> The Fool <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: http://demagogue.blogspot.com/2004_05_16_demagogue_archive.html#108497626263713774 <snip> > Secretary of State Colin Powell removed Sudan from a > list of countries > that cannot receive U.S. arms because they have > failed to cooperate with > the U.S. on international terrorism. He formally > notified Congress of > that decision with the publication Tuesday morning > of a notice in the Federal Register. <snip> > But Jemera Rone, a Human Rights Watch official who > has worked on the > Darfur situation, said it was "just appalling" for > the U.S. government > "to make any gesture toward Sudan like this." She > also predicted the > Sudanese government would hold it out to critics as > "some sort of U.S. stamp of approval" for its > actions.
I've read several reports that the Arab militia act with government troops, or with government-supplied equipment, in what sounds like full-blown 'ethnic cleansing' in Darfur. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3752871.stm http://makeashorterlink.com/?V69011088 "It is being called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Arab militia men have driven an estimate one million black Sudanese villagers from their homes and there have been massacres on an unknown scale. The crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan has finally caught the world's attention... "...All the stories we heard were similar. No-one in the refugee camps spoke of gun battles between soldiers, only of massacres of civilians by the Janjaweed militia - Arab militiamen often seen fighting with the Sudanese government - or of massacres resulting from aerial bombings of villages by Sudanese government planes. Every time I asked why they thought this was being done to them, they said the same thing: "It is because we are black..." "...Abdul was from a town called Deliege, where more than 100 black men, he said, were taken off in government trucks to a valley. Abdul says he heard the guns when more than 70 of them were executed by a bullet to the back of the head. He carried a list of those who were killed at other similar massacres nearby. The killings are still going on now..." Starvation for some is 'certain:' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3772155.stm "A catastrophe is now unavoidable in Sudan's Darfur region, the United Nations and aid workers say. Some 300,000 people will starve, even if emergency aid is delivered immediately, according to the head of the United States aid agency. Some 10,000 people have died, and a million made homeless in a conflict between rebels and Arab militias. UN officials blame Sudan's government, which they say supports the militias as they rape and kill Darfur's people. "If we get relief in, we could lose a third of a million. If we do not, it could be a million," said Andrew Natsios, head of USAid. The figures were based on mortality and malnutrition rates, he said..." If our government wants to 'reward' Sudan for cooperating WRT terrorists, I think allowing them to buy agricultural/medical supplies at a discount makes much more sense than to buy weapons (US has already pledged funds for food/relief). Otherwise we'll be sending food for those driven out of their homes with American-made arms...not a very reasonable official position. Debbi All Humans Bleed Red Maru __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger. http://messenger.yahoo.com/
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