Hil-dog has some harsh words

President Bashir of Sudan responded to his ICC-issued arrest warrant by expelling 13 large foreign aid agencies. Most of these agencies opperated in Darfur, and Bashir accused them of spying for the ICC. A United Nations estimate stated that the expulsion threatenes more than 3 million people with the loss of food, aid, health care, and suitable drinking water.

U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary "Hil-dog" Clinton has been quoted as saying, "The real question is what kind of pressure can be brought to bear on President Bashir and the government in Khartoum to understand that they will be held responsible for every single death that occures in those camps."

Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that without a quick return of the NGO's, some 1.5 million people in Darfur will lack health care. 1.6 million will lose safe drinking water and hygeine services, and hundreds of thousands will risk inadequate shelter and other problems with the coming onset of Sudan's rainy season. More than 2.5 million displaced people are entirely dependent upon foreign aid groups for their survival.

This all comes after three aid workers for Doctors Without Borders were kidnapped this Wednesday. Though they were all released unharmed, Doctors Without Borders has begun to withdraw most of it's remaining international staff from Darfur.

As if that wasn't enough doom and gloom, eight gunmen attacked a group of international peacekeeps on patrol, killing one of them. To not be too much of a somber sally, it was the first time a peacekeeper has been killed since the ICC issued their warrant for Bashir.

Former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright added that she "doesn't think the international community can stand by and watch as thousands more people starve to death."

I will be curious to see if something really is done, or if this will sadly go down as another Rwanda, where the international community sits back and watches a massacre.

"Can't touch this!"

Forgive me for the title- pun, this humanitarian crisis is no laughing matter, but i could not help myself.

In my title, i was refering to the Sudanese president's (Omar al-Bashir) denouncement of the warrent for his arrest issued by the International Criminal Court on March 4th of this year. This was the first time that the 7-year old court has sought to arrest a sitting head of state. Mr. Bashir has been indicted on SEVEN counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity(but not for genocide).

According to the New York Times, since 2003, up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million have been driven from their homes.

To the great applause of supporters(mostly Arab tribesmen), Bashir claimed that "No ICC or Security Council or any other party will change our path or touch an eyelash in our eye...The president of Sudan is not elected by Britain or America. Sudan is an independent country." He has claimed that the West seeks to create chaos in Sudan similar to Iraq, where he said U.S. forces "killed women and children, looted the country, and planted sedition...Those criminals want to do the same in Sudan."

Dauntingly enough, many Arab and African countries have lobbied in support of Bashir. The Arab League rejected the international arrest warrent, clearing the way for Bashir to attend an Arab Summit in Qatar later this month. It is important to note that only three Arab League states recognize the ICC-Jordan, Dijibouti, and Comoros (no statements have been made by any of them on the issue).

Ahead of the ICC warrant, the African Union, in January of this year, announced its own high-level panel that would investigate Darfur atrocities though the panel has no judicial powers and its mandate remains unclear.

Many African and Arab governments have come out and said that the ICC's move was counter-productive and hypocritical in that it failed to tackle alleged war crimes by Israel against Arabs, or by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. *I must admit that i do see quite a bit of validity in the argument against the hypocricy of this. I would propose that if the ICC really wants to claim legitimacy, the Netherlands-based court should expand some of these warrants.

First Post

If you are interrested in Darfur, please read the book "Scramble For Africa: Darfur-Intervention and the USA" It is a honest, well researched, though equally scathing and shocking look at the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. The authors, Kevin Funk and Steven Fake provide a crititcal analysis of the history of US foreign policy with regards to not only Sudan, but the continent of Africa as a whole!!!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Scramble-for-Africa-Darfur-Intervention-and-the-USA/10991544835?ref=mf


Other than that, this blog will be about what is going on in Darfur, and Sudan in general. I welcome all comments and questions.