Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Insults and Injuries

Passion of the Present is reporting on the case of Paul Foreman, the MSF (Doctors Without Borders) worker who has been arrested by Sudanese authorities for publishing the truth about systematic rape in Darfur while protecting the anonymity of victims. Mohamed Farid, the attorney general of Sudan, is reported to have said that "These kind of false reports damage the image of Sudan." If only they were false. Unfortunately, the evidence for systematic rape being perpetrated in Darfur is voluminous. The most thorough and best documented reports come from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and of course Doctors Without Borders. Scores of independent journalists have collected testimony from victims, witnesses, officials and humanitarian workers. Taken as a whole, their reports corroborate the truth of the charge that the government of Sudan in partnership with its proxy militias have systematically raped the African women and girls of Darfur. They continue to do so even now.


I've provided a few links to prominent reports, but of course there are many thousands more. The evidence is so voluminous, I've found it useful to break it down into categories. One proviso, if you please, before proceeding. While not wishing to minimize the violence and oppression visited upon millions of people on the African continent, I feel that it's important to note that hundreds of millions of Africans are not currently suffering under tyrannical regimes actively seeking to wipe them off the face of the earth, that a majority of African nations live in peace, and that prosperity and the enjoyment of the fruits of civilzation are hardly unkown in modern Africa. Undeniably Sudan is "the open sore of the continent," as several wry commentators have observed. But the wound is deeper than that. All of humanity suffers from the ongoing atrocities in Darfur, while the government of Sudan pursues a global public relations policy equivalent to rubbing salt in our wounds. I intend to give my elected representatives an earful this morning. I encourage you to do the same.






posted by Fido the Yak at 5:10 AM.

2 Comments:

Blogger K.M. said...

Good post.

June 01, 2005 12:02 PM  
Blogger Fido the Yak said...

Thanks. I was happy to hear that charges will be dropped, but it's still a long ways from all right. A distressing sign that the government has zero intention of actually changing.

June 02, 2005 9:29 PM  

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