Arab stance on Darfur crimes

By Izzadine Abdul Rasoul

March 31, 2009 — Despites we believe that all humans are equal regardless of their color, race or any other unique features that distinguish them from others. However I was very astonished to listen to the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa rejecting to admit that the Arab countries are behaving double standard regarding the crimes committed in Darfur and Arab Israeli conflict.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa when asked by reporter why they want the international court to investigate Gaza crimes and not Darfur, Moussa said the two situations are different.” What is happening in Darfur is a semi-civil war and its responsibility is shared by many parties” the Arab League Secretary General said. He further added that the arrest warrant by the ICC is against a sitting president but what is occurring in Palestinian as a military occupation responsible for all that is committed on the ground. Sir Moussa by your statement you are giving legitimacy to those sitting on power to kill their own people as long as they are on power. Second what is the different between death that is caused by civil war and that of the invasion as you like? Is there death more serious than other death?

Las January the Palestinian authority has deposited its acceptance of the ICC jurisdiction to allow the court to investigate in Gaza. The Palestinian justice minister Ali Kashan who met with the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno- Al-Jazeera that the prosecutor was very welcoming. So Mr. Moussa why this is lawful to you and unlawful for people of Darfur?

Fifty years back since the independent of Sudan up date the Egyptians continue to believe that Sudan is still their colony and treat Sudan accordingly. Any Sudanese man or a woman who studied there must have been asked by the Egyptian university colleagues; isn’t President Mubarak the President of Sudan? This is on the level of the intellectual up today. Reading all written articles or published books on Sudan by Egyptian media houses are much contains paternal superiority expressions than just writing about the independent neighboring country that shares boarders and has bilateral relation with them.

Unfortunately; the Egyptian are not able to learn from the history that Sudanese are still uneducated fools. However; as Plato said, “You will never re-enter in the water twice”; I assure to the Egyptian that the military coupe they used to create to secure the Egyptian interests in Sudan will never avail again. Every Sudanese man or a woman knows that when the agreement of high dam of Egypt was to be signed between Sudan coalition government led by Prime Minister Mohamed Ahmed Mahjoub and Egypt government the Sudanese Government at that time asked for one hundred million US Dollars compensation Egypt for Sudanese people in Wadi Halfa in addition obligated the Egyptian to agree to pay some small amount of money for extra water that follows to Egypt. The Egyptians thought to purported coup d’etat and they brought a person to accept their offer. Our doll former President Ibrahim Aboud who was created by the Egyptians accepted 13 millions Dollars instead and millions of our brothers Nubians brothers were stranded between Egypt and north Sudan up to date. Wake up Sudan, all what I am writing are documented by the Egyptians themselves; please read for the Egyptian scholar, thinker and publisher for more than 120 books Abdelrahman Badawi attacking Abdel Nasir on Sudan he wrote, “Egypt giving up Sudan is a great treason because Sudan is a property of Egyptian”. For further readings read George Trabishi on Hartagat 2 page 178.

I would like here just to remind Sudanese politicians to read the note book published on occasion of passing one hundred years for establishment of Al Ahram Newspaper. The Egyptian after the well known Toshky bottle in 1898 wrote in their media at that time describing Sudanese as slaves fighting their masters they added that its doesn’t count how many slaves were killed but how many Egyptian slave master killed by the slaves.

The unpalatable fact I would like to tell to our Arab friends is that they should know that; all past policies of Sudan towards Arab countries were individual behaviors of north rulers who behaved unilaterally on the future of Sudan. But we believe that the time has come for the participation of all Sudanese to decide the future of their country. It’s up to them in near future to decide whether Sudan would remain in Arab league or African Union or out of the both, to be neutral country and friend of anybody who is good hearted and loves humanity.

As Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan said in a statement last week that the Arab League has been at the forefront of calling for international justice in the recent Gaza conflict makes it all the more incomprehensible that it should now actively assist President al-Bashir in his efforts to escape justice. The Sudan nationalist should carefully follow up the behaviors of the Arab countries toward Sudan and this is simply because we are the victims of the bad policies of the past leaders. Our leaders ignored our domestic problems and turned to indorse the problems of other peoples while children at home are desperately in need of such care.

Since the beginning of Darfur crisis the position of the Arabs was and still very shameful. Not only that but they started lobbying against the poor Darfuris on their media including their top leaders who once stated that people of Darfur found the free food and medial care in the camps therefore they are reluctant to go back to their poor villages. The leader spoke provocatively as if people of Darfur are in picnic.

The Sudanese proverb says: “The son of monkey in the eyes of his mother is a deer”. As long as yours are dear to you Mr. General Secretary somebody else child who is weak dirty, back and ugly according to you is also dear to him. The Arabs should apply the same standard of crimes committed in Sudan as those they are demanding for war crimes and other serious violations of international law committed during the recent conflict in Gaza. Both are accusation; and every individual is innocent until the opposite is approved, so why not to apply justice for all or the Arab children in the eyes of God are more important the black African children in Darfur?

The Arabs should know the fact that we; people of Darfur were raised up to love and respect all humans regardless of their differences but this time we would never love a person who is working against to eliminate us on the surface of our God inherited land. Also they should not generalize that all Sudanese are Arab as they write on their media. Sudan is multi cultural society that has 500 tribes where Arabs are one part of these tribes.

My last word is again directed to folk Sudanese who are blinded to know who they are. We have been deluded for fifty years that we are not blacks; therefore; we kept on hating everything that is black even our own sons and daughters. And I have good examples from our daily behaviors like calling a child in the family who is darker than others as slave. also when we describe a person we avoid to use the word black instead we use green. All my life since I was a child up recent time one was confused to distinguish between the two colors green and black.

On this regard one day I attended a meeting with group of young people in Khartoum; and in the break one of the persons was speaking loudly ill about poverty in African countries. He said, “African have inferiority complex. That is why they would never be developed”. I asked the audience who were from the two sexes; honestly if you are opted to choose a wife or a husband between two covered individuals and you are told that one is most beautiful or handsome black and the second in also the same but white; which one would you choose? The most preferred the white color. This was because long a go we had no identity to be proud of it. Anything we have is from the Arab world therefore we were not able to produce our own to be proud of it, even the TV programs for us and our children are imported from there.

All the wars raged in Sudan are because of self denial, looking to be some people else where we could never be conformed as they are. The proverb says, “Be yourself and you will see the life in its right perspective”. God bless Sudan; Amen.

The author is the Managing Editor of Citizen Newspaper – Sudan. He can be reached at [email protected]