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The world has to save Sudanfrom the brutality of the Khartoum regime by Bahar Arabie
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Jun 6, 2008 - 6:41:08 AM

 

 

 

 

The world has to save Sudan from the brutality of the Khartoum regime .

 

By Bahar Arabie: [email protected]

 

The events of May 10, 2008 in the Sudanese capital brought to forefront of the national issues, the war and the genocide in Darfur. For the first time in decades the affluent and well to do Khartoum residents who for long lived- in what is now becoming a mini Dubai- oblivious of the war ,[any war] be it in the South or Darfur and the genocide. They disregarded the suffering of the marginalized, and assumed that Khartoum and by extension the whole Sudan exclusively belongs to them by way of fiefdom, and continued with their Levantine life style that has Egypt as summer resort Saudi Arabia as pilgrimage and shopping destination, Jordan as treatment and healing site and the Far East as abode for their might be ill-gotten wealth and possible sanctuary at a time of uncertainty.

On May 10th they felt what it means to live in war conditions. With the sound of artillery and gun fire they panicked and felt very insecure. The elite felt that their control and monopoly of power, wealth and cultural way of life is in serious jeopardy if not in total danger .This explains in part the hysterical over reaction and retaliation of the genocidal regime of Omar Albashir and Salah Gosh against the innocent civilians of Darfuri origin living in Khartoum for decades and who have even lost touch with Darfur itself. A reaction similar in categorization if not in kind and magnitude or scale to the one they unleashed in Darfur against the African population of the region. The only difference -an observer might say is that, in Darfur they used the Arab militias known as Janjaweed along with the army to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians, loot destroy ,and burn thousands of villages, while in Khartoum they are using the regimes security operatives and state regular armed forces to profile Darfuris on ethnic basis and execute,incarcerate,beat and molest hapless Darfuris,mainly of Zaghawa and other African extraction .Latest reports estimate that more than 3000 Darfuris were either killed or being rounded up and put in the capitals prisons in the aftermath May 10,2008 and in the process property yet to be quantified was also either confiscated or destroyed. The media reported the Sudanese president giving a sort of blank check like order to his several and various security forces to detain, arrest and interrogate Darfuris ,or whoever is suspected to have any relation with Justice and Equality Movement[ JEM.].Consequently,  Darfuri homes in the capital were randomly and violently searched without warrants, people were stopped on the streets and questioned merely because they looked like Zaghawa or African Darfuris.Students were manhandled and taken out of campuses to detention centers simply because they are Zaghawa or Darfuris suspected to belong to JEM. Countless atrocities were visited on the helpless people of Darfur in Khartoum/Omdurman,reminisent and sort of a reincarnation of the ordeal they pass�

 

 

 

 

 

 

through in Khartoum 1976, when a very similar attempt was made by Sadik   Almahdi to

Overthrow the then military regime of Gaafar Nemairy, or the ones visited onSoutherners

in Khartoum in 1963 and 2005. Darfuris from all tribes and walks of life wherever they

Lived, felt traumatized and humiliated .They also felt alienated as to their Sudanese identity and belonging .They felt as though they are people without a government they can call it theirs or a country they call it home. They felt insecure and unprotected and without future prospects for good life. They placed their hope on the international community lead by USA, and yet with all these facts and reality and the pathetic conditions on the ground the international community�s reaction was slow and ambiguous, and when it came it was only to condemn JEM action on the Omdurman, there by emboldening the genocidal regime to carry out its atrocities against Darfuris.

The international community earlier failed to hold Khartoum regime accountable for the genocide it perpetrated in Darfur.

Darfuris remember very well what president W.Bush said at the beginning of the genocide in 2003, when he stated �not on my watch�, and yet it continued under his watch. Darfuris and the whole Africa looked upon USA for leadership to end the genocide and bring the culprits to justice, like it did in Iraq. They vividly remembered President Roland Reagan who saved them from famine in 1984 and his deputy Bush senior who actually visited them. On the rest of the international community ,they lost hope ,as Britain relied on America for action, France too concentrated on keeping Idris Deby in power in Chad, whose position is been seriously undermined and threatened by Khartoum and his own clan members .China, too greedy for oil and not known for respect for human rights, always ready to do business with Khartoum whether there is genocide in Darfur or not and in the process ready to provide the regime with what ever arms it wants in return for oil shipments.

On the Sudanese national level, the Darfuris have little to cheer about, as the political scene is dominated and held hostage by the ruling NCP. The SPLM a would be ally of all the marginalized peoples of Sudan ,is too occupied with its own problems   with the regime on the implementation of CPA, specially on Abeye.It feels short changed on every aspect of the implementation of the CPA.It struggle hard to make its partner honor its own side of the Nayvasha agreement.

Other institutions of the civil society are too politicized and most are NPC stooges .Those who still maintains some semblance of independence and patriotism, put up a statement in the wake of government atrocities, calling upon the regime to stop extending the Darfur genocide to the capital .That was helpful given the deflated conscience of the Khartoumers.

Ultimately, the scenario expected to unfold within the next few years is that Darfur might be more devastated and brutalized by this regime and by the disunity of its own sons, the fate of CPA might hung in balance, given the volatility of the situation of Abeye,and given the outcome of the recent SPLM convention that returned almost an all south

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Political bureau. By 2011 it will be most likely-if the state of affairs continues the way it is now, and the referendum comes, the South is expected to vote for self determination. Then that will be the end of Sudan as we have known it .We have a situation already similar to that of Ethiopia in 1993, when it recognized the right of the Eritrean people for sovereignty .but given the mindset of Khartoum elites, it is expected that they will do nothing to make unity attractive, and instead of respecting the right of the people of South Sudan the regime would most likely do every thing to deny them that right. With that reality things will revert to square one [God forbid].

The Sudanese people had in the past thrown out two despotic and tyrannical regimes-in Oct.1964 and April 1984.Non of those was as bloody and ruthless as this one, and I believe it is within their wisdom that they can overthrow this one. The best course of action for the time being is for the international community lead by USA to make a concerted effort to prevent a full scale war between the regime and SPLM in the near future, and to work in collaboration with the marginalized forces, for a regime change in Khartoum .A regime change that will bring a democratic dispensation, end the monopoly of the Khartoum elites to power and wealth, end the genocide in Darfur save the South for Sudan and Nubia from brutality. It is only when we have a truly democratic, patriotic and nationalistic government that the CPA will be implemented in full and DPA will be reopened and expanded to accommodate the demands of Darfur people. When things are put on the scale of due rights and entitlements in the context of DPA Darfuris will unite and accept it. That will be the greatest gift America and the international community can offer the people of Sudan.

 

By Bahar Arabie   

 



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