Omar Bashir is Going Too Far

Sudanese strong man, Omar Bashir has allegedly referred to southern Sudanese as insects, the same way Hutu militia in Rwanda used to refer to the Tutsi ethnic group. Going by what happened in Rwanda, the international community, especially neighbours, should not keep mum. Being a head of the state with all machinery, does this mean Bashir is planning to commit genocide in South Sudan?

Bashir has variously stated that the ongoing conflict in the region is between Arabs and Africans (even though there are no Arabs in Sudan save those Arabs called bekhe or self-made slaves); the Muslim (North) and Infidel (South) and Blacks and whites.

To prove how Bashir means business, he was recently quoted saying, “Either we end up occupying Juba or you end up occupying Khartoum but the boundaries of the old Sudan can no longer fit us together, only one of us has to remain standing.” (Sudan Tribune, 18 April). The same day, he called south Sudanese insects that need to be wiped out using what he called Jihad.

This means that if Bashir is not stopped, he won’t stop short of toppling the new government in South Sudan. Is this the good neighbourhood Bashir promised the day South Sudan went solo? Bashir seems hell bent to die with someone. I am wondering why NATO was able to intervene in Libya to topple an innocent regime while it is keeping mum on Bashir!

While he was witchhunting, UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon reprimanded South Sudan saying that occupying Heglig was illegal. From Moon’s rhetoric, South Sudan withdrew its army from Heglig as she held out an olive branch that was completely rebuffed by Khartoum. Taban Deng, the governor of South Sudan's Unity State says that this has cost them dearly. He said, "We have been pressured by the international community to pull out of Heglig and this is the consequence, we have brought the war to home.”

It is sad that U N does not condemn the on-going bombing perpetrated by Khartoum even after the South withdrew its troops from Heglig. Although South Sudan has been insisting that dialogue be resumed to address the problem, Khartoum does not want to go back to negotiations. This was revealed by Bashir saying, "No negotiation with those people.” He added, "Our talks with them were with guns and bullets."

This can be corroborated by the words of Deng the governor of Unity State who said that despite the end of the occupation, Sudanese bombs fell on a key bridge and a market, killing at least two children in the state capital Bentiu on Monday. Deng added, "They have been given orders to wipe us out; they have called us insects."

I am wondering why EA countries are dragging their feet while danger is hovering over their region.It is very sad that Bashir wants to open fresh wounds he inflicted on the South for over twenty years. Will the good friends of Sudan let Bashir destroy two countries wantonly? Given that Bashir has proved to be kamikaze and blind, what Tanzania did in 1978 to stop Idi Amin is the only way forward.

Source:  The African Executive Magazine May 2, 2012.