Spot on, Mr Lawes.The closest I’ve been to Sudan is on the border. The deeper you get into Upper Egypt, the more dark-skinned people become - yet these people will still insist they’re Arab, not African. So too in much of Sudan, where northern Sudanese Arabs assert their ‘superior’ racial pedigree. In the warped pecking order over there, the Saudis and Egyptians look down on Sudanese Arabs, who return the compliment by looking down on African Sudanese. When Bashir and the northern Sudanese National Islamic Front took power in the late 80s, there were over 400 ethnic groups in Sudan, with a third of the country remaining non-Muslim. Bashir and his crew tried to change this by implementing a ruthless Islamist regime, hosting a couple of Islamist congresses and granting sanctuary to that nice Mr Bin Laden.In 2003, groups in Darfur sought to assert themselves by resisting the Islamist government’s discrimination, racism and neglect. In response, the government armed the northern Arab Janjaweed in a strategy of rape, murder and robbery. The army got stuck in too.The result is what we see today.Darfur could be viewed as a colonial overhang – not of the British – but of the Arabs. While we’re regularly reminded of European colonialism from centuries past, we’re meant to politely cough and ignore the Arab colonialism in parts of the world. Race and religion make a heady brew. Until the Arab League goes against the grain and supports a UN peacekeeping force in preference to an Islamist stooge, very little will change. UN, NATO or EU intervention will be cast as anti-Muslim crusaders meddling in Arab affairs. The African Union is too busy fiddling while Zimbabwe burns.Until the West grows some balls, don’t get your hopes up. World opinion will change very little. Much of the aid over there will be trousered before even reaching its destination.
Fraser Pearce ● 6581d