Darfur Conflict in Sudan
Mar 30th, 2009, in News, by Patung
Indonesian attitudes to the Darfur issue in Sudan, in comparison to Palestine.
Darfur
On 12th March the government of Indonesia expressed its disapproval of the issuance of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 4th March against the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, for war crimes and crimes against humanity (but not genocide).
The ICC prosecutors claim that Bashir and other high level Sudanese political and military leaders bear direct responsibility for the killing, raping and forcible removals of a large number of ethnic African civilians in Darfur, by Arab militias called Janjaweed.
An official announcement from Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Department stated that the issues of “promotion of justice” (punishing criminals) and “pursuit of peace” (ending the conflict) should be kept in better balance, with the arrest warrant tipping the scales to the former too much.
Indonesia recently supported an unsuccessful motion at the UN Security Council, along with many African Union and Arab League countries, to force the ICC to “defer” its investigations into crimes in Darfur.
Indonesia did urge the government of Sudan to cooperate better with the ICC, particularly over the arrest warrants for former Interior Minister, Ahmed Haroun, and Janjaweed leader, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman. Any such cooperation however must take into account the principle of complementarity, and allow for Sudan to handle the matter through its own justice system. beritasore
Meanwhile on the same day, 12th March, the Deputy Governor of Darfur province, Abdelrahman Aljien, made his way to Bogor City Hall and the Bogor Presidential Palace, as part of an official visit to Indonesia.
He was entertained by Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto, who discussed with him the possibilities of increasing cooperation between Darfur and cities in West Java such as Bogor, as well as Cirebon and Bandung, in the areas of small industry and agriculture. thejakartapost
Palestine
While the issue of Darfur is rarely mentioned in domestic politics that of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often so, particularly with the recent fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Generic ‘Save Palestine’ banner on the street.
As part of their coalition agreement for the 2009-2014 period the party of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), Partai Demokrat, and the Justice Party/Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) have made a “political contract” to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation, says Anis Matta of the PKS.
Election banner of Partai Demokrasi Pembaruan.
Apart from freeing the Palestinians and ending a 50 year old conflict in the middle east the PKS and Partai Demokrat also agreed to wage war on corruption within the country.antara
PKS = Palestina Kita Sayangi
34 Comments on “Darfur Conflict in Sudan”
-
Yellow Daisy says:
Sorry to say, but I think the Indonesian gov is bias.
-
sputjam says:
Its simple really.
In sudan, they have been at each others throat for generations. Much like what happened between Aceh province and the rest of indonesia. A local matter. A turf war for good grazing land, which is getting scarce due to dessertification process as the sahara gets larger by the day. Both these people are still sudanese.
If the colonial power had not created sudan, there would probably be several countries within the same area. The so called arabs in sudan are as african and their neighbour. They were the Nubians during the days of Pharoah but has since embrace arab culture in the same manner the egyptians did further north.
In Israel, it is between new immigrants chasing the natives living there. when those guys left, they were not allowed to return and their properties confiscated. Therefore, Israel is not a very democratic country as those who were previously inhabitants, are denied the right to vote and to become citizens.
-
Aluang Anak Bayang says:
Just like obesity, pedophilia and homosexuality, skin colour based solidarity is a western disease. Look like the Blackies and Islamists are infected.
-
Mike Oxblack says:
Usual enlightened weltanshaung from AAB there. It’s rarely that you see such a deeply rooted inferiority complex.
-
pjbali says:
I wonder how well political rhetoric from the PKS resonates with those poor Ahmadiyah who have been sitting in a refugee camp in Lombok since 2006. Shouldn’t some political effort go into getting the ahmadiyas back into their homes before turning their efforts outside the country. Don’t hear any politicians talking about that.
Apparently you get more political mileage propagating hatred of foreigners than doing something positive for your own people. -
Oigal says:
In sudan, they have been at each others throat for generations
Unlike the Middle East were peace and dove raising is a multi nation pastime
If the colonial power had not created sudan, there would probably be several countries within the same area.
Unlike Indonesia?
The so called arabs in sudan are as african and their neighbour
Not even sure what is being said here but if it being suggested that they are same enthic groups..wrong
Israel is not a very democratic country
Actually very democratic and in comparison to their neighbours a paragon of democracy although a somewhat (and some would say understandably) very aggressive foreign policy.
It is indeed simple though, thousands more muslims are being murdered every day by other muslims and not a peep of protest. In practice, some Muslims are more equal than others. Any protest to the otherwise, flying in the face of facts readliy evident.
-
schmerly says:
AssmadsBitch..Why are you so riddled with envy of the West?
Just like obesity, pedophilia and homosexuality, skin colour based solidarity is a western disease. Look like the Blackies and Islamists are infected.
How many more times are you going to drag out the same old broken record? don’t you ever get bored posting the same old rhetoric?
-
andrey says:
Sputjam you should do research before talking.
Sudan was a solid part of the egypt province of the ottoman caliphate before the British came.
Apparently the black sudanese did thought of their egyptian brothers as, well brothers, since they
agreed to a union with egypt after independence. -
hary says:
Why? Because it is not PC to condemn a fellow Muslim. Easier to take pot shots at the Jews.
Skin colored based solidarity is a very Muslim concept that extended it to faith based brotherhood.
In fact, white Europe was perpetually at war with each other for the last 500 years. There is little historical evidence that white men always stick together.
White Prostestant Germany was merrily killing white Protestant Dutch, Danes and Belgians during WW2.
It was the Prophet Mohammad (s.a.w.) who taught that Muslims were now part of the same family and should not fight or kill each other.
I say let’s condemn acts of violence and wickedness from whatever faith it comes from.
G-D is too big for one religion. -
@ Audrey,
Not sure that the Sudanese agreed to a union with egypt as you say. They were administered jointly by the British after which Sudan gained independance.
It was not the same as Singapore agreeing to be part of Malaya and then breaking away.
Black Sudanese are generally from the South with their own distinct culture. If at all they felt any brotherly love, it was with the Black Egyptians who lived in Egypt even before the coming of Islam.
The Arabization of Egypt started to occur only during the half milenium before Christ.
Prior to this, the great civilisation of Egypt and Nabia was quite black. It is only today hat we think of Egyptians as Arabs and fairer skin.
On a lighter note, I once met a man at a dinner party who announced that the Pyramids were a marvel of Muslim ingenuity and Islamic achievement. His reason… it was built by the Egyptians!!! -
Mr Tic Tac Toe says:
Not sure that the Sundanese agreed to a union with egypt as you say.
I think sundanese preferred to join RI, instead of egypt or negara pasundan. 🙂
-
Oh wow, it has been fixed. Sorry then.
-
Lairedion says:
Yes I fixed it.
-
I say let’s condemn acts of violence and wickedness from whatever faith it comes from.
It would go a long way towards establishing a modicum of credibility thats for sure. I am cannot understand why the Muslim world does not speak in the case od Dafur. I can understand the middle east and palestine..too many agendas and dispute reaches into another down throught the ages. I would have thought Dafur was a simple straight forward case of an a’hole killing muslims using other muslims as his weapons of choice and yet the silence is deafing
-
Maybe Sudanese authorities are addicted to civil strife. If peace has not been achieved with the christian blacks, there may not have been a Darfur to begin with.
Muslims do not condemn the killings of fellow muslims by muslims as they consider it an “internal matter”.
Why on earth would anyone want to rule a place as harsh and dry as darfur? Are there energy deposits lying below the surface like the nation next to it? Why would anyone want to live there in the first place? It is turning into a dessert.
Israelis, on the other hand, like to show that they are the good boys of the Middle East. Never mind that they have ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of arabs from their land.
If they are a true democratic country they claim they are, then allow those inhabitants to return and live in peace with each other in one country, and not two seperate nations, which is being promoted now. -
Sputjam
If you are going to speak of ethnic cleansing please don’t forget to include the hundreds of thousands of jews kicked out of arab countries after 1948. Don’t think they were compensated either. Also ethnic cleansing hardly explains the 1.2 million arabs who are still living in Israel enjoying full freedom of religion – something that you can’t get in any other arab country (or muslim country for that matter). The concept of right -of-return is really just a polite way of asking the jewish state to self-destruct as the return of several milliion arabs into what is now israel would fundamentally change the makeup of the jewish state.
Its a laudable goal to have arabs and israelis living together peacefully. Unfortunately the level of animosity between the two groups is very high and anyone reaching out from either side is viewed with suspicion. The example of a palestinean youth orchestra which was disbanded by the PA after it performed for a group of holocaust survivors illustrates my point.
-
Burung Koel says:
Its a laudable goal to have arabs and israelis living together peacefully.
Maybe I’m only dreaming, maybe I’m just a fool
But I don’t remember learning how to hate in Sunday School: -
Pardon me, but didn’t the arabs and jews lived side by side peacefully before WWII?. It was only with mass migration of jews into what was then known as Pelstine, that created all these uneccesary animosity.
I really cannot see how the problem can be resolved if those who used to own properties in either Israel or Palestine are not allowed their rightful assets.
Sure, we can have a peace deal with the two nation solution, but that peace deal is not based on mutual trust. It is just something to satisfy the west. It will not stop rockets from insurgents.
We can have two people side by side in one nation, based on secular laws. The parliament will be limited to 50/50 seats to jews and arabs irrespective of the population. Jews get more land as they have so desired, and arabs get to go home. Any arabs or jews wronged by the other, will be dealt with by an equivalent sentence.(an eye for an eye). A hung parliament will encourage both to seek each others view before implementing new laws.
A kind gesture of goodwill, will be rewarded with equal kindness, except when dealing with religious fanatics, whereby logical thoughts are totally ignored.
It is now stalemate. If the one nation suggestion is not accepted, I cannot see how the two people can live in peace. Best for them to fight it out till winner takes all.
-
bk
btw excellent choice for a song. Steve Earle is a personal favorite of mine.
-
Cukurungan says:
It would go a long way towards establishing a modicum of credibility thats for sure. I am cannot understand why the Muslim world does not speak in the case od Dafur. I can understand the middle east and palestine..too many agendas and dispute reaches into another down throught the ages. I would have thought Dafur was a simple straight forward case of an a’hole killing muslims using other muslims as his weapons of choice and yet the silence is deafing
Pak Oigal Yth,
Do you know what is History, in case you do not know I tell you that History is the self repeating occurrence among the mankind who life on earth, if you are willing to see the world in more honest way, please widen your time zoom. In this evolving world, some tribes or nation have reached civilization earlier than the other nation and tribes, in other word, some tribes or nation have already evolved longer than the other. What happened in the Dafur, Rwanda or Congo is evolving process that no different with once upon time also occurred in Europe, America and Asia (people killing other people) and the only different is they are coming in the different time.
If you could not understand about our stand toward Dafur Conflict, so do I could not understand why the western allies has no courage to topple North Korea regime, Burma regime and Zimbabwe regime while those regime are not lesser evil than Saddam regime.
Let be honest what is the motive the western world so concern about Dafur conflict while letting Congo, Zimbabwe and Rwanda conflict un-heard, the answer could be beneath the Dafur desert that there are un-tapped plenty of gas and oil reserve.
-
Ross says:
Why on earth would people expect much in the way of sympathy for refugees/ and or oppressed people, from the Indonesian regime? Look at what they are doing – or not doing – to help the refugees in Lombok.
Last I heard, the provincial administration down there was discontinuing assistance and telling the poor folk that they’d have to mend their ways otherwise the Islamist pigs who drove them from their homes might not welcome them back!If SBY is thus indifferent to the suffering of displaced innocents in his own backyard, we should not kid ourselves that his ministers will pay much heed to the plight of Sudanese.
Now Palestinians, of course, are different. They now seem to rival the Jews as ‘victims extraordinaire.’
Sure they have suffered a lot, as indeed have Jews, but nobody should give either group special status in relation to the millions of other refugees etc who deserve sympathy. Charity begins at home, Indonesia. -
Sputjam … There at least three other threads on IM where you can tout the ARAB VS ISRAEL line to your hearts content, along with all the half truths and lies that accompany both sides.
I realise that Patung has been very sneaky here, but he has named the thread Dadur, conflict in the Sudan, maybe thats a hint on what the thread is about?
Perhaps it could go ten posts before it gets hi-jacked?
In the meantime:
If they are a true democratic country they claim they are, then allow those inhabitants to return and live in peace with each other in one country, and not two seperate nations, which is being promoted now.
1. Since when does a democracy mean open borders?
2. I assume you mean like HAMAS and FATAH live in peace now? Yep I can see Israel would be keen on that plan.The parliament will be limited to 50/50 seats to jews and arabs irrespective of the population.
Eeer thats not a democracy.. Indonesia tried a simlair system with allocated seats to certain groups..didn’t work out so well as i recall.
We can have two people side by side in one nation, based on secular laws.
Do you really think HAMAS would even consider such a thing..seriously?
A kind gesture of goodwill, will be rewarded with equal kindness, except when dealing with religious fanatics,
Fairly sure a visiting cricket team in Pakistan would disagree
Never mind that they have ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of arabs from their land
Really.. displaced a more than few rightly or worngly but ethnically cleansed.. I think you need to do some more research from reliable sources
Now about we talk about Dafur and the failure of the world including muslims to react to a monster
-
If you could not understand about our stand toward Dafur Conflict, so do I could not understand why the western allies has no courage to topple North Korea regime, Burma regime and Zimbabwe regime while those regime are not lesser evil than Saddam regime.
Let be honest what is the motive the western world so concern about Dafur conflict while letting Congo, Zimbabwe and Rwanda conflict un-heard, the answer could be beneath the Dafur desert that there are un-tapped plenty of gas and oil reserve.
There’s a danger in seeing or portraying responses to these conflicts in terms of what ‘the western world’ thinks. There is no monolithic ‘western world’ view on any of these issues.
The default position of developed country governments to conflicts in the developing world is one of not giving a shit. It’s only when interests (political, economic) are directly threatened that governments tend to react. Darfur is not that kind of conflict. It doesn’t threaten western interests. Khartoum long ago gave any oil and gas concessions to China.
It was only after years of constant lobbying by humanitarian groups, international NGOs and others that the Darfur sitaution even got heard at the UN. In this sense, it is similar to Tibet, Zimbabwe and Burma. Many western governments wish these problems would just go away, but it is ordinary people with a concern for their fellow humans that maintain the pressure to do something.
-
diego says:
Another debate about the hostility between arabs (semite) versus jews (semite).
Leave them alone, would ya (they deserve it)? -
I’ll play muslim for fun:
There’s a danger in seeing or portraying responses to these conflicts in terms of what ‘the western world’ thinks. There is no monolithic ‘western world’ view on any of these issues.
There’s a danger in seeing or portraying responses to these conflicts in terms of what ‘the muslim world’ thinks. There is no monolithic ‘muslim world’ view on any of these issues.
-
Ross, excellent comment. Couldn’t agree more.
-
joao says:
I really miss schmerly’s old avatar…
-
Hi schmerly….
-
There’s a danger in seeing or portraying responses to these conflicts in terms of what ‘the western world’ thinks. There is no monolithic ‘western world’ view on any of these issues.
There’s a danger in seeing or portraying responses to these conflicts in terms of what ‘the muslim world’ thinks. There is no monolithic ‘muslim world’ view on any of these issues.
Exactly.
“Fear’s a powerful thing,
It’ll turn your heart black you can trust,
It’ll take your God-filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust.”
Comment on “Darfur Conflict in Sudan”.
Copyright Indonesia Matters 2006-2023
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Contact
Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, and his cronies, can butcher, rape and displace millions of men, women and children, but that’s OK he’s a brother Moslem so lets look the other way, you wont see any banners in the streets of Indonesia condemning him.