Recent revelations and events in Sudan continue to expose the ongoing campaign, by imperialist governments and “civil society,” to demonize and isolate Sudan. CBS News reported on March 26 that Israel had attacked a convoy of trucks in Sudan in January. They claimed these trucks were carrying weapons from Iran to Hamas, a Palestinian resistance organization. It was later reported by ABC News that Israel had in fact conducted three different strikes on targets it claimed were carrying weapons to the Gaza strip.
|
Israel obtains massive shipments of U.S. arms on a regular basis, and over the next decade has $30 billion worth of military assistance pledged to it by the United States. The recent Gaza massacre demonstrated how these weapons are likely to be used. Using U.S.-supplied high-tech weaponry and illegal munitions such as white phosphorous shells, Zionist forces killed over 1,400 Palestinians. By comparison, just 13 Israelis died, the largest number from friendly fire.
Even prior to the invasion, the Israeli military power maintained a suffocating blockade of the Gaza Strip. The massacre has greatly worsened the humanitarian crisis there.
The Israeli insistence that Palestinians have no right to resist this aggression, and that the Sudanese have no right to support the Palestinian people, reveals the imperialist double standard. Those it supports can kill and murder with impunity, while those who oppose their aims are isolated and attacked. So it is with Sudan.
The current Sudanese government has always been a supporter of the Palestinian national liberation struggle. It has led the increase in trade between China and the continent of Africa. China is the largest investor in Sudan’s oil, its chief industry. Sudan has also maintained ties with Iran and supports Hezbollah. All of this places the African nation at odds with the interests of U.S. and European imperialism.
Wrapping themselves in a cloak of “humanitarianism,” imperialist powers, with the assistance of so-called “civil society,” have manipulated the situation in Darfur to whip up a fury of outrage against Sudan and its leaders. This process culminated in the recent indictment for war crimes of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court.
Rather than improve the situation, these actions have in fact worsened conditions for the people of Darfur. On the one hand, the government has banned a number of “human rights” groups from providing aid in the camps. In camps controlled by rebels opposed to the Sudanese government, there have been efforts to prevent the government from providing aid altogether.
With a referendum looming in 2010 over the status of the southern part of the country, the sharpening of the conflict over Darfur threatens more violence all over Sudan. Sudan now faces continued attempts at diplomatic isolation, as well as brazen violations of its sovereignty such as the Israeli air strikes. Progressive and revolutionary-minded people in the United States should demand “Hands Off Sudan!” The campaign against Sudan will only lead to greater suffering for all the people there.
