Appeal to rescue Nubia and to stop building the Kajbar dam

To:
• The United Nations Secretary General

• United Nations programs and Specialized Agencies:

– International Labor Organization (ILO)
– UN High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
– World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
– United Nations Economic Development Program (UNDP)
– United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization – United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
– United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
– World Tourism Organization (WTO)
– World Health Organization (WHO)
– United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
– United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
– International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

• The African Union (AU)

• The International Rivers Network

• The Arab League.

We, the signatories on the this appeal, individuals and organizations, call upon the United Nations, its specialized agencies, governments of free nations, human rights organizations, academicians, scholars, and the international community at large to heed to this urgent appeal and rush to the rescue of Nubia from the eminent destruction and devastation by the proposed Kajbar Dam at the Third Cataract on the River Nile which will inundate one of the most precious and invaluable archaeological sites of the world. The international community is urged to exert all possible pressures on the government of Sudan to stop building dams in the Nubian lands without the consent of the Nubians and put an end to decades of intentional marginalization, isolation, cultural and ethnic cleansing which has been practiced by the consecutive governments of Sudan in collaboration with the Egyptian government against Nubians, their culture and heritage. The Nubians have never recovered yet from the devastation of the High Dam of Egypt to their lands and properties in early sixties of last century.

The governments of Sudan and Egypt have jointly and intentionally implemented series of destructive policies to dismantle the Nubian society and assimilate the indigenous people of Nubia into Arabic culture through well organized programs of cultural cleansing, acculturation and indoctrination. It is our believe that the international community has a legal and moral obligation towards preserving and protecting the Nubians as one of the indigenous people of the world, their heritage and culture from the excessive and intentional process of Arabization and cultural cleansing.
Governments of Sudan and Egypt have signed the Four Freedoms Agreement (the freedom to move, live, work and own.) on April 5, 2004 and the officials of the two governments expressed their desire to bring millions of Egyptian farmers to the Nubian lands of Argeen without the knowledge and consent of Nubians. On the other hand the government of Sudan has issued a presidential decree last year to confiscate the Nubian lands in Wadi Halfa municipality.

Governments of Sudan and Egypt prohibit usage of the Nubian language in their educational curricula and apply disguised and discriminatory measures to deny Nubians from holding sensitive and key governmental positions unless they master Arabic language and get affiliated with the ruling elites and culturally assimilated to the dominant Arabic culture as a precondition for holding senior positions. The systematic depopulation of the Nubians from their lands and gradual replacement of Nubians by non-Nubians is intended to destroy the strongly knitted social fabric of Nubian society and disrupt the long lived harmony and demographic homogeneity of the Nubians, one of the oldest indigenous and distinctive cultural groups in Africa. Nubians as indigenous people are entitled to get international protection according to the international laws protecting the indigenous people, their cultures and heritage.

Last March, the Nubians saw the Sudanese government bringing Chinese workers and equipments being brought to the site of Kajbar Dam and the Nubian organizations and associations organized a big demonstration to protest the building of Kajbar Dam without their consent. They expressed their opposition to the dam and demand immediate removal of equipments from the site. The governor of the Northern Province promised the angry protesters but he reneged and even began to put obstacles to the committees opposing the Kajbar Dam. When the Nubians protested again, the security forces at the Kajbar Dam site used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse the peaceful demonstration injuring several people. During the last few weeks the state authorities deployed more security forces to the site of the Dam and the governor announced that the government will conduct feasibility studies only to decide whether to proceed in building the dam or stop it. The government is trying to fool the people and continue building the dam and force the Nubians to accept the dam as a reality and a status quo matter like what they did at Meroe Dam and to the people affected by the dam.

We call upon the international community to:

• Take every necessary steps to move expediently to stop forthwith the building of Kajbar Dam and any dam in the heartland of Nubia and extend every possible help Nubians are entitled to, by the international laws to get their share in power and wealth as stipulated in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in Naivasha, Kenya between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People Liberation Army/Movement and the agreements signed in Abuja and Asmara between the government of Sudan and the Darfur rebels and the East Front rebels.

• Protect and enable the Indigenous people of Nubia to have the right and freedom to use their ancestral lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, and their right to maintain, control, protect and develop their language, cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions

• Make sure that the Nubians who suffered from forcible relocations for the purpose of building the High Dam of Aswan, the biggest man made dam in the history in their lands be compensated for their sufferings during the last four decades and that they shall not be forcibly removed again from their lands or territories and that no relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous people of Nubia.

• Insure the right of the indigenous people of Nubia to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures.

• Enable the right of the indigenous people of Nubia to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning.

• Enable the Indigenous people of Nubia who are divided by international borders between Sudan and Egypt, to maintain and develop contacts, relations and cooperation, including activities for spiritual, cultural, political, economic and social purposes, with their own members as well as other peoples across borders.

• Insure the right of the Indigenous people of Nubia to have free access to public media or establish their own media in their own languages and to have access to all forms of non-indigenous media without discrimination.

The Nubians, their organizations and association inside Sudan and around the world were asked to organize demonstrations on May 21st, 2007 inside Sudan and in front of Sudanese and Chinese embassies and UN offices worldwide to express their unequivocal opposition to Kajbar Dam and any future plans to build dams in the Nubian lands and spread the word through the international media to expose to the world the hidden war against Nubians and the conspiracy to wipe out Nubia from the map of the world..

Nuraddin Abdulmannan,
Secretary General

The Rescue Nubia and Kajbar Dam Resistance Committee – US chapter.

151 Danbury Street SW —
Washington, DC 20032

Tel. (240)441-6993

Date: May 14, 2007

Sincerely,

to sign the appeal please go at
http://www.petitiononline.com/Appeal/