Sudan. After all, Sudanese oil IS flowiing to China through Chinese companies, not Western ones, and that will not be tolerated.

Africa, AFRICOM and Proxy Imperialism

Tue, 12/16/2008 - 18:00 — Mark P. Fancher

by Mark P. Fancher AFRICOM

Imperialism ain't easy. Times change, and the neocolonial exploiters have to stay on their toes. They must encourage "the illusion of independence" in the formerly colonized world, the better to maintain effective economic control. "Enter Africa Command - better known as AFRICOM," whose "mission is to conduct ‘sustained security engagement through military-to-military programs, military-sponsored activities, and other military operations as directed to promote a stable and secure African environment in support of U.S. foreign policy." The key phrase is, of course "in support of U.S. foreign policy," a point that has not been lost on African nations.

Susan Rice is Bad News for Africa

Tue, 12/02/2008 - 18:00 — Glen Ford

Rice by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Barack Obama's nominee for United Nations Ambassador is a very aggressive woman - militarily speaking. Susan Rice is "more bellicose" than George Bush when it comes to threatening Sudan over the plight of the people of Darfur, "while simultaneously backing a savage U.S.-Ethiopian assault that causes an even larger humanitarian calamity in Somalia." One is forced to conclude that "Susan Rice's brand of ‘humanitarian intervention' is a farce, a pretext to justify military aggression under the guise of preventing human suffering."

Ten Reasons Why "Save Darfur" is a PR Scam to Justify the Next US Oil and Resource Wars in Africa

Tue, 11/27/2007 - 17:52 — Bruce A. Dixon

The star-studded hue and cry to "Save Darfur" and "stop the genocide" has gained enormous traction in U.S. media along with bipartisan support in Congress and the White House. But the Congo, with ten to twenty times as many African dead over the same period is not called a "genocide" and passes almost unnoticed. Sudan sits atop lakes of oil. It has large supplies of uranium, and other minerals, significant water resources, and a strategic location near still more African oil and resources. The unasked question is whether the nation's Republican and Democratic foreign policy elite are using claims of genocide, and appeals for "humanitarian intervention" to grease the way for the next oil and resource wars on the African continent.

"Out of Iraq - Into Darfur" cartoon by Mike Flugennock. Find more of his work at www.sinkers.org

The US’s War In Darfur

Tue, 11/20/2007 - 23:07 — Keith Harmon Snow

by Keith Harmon Snow darfur_peacekeepers

The Darfur region of Sudan possesses the third largest copper and the fourth largest uranium deposits on the planet, in addition to strategic location and significant oil resources of its own. Is the US-based "Save Darfur" movement snowing the US public on the fundamental nature of the conflict in Sudan? Are "Save Darfur" and the prevention of genocide the covers of convenience for the next round of US oil and resource wars on the African continent?

A Tale of Two Genocides, Congo and Darfur: The Blatantly Inconsistent U.S. Position

Tue, 07/17/2007 - 18:00 — Glen Ford

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

039_congo_montage

As many as five million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A quarter million or so have perished in Darfur, western Sudan. Both are abominations, genocides, crimes against humanity, but only Darfur rates coverage in the U.S. corporate media, action by the United States on the diplomatic and military front, or concerted interest by the Congressional Black Caucus. The Congolese genocide, triggered directly by the U.S. and its surrogates, is masked in silence. In Darfur, "Arabs" who are indistinguishable from their Black African Muslim neighbors are demonized as enemies in the "clash of civilizations."

Congo and Darfur: Where Anti-Arab Prejudice and Oil Make the Difference

Tue, 05/29/2007 - 18:00 — Roger Howard

by Roger Howard

CongoBaby Some Black bodies are more worthy of attention than others. The three million dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where U.S. allies such as Rwanda keep the genocidal pot boiling and multinational corporations field private armies to guard their mineral extraction enterprises, get scant mention in corporate media. But Darfur, where 200,000 Black Sudanese lives have been lost, is cause for crocodile tears among right-wingers and Arab-haters. Genocide sensitivity is, apparently, an acquired, selective taste: it depends on who is doing the killing, and how much oil is in the mix.

Chad Now Awash in Blood, Alongside Darfur: U.S. Mischief

Tue, 03/27/2007 - 18:00 — Glen Ford

by BAR Executive Editor Glen Ford

The flow of refugees now streams both ways on the border of the cauldron of death, Darfur. To the east, the major culprits in the crime against humanity are the rulers of Sudan. To the west, a U.S.-dominated Chadian regime is in charge, firmly implanted in the matrix of the new U.S. Africa Command. Yet tens of thousands flee Chad into the hell of Darfur! Something horrific is afoot, rooted in the historical U.S. strategy of sowing chaos in Africa, to advance its own imperial agenda. The objective: a failed continent, ripe for occupation and exploitation - all under the guise of "humanitarian" assistance.