Arab money bankrolling Sudanese conflicts

Quote: Arab money bankrolling Sudanese conflicts Wednesday 27 September 2006 03:30. Printer-Friendly version By Ali Askouri* Armed conflicts are wide spread in the Sudan, but who bankrolls them? September 26, 2006 — On Wednesday 20th September, the Security and peace Council of the African Union approved a decision to extend the mandate of the African forces in Darfur to the end of the year. The decision was facilitated by the rich Arabs countries who accepted to shoulder the cost of the extension. The Arab League (a regional institution whose membership is restricted to Arab states) is actively collecting shares from members. Although accepting to pay, Arab countries didn’t stop to ask whether their money would improve protection of the displaced in Darfur, even though the recipients of their largesse themselves declared that they couldn’t provide the level of protection needed and wanted to transfer the job to UN forces. Doesn’t simple logic tell us that money is normally paid to those who do the job best? However, the governments of the Arab league apparently don’t mind spending their money on those who, on their own admission, can’t do the job! In other words, despite the fact that Africans themselves declared that their forces have been ineffective in protecting the camps of the displaced from attacks by Sudanese government forces and their janjaweed militia, still Arabs countries agreed to pay the cost of such ineffectiveness! To put it bluntly, the Arab countries agreed to pay the costs of a chaotic situation in which civilians will be killed either by the government forces or by the janjaweed, for another three month extension paid for by Arab countries. Away from Darfur, in northern Sudan, Arab financial institutions in partnership with China are paying billions of dollars for the construction of a massive dam project (the Merowe dam). The project will displace more than 60 thousands villagers from the river banks to the desert. The ill-planned project has led to massive human rights abuses committed by the dam authority against the affected communities. For the last four years, the affected communities have suffered harassment, torture, lengthy detention and eventually killings by the dam security personnel. Last April, the dam security shot dead three farmers and injured a further forty. The Arab banks that finance the project remained silent over the killing. As with their financing of Darfur, the killings didn’t prompt the project’s Arab and Chinese backers to suspend their finance to the project. Nonetheless, these institutions failed to ask the government to investigate the killings in order to assess the impact of their money on the lives of the impoverished Sudanese. Due to the huge amount of money the Arab institutions made available to the corrupt junta of Khartoum, the junta was able to lubricate its joints again and again. Consequently, with more money going into the country more innocent people are killed, displaced or detained. It has become evident that, the more money goes into the country the more people are killed. Over time; the relation between Arab money and conflicts in Sudan has become obvious and tangible. The Arab institutions pay and the officials of Sudan government do the rest. The experiences of the dam affected communities tell us that Arab financial institutions don’t give a damn to the lives of the Sudanese people. To- date, despite the killings, harassment and gross human rights volitions, Arab institutions continue business as usual pouring billions of petro dollars into the dam project. Not surprising then, the dam affected area remains tense, volatile on the verge of another explosion any moments. In another area near Khartoum, the land of Assalma village (12 000 inhabitants) was sold to an Arab investor to setup a Disneyland-like entertainment centre. As the villagers refused to leave their land, the village was cordoned early in the morning by a joint police and army forces. In the clashes that followed, three children were shot dead and many injured. The poor villagers were forcibly moved to another shanty location that lacks basic services. Again, Arab investments bodies said nothing about the incident! Numerous incidences – just two of which have been reported here - show that the Arab and Chinese partnership to appropriate Sudan resources through the abuse of its people by a client government, has cost hundreds thousands of Sudanese lives. Needless to say, neither the Arabs countries nor the Chinese government are known for the respect of human rights. Their alliance against the Sudanese people has proved lethal. The coming three months in Darfur will remove any further doubts. * The author is a researcher on development based conflicts – Piankhi Research Group (PRG) – London - UK. He can be reached at [email protected]