They must have interesting editorial conferences over at the Guardian's shiny new offices near Kings Cross. Lat week at CiF they published a piece by Ros Wynne-Jones, warning of the prospect of renewed north-south conflict five years after the peace treaty was signed, and describing the desperate scenes in the Chad refugee camps for the displaced and forgotten victims of the Darfur conflict:
People there are unsure whether their fate is worse than death. Militias surround these supposed places of safety, and women are raped walking for firewood; rations are meagre; and the hope of returning home diminishes with every passing year.
And now we have another CiF piece, a response to Ros Wynne-Jones, from one Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani. Who he? Well, yes, he's not a regular CiF contributor. This is his first piece. He is, in fact, "an adviser to the president of Sudan, and leader of the parliamentary majority". That would be president of Sudan Omar al-Bashir – the man issued with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, and the man principally responsible for the genocidal campaign in Darfur. Atabani doesn't like Wynne-Jones' piece, you'll be surprised to hear. It's based on "outdated stereotypes."
Well, it's always good to hear the other point of view. Next week at CiF: Khieu Samphan, Cambodian head of state under Pol Pot, argues that the current Khmer Rouge trials are based on a misunderstanding of the true revolutionary history of Democratic Kampuchea, based as they are on outdated stereotypes…
Mick Hartley 
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