Africa News Digest
Arab League Foreign Ministers Reject Sudan Sanctions
The Arab League Foreign Ministers, attending an emergency meeting in Cairo, announced Aug. 8 that they will oppose sanctions against Sudan, Reuters reported. The Arab League statement said sanctions "would only result in negative effects for the whole Sudanese people and complicate the crisis in Darfur." The statement also rejected hints of any "forced foreign military intervention in the area," and called on the two insurrectionary movements in Darfur to drop their preconditions for talks with the government.
Amr Moussa, the League's Secretary General, told the meeting that the agreement between Kofi Annan and the government of Sudan to solve the crisis "enables Sudan and the Arab League to challenge any calls for the imposition of sanctions on Khartoum." He also called for the "completion of the disarmament of the outlaw militias and the bringing to trial of those accused of human right violations."
Moussa announced that the League had reached agreement with the UN and Khartoum to be part of a team monitoring Khartoum's progress.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Sudan may need up to 120 days to solve the crisis.
EIR notes that Anglo-American commentators had been saying for months before the UN Security Council resolution, that it was doubtful whether the government in Khartoum had the ability to impose its will on the Janjaweed and other militias in Darfurat all.
Nothing has emerged from the meeting so far concerning the proposal for an Arab League peacekeeping battalion to come in, within the framework of the African Union (AU) forces. The plan was apparently rejected by Khartoum along with the AU plan for peacekeeping forces, in addition to the planned AU monitoring force that Khartoum has accepted. Khartoum also rejected a requested increase in the size of the AU protection force for its monitors.
Arab Press: Will Sudan Be Next Iraq?
There is wide recognition in the Arab world that Sudan is meant to be another Iraq, the Aug. 8 BBC weekly roundup of Arab Press suggested. In BBC's roundup of Aug. 1, only Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London) and Al-Ahram Al-Arabi expressed this view. (Al-Ahram Al-Arabi a weekly magazine, published simultaneously in Egypt and Kuwait.) This week's roundup includes the following:
Al-Ra'y (Jordan, independent): "Even if the [UN Security Council] resolution is complied with, occupation is coming. British troops are at the western gates waiting for the order."
Al-Ba'ath (Syrian ruling party paper): "[T]here appears to be a desire [by the Anglo-American powers] to keep this brotherly country under the scourge of civil war ... and make it another stage for military intervention after Iraq, to make it easy for hostile powers to take control."
Al-Bayan (UAE, pro-government): "It is also an entry point for American imperialism and the Zionist project."
Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London): "We shall stand by Sudan to confront this conspiracy.... But we ask Sudan to help us and itself by confessing its mistakes and working seriously to confront their effects."
The BBC did not include Al-Sharq (Qatar), which was quoted at length by Al-Anbaa in Khartoum Aug. 7: Al-Sharq says that the Anglo-American powers knew that 30 days was not enough time to resolve the conflict that they themselves had fueled, when they imposed that deadline. "This means whatever the government of Sudan has tried to do to normalize the situation there, the external parties will go on refueling the problem to continue its burning till the deadline terminates and thus the routes would be well paved for an external military intervention."
Al-Anbaa also reported Aug. 6 an exclusive statement sent by Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament. Berri attacked the Bush Administration. "He said, there are many questions ... and they do not concern the Sudan and its sovereignty only, but ... the future of all the Arab countries," according to the Khartoum daily.
Sudan Opposition Calls for Gov't of National Unity
Sudan's opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), led by the British-influenced Muhammad Uthman Al-Mirghani, has called all Sudanese political forces within and outside the country to a conference to initiate a government of national unity, according to the Jiddah accord of December 2003. The accord calls for power-sharing between the government and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the umbrella group of all and sundry opposition forces. This news was reported by the Sudanese paper Al-Ra'y al-Amm Aug. 5.
For its part, the government has arrested members and leaders of the Darfur Call, a recently established group drawing on the opposition forces, allegedly "to mobilize the public by peaceful means to provide speedy humanitarian relief to the people of Darfur," according to the Sudan Human Rights Organization (SHRO) in Cairo, Aug. 7. The leaders arrested include representatives of the DUP, Communist Party, Congress Party, Nasserist Unionist Party, and 'Abd al-Mageed Cultural Center.
"Lately, fliers have appeared in Khartoum mosques urging jihad," Sam Dealey wrote from Al-Fashir in the International Herald Tribune Aug. 9.
Deutsche Presse Agentur, in a profile of Hassan Al-Turabi, "Khartoum's jailed eminence grise," Aug. 5, speculated that, "A possible rebellion in the army, which draws many of its soldiers from Darfur where Turabi has strong support, could offer him the opportunity to regain power." The article claimsas others havethat the Darfur rebellion is a result of the power struggle between Turabi and President Bashir. It does not explain how that process intersects the intervention of the SPLA/M and NGOs to build that rebellion.
Sudan Accuses Israel of Involvement in Darfur Crisis
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail accused Israel of being involved in the Darfur crisis, the Jerusalem Post reported Aug. 8. Ismail said Sudan has "information that confirms media reports of Israeli support" for the rebels. He added that he was "sure the next few days will reveal a lot of Israeli contacts with the rebels." Osman Ismail said that Israel "had recently become active in entering the Darfur issue from different sides, whether through its active presence in Eritrea, or through its active diplomatic missions."
Anglo-Americans Effect Policy-Shift in Central, East Africa
The Anglo-American powers have adjusted their friendships in Central and East Africa (but not their policy). It is now clear, that the Anglo-American powers have decided that the transitional government in DR Congo, led by President Joseph Kabila, is a suitable vehicle for their intentions. Their corollary is, that Rwanda must get out of Congo to facilitate its peaceful exploitation. The most explicit, and most public, confirmations of this shift are these:
* Gareth Evans, former Australian Foreign Minister and now president of the International Crisis Group (ICG)an instrument of the Anglo-American powerscalled, in the International Herald Tribune July 26, for "international diplomatic pressure on Rwanda to cease all military involvement in Congo, whether through its own armed forces or through arming or otherwise encouraging Congolese surrogate forces." He criticized the UN's lack of combativeness in the recent months' Rwanda-fuelled conflicts, and called for the UN to "radically improve its capacity for monitoring movements of weapons across Congo's borders."
* The committee of ambassadors in Kinshasa, known as the International Committee to Accompany the Transition (CIAT)dominated by the U.S., Britain, France, and Belgiumissued a communique July 16 stating in part, "CIAT, which fully supports the government of transition, asks that it declare in a clear and transparent fashion ... the disciplinary and other measures to be taken to put an end to the activity of Nkunda and to determine the fate of Mutebusi and his men." General Laurent Nkunda and Col. Jules Mutebusi, both close to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, are puppet Congolese insurrectionaries. A report of the communique was published by Agence France Presse the same day.
The Anglo-American shift may go back several months, and is likely reflected in the report of French antiterror judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, leaked to the press March 10, which identified Kagame as having deliberately set off the Rwandan genocide in 1994 by assassinating the then Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi. It certainly goes back to a CIAT-gram of June 5, in which CIAT identified Rwanda as behind the June 2 Nkunda-Mutebusi insurrection; and to ICG's report on Congo published July 7, from which Gareth Evans took his text.
Apartheid Party To Merge With African National Congress
In South Africa, the New National Party (NNP)the renamed National Party that ruled from 1948 to 1994, and imposed apartheidhas announced it will merge into the African National Congress (ANC) that is now in power. A spokeswoman for the NNP told SAPA that NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk will apply for ANC membership in the next few weeks and the NNP leadership will then tour the country with the ANC to persuade NNP members to join.
In 1994, the Afrikaner-based National Party formed a coalition government with the ANC, moved into opposition in 1996, allied itself with the British free-trade party in 2000, and shifted back to an alliance with the ANC in 2001. After the 2004 elections, in which it won only seven seats in parliament, more than 100 leading Afrikaners signed a letter to President Thabo Mbeki, pledging their support for his government.
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