PART II

Dr Gandul Ibrahim Gandul
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What went wrong in Southern Kordofan?

When the war erupted for the second time in 1983 as a result of dishonoring the short-lived 1972 Addis Ababa Peace Accord and the subsequent implementation of September laws, SPLM/A, with deep roots in the South, took national agenda and started vigorously to resist Khartoum’s regime. The chronic marginalization and unbalanced development in the margins of the Sudan, especially Dar Fur (DF), Eastern Sudan (ES), Nuba Mountains (NM) and Southern Blue Nile (SBN) forced the indigenous people of these areas to join the SPLM/A. The destruction suffered by the war culminated in NM during the transitional government of Jazouli Dafa Allah. The NM shouldered the burden and the errs of the war when a small group of SPLA unit attacked al-Gardoud village in the Nuba Mountains and killed, sadly enough, scores of innocent civilians of Baggara ‘Arabs’. 25 Rumors spread that the Nuba attacked the village. The rumors turned out to be false, but Baggara girls lamented the breakdown of traditional friendship between the Nuba and the Baggara, singing ‘Yousif Kuwa has forsaken our brotherhood and entered al-Gardoud by force’. The late, martyr Yousif Kuwa Mekki, may peace and mercy of Allah (God) be upon him, Cdr Daniel Kodi and others have repeatedly and, on numerous occasions, categorically stated the innocence of the Nuba in that attack. They assertively, and yet implicitly, indicated that the Nuba joined the SPLM/SPLA to fight against the elite (the Government in Khartoum), regardless who is in that oppressive Government, and that the Nuba should not be implicated in this ill and evil categorization as ‘rebels’ and ‘out-laws’. In fact, what took place in al-Gardoud was vengeance executed by the Dinka, who had been for years exploited by the Arabs in the area through marauding, kidnapping their children, raping their women and looting their personal properties. No sooner had these young Dinka returned home from the bout of military training in the SPLM/SPLA camps than they avenged their dead relatives and stolen cattle. Never had the SPLM/SPLA sanctioned any assault on al-Gardoud, but the Khartoum media made a hell out of this ‘incident’ to pander to their political and racial aims. Because of the lack of a unifying figure in the Sudan and owing to the lost local wisdom, the Government of Sudan (GOS) media described the Nuba as SPLM/A sympathizers and , worse still, characterized them as ‘racists’ and ‘infidels’ despite categorical denial of Nuba’s involvement. The armament and liquidation of the Nuba was entrusted to the then member of the Command Council Maj-Gen Fadllala Burma Nasser, a Baggara Arab himself. Disorder, arbitrary arrests, torture and killing, disappearance of the Nuba leaders and intellects by intelligence forces escalated.
The democratic Government of Sadiq al-Mahdi brought in the region’s life an unprecedented act wherein it armed militia groups from within the Southern Kordofan State, specifically the Baggara Arabs, and continued its aggressive and repressive policies of creating havoc and instability in the area. The GOS reasoned the armament of the militia as to defend themselves from the southern insurgency without defining who will defend the Nuba. It also, without authorization from the Constituent Assembly, mobilized the loyal elements to the Umm Party (UP) into Popular Defense Force (PDF) to carryout the genocide campaign against the innocent people of the state, particularly, the Nuba.26
In May of 1989 the Commissioner of Southern Kordofan Ali Jama’a (Baggara Arab) under the directive of the Executive Director of Southern Region Council of South Kordofan Province Hamid Yousif, coordinated and organized the first ever meeting of its kind to found PDF in South Kordofan when Abdel Rasoul El Nour (from Misseriya Humur) was the Governor of Kordofan. Soon after the establishment of the PDF, Abdel Rahman Abu Al-Bashr known for his notoriety led the PDF in the area. The warriors were promised Nuba land. The land seizure was permitted as war booty or redistributed to the government supporters, officials and retired military officers as the Government’s pursuit of the war. The armed groups went extra miles in temporal and spatial history to form Quoreish I and Quoreish II organizations - similar to Janjaweed groups in Dar Fur - aimed at converting the NM area into macro or mega Mecca in the next twenty years (now less than that since the inception was in early and mid-1990s). As the consequences of the failure of the Government to quell disarray and maintain order in the NM region; and when the Nuba plight for safety was not only ignored by GOS but resolutely rebuffed by adamant defiance and force, a number of Nuba youths were forced to join the SPLM/A movement.27 The Nuba insurgents kept encouraging various groups within and out of the state to join the struggle to fight the oppression, tyranny and uneven or the lack of development in the region despite the aforementioned slurs. The interesting thing in the affair is that the insurgents in the marginalized areas are described as rebels whereas those in the North are labeled, out of respect and nepotism, ‘opposition’: an indicative of double standard and sanctimony (hypocrisy).
At the peak of this security chaos, the Nuba Members of Parliament predicted the fluidity of the situation, protested the armament and warned the Government of the grave danger of arming certain tribes (to defend themselves from the so-called infidels). Other progressive forces from the North such as Dr Ushari Mahmoud and Dr Suliman Baldo of the University of Khartoum and others joined this protest and publicly criticized this policy, but in vain. The government, irresponsibly, reprimanded both men for their publicized critique of the government’s flagrant actions against its own ‘citizens’, especially on the massacre of Dinka in Da’en, in Southern Dar Fur. The Parliament Member (PM) Mr. Haroun Idrees of Kadugli Constituent volunteered to visit his constituency for fact finding mission and to investigate the situation in the NM but he was detained and interrogated by the intelligence with utter stillness by both the Prime Minister Sadiq Mahdi and the Constituent Assembly despite his parliamentary impunity.
The National Islamic Front (NIF) government and its allies came to power as mentioned earlier to offer no respite to the Nuba despite Nuba’s good omen in NIF especially when their kith and kin Major General Ibrahim Nayle Idam, the second man in charge of the intelligence and security in Sadiq’s government and scores of Southerners and Dar Furians Generals were included in the High Command Council. It turned out that these Generals were used as baits and subsequently were sacked from their posts including Dr. Hassan Turabi the mastermind of the junta takeover of the democratically elected government. Unfortunately, the Sudanese, especially the Nuba, were disappointed and their cheerfulness evaporated because NIF immediately passed the PDF Act that was orchestrated and prepared by Sadiq’s government to incite the people of the state on each other exploiting the religion, thus implementing the maxim ‘divide and rule’. Some Nuba leaders including mecks and sheikhs were given arms to liquidate their own people, educated icons were given trivial titles of Emir etc. only to oppress their kin for either religious, political hypocrisy, inevitably foregone prestige or personal disagreements with the Nuba leaders in SPLM/A. The GOS capitalized on the divisions among the people of southern Kordofan region and bluntly prevented the delivery of humanitarian aids provided by Operation Lifeline Sudan sponsored by the United States of America to southern Sudan. As the result of NM besiege and isolation the GOS seemingly rejuvenated the infamous and evil Closed District Act enacted decades ago by the British. Soon afterward, the legalization was reinforced by jihad (a holy war) declaration to employ a final solution to the so-called ‘the Nuba Question’ as a reminiscent of what has been repeatedly known in Sudanese politics as ‘the Southern Problem’. In January 1992, President Omer al-Beshir attended a popular and an official rally in al-Obeid where in he was inducted the title of Imam al-Jihad. Subsequently, he assigned the responsibility of implementing the Jihad to the late Vice-President, al-Zubeir Mohamed Salih.28 Determined to purge SPLM/A insurgency from the Nuba Mountains, al-Zubeir temporarily moved his headquarters of operations to al-Obeid, North Kordofan. On April 27, 1992, al-Zubeir requested a fatwa (or an Islamic decree) to be issued by Muslim Imams and Sufi Sheikhs at an Islamic conference held in al-Obeid. The Holy War was legitimized against the Nuba, and infamously stated that the Nuba were ‘infidels... and thus deserve death.’ Al-Zubeir then commanded a massive force of more than 30,000 militants in order to eliminate a small, and ill-equipped force of 970-strong men and women commanded by the late SPLM/A Alternate Commander Mohamed Juma Nayl in Tullishi Hills in the Nuba Mountains.29 Government forces deliberately attacked the civilian population, sometimes forcing them out of the caves using tear gas; starvation was used to force villagers to surrender. Women and girls were kidnapped and abducted, and many were raped, often repeatedly. Those interned in ‘peace camps’ were divided into groups. The children were subjected to forced Islamization and Arabization while able men were forced to work on mechanized farms for a pittance, and many women were kept as ‘wives’ and concubines for the soldiers.30
Once again the religion was used as a divisive rather than a unifying instrument. This behavior from the government only reflected a deep-rooted racial discrimination against the people of the region. Islam, as a religion-and all religions for that matter, doesn’t call for killing or harming others; it doesn’t call for assimilation nor does it support discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, sex or religion. On the contrary, Almighty God plainly asserts the notion of tribal belonging without prejudice to others in His Holy Qura’an and it is He who say: ‘Oh mankind! We have created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily, the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.’31 And it is, He, who say: ‘To you, be your religion; and to me is my religion.’32 The actions of human rights violations by the government resulted in deep mistrust between the Nuba and the rest of the inhabitants of the state - namely, the Baggara Arabs, including some self-destructive Nuba, Fellata and certainly the central government. It is the deepest tragedies to note that the inhabitants of Southern Kordofan State, who have carried out much of the government’s policies against the Nuba citizens, are themselves an impoverished and marginalized section of population in the Sudan too. The roles played by the members of armed forces, intelligence apparatus and civil servants with origin to Southern Kordofan region were disappointing and paralyzing to the Nuba people. Among the Nuba officers committed atrocities are Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Khamis and Brigadier General Mohamed Markazo Kuku whose names have been mentioned in the reports of a number of human rights monitoring organizations33. The later shockingly explained his actions of combing the village of Kimian - his birth place in the NM - that he was responding to his relatives’ request to clean the area from the ‘rebels’ when asked by the Nuba members of SPLM/A on the sidelines of Peace Negotiations in Nairobi, Kenya. Nonetheless, this is not an incitement for the people of the region to forcefully takeover the power but it was expected that they would have wisely extol the government to abandon human rights violation practices. Moreover, this is not prejudice or partiality against these two individuals and others but rather a partial list of the ‘wrongs’ that occurred in Southern Kordofan.

Attempts to ameliorate the ‘wrongs’ by the real unspoiled people

The real unspoiled, Nuba and Baggara leaders who felt the severity of the damage on their people recognized the deception and realized the need for peaceful co-existence that once existed prior to the era of the pseudo-leaders, educated elites, religious and racial extremists. Thus several peace conferences were initiated and held to amend fences in very critical and dangerous circumstances. These conferences were held in the Nuba Mountains. They included the Buram Agreement in February 1993, the Regifi Agreement on November 15, 1995 and the Kain Agreement in June 1996. These local agreements did not please the government in Khartoum. It subsequently worked to break the signatories apart and extended itself into the files of SPLM/A to cause cleavage manifested by the infamous coup against Dr. Garang. The government went on to devise the ‘Peace from Within’ accord and signed with SPLM/A splinters in Khartoum.34 However, the Nuba Mountains SPLM/A splinters which were led by Mohamed Haroun Kafi signed the same appellation of ‘Peace from Within’, but at a lower level in al-Obied with Mohamed al-Amin Khalifa representing the Sudan Government.35 Although these agreements were signed under the same banner - that is, ‘Peace from within’, their provisions and terms were essentially and completely different. Khartoum recognized the right of the south for self-determination but the Nuba splinters were denied such recognition. Thus, the NIF succeeded in following the long Northern Sudanese tradition and culture of creating and seizing any opportunity to ‘divide and rule’. This is so because the strategy of the GOS was to exploit the divisions among the “rebels” and use the forces loyal to Dr. Reik Machar, Dr. Lam Akol and Karbino Kuanin Bol to fight SPLM/A main stream. As for the Nuba splinters, their agreement with Khartoum was immediately, to say the least, abrogated since they did not have formidable forces to safeguard the accord. Nevertheless, the ‘Peace from within’ was nullified an act that angered Cdr. Tabaan Deng Tabaan and Dr. Reik Machar who returned to the bush and finally rejoined SPLM/A. As for Dr. Lam Akol, he held on the Ministry of Transportation portfolio until his rejoining SPLM/A. Finally, came the Nuba Mountains Cease-fire Agreement, signed between the Sudan Government and the SPLM/A in Switzerland on January 19, 2002,36 and the subsequent All Nuba Conference (ANC), which was held at Kauda in the Nuba Mountains on December 2-5, 2002.37 The second ANC and the first All Tribes Conference (ATC) were also held in April 6-8 and April 9-11, 2005; respectively. However, the outcomes of the meetings included:
The people of [Southern Kordofan] State, especially the Nuba, emphasized that they are fighting against the Government and never against the Baggara [Arabs]; the Baggara admitted that the central Government deceived them by telling them [that] the war against the rebels would take a month or two, whereas it took more than ten years with devastating destruction; and that their politicians - for example, Sadiq al-Mahdi - had already left the Sudan and were fighting alongside with the SPLM/A against the NIF regime that ousted him.
The Nuba and the Baggara were cognizant that they have been living together in relative peace for almost 200 years and have intermingled through marriage and the sharing of culture and religion. They also asserted that the alliance between Sadiq Mahdi and SPLM/A is an extravagant mockery of racial and religious exploitation carry out political agenda.
The Baggara and the Nuba realised that Jallaba - the merchants from the North and the centre - are the only beneficiaries of the war. The Jallaba, they determined, are temporary residents of the region who are magnetized to the region by their interests - economics, social and political - and would leave once the benefits are mined or adverse conditions bounce, but the people of the mountains (the Nuba and the Baggara) will stay for they have no other places to go to and thus have to find ways to live together in peace and harmony.
The cease-fire agreement brought tranquility and relative peace for the first time in more than 18 years.
The ANC recommended the importance of initiating and maintaining a process of dialogue between the Nuba and other ethnic groups - for instance, the Baggara Arabs, Hawaza, Misseriya - in the Nuba Mountains to develop the opportunities for peaceful coexistence, and that the Nuba struggle for their right is not directed against them, but rather against the injustices imposed by successive regimes in Khartoum.
The ATC recognized the marginalization policies of Khartoum’s governments and that Khartoum power center bear responsibility of the chaos and the deterioration suffered by the people of Southern Kordofan. Therefore, the southern Kordofanians must work together in order to reverse the situation through genuine transparent dialogue for reconciliation and local unity.
These are the real people who had not been spoiled by the alien influence, and these are the visions of our people, the innocent not the eccentric politicians.

Reasons for reconciliation and local unity

Sustaining commonalities

The Southern Kordofan State is a large region with a surface area of 30,000 square miles, almost the size of Scotland. This area is large enough to accommodate a multitude of communities of different ethnic backgrounds. Unquestionably, these communities share more commonalities than differences and have been living together for many years. The imperative common aspects include blood lineage, resulting from intermarriages, infusion and the integration of many cultural aspects, sharing the right for religious beliefs wherein Muslims, Christians and Kujours, especially among Nuba families, observe intra-family tolerance and peaceful coexistence owing to these religious differences with no prejudice. Alas, the realities of peaceful co-existence and tolerance in the state have been distorted by extremism. The present day fanaticism and radicalism must be ejected and tradition of love, not only of the land, but of one another, must be injected and promoted. There is no doubt that this culture of cohesiveness and feeling of oneness would spread throughout the country with upholding these merits.

Resources and Economic Exploitation

The Southern Kordofan State with its vast area is rich in natural resources, including fertile plains for agricultural production, minerals, pile of oil reserves and huge livestock wealth. The deliberate marginalization and lack of development or rather irrational exploitation of the rich natural resources for economic and social prosperity of the state has resulted in unbearable poverty, great misery and utter deprivation among the populace of the region while economic virtues of these resources are realized by people from outside the region. Traditional agriculture and animal husbandry are considered the backbone of the economy for the people of the NM region. It is then imperative to develop by providing adequate production inputs and methods to these vital sectors. Nonetheless, a people-led process is needed in order to arrest the spread of poverty to achieve sustainable livelihood and, at the same time, manage environmental degradation, which had resulted from the unjust central Government policies of resources mining. This is critical to curtail the return of the conflict due to shrinking resources, which would ultimately result in further regression. It is a pitfall not to recognize, by many, that all central governments that ruled Sudan were not good nationalist systems. This is contemplated by the virtue of concentrating power and economic swell in the riverain north, metaphorically known as the Sudan.
Land issue is a touchy and contentious subject and therefore the scope of this presentation would not be appropriate for addressing it but the inhabitants of the state need to reconsider redressing the land disputes. An inclusive and people-led process is required to iron out the grievances of ownership and redistribution mechanisms must be devised. Mechanisms that guarantee the rights of the indigenous people- that is, the Nuba -to their ancestral land must be devised. Equally, the Baggara Arabs and all other groups should have a share of the land. Inseparable from ownership is the land use regulations, soil management and reclamation. For the sustainability of the fragile soil resulting from extraordinary cultivation and forest clearing, strict regulations must be implemented to avert and reverse ecological degradation while maintaining the economic and social life of the people of Southern Kordofan State and ultimately restore the destroyed friendly relations between the Nuba and the Baggara Arabs. Such protective measures would not come from people who have no strong connections to the land, such as, the absentee landlords. Therefore, it is entirely peoples’ decision to embrace the peace agreement with its shortcomings and, collectively, exert extra but positive efforts in order to acquire more gains from the accord. Definitely, such a benefit would come from local unity and the unification of the agenda, exhaling the dubious and covert ‘agenda’ of the centre.
The history has taken its full circle to dictate the notion of regionalism or federation, previously refuted so many times by the riverain center of power. Now, to truly realize the abundant economic resources in the state, the people of the state must revisit their priorities and redirect their attention to the state. This is essential, because the interests of the communities of Southern Kordofan State are within the boundaries of their rich state. This is in no way an encouragement to abandon the ‘Federal’ ploy where all ‘games’ of the people, by the people and for the people should converge. But rather a call to take the peoples’ agenda in an upward approach rather than downward mode even though it is difficult to scale-up against gravity. The people of Southern Kordofan State would not be able to exercise this task unless they reconcile, unite and work together for their destiny. The history always reminds and tells us that our brethren in the ‘north’ - those in power -, sufficiently differ in matters concerning the whole ‘Sudan’ and its all people, especially the margins, but when these affairs tap on their very interests, they unite only to forget the entire country and its peoples and their regions become top priority of their agenda.

Public Services

A ‘healthy mind is in a healthy body’: this is a widely believed dictum. The reality of this maxim is void in Southern Kordofan State where war and hatred had caused profound destruction and deterioration in every conceivable infrastructure. Indeed the war has produced physically, physiologically and, unfortunately, morally weak and sick-minds. All of this is the product of unhealthy cadavers effected by the lack of healthcare, deprivation and/or improper nourishment, mental stagnation for the mental exercise provided by education. This is true for all people of the state, perhaps, with no exception. One or two generations of young adults and additional generations of school-age children are illiterate due to lack of education. This miserable situation needs to be fixed wherein every child - and adults too, if they desire - gets the chance to attend the school. This is important because Southern Kordofan State, and the Sudan as a country, needs future educated leaders, who understand the meaning of leadership, leaders who could differentiate between authority and responsibility and capable of sailing their citizens, all of them, against raging waters to safety!
It is imperative to demonstrate the deterioration of public services and how the destruction took toll on these services; Kadugli High School, dubbed as Tillaw, would be used as a perfect example. Before the war broke out, there were at best three regular high schools, including only one for females in the state. With a systematic campaign against the Nuba in early 1990s, the well-known and legendary Kadugli High School has been converted to the production field for the Mujahideen (holy warriors) and center for monitoring the infamous operations. Today, the same school is the Head Quarters for Joint Military Commission (JMC) charged with overseeing and observing the Nuba Mountains Ceasefire Agreement instead of knowledge acquiring institution. Tillaw must be credited for the many leaders, including some who served and are still serving the current Government despite the fact that some may attempt to challenge this assertion. Power of knowledge, not the destructive force and sounds of guns, is what Southern Kordofan State demands. The gun, hopefully, has accomplished its mission and the choice for the people of the state is to cleverly desert it. It would be a grave decision if they choose to resort to the power of weapon again. The people of Southern Kordofan State deserve better. They eagerly demand schools, running water services, hospitals, roads and all that caused them to take up arms for every settled or nomadic community. In short, lasting and sustainable peace, which is attainable, is the demand. Again, the people of Southern Kordofan State are capable of accomplishing - by disregarding, abandoning and discarding the ills of the center - and embracing reconciliation and local unity, which could be utilized - in turn - to foster the national unity of the entire country.

Cultural Myths

As alluded to earlier, Southern Kordofan State is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural state with its diversity rooted deeply in its people. This characteristic identifies the state as micro-Cosmo of Sudan or better yet of Africa. Key examples of cultural diversity include the following local folklores: nuggara, mardoum (previously perceived as exclusively performed by the Baggara Arabs), bukhsa, kamballa, kirang and wrestling (believed to be Nuba myths) and kaytta (if still exists, is performed by the Nigerian/Malian descendants). The reality of life in the state was that the aforementioned traditions were cementing factors wherein the Nuba and Baggara Arabs profess most of them with no distinction. Not only did wrestling become an annual ritual among the Nuba tribes, but it had also become a cementing factor between them and the Baggara Arabs as a social gathering and material-free competition. How many Nuba and Baggara Arabs have become friends, named their children after each other and even intermarriages occurred as a result of wrestling friendships sprung from this worldwide famous competition?
Looking back to history produces mixed and confusing feelings: sadness and sorrows of time that yields numbness; and the best of time that generates sensation of immense urge to return to it. But the ills of the rotten head of the fish - that is, Khartoum power center- in trying to destroy the myth once in the name of religion and many times in the name of race distracts such a return to ‘the past’. To illustrate, once a Sudanese folklore team went to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to participate in one of the Arab carnivals (it is absolutely all right). It is worth noting that the nuggara, mardoum, kamballa and kirang were performed on the UAE stage in the name of Sudan by different performers from all over the country. But the dismay was, and is still, the immense hypocritical stance that Khartoum governments display by vigorously hitting the chest in the international or Arab arenas that these are Sudanese culture while internally deemed to destroy these cultures or their real recitalists. The take-home message is that this richness in regional culture is the one that doesn’t only bond the people of Southern Kordofan State, but the Sudan. The people of the state must be made aware of, and that the source and mothers of all ailments in the communities is the center. Therefore, these cultures must be revived, developed and promoted statewide, nationally and internationally without prejudice to any as a unifying catalyst among many unity ingredients.

Conclusion

From August 1955 to December 2004, with barely eleven years of relative peace, the Sudan witnessed an all out destruction. The people of the margins - that is, the Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile, Dar Fur and Eastern Sudan - did not escape the scorched-earth devastation of the war. Mischaracterization of the problem of Sudan as the problem of the South coupled with imbalanced development in the country exploiting religious and racial dissention has led the people of the margins to pick up arms against the successive central governments. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement has ended the conflict in the South, the Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile. The success of this accord depends heavily on how the people of Southern Kordofan State arrive at a common understanding of the terms and provisions of the accord. Essential to this understanding and success is the relations between the ethnically heterogeneous, but culturally and religiously semi-homogeneous groups. Reconciliation and the promotion of culture of peace and unity among these groups should be enhanced in order to realize benefits of the peace agreement and harvest the state’s abundant natural resources. Recognition and development of cultural diversity is central to social and peaceful coexistence. Land ownership remains the challenge and probably the sole component that the Government would deliberately ponder to incite the people of the state against each other. A unified stance is needed to contain Khartoum’s ‘divide and rule’ tactics.

Endnotes