Reuters and Wikipedia Dissappear Years of Genocide

Is the Clintonprop machine at work again? In a recent article Reuters states that the Darfur conflict started in 2003, and if you go to the Wikipedia entry, you will find the same lie. 2003/2004 was when the Bush adminstration took a breath in the war on terror and brought this before the United Nations with addresses by Colin Powell.

Is the Clintonprop machine at work again? In a recent article Reuters states that the Darfur conflict started in 2003, and if you go to the Wikipedia entry, you will find the same lie. 2003/2004 was when the Bush adminstration took a breath in the war on terror and brought this before the United Nations with addresses by Colin Powell.

However this conflict goes back a decade, and the Genocide started on President Clinton’s watch.

In the wikipedia article’s background section there’s a huge gap between 1985 and 2003, conveniently nothing must have happened?

Wrong.

This from Human Rights Watch:

The lack of good governance and democracy; and easy availability of guns have made local clashes increasingly bloody and politicized. A wide-reaching 1994 administrative reorganization by the government of President Omar El Bashir in Darfur gave members of Arab ethnic groups new positions of power, which the Masalit, like their Fur and Zaghawa neighbors, saw as an attempt to undermine their traditional leadership role and the power of their communities in their homeland.

Communal hostilities broke out in West Darfur among other places in 1998 and 1999 when Arab nomads began moving south with their flocks earlier than usual. During the 1998 clashes, more than sixty Masalit villages were burned, one Arab village was burned, approximately sixty-nine Masalit and eleven Arabs were killed, and more than 5,000 Masalit were displaced, most fleeing either into Geneina town or to Chad. Despite an agreement for compensation for both sides negotiated by local tribal leaders, clashes resumed in 1999 when nomadic herdsmen again moved south earlier than usual.

These 1999 clashes were even bloodier, with more than 125 Masalit villages partially or totally burned or evacuated and many hundred people killed, including a number of Arab tribal chiefs. The government brought in military forces in an attempt to quell the violence and appointed a military man responsible for security overall, with the power to overrule even the West Darfur state governor. A reconciliation conference held in 1999 agreed on compensation for Masalit and Arab losses. Many Masalit intellectuals and notables were arrested, imprisoned, and tortured in the towns as government-supported Arab militias began to attack Masalit villages; a number of Arab chiefs and civilians were also killed in these clashes. The barometer of violence crept steadily upward.

So you can see that real genocide was there during the Clinton Presidency, and nothing much was done about it. To be fair Clinton did the normal, diplomatic containment dance; while genocide was occurring and while Khartoum was home to Bin Laden. From Africa Action:

In the 1990s, the Clinton Administration focused on the isolation and containment of Khartoum, particularly in reaction to Khartoum’s hosting of Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden from 1991 to 1996. In the early 1990s, U.S. sanctions ended bilateral aid to Sudan, and in 1993, Sudan was added to the list of state sponsors of terrorism. The U.S. also supported a 1996 UN Security Council resolution censuring Khartoum for failing to extradite suspects in an assassination attempt on the Egyptian president. Finally, also in 1996, the U.S. removed any American diplomatic presence from Sudan. [editor’s note: this was the point maybe where Sudan offered to give us Bin Laden?] These ostracizing tactics had an impact on Khartoum, and in 1996, the Sudanese government responded by expelling Osama bin Laden and subsequently distancing itself from such terrorist networks.

Update: more on the Muslim Brotherhood and Osama Bin Laden ties to this conflict at Counter-terrorism blog.

History’s cold facts always deny the effectiveness of the isolation policy — from Genocide in Darfur, to starving millions in North Korea, to the millions who died under the Soviet Empire, isolation has shown that evil florishes when left alone. Death comes in the dark not the light, and containment only concentrates evil and misery.

6 thoughts on “Reuters and Wikipedia Dissappear Years of Genocide”

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  2. The most killing isolation is that of we-the-citizens from our most needy family. Let’s stop it.

    Bless you for your concern for Darfur. Join us and we-the-citizens will stop the Genocide. No one else can. No one else will.
    Several of us have decided to begin a RESCUE DARFUR FAST. One of us began 5 days ago, and several others today. Links below for the details.
    Nothing less than a worldwide fast-until-the-genocide-stops will be enough to stop it.
    Nothing less will be a sufficient moral response.
    Nothing less will preserve our humanity, yours and mine.
    Please consider linking (below) to increase the visibility of this effort.
    Jay McGinley jymcginley@cs.com
    Day 134 Darfur Vigil at White House; Day 68 Rescue Darfur Fast (since July 4, 2006)
    DARFUR Dying for Heroes
    http://darfurdyingforheroes.blogspot.com
    (you would find this a helpful resource)
    Please consider linking here to increase the visibility of this effort.

    http://darfurdyingforheroes.blogspot.com/2007/09/join-rescue-darfur-fast-till-it-stops.html
    http://darfurdyingforheroes.blogspot.com

  3. Mauro, thanks kindly for the link and for stopping by, I’ve posted a fresh article with the petition, and a link to your site.

  4. I have edited the Wikipedia article!
    It may get edited back; you may think I haven’t changed enough, but you can change it. This, of course, is why Wikipedia is completely useless for any but the most incontroversial of facts, but you can fight it!

  5. I think your change got edited back, at least the gap in the background section is still there.

    I left a comment in the discussion section. The wikipedia folks remind me of the “Galactic Encyclopedia” noted in Samuel Delaney’s great double novella “Empire Star” and “Babel-17”. In the story the galactic encyclopedia was also more interested in the accuracy and art of citation than the accuracy of their articles.

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