Each time I arrive at Khartoum airport, I marvel at the campaign laid out by the Sudanese state to welcome foreign arrivals. The trouble is I always land at night and so once again I have returned without any decent photos. The one to the left is a quick snap out the cab window that doesn’t deserve publication on a blog, but since it really is a see-it-to-believe-it kinda thing, I’m posting it anyway.
It reads: “The international justice is a value that will not be guarded by a person such as Ocampo. Al Bashir is a leader guided by values and principles” (hmm – anyone wondering which values and principles they have in mind . . ?). Another reads: “One of Ocampo’s farces. Presenting accusations without evidences! (sic)” and under the duly air-brushed photo of Bashir it says “We stand beside you”.
I did manage one daylight shot of something in a similar genre – but this time it was placed at the entrance to the VIP room at El Fasher airport. It sparked a debate among our group about what exactly “largeted” was supposed to mean. Following the persecution-by-Ocampo theme at Khartoum airport, my money was on it just being a mis-spelling of “targeted.” Stephanie, one of the journalists traveling with us envisoned something of a variation on the theme of Bashir’s “largesse.” Either way, I’m pretty sure that none of the IDPs we met would have agreed . . . but then they never pass through the VIP lounge of the airport.
The final shot in this “series” comes courtesy of the welcome set up for us by the Wali of North Darfur state. Protocol dictates that one goes to visit the Wali, and the general idea is to get through with the formalities in good time to keep the rest of the schedule going.
As our convoy left Abu Shouk camp on the way to our meeting with the Wali, we received a message to tell us that the Wali had changed our meeting location from his office to his residence. Five minutes later we arrived – to the somewhat surreal spectacle of peacocks and what I can only describe as miniture deer (if anyone has superior animal identication skills, let me know), roaming the Wali’s lawn.
After a meeting between the Special Envoy and the Wali where all the due formalities were exchanged, the Wali noted that there just happened to be a conference of the National Congress Party taking place at the hall next door. In a flash, we now had the presentation of our greetings to the NCP of North Darfur State added to our schedule (I figured our options at this point were probably a painful but brief hello, or the unspoken but fairly assured likelihood of not making it through any of the GOS checkpoints for the rest of the day).
The “spontaneity” of the Wali’s suggestion that we just “drop in next door” was rather undercut by the third photo of this set – those well-known buddies Barack and Omar.
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