I’ve been looking up facts about the Darfur killings and appart from the usual reports of human rights violations, I clicked links to people involved, including Idriss Déby, Omar al-Bashir, and others. Why are there so many dictators and so few leaders like Amadou Toumani Touré?
I was thinking of possibles solutions to the problem, and I see no peaceable one. The rebel groups won’t stop harassing the government. The government won’t stop harrassing the people. The only solution is to replace the government, but the people aren’t strong enough to do that and any foreign action to do so would be viewed as an act of war. There really is no permanent solution
So why is the place such a shithole? The only workable alternative I see is to raise money to buy guns for all of the displaced refugees and let them do their thing. Let them fight the military and whatever government they choose after that, let them deal with it.
Do you consider George Bush “morally sound”? Or Hugo Chavez, or Vladmir Putin, or whichever bozo took over Thailand? Shall I go on? China, North Korea, Syria, Pakistan?
How many countries are run by “morally sound” leaders? Damn few. Some countries have institutions that are better or worse in curbing the predatory actions of their political leaders. That is the difference – which isn’t much when a leader can declare a crisis and the rest of the governemnt rolls over and plays dead rather than appear unpatriotic.
Interestingly, Amnesty International’s index of countries for its online library doesn’t even include Iceland. http://web.amnesty.org/library/engindex
To the OP: what we’re talking about is, in many cases, post-colonial systems where a supposedly-democratic system modelled on Britain or another European state has been imposed, but not fully implemented. It is therefore easily exploited. And it’s the same story in other parts of Africa (Zimbabwe?), Asia (Pakistan?), etc.
Perhaps “morally sound” wasn’t a good choice of words. How hard is it to bring about a leader that doesn’t support the systematic killing of his or her own people? You don’t see thousands of people raped and shot by government sponsored organizations in the U.S. Same in China, Syria…
So the systematic use of government force is acceptable, to the point of the highest execution rate in the world, as long as nobody is raped? Or if not, what are you saying?
OK, so this thread is actually about Sudan, yes? A shitty country with a shitty government. Would you care to rephrase your question? Or is there actually nothing to say, because we’re all on the same page about it.
Yes. It is. I’m asking how it got there when most surrounding nations aren’t on that level of corruption/violence. Why does the government exist when it has (in my view) 0% of the popular vote. Who supports it? Sudanese Arabs? How much of the country do they make up? How does the government have the power to do all of this to its citizens? Who supports the government outside of itself?
Huh? Libya, an old-school dictatorship. Uganda, of Idi Amin fame. DR Congo, one of the most dangerous place on earth. Eritrea, Ethiopia, need I say more?