| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
THE SUDAN NEWSLETTER
VOLUME 4 #3 AUTUMN 1994
Editor: David Nailo N. Mayo
Inside:
1. IGADD mediation reaches a dead end
2. Mail to the editor
3. Carlos Saga: A new Dreyfus affair in Paris
4. Why the Black voice is missing in Sudan crisis
5. Pretoria promised to cut arms to Khartoum
6. Cincinnati reaches out
7. The exiled Sudanese Bishop speaks
8. A Nation's Holy War
9. Southern Sudanese Women and Children
10. A story of three travellers
11. Pax Christi's report on Sudan
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SEE DETAILS INSIDE
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IGADD mediation role in the Sudanese conflict reaches a dead end
Will the UN Security Council take over from here?
The Sudanese Islamic regime of Lt. General Omer Hassan el-Beshir has rejected two major proposals put forward by the Intergovernmental Agency for Drought and Development (IGADD) to resolve the 11-year conflict in the country.
According to the Kenyan Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Zachary Onyonka, the peace talks broke down over the Sudanese government's unwillingness to tackle the major obstacles to peace in the Sudan which are: the removal of Islamic sharia law, and/or allowing the South to vote for self-determination.
The IGADD, which comprises the North-East African nations of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, began to mediate the Sudanese conflict in October of 1993. Since the conflict between the ruling Arab-north and the Christian and African guerrillas -- the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) -- erupted in 1983, the death toll in the South has exceeded the combined Bosnian and Somali cases. The UN estimates that at least 1.5 million people have died, 6 million more displaced and 500,000 others forced to take refuge in the neighboring African countries.
The fourth round of talks ended abruptly on September 7, 1994 when the Sudanese delegation led by Dr. Ghazi Salah el-Din, who is the Minister of State in the Office of the President, refused to negotiate on the two points. Mr. el-Din told the IGADD Conference in Nairobi that Islamic sharia law was not negotiable, and that he did not come to Nairobi to negotiate about self- determination of South Sudan. The Minister was accompanied by a group of hard- line Islamic absolutists, like Mr. Nafi Ali Nafi, who has been viewed as the architect of the government's nebulous "ghost houses" (torture chambers where opponents are allowed to rot). This group was also new and strange because it did not include faces often seen in the earlier series of futile peace talks in the Sudan; such as Mohammed el-Amin Khalifa, Ali el-Hajj, and the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Hussein Suleiman Abu Salih. It seems Khartoum's government did not want these people to face the camera as they were renegging on their commitment to the peace talks.
The recent round of talks (September 6-7, 1994) was a continuation of previous talks between July 18-30, 1994. The latter ended when the mediator wanted to give some time to the Sudanese government for possible deliberation. Hence the September round was supposed to finally negotiate the major obstacles to peace in the Sudan: the separation of Islamic religion from the state (a strong condition for maintaining the unity of the country), and/or allowing South Sudan to vote for self-determination in an internationally supervised referendum if the ruling North insists on an Islamic state.
These talks have, however, proven to be a futile endeavor, as Dr. Zachary Onyonka, who has been the Chairperson of the IGADD's Ministerial Committee, announced that the IGADD mediation role could no longer continue. The IGADD Ministerial Committee took the matter to the Kenyan President, Daniel arap Moi, who urgently summoned the IGADD head of states to plead to the Sudanese authorities to give peace a chance. The pleas did not convinced the Sudanese government. Lt. General Beshir, soon after arrival from the Nairobi head of states summit, declared that "Sudan's unity is not negotiable" and the "Islamic sharia law cannot be bargained." The Sudanese leader went on to accuse IGADD for being impartial.
With the kind of behavior which the Sudanese government's delegation demonstrated in various talks, it was clear that IGADD would eventually come out more disappointed than it had anticipated. President Moi, as the host of these talks since last year, was certainly dismayed. He is reported to have briefed the international community about the efforts of the IGADD member nations in trying to bring peace in Sudan. In the last issue of the Sudan Newsletter, we stated clearly that IGADD can make recommendations but it has no means to enforce its resolutions. Now our concerns have become much more clearer that Khartoum has not been interested in ending the war peacefully.
According to Dr. Mansur Khalid, the Sudanese government is creating an "image of a peace loving regime while the real intention is to win an overwhelming victory in the ongoing war with the South." Barely three days since the peace talks collapsed in Nairobi, Lt. General Beshir still talks of peace. He told the visiting British Parliamentary group that he was still interested in peace, and that the "Sudan would accept any initiative toward finding a peaceful solution to the problem." Much to the contrary, though, his envoy to the talks, Dr. Ghazi Salah el-Din, said on the National Radio that "the issue of self- determination has no legal or political basis" and that the Sudan will continue to be ruled by the laws of Islam. A week later, he told a press conference in Khartoum that the peace movement inside the country (meaning divide and rule policies applied in the South) was proceeding successfully.
There are further evidences that the Sudanese government has no interest in brokering peace with the South. Before the fourth round of talks began in Nairobi, the Sudanese government used delaying tactics stating that "a new mechanism for negotiation" should be created, and this involved the replacement of the IGADD foreign ministers (who had been mediating throughout) with a separate new representatives. The IGADD ministers, noting the absurdity of this, ignored that request as it had not been a part of the memorandum of the previous round of talks. The IGADD team had made it clear to the Sudanese government that it could not have both an Islamic state and a unified (multi-racial, multi- cultural, and multi-religious) Sudan. By the end of the July talks, IGADD had in fact shifted more attention to the Sudanese government delegation and pleaded with it to be serious about peace by being flexible on the two points. Meanwhile, the SPLA factions were unusually united in their stand during these talks and endorsed all the principles put forward by IGADD.
During negotiations, the U.S. sent Ambassador Melissa Wells to the IGADD talks in the hope of encouraging a peaceful settlement to the long conflict. Ambassador Wells made a perfect triangle of Khartoum-Nairobi-Washington trips which to her disappointment never brought a peace breakthrough. The U.S. had added the Sudan to a list of nations sponsoring international terrorism in August 1993 and has for years taken a hard stance against the Islamic military regime in the country. The U.S. has backed the IGADD Secretariat as a standing conflict resolution body in the north-eastern African region, and also uses it as an indirect hand to pressure the Iranian-backed regime in Khartoum.
The question remaining now is whether the U.S. will call upon the UN Security Council to bring forward the Sudanese case for discussion immediately or abdicate its pacifying mission. Some sources suggest that the U.S. has drafted a resolution that the UN Security Council will debate in the near future. The only obstacle to this draft resolution will be France and China, who are both permanent members of the Security Council and sympathetic to the Islamic absolutists in Khartoum. But the inevitable must be foreseen and dealt with. The Sudanese Islamic fundamentalists are unbendable in their crusade. They neither seek pluralism nor tolerance regarding African traditional values in what they perceive as an Arab-Islamic state.
Ghazi Salah el-Din has been quoted as saying the spread of the Islamic empire in Africa was prevented by European colonialism, and as colonialism is now over, his government is willing to enforce the spread of Islam in South Sudan and beyond. The Sudan is relapsing into a state of barbarism similar to that of the Mahdist regime in the 1880s. Like the Mahdists, Khartoum relies on terror and destruction of the African South and the Nuba regions (i.e. both Christian and black Muslims), conducting a war along racial lines more than religious ones. This is not to underestimate the persecution of the Church and Christians in the Sudan. In fact, it is much obvious and positions are more stubbornly and radically held on both sides today than ever before. In the 1980s, for instance, the SPLA guerillas and most leaders in the South saw themselves as Sudanese nationalists fighting to build a new democratic Sudan. In the 1990s this is no longer the case. The issue in the South is to divide the country into Arab and African. Meanwhile, the divide and rule policies of Khartoum and the SPLA factionalism have made it inevitable that all parties to the conflict seek external support if the conflict could be resolved.
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As the Sudanese government has refused to negotiate, the Sudan Newsletter is urging peace groups, church organizations, governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to intensify lobbying for intervention in the Sudan. The IGADD member nations should also forward the case to the UN Security Council as soon as possible.
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Mail and other comments to the editor
.... If there is something that the Sudanese in North America have done to
address the destructive conflict in their country, it is probably the
grassroots
work of the Sudan Newsletter. It is quite informative piece of paper that
routinely summarizes the events in the Sudan.
---- U.S. Congressman.
Greetings from me and from friends who appreciate your efforts in making the African-Arab conflict in the Sudan known and understood in that important part of the world. Your Newsletter is a useful contribution to the struggle. ...
Yours sincerely,
Lokulenge L. Lole, Eldoret, Kenya.
...... Keep up the good work of trying to arouse interest in the plight of the South Sudan. --- L. S., Michigan.
We enjoyed reading your Newsletter. It is very informative piece of work, and we hope soon international attention would be mobilize to resolve the war in Sudan. --- The Rooneys
Mandela' Government promises to stop arms supply to Khartoum is a new positive step
Just prior to the April 1994 historic elections in South Africa, Pax Christi International sent a letter to the Transitional Executive Committee informing it of the arms deal that has been going on between the former Afrikaner Government of F. W. de Klerk and the Sudanese military junta in Khartoum. This information reveals South Africa's involvement in the Sudanese civil war, at least up to the eve of the elections in April 1994. As the new South African Government of Nelson Mandela has already made progress toward restoring South Africa to the international scene, such dirty dealings must stopped.
In July, 1994, Mandela's Government indicated a departure from the policies of its predecessor by promising Pax Christi that it would cease all military related activities to the Sudanese government. This is a commendable step of South African Government's contribution toward the end of the civil war in the Sudan, minimization of destabilization of the African continent, and restoration of global peace.
The Southern Sudanese would greatly welcome South Africa's new thinking. But it still remains to be seen how far Mandela's Government would implement the promise, since the echelons of the remodelled South African National Defence Force are still dominated by the old guard/officer corps of the former regime. One could only hope that the South African industrial military complex, Armscor, is not dominated by money making capitalistic thinking -- making profits out of small or civil wars like the one in the Sudan. I am sure that if Mandela could withdraw South Africa's involvement in the Sudanese civil war, he would be remembered most by the Southern Sudanese who suffer exceedingly in the conflict, as a man of peace.
We appreciate the challenges with which Mandela's government would be faced in attempting to undo some of the time-honored clandestine activities of the South African military. And as a South African citizen concerned with what my country does, I wish Mandela good luck in all his endeavors toward changing the status quo for the betterment of the human condition both in South African and globally.
Manelisi Genge, East Lansing MI. USA.
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Mr. Manelisi: Thank you so much for your concern. I hope your government will not continue to supply arms to Sudanese government nor participate in the destruction of innocent people in South Sudan. -- Editor
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Carlos' Saga: A New Dreyfus Affair in Paris
The saga of a Venezuelan terrorist, Illich Ramirez Sanchez, known to intelligence as "Carlos-the-Jackal", has thrown France into another Dreyfus affair.
Carlos who was wanted for the April 1982 car bombing in Paris, which killed one French woman and wounded 63 other persons, was extradited from Khartoum in what has been largely regarded as a Franco-Sudanese "deal." The Western media covered the story so earnestly that the matter embarrassed the French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua who was involved in the matter. An indignant Pasqua told journalists that there was no deal made. Khartoum also denied vehemently such a deal was ever made. But as time went by it became apparently clear that several deals were in fact made -- which have been part of their diplomacy. However, it seem both sides are unwilling to take the cloud.
Carlos is also reported to be serving live imprisonment in absentia for killing two French counter-espionage agents who interrogated him about his alleged participation in a 1975 Orly Airport attempted bomb blast. Now in France, a writ of habeas corpus may be issued to retry him of that alleged crime as well.
According to intelligence reports, Carlos entered the Sudan late last year bearing a Jordanian passport with an Arab name Abdalla Barakat. Sayid Abdalla Barakat (Carlos) was destined to Khartoum, a new haven for terrorists, after being denied residence in Jordan. Carlos was received at the Khartoum Airport late last year by security officials who took him away under "strict security," a privilege which is normally reserved only for high ranking government officials and foreign dignitaries. While in Khartoum, Carlos was given all diplomatic immunity, provided with body guards, offering lectures and speeches at various branches of the Sudanese Intelligent Agency and Security, meeting senior government officials (including Hassan al-Turabi), and being allowed to drink alcohol in public places in contradiction of the norms of an Islamic state.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese government presented the case differently. Hassan al-Turabi, the leader of the ruling National Islamic Front (NIF) Party told a German Der Spiegel that "Carlos entered the country with a forged Jordanian passport. Since any citizen of an Arab country may visit our country without a visa, we did not have any reason to check his papers in any special way. We did not even know that Carlos was hiding in our country." Other official reports also said that Carlos had just entered the country few months ago, and that he was arrested while trying to conduct terrorist activities. These were politically inccorrect and logically absurd statements. Carlos was not that kind of an alien as the regime puts it. Carlos was simply bartered for something more than his utility in Khartoum could continue to offer. The 44 year-old Venezuelan, was described as "rugged and overweight" appearing much older than his real age. His strength to carry any future terrorist activities, according to experts, was "extremely diminished" except [perhaps] of "strategies" which he could have continued to offer to young Sudanese novices. Carlos, according to Turabi, "did not represent an ideology, he sold himself to various customers" -- like Sudan. And apart from that he is not an Arab nor a Muslim. There is no political stigma from the Arab World that would further reduce Khartoum's credibility beyond its current isolation. As a matter of strategy and calculated cost and benefit analysis, Carlos offered more outlays from extraditing him to France than keeping him in Khartoum.
The Sudan also wanted to prove to the international community that it does not support nor harbor terrorists, thus attempting to disapprove charges which the U.S. has all along maintained. On August 15, 1994, exactly one year since Warren Christopher included the Sudan in the list of nations sponsoring international terrorism, the Sudanese Minister of Justice, Mr. Abdel Aziz Shiddu, called upon the U.S. to remove the Sudan from the list of nations supporting terrorism. Although the U.S. welcomed Carlos' extradition to France, Mr. Mike McCurry, the State Department spokesperson and other senior officials in the Clinton administration said the Sudan will have to do much more before such a decision could be taken. The U.S. had included the Sudan in the terrorist list long before Carlos entered the country.
As Carlos' lawyers will defend their client and the press will keep probing into the matter, French politicians will continue to face embarrassments similar to what their predecessors faced during the Dreyfus affair in 1898. Dreyfus, a French Jew then working in the French consular section was accused of giving military secrets to Germany during the war between the two countries. During that time, the Dreyfus affair had embarrassed France and destroyed its credibility especially as it had just lost the war to Germany. To recognize German strength, France had no choice but to give a scholarship to Emile Durkheim to go and study German sociology as a possible way to emulate the German superiority. However, the difference between Carlos' deal and the Dreyfus affair is that, the latter turned out to be false, but the former is full of evidence as supported by French policy towards Khartoum since 1992. On August 17, 1994, barely three days after he was extradited from Khartoum, Carlos appeared before Jean-Louis Bruguiere, a French judge regarded as an expert on crimes of terrorism. As the allegations against Carlos are believed to be overwhelming, it is likely that Bruguiere will find Carlos guilty of the allegations. But as Professor Yongo-Bure put it, "it is suspect that the Franco-Sudanese deal was just to obtain Carlos. The French politicians might be forced by the embarrassments of the deal to wash off their hands clean and abandon the Sudanese Islamists." Unless the French defy reason and logic they may as well continue to flirt with their Sorbonne educated lawyer, Hassan al-Turabi, in spite of all the outburst of the deal. But what was the nature of the Franco-Sudanese deal anyway?
CARLOS SOLD FOR MORE THAN 30 PIECES OF SILVER
According to Carlos' defence lawyers, Jacques Verges and Mourad Oussedik, Carlos was bartered for military hardware and an undisclosed amount of money. Mr. Oussedik charged that his client was "betrayed and sold for a sum much bigger than 30 pieces of silver." He said his client was bound by his Sudanese body guards, drugged and handed over to the French DST (counter-intelligence) without any extradition proceedings. And that his client was shown a warrant of his arrest when he was already in La Sante military prison in France. An American lawyer would have added that her client was denied his Miranda Rights at the time of the arrest.
Moreover, the Western media carried disturbing reports that the French provided Khartoum with satellite photographs which pinpoint the movements of the SPLA guerrillas fighting the Sudanese government. The Sudanese airforce -- thanks to arms from France, Iran, South Africa, and China -- then uses these photographs to carry its routine aerial bombardments in the South. French diplomats, like Col. Jean-Claude Mantion, use their influence in Central African Republic (CAR) to allow the Sudanese army to pass through the CAR and Zairean territories to attack the SPLA positions in Western Equatoria Province. At the time we went to press, two contingents of the Sudanese troops are already reported to have landed in Ituri district of Zaire-Sudan border. More airlifts may be expected before another dry season starts. As it is now unearthed, there is no doubt that France is a joint tortfeasor participating in the crimes of genocide with the Sudanese Islamic fundamentalists. In fact the French government has long been suspect due to its silence since many Western nations, including the U.S., Australia, Britain, and so forth, have all passed resolutions condemning the gross violation of human rights in the Sudan. French diplomats, instead, have been trying to argue whether the Sudan was really capable of harboring international terrorism. Another fear, especially from the humanitarian groups, is that France will chair the European Community this coming year. This could weaken the European lobby against the Sudan. Efforts are being searched to circumvent such a pariah.
MUTUAL INTERESTS BETWEEN FRANCE AND SUDAN
Meanwhile, both Paris and Khartoum have their own interests. The French interests in the region had not been diminished by France's abandonment of Captain Jean-Baptiste Marchand in 1898. The French Total Oil Company and Elf Aquitaine want to gain access to contracts to prospect oil in south Sudan, the area where Marchand once transversed nearly 100 years ago. To gain these contracts, which can't be granted by anyone else in the South (given the endless splits in the SPLA), someone who has power in the region must be consulted. Khartoum welcomes such an interest because, as broke as it is, Sudan badly needs the money from Bentiu oil.
After cancelling licenses of the American Chevron Oil Company, which discovered the oil in South Sudan in late 1970s, Sudan moved to entice the Arab oil rich nations to come and drill the oil in Bentiu. But the Bentiu oil, estimated at 540 Million Barrels of crude oil, has a special wax which must be extracted, but the Arab World does not have the technology to do so. The main purpose of Hassan el-Turabi's trip to Canada, where he was assaulted by a Karate Champion two years ago, was to find some Canadian contractors for this purpose.
Paris has also been using the Sudanese Islamic fundamentalist leader, Hassan al-Turabi, to diffuse tensions in Algeria and possibly to expel the Algerian dissidents [of the FIS party] including some Tunisian dissidents which are also believed to be getting sanctuary in the Sudan. Since the French annulled the 1992 elections in Algeria, which were swept by the FIS, violence has claimed at least 4,000 lives there. Recently five French citizens and two native lawyers were among those claimed by the escalating violence. Paris is also indignant with the U.S. for attempting to settle the violence in Algeria through dialogue. Paris politicians believe there can be no negotiation with Islamic extremism nor can there be moderacy of any kind. But surprisingly, Paris flirts with the Sudanese Islamic fundamentalists, which have even the worse human rights record than the FIS. At least the latter has the backing of the Algerian masses, as proven by the 1992 general elections.
THE MUSEVENI FACTOR
The other common interest between France and Sudan is the rise of President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Museveni, considered to be the American darling in the region by implementing all the IMF economic policies and bringing stability to a land that saw nothing but Amin's and Obote's terror, is an envy of France.
Paris accuses Museveni for supporting the Tutsi-led rebels, RPF, to seize power in Kigali.
On the other hand, the Sudan accuses Museveni for supporting its arch- dissident officer, Colonel John Garang de Mabior, leader of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA), that has been fighting the Sudanese government since 1983 for a greater autonomy of the South and the Nuba region.
It seems now crystal clear what interests each side has in the dealings. In the case of being indignant with Museveni, Paris and Khartoum undoubtedly just fit perfectly in the dictum that 'an enemy of your friend is also your enemy' and since both France and Sudan have their own stakes, the cartesian coordinates converged in Kampala but the obiter dicta is Carlos the Jackal.
MEDICINS SAN FRONTIERS
Meanwhile, the Sudanese government has protested vehemently against a report issued by a French Relief Organization, Medicins San Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders). The report detailed the gross human rights abuses committed by the Sudanese government in the South and the Nuba region.
The Sudanese government has been quick to condemn, brush aside, seek further evidence than already provided, or simply manipulate reports about its war crimes. The Gaspar Biro Report was, for instance, condemned and instead the UN Commission on Human Rights rapporteur was personally attacked as being anti- Islam and likened to Salman Rushdie. It was a very ridiculous, stupid, and vicious pattern of attempting to scare away independent human rights groups. Nevertheless, concrete facts about war crimes in the Sudan outweighed Khartoum's hypocrisy.
Given the nebulous and vicious reputation of the Sudanese government -- denying red-handed crimes it commits -- it could as well use its improved relations with France (using French underdogs like Colonel Jean-Claude Mantion) to freeze this report.
It is the hope of the Sudan Newsletter that the French government will withdraw its contacts and support for the Sudanese Islamic fundamentalist regime. We strongly encourage human rights groups to document and write clearly about what they see in the Sudan.
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APPEAL --- The Sudan Newsletter appeals to NGOs and other Humanitarian Organizations to lobby against French designs in the Sudan as long as the civil war continues. When the war is over, the French will be welcomed to come back and help reconstruct the kingdom they have helped to destroy.
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Why is the Black Caucus's voice missing in the Sudanese crisis?
Has it forgotten Mickey Leland's mission to Ethiopia?
One of the earliest efforts to bring attention to the plight of Sudanese people was that undertaken by the former U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland in 1989.
Unfortunately, the Texan Congressman and 15 other companions died when their airplane crashed in the western Ethiopian highlands. The following day, August 13, the wreckage was found without any survivors. That tragic death cut short what the Congressman and his companions were going to see and possibly report to the U.S. Congress about the condition of 500,000 Sudanese refugees then in various camps in western Ethiopia.
The Sudanese intermittent conflicts between the Arabic speaking and Muslim north and the African and Christian south has been going on since 1955, with only ten years of brief peace between 1972 and 1982. The ruling Arab/Muslim north has persistently oppressed the Africans in the South: bluntly denying every social right and opportunity in the affairs of the state, economics, and social progress. The current Islamic fundamentalist government of Lt. General Omer Hassan el-Beshir, has imposed drastic and forceful measures to convert the Africans into Arabs and Muslims in total disregard of African cultures and traditional religions and/or Christianity which many of them adhere to. For all practical purposes, the Sudanese system has not changed since the previous century, when the African people suffered immensely from Arab slave trade, annihilation, disruption of African culture and society, and racial discrimination.
Meanwhile, Leland's mission was highly regarded because he was an African American who could have easily understood what oppression practically means. His voice in Congress would have had a different tune and fervor.
The Sudanese case gained attention when Congressmen Frank Wolf and Harry Johnston visited various Sudanese refugee camps and subsequently returned to the U.S. and pushed through Resolution 131. But even then the black voice was still quite thud. Why has the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus kept a low profile in the Sudanese matter when in fact they know they could make a difference? The Black Caucus has been very effective in calling for the impositions of sanctions against the Ian Smith government in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and in South Africa until positive changes sprang from the abyss of racial discrimination and injustices. We are aware that if the matter was left to the Whites alone, probably they would have not brought the kinds of changes which have occurred in those countries.
Although individual African Americans have come to understand the Sudanese situation (mostly shocked by the revivalism of slavery) and have often written to the press about it, yet an organized protest is still lacking. To create the necessary attention and media coverage, many problems confronting Africa will still need the input of many Africans in Diaspora, especially from the African-Americans. Perhaps the latter aren't aware of the immense power they have at their disposal. The U.S. is the only superpower nation left, there are enormous resources in the hands of Americans: the media, the telephone, movies, and even the ballot. Many calls made to their own representatives, black or white, to response to the crisis in the Sudan could incite a groundwork campaign similar to what has been done against the apartheid regime in South Africa. Donald Woods's movie, "Cry Freedom" for instance was a powerful non-violent means of unlocking the dead locks of apartheid.
Therefore, it's not the underestimation of its abilities that keeps the Black Caucus from questioning and protesting the ongoing ethnic cleansing in the Sudan, but rather it is the absence of political will -- no one in the Black Community has taken a lead. Randall Robinson's hunger strike, for instance, was quite sufficient to force President Clinton's Administration to become committed and act to restore democracy in Haiti. Although a hunger strike was an extreme case, Robinson perhaps had no choice but to find a roundabout way to speak loudly to the unattending power that Haiti is hurting badly. Similarly, someone in the Black Caucus needs to get up and say "the Sudanese Africans are hurting badly" and we cannot afford to watch the tragedy go on and on.
Although many Black Congressmen/women did cast their votes in support of the U.S. Resolution 131 (which sought an end to the crisis in the Sudan), this did not exonerate the Black Caucus from appearing indifferent in the Sudanese situation. The black voice was missing in many stages when this Resolution was being pushed by Congressmen Frank Wolf and Harry Johnston. And it is still missing even now! The African Sudanese aren't happy nor take this lightly.
Rep. Wolf and Johnston have tirelessly written to colleagues, the press, Warren Christopher and President Bill Clinton to make the Sudan a priority issue. The Black Caucus -- as a group of Black leaders -- should have and still should back up the Resolution and write a joint letter to President Clinton to encourage him to take further action to bring the Sudanese case in the U.N. Security Council as soon as possible.
It is suspect that the African Americans were more active in the case of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa because the perpetrators of injustices there were white, something they can easily connect to their past. But it seems they are unaware of a cruel apartheid of the clumsiest kind in the Sudan, which could best be described as "apart-hate" of anything African. With immense media owned by the Blacks in the U.S., the Black Caucus could have made a difference by bringing the Sudanese case forward. The Black media could even cover the gap which the major media-maniacs are not inclined to talk about. By documenting the Sudanese ethnic cleansing, slavery (which is also taking place in Mauritania), and all other injustices that come in the guise of Islamic fundamentalism in the Sudan, the Black press could probably educate its consumers much more thoroughly. Furthermore, the Black Muslims in the U.S. should have voiced the matter more vigorously because Islam is seriously misapplied in the Sudan. It is instead used as the tool for racial and ethnic discrimination. Hence the Black Muslims have a moral obligation to challenge the Sudanese brand of Islam because it associates Islamic faith with the kinds of gross human rights violations in the Sudan.
Minister Louis Farrakhan, who recently visited the Sudan, was able to come to grips with the reality of the Sudanese brand of Islam, and realized that it is much different from the "communal solidarity" and "industry" that he preaches in the U.S. He realized the black natives in the Sudan are treated with serious contempt and neglect by the Islamic fundamentalist government in Khartoum. The controversial cleric told the Islamic fundamentalist leader, Lt. General el-Beshir, that the way Islam has been applied in the Sudan as a means of discriminating against the non-Arabic [African] people in the country was contrary to the tenets of Islam as taught in the Holy Qur'an. Minister Farrakhan also declined to accept the request for mediation role between the Sudanese government and the African and Christian guerrillas (SPLA) in the South because he thought that it was another attempt to maneuver the peace process sought by North East African nations.
However, the inaction by the Black Caucus has certainly made many African Sudanese to conclude that Leland's bright mission died with him, as his colleagues in Washington D.C. have literally forgotten what he was going to do on behalf of the African Sudanese people.
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Pretoria promised to cut arms supply to Khartoum
The new South African Government of Nelson Mandela has promised to stop arms-shipments to the Sudanese Islamic fundamentalist regime in Khartoum. The issue of arms deals between Pretoria and Khartoum has been going on for a while; it first started with a Boeing 707 and later a military DC9 transport plane transported heavy military equipment to Khartoum. Pretoria has been also implicated in providing arms to Rwanda even when the bloodbath was at its peak. However, the South African Defence Ministry promised that "It has been decided to withdraw the existing authorization and to terminate all aid programmes [to Sudan] which might have a military connotation."
The arms deal between Khartoum and Pretoria included the high tech G5 155mm towed howitzers, military helicopters, air-to-ground missiles, and rocket launchers. Apart from arms provisions, Pretoria sent its technical staffs to service the Sudanese Aircrafts and possibly provide the necessary counter- insurgency techniques.
The announcement to cut arms shipment to Sudan is good news. But credit must be extended to peace groups, (especially the Netherlands-based Pax Christi International -- which have been active in fighting Apartheid in South Africa) which exerted much pressure on Pretoria to stop arms shipments to Sudan. Pax Christi took the matter seriously after unrelenting appeals by the London-based Sudan Democratic Gazette, which devoted much of its publication to disclose that deadly weapons from South Africa are destined to the destruction of Southern Sudan. Pax Christi urged the South African Government:
(1) to stop immediately the direct export of military equipment, maintenance, assistance, and advice programs, and to take legal initiatives to prevent military export and involvement with Sudan as long as human rights are violated and civil war is continued;
(2) to join the arms embargo of the European Union and the U.N; and to order an investigation and to take appropriate steps concerning the South African-Sudan connection.
In response to the Pax Christi appeal, the South Africa Deputy Defence Minister, R. Kasrils, denied having provided Sudan with such military provisions except humanitarian assistance. He stated that "It has already been confirmed in a public press statement by Armscor that the South African industry is involved in Sudan with humanitarian aid by servicing certain of their transport aircraft. These aircraft (sic) are not equipped with any weapons or related platforms and according to our information are only being used by the Sudanese Government for carrying out relief operations within Sudan."
Pax Christi pursued Kasrils's statement by providing the necessary details to substantiate the military equipment, some of which left South Africa from the Mmabatho Airport in Bophuthatswana. Among many varieties of arms shipped to Sudan are the Russian made "Antonov" bombers which relief agencies in South Sudan are very familiar with its notoriousity in bombing relief camps, towns and villages in the territory.
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ACTION: The Sudan Newsletter strongly appeals to the international community to tightened the arms embargo against Sudan, and publicly expose when possible, countries that have military links with Sudan.
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Cincinnati Reaches Out to Sudan
Who will speak of the Holocaust? Who will speak of the African Holocaust? Who will speak of the Sudan's Holocaust being perpetrated by the Sudanese fundamentalist government against its people? ...... Who are the Sudanese? Are they our brothers? And are we our brothers' keepers?
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These touchy words were expressed by Dr. Merelyn Bates-Mims of Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was moderating a forum discussion on the Sudan, which was sponsored by the Cincinnati Reaches Out, Inc. -- a charitable organization that provides medical supplies to needy people throughout the world.
The Cincinnati Reaches Out, Inc. (CRO), in collaboration with the Comboni Missionaries, invited the exiled Sudanese Bishop Macram M. Gassis of El-Obeid Diocese in Western Sudan, and other Sudanese to come and share with the Cincinnati community the suffering endured by the Sudanese people. Bishop Macram spoke at length, detailing the agonies which the Christians and those who cling to their African traditional religions undergo daily in the Sudan. (See excerpts of his speech below).
Other Sudanese invited were Mr. Bona Malwal, the former Minister of Information and Culture and currently the editor of the London based "Sudan Democratic Gazette"; Mr. Manute Bol, the renown NBA star; and David Nailo Mayo, editor of the "Sudan Newsletter."
A heart rending and disturbing part of the presentation was a fresh video tape -- a documentary of a British press (which was taped and brought by Bona Malwal). This was shown in the forum before Bishop Macram spoke. The graphic documentation which stunned and deeply disturbed the audience, documented barbaric acts committed by the present regime in Khartoum in the name of Islamic puritanism.
The CRO, a non-profit organization of interested physicians, lawyers, politicians, pharmarcists, educators, and media professionals was founded in the height of the 1985 Ethiopian Crisis. The aim was and still is to provide medical help to those in need. Since its formation, the CRO has sent more than 600 tons of medicines to many places throughout the world -- including Peru, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Somalia, India, Romania, Guatemala, Zimbabwe, Macedonia, and Bolivia. Recently, the plight of the Sudanese people renewed interest to seek more support for this worthy cause.
Dr. Walter T. Bowers, a physician who directs this Organization, spoke appealingly about the need to respond to global humanitarian issues. He stated that there are people who really need our help, and we have a moral obligation to respond. He appealed to the audience to support the cause of the CRO by making donations in kind or money.
Please share this appeal with a friend and respond by donating medicines and medical supplies to:
Dr. Walter T. Bowers
CINCINNATI REACHES OUT, Inc.
8108 Beechmont Avenue
Cincinnati, OHIO 45255
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Bishop Macram urged Ohions to participate in the search for peace in Sudan: Will the Buckeyes respond?
The Most Reverend Bishop Macram Max Gassis of El-Obeid Diocese in Western Sudan was touring the United States this Summer. After spending some days in the New York area, the Bishop was able to visit Cincinnati, Ohio where he spoke at the University of Cincinnati's African-American Cultural Center. He appealed to the audience to participate in the search for peace in Sudan. Below are the excerpts of his one hour long speech.
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Dear Brothers and Sisters:
It gives me great pleasure to spend a few days among you and share with you the agony and the tragedy of the Sudanese people in general and the African ethnic group, Christians and those of traditional beliefs. I am here in Cincinnati as a part of my global campaign to create awareness about the suffering people and the Church in the Sudan which are at the mercy of a military dictatorship of the Islamic fundamentalists.
You have certainly heard of Somalia, Mozambique, Angola, Bosnia- Herzegovina, and Rwanda. Until recent times, South Africa was almost a daily topic on the media. Sudan, a country of terror, assassinations, genocide, ethnic cleansing, torture, mass-arrests, extrajudicial executions and religious persecution with hundreds of thousands of unknown martyrs is totally and absolutely forgotten and neglected. The violation of primary rights is the fundamental cause of all these sufferings! And because of these sufferings, I must speak in behalf of my people. I do it for the poor people. I do it for the people of the Sudan.
The Sudanese government is a ruthless regime whose system of governance is terror thus violating the basic human rights of the people -- killing some and rendering the rest desperately poor and displaced within its own nation or unwanted and humiliated as refugees in neighboring countries and in the West. It is a regime that is starving its own people in order to force the non-Muslims and the non-Arabs to forfeit their Christian faith or their traditional beliefs, to give up their African languages, traditions and customs and become Muslims. I have testified several times about the existence of slavery in the Sudan. In February this year, I testified before the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva -- citing specific cases and names of the children abducted and sold into slavery.
Cases of slavery are frequent and the list is lengthy, but I mention it to you here so that you may be aware that slavery is not a barbaric uncivilized and inhuman practice of past centuries. It is a sad reality practiced in the Sudan and encouraged by the existing Islamic fundamentalist regime.
The Church in the Sudan is persecuted and accused of being the Fifth Column of the colonialists. The Church leaders are regarded as "Salibi'yin" or "infidel crusaders." This term "salibi'yin" is used even by senior people in government. In Kordofan Province in 1989, for instance, the number two man in the regime, speaking in front of the Lt. General Omer Beshir, said that the "infidel crusaders" are enemies of Sudan and of Islam. This is not an isolated incident, on the contrary the Islamic fundamentalists have used the media and public rallies to incite, insult, and debase Christians and Christianity. This is all a part of the overall oppressive policies against the Church and to terrorize the Christian citizens. In efforts to humiliate and disgrace the Church, the Islamic fundamentalists often bring unfounded charges against the clergy. For instance the Episcopalian Bishop, Rev. Boutros Elberish, who was alleged to have committed adultery with a woman he was couseling, was dragged and flogged publicly without due process of law. An Italian technician (working for the Church) was arrested in Khartoum while drinking Pepsi Cola with two Ethiopian ladies in a cafe. He was charged of attempted adultery and was sentenced to forty lashes.
Furthermore, pastors, catechists and laypersons have been tortured, burned alive and killed in many parts of the Sudan. In the Nuba Mountains, for instance, a film documentary showed that Pastor Kamal Tutu, about 40 years old was caught by the soldiers in the Nuba region and baked in a hot sun for hours before he was thrown in flames of the Church set ablaze by the soldiers. His hands were completely burned off to the elbow as were his feet. Futhermore, Younan Kwa, a catechist, and his father were slain by the paramilitary Popular Defence Forces (PDF), while Pastor Fadul was crucified in a El-Nugra village. His colleague Ibrahim El-Shayib was also crucified and his ears chopped off. Fortunately, he's still alive in Umdulu village. If I go back, I would like to take a picture of this man and bring his picture to you!
The Islamic fundamentalist government, is convince that it has the right to impose Islamic law on the citizens. The Islamic fundamentalists are blind to the reality that the Sudan is neither an Arab country nor a Muslim nation. Sudan is multi-cultural, multi-religious, and multi-racial country. The truth is that the pure Arab population of the Sudan is a minority. In northern Sudan, the majority who call themselves Arabs are in reality a mixture of Arabs and Africans. The paradox is that the Afro-Arabs, are afraid of their African roots and they believe that Africans have had no role in the history of civilization.
Furthermore, they believe that only Arabian history and Islam could given them a status which is superior to the African ethnicity and the African beliefs and Christianity.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Islamic fundamentalism in the Sudan does not create good Muslims, but to the contrary it creates absolutists who would hardly tolerate pluralism and diversity. The maintenance of the Islamic Sharia laws can only be justified where all the citizens are Muslims but not in a country like the Sudan. Such laws will only widen the gap between the North and the South and between Christians and Muslims.
There can be no meaningful dialogue between the Muslims and the Christians unless certain fundamental prerequisites are met. As Christians, Christ's commandment of love for all, means that we should be in a position to love our brothers and sisters as they are and not as we expect them to be. In order to have constructive dialogue mutual understanding, knowledge, respect and trust are fundamental prerequisites. Therefore dialgoue excludes monologue or the imposition of one side's ideas or beliefs on the other. I am convinced that the members of the current Islamic regime in Khartoum are not honest and/or prepared for dialogue. Their policy is coercion, overtly or covertly, terror and force to imposed their will and their policies.
As a shepherd of my people, I appeal to you, brothers and sisters of Cincinnati, to be good Christians and bring justice and peace to Sudan by:
* speaking to your legislators urging them to take effective steps to put an end to ethnic cleansing and genocide that is taking place in Sudan. It is not enough to put the Sudan in the terrorist list. An arms embargo must be imposed and tightened. Sanctions were used on Iraq, Libya, and South Africa and now in Haiti and Cuba. Why can't this be done in the Sudan?
* write or telephone the media when they report what is happening in the Sudan, let them know you appreciate what they reported and should get as much coverage as other world's "hot spots."
* Urge the U.S. Government and the UN to implement the none-fly zones, safe havens and land corridors for relief supplies and monitoring mechanisms, and to stop the regime's aerial bombardment of civilians.
* Urge your bishops in the U.S. to issue statements condemning the violation of human rights in the Sudan and to approach the U.S. Government to table the Sudan case in the UN Security Council. + GOD BLESS YOU
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VISIT TO SUDAN; A N A T I O N 'S H O L Y W A R
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By Frank C. Baldwin
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IMMEDIATELY after announcing the flight information, cruising altitude and flying time, the announcer on our Sudan Airways flight began reciting prayers from the Qur'an. It was an immediate reminder that Islamic revivalism permeated Sudanese life. I was part of an ecumenical group of nine Chicago-area churchpeople who, at the invitation of Sudan, visited the country in order to investigate its treatment of churches and Christians. Our group met with government officials and church leaders in the capital city of Khartoum and in Juba, the capital of southern state of Equatoria.
As the largest country in Africa, Sudan is in many ways a microcosm of the continent. Lying directly south of Egypt along the Nile River, it is populated by 600 ethnic groups speaking 110 different dialects. The northern portion is predominantly Arab, and Islam is the dominant religion. The southern portion is populated by black Africans who are Christians or followers of traditional African religions. The government is firmly in the control of the Arab Muslim north.
For much of the period since independence in 1956 a civil war has raged between the central government and a southern rebel movement known as the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). It is estimated that a million people have lost their lives in this war and about 5 million have been displaced. On both sides children as young as eight are drafted into the war. The conflict is further complicated by a split in the SPLA between factions that fight each other as well as the government. In addition to the loss of lives, the war is a tragedy for Sudan because it keeps the nation from exploiting its rich natural resources. It has the potential to become one of the continent's largest food-producing nations, and indeed has been called the "Breadbasket of Africa." Oil reserves have also been discovered in southern Sudan. But the war has stalled development of these resources.
About 3 million southern Sudanese displaced by the civil war have fled north to Khartoum. The government has been harshly criticized by the international community for its treatment of these refugees. When they first arrived in the city they were pushed out of most settled areas and took up residence in the city garbage dump. When the government decided to clear that area, people were forcibly loaded into trucks by soldiers armed with machine guns. We were taken to the site of the former dump -- now bulldozed and cleared. City officials told us proudly that they planned to build luxury condominiums on the site.
The former residents of the dump were transported to a new site, Jebel Awliya, 25 miles south of town -- a barren place in the desert with no sign of vegetation or shade. In January the temperature climbed to 90 degrees; the summer's heat will make the place even more intolerable. Families have built mud huts on small lots in Jebel Awliya, but their possibilities for earning a living are extremely limited. A military checkpoint on the only road leading from the camp to the city enables authorities to regulate people's movement to and from the camp. Residents told us that they receive only one meal a day. Hundreds of thousands of people are situated in similar camps around the perimeter of the city.
The government gives us generous access to many ministers and officials, including an extended visit with the nation's president, Omar Hassan Ahmad al- Bashir. We also met twice with Hassan Abdalla Turabi, secretary general of the Popular Arab and Islamic Conference and former head of the National Islamic Front. Turabi is widely considered the most influential and powerful politician in the country, and he is a leading spokesman for the worldwide Islamic revival.
Many Sudanese officials have been educated in Western Europe and in the U.S. They speak fluent English and are anxious to make their case to the American public. They feel that the Western press has unfairly stigmatized Sudan. Sudanese officials maintain that Egypt consistently exaggerates the threat from Sudan in order to justify high levels of U.S. aid. They also complain that the U.S. applies human rights criteria selectively, condemning Sudan while ignoring the poor human rights records of such U.S. allies as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. They resent a perceived anti-Islamic bias in U.S. foreign policy. These officials articulate a vision for a multiethnic, multicultural state and acknowledge the need to guarantee the rights of minorities, including Christians. But Sudan's reality does not conform to their vision.
During our visit we were interviewed by the Sudanese press, and our statements were often misrepresented. Regardless of what of what we said, we were "quoted" as affirming Sudanese government policies, refuting the allegation that the Sudan sponsors terrorism and denying any violations of democracy and human rights. Previous visiting dignitaries, including Pope John Paul II and United Nations envoy has also been "quoted" in the local media as praising the Sudanese government.
Government officials with whom we met see Sudan as the cutting edge of Islamic revivalism. Sudan is one of the few Muslim countries to impose the Shari'a of Muslim law as the law of the land. Some of the more objectionable aspect of the Shari'a include punishing theft by chopping off hands and putting to death anyone who publicly converts from Islam to another faith. Sudanese authorities contend that these punishments are seldom applied. The three southern states are exempt from Muslim law, but Christians living in other parts of the country must live according to its dictates.
To the extent that Islamic revivalism calls on Muslims to live out their faith more fully, one can hardly take issue with it. But, just as Christianity's history has been marked by occasions of triumphalism and coercion, Islamic revivalism's attempt to impose its worldview has its disturbing side. Many Sudanese describe childhoods when Christians and Muslims lived peacefully side by side in the same village and often even under the same family roof. Unfortunately, this coexistence now has been replaced by strict polarization. Declaring its prosecution of the civil war to be a Muslim jihad or holy war, the government has sent young conscripts to the south to kill with religious zeal. The imposition of Arabic as the official language of the south has also been perceived as an attack on local culture, and the government has used food as a tool to compel refugees to covert to Islam.
The Sudan Council of Churches, an ecumenical body embracing 12 denominations, including Roman Catholics, told us about numerous instances of government harassment. No church may be built without government permission, and some congregations have been waiting for decades for that permission. Sanctuaries built without permission are bulldozed. Shortly before our visit the council's general secretary asked the government for permission to travel to Nairobi for a World Council of Churches meeting. He was called in by government officials, confronted with copies of documents issued by the Sudan Council, and upbraided for "allowing" for allowing the council to criticize the government. Permission to travel was finally granted but the government's threatening power had been clearly communicated.
In January Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, was scheduled to visit Khartoum. The trip was canceled when the Sudanese government attempted to change the terms of his visit, insisting that he come as a guest of the government. Objecting to restrictions on his itinerary imposed by the government, Carey traveled from Nairobi to visit Christians in rebel-held southern Sudan. The Khartoum government protested this decision as an affront to Sudan's sovereignty and expelled the British ambassador in protest.
In other areas, Christian judges and civil servants have been removed from their positions. Christian students at the University of Khartoum are pressured to wear Arab dress. Morality police are stationed at street corners around the city to enforce Muslim law. There is always the risk that those who criticize the government will disappear on be tortured in what the Sudanese call "ghost houses" situated around the city. Nevertheless, in spite of harassment and persecution, the churches continue to grow.
SUDAN HAS BEEN hit by numerous food shortages in recent decades. War and drought have reduced crops, and the poor transportation network sometimes prevents the available food from reaching people. In Khartoum, people told us that bread and flour have been hard to get. Crop production has fallen short of current goals. For these and other reasons, Sudan is a nation where many people live on the edge; crop shortages or renewed drought could easily push them over the brink. Yet the government has consistently downplayed the magnitude of the food shortages out of fear that the international community would use famine as a pretext for humanitarian intervention.
Sudan clearly aspires to leadership of Islamic revivalist movement. Sudan officials take pride in the strength and spread of the movement. Despite this international reach, however, the movement in Sudan itself seems vulnerable. Resistance to the government is growing; disenchantment with the current regime is voiced frequently on the streets of Khartoum. Shortages of food and gasoline are part of everyday life, and the economy seems stagnant. We were shocked by the primitive condition of roads and other infrastructure. To be sure, the British, who colonized Sudan for the first half of the 20th century, did little to develop the country. But it now appears that the international community's cut-off in aid has taken a further toll. In addition, the country's currency has been devalued repeatedly in recent years.
Rumors of an impending government offensive in the south were circulating in the diplomatic community. In early February, the government launched a major ground and air offensive, driving an estimated 100,000 refugees toward the Uganda border. Aid delivery by international agencies was suspended, and relief workers feared a renewed famine comparable to that of 1988, when at least 250,000 people died. Also in February a report was released to the UN Human Rights Commission charging serious human rights abuses in Sudan. Compiled by a Hungarian expert, Gaspar Biro, the report details charges of indiscriminate killings and the kidnapping of children for slavery. The government condemned the UN report as "blaspheming Islam." When Biro visited Sudan in September 1993, witnesses who presented testimony to the UN delegation were arrested by Sudanese police as they left the UN building. Biro also visited the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan and documented large-scale displacement and pervasive human rights abuses by both the government and the SPLA.
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Copyright 1994 Christian Century Foundation. Reprinted by permission from the July 13-20, 1994 issue of the Christian Century Magazine.
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Southern Sudanese women and children: the saddest victims of the Sudanese conflict
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By: Jane Muni Alley
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Southern Sudanese women and children are the most helpless victims of ethnic cleansing in the 11 year-war in the Sudan. As a woman and a mother, with deep concern about the suffering of my people, I must say something on their behalf. I think it is time that women talk about issues that affect their welfare and that of the whole society. While women are rarely a part of the decision to go to war, they always suffer terribly from its consequences. Women sustain their families in times of conflict, and their struggle for survival leaves them with no energy for playing a role in peace-making. Thus, their views never come to bear in any of the decisions made.
HUMAN RIGHT VIOLATIONS AND NEGLECT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Southern Sudanese women are a neglected section of the society, and as Dr. Augustine Lado once stated, "Southern Sudanese women are forgotten women," they're indeed forgotten because the scale of human catastrophe, anguish and agony has not been able to move the international community to intervene on their behalf. In war zones, women cannot maintain themselves and their families, therefore, their future remains bleak because they are the most vulnerable group in the society. Even in the absence of conflict, their position is seldom better than that of men because culture fosters the idea that women have to perform traditionally ascribed roles in which they have fewer rights than men. Poor women have a double burden of being both poor and female.
As a result of the current 11 year-war in the Sudan, Southern Sudanese women are experiencing tremendous poverty, oppression, and injustices never known before. According to an eye witness report of November, 93, relief planes that landed in Kongor, 650 kilometers NE of Juba (the Southern capital city) found "walking skeletal figures with bleeding gums, open sores, and shaking with fear.
... We found communities without children." The report added that all the children beyond the breast feeding stage had perished, and diseases like tuberculosis, measles, pneumonia, etc. had decimated those already weakened by malnutrition. Hunger and disease coupled with grief over the loss of their loved ones, again left women most seriously affected.
The Southern Sudanese women who fled to northern Sudan encountered even worse conditions as they were treated as aliens by the northern Sudanese people. The government is hostile to them; they were removed from camps near Khartoum and dumped into open desert while their camps were bulldozed. A reporter who talked to one of these women in August 1993 quoted her as saying: "... they took us on transport trucks to the middle of nowhere, we didn't want to get down (from the trucks), but we were forced to do so. ... There was no sign of a donkey's manure or even a dog's." The reporter described the conditions in the desert camps as "appalling." "They are a human zoo for the government," the source continued.
The widespread practice of withholding food to induce conversion to Islam is being implemented in the camps for the displaced. In these squalid camps, the Islamic relief organizations, like Dawa al Islamiyya (Islamic Call), have established "Khalwas" (Islamic schools) which teach only Arabic and the Qur'an.
Children are forced to memorize the Islamic creed and verses from the Qur'an. The Dawa Islamiyya has been instrumental in this malicious policy by using FOOD donated by the West as a tool of religious conversion in these camps. Inside the camp, as children line-up to receive little milk or gruel, the first question asked is: What is your name? And according to eyewitnesses, "A response with a Muslim name earns the child his or her ration. And if the child says the Muslim creed extra loud, he or she gets an extra ladle of milk, while children who give Christian names are turned away."
This practice of withholding food for religious propagation applies to adults as well. Only those with Muslim names who say "allahu akbar" (God is great) succeed in getting corn flour. Islam is clearly being used to exacerbate the conflict, legitimize oppression and exterminate the African race in the Sudan. The Christian Observer (Aug. 1992) pointed out that food has become a sword of Islam in the displaced camps. The predominantly Christian and African traditional believers in the displaced camps in the Sudan are under intense pressure to convert to Islam in order to avoid starvation. Both secular and Christian relief agencies from the West, testify that the Sudanese government discriminates against non-Muslims in its distribution of food. And that food is withheld from Christians until they convert to Islam.
The Sudan, Africa's largest country, has been ravaged by intermittent wars since 1955, a year before its independence from British colonial rule. The present fighting, which broke out in 1983, has caused unprecedented loss of lives -- especially to women, children and the elderly. The Christian Observer (Aug. 1992) also reported about the execution of hundreds of thousands of rural Black Sudanese, whom they regard as "Kufar" (infidels), under the pretext that they were rebels, members of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA). "They gained merit for killing so many "Kufar." Before they shoot, they say 'bismibillah' (in the name of God), and then afterwards, they say 'Allahu akbar' (God is great)." The majority of those who die and will continue to die are women and children. Their death brings jubilation, merry-making, and feelings of victory to the National Islamic Front (NIF) warmongers in Khartoum. They rejoice because they are exterminating the children -- the most precious group in society, the pride, the cream, and the future of the Southern Sudan.
In the West, you might have heard the tragic story of the 12,000 unaccompanied children who trekked for hundreds of miles in the forests of the Southern Sudan in search of safety. Some of them were attacked and eaten by wild animals. According to a CBS documentary film, other children died en route, leaving a path littered with skeletons. In a separate incident in late 1993, 200,000 women and children in Maridi, Mundri, and Yambio towns were forced to subsist on wild grasses, roots, leaves, and fruits. The Washington Post (Dec. 1993), added that several hundred thousand of Southern Sudanese face starvation if they do not receive aid soon. "It is a silent famine, the most silent of the humanitarian crises around the world", the report concluded.
RAMPANT RAIDS AND CASES OF SLAVERY
In the Upper Nile, government military attacks left Bor town completely in ruins. The New Sudan Magazine (Vol. 1, 1993) documented that thousands of innocent civilians, most of them women, children, and the elderly, were killed in one of the most ruthless massacres in Sudan. In some instance, Dinka children were thrown in burning flames and roasted alive in front of their parents. The attacks looted and burned down 300 villages, rendering 300,000 of the inhabitants homeless. They have lost their food as well as cattle, contributing to high rates of malnutrition, especially among children.
In the late 20th century, when slavery is known to most only in books of history, its ugly face has continued to exist in the Sudan. Modernday slavery has claimed more than 50,000 people, most of whom are women and children. The Sudan Democratic Gazette (1993), reported that 25,000 Nuba children were forcibly taken away from their parents and relocated in concentration camps around the regional capital of El-Obeid. The Horn of Africa Bulletin (March 1993), reported that Arab militia raided Nuba and Dinka villages, where abled bodied men were massacred while women and children were abducted and taken into slavery, some being sold and shipped to Libya. Women were often gang-raped before being taken as either concubines, domestic servants, or both or forced to work in the farms. Many of these women were impregnated by Arab militiamen to deliver illegitimate children who would identify with Arabs. Furthermore, the Arab militia circumcise young women by mutilating their genitals (clitorectomic operation). These are instances of sadistic ethnic cleansing crimes.
AFRICAN WOMEN IN ARAB DRESS -- WHO DO THEY LOOK LIKE?
Southern Sudanese women who are not used to living in a hot desert climate are being subjected to another form of torture in Khartoum. They are being forced to wear "hijab" an Islamic dress, which covers from head to toe, and the victims look like they are wearing a gas-mask of the Gulf War type. To be covered with this dark and ugly gown, which does not even reflect heat, is the most cruel form of abuse to an African woman. This dress code was passed into law in 1991 by the Islamic fundamentalist government in its efforts to mould the country into an Islamic state. Bylaw, "any female student or worker who is not properly garbed in the "hijab" is turned away from school or public offices. Many who failed to observe this law were indiscriminately flogged in the streets by the Islamic security organ called the "protectors of morality." Again, this law is very distressing to the Southern Sudanese women and girls because it violates the African cultural aesthetics, values and norms as well as violating basic human rights.
Southern Sudanese women are also tortured for what they do in order to earn a living. In most developing countries, women supplement their meager household income by selling alcoholic beverages. In Khartoum, many women found selling alcohol were evicted from their homes, beaten, and had their possessions confiscated. A case worth mentioning is that of Regina Charles, a mother of two little children, which occurred in late 1990. Regina was sentenced to 25 lashes for selling alcohol in order to support her family. Africa Watch (1991) reported that at least 2,000 women were victimized.
AERIAL BOMBARDMENTS KILL AND TRAUMATIZE WOMEN MOST
While the case of torture and other inhumanities are a daily experience in the North, women in the South are subjected to another kind of ordeal in the bush. The aerial bombardments carried on by the Sudanese government kill and traumatize women much more -- especially as they do not know how to duck and take cover as quickly as men. An eye witness (Sep. 1993) for instance, reported that the "Antonov" bomber dropped bombs in Torit, Yei and Kajo Keji, unleashing death on many innocent civilians. Human beings, animals, trees, and houses were torn into pieces by the shrapnels. Miraculously, many survived, while others were shattered by shrapnel were buried in bomb craters; as their bodies could not be traced.
In all of these tragic dramas in the Sudan, a woman's welfare is greatly at risk. She is either experiencing the physical torture or suffering from the ordeal of raising the children alone, since the father is either dead, in prison, or in the war front. Therefore, the international community should intervene and help the victims in the Sudanese conflict.
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A story of three travellers
By: James P. Morgan
Sudan Newsletter Staff
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Once upon a time, there lived three friends -- a rat, a cat and a dog. One day they decided to go for a very important journey that involved crossing a deep-wide-river full of crocodiles and other wild marine creatures. Their only means of transport was a canoe made of sugar cane. The three set for a journey, paddling and rowing their canoe ever determined to cross the river and get to their destination.
Somewhere in the middle of the river treachery overshadowed the navigators. A rat who felt hungry so fast started eating the canoe thinking that the journey was about to be over. As the rat continued eating, he finally made a hole and the water started to spring through the canoe. The cat sitting next to the rat felt that its tail was wet. When the cat looked down, he saw there was a spring of water coming out of the hole in the canoe. When he glanced at the rat, he saw the rat's mouth was full of sugar cane. The water was now springing increasingly. The cat immediately shouted at the rat: "rat what the hell do you think you are doing?" But the rat which seems not to listen to anybody continued its business without responding. "Okay," the cat added, "if that is the case, then let me also start eating." Guess who the cat was going to eat!
The dog who was busy rowing the canoe heard of the argument between the cat and the rat. The dog saw the cat's tail was already soaked in water, the rat's mouth was full of sugar cane, and the cat was ready to jump and devour the rat.
It was a scary situation in the middle of this dangerous river!
"What a terrible situation," the dog shouted, "guys, guys, do you know what the hell you are really doing?" You rat stop eating the canoe, and you cat don't start eating the rat, the dog warned them. "Look, you are making a foolish mistake," the dog angrily continued, "the mistake that could cost us our lives as well as this canoe. We can lose this canoe made out of sweet sugar cane. So be patient, let us cross this river full of dangerous crocodiles, and when we get to the other bank, then you can enjoy it. We must cross safely first!"
Again the rat did not listen to any of his friends. He kept tearing the canoe while the cat was ever ready to jump at the rat. To stop this kind of mess, the dog warned that: "if you two could not stop your acts, then I may as well begin eating too. The journey will then turned into a situation where each would struggle for individual survival, and unless you are a good swimmer and avoid the unseen dangers of the river, otherwise no one would survive ........"
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Commentary: This story was narrated by Colonel John Garang de Mabior in his speech to a graduating battalion of the SPLA "Bright Star Campaign" in 1988. By then the SPLA was victorious hoping to reach the destination. But Garang warned his recruits, as though he knew what could happen if someone started digging a hole in the canoe, the canoe and its occupants will certainly sink and perish. And as things in South Sudan has turned out to be almost exactly as the story suggests, we only could wonder about the kind of madness in the middle of the river infested with crocodiles.
Although naturally, we know rats, cats and dogs do not do things togehter, they nevertheless travelled regardless of their differences because they had a common objective. In our society we are often confronted with the similar situation where some tribes tend to live similar lives as these three travellers but without a common objective. We probably learned from the journey of these three travellers that they cared so much about their canoe and of course their lives. It was made of tropical sweet sugar cane! They wanted to preserve it until they reached the other shore of the river then they can enjoy it together.
Unlike these travellers, the southern Sudanese leaders seems not to care about the South, which is so bountiful with natural resources and a potential for massive opportunities. Many have in fact behaved like the rat!
Many Southerners seem not to care about their brothers, sisters, children and the elderly. Among the players in the South, Lam Akol Ajawin is certainly the rat of the South, while Riak Machar who remains quite dubious may be the cat, nobody knows but history will judge.
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Pax Christi's human rights report on Sudan
Sudan is facing a very difficult turn in its history. Without any signs of a peaceful resolution of more than a decade old conflict -- which every mediator (including the neighboring countries) has come out so disappointed with Khartoum's inflexibility about its radical Islamic orientation, inability to stop the indiscriminate bombardment in the South, and denial of committing gross human rights violations against its citizens in the South -- it has become necessary to avail to advocacy groups another report by Pax Christi International.
A report released by Pax Christi International early this year details atrocities committed by both sides in the Sudanese conflict, especially the Sudanese government. A report entitled: Sudan: A Cry for Peace, lucidly summarizes the historical development of the ongoing civil war in the Sudan. The report emphasizes political social and economic factors that have intensified the conflict leading to massive human suffering and dismantling of civilization, particularly in southern Sudan.
Pax Christi is a Netherlands based Catholic peace and human rights advocacy organization. It is one of many international organizations that have been invited to visit the Sudan. It was able to witness and collect firsthand accounts of the scale of the current humanitarian crisis in that country. Sudanese church leaders have particularly appealed to the international community for assistance in meeting the humanitarian needs of those who have been displaced by the civil conflict (i.e., those living in the so called "peace" camps) and encouraging dialogue towards peaceful resolution. The purpose of the Pax Christi delegation was: (1) to express solidarity with the suffering people of the Sudan, (2) to assess the situation in terms of human needs and human rights, and encourage initiatives for dialogue and peaceful solutions, and (3) to report the findings of the visit to national and international institutions, and the public.
The Pax Christi delegation of October 1993 resulted in important insights and several recommendations to the Sudanese government and international community. The delegation concluded that civil society in the Sudan has been completely dismantled (p. 7) and that the ongoing civil war was at the heart of this humanitarian crisis. Famine, shortages of basic supplies, domestic unrest, political and judicial infractions of civil rights, and indelible inflation are the consequences suffered by the Sudanese people. Social and political organizations in the Sudan cannot resolve the conflict alone. All demonstrations against the existing Islamic Fundamentalist regime have been violently crushed by the military or other government forces. Thus, the Pax Christi group urges the need for international pressure to intervene, encourage an immediate cease fire, and moderate peaceful resolution.
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If you work for a humanitarian organization or are involved in advocacy work anywhere, then you need to read this report. There are a lot of lessons you could learn from this small pamphlet. It is indispensable. To order, write a note to:
Pax Christi International
P.O. Box 19318, N1-3501 DH,
Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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N O T I C E
The Sudan Newsletter is published quarterly by Pax Sudani Network, a small and independent organization committed to the rights and liberties of the African Sudanese people. Limited past copies of the Newsletter are available for libraries and individuals. If you are interested, please contact:
Mr. David Nailo N. Mayo
Pax Sudani Network
P.O. Box 24233 Lansing, Michigan 48909-4233 USA.
(E-mail: mayodavi@student.msu.edu)
Subscriptions for published paper is: $12 for individuals, and $20 for organizatitions.
Articles or letters to the editor that encourages dialogue and perhaps conflict
resolution in the Sudan are highly welcome from the public regardless of one's
point of view.
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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