Today an interesting day of contrasts and irony emblematic of Sudan. As armed men finish off a rampage killing at least 10 African Union peacekeepers in Haskanita, Darfur, the Chinese Ambassador graciously hosts the Minister of Industry and Mining along with Khartoum’s diplomatic community to celebrate 58 years of Communist China and the much newer and sly Sino-Sudanese petroleum partnership. Why so ironic? Well…
Assailants allegedly launched their attack after the maghreb prayer call, marking the sunset and end of another day of fasting. As AU soldiers from Nigeria, many Muslims, sat to break their fast, men attacked in full force, murdering soldiers in cold blood, looting property, vandalizing vehicles and burning the entire military outpost to the ground.
It’s still too early to know just who the “armed men” that launched the attack on AU forces in South Darfur were. Speculate, however, I will. Initial reports came out blaming SLA forces allied to Abdul Wahid, the famed rebel leader and holdout to the Darfur Peace Agreement and negotiations. Later, both sides came out blaming the other. Khartoum insisted the lawless rebels were hungry for fuel and fire to run their resistance and win a seat at the upcoming Libya peace talks, while the SLA screamed set-up, saying the government framed them so they’d lose credibility and be ostracized from the international community and the peace process.
If you ask me, the government again is pulling the strings. They’ve somehow managed to directly or indirectly send militias, probably Arab Rezeigat and other famous “janjaweed”, to do their dirty work. And for the government of Sudan things could look just as they want them to. At the end of the day, the rebel movements are discredited and no longer taken seriously at the negotiating table. African countries are already coming out wavering on their previous troop commitments. Rebel movements are further fractured and in disarray as divide and rule from Khartoum works again like a charm. Not to mention that we’re all turned to Darfur as the CPA and North-South agreements go nowhere, border demarcation remains stagnant, census preparations delayed and the election nowhere in sight.
And that same night in Khartoum, we feast. The Chinese Embassy hosted a little celebration for the diplomatic community and I felt like a criminal just for being there. It was all really a very nice and normal diplomatic cocktail party (without the cocktails of course – ya haram!). But for some reason I felt like I was sitting in on something very wrong…as if you were in the room as the American contractors divided up Iraqi oil contracts or listening in as Palestinians brokered arms deals in Libya to wage war and hijack Israeli jetliners. Chaos was literally taking place to the west of us, and in this room people were flirting with oil ministers and defense attaches wondering how to split up the booty.
Here China was with their honored guest, the Minister of Industry and Mining, counting the barrels and yet they were standing up in the Security Council saying Sudan should be given the benefit of the doubt and be allowed to sort out Darfur on its own.
Well, maybe China’s right. Haskanita is what happens when Khartoum is on top, whether we’re watching or not.
Posted by oecumene13 