UNSC Sanctioned Janjaweed Leader Musa Hilal Flaunts Travel Ban
By Enough Team”
On July 20, the Sudan Tribune reported that Musa Hilal, the leader of the notorious Janjaweed militias during the Darfur crisis, flaunted his United Nations Security Council (UNSC) travel ban by visiting Egypt. Al-Youm Al-Tali, a Sudanese daily newspaper previously banned by the National Intelligence and Security Services, reported that Egyptian authorities blocked Hilal’s entry into Cairo for three hours before the Sudanese Embassy successfully intervened on his behalf. By allowing Hilal to enter the country, Egyptian authorities violated the UNSC travel ban. The Sudanese government is also complicit in this violation by interceding for Hilal.
Sudanese and international human rights groups have accused Hilal of leading a brutal campaign of death and destruction against the non-Arab Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit ethnic groups in Darfur. The United States government characterized this campaign as genocide. In 2006, the UN Security Council sanctioned Hilal and three other individuals in UNSC Resolution 1672, which froze their assets and imposed an international travel ban.
Hilal returned to Darfur in 2013 after enjoying a prominent post as special advisor to the Ministry of Federal Affairs in Khartoum. Since his return, Hilal defected from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and founded the Sudanese Revolutionary Awakening Council (SARC), an umbrella organization that he hopes to register as a legitimate political party. A few months later, Hilal’s SARC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SLPM-N), illustrating his willingness to oppose the central government and the NCP by forging alliances with armed opposition groups. In addition, Hilal’s militias seized control of four western localities in North Darfur state in 2014. By neutralizing local and state government authorities, Hilal became the de facto ruler of this region.
Following a violent offensive by Abbala militia under his command in early 2013, Hilal has relied on the SARC to establish a management board to oversee gold mining in the Jebel Amer region. The SARC continues to administer this area, one of the most productive artisanal gold mining sites in the country. On July 23, SARC military commanders exerted an even tighter grip on the Jebel Amer mines, stating that no company or government institution may access the mines without their permission. This raises serious concerns about whether gold from Sudan in general, and Darfur specifically, is conflict-affected. Conflict-free audits should flag gold exports from Sudan as high-risk. Hilal’s involvement in this sector as a sanctioned individual subject to an asset freeze, also deserves further investigation by the UN Panel of Experts on the Sudan tasked with tracking enforcement of the sanctions pursuant to UNSC Resolution 1591.
Hilal has used SARC to recast himself as a well-intentioned leader, calling for peace and reconciliation between Darfur tribes after accusing the North Darfur Governor of fueling tribal conflict. Appearances can be deceiving and Hilal’s rhetoric of peace and reconciliation amounts to little more than a rebranding exercise. By reframing himself as a concerned local leader capable of establishing peace and security, Hilal is trying to distance himself from a long history of violence. Indeed, even before the government enlisted Hilal to lead the Janjaweed in 2003, he was serving a prison sentence for bank robbery after being arrested for the murder of 17 people. Further, his forces continue to commit violent acts in Darfur. A March 2014 attack that Hilal led on the town of Saraf Omra left 19 people dead, 60 injured, and 65,000 displaced.
By allowing Hilal to enter Egypt, the Egyptian and Sudanese governments disregarded the UN Security Council and demonstrated that they would rather appease an alleged international criminal than respect the UN Security Council or international law. Nor is this the first time that Hilal flaunted his travel ban. While serving on the UN Panel of Experts, Jérôme Tubiana realized that Hilal travelled to Egypt in 2009, a trip that U.S. authorities were well aware of. According to Tubiana, Hilal also travelled to Chad in February 2011. Tubiana makes clear that UN officials knew of these and other travel ban violations. Incredibly, Tubiana also shows that UN officials flew Jibril Abdelkarim to Qatar on a UNAMID plane. Abdelkarim was sanctioned at the same time as Hilal and is subject to the same travel ban.
The UN Panel of Experts has investigated previous travel ban violations of the four sanctioned individuals. A 2014 report showed that the panel investigated two violations of Hilal’s travel ban. The panel noted a March 2013 media interview where Hilal confirmed that he travelled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to conduct business and discuss the Doha Peace Agreement with members of various Sudanese movements. Further, Hilal confirmed to the panel that he travelled to Dubai from November 2012 until February 2013. Although the panel investigated these and other travel ban violations, Sudan’s Rapporteur of the Advisory Council for Human Rights and the National Commission for International Humanitarian Law stated that the government could not freeze assets or deny travel without a court order. The panel then asked if a Sudanese court had issued an order to implement an assets freeze or travel ban and did not receive a response. This obstructive behavior is to be expected from the Bashir regime; it is much more disappointing that the UAE, Egypt, and Chad would follow this example.
The UN Security Council sanctioned Hilal with good reason and the international community must stand together to enforce these sanctions. Hilal’s travel and the complicity of the Egyptian and Sudanese governments threatens to set a terrible precedent. UN officials and international leaders must condemn this act and demand that Hilal return to Sudan. Likewise, the UN cannot disregard its own rules when it considers it expedient to do so. The international community rightly demands that the UN lead by example and follow the sanctions that it imposes.
To address this issue, the UN Sudan Sanctions Committee should require the Egyptian government to explain its decision to allow Hilal into the country despite his travel ban. The UN Panel of Experts should also pursue this matter by travelling to Cairo to investigate Hilal’s alleged travel.
*The Enough Project seeks to build leverage for peace and justice in Africa by helping to create real consequences for the perpetrators and facilitators of genocide and other mass atrocities. Enough aims to counter rights-abusing armed groups and violent kleptocratic regimes that are fueled by grand corruption, transnational crime and terror, and the pillaging and trafficking of minerals, ivory, diamonds, and other natural resources. Enough conducts field research in conflict zones, develops and advocates for policy recommendations, supports social movements in affected countries, and mobilizes public campaigns.