Failure of Sudan’s Lam Aokl in US assignment
Dr. Lam Akol’s September 11 Assignment in the US has failed: but marginalized majority of the Sudan have won.
By Sabrino Majok Majok*
September 12, 2006 — When Ms. Jendayi Frazer, the Assistant Secretary of State for Bureau of African Affairs, visited Sudan by the end of August in an effort to persuade Sudan to accept UN troops in Darfur where more than one-half million people have been killed and more than three million others forcibly displaced by NIF and its janjaweed militia, people had hoped that President al-Bashir would change his mind to allow UN peacekeepers into the country.
However, when it was announcement that al-Bashir had refused to meet President Bush’s top diplomat for Africa, every peace-loving Sudanese lost hope and enraged in disbelieve.
Al-Bashir’s refusal to meet as planned forced Ms. Frazer to extend for one more day a two-day visit, during which period she finally succeeded and met al-Bashir on August 29, at his home, but in vain.
Lack of convincing explanation and tangible, verifiable future plans to curb humanitarian crisis in Darfur, put President al-Bashir in a precarious position and so could not withstand compelling reasons why he should allow Peacekeeping forces to protect civilians. He would repeatedly and impolitely tell Ms. Frazer, “I will send someone to give my answer directly.”
The “someone” he referred to was one of his mouth-piece at the ministry of foreign affairs; namely, Dr. Lam Akol, Jamal Mohammed Ibrahim, and Samani al-Wasila al-Sheikh.
Since Ministers Jamal and Samani are known genociadaires, hardliner Islamists, and oppressive maniacs, Dr. Lam Akol was a preferred mouth-piece as he is the least known evil in Washington—partly because of his purported membership in the SPLM: a party that he doesn’t even remembers its principles and objectives. For instance, he is at odd with SPLM on UN deployment in Darfur, while he supports al-Bashir’s genocidal war agenda and policies there.
To demonstrate that he is a genuine agent and committed member of NIF, Dr. Lam Akol accepted the assignment and went to Washington on Monday, September 11 to meet Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Ms. Frazer, and possibly President Bush himself.
This mission was planned to coincide with September 11 Remembrance Day to mark Khartoum’s friendship with Washington. But in actual fact, Dr. Lam Akol’s visit was meant to distract grieving Americans in general and U.S.A administration in particular. Al-Bashir and company were simply laughing at heart-broken American families. Otherwise the meeting should have been deferred for a different day, say, Tuesday or any other day should it be held immediately.
Furthermore, without sympathizing to US administration and American public on a large scale tragedy that befell the nation five years ago on Monday, September 11, Dr. Lam Akol spoke with a disrespectful and indifferent tone to his counterpart, while he knew very well that the host country was mourning her thousands’ deaths senselessly taken away by extremists and former guests of Al-Bashir.
To make a matter worst, for example, Dr. Akol claimed that he had a letter from al-Bashir to President Bush. When asked to produce the letter, he arrogantly refused. The letter was never seen nor delivered to Bush. As he left for Havana, Cuba, to attend a Non Align Movement’s meeting, nobody knew whether he was in fact given a letter by al-Bashir, or he was simply testing Americans’ resolve, or he wanted to see Bush under a pretext of “delivering” the letter. And who knows what al-Bashir had given him!
Dr. Lam Akol’s acquired attitude towards Washington is exactly how Islamists act, either in US soil or else where.
The following were some of the topics on Dr. Lam Akol’s Setember-11-assignment when he met U.S officials: (1) that government of National unity is opposed to deployment of UN forces, for they have no use there, and he adamantly defended al-Bashir’s position on Darfur, (2) that the rebels who didn’t sign DPA are spoilers and as such the government of National unity is dealing with them, (3) that it’s time to normalize US-Sudan relations per CPA, and (4) general NIF policies vis-à-vis the marginalized peoples of the Sudan.
By designing and focusing on the above points, President al-Bashir thinks that Washington is oblivious of Khartoum’s oppressive and genocidal policies and its unfaithful relationship with the West, chief of which are continuous support for terrorism and rejection of the UN Resolution 1706 (2006).
To al-Bashir’s surprise, however, the Washington was aware and vigilant about Khartoum’s intention and so Dr. Lam’s mission was killed. Washington insists that there will be no good relationship without resolution of the crisis in Darfur. “I won’t say that we made progress, but I will say that I delivered the strongest possible message in the strongest possible terms to the Sudanese government that any hope for bettering relations between the United States and Sudan rests on Sudan’s cooperation with the United Nations Security Council resolution,” Condoleezza Rice said.
With such strong words coming from Dr. Rice to al-Bashir’s agent (Dr. Lam), the September 11 Mission has flatly failed!! In other words, Dr. Rice is telling al-Bashir that UN peacekeepers must go to Darfur, or there is no normalization of U.S-NIF relations. This is a victory to the marginalized majority of the Sudan.
*Sabrino Majok Majok is a Sudanese; he can be reached via [email protected]