Belatedly, the Sudanese government and opposition forces now share the international community's concern for the humanitarian catastrophe that is war-torn Darfur, writes Gamal Nkrumah Last week's visit to Darfur by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan grabbed the headlines and focussed world attention on the humanitarian catastrophe currently unfolding in the war-torn western Sudanese province of Darfur, marked by gross violations of international humanitarian law and the indiscriminate targeting of hapless civilians including the rape of women and children and the senseless killing of innocent villagers. "The Sudanese government has been carrying out a scorched earth policy in Darfur," the Sudanese opposition Umma Party leader and former Sudanese prime minister Sadiq Al-Mahdi told Al- Ahram Weekly. Al-Mahdi explained that the Sudanese government and allied Arab militias known as the Janjaweed or "devils on horseback" ransacked villages and embarked on systematic revenge killings against armed resistance fighters in Darfur who demanded that they have a say in the decision-making process. "The government launched a massive clampdown. Their actions amount to war crimes," Al-Mahdi said. Indeed, most international observers agree that the Janjaweed have committed the worst atrocities in Darfur, terrorising innocent civilians, looting livestock and grain stores and destroying crops. Al-Mahdi told the Weekly that traditional tensions between the Janjaweed, who he said were mainly ethnic Arab tribesmen from both Sudan and neighbouring Chad, and Darfur inhabitants have existed for many decades. It was part of the age-long struggle for survival between nomadic Arab tribes and the settled indigenous non-Arab agriculturists, he explained. Matters, he said, have come to a head in the past couple of years. The high-profile visits to Darfur by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Annan and Al-Mahdi have produced unexpected results. Khartoum pledged to commit itself to negotiations with armed opposition groups in Darfur. They have also promised to contain the Janjaweed, start disarming the Arab militias and prosecute those who harass innocent civilians or hamper relief supplies. Khartoum even hinted that those who perpetrated the worst atrocities would be brought to book. "Darfur was an independent Muslim kingdom for many centuries and which only joined Sudan in 1916," Al-Mahdi said. "Darfur is a microcosm of Sudan. Many different ethnic groups and tribes inhabit the rugged mountainous region," Al-Mahdi said, adding that the Sudanese government played one ethnic group against the other deliberately fanning the fires of ethnic conflict and tribalism. "The region was sub-divided into ethnically-based sub-regions such as Dar Massaleet, Dar Zaghawa and Dar Rezeighat. Disgruntlement among Darfur's non-Arab population grew as the government favoured Arab tribes and ethnic Arabs monopolised important government and administrative positions. The government's policies ripped apart the social fabric of Darfur, fuelling much resentment and discontent among the population at large." Al-Mahdi similarly recounted how rampant corruption and nepotism alienated the population of Darfur even further and heightened a general feeling of popular discontent. "The hospitals were emptied of medical equipment and medicines as doctors sought employment elsewhere. Teachers were not paid for six or even eight months on end," Al-Mahdi said of the late-1990s. "From 2000, the security situation became something of a nightmare. The cities of Darfur virtually turned into heavily fortified garrison towns; smaller and remoter urban centres became ghost towns. The villages were laid to waste." Armed resistance groups stepped up resistance against government forces and their Janjaweed allies. From the mountain stronghold in Jebel Marra they waged a campaign against government forces. The two main groups are the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Al-Mahdi who has just come back from a tour of the displaced people's camps in Darfur said that he was horrified by the scenes he witnessed there of utter destruction and deprivation. "The government's reaction to armed resistance was heavy-handed and brutal. The authorities enlisted the support of the Janjaweed who unleashed a reign of terror on the civilian population of Darfur and who fled the countryside in droves heading towards the outskirts of towns where they congregated in makeshift camps, living under deplorable conditions. Others fled across the border into Chad." The Sudanese government's massive offensive created a tidal wave of refugees who cannot till the land and sow the seeds of the planting season. Worse, the rains are bound to hamper the movement of humanitarian convoys in the rugged countryside of Darfur. There are no paved roads and mudslides are frequent occurrences in the rainy season. The outbreak of disease and epidemics usually follows under such horrendous conditions. The Sudanese government felt that it was losing face over the Sudanese peace talks in Kenya; that it was seen to be caving in to the demands of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, the country's most influential southern-based armed opposition group. The western Sudanese had to be made an example of. According to Al-Mahdi, the Sudanese regime miscalculated and didn't properly assess what international reaction to the Darfur crisis would be. "They felt that the West sympathises with the southern Sudanese people because they are predominantly Christian. They could not foresee that the West would also sympathise with the Darfur cause even though the inhabitants of Darfur are overwhelmingly Muslim. The people in the West sympathised with the Darfur cause on humanitarian grounds." Al-Mahdi said that what started as a political problem and ethnic tensions in Darfur later became a political crisis. "Now," Al-Mahdi warned, "the crisis has developed into a full-blown catastrophe." Al-Mahdi explained that the leading Islamist ideologue and former speaker of the Sudanese parliament Hassan Al-Turabi had a large following in Darfur. Many of Al-Turabi's supporters in Darfur stood by him when he broke ranks with Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Beshir. The now defunct National Islamic Front (NIF) split into two rival camps -- the National Congress Party of Al-Beshir and Al-Turabi's Popular Congress Party (PCP). JEM is closely aligned to Al-Turabi's PCP, fuelling suspicions that Al- Turabi is using Darfur as a political conduit to creep back to the corridors of power in Khartoum. "The Khartoum regime correctly judged that the international community would not criticise it at a crucial point in the peace process, so it slowed the process in Naivasha to give itself time for a major offensive in Darfur," a recently released report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) noted. Curiously enough the ICG report also noted that "Chad's role in the negotiations in 2003 was flawed and counterproductive." It recommended that a new round of negotiations between the Sudanese government and armed opposition groups in Darfur include the EU, the US and the UN. "There will have to be more international coordination than hitherto on Darfur, as well as increased public diplomacy in support of the process and regarding ongoing human rights abuses, and clear penalties for any Sudanese party that undermines the resolution of the conflict," the ICG report stressed. The report also highlighted that travel restrictions imposed on humanitarian relief workers in Darfur are designed to make the region inaccessible to the outside world. Khartoum closely monitors the Sudanese press for controversial coverage of the fighting in Darfur. The state-controlled media plays down the combustible situation in Darfur. "The [Sudanese] government has a clear strategy to hide the conflict from its public and the world. It has shown zero tolerance for mildly critical media coverage. The banning of the independent Khartoum Monitor (on 24 November 2003) and the independent Al-Ayyam (on 3 December) and the closure of the Khartoum office of Al-Jazeera Arab TV network (on 17 December) were clearly meant to limit [the media] to the government's version," the ICG report made clear.
