On UN accusation to SLM Minawi
UN Rape accusations to SLM/A … A biased , prejudiced and baseless hearsay account !
By Mohamed Basheer Menawy *
July 15, 2006 — During the last week widespread media reports have been circulated – locally and internationally – stating that some individuals from the SLM/A (Minni group) had committed atrocities including rape and killings of innocent civilians in the area of Korma , a city lies to the west of Al Fashir , the Capital of Northern Darfur . This is the first time since the outbreak of Darfur incidents before more than three years that such accusations are raised against this group, who had been of a very “clean” record since it staged this war – with other group – against the Government. This clean record was not maintained from the group’s relationship with the civilians, but rather from dealing with the “ enemy “ itself – the government forces in the battlefield . The people of Darfur , especially those of the war -affected areas of Northern Darfur have been circulating credible stories of highly humane treatments by SLA forces for the captured and injured government soldiers . One of these amazing stories is that the SLA forces after a bitter fight with the government forces, wining the battle, capturing a number of soldiers, most of them were injured. The SLA forces took the injured government forces to a nearby deserted area to Al Fashier (the capital of Northern Darfur ) and phoned their headquarter in the city , specifying their location and told them to come and pick them up . when they felt(the guerrillas ) that those of the headquarter were hesitant because they were thinking of a of trick for ambushing , they let the injured soldiers introduced themselves and spoke to their commanders by phone to tell them abut the seriousness of that call . The SlA forces then left the area after leaving sufficient food and water to the injured who were ultimately been picked up by their colleagues who had been sent to the area from AL Fashir for this particular purpose. This is not an American movie scenario but rather a real incident happened during the well known Darfur war that involved the notorious proxy militia (Gengaweed ) , the subject of all evils done to the people of Darfur . I am telling this story purposely to tell the readers that SLA forces (Minni group) were never ever practiced such atrocities at any time and place across Darfur .. On the contrary , normally they draw most of their fierceness and courage in the battlefield from similar crimes committed against their people by the government forces and their proxy militias .. Since before signing the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) the Korma area has been under the control of SLM/A (minni group) . The majority of the people of this area are from Fur and Tongor tribes . There is an unfortunate role that Abdulwahid is playing since he broke up with Minni , is that he is actively fueling the tribal conflict by instigating his ordinary ethnic people against Minni forces in the area telling them that these are(SLA forces ) Zagawa people and they came to invade this area which is ethnically not theirs ! Abdulwahid has been doing this cowardly and dirty job and ignoring the fact that there are considerable number of SLM/A forces (minni group) belong to Fur tribe, whose main differences with Abdulwahid is the ethnic political manipulation , i.e. he always draws his political supporters and takes adverse political positions with his foes basing on tribal lines .
Couple of weeks ago a group loyal to Abdulwahid attacked a small unit of SLM/A forces (Minni group) located in the city of Korma, killing 5 people including the Commander of Korma locality who happened to be in the city at that time. Knowing the complications of ethnic situation in the area due to the adverse role played by Abdulwahid as we indicated earlier , the Commander in Chief of SLM/A forces ordered his forces in the area not to retaliate against the small factions loyal to Abdulwahid in the area but instead he sent some commanders to the Elders and tribal leaders of the area to cooperate and tell the ordinary people not to respond to the baseless Abdulwahid calls and not to get engaged in any similar hostilities in the future . The last week’s unfortunate incidents were continuation to the earlier hostilities that led to the killing of SLM/A commander in Korma . The small forces of Abdulwahid in the area assembled themselves once again and got reinforcements from individuals local communities that misled by Abdulwahid and staged a fresh attack on the SLA forces(Minni group) in the area who have been completely alerted this time and responded violently and defeated abdulwahid forces . During the fight most of the attackers threw down their arms and sought hideouts in the nearby villages. The SLA forces followed the runaway forces to the villages, asking firstly from village leaders to let these people surrender, and this was done by most of them who were arrested, but few of them have been killed when they resisted. Due to this fight in the said area some civilians have fled to save heavens Like Al Fashir. It is these people who fled the area who fabricated the baseless Rape stories which were ironically picked up by the United Nations Office in Khartoum without the least verification. It’s quite unfortunate that – with the existence of such ethnic complications in this area , which the UN ought to be aware of , from it’s relatively longer presence in Darfur (More than three years) – that the UN takes for granted such false hearsay stories without verification or without a flashback to review the moral history of the accused parties
* Mohamed Basheer Menawy, is a Sudanese based in Riyadh – Saudi Arabia. Be can be reached at [email protected] .