Peace and Environment News* March 1992
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Peace and Environment News * March 1992 |
by Manock Achull Lual
Since March 1983, a vicious civil war has been raging in the Sudan. The antagonists are successive governments of the Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) with its military wing, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), under the leadership of Colonel/Dr. John Garang de Mabior.
Underlying causes of the war
Political, economic and financial power is concentrated in the hands of the Arab minority, which comprises thirty-nine percent of the Sudanese population, while the majority Black Africans, constituting sixty-nine percent of the population, are excluded. All positions of leadership and authority—executive, legislative, judicial, civil service, armed forces, and educational—are in the hands of the Arab minority. The Arabs, who are found mainly in Gezira and Khartoum provinces, use their privileged position to appropriate for themselves resources, wealth and social services, as well as the rights and benefits of Sudanese citizenship.
Socio-economic inequity
A related problem is the inequity in socio-economic development among the regions of the Sudan, particularly between the central region of Gezira an Khartoum and the east, north, south and west of the country. Most industries, factories, infrastructure, roads, hydroelectric power, communications, schools, medical facilities and development projects are located in the central region, while the other regions, especially the south and the west of the country, are neglected.
A minority state
The Sudan is a multiracial country consisting of people of Black African and Arab descent. However, the ruling Arab minority has declared the Sudan an Arab country despite the fact that Black Africans are in the majority.
This has a disastrous effect on the Black African population Arab culture is given predominance over Black African culture. Since Arabic is now the national language of the Sudan, educational and employment opportunities for non-Arab Sudanese are severely restricted.
Successive governments of the Sudan, from independence in 1956 to the present, have pursued a Pan Arabist foreign policy, advocating close cooperation and possible unity with other Arab countries. These governments have not tried to cultivate the same relations with Black Africa. This foreign policy bias offends Black African Sudanese, who do not want to be dragged into the Arab world against their will.
Religion
The Sudanese population is about sixty percent Suni Muslim, four percent Christian (Catholic, Protestant and Coptic) and thirty-six percent animist. Despite this mix, successive Sudanese governments have imposed laws and legislation based on Islamic law. The Sudan has been declared an Islamic state over the objections of non-Muslim Sudanese.
This pro-Islamic policy restricts the civil and human rights of Sudanese women and non-Muslims. It has been used to detain and torture opponents of the government. In some cases, Muslim critics have been accused of heresy and executed.
Women have been fired from jobs simply because of their female gender. They are also subjected to the indignities of having to be accompanied by a male when they go out, and being required to prove marital or blood relationship to their male escorts. If a woman does not conform to these rules, she is accused of adultery. Women are not allowed to travel out of the country regardless of age without the permission of a male relative.
Non-Muslims are denied employment in positions of leadership such as the presidency or premiership of the country. Non-Muslims are also barred from certain professional jobs such as judge and gynaecologist.
Worst of all, women and non-Muslims are not considered equal to Muslims before the law. The testimony of a Muslim woman is worth only half of that of a male Muslim, while that of a non-Muslim is worthless.
Peace agreement abrogated
The current civil war was precipitated by two events. One was former dictator General Nimeiri's abrogation of the 1972 Addis Ababa Peace Agreement in March 1983. The other was the imposition of Islamic law by General Nimeiri in November of the same year.
The Addis Ababa Agreement was concluded in March 1972 between the government of General Nimeiri and the Southern Sudanese Liberation Movement (SSLM) and its military wing, the Anya Nya, led by General Joseph Lagu. The Agreement brought to a peaceful end the first Sudanese Civil War, which had lasted for seventeen years. It gave Southern Sudan an autonomous status, with a parliament and a high executive council empowered to legislate local laws and govern the region. The Agreement also provided that the police, prison warders and game scouts were to consist exclusively of Southern Sudanese, while North and South Sudan were each to contribute fifty percent of the 12,000 units of the Sudanese army stationed in the southern region. The agreement also stipulated that any changes must be approved by a two thirds majority of Southern Sudanese voters in a referendum.
In 1983, General Nimeiri unilaterally abrogated the Agreement. Apparently he wanted to silence the Southern population, which had become restive due to lack of socio-economic development in the region. The people of Southern Sudan were also becoming more vocal and assertive in demanding their rightful share of development revenue and resources following the discovery of oil near Bentiu, Upper Nile, in 1977. Nimeiri cancelled the Agreement, decreed the transfer of Southern troops to the North and divided the South into three mini regions.
Civil war precipitated
Instead of silencing the growing opposition Nimeiri's action led to a recurrence of the civil war. The Southern troops in Bor, Jonglei Province, disobeyed orders to transfer to the north. The government attempted to disarm them, resulting in clashes between the mutinous Southern troops and loyalist forces. The Southern troops eventually withdrew into the bush to form the nucleus of the SPLA.
Nimeiri further aggravated the situation by imposing Islamic law on the Sudan in November 1983. This meant brutal, harsh and inhumane punishments involving amputation of limbs, stoning to death and crucifixion for people who commit theft, adultery or other crimes. Moreover, the law is applied selectively by Arab Muslim judges, who seem to find more Black Africans than Arabs guilty of crimes. The imposition of Islamic law drove many opponents to join the ranks of the SPLAM/SPLA.
Costs of the war
The Sudan is paying the human costs of the civil war in the form of lost lives and suffering, internal displacement of people, enslavement of women and children, and separation of families. Since 1983, about 1.5 million Sudanese have died of war-related causes. In 1988 alone, 250,000 people, mostly three to five year old children died of starvation and disease. More than 3.5 million people have been displaced internally within the Sudan. Many others have sought refuge outside the Sudan, with 15,000 going to western Ethiopia and 70,000 to northern Uganda. A number of Sudanese refugees go in and out of Kenya for medical treatment. Thousands of Jieng (Dinka) children have been kidnapped by Arab militia and taken into slavery.
At one time there were 80,000 refugee children without parents or older relatives in refugee camps in Ethiopia. Recently, 5,000 refugee children under fifteen years old were found wandering in SPLA-controlled territory. Many families are scattered in different countries throughout the world, where they have been given political asylum and resettled.
The Sudanese government spends US $l million daily on the war. This is a huge amount for a country which has a foreign debt of US $13 billion. The civil war has put a halt to development of petroleum deposits and construction of the Jonglei Canal. Agricultural production has been disrupted and diseases are decimating livestock in the south of the country. The war is diverting human resources from economically productive activities. Schools are being closed.
Prospects for peace
The prospect for peace in the near future is very remote. The Islamic fundamentalist military junta ruling the Sudan has vowed to defeat the SPLA military and Islamicize the country by force. The junta has already reimposed Islamic law, which was suspended after Nimeiri fell from power in 1985.
The government hard line is reinforced by the moral and material support the junta is getting from the Islamic government of Iran and by military cooperation from the People's Republic of China. The Rafsanjani government in Iran is currently supplying free oil to the Sudan, and it has financed US $300 million worth of bombers, tanks and other weapons from China. The Chinese have also provided personnel to train the Sudanese in techniques of high altitude bombing. The Iranians are training the Islamic fundamentalist militia, which the junta is using to detain and torture the Sudanese people.
Peaceful settlement of the civil war is possible only if the warring parties accept the pluralistic nature of the Sudan, adopt a secular constitution, decentralize political power and decision-making mechanisms, and find a formula for fair and equitable distribution of national wealth and resources. The international community can help bring this about by applying sanctions and arms embargo to isolate the junta. The United Nations can prevail on Iran and China to stop giving the junta oil, financial support, training personnel and weapons. The Government of Canada can raise the issue at the United Nations and bring it up directly with the Sudanese junta, Iran and China.
The Canadian public can help by telling their neighbours, friends and colleagues about the tragedy in the Sudan. You can write the Prime Minister and the Minister of External Affairs to express your concern and ask them to take action to pressure the junta to seek a peaceful settlement of the civil war.
Converted August 7, 2001 - Lg
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