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Jakarta Post

Clarification from Sudan Embassy

I would like to refer to an article on The Jakarta Post’s March 30, 2010 edition: “Indonesia can take the lead in bringing an end to Darfur Conflict”, written by Michael Danby, chair of the Australian Parliament’s Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs, and to state the following:The Embassy regrets that the writer may or may not know much about Sudan in general and the current situation in Darfur in particular

The Jakarta Post
Tue, April 20, 2010 Published on Apr. 20, 2010 Published on 2010-04-20T09:11:58+07:00

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I

would like to refer to an article on The Jakarta Post’s March 30, 2010 edition: “Indonesia can take the lead in bringing an end to Darfur Conflict”, written by Michael Danby, chair of the Australian Parliament’s Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs, and to state the following:

The Embassy regrets that the writer may or may not know much about Sudan in general and the current situation in Darfur in particular. The crisis in Darfur as he stated, escalated due to the prolonged drought in the region, but he fell short of realizing that some elements within Darfur and their sponsors from the region and beyond, were quick to hijack the unfortunate situation to suit their political and personal agenda by escalating it further through the supply of weaponry to what started earlier as banditry to where it now, has become a political crisis in Darfur.

Another error, the writer committed, was his capitalization, classifying the war in Darfur as a racial war pitting tribes of Arab origin, against their brothers of African origin. Statement such as this is misleading and has no substance whatsoever. The fact that the writer does not know or does not want to know is that all the Darfurians, regardless of their racial divide are victims of the situation that has been imposed on them. The only beneficiaries to the crisis are the rebel movements and their benefactor.

On the issue of the rape, I would like to mention that Sudanese culture and Islam, which is the religion of the overwhelming majority in the country, abhor this barbaric, callous and primitive behavior in all of its forms.

Hence rape is an alien behavior and has no roots in the Sudanese history/culture.

The writer has wrongly stated that, the current and the ongoing peace talks between Sudan, the rebel movement (JEM) and the other Darfurian rebel groups in Doha, are nothing but peace agreements being reached with groups, which are allies of the government, this is obviously a wrong judgment because Sudan’s search for peaceful solution to Darfur crisis has not only started recently in Doha, but it has been the ongoing process, since the situation in Darfur erupted in 2003. The government of Sudan had several rounds of peace talks with the rebel movements, since in Abuja, Nigeria, which resulted in Abuja Peace Agreement, 2006.

After Abuja, the government of Sudan did not give up its objective to achieve a full and comprehensive peace with the rest of the rebel movements that walked out from Abuja. Hence, there were the series and rounds of peace talks with the Darfurian rebel movements, in Libya, Tanzania, Chad, Ethiopia, Eritrea and now Doha! In all its attempts to achieve peace in Darfur, Sudan has always worked with the United Nations, the African Union, Arab League and other peace-loving countries, as an indication of seriousness and credibility for achieving peace and stability in Darfur.


Ibrahim Bushra Mohamed Ali
Ambassador of Sudan to Indonesia
Jakarta

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