Inside Sudan: Political Islam, Conflict, and Catastrophe

Donald Petterson was a diplomat for the United States during most of the 1990's. He discusses from a diplomat's point of view the impasse that occured between the United States and the Khartoum governments. Petterson saw things get worse but could not stop the drift in differences. He explains that Sudanese people are quite friendly, but political, religious and regional problems run deep and occured during British rule also. A good book to get a perspective on Sudan.

Donald Petterson, former U.S.Ambassador to Sudan, has written an unflinching account of modern Sudan. It is the thoroughly human story of a man and his family living and working in Khartoum in the 1990's, the hey-day of Islamic terrorism and fundamentalist belief. Petterson, a veteran Foreign Service Officer in Africa describes the day-to-day events in the abysmally hot and dusty,strife-ridden capital of Khartoum. An exciting place for any FSO, Khartoum was above all else a very dangerous city, as Petterson points out. Filled with Islamic radicals, the hatred for all things Western was very evident to this American. While the Author never treads strongly into the deep historical factors surrounding Sudan's cultural probems today, INSIDE SUDAN: POLITICAL ISLAM, CONFLICT, AND CATASTROPHE neveretheless is an excellent read for everyone wishing an up-front account of what it feels like to be in a land where one is always on the cusp of revolution. The book grips the reader personally and emotionally and makes the problems of Sudan all the more real. Readers may also wish to turn to my new book, JIHAD: THE MAHDI REBELLION IN THE SUDAN. I have encapsulated one brief period of Sudanese history - the Mahdi Rebellion of 1881-1885. I hope to show the effects of Western Imperialism upon both Sudanese nationalism and culture.

To those who wish to gain an insight into the political shenanigans of third world regimes and the frustrating and dangerous predicament that American diplomats face when striving to provide much needed humanitarian relief to regions ravaged by famine and war, well, this book, Inside Sudan: Political Islam, Conflict, and Catastrophe, is for you.Written by Donald Petterson, this is a book that provides the reader with an honest and astute account of the author's trials and tribulations, successes and failures, frustrations and inspirations whilst serving as the last U.S Ambassador to Sudan from 1992- 1995. Mr. Petterson takes the reader into the midst of numerous conversations he had with a reckless if not ruthless Sudanese President (and his Security Council); into restricted locations as he negotiated with rebels who were warring with the government as much as they were with themselves; and into refugee camps where, breaking away from the Sudanese escort and their carefully planned tour of the sites, he endangers himself (on more than one occasion) for the purpose of conversing with camp dwellers- an act that mirrors one of his major ambassadorial goals; that being to discover the full extent of the suffering and deprivation throughout Sudan in order to co-ordinate and implement appropriate relief efforts from around the globe. Motivated by a deep sense of compassion for human life, and at odds with a callous third world government that was more concerned with power than attending to the dire needs of the masses, Mr. Petterson struggled to establish a compatible sense of morality that both he and the Sudanese government could unite under in the hope of better serving the critical needs of the people. Interestingly enough, as Mr. Petterson encountered, this proved an impossible task, primarily because of, although not solely attributed to, the ridiculous assertion by the Sudanese despots that the cultural dichotomy prevalent between the two countries made the prospective mutuality of moral intent unrealistic, if not utterly naive. Ironically, the book reveals that the dramatic breakdown in relations between the U.S and Sudan was not a result of this vast cultural chasm that separates them- that is the stark differentiations of political or religious ideologies- but rather was a result of the insatiable greed and the abysmal network of corruption found not only throughout the malevolent and perditious regime that has control over the country, but also found in the rebel forces fighting to expel it. And in the middle lay millions of people, starving, tortured, homeless, and without hope because the end of this war in Sudan has long since crept out of view, much like its beginning. Irrefutably, this is a fascinating and deeply touching book by one of America's most experienced foreign diplomats in African affairs; a diplomat who held steadfast in his ambassadorial duties, exercising wisdom, courage and compassion throughout the course of an assignme

A friend lent me this book after a discussion on the state of the Mideast and Muslim governments. After reading it, I felt I had been given a precise and well-documented picture of the inner workings of the nation of Sudan. This was thanks to Mr. Petterson's vivid detail and personal experiences as the US Ambassador to Sudan in the early-to-mid '90s. Anyone looking to learn more about the country and their political state in those days should read this, as it provides an in-depth and accurate description. Any college course dealing with the subject should put this on their reading list as well. A wonderful read.

Inside Sudan is a well-written part memoir, part exposition of what accounts for the catastrophic set of circumstances that afflict the Sudanese people today. As related from the perspective of an American ambassador to that country, the book provides the best available glimpse into the makeup of the Islamists who control Sudan, and explains why relations between Sudan and the United States deteriorated to their current low state. Ambassador Petterson gives the reader a feel for what it is like to serve in an American embassy in the harsh environment of a third-world country whose leaders are hostile to the US government. By means of graphic descriptions of some of his visits to camps of displaced people and his many trips into the war zone of southern Sudan, he portrays the awful plight of the victims of the war. And he describes the often heroic efforts of the personnel of humanitarian relief organizations operating in the field. This is an excellent book, one that anyone who wants to gain a better undersanding of the Sudan issue should read.