Government of Sudan on Darfur: Mission accomplished!

On Thursday July 23^rd 2009, I watched the film "The Reckoning." I was among other activists and justice-conscientious individuals in San Francisco.  In the film, Louis Moreno Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor in the International Criminal Court (ICC), was very impressive in his relentless pursue of justice. One sentence stuck with me while driving back home and kept ringing in my ears was when he said: "I can wait, al Bashir can wait, the international community can wait, but the victims of Darfur can not afford to wait."

A week later, Thursday 30^th 2009, I tuned in to the website of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to watch the Special Envoy to Sudan, General Gration, testifying. The issue of genocide and "remnants of genocide" were raised by many Senators in the committee. The response of the Special Envoy I could sum it in, "Let us not dwell on the definitions of genocide but on what we could do to help the suffering people of Darfur, and I have plans for that."

Ask any Darfuris anywhere, what would like to see in Darfur now? The answer whether from a refugee in Kalma or a Darfuri in Diaspora in New York will be:    1) Justice. 2) Security. 3) Just and lasting Peace.

In the hearing I heard many sympathetic words towards Darfuris from Gen. Gration, but the winner was the ruling party (NCP) in Khartoum. The regime heard the Special Envoy complain about sanctions. One of the plans the Special Envoy has in mind and paper is the " Voluntary return" of the refugees and internally displaced people (IDP). In e-mail, the Special Envoy wrote about this plan:

"While continuing to focus closely on humanitarian assistance capacity and delivery, we are also trying to plan and preparing for voluntary IDP returns. The issue of IDPs leaving the camps to return to their or other villages is already emerging as a crucially important and controversial issue in what is already a highly charged environment in Darfur. I'm certainly cognizant of the need to proceed cautiously in planning and preparing for voluntary returns. I plan on working closely with other relevant offices and agencies to prepare a consolidated US plan to support voluntary returns once it is clear that the proper conditions are in place."

Returning the refugees to villages other than theirs, would reward Khartoum for its atrocities. The pro-GoS militias now are occupying those villages and the fertile lands around them.

The IDP leaders who met with the Special Envoy few weeks ago in Darfur, told him clearly that if there is any return, they will return to their original villages and lands under lasting security and just peace. They will not return to "or other villages."

The genocide in Darfur is about land.

The Government of Sudan has carried out a brutal calculated plan to kill and drive away people from African tribes out of their fertile lands and replace them with Arab ethnic people. Some were brought from across the borders. The reason was simple: give the rich and fertile lands to the pro-government people while keeping the indigenous ones impoverished. That goal will ensure power and wealth to remain in the hands of pro-Khartoum loyalists. Driving or killing the African Darfuris will certainly change the demography of Darfur, hence, by force or elections the outcome will always favor Khartoum.

The Government of Sudan by inducing harsh living conditions on certain ethnic groups, not only in the IDP camps but throughout Darfur, has achieved one of the strategic goals of the genocide: the destruction of the societies of the targeted people.

The Government of Sudan has achieved its set goals when it unleashed the genocide in 2003. Now it is music to its ears to hear voices from inside the U.S. Congress and the Department of State  questioning genocide, lifting sanctions, lifting the regime's name from the list of states sponsoring terrorism, telling villagers to go back, no one talks about armed janjaweed, no stress on accountability and justice, talk and talk about how things are getting better in Darfur. This is the "night of Gadri" to the regime in Khartoum (in other words " Christmas in July").

This mode of " let us move on" in Washington D.C. and the haste to execute the so called "voluntary return" of refugees to any villages, will give comfort to those in Khartoum, the Architect of the Genocide in Darfur, to celebrate and cheer: Mission Accomplished.