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Local Activist Reports On Fact Finding Mission To Sudan Local community activist, Zaki Baruti, recently returned from the Sudan as part of a national Black media fact finding mission led by Akbar Muhammad, the International Representative from the Nation of Islam. The thirty-one member delegation was in the Sudan April 14 – 20, 2007 and included a BET film crew, TV One members and a host of other radio personalities and newspaper writers from across the United States. The major focus of the trip was to examine from the Sudanese government viewpoint, the critical issues impacting the western region of Sudan, known as Darfur. Darfur is the size of Texas with a population of six million of the 27 million total population of the Sudan. Darfur is actually three separate states that make up a twenty-five state political system of the Sudan. The three Darfur states are North Darfur, South Darfur and West Darfur and their respective capitals are Al-Fasher in the North, Nyala in the South and Al-Geneina in the West. Darfur has been the center of international attention and controversy in recent years because of a brutal four year civil war begun in 2003 and allegations of genocide and ethnic cleansing leveled against the present Islamic government of the Sudan. These allegations maintain that over 400,000 people have been systematically killed and nearly 2 million more have been displaced and left homeless because of the government arming and support of militias known as the Janjaweed. Also, it has been alleged that Arabs were terrorizing and victimizing the native Black Africans. However, the government vehemently denies these accusations and presented their side of this important issue to the Black media delegation. It is their position, that there is a major/mass campaign of misinformation directed against the government; similar to the events that led to the present Iraqi War. This campaign of mass misinformation stems from three major Jewish lobbyist groups impacting the U.S. Foreign policy. These three groups are the Jewish American Council, The Holocaust Institute and the International Crisis Group. The Sudanese government feels that this unjustified campaign is a result of their refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli government. The delegation visit to the Sudan included Khartoum, the capital of Sudan and visits to South and North Darfur. While in Darfur, the delegation met with the Governors of South and North Darfur and also met with and seriously questioned a wide range of Sudanese government officials. These officials included the Minister of Culture, Advisor and Assistant to the President, the head of the Sudanese National Assembly and the Vice President. The highlight of the visit was a three hour meeting with the President of Sudan, His Excellency Omar Bashir. President Bashir succinctly explained that there was no systematic genocide or ethnic cleansing involving Arabs against Black Africans. In fact, all of Darfur is Arabic and actually the Arabs are black (which the delegation was able to observe). He said the death toll figures were absolutely distorted and stated that according to their figures, no more than 10,000 had been killed in the conflict, although there have been massive dislocation of people in the region. He further stated that the crisis existed because of a rebellion led by three groups, the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM), and Justice for Equality movement (JEM), and the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD). To complicate the situation, Bashir also emphasized the existence of the Janjaweed, who he described as outlaws that his government was trying to reign in rather than support as widely reported by the Western press. Several other key points Bashir articulated included the fact his government was trying to negotiate in good faith with the rebels of Darfur and had successfully worked out an agreement with one faction. He pointedly called upon the United States and other nations to exert pressure on the rebel groups to work toward a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Asked why his country had become an international focal point, Bashir acknowledged that the United States and other Western countries were attempting to destabilize his government and overthrow his political party. Finally, he stated that they welcomed the United Nations’ financial and logistical support in maintaining a ceasefire, but was adamant that only African Union troops should be on the ground supervising a tenuous truce. Quoting Bashir, “Africans should solve African problems.” The delegation also visited the pharmaceutical plant that President Clinton bombed August 20, 1998, claiming that the plant was making weapons of mass destruction. This allegation has been proven false and many felt Clinton had ordered the bombing as a diversion from the scandal he was involved in with Monica Lewinsky. Finally, on the last day of the trip, the delegation was treated to a lunch excursion and were able to see the Blue Nile which starts in Ethiopia, and the White Nile which begins in Uganda merge together as one in Khartoum as it flows northward through Egypt and empties into the Mediterranean sea. The trip to Sudan comes on the heels of Zaki’s visit to Ethiopia in January, 2007 to attend the African Union’s 8th Summit. He was also there to oversee his organization’s (The Universal African Peoples Organization) distribution of over 5,000 textbooks sent there to help fight illiteracy, as an extension of their International Humanitarian Relief Effort. For further information Zaki Baruti (314) 726-3442
Pioneer in Black Statewide Political Campaigns
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