Good Choices

Very good news, indeed from the meeting of the African Union in Addis Ababa, where Sudan's Prime Minister al-Bashir has been passed over for the post of president. Although the post is reputedly lacking in any real powers, Bashir's holding the position was much opposed because of his failure to stop atrocities in Darfur, and as mentioned in yesterday's post, "See No Evil", his failure to enact the benefits to South Sudan that were called for in the agreement between the two areas of Sudan.

Recently our Secretary of State pointed to the 'success' of the administration in crafting an agreement between the North Sudan stronghold and South Sudan. It is an agreement which has been all but broken entirely, but Secretary Rice ignored or was ignorant of the actual state that exists between the two parts of Sudan

Mr Bashir was originally due to become AU leader in 2006 but this was postponed by a year.

"Sudan has voluntarily accepted to decline in favour of Ghana," said Sudan's Foreign Minister Lam Akol.
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One of the Darfur rebel groups had said AU peacekeepers would be treated as enemies if Sudan led the continental body.

The UN is agitating to send in peacekeeping troops to Darfur, but the Bashir government refuses to accept them. It has maintained throughout the genocidal attacks by janjaweed in Darfur that it does not support those scorched earth tactics, but it has not been active in preventing the attacks.

Originally, the AU meeting was supposed to concentrate on the issues of global warming and scientific developments, but the ugliness of the Darfur and Somalia conflicts has mandated an agenda that concentrates on the desperation in those areas.

UN Secretary Ban has taken an active role in trying to bring international opinion to bear on the intransigent al-Bashir. If he succeeds, it will be very much to his credit.