Message: 1
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 10:54:04 -0700
From: "Lil Joe" <joe_radical at earthlink.net> Subject: Sudan in Geopolitical/Military Context
Sudan in Geopolitical/Military Context by Lil Joe
The crisis in Sudan is a political crisis: warfare is the continuation of politics by other, I,e, violent, means.
Israel's racist Zionist policies both by discriminating against Palestinians in Israel, and opposing the Palestinians right of return, while at the same time settling new Europeans in West Bank, is the regional context that Sudan has become an issue. The Sudan issue only came into the headlines of former colonial powers as a racist diversion from the racism of Zionism to the "racism of Arabs".
The U.S. Senate, and House of Representatives, and in particular the racists in the Republican Party, and the opportunists in the Congressional Black Caucus, and media while funding and arming Israel's genocidal war on Palestine, raised the issue of Sudan as "genocide", and a "humanitarian crisis". It does not matter that the Christian militias are "Black". The Christian and ethnic militias they are reactionary agents in the pay of U.S. imperialism, armed and trained by Israeli Zionists whose assignment in Sudan is co-ordinated with the U.S. and Israeli anti-Arab genocidal policies in Palestine and Iraq. The U.S. wants to use the Christian militias to continue the war against the Sudanese government, thus to have the imperialist media to spread the propaganda of a "humanitarian crisis" that will enable them to portray the sanctions on, and or invasion and occupation of Sudan as a "humanitarian mission".
There is no such thing as a "humanitarian crisis". This phraseology is nothing but a slogan, rose by British and U.S. imperialism to invade and occupy Sudan, the same way they used "human rights" to invade and occupy Iraq. The Israeli and U.S. function in arming, training and financing the Christian militias in Sudan is the cause of the continuation of this war in Sudan, and as a cause of the problem it is absurd to see them as a solution! Every effort at ending the war in Sudan, the Christian militias recieved more arms and funds from the U.S. which subsequently resulted in these Christian mercenaries leaving the Peace Conferences and/or resuming the war.
It is obvious that those who scream "Black African genocide" don't really give a damn about Black humanity in that they are directly responsible for the killing of millions of Sudanese.
My suggestion? -- Obviously, the workers and peasants of Sudan must raise up and, as workers and peasants rather than religious and ethnicities rise up and destroy the Christian and ethnic militias in the South, and merge with the working-class Muslims in the North to fight for State power, which is the only way they can end the U.S. and Israeli sponsored continuous warfare in their country.
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The United States initially supported the Christian militias, mainly through Israel as a proxy, in the 60s in opposition to the pro-Soviet Sudanese government. But, Israel also had reasons, which remain in force today although the Cold War has ended. American Negro political lackeys of Zionist lobbies, in their attacks on Sudan promote the geopolitics of U.S. imperialist and Zionist interests. The Israelis, enabled by arms and funding
from the U.S. is directly responsible for both the continuation and spreading of the Civil War in Sudan. Without U.S. and Israeli intervention and aiding of Christian militias, there would have been no Civil War.
Continue article at: http://laborpartypraxis.org/sudan.html
Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)
With the exception of a fragile peace established by negotiations between southern Sudanese insurgents (the Anya Nya) and the Sudan government at Addis Ababa in 1972, and lasting until the resumption of the conflict in 1983, southern Sudan has been a battlefield. The north-south distinction and the hostility between the two regions of Sudan is grounded in religious conflict as well as a conflict between peoples of differing culture and language. The language and culture of the north are based on Arabic and the Islamic faith, whereas the south has its own diverse, mostly non-Arabic languages and cultures -- with few exceptions non-Muslim, and its religious character was indigenous (traditional or Christian).
The origins of the civil war in the south date back to the 1950s. On August 18, 1955, the Equatoria Corps, a military unit composed of southerners, mutinied at Torit. Rather than surrender to Sudanese government authorities, many mutineers disappeared into hiding with their weapons, marking the beginning of the first war in southern Sudan. By the late 1960s, the war had resulted in the deaths of about 500,000 people. Several hundred thousand more southerners hid in the forests or escaped to refugee camps in neighboring countries. By 1969 the rebels had developed foreign contacts to obtain weapons and supplies. Israel, for example, trained Anya Nya recruits and shipped weapons via Ethiopia and Uganda to the rebels. Anya Nya also purchased arms from Congolese rebels. Government operations against the rebels declined after the 1969 coup, and ended with the Addis Ababa accords of 1972 which guaranteed autonomy for the southern region.
The civil war resumed in 1983 when President Nimeiri imposed Shari'a law, and has resulted in the death of more than 1.5 million Sudanese since through 1997. The principal insurgent faction is the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), a body created by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). The SPLA was formed in 1983 when Lieutenant Colonel John Garang of the SPAF was sent to quell a mutiny in Bor of 500 southern troops who were resisting orders to be rotated to the north. Instead of ending the mutiny, Garang encouraged mutinies in other garrisons and set himself at the head of the rebellion against the Khartoum government. Garang, a Dinka born into a Christian family, had studied at Grinnell College, Iowa, and later returned to the United States to take a company commanders' course at Fort Benning, Georgia, and again to earn advanced economics degrees at Iowa State University. By 1986 the SPLA was estimated to have 12,500 adherents organized into twelve battalions and equipped with small arms and a few mortars. By 1989 the SPLA's strength had reached 20,000 to 30,000; by 1991 it was estimated at 50,000 to 60,000.
Since 1983, the SPLA has been divided into 3 main factions: the SPLA Torit faction led by John Garang; the SPLA Bahr-al-Ghazal faction led by Carabino Kuany Bol; and the South Sudan Independence Movement led by Rick Machar. These internal divisions have intensified fighting in the south, hampering any potential peace settlement. The SPLA remains the principal military force in the insurgency.
In April 1997 the South Sudan Independence Movement/Army (SSIM/A), which broke away from the SPLA, and several smaller southern factions concluded a peace agreement with the Government. These former insurgent elements then formed the United Democratic Salvation Front (UDSF). However, the SPLM, its armed wing, the SPLM/A, and most independent analysts have regarded the April 21 Agreement as a tactical government effort to enlist southerners on its side. The SPLM/A and its northern allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) carried out successful military offensives in areas along the borders with Ethiopia and Eritrea and in large parts of the south during the year. Neither side appears to have the ability to win the war militarily.
In 1996 the US government decided to send nearly $20 million of military equipment through the 'front-line' states of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Uganda to help the Sudanese opposition overthrow the Khartoum regime. US officials denied that the military aid for the SPLA and the Sudanese Allied Forces (SAF), described as 'non-lethal' -- including radios, uniforms, boots and tents -- was targeted at Sudan. The Pentagon and CIA considered Sudan to be second only to Iran as a staging ground for international terrorism. CIA Director John Deutch made a 3-day visit to the Ethiopian capital in April 1996, where he noted that funds had been significantly increased for a more activist policy including preemptive strikes against terrorists and their sponsors. Reportedly several Operational Detachments-Alpha (also called A-Teams) of the US army were operating in support of the SPLA. http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/spla.htm End of TheBlackList at topica.com digest, issue 1943
-- Michael Pugliese