Tag: Carter Center

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Sudan Cracks Up

My four-day series on the coming breakup of Sudan in Slate magazine has received good notices from the likes of The Village Voice, The Browser, Bobby Ghosh of Time magazine, Microkhan, and the Wandering Savage.

In case you missed the tasty 7,500-word opus, here’s a recap:

Part 1: Meet the Bernie Madoff of Sudan

Part 2: Fighting for Freedom in the New Sudan

Part 3: South Sudan: A Million Mutinies Now?

Part 4: South Sudan’s Oil Curse

Since the series began running, the insurgent militia leader Lt. General George Athor, who I quote in Part 3 of the series, has continued his private war in Jonglei state at the cost of some 300 lives. I’m posting, after the jump, notes from my January interview with Athor. I’ll reserve comment except to say the statements of this former golden boy of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army are extremely self-serving.

That’s all for now. I’m off to write a new chapter of The Black Nile to be included in the book’s upcoming Penguin paperback edition. So much has changed on the Nile this year, and so much of if for the better, that I felt the book needed an update.

Continue reading “Sudan Cracks Up”

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Stories That Ring True: The Black Nile

Part travelogue, part crazy adventure tale, part political reportage: Veteran foreign correspondent Morrison and a buddy build a boat and paddle up the Nile River through Uganda, Sudan and Egypt. Morrison’s African river journey is a paradoxical mixture of awe-inspiring discoveries, eye-opening human interactions and perilous escapes. — Chuck Leddy, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Continue reading “Stories That Ring True: The Black Nile”

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Sudan: The Carter Center’s Preliminary Statement

Here’s a link to the Carter Center’s  21-page preliminary statement on Sudan’s elections. I breezed through the bullets, and the center’s key points seem to be:

1) It wasn’t a fair election.

2) Still, the exercise was a necessary one to fulfill provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, thereby making it legal to hold next year’s (dis)unity referendum, in which the south will vote to leave Sudan.

3) It was good practice. (For the next unfair election?)

and,  importantly

4) Southerners didn’t get a fair shake either, thanks to intimidation by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

It seems accurate based on my reading and interviews. The language is neutral, not condemnatory, which will annoy some. And it further confirms what a lousy deal this has been for so many people working towards real pluralism and democracy in Sudan.

My guess is there’s probably enough praise in the document to allow the Bashir regime to declare victory, despite a similar statement from the European Union.

For details, read after the jump, and by all means check the excellent reporting at the Sudan Tribune and Radio Dabanga — and please do let me know what you think.

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A Travesty, a Logistical Nightmare, Irrelevant, Democracy

Four ways of looking at Sudan’s  national elections

Sudan’s first multiparty elections in 24 years started yesterday in an atmosphere of anger, hope and confusion. The last election, in 1986, followed a people’s uprising that removed a military dictator. How times change. Today another military dictator – Field Marshal Omar Hassan al-Bashir, an indicted war criminal — is Sudan’s leading candidate for president.

Befitting Africa’s biggest, and perhaps most complicated, country, there are several ways of looking at Sudan’s elections: Continue reading “A Travesty, a Logistical Nightmare, Irrelevant, Democracy”