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 "Other Faces of Terror in Sudan"
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"Other Faces of Terror in Sudan"
Eric Reeves
May 22, 2003
A high-level meeting between the Foreign Minister of Khartoum's
National Islamic Front regime (Mustapha Ismail) and US Secretary of
State Colin Powell took place yesterday (May 21, 2003). Following the
meeting a State Department spokesman gave a thoroughly upbeat assessment
of Khartoum's "cooperation" on terrorism. This seems rather
dramatically at odds with the ominous account of Khartoum and terrorism
recently offered by New York Times investigative reporters, who claim to
have spoken with "senior counterterrorism officials" in the Bush
administration (May 17, 2003). But for establishing the record, perhaps
we should particularly note what the State Department has said on the
present occasion: "'We've had very good, and I think increasingly good,
cooperation with Sudan on issues of counterterrorism, working together,"
[State Department] spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters" (Agence
France-Presse and AP, May 21, 2003). "'I think it's safe to say that
Sudan is not the kind of haven for terrorists that it used to be, and
has been quite cooperative in many ways in terms of the work we've been
able to do with them since 9/11,' [Boucher] said" (Voice of America, May
21, 2003).
But just how capacious a view of terror and terrorism does the State
Department have? Do they know of the child in Nyala, Darfur Province,
who was recently arrested by the al-shorta al-sha'abiya ("Public Police
Force") and sentenced in an Islamic court to 100 lashes of the whip?
Can they imagine the terror that is presently the life of the 14-year
old girl sentenced to this barbarous punishment for "adultery"? (The
conviction was under Article 146 of Khartoum's 1991 Penal Code.)
Moreover, the young girl convicted is 9 months pregnant. A 25-year old
businessman, Alsir Sabeel Nour Aldeen, was charged in connection with
the incident, but was found not guilty and freed "for the lack of
evidence." (Details of this case have been provided by the Sudan
Organisation Against Torture
[SOAT] in a press release dated may 20, 2003---the day before the
National Islamic Front Foreign Minister's meeting with Secretary
Powell.)
If we wish to understand terror, and if we wish to understand the
meaning of Khartoum's imposition of shari'a (Islamic law) and its penal
provisions (hudud), then it should require no great imaginative exertion
to feel something of what this young girl is now feeling as she awaits
her ghastly punishment. Nor should it be forgotten that 100 lashes can
easily prove fatal, depending on the force with which they are
administered. Most importantly, it must not be forgotten that the
police that made the arrest and the court that convicted the girl are
both natural extensions of the National Islamic Front vision of
Sudan---all of Sudan.
Those who can justify the merciless whipping of a pregnant girl must be
seen for what they are. Foreign Minister Ismail must be seen not simply
as the always-smiling face of deft and expedient diplomacy, but as a
representative of unspeakable brutality and cruelty. His face, the
faces of all who represent the power of the National Islamic Front
regime, must be seen looking down upon this pregnant young girl as she
endures her savage punishment---and approving. The faces of the
Khartoum regime must be seen whenever we hear of the terror that has
been wrought with increasing fury of late in Darfur, and has been the
fate of southern Sudan and other marginalized areas for years and
years.
And we must hope that in assessing Khartoum, the US State Department
develops a fuller sense of what constitutes terror.>
Eric Reeves
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
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