September 15, 2004

Darfur tragedy

There is not much to go on now but what is available is tragic. Charles at Little Green Footballs reports that a German newspaper is preparing to release a story claiming that Syria recently tested chemical weapons on civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan. bq. BERLIN : Syria tested chemical weapons on civilians in Sudan’s troubled western Darfur region in June and killed dozens of people. bq. The German daily Die Welt newspaper, in an advance release of its Wednesday edition, citing unnamed western security sources, said that injuries apparently caused by chemical arms were found on the bodies of the victims. bq. It said that witnesses quoted by an Arabic news website called ILAF in an article on August 2 had said that several frozen bodies arrived suddenly at the “Al-Fashr Hospital” in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in June. bq. Die Welt said the sources had indicated that the weapons tests were undertaken following a military exercise between Syria and Sudan. bq. Syrian officers were reported to have met in May with Sudanese military leaders in a Khartoum suburb to discuss the possibility of improving cooperation between their armies. bq. According to Die Welt, the Syrians had suggested close cooperation on developing chemical weapons, and it was proposed that the arms be tested on the rebel SPLA, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, in the south. bq. But given that the rebels were involved in peace talks, the newspaper continued, the Sudanese government proposed testing the arms on people in Darfur. The thing that worries me is that Syria has been claimed to be the current repository of Saddam's WMDs. It is not contested that conveys of trucks were seen heading from Iraq into Syria in the days before the coalition troops began their efforts and it has been reported from several sources that their cargo was gold and weapons. A reader on Charles' board posts this link to this story: bq. Sudan has ordered the removal of Syrian missiles and weapons of mass destruction out of the African country. bq. Arab diplomatic and Sudanese government sources said the regime of Sudanese President Omar Bashir has ordered that Syria remove its Scud C and Scud D medium-range ballistic missiles as well as components for chemical weapons stored in warehouses in Khartoum. The sources said the Sudanese demand was issued after the Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry confirmed a report published earlier this month that Syria has been secretly flying Scud-class missiles and WMD components to Khartoum. bq. The sources said the Bashir regime has been alarmed over the prospect that the United States would discover the Syrian arsenal and conclude that Damascus and Khartoum were cooperating in the area of missiles and WMD. They said this would have delayed or dashed U.S. plans to lift sanctions from Sudan. The World Health Organization released a report yesterday: bq. Survey concludes deaths in Darfur exceed the emergency threshold Humanitarian efforts in Darfur to date have prevented even higher death rates. bq. A mortality survey has just been conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Sudan's Ministry of Health in two of the States in Sudan's Darfur region. It concludes that death rates amongst internally displaced people still surpass the threshold for a humanitarian emergency, underscoring the need for urgent increases in, and focus on, assistance to displaced people in the region. Emphasis mine - these "internally displaced people" don't need refugee assistance. They need to go back to their homes and live their lives. What they DO need is someone strong to come over and drop a big fucking clue-bat on the Arab aggressor swine who are stealing their homes and land... More: bq. The survey found that diarrhoea in particular is linked to the deaths of half to three-quarters of the children under five. Diarrhoea is often caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. The combination of crowded conditions in the settlements, shortage of clean water, inadequate latrines, insufficient soap, and the mire caused by rain-soaked mud mingling with excreta, have combined to make hygiene an impossible goal for people living in small, tarpaulin-covered huts. The 'world community' is going over there with band-aids when they should be going over there with cans of Whoop-Ass and Bitch-Slaps. This is a tragedy but the real real tragedy is that the world community let a group of Arab thugs do this with no fear of reprisals. Multi-culturalism is one of the greatest failed philosophies. It Does Not Work. It Never Did. It Never Will. It has killed almost as many people as Communism. (100,00,00 is a hard number to beat...) Drop It Now and get a Clue... Please... Posted by DaveH at September 15, 2004 12:24 AM