Friday, April 11, 2014

Get the Celebrities and Criminals out of Sudan

When the tribal problems in South Sudan began to flare up again, the demonic Hollywood celebrities were urged to restart their old barking campaign so as to add fuel to the fight. Their aim was to give a chance to the criminals who eye the oil wealth of the region to get in and turn the operation into a free for all where the criminals will take all, and will take it for free. When this is done, they will leave behind nothing but misery for the surviving locals to cope with if they can cope at all.

That's what they did in Darfur but gained nothing except the satisfaction of seeing plenty of dead bodies. It is also what they tried to do in Eastern Sudan, and what they almost pulled off in the South. They failed to make substantial gains anywhere in the country despite the help they received from some prominent Americans who advocated the bombing of Sudan's oil fields. The worst that happened was that the South of the country split from the rest and so, the foreign criminals decided to return to the scene, and try to complete the job they left unfinished the first time.

Their aim is to create in East Africa a Biafra type situation so that they may ultimately siphon off billions in wealth the way that they do now in Nigeria and in the other resource rich nations of West Africa. This is the background that anyone interested in this subject ought to know when reading the Washington Post editorial that came under the title: “Saving South Sudan from chaos” and was published on April 10, 2014.

The latest flare-up is scarcely a few months old, and already the situation is worse than it was when it lasted a generation on a previous occasion. Here is how the Washington Post editorial describes it today: “Since December, an estimated 1 million people have been driven from their homes, about 800,000 of them internally displaced and 200,000 refugees into Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan. Relief workers are warning that time is running out to avert widespread hunger.”

The editorial goes on to quote Toby Lanzer, the UN aid coordinator who said: “If we miss the planting season [that means hunger] more grave than anything the continent has seen since the mid-1980s during the Ethiopian famine.” The editors then lament: “This is a sad footnote to the soaring hopes that accompanied South Sudan's 2011 independence.” Yes it is, and everyone should concentrate on doing what they can to diffuse the situation, and help avert a disaster using the best means they have at their disposal.

But lest the well intentioned end up paving the way for the criminals and their demons to go behind them and continue to implement the heinous plans they have for the region, it must be said that what President Obama has done so far is insufficient. Here is what the Post editorial says he did: “Obama signed an executive order that threatens to impose targeted sanctions on those who interfere with peace talks, target UN peacekeepers or abuse human rights.”

All that is well and good. It is needed and will certainly be helpful when implemented. But in addition to all that, America and the former colonial nations – especially those that had colonies in Africa – must get together and create one or more intelligence units whose task will be to keep an eye on the criminal groups which are based in Europe and America with branches, most certainly, in other places too.

These groups work to create trouble in the emerging nations, especially in Africa, to gain financially, score propaganda points and make political gains. The most potent weapon they have in the hand is the ability to create religious and sectarian divisions among the locals. They pay the most deprived and most depraved individuals among them to go after the “other.” And they support both sides in every fight with money, weapons and ammunition galore.

The criminals that operate in the field must be neutralized or eliminated. As to those who sponsor them, be they organizations or states, they must be held responsible.

Only then will Africa and the other small emerging nations elsewhere be able to develop normally and catch up with the rest of the world. The rest of us owe them that much.