Not interfering in the internal affairs of other countries is an international principle. After the fall of the Soviet empire and the failure of communism, the United States became the world’s only superpower. That created a situation where most important international laws were abandoned. This led to countries interfering in the internal affairs of others to ensure that the political interest of big countries is protected. Interfering in other countries’ internal affairs takes many forums. It starts with political and economic pressure and ends with military occupation as in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Foreign countries are now interfering with Sudan’s internal affairs. The main goal of the escalation of the problem in Darfur is to accuse the Sudanese government, to find a way to be in Sudan and get the country’s wealth and to cut a majority Muslim country into small pieces.
First, the problem in Darfur is an internal problem of Sudan. What is happening now is a clear intervention by other countries in a nation with full sovereign power over its land. The ethnic and tribal fighting we see in Sudan is not new to Africa. A solution to the problem could be found only if these countries stop interfering in Sudan’s internal affairs. Foreign countries started this problem in order to achieve quick political targets and to achieve strategic targets that serve Western interests. The aims include:
• Bringing down the Sudanese government because it refused to listen to Western demands to separate the south and establish an independent Christian country there.
• Ruining Sudanese-Egyptian relations, especially after the two countries agreed to allow their citizens to live freely, travel, own and establish businesses in both countries. Such good relations between the two countries are viewed as a threat to the Western vision of Sudan as a country to be divided into small pieces.
• Preventing Egypt’s solving the water problem so that it would come under foreign pressure.
Strategic goals include:
• Dividing Sudan into small countries with each country looking for foreign protection so that they will control Sudan’s wealth.
• Controlling its strategic resources such as uranium, which was discovered in the south and oil, which is expected to be discovered in large quantities and would place it among the top oil producers.
In addition to all this, there is another strategic goal which is not spelled out clearly — to attack, after invading Afghanistan and Iraq, the third largest Muslim country and divide it. After their failure to justify the war on Iraq, the world must ask itself, “How long will foreign countries be allowed to interfere in the internal affairs of small countries?”
