Sudan: it’s time Arab and African nations step in
By Paul Weyrich, The Washington Dispatch
August 19, 2004 — This summer demonstrators from across America’s political and social spectrum have been protesting in front of the Sudanese embassy on Massachusetts Avenue here in Washington. Three weeks ago Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the founders of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Rabbi David Saperstein and Zach Rosenberg of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism were arrested in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. Some days there have been over 100 people protesting.
Other arrests include: Rep. Charles Rangel, (D-NY); Bob Edgar, President of the National Council of Churches; Rep. Bobby Rush, (D-IL); Rep. Joe Hoeffel, (D-PA); Activist Dick Gregory; and Walter Fauntroy, of Christian Solidarity International.
Joe Madison, President of the Sudan Coalition, a network of mostly evangelical groups, is several days into a hunger strike. He has promised to continue his hunger strike “until food and medicines are allowed through to the millions of people who are dying in refugee camps.”
The protesters say that the hands of the leadership of Sudan are covered in the blood of Christians and all who stand in its way. The protesters call for an end to government-sponsored atrocities by Arab militias against blacks in the Christian south and the western Darfur regions of the African nation.
Slowly but surely, the American public is becoming wise to what has been going on in this African country for three decades. The Persecution Project states, “[T]he African Christian tribes of central and southern Sudan?are presently engaged in a life-and-death battle against radical Muslim invaders from the north. Africa’s longest war has enslaved and killed millions of Sudanese Christians, specifically targeted because of their faith.”
Twenty years ago hundreds of demonstrators, including the biggest name entertainment stars and even politicians, turned out to protest apartheid in South Africa. When the Sudanese Government commits murder and mayhem, frightfully little is said about it in the mainstream press.
The Arab-controlled Sudanese Government has been accused in U.N. reports of aiding Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, in a campaign designed to obliterate African tribes from its southern and western provinces. More than 30,000 black Sudanese have been killed. There are over one million refugees; over 200,000 of whom have sought refuge in camps in Chad. The United Nations Security Council has given the Sudanese Government a deadline of August 29th to restore order in Darfur by reining in the Janjaweed.
It is no surprise that a call frequently sounded by Sudanese demonstrators had been: “Two million die and the whole world looks away!” and “Slavery plus genocide equals Sudan!”
After long years of diplomatic pressure and negotiating spearheaded by the United States Government, with the help of the British and Norwegians, a peace deal between Darfur and the Sudanese Government was put into effect earlier this year. That has not deterred the Sudanese Government from turning its attention toward the Darfur region, where government-supported Arab Janjaweed militias are forcing many black Muslims to learn by example about the Qur’an’s more violent suras. The Sudanese Government is led by Arabs intent on using Darfurians to kill Darfurains. As Faith McDonnell, Director of the Church Alliance for a New Sudan at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, says: “There’s a saying in the Sudan: ‘Use a slave to kill a slave.'”
The Center for Strategic and International Studies issued a report a few years ago that is worth remembering today. “Sudan matters” to our country because the government (i.e., Khartoum) provided aid to terrorist networks that “directly threatened” our country’s interests. “Moreover, war, instability, and the provision of passive (or active) havens to terrorist networks or armed opposition groups have continued to threaten the security of the surrounding region and the individual national interests of Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda, states whose integrity and future matter in other respects to U.S. interests.”
The European Union has refrained from calling what is taking place in the Sudan “genocide.” Others would disagree. During a recent visit to the African region of Darfur, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the humanitarian disaster was “moving towards a genocidal conclusion.” Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, (R-TN), who met in Chad with refugees from Darfur during the Senate’s summer recess, reached the same conclusion. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) also shares that view.
Brownback’s resolution, S.C.R.133, declaring genocide in Darfur and that of Rep. Donald Payne, (D-NJ), H. C. R. 467, unanimously passed in both Houses of Congress. This is a display of bipartisanship that is rare these days.
Frist, Brownback and other legislators concerned with human rights are right when they argue that the Sudanese Government needs to have worldwide pressure applied to end this killing immediately. Is it surprising that the Sudanese Government is urging nations to avoid interfering on behalf of what is right? Ironically, as a sign of just what a bankrupt institution the United Nations has become, Sudan was just reelected this spring to a third term on the United Nations Human Rights Commission, an action that the Bush Administration denounced.
Where is the strong voice of condemnation from Sudan’s African and Arab neighbors? The countries in that region need to weigh in to make their collective disapproval felt. Countries that have a vested interest in ensuring peace and stability in Sudan and the region need to exercise their authority. Only Rwanda, mindful of its own genocide, has sent a small, token force and a Nigerian contingent are expected to follow soon. But they are there officially to protect the African Union’s monitors, not the Sudanese civilians.
What our government must do is to mobilize worldwide opinion, particularly within Arab and African nations, to pressure the Sudanese Government to stop what is taking place, to live up to the peace agreement, and to demand that humanitarian assistance reach refugees.
The Free Congress Foundation recognizes the dangers inherent in the teachings of radical Muslims. Extremists urge followers to commit violence against all unbelievers?many Muslims themselves can be the victims. It is our belief that the sword of violence should not impale innocent people — no matter their religion.
It is time for the Arab and African nations to assert themselves on behalf of what is right. This is their chance to demonstrate to the world that they are ready to take responsibility for their region. Do they have the guts and moral bearing to do what is right, even if, for some nations, it means taking on a fellow Muslim government? I certainly hope so and I am sure that millions of Sudanese feel the same way.
Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.