By Saad S. Khan , Special to The Daily Star, Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Consider scenes of horse-riding militiamen pillaging and burning down villages; women being gang-raped in the bushes screaming for help; vultures hovering over unattended corpses; poor half-naked folk, their bodies emaciated due to malnutrition, devouring grass and straw; and the government soldiers showing macho powers by munching live chickens. Each of the specters is more dreadful than the other. Yet when one realizes that this is neither a pick from the History books about the jungle life during the dark ages nor scene from a horror movie, but a real life situation in a 21st century nation state, it becomes unbearably painful, nay, shameful.
Sudan is making headlines, but as always, for the wrong, if not the worst of, reasons. For decades, Sudan has been fighting the deadliest of battles in the Christian-dominated South of the country. In July 2002, it reached a six-year truce agreement with the South. As if the capacity of the ruling junta for bloodshed had not been exhausted, the guns turned against the West of the country, Darfur. This time the murder, rape and plunder was directed against the fellow Muslims, as if religions matter in the cruel game of politics.
The incumbent President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir took power in a 1989, under the banner of National Islamic Front, replacing another Islamist, but civilian and elected, government of Ummah Party of Prime Minister Sadeq al Mehdi. In 1993, he was made President and the Revolution Command Council was dissolved. In March 1996 and then December 2000, he twice elected himself as the President, with thumping majorities in dubious electoral exercises boycotted by the opposition--- nothing unusual in the African context. Yet, what is actually unique, is the treatment the junta meted out on the ideologue and mentor of the Islamist coup. Hassan Turabi, 72, a Ph.D from Sorbonne University (France) was Speaker of the Sudanese parliament, till he fell out with Bashir, contesting his “right” to life-presidency. Turabi had refused to lend support for Bashir in the 2000 farcical elections. Since then, the veteran leader is in and out of prisons. The recent news that he was bit by a rat in the prison cell, speaks of the conditions in which the old scholar is being detained.
Coming to the Darfur conflict, where one year of fighting has seen 50,000 dead, 12,000 maimed and 8,000 raped, with a million people internally displaced, and another 200,000 becoming refugees in the camps in Chad, the ferocity of conflict is comparable to Bosnia and Rwanda. The EU Observers must be right that it is not genocide, since the murder of the people is not planned, systematic massive. Nevertheless, the irregular and wanton killing sprees taking place, make the situation closer to “ethnic cleansing” in practice, even if not according to the legal dictionary definitions.
One must agree that the Western regions of Sudan had long been neglected in development. Interestingly enough, so were the North, South and the East. Each of the four corners of Sudan, have at one time or the other, harbored centrifugal tendencies against the Khartoum government. The reasons must be traced in the long spells of dictatorships. The economy was messed up, the resources were squandered and the legitimate means of dissent were stifled. The rest is all details.
However, to have a proper perspective, one may mention that the grievances in Darfur always existed. Yet, the writ of the State was always absent. Sudan’s vast expanse, consisting of mountains and deserts, swamps and rainforests, of over 2.5 million square kilometers (over half the continental Europe minus Russia) was never ruled by a 90,000-strong ill-equipped and poorly-disciplined army. The governments relied on local armed militias to control far off inaccessible tracts. The July 2002 pact with the Southern rebels, encouraged the armed tribesmen of Darfur to challenge the writ of the government, on the understanding that violence, and that alone, pays. The major attack last year was on the Darfur airport where many planes and warplanes were also destroyed. An embarrassed President Bashir decided revenge. His over-efficient Vice President Ali Osman Taha did the rest.
The conflict between sedentary farmers and nomadic shepherds, over limited land and resources, is at the root of most of the ethnic conflicts of Africa. The Vice President Taha was able to cobble a ragtag militia of Arab cattle-rearing tribesmen that was then pitched against the African Fur farmers of Darfur. The “Janjaweed” (literally: “devils on horsebacks”) militia had got training in the training camps of Libya, when President Qaddafi had tried to create a so-called “Islamic Legion” of African mercenaries. Like in many other conflicts worldwide, one feels like saying “Thank you, Qaddafi!” in Darfur also. Khartoum junta owns the equally ruthless government paramilitary force called Popular Defense Forces (PDF), but denies any link to the Janjaweed, although, its chief Musa Hilal remains Khartoum’s blue-eyed boy. Yet, when the PDF and the Police were sent to Darfur to “save” the people from the Janjaweed attacks, according to media reports, the fear gripping the people increased, and understandably so.
The mountains in Darfur are inaccessible. Everybody traditionally carries weapons. When Sierra Leone with 1/35th the area needed 17,000 UN troops to maintain peace, it would be unrealistic to expect 2000 African Union troops to perform miracles. Even 600,000 troops would fall short of requirement in Sudan. The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/SLA) of Abdel Wahid Mohammad Ahmad Noor claims having 40,000 armed supporters, although the extent of control of the leader over the followers, is highly doubtful. As for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) of Bahar Idris Abu Gharda, another rebel outfit, it is a loose grouping of many splinters with a combined strength of 45,000 fighters; it is more interested in fighting each other than wasting time in repelling attacks of Sudan army, the Janjaweed militia or the PDF.
The UN Security Council resolution no. 1556 of 30th July 2004, demanding a complete disarming of all militia forces in Darfur within 30 days is a big joke. The Arab League insists that the Khartoum government must be given at least 120 days, another joke! The disarming and demobilizing is simply impossible, in the short term, even if the United States Marines swarm the area. The people who have seen rapes of their daughters are not expected to give away their self-defense weapons. In the tribal set-up, even the aggressors and rapists would never surrender weapons, fearing revenge. The solution lies in forcing the resignation of Bashir government through international pressure, or even other stronger means, and then a sustained democracy has to be put in place. The presence of UN troops for immediate peace, massive international aid for development and simultaneous movement on justice and reconciliation would return normalcy in the longer run. There are, unfortunate as it is, no short cuts to a lasting peace.
The lessons from the death fields of Darfur remain the same as in the other conflict areas. Firstly, the human development leading to the “concept of democracy”, or as one may see it, the Man’s discovery of it, is the greatest of achievements of the mankind. Any worthwhile substitutes for the beauty of liberty, the fragrance of freedom, and the majesty of the rule of law are yet to be found. Secondly, dictatorship in any form, be that the Nazism, Fascism, Communism, absolute monarchy, ruthless theocracy or the military authoritarianism, is retrogressive to the extent that it retards human progress, demeans human values and tramples on human dignity. It leaves a human society in the abyss of bestiality. And lastly, the so-called “Islamist” dictatorship (like Bashir’s regime in Sudan) is a misnomer, as is “benign dictatorship” (like Mubarak’s regime in Egypt). There is nothing benign or Islamic about a dictatorship. Had the case been otherwise, Bashir’s guns would not have targeted Muslims of Darfur as ruthlessly as they had done with the Christians of the South.
Qaddafi, Mubarak, Assad, Fahd, Ben Ali and, not the least, Bashir himself, are all living mockeries of human values. The West has to recognize that the senseless plunder of the resources of the Afro-Asian world during the age of colonization was not a “civilizing mission”. If they want to atone for their sins, they now have a historic opportunity, through their present material superiority, to force and sustain democracy in the whole world. This would be something really “civilizing”.
================================================
The writer is an Oxford published author and a widely published commentator on governance and politics of the Muslim world. He may be reached at saadskhan@yahoo.co.uk
