Sudan’s NCP: Feeding the 21ist century genocide machine
By Joseph Deng Garang
April 25, 2007 — The last three months and half have been the rockiest ones for the people of Darfur, South Sudan, and all other marginalized areas of the Sudan. Those months have been rocky and disturbing not because of the massive ethnic killings but rather due to the emotionally draining emptiness that people feel from the unending genocide by the national Congress Party (NCP).
The same months have seen many well-crafted, yet fruitless Resolutions by the UN Security Council, which caused the dying people of Darfur and their friends some incomprehensible dizziness and confusion. Since January, hopes have been raised that the deadlines promised for UN forces would translate to saving of lives but, business as usual, the deadlines have become history.
There is no doubt the genocide in Darfur, now into its 4th year, spans every living premise around the world. In colleges, students and scholars run many institutionally-supported advocacy groups bearing the name Darfur.Friends, both young and old, Christians and non-Christians, politicians ,celebrities, and philanthropists from all around the globe voice at least a word about this heinous crime.
This does not mean that Sudan just popped up on the world’s radar in 2003; the same killing went on unabridged for 21 years between the NCP—the current perpetrator of the genocide—and the SPLM, the movement championing the cause of all marginalized Sudanese; leading to the cliché that the 21-year genocidal civil war claimed over 2.5 million lives, thus resulting in displacement of 4 million. Pervasive as it is, Sudan’s war is full of critical historical analogies.
In Sudan, a two-century old statement by Georg Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel, the father of dialectics, that “history ended with Napoleon’s triumph over the Prussian forces at Jena in 1806” was beginning to inform the breezy peace environments when the NCP and the SPLM declared cessation of arms in 2002—a process that brought about the internationally-hailed 2005 peace document called the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (the CPA).To many young people in Sudan, the Naivasha initial peace ground was symbolic of the cessation of gunfire.
But these children’s thoughts were just like any other innocent thoughts because even before the north-south peace was signed, the genocide erupted in the western part, the Darfur region. Day by day, Darfur is getting worse and the CPA is “at a delicate stage” according to Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, the UN new chief.
To make ‘sense’ of these vicious wars in Sudan, the following analysis is worth looking at; the analysis takes us down the memory lane on how the Khartoum government has continued to feed the genocidal machine.
Conflict Entrepreneurship
Sudan with her complex contours of history has not had any breaks from the primordial conflicts that have been playing themselves on and off. Warring from the late 50s to 1972, from 1983 to 2005, and from 2003 to the current genocide in Darfur, the layers of complexity are adding up with no end in sight. In August 2004, a political blogger, Mayflower Hill, (http://mayflowerhill.blogspot.com/2004_08_01mayflowerhill_archive.html) captured Sudan’s protracted wars as a function of many interest groups known as “conflict entrepreneurs”.
“A conflict entrepreneur will be defined as any individual or entity who has the potential to gain materially, politically or socially from the prolonging of the Sudan’s wars, and who acts to prolong said wars solely for the purpose of exploiting that potential. The Sudan’s conflict entrepreneurs are not all Sudanese, either. Many foreign individuals, companies …and countries have also found reason to prolong the conflict in Sudan”.
Coming into power after successive regimes, the National Congress Party has not taken its eye off the oppressive legacies of Sudan political life. It has made sure the doctrine of developmental inequities is faithfully kept and merciless towards other regions.
To its credit in the north, the NCP, through its foreign saviors, finished in 1997 the oil pipeline originating from the South to the Red Sea. Emboldened by the ridiculously huge wealth from the oil, the NCP went about financing the war in the South and the genocide in Darfur. Proceeds from the oil have been used to buy machines that have decimated Sudan. With South Sudan floating on oil, there is no doubt many multinational companies are now coveting every piece to drill.
Two years ago, many people wondered why there was such a great fuss out of the killings in Darfur, when it first started off with debates as to whether the killings qualified as genocide. The Security Council was rife with veto powers rejecting the sanctions on Sudan. It turned out the resolutions to impose sanctions on Sudan were brought under the knife by some ‘conflict entrepreneurs’ since that would stand in the way of profiteering. These entrepreneurs continue to bring to bear the NCP political impetus that kills the North-South, and Abyei borders’ Commissions.
Bogus partnerships
After realizing that their delaying of the UN force deadlines and threats in the arrests issuance worked, the NCP began solidifying ties with Tehran and Beijing as attested to by recent state’s visits to Khartoum. The NCP genocidaires are chuckling at the noisiest sympathies from those who shout help for lives in Darfur and South Sudan .Interestingly, Khartoum is ushering in the Sino-African relations as seen through many series of recent investment visits.
This cooperation is critical because of Chinese role in oil drilling and veto power at the Council. The NCP has also been flirting with African identity by smarting on the continent’s role as the best solution to Darfur’s genocide, when it actually seeks to wipe out Africans from the Sudan.
Egypt as a catalyst for the re-digging of the Jonglei Canal
Many people may not recall that the Jonglei canal, which started in 1978, was part of the reason for the north-south conflict. After it was realized the canal was going to divert water from the Sudd—the world’s largest swamp with over 5,700,000 hectares—students rioted in Juba. In 1984, the canal digging was halted at the height of the war.
The canal was seen by the SPLA as an irreparable damage to both the environment and the country’s population the south. And truly, it was a means to drain the south, and subject it to perennial developmental inequities—the sole agenda for economic marginalization. The Egyptians are now pushing for its resumption when the CPA six-year period is still being “implemented”. Isn’t that a diversion from the CPA and a catalyst for another war? Well, it goes to the same quote that the war in Sudan is full of geopolitical considerations and the NCP has been getting the blessings from those it does business with.
No matter how NCP and Egypt build a convincing case, the Nile and Jonglei canal are synonymous with the African politics of water; the severe alterations the draining of sudd will have on climate and ecology will be disastrous. Such discussions about the canal should not be taken light as they are tips of the iceberg about major water crises that are looming in Africa.
The International community as the straw that breaks the camel’s back
While peace-loving people salute Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, the new UN Secretary-General, for his recent concerns about the worsening situation in Darfur, the CPA slow implementation, the bold request is that the UN needs a little troubleshooting. It doesn’t do people any good when genocide is popularized for the sake of politics and not saving lives. There are lots of hopes that with the UN new chief, those barbaric killings and flying of white aircrafts over Darfur by the NCP will come to an end.
Drawing on past UN chiefs, many minds keep envisaging the late Dag Hammarskjöld who left an indelible legacy in the minds of those who believe what “vanguard for humanity’ means in the role of UN. Though he died in that mysterious air crash, his role in unilaterally sending UN forces to Korea during the Korean War of 1950s meant a lot to humanity. Mr. Hammarskjöld did not listen to veto threats or delays in the Security Council because he felt compelled to save innocent lives in a timely manner. Needless to say, he stands as the only UN Secretary-General posthumously awarded the Novel Peace Prize for his priceless contributions to humanity. May God continue to reward him!
Sudan’s insincerity with the Darfur and the CPA is appalling given its childish handling of the international community. To me, Sudan’s treatment of the Darfur is a test of the UN’s legitimacy. If it defies calls for arrests by the International Criminal Court because of the backing it enjoys from those sworn “conflict entrepreneurs”, then the United Nations will be reduced to a noisy vessel that hovers around with no moral leadership.
The children in Sudan have gone through lots of suffering, but help is still on their side. With lots of friends—in—compassion around the globe helplessly decrying the genocide, hope can come if the relevant body intervenes. If the International doesn’t turn its eye away from Darfur and CPA by giving in to Khartoum’s manipulations, then the following lines from Charles Dickens will find their place in the sands of time and the history of Sudan:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity ,it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the spring of despair, we had everything before us ,we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its nosiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only”.
Indeed, the genocide in Darfur is highly brought to the living rooms of global citizens, yet it is worsening. It pains to see how such a highly publicized killing drags at the expense of lives that are so precious to every human eyes and souls. Magnitude of genocide aside, this article outlines some of the ways the Sudan’s National Congress party continues to feed this genocide, making it the unfortunate screen pastime of the twenty first century.
The wars in Sudan have been entrepreneurial and the last hope is getting the UN to do what it was enshrined to do since its founding 62 years ago. Pronouncement of sanctions needs to be looked at a little differently since they do nothing to change the NCP’s genocidal behavior. Maybe sanctions need a little dose of twenty-first century relevance. The international community needs to be more ingenious with saving lives by not allowing itself to be engulfed by rhetoric on what is interest vs. human life. Genocides are a blot on the conscience of humanity; they need not be ignored.
And until that is done, the government of Sudan is sworn to finish lives in Darfur; it is determined to buy the CPA which, currently, is the highly-priced commodity on the Sudanese soil, followed by oil. With oil wealth daily accruing to Sudan’s government, real peace is needed or else the entire country will go up in flames.
* The author is a graduating senior with degrees in International Management & Business, Global Strategic Studies, and Political Science. He is also a columnist for the New Sudan Vision.com. You can reach him at [email protected]