Asia's Tsunami and Darfur's 'Sudanami' highlight our hypocritical humanity

I do not want to detract from the enormity of the present disaster, or to show any scepticism about the sincerity of the majority of sympathisers and donors. Of course what has been done so far is little considering the total destruction in the communities of Aceh, Tamil Nadu and Thailand.

I recall what has happened to our people because I know that it has been happening in Aceh, Tamil Nadu and in particular in Darfur. In these places, where in the words of Kofi Annan "the greatest man-made catastrophe of our time" is occurring, this news is being sidelined and submerged by the tide of the Asian tsunami.

In both Aceh and Tamil Nadu the devastation caused by the tsunami exacerbated the sufferings of people who have been denied their right of self determination, and subjected to the worst forms of oppression and abuse by their dominating states for many decades, supported by arms traders, countries and companies interested only in oil, gas and trade. Being discriminated against and deliberately underdeveloped, these countries had never had any reasonable infrastructure. And once the tsunami washed away roads, bridges, schools, farms and homes the devastation was complete.

Neither the Indonesian Government nor Sri Lanka is serious about rescuing the people of Aceh and Tamil Nadu or reconstructing their communities. They would rather use this disaster to get rid of them altogether. The reality of this situation can be clearly understood when we compare relief and reconstruction efforts in Thailand to those in these two countries. Thailand has mobilised its entire mainstream military and civilian resources to help, save and reconstruct. A ruined school has been reconstructed in just two days and the children are already back at their desks. Every possible area and corner at sea and land is searched and scanned to look for survivors and bodies.

But Indonesia from the very beginning gave up even counting the dead and has already rejected Britain's offer to send soldiers to help. Sri Lanka is similarly reluctant to facilitate rescue and relief operations. Thailand does this fantastic job because it considers the victims as its own people. But Indonesia and Sri Lanka are viewing the Aceh and Tamil peoples as enemies just because they are different ethnic groups who are rightly asking for their legitimate inalienable right of self-determination.

I am even more concerned about Darfur because I know from my own experience that what is happening there now is exactly what happened to the Kurds for decades while the world turned a blind eye. In the same issue of The Times (December 31, 2004) - in which many graphic pages were devoted to the tsunami disaster, where in excess of 230,000 perished - there was a news report entitled "Darfur refugees face starvation as violence halts aid". The first paragraph of the report by Xan Rice in Nairobi reads:

Hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan's Darfur region will go hungry over the New Year period after renewed violence forced the UN to suspend food deliveries. The World Food Program (WFP) said that it had halted three convoys of trucks carrying more than 1,300 tonnes of food destined for thousands of people in camps in West and South Darfur.

In a statement, the organisation said that the increased violence meant the UN and non-governmental organisations were effectively blocked from having overland access between central Sudan and Darfur. As a result 260,000 people would not receive their December rations. More than 1.85 million people have been forced from their homes in Darfur since February 2003, when the Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement took up arms against Khartoum, to fight for a greater share of resources and political recognition.

The people of Darfur are deliberately targeted because they do not wish to be controlled by Arab colonialists, who are definitely supported by all those with vested interests in their land and there are vast oil reserves in Darfur.

Compare Darfur's “Sudanami” to the Asian tsunami and try to contemplate and understand our common human hypocrisy. It would be a travesty of humanity and human international solidarity if all this rivalry to outbid and grab headlines with each nations' generosity to the victims of the Asian tsunami ends up serving to hide the more hideous political crimes perpetrated against dispossessed and oppressed nations.