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Sudan Tribune

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Darfur destruction is Sudan’s al-Bashir’s Shame

“There is no humanitarian disaster [in Darfur]. There is no famine. No epidemics. The number of dead is not even 9,000.”__ President al-Bashir

By Sabrino Majok Majok*

Dec 1, 2006 — It’s shameful, disrespectful, and unpatriotic for Sudan’s al-Bashir to deny death of more than one-half million Darfuris since genocidaire SAF and Janjaweed unleashed brutal destructions, slaughters, rapes, and forcible displacements of innocent African Sudanese in Western part of the country.

Instead of repenting and apologize for widely document crimes that he has committed against defenseless Sudanese people, al-Bashir once again has demonstrated that lives of fallen Darfuris were worthless. “The figure of 200,000 dead is false and the number of dead is not even 9,000,” Beshir said in a video media conference late Monday [November 27, 2006]. “Any talk of a deterioration of the situation in Darfur is false,” he shamelessly added

According to al-Bashir and his National Congress Party’s calculations, 56 Darfuris lives are equal to one person (applying a simple arithmetic on his figure—9,000—and actual number of deaths which is in neighbourhood of 500,000).

If we agree with al-Bashir, for instance, on his admission that he has killed 9,000 Darfuris, isn’t this alone pathetic, criminal, and indictable under international law? How many people does he want to kill in Western Sudan to amount to a disaster or genocide? How many children and women must die before al-Bashir calls it a humanitarian disaster?

Indeed, Al-Bashir’s downplaying degradation he has inflicted on Darfuris for four years is not only devilish but also monstrous to say the least. Because no compassionate president would deny such a grave destruction unfolding in Darfur!

Al-Bashir is a hardhearted soul. And so I couldn’t agree more with Ms. Mariam al-Mahdi, spokeswoman for the opposition Umma Party, when she refuted al-Bashir’s baseless accusation against foreign relief agencies; “Ultimately foreigners are more kind to our people than our president.”

Unlike al-Bashir and NCP, foreigners have saved lives, many lives in fact. “Without the humanitarian agencies the people of Darfur would be dead,” is a common refrain amongst citizens of Darfur.

True, since war started in February 2003, foreigners have been feeding and sheltering those displaced by al-Bashir; nursing the wounds inflicted by al-Bashir; burring victims of al-Bashir’s war machines; and treating and counseling rape victims by SAF and Janjaweed, just to menetion a few.

Despite assistance rendered by international community, the death toll to date is in excess of 500,000.

Contrary to this staggering number, al-Bashir wants us to believe that he has killed only 9,000 people. I only wish now that the fallen Darfuris resurrect and be counted to prove al-Bashir wrong!!

*Sabrino Majok Majok is a Canada based Sudanese. Contact him via [email protected]

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