Radio Commentary on Sudan - Sunday, March 2, 2003
Before Darfur, there was Southern Sudan -- 2,000,000 dead and many silent voices of "leadership."
COMMENTARY – Sunday March 2, 2003 by Robert Oliver on Interactions, WBEE 1570AM, Harvey/Chicago
Ladies and Gentleman, what I’m about to tell you is no secret. It has been covered in the Village Voice, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and many other newspapers. There are numerous articles on the Internet about it. Yet I’m willing to bet that you are hearing of it for the first time today. And I bet after I finish talking you will wonder why the silence? Why all the silence about genocide in the African country of Sudan?
This is a letter to the editor in Chicago Tribune on July 29, 1999, which says: “The ongoing catastrophe in Sudan stands as the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today. There are no exceptions. An amplifying paraphrase needn't be added. Sudan, geographically largest of African nations, bears this ghastly distinction with agonizing clarity.
“Numbers tell only part of the story, but they are sufficient for the moment. A carefully assembled set of data for the US Committee for Refugees makes evident that almost 2 million human beings have perished in the most recent phase of Sudan's ongoing civil war. As many as 5 million refugees have been created, making the refugee problem alone the greatest of its kind in the world. And at the height of last summer's famine, over 2 million more human beings, mainly children, were at risk of starvation.
“And the catastrophe continues: famine, epidemic disease, human enslavement, and scorched earth warfare remain defining features of the landscape in the south, where the civil war has been so devastatingly concentrated.
“And yet Americans remain disturbingly unaware of the dimensions of this human disaster. How can this be? How can we as a country have heard so much about Serbian depredations in Kosovo, and yet be almost completely ignorant of a humanitarian crisis that dwarfs in all measurable ways the suffering in all the recent Balkan conflicts?” End of quote. Yet many of you are hearing this for the first time and many are asking yourselves why aren’t people like the antiwar protesters speaking out about it. That is exactly what a man asked me after a community meeting. He asked, “why aren’t all those protesters speaking out against it?” My question is why are not they and why are not our recognized Black leadership speaking out against it? Like I said, the genocide is no secret. And it is not your fault that you do not know.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me read you a statement released last February 11 from the U.S. State Department: “The United States has reviewed the report released February 9, 2003 by the Civilian Protection Monitoring Team demonstrating that the Sudanese army and their allied-militia forces deliberately targeted and displaced civilians during operations in the oil-rich Western Upper Nile region of southern Sudan in December and January. We condemn these unconscionable attacks and abuses against civilians.”
What I’m about to read to you is not pleasant, but it is absolutely real. This is a report from WorldNetDaily.com on February 15 (2003): “The bones of scores of villagers litter a ‘killing field’ left in the wake of an unprovoked attack by Sudan's militant Islamic regime in which as many as 3,000 unarmed civilians died, according to a team of fact-finders. Dennis Bennett of the relief group Servant’s Heart recently returned from Upper Nile Province where he and his colleagues heard local survivors tell of a massive attack they believe killed between one-third and one-half of the 6,000 people who lived in the villages of Liang, Dengaji, Kawaji and Yawaji…In the April 2002 attack, heavily-armed government forces reportedly struck in the early morning as the villagers slept, launching a rampage of killing, looting and burning down houses. Residents said the attackers were armed with 60 millimeter mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, 12.7 millimeter heavy machine guns and AK-47 assault rifles. In a videotaped interview, villager Tunya Jok said he witnessed his 4-year -old daughter being shot and killed as she fled from the soldiers. Later, his 6-year-old son was captured and beheaded by the soldiers. The boy's body was thrown into a burning hut and his head planted upright, facing away from the dwelling. Awtio, subchief of the village of Liang, said a young girl named Yata was captured by the soldiers and thrown into a fire. Others fled into the bush and died there, he said.”
The Arab Government from the North is targeting the Black Muslim, Black Christian, and Black amimist population from the south. Have you heard of the Dinka tribe. That is one of the tribes that the government of General (President) Omar Hassan Al-Bashir is targeting.
Why the silence? Yes, even chattel slavery, which we African Americans are intimately familiar with, is going on right now in Sudan, Arabs enslaving Blacks. There are people who deny that is going on today. However, Rev. Al Sharpton went to Sudan and has testified that chattel slavery is indeed going on now. Only Rev. Sharpton and very few others have been outraged that this can be allowed to continue. But why the silence from the rest? Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham and President of international relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, said in the Wall Street Journal, “when several thousand Europeans are killed and tens of thousands displaced, the world calls it genocide. But when 1.9 million black Africans are killed and millions more are displaced, tortured, and even sold into slavery, the world remains strangely silent.” It is not your fault that you do not know, but why the silence from the rest?
Some of you in the listening audience may be telling yourselves that Sudan is thousands of miles away so I cannot relate to that. Let me tell you what South African Bishop Desmond M. Tutu said in 1984: “Some people may want to say to you that what you do ten thousand miles away doesn't affect South Africa, but what you do reverberates around the world.” End of quote. Many of you remember his opposition to the white minority regime in South Africa which imposed apartheid or legalized segregation on the Black population. That was an evil system. You also remember the massive protests and rallies against apartheid in South Africa in the United States and all over the world. I witnessed the arrests of the wife of a prominent civil rights leader, a state senator, and a congressman at the Chicago South African consulate in the 1980’s. But why are there no massive protests and rallies against the current genocide in Sudan against Black Africans? Is not genocide is an evil system? It is not your fault that you did not know. Why the silence from those who do know?
The publication Christian Week from Canada asks why the silence on Sudan. The web publication Nativ says the term genocide is used freely in reference to Rwanda or Bosnia, but although it is estimated that 2 million non-Muslims have been killed in Sudan, the world hesitates to call this genocide. Here is a quote from a World Council of Churches meeting in Zimbabwe in 1998 "We, the Sudanese delegates and participants and supporters of the Sudanese people's struggles for justice, freedom and religious tolerance, are deeply disturbed by the lack of concern by the World Council of Churches on the issue of the Sudan conflict.”
I salute the few Black Pastors who have already taken a stand and communicated with the Democratic Congressional Black Caucus on this issue in 2000 and I commend Congressman Donald Payne and non-voting Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton from the Caucus not only trying to bring attention to this issue, but also for Congressman Payne to take a bold stand and be the only Black congressman to co-sponsor the bi-partisan House version the Sudan Peace Act, authored by Congressman Chris Smith, which was signed into law on October 22, 2002.
However, a holocaust goes on at this moment in Sudan. In the 1990’s, 750,000 Black African civilians were murdered in Rwanda. That was also true holocaust and a clear case of genocide. I did not hear any protests from anyone. I just wonder where the outrage was then any government, including our own in 1994, did not take any action to stop the slaughter in Rwanda. Journalist Barbara Reynolds wrote a commentary in 1999 that was published in the Chicago Defender that was called “Why Kosovo and not Rwanda?” I ask why Kosovo and not Rwanda and not Sudan? Colin Powell, who worked behind the scenes with the Sudan Peace Act, calls it ‘the worst human rights nightmare on the planet.’ Yet why the relative silence? Where are all the voices of outrage from those who know?
Why the outrage about apartheid in South Africa and not genocide in Sudan? Where are all the Black leaders when you need them the most? It is not your fault that you do not know, but why the silence from the rest?
After around 2 million dead Black Africans, I wonder how many more dead bodies will it take to make the situation in Sudan qualify to be a tragedy.
Later on you will have the opportunity to call in. if you think that genocide in Sudan is worse than apartheid in South Africa give us a call. If you disagree with me and think that genocide is not really a bad thing after all and we have no business telling other nations not to slaughter their own citizens you can give us a call at 708-333-2535.
(As of September 16, 2004, there is a cease fire in Southern Sudan.)
Click here and buy the book:
COMMENTARY – Sunday March 2, 2003 by Robert Oliver on Interactions, WBEE 1570AM, Harvey/Chicago
Ladies and Gentleman, what I’m about to tell you is no secret. It has been covered in the Village Voice, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and many other newspapers. There are numerous articles on the Internet about it. Yet I’m willing to bet that you are hearing of it for the first time today. And I bet after I finish talking you will wonder why the silence? Why all the silence about genocide in the African country of Sudan?
This is a letter to the editor in Chicago Tribune on July 29, 1999, which says: “The ongoing catastrophe in Sudan stands as the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today. There are no exceptions. An amplifying paraphrase needn't be added. Sudan, geographically largest of African nations, bears this ghastly distinction with agonizing clarity.
“Numbers tell only part of the story, but they are sufficient for the moment. A carefully assembled set of data for the US Committee for Refugees makes evident that almost 2 million human beings have perished in the most recent phase of Sudan's ongoing civil war. As many as 5 million refugees have been created, making the refugee problem alone the greatest of its kind in the world. And at the height of last summer's famine, over 2 million more human beings, mainly children, were at risk of starvation.
“And the catastrophe continues: famine, epidemic disease, human enslavement, and scorched earth warfare remain defining features of the landscape in the south, where the civil war has been so devastatingly concentrated.
“And yet Americans remain disturbingly unaware of the dimensions of this human disaster. How can this be? How can we as a country have heard so much about Serbian depredations in Kosovo, and yet be almost completely ignorant of a humanitarian crisis that dwarfs in all measurable ways the suffering in all the recent Balkan conflicts?” End of quote. Yet many of you are hearing this for the first time and many are asking yourselves why aren’t people like the antiwar protesters speaking out about it. That is exactly what a man asked me after a community meeting. He asked, “why aren’t all those protesters speaking out against it?” My question is why are not they and why are not our recognized Black leadership speaking out against it? Like I said, the genocide is no secret. And it is not your fault that you do not know.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me read you a statement released last February 11 from the U.S. State Department: “The United States has reviewed the report released February 9, 2003 by the Civilian Protection Monitoring Team demonstrating that the Sudanese army and their allied-militia forces deliberately targeted and displaced civilians during operations in the oil-rich Western Upper Nile region of southern Sudan in December and January. We condemn these unconscionable attacks and abuses against civilians.”
What I’m about to read to you is not pleasant, but it is absolutely real. This is a report from WorldNetDaily.com on February 15 (2003): “The bones of scores of villagers litter a ‘killing field’ left in the wake of an unprovoked attack by Sudan's militant Islamic regime in which as many as 3,000 unarmed civilians died, according to a team of fact-finders. Dennis Bennett of the relief group Servant’s Heart recently returned from Upper Nile Province where he and his colleagues heard local survivors tell of a massive attack they believe killed between one-third and one-half of the 6,000 people who lived in the villages of Liang, Dengaji, Kawaji and Yawaji…In the April 2002 attack, heavily-armed government forces reportedly struck in the early morning as the villagers slept, launching a rampage of killing, looting and burning down houses. Residents said the attackers were armed with 60 millimeter mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, 12.7 millimeter heavy machine guns and AK-47 assault rifles. In a videotaped interview, villager Tunya Jok said he witnessed his 4-year -old daughter being shot and killed as she fled from the soldiers. Later, his 6-year-old son was captured and beheaded by the soldiers. The boy's body was thrown into a burning hut and his head planted upright, facing away from the dwelling. Awtio, subchief of the village of Liang, said a young girl named Yata was captured by the soldiers and thrown into a fire. Others fled into the bush and died there, he said.”
The Arab Government from the North is targeting the Black Muslim, Black Christian, and Black amimist population from the south. Have you heard of the Dinka tribe. That is one of the tribes that the government of General (President) Omar Hassan Al-Bashir is targeting.
Why the silence? Yes, even chattel slavery, which we African Americans are intimately familiar with, is going on right now in Sudan, Arabs enslaving Blacks. There are people who deny that is going on today. However, Rev. Al Sharpton went to Sudan and has testified that chattel slavery is indeed going on now. Only Rev. Sharpton and very few others have been outraged that this can be allowed to continue. But why the silence from the rest? Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham and President of international relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, said in the Wall Street Journal, “when several thousand Europeans are killed and tens of thousands displaced, the world calls it genocide. But when 1.9 million black Africans are killed and millions more are displaced, tortured, and even sold into slavery, the world remains strangely silent.” It is not your fault that you do not know, but why the silence from the rest?
Some of you in the listening audience may be telling yourselves that Sudan is thousands of miles away so I cannot relate to that. Let me tell you what South African Bishop Desmond M. Tutu said in 1984: “Some people may want to say to you that what you do ten thousand miles away doesn't affect South Africa, but what you do reverberates around the world.” End of quote. Many of you remember his opposition to the white minority regime in South Africa which imposed apartheid or legalized segregation on the Black population. That was an evil system. You also remember the massive protests and rallies against apartheid in South Africa in the United States and all over the world. I witnessed the arrests of the wife of a prominent civil rights leader, a state senator, and a congressman at the Chicago South African consulate in the 1980’s. But why are there no massive protests and rallies against the current genocide in Sudan against Black Africans? Is not genocide is an evil system? It is not your fault that you did not know. Why the silence from those who do know?
The publication Christian Week from Canada asks why the silence on Sudan. The web publication Nativ says the term genocide is used freely in reference to Rwanda or Bosnia, but although it is estimated that 2 million non-Muslims have been killed in Sudan, the world hesitates to call this genocide. Here is a quote from a World Council of Churches meeting in Zimbabwe in 1998 "We, the Sudanese delegates and participants and supporters of the Sudanese people's struggles for justice, freedom and religious tolerance, are deeply disturbed by the lack of concern by the World Council of Churches on the issue of the Sudan conflict.”
I salute the few Black Pastors who have already taken a stand and communicated with the Democratic Congressional Black Caucus on this issue in 2000 and I commend Congressman Donald Payne and non-voting Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton from the Caucus not only trying to bring attention to this issue, but also for Congressman Payne to take a bold stand and be the only Black congressman to co-sponsor the bi-partisan House version the Sudan Peace Act, authored by Congressman Chris Smith, which was signed into law on October 22, 2002.
However, a holocaust goes on at this moment in Sudan. In the 1990’s, 750,000 Black African civilians were murdered in Rwanda. That was also true holocaust and a clear case of genocide. I did not hear any protests from anyone. I just wonder where the outrage was then any government, including our own in 1994, did not take any action to stop the slaughter in Rwanda. Journalist Barbara Reynolds wrote a commentary in 1999 that was published in the Chicago Defender that was called “Why Kosovo and not Rwanda?” I ask why Kosovo and not Rwanda and not Sudan? Colin Powell, who worked behind the scenes with the Sudan Peace Act, calls it ‘the worst human rights nightmare on the planet.’ Yet why the relative silence? Where are all the voices of outrage from those who know?
Why the outrage about apartheid in South Africa and not genocide in Sudan? Where are all the Black leaders when you need them the most? It is not your fault that you do not know, but why the silence from the rest?
After around 2 million dead Black Africans, I wonder how many more dead bodies will it take to make the situation in Sudan qualify to be a tragedy.
Later on you will have the opportunity to call in. if you think that genocide in Sudan is worse than apartheid in South Africa give us a call. If you disagree with me and think that genocide is not really a bad thing after all and we have no business telling other nations not to slaughter their own citizens you can give us a call at 708-333-2535.
(As of September 16, 2004, there is a cease fire in Southern Sudan.)
Click here and buy the book:
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