And Casey surely understands the reason: there has been noserious investigation, again, unlike what would have happened if the victimswere people who matter, a fact that tells us a lot about ourselves. Casey isalso correct in saying that the general figures given by the WHO and others donot detect the consequences. The reason, as he surely knows, is that the dataare hopelessly imprecise, and even if far more than Belke estimates had died inthe first year, the fact would probably not show up in the rough surveys. We mayrecall that this is not the US or Israel. It is "one of the least developedareas in the world. Its harsh climate, scattered populations, health hazards andcrumbling infrastructure combine to make life for many Sudanese a struggle forsurvival"; a country with endemic malaria, tuberculosis, and many otherdiseases, where "periodic outbreaks of meningitis or cholera are notuncommon," so that affordable medicines are a dire necessity (JonathanBelke and Kamal El-Faki, technical reports from the field for the Near EastFoundation). It is, furthermore, a country with limited arable land, a chronicshortage of potable water, a huge death rate, wracked with AIDS, anunserviceable debt, a vicious and destructive internal war, little industry, andunder severe sanctions. What is happening within is largely speculation,including Belke's (quite plausible) estimate that within a year tens ofthousands had suffered and died as the result of the destruction of the majorfacilities for producing affordable drugs and veterinary medicines, theequivalent of hundreds of thousands in the US.