Price for oil is paid in blood

By K. RATCLIFFE

Aug 25, 2005 — On reading the recent letter from Peter Smith I was at first irritated at his usual trick of setting out a strange list of official sounding reports, which nobody will bother to check, and saying they support his stereotypes.

My thoughts turned to compassion when I realised this is a man suffering from a type of repetitive angry socialist syndrome.

The symptoms are evident in a declining but very vocal group whose political beliefs cannot cope when the facts do not fit their prejudices.

The one thing Mr Smith got right is that there is oil in the Sudan.

He pretends not to have noticed the Chinese flag over the oil terminals.

The price for Chinese oil is being paid in African blood. I assume they supply and maintain the helicopter gunships supporting Arab militias and Sudanese government troops involved in racist genocide against their own people in Darfur.

Just in case he missed the broadcast event, it was the United Nations that welcomed the Sudanese government back to world approval and not the United States.

Kofi Annan was questioned on why this was allowed while Darfur people were being slaughtered.

He explained they were rewarded for stopping killing their neighbours in a long-running war and this was the only way to get permission for Western food and medicine into the refugee camps.

He blamed Russian and Chinese interests in the region for vetoing any United Nations’ action to protect the population.

This has a familiar ring to it. It is what was heard while the Communist Serbs murdered Kosovan Muslims.

It was left to a reluctant NATO and the Americans to sort out that mess while again Russians took an aggressive stance and France and Germany backed out.