A chara, - While not wishing to defend the air-strike on Sudan ordered by President Clinton on Sudan, I do wish to question the motivation behind the howls of protest raised by individuals and groups in this country. To my knowledge no one was killed as a result of the strike on Khartoum, yet over a million people have been killed in Southern Sudan over the past nine years as a direct result of the policy being pursued by the current fundamentalist Islamic government in Khartoum. Why have these voices not been raised to protest at that Government's refusal to allow aid agencies to assist the starving victims of famine in Southern Sudan and the Nuba mountains? What have these voices to say about a government that gives arms to Arab militia to attack, rape, pillage and enslave the people of Southern Sudan? Why have these same voices not been heard to protest at the extra-judicial killings that have been perpetrated by this Government?
This is a Government (non-elected) that treats all its non-Muslim citizens as second-class citizens and condemns all secondary school students to fight in a civil war in the South if they wish to graduate with a secondary school certificate. No, this condemnation sounds hollow and hypercritical to me and reflects more an anti-American bias than a genuine concern for the suffering people of Sudan. - Yours, etc., Padraig O Murchu,
Woodlands, Maynooth, Co Kildare.
Neglect Of Defence Forces