Al-Mahdi blames government for escalation of Darfur crisis

November 4, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The leader of Sudan’s opposition National Umma Party (NUP) Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi has called upon the government and political forces to agree on national principles to arrive at solutions for the Darfur conflict, economic crisis and the international isolation.

Al-Mahdi, who was speaking at a workshop on Darfur crisis organized by his party on Monday, said that international attention given to Darfur crisis was triggered by several reasons including the powerful anti-regime lobbies in western countries, communications and information revolution and the presence of Sudanese refugees in countries around the world.

He pointed that the proliferation of illegal arms in Darfur has exacerbated the crisis and led to an unprecedented expansion of tribal conflicts, accusing the government of creating the crisis by weakening the local administration and turning it into a governmental tool.

The NUP leader further said that the government’s misuse of the unregistered land law has interfered with the traditional landownership system (Hakoura) leading to tribal strife.

He pointed that the government erroneous land policies has worked in favor of some pastoralist Arab tribes in west and central Darfur at the expense of farming African tribes including Fur and Masaalit leading to a widespread belief among African tribes that the central government is taking the side of the Arab tribes in Darfur.

The former Prime Minister also pointed that the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) managed to weaken the traditional political and social loyalties but at the same time failed to accommodate them into advanced political formulas which in effect led to deepening ethnic and tribal polarization.

He claimed that this led to the spread of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) doctrine which defines the problem in Sudan as a conflict between Arabism and Negritude and later led to the formation of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) in 2002 and the split within the NCP and the emergence of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

The opposition leader accused the NCP government of dealing with the Darfuri armed groups with arrogance, saying that it thought the international community would turn a blind eye on its violations in Darfur because it signed the peace agreement with the SPLM rebels in South Sudan in 2005.

He added that the government’s perception was true for a while but soon the world changed its position with regard to the human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur which led to an unparalleled international attention.

Al-Mahdi said that the former Libyan regime of Muammar al-Gaddafi played a major role in providing weaponry to several armed factions in Darfur, demanding individual and collective compensations for refugees and the displaced people.

He also demanded that Darfur’s share in the national power and wealth should be commensurate with its population, saying that these rights must be included in the new constitution.

The governor of East Darfur state, Abdel-Hamid Musa Kasha, for his part called for a genuine national declaration for disarmament, pointing that the government is now seeking to offer a comprehensive solution for Darfur crisis through addressing the root causes of the problem and engaging political forces and civil society organizations.

Darfur has been a flashpoint for lawlessness and violence since rebel movements took up arms against the Khartoum government in 2003.

The United Nations estimates as many as 300,000 people have been killed and almost 3 million people have been displaced during the ongoing conflict in the region, however, the Sudanese government put the number of dead at only 10,000.

(ST)