PRESS RELEASE
UN Military Commander:
'Darfur No Longer at War'
August 28, 2009 (EIRNS)—The sands of Sudan appear to be shifting against the anti-Khartoum lobby. The commander of the UN/African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur (UNAMID), Martin Luther Agwai, stated in a briefing in Khartoum Aug. 26, "As of today, I would not say there is a war going on in Darfur.... What you have is security issues more now. Banditry ... people trying to resolve issues over water and land at the local level. But real war as such, I think we are over that." Agwai is now finishing his tour of duty. Conflict deaths in Darfur have been reliably estimated at 40 for July and 16 for June. The ENOUGH Project of Khartoum- basher John Prendergast was so upset that it issued a press release today titled, "UNAMID Commander Undermines Darfur's Genocide." Agwai's announcement undercuts the ability of Prendergast and the rest of the Khartoum-haters to peddle their false and inflammatory statements.
The larger background is that there is an all-out fight in the Obama Administration over its Sudan policy. When Obama's Special Envoy to Sudan, Gen. (ret.) Scott Gration, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee July 30, he said that there is no genocide now in Darfur and there is no evidence to support the inclusion of Sudan on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. Sen. John Kerry, who chairs the committee, appeared to echo his views. Gration has come under tremendous pressure as a result of his testimony, according to reports.
A sample of that pressure is that U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, who shares Prendergast's ugly outlook, was able to force the resignation of the civilian head of UNAMID, Rodolphe Adada, former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Congo, on Aug. 25, because he had said that the Darfur conflict had decreased to the level of a "low-intensity conflict."
What does Gration's testimony represent? Shao Jie, writing from Khartoum for Xinhua Aug. 27, cited "local analysts" who believe "the U.S. realized that its long-term policies of containment and sanctions had not achieved the desired results but Sudan had made remarkable achievements ... for nearly 10 years to become an example of achieving success without U.S. influence. Only by a radical adjustment of its policies, the U.S. could resume its influence on Sudan."
The Khartoum-bashers are escalating to counter the threat to their profitable, multimillion dollar scam. Humanity United (HU) has been induced to bring the major activist organizations together under its auspices under the name Sudan Action Now, or simply, Sudan Now (sudanactionnow.com). Sudan Now is running ads in major newspapers around the country and on websites that target Obama with the message, "Keep the Promise," and quote from his "Save Darfur"-style statements during his presidential campaign.
HU is run and funded by its founder, Pam Omidyar. She and her husband Pierre, who founded eBay, has collaborated with Soros on at least one major project, and the profile of the two is the same: a total dedication to globalization.
Chuck Thies, a consultant for Sudan "advocacy" groups, has formulated the fraudulent new battle cry for these groups: "Though the rate of death from violence in Darfur has been greatly reduced in the past year, millions of people still live in unsafe refugee and IDP camps, slowly starving to death. No one suggested the Holocaust genocide ended until the death camps were liberated; the same should be true for Darfur."
The camps for internally displaced persons are not pleasant places to live, but the one thing that is not happening there is starvation. These residents have better health care and food supplies than those living outside the camps.
Why are Susan Rice, John Prendergast, and the moneybags behind them protesting so loudly over the news that the war is over and few are dying?
