Despite the mounting death toll from the murderous attack on peaceful, unarmed demonstrators at Kalma camp (September 22, 2017, South Darfur, near Nyala), the U.S. embassy in Khartoum has responded to the attack with an utterly shocking version of moral equivalence between the murderers and the protestors: “The United States calls on civilians who exercise their right to protest to do so peacefully and to avoid any physical confrontation with security forces.” What “physical confrontation” by unarmed protestors, under the careful watch of men armed with automatic weapons, can possibly be invoked to mitigate the responsibility of al-Bashir’s murderers in this case? The latest figures from Radio Dabanga (full dispatch below) give us a sense of how violent the response was by Khartoum’s security forces, as ICC-indicted génocidaire Omar al-Bashir visited nearly Nyala:
The death toll among the victims of the demonstration near Kalma camp for displaced people on Friday “has now reached nine as more people died due to bullet wounds sustained during the attack”, according the Swiss Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre (DRDC). “The number of victims of injuries that currently need medical attention stands at over 30 people, some of them in critical health condition.
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One of the wounded from Kalma; it is unclear whether he survived this wound
Is there no memory of the August 2008 attack that began early in the morning (6 am), before people were awake, and in which dozens were killed and scores wounded? [See The Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2008 | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122065894281205691.html?mod=googlenews_wsj/]
What “physical confrontation” was there at the time? Khartoum’s murderous actions at Kalma are all too well documented over many years, and they include the denial of crucial humanitarian resources. Radio Dabanga reports as well on current confiscation of food and medicine bound for Kalma camp, which will certainly result in more malnutrition, illness, and deaths. There is simply no shared responsibility, as the U.S. embassy would have it. If there is blame to go around, UNAMID deserves its share for failing to heed thepleas for protection in advance of the demonstration (see | https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/darfur-displaced-unamid-statement-on-kalma-biased/].
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UNAMID watching helplessly as militia forces attack civilians near Kutum, North Darfur; the most shocking and fully reported example of UNAMID impotence was its failure to respond to the massacre at Tabarat, North Darfur, September 2010: see | http://wp.me/p45rOG-Gi
This shameless effort to mitigate the responsibility of Khartoum’s security forces in the murders of unarmed protestors is symptomatic of the attitudes of the U.S embassy under the Trump administration, particularly under the continuing authority of the chief U.S. diplomat in Khartoum, Charge d’Affaires Steven Koutsis (see | http://wp.me/p45rOG-24G/).
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The relentlessly disingenuous and callous U.S. Charge d’Affaires in Khartoum, Steven Koutsis
And sadly, we should expect to see more moral equivocation, disingenuousness, and indifference to Sudanese lives on the part of the Trump administration following its all too likely and completely October (2017) unjustified lifting of U.S. economic sanctions on the continuously genocidal regime that has rule Sudan tyrannically since it came to power by military coup in June 1989—twenty-eight years ago.
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Another victim of Khartoum’s violence against unarmed civilians
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And another…scores of photographs, as well as video footage, recorded the carnage
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“Security blocks movement in Kalma camp”: Darfur Documentation Centre
Radio Dabanga | September 26, 2017 | NYALA
https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/security-blocks-movement-in-kalma-camp-darfur-documentation-centre
Sudanese security forces in Kalma camp in South Darfur have been “conducting searches and arrest operations against individuals suspected of playing a role in organising the public protests against the visit of President Omar Al Bashir to the area last week.” Free movement and inflow of products to the camps reportedly are prevented.
The death toll among the victims of the demonstration near Kalma camp for displaced people on Friday “has now reached nine as more people died due to bullet wounds sustained during the attack”, according the Swiss Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre (DRDC). “The number of victims of injuries that currently need medical attention stands at over 30 people, some of them in critical health condition.
“At present, the security forces are besieging the main entry points to Kalma camp thus preventing free movement of people to and from the camp.” The documentation centre added that searches by the security service members at the camp gates, the vicinity of Kalma and the marketplaces in neighbouring Bielel and Nyala, resulted in a number of arrests of displaced people.
“The security forces are reportedly terrorising the merchants and transport workers and preventing the inflow of food items and other daily necessities from Nyala and other localities into Kalma camp. The security forces are especially seizing food items such as sugar, millet and sorghum, flour, fuel and medicines.” [This will soon result in further malnutrition, illness, and death in Kalma—ER]
The report of the civil society group follows a press statement the centre issued on the day of the deadly incident. Residents of Kalma camp, located near Nyala and with an estimated population of 120,000 people, went to the streets to protest against the planned presidential visit. On the day of Al Bashir’s visit to Kalma, security forces violently dispersed the peaceful demonstrators.
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(c) 2017 SUDAN Research, Analysis, and Advocacy