Civil Rights activists hoping to raise the shameful tragedy of the Darfur Region as a test case for African Unity and a serious blight on the will of collective Africa to protect its own, have asked African leaders not to spare the rod on Sudanese leader Omar Al-Bashir.

The activists, guests on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, told host Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah that the Darfur case, already a good example of how wicked governments could be against their own people, should be good grounds for AU leaders at their July Summit to bring Al-Bashir and his blood-spewing militias to book or at worst, expel him to go clean his house.

“It is hypocritical to fight for the formation of a government of African Union when we are watching Africans killing each other, and watching African governments killing their own people in their own countries. We are the only continent that is not beleaguered from outside. We don’t have outside forces, foreign forces attacking us, we are attacking our own people ourselves…”, summed South African music icon, Hugh Masekela.

The others on the panel were Sudanese parliamentarian and lawyer, Salih Mahmoud Osman, Mr. Dismas Nkunda, Chair of the Darfur Consortium and Co-Director of the International Refugee Rights Initiative and Professor Kwame Karikari, Executive Director at the Media Foundation for West Africa.

For Masekela, while it took Africa well over two decades to rise up in unity to fight apartheid in South Africa, it is shameful and disgusting that the feel of brotherliness no longer exists among Africans who have now taken a back seat and pretend to be immune to the suffering being meted out to the people of Darfur.

Dismas Nkunda believes various mediation efforts at dealing with the situation have failed, primarily because the Sudanese government has been treated with kids gloves and unnecessarily pampered, allowing it to dictate terms favourable to its desires.

He said the soft-handed treatment of the government has seen some of its operatives treat AU peace-keeping troops with disdain and commit atrocities in their faces.

Prof. Karikari said the international community, including several African countries, have tried in diverse ways to end the carnage. However, having failed to achieve the desired result yet, Africa must return to its cherished tradition of showing strong solidarity towards a neighbour’s cause, and raise her voice louder as the continent bleeds terribly from the Darfur bloodshed.

“Some of us estimate that what is going on in Darfur…is one of the most devastating experiences this continent has suffered in its history and we all ought to be concerned.”

Salih Mahmoud Osman contended that there can never be any justification for the world, and particularly the rest of Africa, to look on for the atrocities going on in Darfur. It is a human tragedy, he said.