International community deserts Darfur and passes it over to the NCP mercy!

By Mahmoud A. Suleiman

February 18, 2011 — In the wake of the impending separation of the Southern Sudan in the aftermath of the unprecedented groundbreaking referendum outcome, Darfur conflict has worsened and doomed to be left for the National Congress Party (NCP) to prey on and forgotten by the International Community. The government of the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted fugitive Field Marshal Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir indicated that it is determined to end the conflict in Darfur once and for all before July the 9th 2011 when the South becomes the newest and the UN’s 193rd Member State. It is also reported the NCP President Omer al-Bashir as saying that the Darfur region would be “clean” from or cleansed of any rebel groups. Furthermore, the Islamism-Arabism entity in Khartoum has taken advantage of the excessive concern of the Western world especially the United States of America with the recent events in Egypt which ignited the rest of the Arab World and the effect of that on the peace in the Middle East, to escalate its attacks on the civilian population in Darfur and expulsion of the Humanitarian Organisations that provide relief for the victims of the Darfur crisis in the IDPS camps besides application of the forced evacuation of camps throw the so-called Peace from within (The Mbeki/Ghazi Domestication of Darfur Peace). Observers and political analysts emphasize that the international community’s focus has been squarely shifted to the secession of the South Sudan and they understandably express their grave concerns on the growing violence in Darfur. In their distraction by the issues aforementioned the US, EU failed to notice the imminent renewal of war with an ultimate genocide in the making by the heinous NCP regime.

In the circumstances, unless specific and concrete workable strategy is put in place by the UN, US, EU and AU along with exerting pressure through their political leverage, the fate of the Darfur conflict will be rack and ruin and the people there will face annihilation. This is more so in the light of the renunciation of Doha as venue for peace talks by the NCP government delegation since December 2010 and decided to implement its ‘New Strategy’ of working with civil society organizations, elected members and supporters of the National Congress and the residents of the displacement camps in Darfur. Surprisingly, the US President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Major General Jonathan Scott Gration, directs all of his time and attention to the Southern Sudan and trying to please Omar al-Bashir and gain his trust, without giving any consideration to the tragedies caused by the official Sudanese armed forces against unarmed civilians in the troubled Darfur region on daily basis. Analysts feel that the US is not using its leverage on Sudan at this time. According to observers the Khartoum regime has made it perfectly clear that it wants the Doha talks wrapped up as soon as possible and replaced with a peace process inside Darfur in its place. Doha isn’t the be-all and end-all of peace negotiations in Darfur it is just another venue that has tried and failed, and unless the international community gets serious it won’t be the last one either. Djibrill Bassolé, UN-AU Chief Mediator and H.E. Qatari State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ahmed bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud have been shuttling between Doha, Khartoum, Addis Ababa and Tripoli to resuscitate to revive the Doha platform to further the negotiations stalled by the intransigence of the Government of National Congress Party (NCP) in spite of the fact that the unity of the Darfuri armed movements has been achieved and made in place now. Lack of unity of the Darfur rebel movements served as a pretext for the Government of National Congress Party (NCP) to dodge, maneuver, and prevaricate to stall peace efforts to prolong the 8 year suffering of the people of Sudan in Darfur. It is noteworthy that some of the causes of the fragmentation movements lie with the government who tended to create and spawn movements loyal to it but haven’t any presence in the ground.

What we are witnessing today in the region of Darfur is like what the world saw happening in 1994 in Rwanda as if history is repeating itself and we are seeing tragedy in Rwanda re-played in Darfur. There is no difference; the world is watching without the blink of the eye or the batting of the eyelid; not only that, but some, at worst, played the role of collaborators! The disastrous humanitarian consequences of renewed war escalating the conflict in Darfur should attract the attention of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) since the UNAMID abjectly fails to use its mandate to protect the civilians.

The Chairman of the African Union High-Level Panel on Darfur (AUPD), former South African President Thabo Mbeki has become a burden and a problem rather than a solution to the Darfur issue. Mbeki is the element behind the infamous “New Strategy” dubbed as peace from inside or Domestication of peace which undermined the hopes and prospects of peace through negotiations in the Doha Forum. Observers and some insiders indicate that Thabo Mbeki of South Africa has worked hard to derail the peace efforts in Doha in his research to assume the position occupied by his arch rival Djibrill Bassolé from the State of Burkina Faso! Thus self-interests and personal gains dominated over the rights of the vulnerable in the Darfur region, where their cause has become a football that played by anyone who wanted to live up to a higher rank, unfortunately. Nevertheless, legitimate rights will not get lost no matter how long the term or to what degree being tampered with by abusers. The fire of the Revolution in Darfur will continue lit and burning until all the rights are recovered full-fledged and undiminished. For the NCP entity to choose between two options either to pay the rights of peace in Darfur today before the next day without prevarication or let the remaining Sudan enter into total chaos. Omer al-Bashir needs to learn few lessons from the recent events in the region where the mightiest and longest serving despotic regimes in the Arab World of Zain al-Abideen Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt have been ousted when the People’s Power spoken. The international community understands well and knows the tricks of the demons of the tottering NCP regime that are renowned for being good at saying the thing and its opposite in the same statement!
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The people of Sudan as a whole felt very disappointed by the lack of condemnation of Western countries the brutal suppression by the Government of National Congress with which met the peaceful demonstrations by the young people in Khartoum and other cities in the country to protest against the high cost of living and the squalid conditions in which people live as well as against the prevailing emergency law in the country for more than two decades and the continued repression, arrests, imprisonment and summary executions by the so-called National Intelligence and security services (NISS) torture machine without accountability. There seems a preferential treatment given to citizens of certain Middle Eastern countries without regard to human rights advocated by the United Nations for all mankind, without discrimination. Bearing in mind that fatalities had affected youth demonstrations in the National Capital of Sudan, Khartoum, where the Omdurman Islamic University student Mohammed Abdelrahman was martyred from injuries he suffered, during peaceful demonstrations in Omdurman on the 30th of January 2011, at hands of the National Congress Party (NCP) government security services and the thuggish militias. Double standard doctrine seems to have been applied here unfairly. One does not mean to say the Leaders of Western World not to carry out their global missions to meet the vital political, financial and security interests of their countries in this sensitive region of the Middle East. What is meant is that the International Community to exercise more even handedness approach towards on issues specific to the Middle East without bias or neglect of the risks that beset some countries such as Sudan in which Darfur feels an ongoing pain under the yoke of oppression, torture, forced displacement, ethnic cleansing and genocide by the Islamized-Arabised government of the NCP led by Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir who is a fugitive and at large required by the international justice. The people of Sudan in Darfur strongly believe that sooner or later Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir will be hunt down and brought to justice at The Hague in the Netherlands.

Political analysts attribute the Western leaders’ absolute silence towards the cruelty and brutality of the Government of National Congress Party as part of the reward (Carrot no stick) they have promised the regime for facilitating the task of allowing the holding and carrying out the referendum of Southern Sudan on time without problems. Though the NCP regime has been enjoying the reward for the time being, this honeymoon will not last long as there are so many outstanding issues which relate to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). To mention few of those outstanding issues pending to be resolved include Oil and Abyei and the border between the two countries and the apportionment of the waters of the Nile and issues dealing with nationality and identity, international debts ($38 Billion), currency and the status of southerners in the north and northerners in the south and the question of the joint armies! Therefore, the NCP regime has to deliver more before the International Community, US, grants it clearance and let it grab the Indulgences! The NIF/NCP can not win by going on with the attitude of complacency, arrogance and racism without introspection of its own thoughts and desires and conduct.
After being inspired by the popular uprising in Tunisia, Algiers, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Iran, Bahrain and Libya, the Sudanese people’s Power is also coming soon for Change unless basic freedoms are made in place, justice and equality are practiced , food is made affordable to the public and opportunities for reduction of poverty and hunger is guaranteed, hopes for departure of the criminal elements in the National Islamic Front (NIF/NCP) government, which seized power by its ill-fated coup d’état is ensured, the alliance of political forces, the Broad National Front (BNF) , the gallant Darfur armed movements, Internet and Facebook generation of youth along with the masses of the Sudanese people who staged the glorious 21st October 1964 Revolution that toppled General Ibrahim Abboud and those who led the 6th April 1985 Popular Uprising which ousted Marshal Jaafar Mohmed Nimeiri, will resort to removing the despotic abhorrent regime led by the ICC indicted dictator Omer al-Bashir from its hateful throne! The goal of the people of Sudan is to see their beloved country moving out from the path of oppressive dictatorship to a civilised free and democratic state that respects diversity, justice, equality, peace and considers citizenship as the sole item for identity. The disenfranchised Sudanese are convinced beyond a thread of doubt that the National Islamic Front (NIF) and its clones NCP/PCP are an ongoing threat and obstacle to Democratic Transformation and safe Peaceful Transfer of Power through democratically elected parliament. The Elements of the National Islamic Front (NIF) have declared long ago that they have taken over the power in Sudan through the barrel of a gun and will not be handing it to anyone except for those who overcome them and take it by force. Moreover, these unrepentant demons had reportedly said that they would remain in power for good and would only hand it to the Prophet Jesus the Christ, Peace Be Him! It is a clear arrogant defiant statement that they are trying to incite sedition and test the strength of the Sudanese political community they succeeded to weaken. Elements of the National Islamic Front do not hesitate to commit all kinds of sins in order to reach their malignant goals which are shown by the unspeakable cruelty and inhumane crimes they have committed in the Darfur region. They are mere traders of the Islamic faith while the pure religion detests the abhorrent behaviour of these villain criminals.

While the people of Sudan in Darfur appreciate the immense efforts of the International Community and value the great support they received over the past eight years from the Western human right organisations, and relief agencies, they appeal to the Major Powers in the world not to abandon the issue of Darfur to be preyed on by the authoritarian government of the National Islamic Front (NIF/NCP) which declared that it is going to ‘finish it off’ by July 2011 through its sinister plot, dubbed “Domestication of Peace for Darfur” or “the Thabo Mbeki Scheme” as a substitute for the negotiated peace talks at the Doha platform, throwing away all the work done by the joint UN-AU Mediator Djibril Bassole’, the government of Qatar and the unified group of the Darfuri rebel movements. Omer al-Bashir’s government has escalated its genocidal war in Darfur exploiting the period in which the international community has been concerned and engaged in the political turmoil causing instability in a number of countries of the Arab world and the countries of the region.

Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]