Daily Independent Online.
*
Tuesday, August 24, 2004.
Darfur, the sore of a continent
By Olayinka Oyegbile
Assistant Editor
The trouble in the
western region of Sudan, Darfur, has been long in coming. Even as it has now
snowballed from a pocket of crises into a full-scale war that has been
variously described as a genocide, it has a long history beyond the recent
past. But it was only about a year ago that the fighting became something of
concern to the world.
The conflict, which had its origin
in the arid and impoverished part of the country, began in early 2003.
According to reports, a rebel group kicked it off by targeting government
property.
The attacks were
based on the grievances of the rebels that the area was totally neglected by
the government because it was
mainly inhabited by blacks.
There is no doubt
that the region is totally neglected by the government in Khartoum. Images of
Darfur that appear on television around the world remind one vividly of Rwanda.
The complaint of the blacks is that they are being oppressed because of the
colour of their skin.
Apart from the
problem of colour, there is also that of land. From time immemorial, the issue
of land in Africa has always reared its ugly head. In South Africa, Zimbabwe
and even in Nigeria; it is all the same.
In Darfur, there
have always been reported cases of tension over land. For instance, the issue
of land and grazing of cattle led to problems between blacks and Arabs. The
Arabs are mostly nomadic and the blacks, who are mostly farmers, have always
complained about their crops being trampled upon and destroyed by the cattle of
the nomadic Arabs, and whenever conflicts break out they are usually the worst
hit because the Arabs are often better equipped with sophisticated weapons.
Darfur,
geographically, covers about one-fifth of Sudan’s territory and is mainly
made up of warriors; but in the face of the Arabs, the warring spirit has met a
superior power. Their fighting spirit is not new. They put up a fierce and long
battle of resistance against the British and became the last to be incorporated
into the Sudan in 1916.
In fact, the war in
Darfur only recently attracted world attention because it has displaced
thousands of people who have fled into neighbouring countries, especially Chad.
Those who fled are lucky; the number of those who have been killed has been put
at several thousands while some say it runs into millions.
Yesterday,
President Olusegun Obasanjo, in his capacity as the Chairman of the African
Union (AU), began exploratory peace talks among all the interested parties.
These are the government of Sudan, represented by its Foreign Affairs Minister,
Dr. Mustapha Ismail, the officials of Justice and Equity Movement (JEM), which
is suspected to have the backing of former Prime Minister Alhassan Turabi, and
the Sudanese People Liberation Army (SPLA), led by John Garang.
The meeting, which
kicked off in Abuja yesterday, is a follow up to the one that was aborted in
Ethiopia because the rebel groups pulled out in July.
The withdrawal was
based on the fact that the rebels felt it was not going to be in their favour
to participate because host Ethiopia was not trusted. According to them,
Ethiopia supports of the government in Sudan.
After the breakdown
of the talks in Ethiopia, Obasanjo appointed his predecessor, Abdulsami
Abubakar, an Army general, as his special envoy to Darfur. His appointment was
perhaps the President’s way of demonstrating the seriousness of the
issues that are at stake in Darfur.
It is clearly a
war, one that has begotten lots of displaced persons and refugees across the
continent. The general had on his return told Obasanjo that the situation was
grave. He was so distressed at what he saw that he felt “ashamed that
fellow Africans could descend so low to dehumanise their kinsmen as occurred in
Darfur”.
The war in Sudan
has long been fought with Garang as the arrowhead. He accuses Khartoum of
deliberately trying to wipe out the blacks who are mainly in the south with a
majority of them as Christians and animists.
Several peace talks
have been held without any headway as the government continues to give a cold
shoulder to the complaints of the blacks. It is with the human tragedy in
Darfur that the conscience of the world has been pitched and pricked with the
travails of the blacks.
The AU has, through
its intervention and the hosting of the peace talks in Nigeria, shown that the
continent has come of age (apology to the late Murtala Muhammed).
United Nations
Secretary General Kofi Annan and United States Secretary of State Colin Powell
have both visited the region, but the onus to resolve the crisis rests squarely
with the AU.
When Darfur was
discussed by the UN Security Council, America, in its contribution, wanted it
treated urgently and with possible future sanctions by the UN. This stance was
opposed by three members of the Council: China, Pakistan and Russia.
It was their
argument that the use of sanctions should not be contemplated by the UN and
that the government in Sudan should be given the opportunity and time to
resolve the crisis. It was resolved that the country should get a month to
address the thorny issue, but Khartoum said it needed three months to be able
to rein in the janjaweed.
The janjaweed
rebels, who are mainly Arabs, are well armed, are suspected to be backed by the
government. The suspicion is based on the fact that the government has been
treating the rebels with kid gloves.
What, therefore,
should be topmost on the agenda of the Abuja meeting is how to make the
government of Sudan behave responsibly by implementing all the agreements to be
reached.
The Rwandan troops
that have already arrived in the region must get the support of other countries
on the continent; and as Nigeria awaits the nod of the National Assembly to
deploy its troops, Africa has to show the world that a decade after the shame
of the massive massacre in Rwanda, the continent has turned a new leaf.
The government in
Sudan must be made to rein in the rebels and save the hapless Darfurians from
extinction.
The Abuja meeting
must explore the influence that President Idris Deby of Chad is reported to
wield on the two parties. He was reputed to have brokered a 45-day ceasefire in
September last year. But the rebels refused to renew it because they accused
the government of breaking it for a record 46 times!
The Abuja peace
parley must not leave any thing to chance, it must show that Africa is capable
of solving its own problems its own way. A soothing balm must be poured on this festering sore
on the continent’s thumb.
