The DISH
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Volume 7 Issue 26…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…July 2, 2004
By John Burl Smith
Responsible for "ethnic cleansing" and crimes against humanity in one of the world's poorest and most inaccessible regions, militias armed and supported by the government have conducted numerous attacks on civilians. Government forces oversee and directly participate in massacres, summary executions of civilians, including women and children, while burning towns and villages. Government militias have depopulated wide swathes of land, destroyed mosques, killed Muslim religious leaders and desecrated Qorans belonging to their enemies. Reminiscent of genocide in Kosovo and Rwanda, maybe even Laos, following these atrocities, the international community, led by the United Nations, pledged never to respond so slowly to such barbarism again. However, the above atrocities describe the present day tragedy in Darfur, Sudan.
Sudanese government Janjaweeds (Arab militia) have raped and killed thousands of Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa people. They have destroyed villages, crops, food stores, livestock and essential supplies. Barely surviving Janjaweed massacres, more than one million civilians, mostly farmers, have been driven into refugee camps and settlements in Darfur. Over 2 million have died since 1983, over 4 million have been displaced and more than 110,000 have fled into neighboring Chad, while the vast majority remain trapped in Darfur.
Darfur is a Texas-size province; the government and its militias indiscriminately use aerial bombardment and scorched-earth tactics while denying humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of displaced Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa. Regularly, government forces arbitrarily detain and torture Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit students, political activists and others suspected of allegiance to rebel movements in Darfur and Khartoum.
There are two main groups of freedom fighters, which draw members from the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa, the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Freedom fighters seek a power-sharing arrangement within the Arab-ruled Sudanese government as a means of ending their chronic economic marginalization and exploitation. They also seek government assistance to relieve incursions by Arab pastoralist nomads, who have a tradition of armed militias that invade southern African farmlands to escape drought, famine and take slaves.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) spent twenty-five days in and on the edges of West Darfur documenting abuses in rural areas that were previously well-populated with Masalit and Fur farmers. With rare exceptions, since August 2003, the countryside has been emptied of not just its original Masalit and Fur inhabitants but their livestock, wells, pumps, blankets, food and clothing have all been either looted or destroyed.
Corroborated by testimony from credible witnesses, HRW uncovered fourteen large-scale killing incidents in Dar Masalit in March/April. More than 770 civilians perished between September 2003 and late February 2004. They also documented mass executions in the Fur areas of Wadi Salih province in 2004 (November 2003 through April 2004.)
Sudanese officials have stopped the flow of information and limited reports from Darfur in its national press. Restricting access of international media, they hold refugees prisoners by preventing their movement into Chad. More important, two high-level UN assessment teams have been denied access to Darfur. Fending off calls for international investigations into allegations of gross human rights abuses, the Sudanese government denies all charges. The Sudanese government is hiding the truth behind its killing fields.
For more information about the human rights challenge in the Sudan, log on to www.hrw.org.
Sudan: Early Times to 1969
Known as Nubia in ancient times, Northern Sudan was colonized by Egypt around 2000 B.C. It came under the Cush (Kush) kingdom, a Libyan dynasty whose founders conquered Egypt and invaded Palestine, which ruled from the 8th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. The Cush gave way to Coptic Christian states withstood the 7th century Arab invasion of Africa until the city of Soba near Khartoum, fell in 1504 to the Fung (Funj), a Muslim people from Abyssinian border.
Weakened by internal disputes and wars with the sultans of Darfur to the west, the Fung (Funj) sultanate of Sennar fell to Mehemet Ali of Egypt in 1821. In 1874, Egyptians occupied Darfur, but a national uprising under Mohammed Ahmed, known as the Mahdi, expelled them from both countries in 1883-1885. Led by Horatio Kitchener, an Anglo-Egyptian force re-occupied the Sudan in 1896-1898. Although Darfur remained independent until 1916, when Sultan Ali Dinar declared war on the Allies, his country was annexed by the Anglo-Egyptian condominium government set up in 1899.
Sudan rapidly recovered from 19th century disasters, which reduced the population to an estimated 2.5 million. In 1936, Egypt and Great Britain reaffirmed their condominium agreement over Sudan. During WWII, Italian forces occupied the Kassala and Gallabat in 1940, but were driven out early in the following year. Sudanese demands for self-determination were reiterated after the war until, following the abdication of King Faruk I in 1952, the Egyptian government dropped its claim to sovereignty and, in 1953, Britain and Egypt agreed to evacuate the country within three years.
Sudanese political parties differed in their attitude toward some form of union with Egypt. Religious rivals, the Khatmia and the Mahdists, supported the National Unionists and the Umma Party, respectively. While the Umma Party favored complete independence, it was prepared to collaborate on various constitutional advances with the condominium government. From 1953 to 1955, a National Unionists government ruled Sudan. Opinion favored independence, so all parties agreed that a referendum was unnecessary. On January 1, 1956, the Sudan became an independent republic. Later in the year the Khatmia formed the People's Democratic Party, which joined a new coalition government under the Umma leader, Abdullah Khalil.
The 1958 elections resulted in the return of the coalition to power. In November (1958), it was overthrown in a bloodless coup led by Lt. General Ibrahim Abboud. The constitution was suspended, Parliament was dissolved, and a state of emergency was declared. Authority was vested in a 13-member Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which in turn was replaced by an 11-member council in March 1959.
Since declaring its independence, Sudan has alternated between military and civilian governments. In 1969, the regime led by President Ja'Far Muhammad Numayri was installed. (Sources: Encyclopedias Americana and Britannica
End Ethnic Cleansing in Darfur
For more than a year, the Sudanese government and its Arab militia, the Janjaweed, have displaced black farmers from the oil-rich Darfur region. Arab militia have burned homes, raped women, and killed and maimed men, women and children. According to Human Rights Watch and the International Red Cross, more than a million people have fled their homes to face starvation, rather than endure sophisticated land and aerial attacks.
In response to this humanitarian crisis, the international community drags its feet. If no action is taken soon, thousands more will die. STOP THE KILLING IN DARFUR (SKID), a group of Africans of various nationalities, activists from Darfur and concerned citizens from around the world, staged demonstrations at the Sudan Embassy. Clearly, more must be done to achieve the group's goals, which we should all embrace to prevent this latest episode of ethnic cleansing.
SKID's goals included: (1) Pressure the Sudanese government to cease its genocidal policy in Darfur; (2) Ensure the African Union (AU) and its international partners send peacekeepers into Darfur; (3) Focus the spotlight on the moral corruption of the African and European governments that watered down a UN Commission on Human Rights resolution on Darfur; (4) Agitate for the resettlement of Darfur residents in the homes that they have been forced to flee.
Everyone has a role to play to stopping this humanitarian crisis. Refuse to be silent, call your congressional representatives, the United Nations, write letters to your local newspapers and, in general, agitate for change. For more on the Darfur campaign, contact darfurmarch@yahoo.com.
"Ethnic Cleansing" for Kosovo
By Dr. Charles Zender
Reporters pronounce "ethnic cleansing" with dumb determination
Their nimble tongues thicken, stung by that prickly twain
Civilized palaver undoes the sick scent of cadavers
Which dislodge inferior complexes and awaken recriminations
Words which barely knew each other, wed at gunpoint
Balk on lips, then shatter death's dignity with understatement
The bride "Cleansing" scours the free air, hesitant to arrive
Tripping into cold arms, embracing a hushed, attentive room
Quieted by her mysterious, surly groom, "Ethnic"
Whose checkered past shows through careworn seams of American history
A Southern European who sweated our dirty, brackish, chores
Who gladly clocked overtime to support how many? Dozens? of colorful relatives
Hidden in ghetto tenements, wasting in some poor, once proud, homeland
Becoming long corrugated Afros defiantly hunted down by white-collared society
With Reagan imperially presiding while Mandela languishes in jail,
Ethnic's motley faces peer from righteous T-shirts into our hearts, our checkbooks
He conjures spicy food onto oily paper plates in buzzing Central Park stalls
Keith Haring softened him in thick-brushed expressive cartoons
Which make white flight from urban color look paranoid, like chocolate-phobia
Like running from the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters
This servant desperately tries all slippers, even Bruno Magli loafers
Rehabilitation is name-branded Nikes dancing rich in three point land
Now "cleansing" suffocates "ethnic" like "cancer" eradicates "breast"
About Me:
Dr. Charlie Zender's poetry can be found at http://dust.ess.uci.edu/poetry. An Assistant Professor of Earth System Science, Zender's poetry and scientific pursuits are complimentary. A modeler, whose research involves wind-borne dust, he sees poetry as "economical nuanced verse that captures moments better than prose." Dr. Zender can be reached at surname@uci.edu.
Oil Companies' Complicity
Major oil operators in Sudan are partners of the government's state-owned oil company, Sudapet. In 1992, Arakis Energy, a Canadian exploration company purchased State Oil Co. and its interest in Sudan. Arakis Energy brought in China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), Petronas Nasional Berhad of Malaysia (Petronas), Lundin Oil AB, a Swedish company, and the Sudan government (1996) to form the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC). Talisman Energy of Canada purchased Arakis in October 1998.
In 2002, Talisman Energy sold its interest to India's ONGC Videsh Ltd. Lundin Oil sold its interest to Petronas in 2003. Other concession holders include OMV of Austria, which sold its interest to ONGC (2003), Al Hath (a private Sudanese company), and French oil multinational TotalFinaElf. U.S.-based oil giant Chevron purchased and explored concessions in Sudan starting in 1974. After rebels killed three Chevron employees, the company pulled out (1984), selling its interest in Sudanese oil in 1992. The state-owned oil companies of China, Malaysia and India purchased the interests of Western-based corporations.
Past and present oil concession holders benefited from and were complicit in the government's human rights abuses. Rather than use oil revenues for the economic development of the people, in particular in the oil areas that have been historically neglected, the Sudanese government used oil revenues to purchase military goods. Sudanese oil revenues rose from zero in 1998 to almost 42 percent of government revenue in 2001. Sixty percent of the 2001 oil revenue was used to purchase weapons and develop a domestic arms industry.
For 20 years, Sudan has been engaged in a civil war between the Islamist, northern-based Arab-speaking government and the impoverished African populations of southern Sudan. The discovery of oil exacerbated the conflict. The Sudanese government's efforts to control oilfields in the war-torn south have resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Foreign oil companies in Sudan are complicit in the death and destruction. Corporate responsibility has not included condemning the government’s human rights abuses. Instead, these companies allow the government to use roads and airstrips for military purposes, including bombing civilian targets.
By John Burl Smith
The troubling events in Darfur prompted a desire to learn about events on the ground in Sudan. Surprisingly, neither the role of slavery nor oil appears in most news reports. Historically, culturally and ethnically, Sudan has long been a divided country. Muslim since Mohammad swept across North Africa in the 7th century, religion is not the source of the current conflict. The reality is ethnicity and natural resources pit Arabs against Africans, their Islamic brothers.
Culturally, nomadic Arab slave-raiders and other thieves saw the regions of the Blue, White and Upper Nile Rivers as a source of wealth. Muslims in the South were prime targets for slavery. Their blackness and the absence of civil authority to defend against incursions made black Africans "free enterprise." As such, slavery has been Arab traders’ road to riches.
Over the centuries Arabs came to see slavery as a just fate of their black Muslim brothers. Their attitude is similar to white America’s prejudicial mind-set. At the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Discrimination and other Intolerance (WCAR) in August 2001 regarding Palestine, Arabs preached religious unity and solidarity with people of color. However, today in Darfur and southern Sudan, religion takes a back seat to race, as though blacks pray to a different Allah.
Intensifying the country’s complex civil war, the discovery of oil in Sudan marked a turning point in its 20 year old slaughter. Now, the principal catalysis of ethnic mayhem, oil represents the greatest obstacle to peace. The government used oil revenues to finance "ethnic cleansing" and the brutal removal of southern agro-pastoral Nuer and Dinka people from their oil-rich land.
Large-scale exploration of oil by foreign companies in southern Sudan has exacerbated this long-running conflict which has been punctuated by gross human rights abuses, recurring famine, drought and health degradation. The Sudanese government views the Nuer, Dinka and other southern ethnic groups as having no right to participate in governing the mostly foreign state-owned oil companies nor share oil revenues. "These black tribes pose a security threat to the oilfields because ownership and control of southern natural resources are part of rebels’ demands, which make them rebel sympathizers," government officials claim.
In the main oil producing area of Western Upper Nile/Unity State, brute force has driven government expulsions. The US Agency for International Development has tried to appear as "an honest broker" by hiding its oily hands in Sudan (à la the Middle East). It claims "the Sudanese government is sorely mistaken if it believes it will get a free pass in Darfur in exchange for brokering peace with rebels in the South." Déjà vu North Korea! There is no limit to US lies and deception when oil is involved. Remember Iraq and WMD?
Disgruntled says:
Just in time for the 4th of July, the Los Angeles police beat another black man senseless, driving home the irony of blacks celebrating a day in 1776 at the height of slavery. News cameras caught the abuse and televised the beating worldwide, making a mockery of the assertion that the US does not engage in torture. On a lighter note regarding the carcass on that 4th of July grill, another cow tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow. Remember, you are what you eat and watch out for the police!
Disgruntled feels:
Oil Connection! Unlike US media, few foreign journalists have failed to note the connection between terrorism and oil. No corner of the developing world, where known oil reverses exist, has escaped the dubious designation of "haven" for al Qaeda or its affiliates. Even groups formerly considered nationalists or freedom fighters are now garden variety terrorists to be "hunted down and captured or killed," according to the murderous doctrine of the compassionate conservative George W. Bush. Recent US military maneuvers off the coast of Nigeria should make Africans leery. When members of the Bush administration come courting, there is an oil connection.
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