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The
Darfur Crisis in Sudan: The Hourglass
of Blood |
Posted By Ramzy Baroud
The Darfur crisis in Sudan is perhaps
the most politically convoluted
conflict in the world today. Its
underpinnings involve local, regional
and international players, all
selfishly vying for power and economic
interests. Alliances shift like
quicksand, reminiscent of Lebanon.
Neither the interest of the people of
Darfur, nor the sovereignty of Sudan
seem to be a major concern to any of
those involved: a regime fighting for
survival, rebel groups readily playing
into the hands of foreign powers, a
superpower eager to create distraction
from its blunders elsewhere, European
players coveting the region’s oil
wealth with growing keenness, and so
forth. Meanwhile, the refugees
continue to perish, dying at so
alarming a speed, often in the most
inhumane ways imaginable. What is to
be done?
A crowd of a few thousand gathered at
Downing Street for Global Day for
Darfur, on April 29. They were largely
Sudanese, mostly from Darfur. They
gathered in London’s hotspot for
protests with a seemingly decisive and
uncompromising demand: intervention.
They called on Britain – as tens of
thousands rallying simultaneously in
36 cities called on their respective
governments and the international
community – to intervene to end the
effective ‘genocide’ in Sudan’s
Eastern province. Though a UN
investigative team denied that the
killings there were being carried out
with genocidal intent, the fact is, an
uncountable number of people are
unnecessarily dying, mostly due to
starvation and disease, but also
murdered with impunity. Two million
live in refugee camps, still targeted
mostly by Janjaweed militias but also
rebel fighters. Even those who cross
into Chad – 200,000 refugees are now
living along the 600 kilometre stretch
that separates Sudan from its
neighbour to the West – are not
safe. The ethnic profile that makes
Darfur a testing place for social and
national cohesion, also exists in
eastern Chad, thus similar feuds are
carried out across the border.
The Darfur crisis is not that of black
and white, Arabs and Africans. This is
nonsense. They are all Africans. They
are all Muslims, almost to the last
one. Reductions and oversimplification
might be useful to the media and
short-sighted or self-serving
politicians and governments, but
deceptive and simply inaccurate. Even
the two main rebel groups – The
Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the
Justice and Equality Movement (Jem)
– are now fighting one another
following the mid 2006 Abuja
agreement. Chad is arming Sudan’s
rebels and Sudan is doing the same.
But considering that the victims and
the aggressors are all Muslim, what
have Muslim countries and
organizations done to bring the crisis
to a halt? As the United States is
keenly interested in hyping the
tragedy and exploiting it for its own
purposes, Muslim institutions in the
West appear disinterested in the whole
affair, merely paying lip service to
fend off accusations. At least this is
how I felt when I caught up with Dr.
Daud Abdullah, the Deputy Secretary
General of the Muslim Council of
Britain (MCB), the largest umbrella
Muslim group – representing over 400
Muslim organizations in the country.
Abdullah spoke at the Darfur rally
with unequalled passion, a quality
known of this man, a Jamaican-British
Muslim who has obtained his Ph.D. in
modern Sudanese history from the
University of Khartoum. He lived in
the war torn country for seven years.
He seemed neither apologetic nor
bashful to lay the blame where it
deserves to be laid; but he was
clearly fearful of misguided military
adventures like those of the United
States in the Middle East.
“Muslims learned bitter lessons from
the Kuwait episode when foreigners
invaded Muslim lands,” he told me,
proposing “an internal political
settlement within Sudan using African
and Muslim resources.” When I
suggested to Abdullah that such a
proposal is useless considering its
repeated failures, and considering the
urgency of the situation in Sudan, he
responded: “failure of the part of
Muslims on more than one occasion
shouldn’t negate the notion that
Muslims must not to try to resolve the
situation internally and present their
own alternatives.”
Dr. Abdullah knows more than anyone
else I know how Sudan “is prone to
fragmentation.” He said the country
“was put together in the 19th
century (in a political concoction)
that has left it in constant struggle
and civil war. The country is hardly
in need for further fragmentation.”
“This conflict will be resolved at
the negotiation table,” according to
Abduallah, who is also one of the most
well known Muslim rights advocates in
the country, if not in all of Europe.
“There can be no military solution.
Muslim countries, civil societies and
other parties must strive to bring
conflicting parties to talk on the
basis of sharing wealth and creating
equality and ending the
marginalization that has defined
Darfur for generations.”
Rights groups however, suggest that
the intensity of the violence has
increased since the peace agreement
signed last year between the
government and the rebels. The
rebels’ split lead to an internal
clash and the killings are no longer
defined according to the simplified
media line: Janjaweeds vs. Africans.
Dr. Abdullah defendEd the MCB against
my suggestion that some Muslim groups
seem little interested in direct
involvement, and that Darfur has been
dropped out of their political sphere
for it simply involves no other party
other than Muslims. “The MCB has
been involved in efforts to support
political settlement in Sudan. We are
in direct contact with Khartoum and
are exploring ways to ensure that the
central government honours its
responsibilities toward the people of
that region.” He spoke of “some
progress” on that front, and
insisted that the powerful Muslim
organization fully supports the Abuja
Agreement. According to Abdullah, MCB
continues to exert all efforts to help
bring an end to the conflict.
In such conflicts, when regional
control, political interests and
economic booty are all at stake, human
lives, especially those of these least
importance - peasants, nomads and
defenceless innocents with little
clout - become a pawn in the hands of
those who wish for conflict to
perpetuate, so long as there is a good
reason for its continuation. As I left
the Darfur rally, the echo of an angry
speaker, demanding intervention and
justice and all the rest followed me a
long distance from the crowd. My mind
was totally consumed with the most
expressive hourglass of blood. It was
still streaming as people continue to
die.
*Ramzy Baroud is an author and a
journalist. His latest volume: The
Second Palestinian Intifada: A
Chronicle of a People’s Struggle
(Pluto Press, London) is available
from Amazon and other book venues.
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