PR is a multicultural phenomenon

As the world becomes more aware of Darfur, the government of Sudan acts as all good governments do in similar situations: It undertakes a coverup.

On June 30, Colin Powerless made the highest-level visit to Sudan by a US official in 26 years. He toured a refugee camp in Darfur during his visit, which was supposed to impress on the Sudanese government how seriously the US views the crisis there. A typical camp? Not really. It was

Abushouk camp, which has become a regular stop for visiting dignitaries and is known widely among aid workers as the "tourist camp" because of its relatively good condition

as the July 2 New York Times describes it.

But even that wasn't a good enough cover for Sudan, so they tried to improve on it, the Washington Post for June 27 reports:

The Sudanese government dispatched 500 men last week to this sweltering camp of 40,000 near El Fashir, capital of North Darfur state, the refugees and aid workers said. The men, some dressed in civilian clothes, others in military uniforms, warned the refugees to keep quiet about their experiences when Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan visit the region next week. ...

"They kicked us and said, 'Stop talking,'" said Malki Ali Abduallah, 25, who fled the fighting six months ago with six children and a cooking pot. ...

"You already stole my life. What else can you take?" she recounted saying, sweating in the 115 degree midday heat as 40 people gathered around her in support, many telling similar stories.

Near the crowd, however, stern-faced men wearing safari outfits, pilot sunglasses and leopard-skin slippers listened in and made calls on cell phones. The villagers and the aid workers said the men were among those dispatched by the government.

The men also told the villagers that they would impersonate victims when the U.S. and U.N. delegations arrived and tell them that the government had done nothing wrong and that rebels operating against the government in the region were to blame, the villagers and aid workers said.

For his part, Kofi Annan didn't want to see the showpiece. He wanted to see another, smaller camp near El Fashir. At 5 p.m. on Wednesday, UN officials arrived at the camp with government officials to make arrangements for Annan's tour.

On Thursday afternoon, when Annan got there, the camp was gone.

Gone were the more than 1,000 residents of the Meshtel settlement. Gone as well were their makeshift dwellings. Hours before Mr. Annan's arrival, the local authorities had loaded the camp's inhabitants aboard trucks and moved them,

leaving behind "only donkeys milling around in a soggy, trash-strewn lot." A PR move? Oh, no, of course not, said Sudanese officials.

"It's not because the secretary general of the United Nations is here that we moved them," [Al Noor Muhammad] Ibrahim[, minister of social affairs for the state of North Darfur,] insisted as incredulous United Nations officials looked on. Mr. Ibrahim said the conditions were too grim for the people there and that humanitarianism, not public relations, had motivated him to act. "We did not like seeing people living like that," he said.

So what should Annan do now that the camp he came to see no longer existed? Ibrahim's minions had a ready answer: He should go to Abushouk. Annan declined.

Not up to the White House's standards but then again, they're probably still kinda new at this.

Meanwhile, according to the Toronto Star for July 5,

Sudan has started disarming Arab militias accused of sowing death and terror in its western region of Darfur and is confident the process will proceed smoothly, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said yesterday. ...

Najeeb al-Kheir Abdul Wahab, Sudan's state minister for foreign affairs, said police and army units were conducting the disarmament.

"We have collected weapons by force," Wahab said.

"The process of general and complete disarmament is under way under effective government control."

It does seem that whatever their shortcomings in the PR department, they have at least mastered the ability to talk the talk. But since

[h]uman rights groups were skeptical at the promise,

their ability - or, frankly, desire - to walk the walk remains to be seen.