Sudan & the AU: A fitting end to the "East-African" affair

I salute J. Pronk - Koffi Annan's right-hand man in the Sudan - for spearheading succesful efforts to bar Khartoum from leading the African Union at this moment in time. 

Up to and until yesterday, Khartoum was still boasting about the "unanimous" backing it had received from ALL East African states for its candidature.

After all, it was said, this was to have been East Africa's chance to lead the AU. 

The Idi Amin skeleton as well as other political and human rights realities in the Sudan should have awakened these unnamed East African nations and Khartoum's Northern supporters from their conveniently self-induced slumber.   

I find it particularly disturbing that Nairobi had reportedly pledged its support for Khartoum's candidature; inconceivable even for a strategy to contain anyone (consider the always not-too-succesful attempt by some Kenyan head-teachers to "change" their errant students by bribing them with leadership responsibilities). 

What national interest were we defending / pursuing by backing Omar El-Bashir when:

1.  Darfur's hungry, wounded and dying are still blaming him for their abject conditions?

2.  Tchad faces possible instability from militia forces that are reportedly backed by Khartoum?

3.  The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA Khartoum signed with the South remains nothing but a beautiful document thus far with less to write home about? 

4.  The LRA continues to wreck havoc in Northern Uganda and S. Sudan, reportedly backed by Khartoum? 

A few months ago a dear friend of mine succumbed to a deadly LRA attack - I shivered each moment I heard Khartoum was headed to African supremacy with such an event so fresh in my mind.       

Preliminary reports suggest that the rest of Africa united against the Eastern and Northern alliance:  What regional interest were Kampala, Dodoma and Nairobi pursuing for their people?

P.S:  Amazing, isn't it, that Nairobi could recall its ambassador to Khartoum for reportedly helping Sudan invite Mwingi North MP Kalonzo Musyoka to the AU meeting (alongside Kibaki) yet it couldn't move an inch while Darfur burned.  We, alongside much of Africa, left that to the Bush administration and religious conservatives in the US.  "Non-interference in each other's internal affairs" indeed.  Never mind that Musyoka probably should have been in Khartoum, given his involvement in several regional peace processes (the CPA included).  That's kumalizana gone too far.

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