...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad

Normalizing genocide:  The usual suspects are defending one of their own—Sudan’s Butcher of Khartoum.  At the same time, the butcher is looking to favourable optics from the Beijing Olympics to divert attention away from the ongoing butchery. From Islam Online:

CAIRO — Training barefoot in the hot sand and borrowed spikes, Sudan's Olympians, half of them from war-torn Darfur, hope to take their country into international limelight, rising above the lingering Darfur conflict.

"We see this as an opportunity to bring us together and lift up the country," runner Abdullah Nyala told the Washington Post on Monday, August 4.

"We have all tribes on the team, and there is no problem."

Nyala, whose parents are from Darfur, was wearing slick black Nike gear when he qualified for the 1,500-meter Olympic competition.

When he finished, thousands of jubilant fans in Khartoum's half-crumbling stadium chanted "Sudan's on top! Sudan's on top!"

The Darfuri runner hopes to hear the enthusiastic chants in the Beijing Games, to start on Friday, August 8.

But his hopes and those of his teammates are being overshadowed by the Darfur conflict.

"People ask you about the troubles," said runner Nawal El Jack, a shy 19-year-old woman who qualified for the 400-meter competition.

"They'll ask what's the reason behind the fighting."

The Darfur conflict broke out in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the Khartoum regime accusing it of discrimination.

The UN estimates some 300,000 people have died in the conflict, while Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.

No independent field-research accounts are available to date.

One Sudan

Half of the Olympians from Darfur and two of them hail from warring tribes.

Abubaker Kaki Khamis, considered a gold medal contender in the 800 meters, is from the Misseriya tribe.

Ismail Ahmed Ismail, who reached the finals in the 800 meters at the 2004 Athens Games, is Fur, one of the most victimized tribes in the conflict.

But this seems irrelevant and they hope their presence at the Beijing Olympics will project a unified Sudan to the whole world…

Well, as long as you can project a unified Sudan without actually having to be a unified Sudan, I guess you’ve done your job.

Posted by: scaramouche at 16:17 | link | comments

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