Search Results for "favorite dictator"
Bold Words, from Sudan to Zim to the DRC
Published November 03, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT
Dictator Delusion Disorder
Congolese President Joseph Kabila boasted that his army is winning its battle to uproot extremist Hutu militias in the east, just as the UN withdrew its support for the Congolese army and human rights groups issued warnings about egregious violence committed by the troops against civilians.
A typical day at the office?
Says my favorite old curmudgeon Bobby Mugabe of his Prime Minister: "Even if some person is not mentally stable he is still your partner . . . . We bound ourselves to work together even though we had disparate position." So is he on or off the Christmas card list?
Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
Such is the gist of statements by Sudanese presidential adviser Ghazi Salahuddin on Obama's recently-released Sudan policy: "We believe that the U.S strategy toward Sudan is tactics more than anything else, and therefore we need the U.S. to come out with a true strategy dealing with the overall relations."
Who else would have the moxie to tell the Leader of the Free World, "You did it wrong. Go back and try again?"
Engaging with a Hostage-Taker
Published October 25, 2009 @ 08:59AM PT
Obama's administration finally, on Monday, October 19, unveiled its new Sudan policy As a policy, on paper, it sounded like there is something for everybody.
Many dictators in Africa had a good sleep that night. They never had such relaxing sleep since they saw on television some years back, one of their own fellows handcuffed and shipped to The Hague to stand trial on war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yes, every one of them saw his nightmare come true in seeing Charles Taylor, the ex-dictator of Liberia, hunted down, handcuffed, and taken to the International Criminal Court prison in the Netherlands waiting to be tried on crimes he had committed against his own people. A dictator in handcuffs was strong message to the rest of the dictators that, finally, accountability is on the way.
Omer Hassan Al Bashir, the dictator of Sudan, is a fugitive and wanted by international justice. The International Criminal Court has indicted him for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
The Dictator Daily
Published September 13, 2009 @ 07:54PM PT
Information control is a primary tenet of despotism, and all good dictators have their media mouthpieces to spread the party-line to the masses. (My personal favorite is The Herald of Zimbabwe.) Reading state-run news sources from authoritarian countries is part indulging the delusions of grandeur, and part reading between the lines.
The Sudan Vision Daily posted a recap of a speech by the country's War-Criminal-in-Chief Omar al-Bashir. A bit of decoding is in order, I think.
Bashir "pledged to do whatever necessary to achieve peace and justice across Darfur" - which is interesting, because, as one of the primary belligerents in the conflict, if Bashir really wanted peace and justice for Darfur, we would've seen it years ago. His means to that end, thus far, seem to favor all-out military victory over rebels and permanent displacement of civilians.
He also "reaffirmed the Sudanese government's commitment to holding elections at the proclaimed date"-- by which he means the revised date, delayed several times over - "and to protection to ensure free and fair elections" -- by which he means only free and fair so long as they ensure his victory, given that his government has failed to implement most of the democratic reforms mandated by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which would have paved the way for free, fair, and competitive elections.
His concern with "the need to exercise freedom of expression" makes one wonder if he even believes what he's saying, given recent passage of laws that do just the opposite, as well as the frequent arrest and disappearance of Sudanese human rights activists.
And then there's this doozy:
E-Cards for Your Favorite Dictator
Published April 22, 2009 @ 03:28PM PT
The following is a joint production of your favorite genocide and humanitarian relief bloggers.
We recently took a break from our normal back-and-forth - Darfur, genocide, Zimbabwe, genocide, a shared love of Live Your Life by TI (featuring Rhianna) - to ponder an equally important question. Why, why is it so difficult to find the perfect greeting card to send to your favorite dictator or despot?
Feeling somewhat let-down by the friendly folks at Hallmark, we decided to take matters into our own hands. Inspired by someecards.com, below are a few sentiments that we think make wonderful dictator greeting cards.
If you have any suggestions - both about other slogans, or the email addresses of various thugs to whom we might send such cards - we'd love to hear.
What to send to your favorite dictator on that special occasion
"Congratulations on dying in office."
"Congratulations on staying in power after completely destroying your own country."
"Way to rig that election!"
"I'm inspired by your callous disregard for human life."
"Here's to hoping you make it through the rainy season without contracting cholera."
"Merry Christmas: May the ghosts of massacres past leave you in peace this year."
"I love the way your thugs dress with such flair."
"I'm touched that you care enough to send your thugs to follow me."
"If I have to be tortured, I'd want to be tortured by you."
"I was disappeared and all I got was this lousy card."
"Way to put the 'F*ck You' in 'unity government.'"
"Power-sharing is for pussies." (I know, I know, but we couldn't resist the alliteration)
"Extra-judicial is extra-special."
"Exile is overrated."
"You're totally hot when you wave your fist."
And, because dictators need to express their feelings as well
"I have sent these militiamen to burn your house down. Don't ever cross me again. :) "
"Please accept my sincere apologies for sending the youth militias to your house at 3am this morning."
"I accept full responsibility for detaining you on bogus charges and torturing you within an inch of your life, but please understand that I was only fighting the forces of evil sent by the West to destroy me."
"I torture because I care."
"I send this fruit basket as an offering to make amends for denying the delivery of life-saving HIV medications to your local clinic."
Daily Darfur: A not-so-happy 20 years of dictatorship to you, Omar al-Bashir
Published June 30, 2009 @ 07:04AM PT
Today marks the 20th anniversary of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's Islamist-backed coup.
The BBC explains:
On 30 June 1989 he led fellow officers in a mutiny against Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. General Bashir said in a televised communique that the coup was "to save the country from rotten political parties".
The coup was also aimed at preventing the signing of a peace treaty with John Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). General Bashir opposed the plan, which would have allowed secular law, instead of Sharia, in the south.
A letter to the Guardian has a nice little review of Bashir's time in office:
In the past two decades he has waged two civil wars, taking the lives of more than 2.6 million people, and displaced a further 6.5 million; he has funded murderous rebel armies in Chad and Uganda; and most recently he has been indicted by the international criminal court for five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crime.
Of course, in the finest dictator style Bashir set out to defend himself in an interview with Sudan TV, saying he "saved" Sudan from "economic and military collapse".
Now just what do you get a dictator to celebrate his two decades in power? Perhaps an e-card?
"Congratulations on staying in power after completely destroying your own country."
"I'm inspired by your callous disregard for human life."
Or better yet, an indictment for genocide?
Daily Darfur: Immunity, Gift-Wrapped
Published July 06, 2009 @ 05:05AM PT
Special delivery, from the African Union to its favorite indicted war criminal: Immunity, a dictator's crucible of power.
The AU announced official non-cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday, in response to the arrest warrants issued for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. The resolution, passed by AU delegates at a meeting in Libya, states that member states will not comply with calls to arrest the beleaguered dictator. The resolution supposedly allows Bashir to move freely throughout the continent, rather than restricting travel to non-ICC signatory states.
Though troubling, and undoubtedly damaging, especially given the utter disregard for the many victims of Bashir's violent rule, the resolution is not entirely indicative of a strong united front against the ICC. The resolution does not ask members states to withdraw from the ICC, as has been threatened recently, and many are reported to have expressed significant discontent with the language. Is it perhaps the result of strong-arming by a select faction of AU leadership, with visions of their own chances for prosecution dancing in their heads?
It will be interesting to see just how far Bashir tests his new continental passport --- Botswana, for one, is distancing itself from the resolution, and continuing calls for his arrest and trial. I doubt Bashir is gutsy enough to make Botswana put its money where its mouth is and defy the AU, but I sure wish he'd try. (I wonder what would happen if Botswana was able to carry out the warrant?)
Giving Voice to Children’s Experience in War
Published April 11, 2009 @ 08:46AM PT
A few weeks ago Michelle posted a quote by Mother Theresa to open a discussion: "If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will." Regrettably, I did not participate in the discussion but it left me thinking long and hard about why my stomach lurches every time I read about genocide, mass violence and injustice in a newspaper or see pictures on the news. Because the way I see it, if I can dig beyond the ‘hard facts' to imagine the individual(s) involved, the people most impacted by these events are very real. Though they may not dress, speak, worship, eat or play exactly the way that I do, they are still the children who play practical jokes on each other, they are the teenagers who fall in love for the first time, the little boys who avoid their chores, the little girls who imitate their mothers and they are the families who know the grief of losing their home or livelihoods to forces beyond their control.
Memoirs are some of the best starting points for honing in on an understanding of ‘the one.' One of my favorites is a book called They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The true story of three Lost Boys from Sudan by Benson Deng, Alephosion Deng and Benjamin Ajak (with Judy A. Bernstein). In the 1980s, during the North-South civil war in Sudan, a group of approximately 27,000 boys --- many as young as five years old --- who had been orphaned or separated from their families by the violence that rained down on their villages by Sudanese government forces, migrated across the vast country to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. The book is told from all three boys' perspectives and takes the reader from memories of their childhood in their villages, through the initial violence, their trek across the country and into refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya to their resettlement in the United States.
