A Reflection on Darfur’s Disaster and that of other Marginalized Regions of Sudan By Shakir Abdelra

2015-01-22
The problem of Darfur has been wrongly defined by all those who are in the leadership of various movements claiming that they represent its victimized people. They have defined it as the problem of marginalization. For example, they state that it is caused by the lack of education, poor health services, absence of infrastructure and so on. However, this is a very wrong and misleading definition because Darfur has been living in marginalization since 1916 when it was annexed to the administration of Sudan by the colonial rule but its indigenous people never rebelled against the central government and tried by all means to help themselves through self-help system. The problem of Darfur is a legal problem in the first place and it started way before 2003, but both Khartoum and leaders of various movements claiming to represent the cause of Darfur people both take 2003 as the date when the problem started. Based on our own experience, the problem started in the mid 1990s when the Islamists’ in Khartoum decided to exterminate the indigenous people of the region by arming militia and security men and ordering them to kill people, torch their villages, towns and farms and loot their properties thus making it impossible to them to live on their land. Khartoum also changed names of deserted areas and invited militia producing groups to settle there. For instance, in 1990s, the commissioner of South Darfur region—Alhaj ‘Atalmannan changed the name of Deiwgai (located about fifteen kilometers to the south of the town of Kidinyeer) to Um Algura and brought a militia producing group to settle there. It is the group from which the current leader of the so-called Rapid Support Forces, Himeiti, is coming. The indigenous people of Darrfur in general and the Fur people in particular found themselves exposed to extermination by Khartoum. For example, the Fur people sent several delegations to meet the authorities in Khartoum and reminded them that it was one of their duties to protect all the Sudanese citizens regardless of their race, color or culture. After all of their attempts were in vain, especially when Omer Al-Bashir himself told a Fur delegation that met with him that his regime was not going to protect them, the Fur held two conferences in Neyrteitei and Kas to both which they called the government authorities to remind them that they have to protect themselves as the state was not only unwilling to protect them but was playing a key role in their extermination. Therefore, it was in this way that the Fur started the rebellion and those who say that the problem started in 2003 as the government retaliation against a rebellion that was launched because of marginalization is seriously misleading and mystifying the horrible reality of genocide through which the Fur people in particular had gone before that date.
The indigenous people took arms to defend themselves and to protect the legal rights of living on their own land. However, the regime in Khartoum took this occasion as a good reason to justify and execute its preplanned intention of genocide. The result has been the killing of over a half of a million people and displacement of several million others and depopulation of thousands of towns and villages. The regime has also used rape and humiliation of women and men as a weapon. It has again banned the humanitarian organizations from the region because it wants indigenous people of Darfur to die of diseases and hanger. That is why we believe that the number of people who died as a result of banning the aid organizations from the region is by far larger than the number of those killed by bullets and other types of weapons.
Despite its complexity, the problem of Darfur and that of the rest of the country would have been solved in Abuja in 2006 if both the regime and the leaders of SLA/Ms and JEMs were serious and sincere about finding a just and lasting solution to the problem. However, there is no doubt that both the regime and the leaders of various movements want the war to continue in the region and they work for its continuation by all means. The regime wants the continuation of the conflict in Darfur and other parts of Sudan (Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile in particular) because its leaders take that as a reason to stay in power and consequently will not be tried by the ICC. It therefore, it frustrates all efforts leading to lasting peace in various regions of the country. Similarly, the leaders of various movements who claim that they represent the cause of Darfur are in reality working for satisfaction of self interests. As a result, the revolution of Darfur started with two movements in 2003 (Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Justice and Equality Movement) and today there are more than forty movements (SLA/Ms and JEMs) each of which claiming that it represents the people of Darfur. However, it has become clear that leaders of these movements are hiding behind the noble terms such as democracy, human rights, equality, liberalism, freedoms, and so on only to achieve their individual interests. That is why the regime is using them to prolong its stay in power by signing meaningless peace by some of them while others stay out of it and those who sign the meaningless peace agreements pull out of the agreements they sign once they see their personal interests reduced. Even those who never signed any agreement with government are also transforming the movements they lead to kinds of stores or income generating sources from which they and their immediate relatives benefit create names for themselves.
I believe that the only way to solve the problem of Darfur and rest of Sudan is unite all the movements in one big movement led by honest, sincere, and qualified leaders with ability to genuinely represent the cause of Darfur and that of all marginalized regions of Sudan. Until that stage is reached, people of Darfur and the rest of Sudan will continue to suffer and their cause will never die until good and honest leaders emerge.

Arabic Forum