President Bashir and the Inner Circle of Death

Omar Bashir. A religious man.

What comes to mind when you think of Sudan?
Desert? Terrorists? The middle of nowhere?
Or maybe an even better question: who cares?

I've have been reading many articles about the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan during the past year but never really thought much about the size and scope of it. After reading this article I thought I would do a post about it.

Do you know that almost 400,000 people are estimated to have died at the hands of the Sudanese government in the past two years and between three to four million people have been displaced from their homes? That's twice the death toll from last year's tsunami and more than twenty times that amount driven from the area. That's not even mentioning the people affected by beatings, rapes, disfigurement and permanent physical and emotional injuries caused by the region's Janjaweed. This militia, comprised of Arabs armed with automatic weapons riding on horseback, is killing off Christian blacks in the southern region of Sudan. Their goals are to take their property and either kill or drive them away. This is not just disputes over land- it is systematic, government-sponsored racial and religious cleansing.

The millions of refugees, forced from their homes, are caught in the middle of a war between ethnic black Africans, the Janjaweed and other government-supported militias. Some of these refugees have little access to food or water shown in these satellite images. The neighboring countries of Uganda, Chad, Ethiopia, Congo and Kenya provide safety from the militias but the regions themselves are arid desert and not able to support the vast number of people. The UN and other agencies are in those areas helping refugees but no permanent fixes are available until more funding arrives from either the UN, the European Union or the US. At this point, all three are stalling. Meanwhile, the situation for refugees deteriorates.

The main culprits causing this disaster are the president of Sudan and head of the National Islamic Front, Omar Hassan Bashir and the vice-president, Ali Muhammad Taha. These two are the kingpins of the "Inner Circle", a small group of two ruling tribes, of which both men belong. Since the party gained power in 1989, it has stood for creating an Islamist, theocractic state. The government has already imposed sharia, or Islamic law, over northern Sudan and is trying to convert the country's non-Muslim population (mostly southern blacks) to Islam. Funded by newly developed oil reserves, the government has more money, resolve and a tighter grip on the country than ever before.

Recent news reports suggest that some members of the Janjaweed have been punished and have had body parts amputated in response to the violence and international outcry. The government says instances like this show the problem is over. I doubt anything has changed and that the "Islamification" of Sudan will continue bringing more violence, death and famine to an already vulnerable people.