Uganda Blames British Colonists for Sudan Crisis

 

By Cathy Majtenyi
 
Uganda says conflicts in Darfur can be traced to British colonial rule and blames the colonial policies for the rise of rebel movements throughout the country. Ugandan presidential spokesman Francis Onapito Ekomoloit Tuesday blamed British colonial rulers for the domination of a black African majority by a small Arab minority in Darfur and other parts of Sudan.

He said rebel movements such as the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army, or SPLA, grew out of protest against this inequality.

"Because of the British colonial policies which did not respect that majority and entrenched¹ the Arab dominance, that's why there's all this backlash which started with the SPLA and now it is spreading in Darfur," said Mr. Ekomoloit. "This is basically resistance by the black majority in Sudan against a minority Arab domination."

The presidential spokesman said the conflict in Darfur and other parts of Sudan is a racial one, as, in his words, there is now an Islam on Islam fight in Sudan, based on race.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told a small arms seminar last Friday the Darfur crisis is a time bomb arising from the British colonialists, in his words, mixing Arabs and Africans.

This is not the first time the British colonial government has been blamed for the current crisis in Darfur.

Politicians in Darfur have long accused the British of neglecting the region after the colonial power annexed² Darfur to Sudan in 1916.

They say the British chose to build schools in and around the capital Khartoum rather than in remote places, such as Darfur, and when they left, the better-educated Arab groups moved into the region.

The Sudanese government has repeatedly rejected the claim that the fighting in Darfur and other areas of Sudan is racially motivated. Instead, officials in Khartoum blame hooligans and outlaws³ for the violence.

The Bush administration has called the Darfur crisis a genocide and is leading diplomatic pressure in the U.N. Security Council to impose strict sanctions against the government in Khartoum.

In an earlier interview with VOA, Foreign Affairs Minister Mustafa Ismail denied there is a genocide taking place in Darfur.

"We are challenging those who are saying that this is genocide," he said. "Tell us the numbers. Tell us the names. Tell us the graves if you haven't got the numbers. Where are they?"

The 20-month-old Darfur conflict has killed an estimated 50,000 people and displaced over a million more. The United Nations says it is the world's worst humanitarian⁴ crisis.

Cathy Majtenyi for VOA News, Nairobi.

注释：
Uganda 乌干达
Darfur 达尔福尔，苏丹西部一地区
domination 控制
Sudan People's Liberation Army 苏丹人民解放军
entrench 侵犯
backlash 对抗性反应
racial 种族的
seminar 研究会
annex 吞并
Khartoum 喀土木，苏丹首都
remote 偏僻的
hooligan 歹徒
outlaw 歹徒，逃犯
genocide 种族灭绝，屠杀

 

1 entrenched   

adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯)

参考例句：

• Television seems to be firmly entrenched as the number one medium for national advertising.电视看来要在全国广告媒介中牢固地占据头等位置。
• If the enemy dares to attack us in these entrenched positions,we will make short work of them.如果敌人胆敢进攻我们固守的阵地，我们就消灭他们。

2 annexed   

[法] 附加的，附属的

参考例句：

• Germany annexed Austria in 1938. 1938年德国吞并了奥地利。
• The outlying villages were formally annexed by the town last year. 那些偏远的村庄于去年正式被并入该镇。

3 outlaws   

歹徒，亡命之徒( outlaw的名词复数 )； 逃犯

参考例句：

• During his year in the forest, Robin met many other outlaws. 在森林里的一年，罗宾遇见其他许多绿林大盗。
• I didn't have to leave the country or fight outlaws. 我不必离开自己的国家，也不必与不法分子斗争。

4 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。