Gaddafi: Oil behind Darfur crisis

[Dover]

Muammar Gaddafi has accused the West of trying to grab Sudan's oil wealth with its plan to send UN troops to Darfur. The Libyan president, a mediator in several African wars, was echoing Sudanese criticisms of the proposed deployment as a Western attempt at colonisation.
Gaddafi also urged the Khartoum government to reject the proposal.

"Western countries and America are not busying themselves out of sympathy for the Sudanese people or for Africa but for oil and for the return of colonialism to the African continent," he said.

..snip..

He accused the West of wishing to defeat his plan to form a single African federal government in a so-called United States of Africa.

"The West exploits tribalism, sectarianism and (skin) colour to feed war, which leads to backwardness and Western intervention in a number of countries," he said.

"All the conflicts in Africa are caused by colonialism, which does not want the rise of the United States of Africa and works for division and interference and for military coups."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/988B0B25-3A07-454F-9E27-AE86560B2371.htm

[NVMojo]

1. there are some days I can see why he feels this way ...

[Dover]

3. They do it right here in this country. Coups-R-US..our most successful

export. The Basra incident (UK soldiers found imitating Arabs and shooting at Iraqi police) was just a small glimpse. They've been very busy this year with insurgencies all over the place.

And here at home, they just have to hype a hot button issue, steal some elections, create crisis, etc. to keep us all divided, stupid and weak.

[gulfcoastliberal]

2. I've heard this before...wasn't the Somalia intervention run out of an oil co hq?

That's what I read on the tubes.

[still_one]

4. funny but it was the UN, NOT the US who wanted to help, and funny about Russia's involvment

Perhaps it involves the export from Russia of advanced military equipment to the Khartoum regime. In fact both Russia and China have strong trade links with Khartoum.

The Sudan government denying arming Arab militias to drive black Africans from their homes IS A LIE. Let's get right to the issue, WHY DOESN'T SUDAN WANT THE UN TO STOP THE GENOCIDE, and why doesn't the world care?

Perhaps it is because it is Arabs killing black Africans, and the world is as racist as its actions are

[gaspee]

5. Normally, I'd be the first

To blame colonialism. But not in this case. We're (meaning the world) letting another genocide happen as we watch from the sidelines. Did anyone see 60 minutes last night? It's happening again as we watch from our comfy beds.

I know the US can't police the world, and in the case of Darfur, the US governement doesn't want to, but something has to be done.

Actually, it might be to late to do anything about the genocide in Darfur.

[anotherdrew]

8. well, then... oh and by-the-way, Momar helped CREATE the Janjaweed

we've got to invade, topple the Khartoum government, and start nation re-building in Sudan. oh joy. well, That is impossible... Why not let Momar and the "united states of Africa" fix this problem?

He may be right about certain forces trying to make use of the tragic events, but are "we/the west" the ones causing the events in the first place?

===

of course, Momar helped CREATE the Janjaweed in the first place:

The Janjaweed are a militia drawn from Darfurian and Chadian Arab-speaking tribes that became notorious for massacre, rape and forced displacement in 2003-2004.

The Janjaweed first emerged in 1988 after Chadian President Hissène Habré, backed by France and the United States, defeated the Libyan army, thereby ending Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi’s territorial designs on Chad. Libya’s Chadian protégé, Acheickh Ibn Omer Saeed, retreated with his Arab militia forces to Darfur, where they were hosted by Sheikh Musa Hilal, the newly-elevated chief of the Mahamid Rizeigat Arabs of north Darfur. Hilal’s tribesmen had earlier smuggled Libyan weapons to Ibn Omer’s forces. A French-Chadian incursion destroyed Ibn Omer’s camp, but his weapons remained with his Mahamid hosts, along with an Arab supremacist ideology associated with the Libyan-sponsored ‘Arab Reunion’. The Janjaweed are primarily "Abbala" or camel-herders, although some "Baggara" or cattle herders joined their ranks in 2004.

[rman]

10. Do you think colonialism excludes genocide?

I think genocide is simply the ultimate consequence of the divide-and-conquer strategy, as deployed all throughout the ages by the ruling class.

[IntiRaymi]

6. Map of the oil concessions in Darfur:

The companies involved are:

1) CNPC (China)
2) Petronas (Malaysia)
3) Sudapet (Sudan)
4) Gulf Petroleum Corporation (Qatar)
5) Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (Egypt, I assume)
6) Talisman Energy, Inc. (Canada)
7) TotalFinaElf (France)

Notice the absence of american companies in this area.

[The Stranger]

13. I often hesitate to use the term "smoking gun," but that map is very close.

[951-Riverside]

7. Removed.

[xchrom]

9. i'm all for ending the genocide in darfur --

but i do so wish that the african union had been more aggressive with addressing this issue.

both oil and racism are involved here -- and the west is damned if they do and damned if they don't.

[Odin2005]

11. It's China, not the West, that is the problem.

Gaddafi is a idiot, it's the West that has been trying to stop the genocide but can't because of China's veto power in the UNSC. I'm sick of idiots who think everything bad that happens to poor countries is the West's fault; there is a new bully on the block, China.

[happydreams]

12. If true this explains Bush's recent interest in getting involved.

I thought Bush just talking BS to make him look more humanitarian, then never follow up with action.

[eridani]

14. If he wants a United States of Africa--

--he's even more delusional than Bush. Conflicts have certainly been greatly aggravated by colonialism, but what is going on in Darfur (and what went on in Rwanda) is straight out of Thomas Malthus. (Five kids per woman of reproductive age is a recipe for major disaster in an arid and marginal agricultural region, unless they had world-spanning imperial armies to just grab what they needed. Which they don't.)