Monday, July 21, 2014

Support Terror? Perish the Thought!

In 2003, after Sudan's President, Omar al Bashir decided to take direct action against the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement in Darfur, protesting their marginalized position in a country wealthy with oil proceeds, he unleashed the Arab militias, "devils on horseback", to destroy any hope that Darfurian farmers might have that they could be treated on an equal basis with the ruling Arab elite in their country. Over 400 villages were destroyed by Sudanese forces and Janjaweed militias.

Throughout the uneven conflict that took place in Darfur 400,000 lives were lost, 2,500,000 people were displaced, mass rapes of women and girls occurred, with five thousand people dying monthly. Despite evidence to the contrary, including the use of helicopter gunships by the Sudanese military on helpless civilian Darfurians desperately attempting to flee death, the Sudanese government denied any connection with the Janjaweed and insisted that the numbers of dead and displaced Darfurians were grossly inflated.

The Arab League saw fit to ignore the March 2009 finding of the International Criminal Court's investigations into human rights violations. On that date Sudanese President Omar al Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court on the basis that he had personally directed a campaign of mass killing, rape and pillage against Darfurian civilians. An arrest warrant was issued as well for former Sudanese Minister of State for the Interior and the Janjaweed militia leader, none of whom has ever faced justice.

Darfur is in the
Western part of Sudan  bordering on Libya, Chad and Central African Republic

Now, sources in Sudan claim that the Sudanese government, in denying that it has amicable relations with Hamas is doing so in an attempt to convince the Arab Gulf States and the United States that his country no longer sponsors terrorism. Much less, it would seem, engages in it, reality to the contrary.
An explosion on Friday early morning that took place in a military training camp north of Khartoum was caused, claims Sudanese Intelligence, by a "local fire.

A-Sawarmi Khaled Sa'ad, a Sudanese army spokesman, claimed there was no connection between the explosion and "external hands, or a domestic act of sabotage."

Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal meets with Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir in Khartoum, Sudan, August 2008 photo credit: AP/Abd Raouf)
Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal meets with Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir in Khartoum, Sudan, August 2008    photo credit: AP/Abd Raouf)

This, despite the London-based Al-Arab news source reporting that Khaled Mashaal, Hamas's political chief, met with President Al-Bashir two weeks ago in Doha. Qatar, infamously, is a supporter of Hamas, doling out funding for the terrorist group to enable it to build its tunnels and acquire rocketry of ever more sophisticated manufacture, from Syria and Iran. Qatar is a staunch supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, and by extension, Hamas as well.
 
In 2009, Israeli warplanes flew into Sudanese geography to preempt the delivery of weapons meant for Hamas; three airstrikes destroyed a convoy of trucks in western Sudan said to have been transferring long-range Iranian missiles to the Gaza Strip, in March of 2009. In 2012 the Yarmouk weapons plant in Khartoum was hit by an explosion killing four people; that explosion widely believed, though never confirmed by Israel, to have resulted from an Israeli airstrike to prevent arms deliveries to Hamas.

Al-Arab pointed out a deficiency in the official Sudanese explanation, that while the government attributed the incident to a local fire, swiftly extinguished, local eyewitnesses described another scenario altogether, hearing a loud blast followed by surging flames. An army communique reported six men injured in the explosion, even while the Sudanese Intelligence stated no injuries had ensued.

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posted by Pieface @ Monday, July 21, 2014

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