Sudan President Declares 2007 "Year of Peace" (because everyone's dead?)

The Sudanese President, Omer Al-Bashir, has declared 2007 the "Year of Peace." Now, by all accounts, one declares a year to be "of something" beforehand, because that's what everyone is going to try to make the year into, or, I think more often, afterwards, because that's what the year was.

Calling it the "Year of Peace" in Sudan toward the end of July, however, is either just plain stupid or it's the height of naivete. Or, perhaps, it's just another cruelty being played out on the people of the region. Sort of rubbing salt in some wounds, that sort of thing.