Darfur crisis entangled in the political games of powerful nations in Khartoum
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
This article comes against the backdrop of the stalemate faced by all attempts for the resolution of the chronic Sudanese political and humanitarian crises. In the midst of the international community in its quest of running behind the interests abandoned the people of Sudan in Darfur, the Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains and other people in marginalized areas in Sudan easy prey for the monstrous proxy militias and mercenaries of the ruling regime of the National Congress Party (NCP).
All the evidence demonstrates and proves beyond any thread of doubt that the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM) in Khartoum remains run and controlled by well-known powerful parties within the international community. The intersection of the strategic political, security and economic interests of those powers continue guaranteed and provided by the presence of the Génocidaire Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir and his clique in the helm of power in Sudan at all costs.
This despite the suffering caused to the disenfranchised people deprived of a decent life in their own homeland. The parties mentioned above are evil unscrupulous elements that operate according to their interests without considering the effect and result in the immediate and the long-term irreparable damage to the livelihood of the population. This takes place in clear violation to those powers’ pseudo political commitments they signed at the United Nations Organization (UN) and other international institutions.
The Khartoum regime remains harnessed and run by the very international forces. They want through keeping Omer al- Bashir in power as a governing body and waving what that scares the regime like offering direct support for armed opposition or gearing as threatening the survival of the regime so goes the dirty game. And this dirty game continues at a time when the global system prepares to combat fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which called Daash which began stretching its web and tentacles to the Arab countries of the Maghreb and West Africa and to Europe soon and to the rest of the continents of the world. On the other hand, the major world powers are now fighting Daesh in the failed states such as Libya and probably South Sudan shortly and other neighboring countries to the failed Sudanese state in addition to Yemen and Syria. Moreover, this obviously calls for the protection of the failed Sudanese state itself from further disintegration. Therefore, keeping the National Congress Party (NCP) Islamism regime neutral and preventing it from taking biased position and by supporting its fellow Islamists in their various factions, including the Islamic state in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Daash, remains a top priority.
The international community wants the (NCP) regime and the components of political and armed opposition engage in a comprehensive national dialogue that makes Omar al-Bashir an extract of the solution with the de facto result is the survival of al-Bashir for more five years. This occurs whether through a transitional period agreed upon or through running fraudulent elections, the results of which are known in advance. Furthermore, the NCP regime craves for acquiring a non-existing legitimacy akin to the 2010 election outcomes that took place as part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that at the end opened the way for the secession of the south of Sudan to make the Republic of South Sudan. On the other side, the international powers plan creating a regional force composed of Egypt, Sudan and Chad to contain the jihadist Daesh that threatening the coast of Europe from the Sahel and the Sahara region across the Mediterranean Sea posing threat to the French interests in the Sahel region, which includes the Arab Maghreb countries. The tragic event occurred in Tunisian museum where sadly more than twenty tourists lost their lives at the hands of a group affiliated to Daesh last week. Containing Daesh away from this important and sensitive region becomes a top priority.
The above mentioned background takes us to the reasons behind the unlimited support given by the US Administration of President Barak Obama for the ruling regime of the (NCP) led by the fugitive from the international justice, Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir. It also stands as the main stumbling block to reaching settlement to the Sudanese crises and get rid of the regime of the (NCP) echoed by many political analysts inside and outside Sudan.
The people of Sudan in Darfur cannot be denying the support they received from the American public. Ingratitude is vice and not worthy of noble people. The people of Darfur owe a duty to mention some of the names of US citizens who continued tirelessly supporting the Darfur issue since it began. They are enumerable but naming a few of them as a sample of them seems timely. They include John Prendergast, founding director of the Enough Project and his team. The American actor, writer, film producer, director and activist George Clooney played pivotal role in exposing the atrocities committed in the region through satellite images. Eric Reeves, Professor at Smith College in Northampton USA documented closely the NCP regime plans and plots against the Sudanese people. Save Darfur Coalition, a powerful movement of activists, students, artists, religious groups and genocide survivors worked tirelessly to bring genocide to an end and many other organisations and individuals. We the Sudanese value and appreciate the positions of the American people for their exemplary contribution in support of the cause of the people of Sudan in the region of Darfur and their continuing firm standing since the beginning of the issue 12 years ago.
It is not surprising that the American Administrations take double-standard policies in the face of their global political and security interests, so President Obama is no exception! However, inaction remained the Master of the situation in the two periods under the rule of President Barack Obama and his Democratic Party. This seems more pronounced in dealing with the issue of the disenfranchised people of Sudan in Darfur. Unfortunately, we find ourselves dissatisfied and deeply disappointed about the continuous position of the US Administration in support of the survival of the government of the genocidal criminal, the fugitive from the international justice Omer Hassan Ahmed al- Bashir and his continuing perpetration of more atrocities on daily basis in the region. Furthermore, we the Darfurians know for fact and understand that the political and other interests of the US Administration in the African and Arab regions where Sudan exists geopolitically and strategically, without thread of doubt would forcibly intersect with the issues of humanity for the people of Darfur as a priority. The United States of America, one of the Five Permanent Members in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which enjoy the Veto Power Waving whenever needed, has demonstrated the foregoing clearly. The position of the U S representative in the UNSC in the case of Darfur remained ‘Abstention’ from Voting! Thus, the positions taken by the UN Security Council with respect to the Sudanese Crises have been frustrating and disappointing to ambitions and aspirations of the people of the region and at the same time do not commensurate the longing and aspirations of the American public who supported the just issue since from day one.
Moreover, to be more frank and avoiding shielding oneself with political correctness, one would frankly say that the third of the andirons have been the position of the US Administration during the two terms of the President Barrack Obama. This US Administration provided NCP regime a carrot after a carrot whenever the regime of the National Congress Party committed the heinous crimes against the defenseless civilian people of Sudan using aerial bombardment and military artillery for killing spree and displacement.
All American administrations take double-standard policy in the face of global political and security problems, so President Obama is no exception! However, inaction remained the Master of the situation in the two periods under the rule of President Barack Obama and his Democratic Party. This seems more pronounced in respect to the current US administration in dealing with the issue of the disenfranchised people of Sudan in Darfur.
The US administration under President Obama offered four consecutive carrots to the genocidal regime of the NCP lately, sadly, coincided with escalation of the atrocities as follows:
• A formal invitation to the Foreign Minister and to the Presidential Assistant of to attend the National Prayer Breakfast which coincided with the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide
• A formal invitation of the NCP regime’s Presidential Assistant to meet the US Admin authorities at the US State Department in Washington
• US Treasury Department lifting Trade Sanctions imposed on the NIF regime by President Bill Clinton Administration in 1998
• Official Visit to Sudan by Steven Feldstein the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour (DRL)
According to the foregoing, the NCP regime felt rest reassured and went on for the elections scheduled for April 2015. The rigged results of April elections people know in advance. The regime will forge the process giving a third term in office for the incumbent Génocidaire Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir as a tool shielding him against the ICC chase. The ICC feeling frustrated by the inaction of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for apprehending and extraditing al-Bashir shackled with chains and handed over to the The Hague in the Netherlands to face his fair punishment for the evil crimes he committed in the right of the people of Sudan in Darfur, returned the Darfur dossier to it.
The National Islamic Front (NIF) had cared, harboured and sponsored global terrorism by Islamic Jihadi extremists set off from Khartoum to West Africa, Libya and Egypt different countries forming the notorious al-Qaeda, the infamous Boko Haram, al-Nusra Front, Ansar al-Sharia and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the rest are on the way! Despite of all that happening, the US Administration tirelessly supports the Khartoum regime.
The NCP Islamism regime has been spreading the scourge of terrorism that take Khartoum as a point of springboard around the globe to wreak havoc the African and the Middle Eastern regions. The logical question that poses itself for an answer is as to the proportion of gain compared to loss the US Administration would be accruing from appeasing the NCP genocidal regime. The answer is that the only thing earned by the US Administration from the NIF and its successor regime to the NCP is a very basic and trivial. Maybe just a bare intelligence information about the fugitive Islamic movements affiliates who take refuge in Khartoum as a safe haven. There are the known unknowns, quoting Donald Rumsfeld former the 21st US Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush.
The preferential treatment of the US Administration for Sudan’s al-Bashir encouraged the terrorists to declare an obscurantism state hurting humanity in the West and East Africa, the Sahel and Sahara desert and the Arab Maghreb countries where steady growth of extremism expands threatening the West European countries, especially in France and the United Kingdom. The US leniency in dealing with the NIF extremist entity facilitated in sowing the seeds of terrorism and religious fanaticism to grow branches and thrive and spread like wildfire to everywhere unhindered by borders, frontiers or territories.
The aberrant Ideology of the infamous National Islamic Front (NIF), and its predecessor, the Islamic Charter Front (ICF) which led to the toppling of democracy in Sudan and committing crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide against the all-Muslim population of the Darfur region will not be worthy any longer to continue to rule the multi-ethnic multi-cultural and multi-beliefs, Sudan.
The National Islamic Front (NIF) and its offshoot NCP regime inherited the same mentality of al-Qaida, al-Nusra Front, Ansar al-Sharia, Al-Shabab, Boko Haram and the ISIS fundamentalist Jihadi doctrine. Therefore, the NCP entity is not worthy to continue in power to destroy what is left of Sudan after it imposed the bitter separation option for the people of the south of the country. Now it tries using the same exclusionary racist tools, tactics and conspiracies, which showed the southerners that unity was not an attractive option or alternative to secession. Now that the political and armed opposition factions have united their ranks in various forums at the Paris Call, Sudan Call and Berlin Call to confront and oust the one party regime by using all the available means unless it chooses this time to provide the tools for a serious national dialogue. The liabilities for political atmosphere conducive for a genuine National Dialogue that include general freedoms, democracy, and ceasefire of the absurd civil wars and postponing of the elections scheduled for April 2015 await provision. Otherwise, they would be opening the Pandora Box followed by deluge and the tsunami that neither keeps anything alive nor spares something without being devastated.
However, the experiences of the Sudanese opposition in their dealings with the regime of the (NCP) demonstrated that Omer al-Bashir and his entourage are not trustworthy in what they say. Al-Bashir has got addicted in denunciation of treaties and lying, dodging, manoeuvring and at the end is cheating and misleading of the parties. Al-Bashir agrees with the parties, but he would work the opposite to what been agreed upon with them with intention to sabotage. Therefore, the united Sudanese political and armed opposition said enough is enough of the trickery of the beleaguered Omer al-Bashir and no more for spurious discussions, Wathba Dialogue, intended for consumption of time. A sane individual will not become stung from the same burrow twice! A fox is not taken twice in the same snare. It’s a case of Once bitten, twice shy!
Military dictatorship is born from the power of the gun, and so it undermines the concept of the rule of law and gives birth to a culture of might, a culture of weapons, violence and intolerance. Benazir Bhutto, the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/