Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Bogged Down
Make up your own mind, but take into account the following:
HRW's fact-checking resources are second to none in the human rights NGO sector and the organization is lauded for its restraint in writing reports. Further, its reports are far and away the most comprehensive of their kind.
The Khartoum government is Arab-dominated. The Fur people are Muslim, though not Arab. The Janjaweed is an Arab militia. Given the revolts of the JEM and the SLA, is that not reason enough to suspect collusion between the government and the Janjaweed?
The rejection of the report by Sudanese foreign minister, Mustafa Ismail was essentially an ad hominem dismissal of the report, proper, and not a substantive rejection of the report's claims. He said, ""It is easy to go to a typist and put a [letter] heading," and simply elaborated that the Khartoum government did not arm the Janjaweed. It's a bizarre way to deny a 10 page report full of sources.
Further, the report contains references to government documents ordering supplies to and orders for "knights" and"Mujahideen." Witnesses to the initial ethnic cleansing also report seeing Sudanese government aircraft launching airstrikes against villages coordinated to the Janjaweed attacks.