Sudan flies new jets in show of military muscle

[Adsos Letter]

Source: Reuters

Source: Reuters
By Andrew Heavens

Diplomats attending the parade said they saw several missiles and Iranian multi-barrelled rocket launchers.

Four jet planes that flew over the crowd were said by the official announcer at the show to be Sukhoi Su-25s which were added to the air force in 2008. Diplomats said the Su-25, also known as the "Frogfoot", was first developed in Russia.

Two months ago U.S.-based campaign group Human Rights First said Iran and Russia had become direct weapons suppliers to Sudan -- joining China and nine other states -- after a U.N. arms embargo was imposed in 2004.

The arms ban covers all warring parties in Sudan's western Darfur region where international experts say fighting has killed 200,000 people in almost six years.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LV609191.htm

[ohio2007]

1. Bush to meet south Sudan president next week

setting up Barack with backing another regional horse before the 2009 elections

snip
The United States has tense relations with the Islamist government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who came to power in Africa's largest country in a 1989 coup.Kiir was the leader of rebels who fought for greater autonomy for Sudan's mostly animist or Christian south from the Muslim north in a civil war that claimed 2 million lives.

He became first vice president in the Khartoum government after Bashir and the rebels made peace. Officials have said he plans to run for president in elections due in 2009.

The U.S. State Department has designated the Khartoum government as a "state sponsor of terrorism" since 1993.Bush has called killings in Darfur, a western region of Sudan, a genocide and denounced Bashir's government for its policies there.

Foreign experts say some 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in nearly six years of fighting between rebels and the army and government-backed militias.Bush and Kiir will also discuss Darfur, Johndroe said.The deployment of a joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur has lagged behind schedule.
snip


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N31379683.htm

Maybe the Lebanese will donate some of its new Russian jets to "south" Sudan .

A balance of power countermeasure.

And where does China sit with this story? It is their oil spigot being meddled with.

[unhappycamper]

2. The Su-25 has been in production since 1981.

And they cost only $11 million way back when.

[MercutioATC]

3. The F-16 has been in production since 1978.

And they cost only $14.6 million in 1998 dollars.

[Pavulon]

4. New tools to kill civilians with

sudan has a history of directly attacking civilians. That means targeting them, not killing them as collateral damage.

They generally use helicopters for this.