Sudanese paper accuses govt of double standards, discrimination

KHARTOUM, Feb 14, 2005 — Text of editorial entitled “Government’s double standards’ published by Sudanese Khartoum Monitor newspaper web site on 14 February.

A young boy wanders amidst ruins in Rumbek’s central market. (AFP) .

We don’t know which way things will lead in the future, may be from good to better or may be from bad to worse, this depends on the attitude of the authorities in handling the affairs of the country. Still, we need time to understand and grasp which way will it head? Yesterday, the authorities announced formation of “Loss Assessment Committee,” whose objective is to verify the damages inflicted only on the people in Darfur region as a result of two years civil war between the government and its allied Janjawid on one hand and the Darfur rebel movements on the other hand.

The decision though good, but is another setback in the government’s series to deal with the issues of people living in other war affected areas, such as in the South, the Nuba Mountains, the Blue Nile and in the region of Abyei. People in the former war zone number one, had in the past been exposed to untold suffering because of the war between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the loses were in deed, so great in form of million people killed or in countless belongings lost during 21-year [war].

The war has come to an end in these areas, but despite all these, there had been no mentioning of compensation by the government to the people of these areas. Why? Nobody knows. To the surprise, the government came up obviously with the initiative of compensation of the people of Darfur it claimed to have suffered a lot. This step is a clear indication that the government is still practising its policies of discrimination and the people in the former war zone number one must take this issue seriously as long as they are citizens of this country. Because you cannot compensate war affected people in one region and deprive the people of the other region, who also were suffering from the effects of war.

Loss Assessment Committee should also visit other war-affected areas of the South, the Nuba Mountains, the Blue Nile, and the Abyei areas after visiting Darfur, to asses the damages inflicted against the people there.

The people in the war-affected areas are longing to see when the government do them good, to help them forgive the past.

Material provided by the BBC Monitoring Service.