Why Not to State-Build New Sudan

Abstract

International forces have recently prosecuted two wars, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, with an explicit intention to ensure “regime change.” These forays have announced, with punctuation, that it is hip again to try a hand at state-building. A melee of prospective candidates alternatively hoping to maintain, reconfigure, or topple the existing Sudanese regime will no doubt be monitoring these international developments with varied measures of anxiety or exhilaration.

We have come to the unanimous conviction that the situation of war in Sudan at the present stage has become immoral and a tragic farce. It is not any longer a struggle for freedom of the Sudanese people and for the defence of human rights. The war has become a struggle for power, business and greed. Many heartless people are taking advantage of it and enrich themselves at the expense of the poor.

—Statement of the Comboni Missionaries in southern Sudan, January, 2001