GENOCIDE IN DARFUR: Hanging By a Thread

by Eric Reeves

For the past seven years, Eric Reeves has worked full-time as a Sudan researcher and analyst. He publishes regularly on the topic and has testified several times before Congress. He is a professor at Smith College and runs the endlessly informative sudanreeves.org.

Despite the blandly disingenuous words of UN officials such as Jan Pronk, and the shameful silence of African Union officials, the catastrophe in Darfur continues to deepen---relentlessly, dangerously, uncontrollably. Malnutrition and mortality are rising rapidly, and growing water shortages will result in the increased use of unsanitary ground water during the current rainy season. Water-borne diseases are already increasingly prevalent and will continue to spread through September. The current outbreak of cholera is poised to explode in any number of camps that have diminished humanitarian resources, fewer sanitary latrines and in many cases are still absorbing large numbers of newly displaced persons as violence continues apace in many locations.

Insecurity has also increased steadily, with a recent spate of deadly attacks on humanitarians that has produced evacuations and suspensions of operations. As Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) notes this week in its Latest Operational Update:

“Despite the signing of a peace agreement in early May, violence has escalated. While the government and rebels have clashed and attacks on civilians have continued in certain areas of Darfur, fighting between different branches of the rebellion has increased, plunging Darfur into deeper insecurity.”

As a consequence, over 2 million people in Darfur remain trapped in camps for Internally Displaced Persons, civilians “too scared to return to their homes and continue to live in camps that amount to open-air jails." And the camps themselves are increasingly dangerous, with a growing prevalence of weapons, the presence of rebels soldiers, and deadly incursions into the camps by Khartoum’s Janjaweed militia proxy.

At the same time, the Darfur Peace Agreement of May 5, 2006 has collapsed completely, even as Khartoum has made clear that it has no intention of re-starting or re-energizing the peace process. From the Sudan Tribune:

“Assistant to the Sudanese President and Deputy Chairman of the ruling National Congress Party [the renamed National Islamic Front--ER], Nafie Ali Nafie, pointed out that the file of negotiation on Darfur was closed finally, and will never be opened again whatever the reasons are.”

And although the fatuous Jan Pronk, Kofi Annan’s special representative to Sudan, declared earlier this week that “Sudan has left a 'tiny' window open for negotiation on accepting UN troops in its violent Darfur region,” this claim has no meaningful basis. Pronk could only point to an expedient statement made by Khartoum’s Foreign Minister, Lam Akol, earlier this month at the Brussels donors’ meeting for the African Union force in Darfur:

"‘The minister of foreign affairs declared in Brussels ... that the decision [on deployment of a UN force] has not yet been taken,’ [Pronk] told a news conference in Khartoum. The international community has seen this as an opening, a very tiny opening---I don't know how big it is.’"

Pronk has not had long to wait to find out how big it is. NIF President and Field Marshal Omar el-Bashir reiterated his previous brazen threat to turn Darfur into a “graveyard” for any deploying UN force:

“Sudanese President Omer al- Bashir warned yesterday that Darfur would become a ‘graveyard’ for United Nations forces if they were deployed in the west Sudan region, the state-run SUNA news agency said. ‘We shall never hand Darfur over to international forces which will never enjoy being in the region that will become their graveyard,’ Bashir was quoted as telling a rally at Zeribah in North Kordofan, central Sudan.” From the Sudan Tribune.

Nafie Ali Nafie and Omar el-Bashir speak much more authoritatively for the National Islamic Front regime than Lam Akol, the lapdog “Foreign Minister” from the southern SPLM. That Pronk would attempt to use statements by the powerless Lam Akol as a sign of encouragement for the possibility of UN deployment is a mark of desperation or disingenuousness, which are hardly to be distinguished in the relentlessly misguided Pronk.

MINNI MINAWI: “JANJAWEED 2”

Although Khartoum’s culpability in this renewed act of war is patent here, the chaotic nature of the fighting and the factionalizing of the combatants needs some clarification, particularly as this factionalized fighting on the part of the Darfuri insurgency movements is now a primary source of insecurity throughout Darfur.

The main fighting elements of the “National Redemption Force” (NRF) in North Darfur are those of the Sudan Liberation Army faction know as SLA-United, or SLA-G19 after the 19 SLA commanders who split from Abdel Wahid el-Nur. Abdel Wahid is the SLA leader who did not sign the Abuja agreement and who shows signs of both political and military weakness and increasing isolation Because he is a Fur, however, the largest ethnic group in Darfur, he retains considerable significance in any peace or reconciliation effort. Abdel Wahid’s primary military base is in the rugged Jebel Marra area in central Darfur.

SLA-United/SLA-G19 enjoys considerable popular support and has gained military control over virtually all territory north of el-Fasher in North Darfur, having defeated the forces of yet another SLA faction, that of Minni Minawi, who did sign the Abjua accord and is widely reviled by Darfuris, even those in his own Zaghawa tribe. It is Minawi who has been receiving military support directly from Khartoum in his attacks on civilians in North Darfur in a desperate bid to regain his previous control of the area. Minawi is slated to become the fourth-ranking member of the National Islamic Front “Government of National Unity,” with the title of “Presidential Assistant.”

A recent report received by this writer from the ground in North Darfur, from a Sudanese national with exceptional access and contacts (and not allied with any faction), reports of Minawi’s forces:

“Minni Minawi does not control North Darfur; the group [SLA/United-SLA/G19] that does control the northern part of North Darfur is accusing the African Union (AU) of supporting the Government of Sudan and Minni Minawi. In an attempt to open a dialogue between the AU and those who control the territory (in order to facilitate access for nongovernmental humanitarian organizations), SLA-United/SLA-G19 agreed to meet with political figures from the AU in their own territory. But while the meeting was convening, the Government of Sudan sent 10 vehicles with armor and heavy weaponry in the direction of the meeting. This intelligence came even as one rebel commander was criticizing the AU for cooperating with the Government of Sudan.”

The obvious implication is that the AU tipped off Khartoum’s forces as to the location of the meeting.

“Minni Minawi’s forces in the south of Darfur are in disarray, entering IDP camps, threatening them, beating them, and looting their property. In el-Fasher Minawi’s forces are roaming the town drunken and spending their time with prostitutes. In Khartoum Minawi is fully controlled by the National Congress Party [National Islamic Front], and those who object to this are expelled from Minawi’s SLA faction.”

“Cooperation between Minawi and the Government of Sudan in the most recent fighting in North Darfur is very clear: Government of Sudan trucks were captured, supply orders were found, and Government of Sudan soldiers are being held as prisoners of war, and have been shown to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Some Government of Sudan soldiers were from Southern Sudan and they were brought by Khartoum to train Minawi soldiers on new heavy artillery made and supplied by the Government of Sudan.”

“The US is banking on a loser in Minni Minawi, and by the time he returns from the US [where he recently met with President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice], he will be at a total loss, without forces, political support, or land under his control.”

“Violence is getting worse, as are banditry and Janjaweed activities. The Government of Sudan is happy.” (Email to this writer from el-Fasher, received July 24, 2006; text edited for clarity and to protect the source.)

A subsequent email from this same exceptionally well-informed source on the ground reports:

“Minni Minawi has nothing north of el-Fasher and his official story is that he lost the area because of Chadian supporting mercenaries---the same sort of excuses the NIF is using to explain its military actions in the area.”

“The remaining troops loyal to Minawi are out of control. They are entering Internally Displaced Persons camps in their vicinity, and armed. Last week they entered ZamZam camp,17 kilometers south of el-Fasher and arrested 15 civilians claiming that they were soldiers with them who escaped military service. They entered a girls’ school, and harassed the girls inside classes; when the teacher complained she was beaten and they told her that they can do anything they wish to her.”

“All the people in Darfur view Minni Minawi as a criminal, and no one knows why the United States wants to have anything to do with him. It is another disaster for US policy.” (Email to this writer from el-Fasher, received July 26, 2006; text edited for clarity and to protect the source.)

Refugees International does much to confirm the irresponsible nature of violence on the part of the US government’s new “partner for peace” in Darfur. From their recent report:

“Leaders from within Minawi’s own tribe have separated from him, leading to intra-Zaghawa fighting as well. While Minawi and his soldiers deny responsibility for the violence in Tawilla [west of el-Fasher in North Darfur] and other towns in the region, a group of sheikhs said that they knew that Minawi’s troops were involved because they recognized the attackers as their neighbors. Another sheikh reported that when his town was being attacked, his people were told that the soldiers would kill half of those who were against Minni Minawi in order to urge the other half to follow. Other victims from the region have said that the attackers announced they had arrived to enforce the peace.”

“A spokesperson for the SLA-Minawi faction told Refugees International, ‘We want peace and to punish the people who don’t want peace.’ One woman in the Tawilla camp described the nature of these punishments. She said that hundreds of Minawi’s soldiers entered her village and started shooting. They went inside the houses one by one shooting the men, including her husband, and beating or raping the women and girls. The soldiers took whatever they could find---clothing, shoes, money, livestock. Her story is remarkably consistent with thousands of others in the region that detail targeted executions of men and violent, forced displacement.”

“The camp residents, an overwhelming number of whom are women, agree that the situation has deteriorated since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement. One sheikh said, ‘There is no peace in Darfur. Our situation is worse now than ever and this is why no one supports the Darfur Peace Agreement.’ A woman pointed out that at least the Janjaweed would leave after attacking and looting a village, but Minawi’s SLA faction has stayed to control the area and terrorize the population. The women are afraid to walk the few hundred meters into the town market during the day for fear that they will be attacked. An elderly grandmother was beaten just a few days ago, allegedly by Minawi’s troops, when she tried to return to her farm to begin planting. The soldiers told her that this was an example of what would happen to the residents who tried to farm.”

The US, in its inexcusable haste to ram through a peace agreement in Darfur, did not care that in the end the only signatories were Khartoum’s genocidaires and the murderous Minni Minawi. The picture of President Bush and the soon-to-be Presidential Assistant Minni Minawi of the National Islamic Front makes a mockery of the Bush administration genocide determination for Darfur, and the President’s consistently glib invocation of the word.

(Photo of truck on Sudan / Chad border from flickr and photo of burning village in Sudan from flickr.)

Comments

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The fact that neither a US Special Envoy has been appointed by our government, nor has a UN peacekeeping mission been authorized. shows me that when it comes to long term solutions to end the violence in the Sudan, both these ineffectual entities haven't got the backbone to do anything. That we will allow as a worldwide community, a third genocide to take place in a span of less than 20 years is abominable. It is shameless. And the fact that people still ask me "What is Darfur" when I mention the situation and the people, breaks my heart.

That said, I will continue to do what little I can to raise awareness and protest. However minuscule, non-existent even, are the effects of my meager efforts, I cannot sit idly by and watch the death and destruction that is Darfur.

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