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PRESS RELEASE_7
Spielberg’s Darfur!
Dominic Lawson spoke for many when he expressed his delight that someone somewhere has at long last snubbed the Hollywood celebrities who have been elevated to a status higher than that of diplomats ,statesmen or analysts (I cheered when the Russians said they did not want to hear Clooney’s lecture on Darfur (The Independent, 8 February ’08). He quoted a Russian delegate who said at the UN “This is not an appropriate forum for Mr. Clooney to attend.”
Sudan has a tragedy in Darfur. It has, however reached a detailed plan with the UN (partly brokered by the USA and the UK) to resolve all outstanding issues. The latest step was the signing of the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) by Mr. Deng Alor, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Dominic Lawson spoke for many when he expressed his delight that someone somewhere has at long last snubbed the Hollywood celebrities who have been elevated to a status higher than that of diplomats ,statesmen or analysts (I cheered when the Russians said they did not want to hear Clooney’s lecture on Darfur (The Independent, 8 February ’08). He quoted a Russian delegate who said at the UN “This is not an appropriate forum for Mr. Clooney to attend.”
Sudan has a tragedy in Darfur. It has, however reached a detailed plan with the UN (partly brokered by the USA and the UK) to resolve all outstanding issues. The latest step was the signing of the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) by Mr. Deng Alor, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Why then is the well-orchestrated anti-Sudanese and anti-Chinese campaign still under way? Steven Spielberg is playing his part and so is Mia Farrow and other latter day “thinkers” and “philosophers”! Why were they not moved by the more than 5.4 million who were killed in the Congo (according to the International Rescue Committee? (As many as the population of Denmark). Why are they not concerned about the plight of the caged and persecuted millions of Palestinians in the Israeli occupied territories? Human rights are indivisible, but this is not the logic of media manipulation.
It is significant that Tessa Jowell, Minister for the Olympics and London has made a sane and reasonable decision about British participation in the forthcoming Beijing Olympics. The recent British Parliamentary group’s visit to Sudan has recommended strengthening relations not boycott. President Bashir has demonstrated Sudan’s high regard for its British connection by appointing the seasoned diplomat and Arabic speaker Sir Derek Plumbly as Chairman of the Assessment and Evaluation Commission of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
We ask: Is this celebrity campaign really about Darfur? Isn’t there a sub-text resenting the fact that the descendents of the “coolies” and the “Dervishes” have a mind of their own and are not subservient? Isn’t it an expression of anxiety that China has now a front seat on the world stage and that it is offering an alternative approach which is favoured by developing countries like Sudan?
We wish the Olympics in Beijing (not Peking) every success. Sudan and China go back a long way. Sudan supported China’s right to UN recognition and was co-founder with it of the Bandung non-aligned movement in the 1950’s. Sudan is not anti-western; but sees no crime or recalcitrance in the desire to cooperate with China and emulate it in development and modernisation.
Darfur is being used as a ploy to break Sudan’s progress and end China’s support for it. The celebrities are mere pawns which are manipulated in a chess-board they barely understand. Their campaign is not only humanitarian as they are led to believe. They have themselves to blame when more and more people snub them the way the UN snubbed the hapless George Clooney.
It is significant that Tessa Jowell, Minister for the Olympics and London has made a sane and reasonable decision about British participation in the forthcoming Beijing Olympics. The recent British Parliamentary group’s visit to Sudan has recommended strengthening relations not boycott. President Bashir has demonstrated Sudan’s high regard for its British connection by appointing the seasoned diplomat and Arabic speaker Sir Derek Plumbly as Chairman of the Assessment and Evaluation Commission of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
We ask: Is this celebrity campaign really about Darfur? Isn’t there a sub-text resenting the fact that the descendents of the “coolies” and the “Dervishes” have a mind of their own and are not subservient? Isn’t it an expression of anxiety that China has now a front seat on the world stage and that it is offering an alternative approach which is favoured by developing countries like Sudan?
We wish the Olympics in Beijing (not Peking) every success. Sudan and China go back a long way. Sudan supported China’s right to UN recognition and was co-founder with it of the Bandung non-aligned movement in the 1950’s. Sudan is not anti-western; but sees no crime or recalcitrance in the desire to cooperate with China and emulate it in development and modernisation.
Darfur is being used as a ploy to break Sudan’s progress and end China’s support for it. The celebrities are mere pawns which are manipulated in a chess-board they barely understand. Their campaign is not only humanitarian as they are led to believe. They have themselves to blame when more and more people snub them the way the UN snubbed the hapless George Clooney.