Why Sudan is behind Darfur’s Haskanita attack

A motive of the Sudan, Darfur’s shooting of the African Union Peacekeepers in Haskanita.

By Chuei D. Mareng

October 8, 2007 — Whenever an incident occurred, the so-called expertises have always jumped in to
analysis the situation. However, some of the analytical which have been done
have predicted some truth, but some have totally fallen of line. In this case,
we need to be more concerned with reality on the ground and do not need to be
bothering about the theory that does not reveal the real picture of the
incident.

The incident in Haskanita could be interpreted in many ways. Nevertheless, the
ground of attack remains clear that the Sudanese Government pro-militias are
behind this incident. But in unexplained circumstances, the world has been
fully convinced that the rebels in Darfur were the ones who attacked the
African Union Peacekeepers. To me, however, the question that everybody should
be asking is this: in the present of the African Union Peacekeepers in Darfur,
who is a winner? This question goes back to 2003 and 2004 when the conflict
started in Darfur. Since that conflict started, civilians- especially the Black
African have been victimized in many ways; but when the African Union
Peacekeepers moved to Darfur, there has been some sort of decreases in the
civilians’ death. This says more about the Haskanita’s incident by which the
Sudanese Government and other international communities have been pointing
their fingers to the rebel groups in the region.

According to my understanding of the Sudanese Government’s tactics, they have
carried out the Haskanita’s attack in order to deterrent the multi-national
forces because their behaviours will be understood when the multi-national
forces get into Darfur. This claim is not coming out of the blue, but this
argument is based solely on the reality of the Sudan’s historical problem that
goes back to its independent. If those who knew the Sudan very well can recall,
the Sudanese Government had been using these types of tactics during the 22
years of civil war. Therefore, I would claim that the Sudanese Government’s
tactics suggest that the attack in the Haskanita was initiated by the Sudanese
Arm Forces to show that the multi-national forces will not be safe in Darfur.
And in that case some countries who wanted to send their soldiers will be
hesitating to send their personnel into Darfur and this was done by the
pro-militias so that the Sudanese Government can achieve its objective of
trying to subdue the rebels in the area by all means. And if that incident was
not carried out by the Sudanese Arm Forces, then the rebel may have carried out
this attack in search of food and therefore it was not their intention to
discouraging the multi-national forces.

The Haskanita’s incident may be in line with other problems that the Sudan
Government is vigilance for and which it does not wanted to be caught
off-guard. It is obvious that the multi-national forces will stabilize the
region and therefore the chances of getting those who have been accused of
genocide will be more focused of the international community. To avoid this
anticipated situation, the Sudanese Government is doing what it can right now
to make the situation worsen in Darfur so that they can buy times. In doing
that though, the Sudanese Government is creating worse situation in Darfur
whereby the Darfurians will spy on themselves. A good example of spying on
themselves was a statement made by the Sudanese Deputy Head of Mission in
Nigeria, Kamal Ismail who said that: “Some of those who participated in the
attack are known figures and members of JEM. We have their names.” If they have
their names, how did they get them? This claim indicates that the Sudanese
Government pro-militias have carried out this attack in order to betray the
rebels in Darfur as notorious group to the international community. As it is
obvious in the real world of combat that it would be hard for each enemy to
know the names of a particular individual on the other side of combat; thus
there is no doubt that one can only know the name of a group who carried out
the attack, but not a name of particular person from other group. This
indicates that knowing the names of particular person from the other side of
combat could only happen when a person from inside the group collaborated with
the enemy.

The Sudanese Government claims of knowing the names of those who attacked
Haskanita suggest that the Sudanese Government is trying to manipulate the
world by picturing the rebels as those who had carried out the attacks; while
they are actually those who carried out this attacked. I must point out that
the Haskanita’s incident was carried by the Sudanese Government pro-militias so
that the rebels in Darfur would be classified as terrorism group, by which the
Sudanese Government will gain support from nations who are fighting
international terrorism. The justification of this claim was a statement made
by Mr. Ismail in which he said that: “Since the killing, the international
community has refused to condemn the act and this is unfair, it seems to me
that, if a victim is an African, the West does not see it as an act of
terrorism except when it concerns one of their kinds.” This argument was made
by the Sudanese Government in order to gain support from the West. This is
because Western countries are fighting international terrorism and anything
which is tied with terrorism would make sense because international community
will be more concerned about it. And therefore bringing up the name of
terrorism was seen by the Sudanese Government as a way in which its would gain
some support from the United Nations Security Council when the council sets to
address the deployment of the multi-national forces in Darfur in a few months
to come.

By tying in terrorism with the Haskanita’s incident, the Sudanese Government was
trying to scare the international community by accusing them of gold-digging and
not necessarily those who are concerned with the situation in Darfur. In my
opinion, however, the Sudanese Government is blackmailing the world and
therefore it makes statements that are aimed at those who are concerned with
the Darfur’s situation as those who are seeking benefit. For instance, a claim
made by Mr. Ismael that: “Those making the loudest noise about peace in Darfur
and pretending to broker peace are the ones supplying the rebels with arms.”
This argument was made by the Sudanese Government to pool the international
community so that some countries among the international community would point
their fingers to countries that are advocating the deployment of the
multi-national forces in Darfur. It is very clear from this argument that the
Sudanese Government is trying to do whatever it can in order to prevent the
multi-national forces from going to Darfur. And when there is a slow to the
multi-national forces deployment, the Sudanese Government will be able to
blackmailing civilians and from there the rebels will be forced to accept what
the Sudanese Government wants.

Relatively, we have seen from many statements made by the Sudanese Government
officials, these arguments indicate that the Haskanita’s incident was carried
out by the Sudanese Armed Forces so that the international community would
condemn the Darfuria’s rebel groups. A good example of this claim was a
statement made by Samani al-Wasila al-Sheikh from the Sudanese Foreign Ministry
that: “The international community should practice pressures on the movements
that reject the peace process and punish them for their impeding stances.” If a
logic person looks at this statement, it is clear that the Haskanita’s incident
was intentionally planned by the Sudanese Government so that the rebels will
get a punitive penalty from the international community and Africa Union. I am
not trying to picturing the Sudanese Government as a notorious government, but
just pointing out the facts on the ground. This would allows me to early say
that reading through this article, some people will automatically label me as a
pro-rebels in Darfur; this is due to the fact that most of my arguments in
relations to the Haskanita’s incident are geared toward the Sudanese
Government’s behaviours.

Apparently, I am speaking from the personal experience of the Sudanese
Government’s tactic and as someone who have seen the Sudanese Government’s
brutality during the 22 years of civil war in the country. I am very sure that
the Sudanese Armed Forces had carried out the attack in Haskanita and even though
they are trying to cover up their actions. I must also say that those who have
experienced the civil war in Southern Sudan would know very well the tactics of
the Sudanese Government when looking at the Haskanita’s incident. Therefore, the
conclusion of this argument is that the Sudanese Arm Forces are responsible for
the Haskanita’s incident that had claimed the lives of innocent African Union
Peacekeepers.

My condolence goes to the families of those who have lost their love ones in the
Haskanita’s incident. With some respects, I must point out that Sudan as a
country should be ashamed of what its has done to the African Union
Peacekeepers in Darfur. And also, every Sudanese must know that the African
Union Peacekeepers, who went to Darfur, went there to protect civilians and
therefore they are not occupation forces in the region that society should be
against them.

* The author is a Sudanese national and a researcher currently living in Canada.
He can be reached at: [email protected]