Human Rights

The Dictator Daily

by Michelle

categories: Darfur & Sudan, Genocide

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:

"Field Marshal, Omar Al-Bashir affirmed NCP's commitment to all peace and political agreements that were concluded with various national forces, and to working for implementing them regarding as covenants and conventions in pursuit of its ultimate goal which is to unify the nation, end conflicts, achieve national unity based on religious and national principles that will bring together all people with their different political parties and economic components so all will work for the unification of internal front starting with the stage of reintegration as a nominal objective toward the stage of alliance, coexistence among  components of political work."

All of which seems like a round-about way of saying to South Sudan: I dare you to secede.

Given that Bashir's path to unity involves more arming of ethnic militias than abiding by peace agreements, it doesn't seem like an entirely off-base interpretation.

[Photo from Reuters: Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.]