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A6 Ø N THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2014 South Sudan Will Talk THE SATURDAY PROFILE With Rebels, Kerry Says A Voice of Dissent in Egypt Is Muffled, but Not Silent By MICHAEL R. GORDON South Sudan’s downward spiral. JUBA, South Sudan — Secre- Some American lawmakers tary of State John Kerry said Fri- and nongovernmental organiza- day that he had secured a com- tions have charged that the Oba- mitment from Salva Kiir, South ma administration has been too Sudan’s president, to open talks slow to implement the economic with his rebel opponent as early sanctions it has threatened as next week. against individuals who are re- sponsible for the conflict. Presi- The talks, which would take dent Obama signed an executive place in Addis Ababa under the order on April 3 that provides the auspices of Ethiopia’s prime min- legal authorization to freeze as- ister, represent the Obama ad- sets and to ban travel to the Unit- ministration’s latest bid to halt ed States, but no sanctions have the fighting that has killed thou- yet been imposed. sands of people, displaced more “President Obama’s ‘go slow’ than a million and is ripping approach is simply not working,” apart a nation whose independ- Raymond C. Offenheiser, the ence was championed by the president of Oxfam America, said United States. in a statement. “This visit and Mr. Kerry said that Riek subsequent follow through by the Machar, the rebel leader, had pre- administration must demon- viously signaled to Ethiopia’s strate to all that the U.S. will not prime minister that he was also tolerate a prolonged conflict,” he prepared to attend. In a call Fri- added, referring to Mr. Kerry’s day night, Mr. Kerry also urged trip. Mr. Machar to participate in the Mr. Kerry, however, insisted meeting, The talks would focus that the United States was pre- on implementing the cease-fire pared to impose sanctions if the that was agreed to by the two two sides failed to take steps to sides in January but was widely stem the violence and ease the ignored, as well as on the forma- delivery of humanitarian aid. tion of a possible transitional gov- And he has been pushing Kenya, ernment. Uganda and Ethiopia to prepare Providing new details of the similar measures. parallel effort to provide security “We are not going to wait,” Mr. for the thousands of civilians Kerry said. “There will be ac- trapped in the fighting, Mr. Kerry countability in the days ahead DAVID DEGNER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES also said he expected that some where it is appropriate.” 2,500 African troops would be South Sudan became Africa’s “Dancing over the corpses of adversaries does not build an advanced homeland.” sent to buttress the beleaguered 54th nation in July 2011, achiev- BELAL FADL, above right United Nations effort here. ing its independence after dec- In December, the United Na- ades of guerrilla struggle. By MAYY EL SHEIKH tions Security Council authorized In December 2013, Mr. Kiir ac- does not build an advanced homeland,” Mr. ha,” is a ribald farce about a brother and sis- an increase in peacekeepers to cused Mr. Machar, whom he had CAIRO Fadl wrote in Shorouk in January. “It creates ter who are trying to get each other to move 13,200 from 7,700. Mr. Kerry ac- dismissed from his post in July, of RITICS here called his films “vulgar” a chicken coop for the sanctification of the out of their apartment. knowledged that the 2,500 new mounting a coup. Mr. Machar, and “damaging to the public’s taste.” victorious rooster.” “Journalists always ask me about these troops would be less than half the who had suggested that he might C When the Muslim Brotherhood came to Pro-military commentators call Mr. Fadl a films thinking they will see tears of regret in number that had originally been challenge for the leadership of power last year, one Islamist preacher called “traitor,” part of a “fifth column” plotting to my eyes,” Mr. Fadl said, noting that the story anticipated. their party, has denied the allega- him “Satan’s prayer caller.” But after two dec- destroy the country, and call his trimmed lines were borrowed from the lives of his “It may be that, depending on tion. ades of mocking the powerful as a popular beard evidence of hidden Islamist affiliations. friends and family. “These are films that rep- the situation, more will have to be While urging the two sides to columnist and screenwriter, only now has Mr. Fadl “stabbed Egypt in the heart with his resent my original class. This is how they contemplated,” he told reporters discuss a transitional govern- Belal Fadl been blacklisted. poisoned dagger,” wrote Dandrawi Al Hawa- laugh and have fun — offensively, obscenely.” after a meeting with Mr. Kiir. ment, Mr. Kerry did not explain His offense was a newspaper column he ri, a columnist for the newspaper Youm el- “But for the moment that is the how it might be structured or wrote in February ridiculing the promotion of Saba. HEN Mr. Morsi was elected presi- limit.” whether it might involve a pow- Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi — the military lead- But Mr. Fadl, sipping tea at a crowded dent and the Muslim Brotherhood The peacekeeping troops er-sharing arrangement, saying er who ousted Egypt’s first democratically street cafe, laughed off their jabs. “If I al- W came to power, Mr. Fadl wasted no would protect international mon- such matters would be up to the elected president, Mohamed Morsi — to the lowed my spirits to be controlled by the im- time turning his pen against the country’s itors and help implement the people of South Sudan. But Mr. exalted rank of field marshal even though he pact of my writing, I would have been in a new elite, writing that they “read the events cease-fire agreement. Before the Kerry cast Mr. Kiir as the legiti- has never entered a battlefield. ward for the insane by now,” he chuckled. with their bottoms, not their minds.” African troops can be sent, how- mate elected leader of the coun- Mr. Fadl has likened Mr. Sisi, who has since “I’m only expressing my opinion,” he said, Though he initially supported the protests ever, the Security Council has to try, emphasizing that there resigned from the military to run for presi- and readers “can either read it or throw it last June to remove Mr. Morsi from office, adopt a new resolution approving should be “no equivalency” be- dent, to Hosni Mubarak, who was forced from away.” and even cheered when the military did so, their mandate. Mr. Kerry said he tween his government and the the presidency in 2011, and Mr. Morsi, who “There is no need to take it personally,” he Mr. Fadl quickly noticed similarities between hoped that would happen soon so rebel forces. was ousted last year by the field marshal added. the two governments. the troops could be sent in “If both sides do not take steps himself. “They are all politically responsible “God knows, I detest you,” he said, ad- “weeks.” in order to reduce or end the vio- for shedding Egyptian blood,” Mr. Fadl wrote R. FADL, 39, worries little about ap- dressing the Brotherhood in a column he Given the bitter violence, the lence, they literally put their en- last October. pearances: He wore the same brown wrote after the military takeover. But he not- disruption of aid deliveries and tire country in danger,” Mr. Kerry A leader of Egyptian political satire, Mr. M shirt, jacket and pants to two inter- ed that he was nonetheless compelled to de- fear of widespread famine, it is said. “And they will completely Fadl has inspired a generation to voice its dis- views in the same week. He lives in a congest- fend the rights of Islamists against the gov- far from clear that the diplomatic destroy what they are fighting to sent more vividly than Egyptians had dared ed middle-class neighborhood in downtown ernment’s repression. “I detest you exactly push will be sufficient to reverse inherit.” during Mr. Mubarak’s rule. But the irreverent Cairo. He spends his spare time telling pro- as I detest those who kill you in cold blood,” style that made him a household name has fane jokes with friends at cafes where thick Mr. Fadl wrote. “I detest you all because you now run afoul of the hypernationalism that Turkish coffee sells for about 15 cents a cup. are exactly the same as each other.” swept Egypt after last summer’s military Born to a Yemeni father and an Egyptian He also has had a public falling-out with his takeover. mother, Mr. Fadl grew up in relative poverty mentor, Mr. Eissa, now a stalwart supporter His column on Mr. Sisi may also have irked in the coastal city of Alexandria, sharing a of the military-led government. one of the newspaper’s owners, whose long- house with 10 siblings. After moving to Cairo In several columns, Mr. Fadl accused Mr. ago writings Mr. Fadl quoted to criticize Mr. to study journalism in the early 1990s, he Eissa of turning a blind eye to the govern- Sisi. But despite Mr. Fadl’s national following, wrote freelance articles to cover his ex- ment’s mass killings of protesters and aban- no other publication has been willing to hire penses. In 1995, the journalist Ibrahim Eissa, doning the liberal activists he once encour- him after he quit over the refusal of the news- then an outspoken critic of the Mubarak gov- aged.

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