Darfur 10 years, it’s enough!

By Jacky Mamou, and David Khalfa,

June 11, 2012 – Ten years, that makes ten years, that the people of Darfur have endured such suffering that the Secretary General of the United Nations, Koffi Anan, decried the situation as “hell on Earth” in 2004.

The leaders of the Sudan, in the face of a defiant rebellion, launched an all out war against the civilian population. The army and the janjawid militias were free to kill on a grand scale, forcing millions of people to flee their destroyed villages. Rape has been used as a weapon of war to terrorize civilians. Millions of people have been displaced by force and are still to this day languish in the camps. Humanitarian aid that has been imposed upon the Khartoum government has been blocked by multiple measures and by intimidation. Reports confirm multiple bombings, notably in the Djebel Marra.
The rapes and persecutions continue, even unto the intentional blockage of emergency aid. The head of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, says that 300,000 people have been displaced in the first five months of 2013 alone, more than were displaced in the last two years.

The International Criminal Court has approved arrest warrants against the Sudanese President Omar el Bechir, the former militia chief Ali Kushayb, the Minister of Defense Mohamed Hussein, and the actual Governor of South Kordofan, Ahmed Haroun. These four individuals are accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the president is particular of genocide. They are still free as of today.

In this way Madame Fatou Bensouda, procurer for the International Criminal Court,
has spoken before the United Nations Security Council this last 13th of December:”The nice speeches of the Sudanese government, which promise new initiatives in favour of a return to peace, are brushed aside by their actions on the ground which demonstrate that the government has lanced a campaign of crimes targeting the civilian population to resolve the problems which persist in Darfur.”
But in the 17th report, on June 2013, the Prosecutor added: “…Regrettably, each briefing has been followed by inaction and paralysis within the Council while the plight of victims of crimes committed in Darfur has gone from bad to worse”.

Their government’s impunity encourages them to use the same methods in two other regions of the country, the Blue Nile and South Kordofan. All of the peace processes and efforts at reconciliation have been lost due to the intransigence of the Sudanese regime.

The secession of Southern Sudan, decided by referendum in 2011, after a terrible conflict which left 2 million dead, and 4 million displaced, has drained the oil boom which has fuelled the war efforts of Khartoum. The debt of the country and the inflation of basic necessities has inflamed a social revolt which has been violently suppressed.

But new citizen organizations, notably amongst the young people, have appeared to contest the power of Al-Bechir. They carry new names—Girifna (We are fed up!) or Sudan Change. These forces are not satisfied to just demand reforms, but to force regime change. Indeed absolute power came to the country through a military coup in 1989, which opened fire on peaceful demonstrators, and arrested and tortured protesters. What is there to hope for from a leadership, convinced of their Arab superiority, that knows only genocidal violence as a response to requests from outlying areas peopled by black Africans or others? A reconciliation between the different rebellions and the new social movements is beginning.

Until now, Western powers have tried different methods to contain the power and menace of the Sudanese regime, by financing humanitarian aid or bringing cases before the International Criminal Court. But the violence continues and the Sudan has become a destabilized country, which is now, worryingly, looking towards an alliance with Iran. In the Arab world the immediate alternative to dictators has been expressed by islamist forces. These forces are in Khartoum and have now been in power for decades and now challenge very large segments of the population. The resolution of the tragedy in Darfur, as in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan, now goes through changes in Khartoum. The leaders of democratic countries should now take note.

Dr Jacky Mamou, chairman of Collectif Urgence Darfour (France ) and David Khalfa, chairman of Remembrance Forum-RFB-France.