Conclusion! Last Post!

Hey all! Thanks so much to ever actually read my blog, i felt that i shed some light on a situation that people are not always aware of in our world. I hope that I have opened some of your minds and hearts to the people of Sudan, send your prayers to the people who suffer there everyday, it is needless suffering as you probably already know based on my posts. Do your own research on this issue! I was very tentative to take it at first because I knew absolutely nothing about what was actually going on, and now i feel like I have opened my mind to an entirely new aspect to our world, thanks for reading! Happy blogging!

Civil War in Sudan

I found this video on youtube and I watched the entire thing, it's a little long but i find that it is a really great summary of what is going on in Sudan and the events that the common citizens face on a day-to-day basis

Political Cartoons

I was looking around the internet for some interesting political cartoons that depicted what was going on and i found two that i really like: 

This also refers to a post i had earlier, about the fact that no one is choosing to step in, and when they do, it will be to late. The grave of the victims of genocide in Sudan is evident in this picture, and it is extremely large, to depict the 200,000 thousand victims at the time the cartoon was created. The United States is depicted through George Bush, standing on the grave of the Sudanese. He states, "okay, time to do something about this problem," that symbolizes that the rest of the world will only realize that they must do something about Sudan if they are standing with bodies at there feet. Unless a giant grave is placed in front of them, and the issues are made even more obvious than they already are, other nations in the world could care less about what goes on in Sudan, and if they say they do, they are lying. 

 

I also discussed this issue earlier, the government is punishing the innocent. The people of Sudan are portrayed through the teddy bear, all chained up and not able to get away from the situation. The Sudanese man whipping the bear is representative of the the military/ government and the injustice that they are inflicting upon there own people. It really represents how stupid the situation is, who would punish a teddy bear? One of the most innocent and child like creatures in our world, yet the evil that is the government in Sudan feels nothing when it comes to the punishment of there own citizens, they have done nothing wrong!

Sudanese Child Soldiers

A growing issue throughout the world is the issue of child soldiers, this is as evident, if not more evident in Sudan than any other nation in the world. There are said to be as many as 6000 child soldiers within Sudan, some being as young as 11 years old. Imagine what you were doing when you were 11? I don't know about any of your readers out there but i certainly don't recall forfeiting my childhood to become part of the military.

The fact that the majority of these child soldiers were kidnapped and forced to wield a weapon and to kill others is sickening in my opinion. Look at this picture:



Does that look like a cold blooded killer? No, it doesn't. Look at the expression on his face, does it look like he enjoys holding that gun and fearing for his life everyday?

The military in Sudan is using children, robbing them of there lives in order to fight a pointless war. Child Soldiers are yet another issue in Sudan, which contains a seemingly endless list of imperfections and short comings.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7796507.stm

Why has the World Turned a Blind Eye to Sudan?

As I mentioned in my previous post, the United States doesn't really care about how Sudan is doing or what they can do to help them, it is all about furthering there own power in the world, however, if other nations seem to care so much about what is going on in Sudan why has nobody stepped in to stop the injustice and crimes against humanity that are presently occurring there?



This picture sums up the situation, the world sees what is going on, "genocide?", yet they don't do anything about it, "nah...not yet". When will the world finally step in and stop the injustice!

I dont think it will happen anytime soon, due to the fact that Sudan is not presenting itself as a threat to the rest of the world. An example of this is North Korea, they emit threats of nuclear war and violence in general, which allows them to ask the world for whatever they want and get it, a way for the world to appease Korea and make them stay inactive. Sudan is not a threat, they can't get anyone's attention because they are not a threat to anyone else's way of life or safety, as long as it stays within there borders, everyone will continue to ignore the crisis in Sudan.

http://www.helium.com/items/382258-what-can-we-really-do-for-darfur

The American's Role in Sudan: Are They Helping For the Right Reason?

As we all know, the States like to get involved in everyone else's business, they go wherever they please and seem to do what ever they like. Sometimes I believe that they place themselves in certain situations for all the wrong reasons, and I believe that being in Sudan is for all the wrong reasons.

Many humanitarian forces and peace keepers in the United States are legitimately backing Sudan and wish to do anything and everything to help, sadly, these people are not in charge of the country. The people in charge of the country have gone into Sudan with the illusion that they will help with the crisis that they are facing, from genocide, to food, to government corruption, the United States will be there, when in reality, they have a different agenda. 

Sudan contains oil refineries, and the Sudanese government have denied the U.S. access to these refineries because they don't want to give more power to the United States. They believe that this resource is the one thing that is providing there country with income, and to allow the U.S. to get involved would basically end there control over the oil market. 

As i said before, the U.S. doesn't really care about helping Sudan, they have turned a blind eye to what is going on there, and my opinion is that if they can't get what they want from Sudan, they will use force to obtain power over the oil market, because no other nation in the world really cares about the injustice that is occurring in Sudan. I'll lead into my next entry on that note, does any other nation really care about Sudan?

Read this article for more information about the American's involvement in Sudan:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=2592

Genocide in Sudan

Hey readers! I hope you all have enjoyed my posts so far as there will a lot more to, well, tonight anyways. I wanted to shed some light on possibly the most prominent issue within Sudan and more specifically in Darfur, where genocide remains a pressing issue.

Many African farmers and other Sudanese people are being murdered and displaced, on a day to day basis, some 100 people are killed. Overall, the entire genocide has killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced over 2,500,000.

Th government has turned a blind eye to this travesty occurring within there own borders, and has actually been accused of promoting the genocide, which I mentioned in my previous post. They are said to have sponsored the Janjaweed militia group to intimidate those who live in Darfur by using tactics such as rape, displacement, organized starvation, threats against aid workers and mass murder. The genocide is occurring because the people are not complying with what the government wants, and the Sudanese government feels that the best way to control there people is to not give them a voice, but to murder them instead. This has not turned out in there favour however, it has caused them to be charged with crimes against humanity and faced with looks of disgust from virtually all other nations. 


Thats it for now, just a little into into the most pressing issue in Sudan, more to come later for sure! Thanks for reading!

Omar al-Bashir: Crooked

This article really depicts the corruption and issues that are occurring in Sudan, even within there own government. There leader Omar al-Bashir was accused of calling for the deaths of many people in Darfur, people of different religious faiths. he has been charged with crimes against humanity and rightfully so. This is the man that is trying to end civil war and unrest that has held the nation captive for almost its entire existence. He was the glimmer of hope for the innocent people living in this war torn country, and now the people realize that he is no more the hero than the enemy. Sudan's UN ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman claims that the leader did not commit any of these crimes, as there are various tribes living in and around Darfur, so if it had been genocide, why had these tribes not been eliminated? In my opinion, that country is so messed up and so broken i don't ever see it becoming fixed, the corruption is everywhere. Even the ones who are supposed to bring Sudan out of the dark ages and into a new era where the people there can coexist in peace are evil. I am truly sorry for the innocent people trying to earn a living under these circumstances.  

International Court prosecutor says genocide continues in Darfur, masterminded by al-Bashir

By Edith M. Lederer, The Associated Press – 2 days ago

The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said Wednesday that genocide and crimes against humanity continued in Darfur, masterminded by President Omar al-Bashir.

Luis Moreno Ocampo told the U.N. Security Council that al-Bashir was behind air attacks on civilians and the killing of members of three ethnic groups — the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa.

The Security Council referred the Darfur conflict to the court in 2005, and judges have issued warrants against al-Bashir for crimes against humanity and "a genocidal policy" against the ethnic minorities. But the Sudanese leader remains in power, defiantly rejecting the charges and the court.

Moreno Ocampo said it is "the challenging responsibility" of the Security Council to use information exposed by the court to stop the crimes in Darfur, where as many as 300,000 people have died and some 2.7 million people have been displaced inside Darfur and in neighbouring Chad.

"Crimes against humanity and genocide continue unabated in Darfur," Moreno Ocampo told the council.

Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman stressed that Sudan was not a party to the Rome Statute that created the court and said Moreno Ocampo's statement and written report to the council were "overloaded with ... unfounded accusations" of rape, killing, war crimes and genocide.

"There are tens of thousands of those tribes mentioned in the report living in the capital of Sudan, at the hand reach of the president," he told reporters. "Had it been genocide, nobody would be spared from those individuals."

The prosecutor said most of the Fur, Zaghawa and Massalit people are now living in camps for the displaced where they are "still subjected today to rapes, terror and conditions of life aimed at the destruction of their communities, constituting genocide."

Moreno Ocampo said the crimes "are the consequence of a strategic decision taken by the highest authorities of the government of the Sudan."

The prosecutor said the Sudanese president and his supporters used a variety of tactics — denying the crimes, attributing them to other factors such as intertribal clashes, diverting attention by publicizing cease-fire agreements that are violated immediately, and proposing special courts to conduct investigations "that will never start."

"President al-Bashir is now asking for rewards for not committing new genocides outside Darfur," Moreno Ocampo said.

Ali Osman, the Sudanese ambassador, countered that the government is working hard to end the conflict, which is now in its eighth year, and is expecting negotiations with several rebel groups to wrap up later this week with an agreement to establish "private special courts."

He said experts from the African Union and the U.N. could eventually be asked to monitor the special courts.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hGoCPBbrXApmWTNzVxm6_keRgsNg?docId=7090077

Imagine not having enough food to eat. Imagine having to share a single cob of corn with your neighbours. As Canadians, we do not have to deal with that issue on a day to day basis, however, there are some places in the world where they are far worse off than we are. One of these places being Sudan.

Sudan is coming out of the longest civil war in African history as i mentioned in my previous post, which could be a major reason for the food crisis that they are experiencing right now. The Sudanese government has called there food crisis a "state of emergency." 

The issue is that they cannot grow anything simply due to the fact that the environment and the weather will not allow it. The main crop grown in Sudan is grain, and the rain came to spread out and far to hard for the successful growth of that crop. 

Sudanese officials say that it is the worst crop growth since the year 1988, and in that year hundreds of thousands of people perished due to malnourishment, there simply isn't enough food to go around. Nations surrounding Sudan have lost interest in providing aid to them as it seems as though they cannot help themselves.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4316304.stm

A Brief History of Sudan

Historical Timeline:

 - Before 1820's, Sudan, who was an independent nation, was made up of mainly nomadic tribes, there were no major cities or gathering areas.

- In the early 1820's, Sudan was conquered by Turkish and Egyptian forces who fought over the land for many years. They took over Sudan in the hopes of discovering natural resources.

- At this point, the English had already inhabited a portion of Sudan because they were trying to convert the Sudanese tribes to Christianity. 

- Many European countries claimed the land in Sudan for themselves, with the English, French and Belgians all owning land at some point.

- Sudan gained complete independance in 1953 due to the agreement between the English and Egyptians, the agreement was finalized in 1956, which gave the Sudanese government complete and total control over the country with no outside influence. 

- Almost immediately following the new found independance of Sudan, the Arab-led government in Sudan took back there promises to begin a federal system in the South, leading to the mutiny of hundreds of military officers, this began a civil war which would rage on for 17 years. (1955-1972) Thousands of innocent Sudanese people were murdered.

- The man who was leading the rebels in the civil war, Sadiq al-Mahdi, met with the the prime minister Gaafar Nimeiry (who came into power 1969, and once in power, abolished all parliament and forbid any other political parties) this meeting resulted in the reconciliation of the two groups. Thousands of political prisoners were released and the first civil war had ended. 

- The second civil war began in 1983 because the government implemented an Islamic based political system, which was not to the liking of various non-islmaic people within Sudan. 

- In 2005, an agreement between the government and the rebels was signed in order to end the fighting and an attempt to please both sides. They are emerging from the longest civil war in African history and over 300000 people have died in the conflict.

http://crawfurd.dk/africa/sudan_timeline.htm

Sudan

Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

Updated: April 14, 2011
Overview
Sudan has been at war with itself for almost its entire post-colonial history, starting in 1956. Nearly all of its major ethnic and religious groups have fought one another, and politics continues to be dominated by mistrust, outside interference and combustible animosities. There are dozens of armed groups across the country.
Now the country is getting ready for what could be the continent's biggest divorce. A long-awaited referendum on southern Sudan’s independence, set in motion by a 2005 peace agreement to stop one of Africa’s worst civil wars, began on Jan. 9, 2011. According to the final count, voters in southern Sudan chose to separate from the north by overwhelming margins.
The referendum marked the end to the nearly one-million-square-mile experiment called Sudan, which for many troubled decades served as a bridge between the Arab and African world. According to officials, the new nation will be named the Republic of South Sudan upon independence.
Since the peace treaty was signed in 2005, the south has been semi-autonomous, running most of its own affairs. Southern Sudan is different culturally and religiously from the northern part of the country, a contrast between Arab and Muslim influences in the north and animist and Christian beliefs in the south.
But there are still a number of delicate and potentially combustible issues that need to be resolved before Sudan can peacefully break in two. Though the January referendum was peaceful, more than 800 civilians have died since in fragmenting violence in the south. The fighting has come at the hands of a patchwork of militias, renegade southern soldiers and other armed groups.
Conflicts loom over how the two sides would share the south’s sizeable reserves of crude oil and what to do about the Abyei region, which straddles the north-south border and is claimed by both. Oil may ultimately hold Sudan together. Though the south produces about 75 percent of Sudan’s crude, it is landlocked, and the pipeline to export the oil runs through the north. Cutting the flow, which provides both north and south with a huge percentage of government revenue, could be a disaster for both sides.
Mr. Bashir’s public acceptance of the referendum vote smoothed the way for the creation of South Sudan in the summer of 2011. Yet Mr. Bashir, who has been in power nearly 18 years, faces many of the same economic pressures as did President Hosni Mubarak. Protests broke out in Khartoum in January of 2011, and Mr. Bashir pledged not to run again once his term expires.

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Sudan's Explosive History 
In 2005, the country's opposing political parties signed a peace accord that ended Africa's longest-running civil war, which killed an estimated 2.2 million people - 10 times as many as in Darfur. The perennial question is whether the relatively small group of Arabs who live along the northern reaches of the Nile and have historically ruled Sudan will share power and wealth in one of the most diverse populations on the continent. It was political exclusion that drove rebels in the semi-autonomous south to fight, and the same issue inspired the rebellion to the west, in Darfur, which has claimed an estimated 300,000 lives and blown up into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
The peace treaty between the north and the south, which American officials helped broker and the Bush administration considered a foreign policy triumph, was supposed to address these center-versus-periphery problems head-on. For the most part, the agreement has stopped the killing in the south, which during the 1980s and 1990s became a wasteland of burned villages, slave raiders and thousands of boys - the famous Lost Boys - trudging through the bush looking for a way out.
North-south tensions go back decades, to even before Sudan's independence in 1956. The north is mostly Muslim and historically has identified with the Arab world, while many southerners are Christian and more connected to Kenya, Uganda and other sub-Saharan nations. Beyond that, there is a huge divide when it comes to development, spawned by years of inequality.
While Khartoum has its luxury hotels and shopping malls, the south is where the roads stop. Flying over it, all you see is miles and miles of emerald green. The streets of the south's biggest cities are boulevards of mud. Children go to school under trees.
Two years after the peace treaty, much of the south was heavily militarized. The reason has been that the north has grown dependent on the oil from the south and if the south secedes, the north stands to lose billions of dollars yearly.
Both the north and south have said they want to avoid another costly war, and leaders from the two sides acknowledged that they need each other - the south has most of the country's oil and the north has most of the infrastructure. But the two sides were deadlocked over the toughest issues the treaty was supposed to solve: how to draw the north-south border, how to reform a very militarized government (the standard children's school uniform in Khartoum, the capital, is camouflage fatigues), and how to split Sudan's booming oil profits.
In July 2009, an international tribunal redefined the borders of the disputed oil region by splitting the contested zone between the two sides. In its ruling, the tribunal, seated at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, overruled a decision by an international commission that Sudan's government rejected four years earlier. The ruling gives the north uncontested rights to rich oil deposits like the Heglig oil field, which had previously been placed within the Abyei region, which sits on the border between north and south.
Darfur and Sanctions
The International Criminal Court charged Mr. Bashir in 2009 with five counts of crimes against humanity. It was the first time the court sought to detain a sitting head of state. Defiant, Mr. Bashir lambasted the West for the indictment and ordered 13 aid organizations serving millions of people in Darfur to suspend their operations on accusations that they provided false evidence to the court.
Darfur has been the focus of international attention since 2004, when government troops and militia groups known as janjaweed moved to crush rebels who complained that the region's black African ethnic groups had been neglected by the Muslim central government. The janjaweed, backed by government troops, carried out widespread savage killings of civilians. The United Nations estimates that the conflict displaced 2.7 million who are believed to have fled their homes in the face of atrocities and the destruction of villages.
In October 2009, President Obama laid out the general aims of his Sudan policy, pledging to renew "tough sanctions" against the Khartoum government and increase pressure if it failed to improve the situation in Darfur, but also holding out the possibility of incentives if Sudan cooperated.
Violence in turbulent Darfur spiked in 2010. In May, the Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM, Darfur’s most powerful rebel group, broke off peace talks that had been taking place in Doha, Qatar, after the Sudanese government rejected its demand that it be the sole negotiator for the rebels at the table. Since then, the group has been trying to reassert itself militarily, and was forced into some confrontations after neighboring Chad improved ties with Khartoum and closed off the group’s usual escape routes over the border.
It is difficult to boil down the complicated tapestry of actors in the region, especially as rebel movements have splintered and increasingly well-armed criminals have flourished in the seven years the war has dragged on.. The conflict was first set off by clashes between nomadic Arab tribes and more sedentary Africans over water supplies. With so many Africans displaced from their lands, the Arab tribes are now fighting among themselves for the spoils, and water resources are even scarcer.

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Why i chose the crisis in Sudan

I chose to do my blog on the on going issues in Sudan because I am highly interested in the unrest and war that they are currently experiencing. It is interesting to learn about an entirely new way of life and a whole new set of issues such as the constant war they experience, genocide, and turmoil between the various groups within the country. The hard ship that the innocent people who had the misfortune of being born there are starving, dying, and are being stripped of many basic human rights. I want to shed some light on the situation which is occurring in Sudan.