Darfur 10 years, it’s enough!
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By Jacky Mamou, and David Khalfa,
June 11, 2012 - Ten years, that makes ten years, that the people of
Darfur have endured such suffering that the Secretary General of the
United Nations, Koffi Anan, decried the situation as “hell on Earth”
in 2004.
The leaders of the Sudan, in the face of a defiant rebellion, launched
an all out war against the civilian population. The army and the
janjawid militias were free to kill on a grand scale, forcing millions
of people to flee their destroyed villages. Rape has been used as a
weapon of war to terrorize civilians. Millions of people have been
displaced by force and are still to this day languish in the camps.
Humanitarian aid that has been imposed upon the Khartoum government
has been blocked by multiple measures and by intimidation. Reports
confirm multiple bombings, notably in the Djebel Marra.
The rapes and persecutions continue, even unto the intentional
blockage of emergency aid. The head of UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, says that 300,000 people have
been displaced in the first five months of 2013 alone, more than were
displaced in the last two years.
The International Criminal Court has approved arrest warrants against
the Sudanese President Omar el Bechir, the former militia chief Ali
Kushayb, the Minister of Defense Mohamed Hussein, and the actual
Governor of South Kordofan, Ahmed Haroun. These four individuals are
accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the president is
particular of genocide. They are still free as of today.
In this way Madame Fatou Bensouda, procurer for the International
Criminal Court,
has spoken before the United Nations Security Council this last 13th
of December:”The nice speeches of the Sudanese government, which
promise new initiatives in favour of a return to peace, are brushed
aside by their actions on the ground which demonstrate that the
government has lanced a campaign of crimes targeting the civilian
population to resolve the problems which persist in Darfur.”
But in the 17th report, on June 2013, the Prosecutor added:
“…Regrettably, each briefing has been followed by inaction and
paralysis within the Council while the plight of victims of crimes
committed in Darfur has gone from bad to worse”.
Their government’s impunity encourages them to use the same methods in
two other regions of the country, the Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
All of the peace processes and efforts at reconciliation have been
lost due to the intransigence of the Sudanese regime.
The secession of Southern Sudan, decided by referendum in 2011, after
a terrible conflict which left 2 million dead, and 4 million
displaced, has drained the oil boom which has fuelled the war efforts
of Khartoum. The debt of the country and the inflation of basic
necessities has inflamed a social revolt which has been violently
suppressed.
But new citizen organizations, notably amongst the young people, have
appeared to contest the power of Al-Bechir. They carry new
names—Girifna (We are fed up!) or Sudan Change. These forces are not
satisfied to just demand reforms, but to force regime change. Indeed
absolute power came to the country through a military coup in 1989,
which opened fire on peaceful demonstrators, and arrested and tortured
protesters. What is there to hope for from a leadership, convinced of
their Arab superiority, that knows only genocidal violence as a
response to requests from outlying areas peopled by black Africans or
others? A reconciliation between the different rebellions and the new
social movements is beginning.
Until now, Western powers have tried different methods to contain the
power and menace of the Sudanese regime, by financing humanitarian aid
or bringing cases before the International Criminal Court. But the
violence continues and the Sudan has become a destabilized country,
which is now, worryingly, looking towards an alliance with Iran. In
the Arab world the immediate alternative to dictators has been
expressed by islamist forces. These forces are in Khartoum and have
now been in power for decades and now challenge very large segments of
the population. The resolution of the tragedy in Darfur, as in the
Blue Nile and South Kordofan, now goes through changes in Khartoum.
The leaders of democratic countries should now take note.
Dr Jacky Mamou, chairman of Collectif Urgence Darfour (France ) and
David Khalfa, chairman of Remembrance Forum-RFB-France.
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