Ethnic Cleansing in Darfur: A New Front Opens in Sudan's Bloody War

(Note: In full house session last week, the Committee on International Relations presented a report on the genocide crisis in Sudan. The committee unanimously passed a resolution urging President Bush to impose additional sanctions on Sudanese leaders. -TR)

Committee on International Relations
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515-0128

John Prendergast
Special Advisor to the President of the International Crisis Group

"Ethnic Cleansing in Darfur: A New Front Opens in Sudan's Bloody War"

May 6, 2004

House Committee on International Relations

Thank you, Mr Chairman, for the invitation to testify at this hearing, and for the Committee's unflagging interest in the multi-faceted crisis in Sudan.

My first opportunity to testify to a Congressional committee occurred nearly fifteen years ago, when I spoke of a government in Khartoum that was using ethnic-based militias to undertake ethnic cleansing in south-western Sudan. So it is almost surreal to be back again, with many visits here in between, talking about the very same tactics being deployed by the very same government with the very same result of displacement, destruction and death. This time, though, the victims are Muslim, and from the North. More than anything else, this should demonstrate to anyone that hasn't paid sufficient attention that Sudan's war never was simply between North and South, or between Muslim and Christian. Rather, this is a national war, in which a small group from the center of the country maintains power by any means necessary.

Ten years after the Rwandan genocide, the world still frets about what it should have or could have done during that 90-day slaughter. In Sudan, three times as many people have died, spread over a twenty year period. We are still fretting, still wringing our hands, still wondering if our aid workers will be granted travel permits to clean up after another bout of ethnic cleansing has occurred. Sudan is Rwanda in slow motion.

At some point, culpability must enter into the equation. Through its military tactics, the government in Khartoum is responsible for creating the worst humanitarian crisis in the world (Darfur), the second largest death toll since World War II (the conflict with the SPLA), and the world's largest forgotten emergency (northern Uganda, courtesy of the Lord's Resistance Army). If we keep treating the symptoms without squarely identifying the cause, we will be here again in another fifteen years discussing these very same issues, still wringing our hands.There are five priorities that must be addressed immediately and simultaneously if we are to have any impact in ameliorating the current emergency and addressing the roots of the crisis.

I have linked directly to the transcript to avoid copyright infringement and bias, other than the bias of John Prendergast.

For additional information on this situation, I have included an excerpt from UN High Commissioner of Crimes Press Release:

Darfur is the scene of disturbing patterns of massive human rights violations, many of which may constitute war crimes and/or crimes against humanity, a report issued today by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) concludes.

"It is clear that there is a reign of terror in Darfur", where the Sudanese Government is facing a rebellion, acting High Commissioner Bertrand Ramcharan writes. "[T]he current pattern of massive and gross human rights violations raises very serious concerns as to the survival, security and human dignity of those who have remained in Darfur".

According to the report, based on visits by an OHCHR team to refugee camps in Chad and to Sudan, including to Darfur itself and Khartoum between April and May, the situation in the western Sudanese region is characterized by, among other things:

· repeated attacks on civilians by Government of Sudan military and its proxy militia forces, particularly the Jamjaweed;
· the use of disproportionate force by the Government of Sudan and Janjaweed forces;
· total impunity for the Janjaweed, who have operated in close coordination with the forces of the Government of Sudan,
· a pattern of attacks that includes killing, rape, pillage, including of livestock, and destruction of property, including water sources.

Rebels in the region -- the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and later the Justice and Equality Movement -- initiated the latest conflict and have also been in violation of human rights and humanitarian law, according to the report. The document refers to an incident in which rebels launched an attack using a hospital as cover, and of the recent execution of a tribal leader by the rebels, apparently because he accepted humanitarian assistance from the Government."

(Please do not infer that I am attributing any legitimacy to this UN Organization other than that of internal investigators reporting a genocide problem.)

The following story is being reported by Zenit News Agency

Date: 2004-05-10

Forced Islamization Under Way in Western Sudan

Bishop Gassis Analyzes Ongoing Conflict in Darfur Region

ROME, MAY 10, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Violence has produced thousands of victims in the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan, where "a process of Arabization" is under way, says a Catholic bishop.

In a U.N. report, Bishop Macram Max Gassis of El Obeid gave evidence of the subjection of Darfur to a regime of terror by the Khartoum government.

The strife is reckoned to have claimed 10,000 victims, forced 800,000 to 1 million from their homes, and left a legacy of 130,000 refugees in neighboring Chad.

Since February 2003, Darfur has been the scene of violent confrontations between two rebel groups -- the Justice and Equality Movement, and the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement -- and the Sudanese regular army.

The rebel groups rose in arms against Khartoum, which they accused of abandoning Darfur because its population is mainly black, and of financing the "janjaweed" militias.

The militias are active Arab marauders in the western region of Sudan who for years have been sowing death and destruction, especially in the communities of Arana, Marsalit and Fura.

The rebel groups are demanding from the government greater participation in the exploitation of oil resources, a request that coincides with that of pro-independence rebels in the South.

The strife isn't over religion, but is rather "an ethnic question," Bishop Gassis told Vatican Radio on Saturday.

"The Darfur part is annihilated by the Arab part, the 'janjaweed,' who are armed by the Khartoum army to go and commit these violations against the black population of Darfur," he said.

"These people have asked that their rights be recognized, as others have also done in Sudan," the prelate noted.

He warned that the country "is becoming a volcano that is erupting everywhere. The people want respect for human rights, the right to education, to health care, to freedom. ... These people have never been considered by the Khartoum government."

The attack of the Arab militias against the ethnic group of Darfur is directed to "taking its place, as they have done in other places. They want to move the Arab race to the more fertile areas, to areas where they can pasture," the bishop explained.

In fact, "a process of Arabization is under way in Darfur," Bishop Gassis lamented. "In the South of Sudan and in the Nuba hills there is a forced process of Islamization and Arabization. They want to force the people to accept that type of Islam that they are propagating in Sudan: Muslim fundamentalism."

"And although there are many Muslims in Darfur, they are certainly not fundamentalists," he continued. "They want to attack the black race. There is an ethnic question here. In the South of Sudan and in the Nuba hills, instead, the problem is ethnic and religious. Moreover, there is also the economic aspect, that is, the desire to occupy the place of this non-Arab population."

Meanwhile, the Khartoum authorities and the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) are in the final phase of talks aimed at ending 20 years of civil war -- between the Muslim regime of the north and the animist and Christian rebels of the south -- which has resulted in more than 2 million dead.

This armed conflict broke out in 1983, when President Gaafar Nimeiry established the Shariah, Islamic law. In 1989 the process of forced Islamization was promoted among the populations of the south.

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