JEM gift for Khartoum

By Eric Reeves, The New Republic

May 15, 2008 — On May 10, one of Darfur’s key rebel factions, the Justice and Equality
Movement (JEM), struck military targets within Omdurman, the twin city
of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. Although rumored for days, the
long-distance rebel attack seemed to catch the ruling National Islamic
Front (NIF) regime by surprise. This was an extraordinary military
event, one without precedent under the regime, and its leaders have been
badly rattled–perhaps the primary ambition of an assault that had no
chance for sustainable military success.

But satisfying as the attack may have been for JEM, it is likely to
prove extremely bad news for the people of Darfur. There have already
been multiple reports from human rights groups and the Sudanese diaspora
that Darfuris are being beaten, arrested, and in some cases, summarily
executed. Most have been Zaghawa, the Darfur tribal group dominant in
JEM and its leadership.

Currently, JEM has the strongest military among the Darfuri rebel
factions, and it’s the most willing to act alone–but it’s also the
least representative of the people of Darfur as a whole. Its leader,
Khalil Ibrahim, has had deep political connections with Hassan
al-Turabi, who did much to chart the Islamist agenda that has governed
Sudan for the past 18 years. JEM’s military has been assisted by the
regime of embattled President Idriss Déby of Chad, also a Zaghawa, who
is fighting a dangerous proxy war with Khartoum. And, finally, JEM’s
political concerns are perceived by most Darfuris as having an
excessively national, as opposed to regional character–a consequence,
according to many, of Khalil’s personal ambitions.

None of these details mattered to the U.N. Security Council when it
handed Khartoum an imbalanced and excessively accommodating statement on
May 13. “The Security Council strongly condemns the attacks of 10 May
perpetrated by the … JEM against the Sudanese government in Omdurman
and urges all parties to cease violence immediately,” read the
Presidential Statement. Nothing here about the years of human rights
violations committed by Khartoum in Darfur. Reflecting on this language,
Khartoum’s especially thuggish ambassador to the U.N., Abdalmahmoud
Abdalhaleem, declared, “This is exactly what we wanted the Council to
do.”

In the balance for the U.N. was a politically consequential, but
militarily doomed, rebel effort to depose a genocidal regime on the one
hand–and, on the other, a willingness by this same regime to pursue its
aims in Darfur through a grim “genocide by attrition.” Given these moral
inequities, the one-sided U.N. statement implicitly signals to Khartoum
that there will be few real consequences for future military actions,
whether directed at JEM or not.

Recently, these actions have included a brutal series of bombings in
North Darfur, one killing a number of civilians, including six
schoolchildren. This follows the savage campaign that took place north
of el-Geneina (West Darfur) in February, where hundreds of civilians of
were killed, tens of thousands displaced, and more than 150,000 cut off
from aid.

JEM’s strategy and actions are misbegotten, its increasing military
unilateralism deplorable. But we must not lose sight of the enormous
frustration within the African Darfuri populations and rebel groups as
they continue to confront what’s essentially become international
tolerance for crimes against humanity–their humanity. As a consequence,
according to sources in Darfur, other rebel factions are likely to
conclude they have been left to their own military devices. They see the
increasing likelihood that UNAMID will not deploy significant additional
protection forces for many months. They also believe–correctly, it
seems–that Khartoum has little incentive or feels any significant
pressure to engage in a good-faith cease-fire, let alone a just and
sustainable peace process. Fighting is likely to intensify.

A regime guided by the most ruthless of calculations throughout the
Darfur genocide has now been given further reason by the U.N. to believe
that it can get away with its crimes. The prospects for peace in this
tortured land have dimmed further.

Eric Reeves is author of “A Long Day’s Dying: Critical Moments in
the Darfur Genocide”