I set out to prove them wrong. But over the border in Darfur it was very difficult to work out how supportive the IDPs were of the ICC. Govt threats and intimidation made it hard for people to speak freely. The best I could come up with was that people wanted to go home. It was tempting to interpret this as placing peace ahead of justice but this would have been placing words in their mouths.

I don’t have any answers about the best way to get around these problems but this post brilliantly flags up the difficulties.

I think the way you portray the ‘Esh Reagan’ naming in South Kordofan is actually quite consistent with my story here. Desperation is not mindlessness, but it does lead to a particular angle on the issue…

Dear Khalid,

The Panel has just given itself another two months, in order to conduct another round of discussions with all the stakeholders, to debate the recommendations. Perhaps not long enough. But so far the Panel has spent more time listening than any other high-level international figures.

Dear Omer,

the point you raise about the northern Sudanese is extremely important. The construction of the Sudanese conflicts as center versus periphery ignores the way in which authoritarian governments have abused the people of the geographical center as well. I was once confronted by a resident of Tutti Island, right in the very center of the center, pointing out the lack of basic services on his island, leading to the conclusion that the center is marginalized too…

By the way, there is a nice commentary on this posting on ‘Wronging Rights’.

There’s a saying in most Arabic countries that that if you want to learn the truth about your country,listen to the BBC World Service on the radio. This clearly doesn’t apply anymore even to the general mainstream media due to their lack of objectivity and general journalistic laziness when it comes to the issue of Sudan. People in desperate situation believe irrational claims to quench their bitterness.

The Darfuri people need to take into account that this government (prior to this conflict) has done a lot to develop Darfur despite the sanctions, depleted economy and the horrific war in South. The majority of Sudanese Armed Forces consisted of those same Darfuri tribes the Prosecutor alleges President Bashir tried to exterminate from Sudan. It would’ve been insane therefore for President Bashir to exterminate their tribes during a time in which their men were still needed to fight in the South (2003 when the war started until of the North/South civil war)
I will not discuss the issue of the janjaweed as the main cause of violence because that term has been discussed thoroughly well in this blog.

Even though the main victims of this war have been Darfurians, the issue of justice should also be discussed amongst the Northern Sudanese, a group which has been completely ignored even relegated to a point where people do not know that they exist. What would be the implication if a Northern Sudanese is subjugated to what they believe would be falsified justice. I personally believe that the prosecution of President Bashir will force the Northern Sudanese public, to become more hostile towards the Darfurians and Southern Sudanese. Many people I’ve come across in Northern Sudan expressed a sense of elation at the prospect of the South seceding in 2011, they have felt that they have carried the back of much of the troubles in Sudan and it would be best if all went their separate ways even Darfur so that no longer will the “evil Arab, Jalaba or devil on horse back” would be blamed for their troubles.

Thanks for your article.

Just few comments to make before I rush to the conflict zone in the North of Sri Lanka.

1. I think that most of the interviews are conducted to give an impression of a fact finding process while the interviewers already had in mind the answers they want and the answers they are going to get. It is naive to assume that is an act of “not knowing the rules of interview”. Aid agencies has developed very sophisticated tools for rapid participatory appraisal that are meant to extract most accurate information with the least bias and external influence. However, as I guess, the intention wan not to find facts, rather than to manipulate facts to serve the interests of the interviewers.

2. Again, with regards to Esh Reagan, I happen to be in South kordofan at that time, and believe me, when people gave the names to their children after Reagan, that was not a simple act of desperation or ignorance or that they were mislead. Even if you can afford to buy food, still you may die of hunger since the issue was the lack of any supply of food. You can imagine what it meant to get the USAID food at that critical point of time to the families that were watching their kids starving to death while the government was continuing its denial and claims that it is a “food gap” and not a “famine”. With all my criticism to the politics of international aid, nonetheless, I think those who claim that Esh Reagan was small factor in saving the situation, are really suffering from a serious short memory issue, and I just do not want to imagine, what price in lives we could have paid to reach the rainy season without Esh Reagan. Let us just try not to undermine the intelligence of these people, and what it meant to them, when they give a name to their children. It is normal for the Sudanese sometimes to play ignorant to make fun of things and situations, this is of course notwithstanding the fact that some people might not have known who Reagan was at the initial stage of the relief operation.

3. With the same token, I don’t see any act of desperation when Darfurians give OKambo name to their children. The world is becoming a very small village. Even the IDPs have a good access to information from radio, political gossips and lots of other sources, and are quite aware of who is Okambo and what he represents for them. For me, it is an absolute act of gratitude to the person, and the institutions behind him, who is trying very hard to bring to justice the persons responsible for their current misery and sufferings. And Alex, how realistic is it to expect these people to talk to you about their own wishes to bring Beshir to Justice? that would be asking too much of them and they have already expressed that wish in their own indirect ways by supporting the ICC through giving Okambo name to their kids. There is a lot of intimidation and fear, and it justifies why they describe Beshir “payment” in that way.

It reminded me of the BBC report that two thirds of the babies born in some towns in northern Nigeria in the months after September 11 were named “Osama”.

Both episodes reveal much about the desperation that ordinary people feel in these deprived and powerless parts of the world. Neither act of naming should be read as a political manifesto.

Back in 1985, the relief food was called “Reagan” but the people who ate it weren’t always well-informed about the donor: “Who is this Reagan?” asked one, “he ought to be promoted!” Another suggested that Reagan was “King of the Jews.” I was introduced to several infants called “Reagan” and was told there were many more. What happened to them? I have yet to find a 25-year-old Darfurian bearing the name.