Darfur

Darfur

Where should we start to look for the historical roots of this latest of Sudan's wars? Between 1881and 1885 Sudan was ruled by a boat-builder from Aba Island in Darfur. Proclaimed as the Mahdi, he was a legendry Islamic scholar and brilliant military tactician who united the constantly warring tribes of Sudan and crushed the Egyptian and British forces sent against him. His ansar, a rag-tag army armed with swords and spears, was always victorious during his 4 year reign, and united Sudan under Sharia law until al-Mahdi's death from typhus . Tribes in the Mahdi's Kordofan region of Sudan are some of the principals in the complex mix of traditional tribal warfare, a national struggle for the leadership of the country, desertification, the long war with Chad, Islamic fundamentalist extremism, and the usual ignorant and hypocritical remarks from the USA. Some of the Mahdi's zeal for fundamentalist Islamic rule, in the style of Al Qaida, drives the JEM, one of the rebel groups that initiated this war. A long , smoldering religious

war has been blended with the war with Chad. Chad's president, a member of the Zaghawa tribe, has supported his tribe's rebel movement against the government of Sudan. The grievances of the rebels are that they have been deprived of government funds that other regions receive. The signing of the peace accords ending Sudan's other civil war, and the benefits conferred on the southern rebels, seems to have driven the Darfur rebels to attack government bases and police stations. Prior to these attacks, the war in Darfur had been a continuous violent confrontation between some groups of herders and pastaoralists. Causes for war have been growing as desertification has been steadily decreasing the regions resouces while the population has been increasing. The government's response to these attacks, with the loss of many thousands of lives and the uprooting of 2 million people, is common knowledge now.

One aspect of this war that seems to have become a central feature of new stories is its "racial" character. --The Arabs are committing genocide against the Balck Africans-- is the usual formulation in the press. The truth, of course, is that, by-and-large, in Darfur everyone is Muslim, everyone is African, and everyone is Black. The designation of Arab or African is only partially dependent on which of the heavily inter-married tribe you were born into, or which arabised version of your Nilo-Saharan language you speak, but also on whether you farm or herd, or how prosperous you are. Some tribes change their "ethnic" label from time to time. Janjaweed, a term traditionally applied to nomadic bandits and now to any irregular paramilitary band, is a description of activity rather than an ethnic label. A 40-year-long cycle of desertification, abandonment of unproductive lands, migration to areas with water that are shrinking in size, and violent confrontations to decide who will starve and who will live; has suddenly burst into an immense human catastrophe. Why is anyone surprised?

This conflict has been officially termed a "genocide", but why isn't the free-for-all war in the Congo declared a genocide? 3 million have died there, amid 10 years of horrific atrocities. (And, for that matter, when the Colombian government uses its "Janjaweed", its criminal paramiltaries, to suppress the FARQ through mass murders and civilian atrocities, why isn't that a "genocide?") What has the effect of the genocide declaration for Darfur been? Aid to the victims has decreased as political positions have hardened, access has decreaed, and rebel elements have turned on the aid workers and hijacked supplies. Only one of the rebel groups, Mini Manawi's, agreed to the peace terms presented by the international mediator. The signing was followed by a marked increase in violence.

The obstacles to a settlement of the Darfur war are fairly obvious:

1. A chronic state of war with Chad. Both sides support rebels across their borders.

2. An insoluble environmental cause of hostility.

3. The current willingness of the international community to view Balkanization as a solution to difficult problems.

Peace negotiations can work. Disputes between tribes in Darfur have yielded to negotiaitions that addressed the issues of resource allocation. Before any military

solutions are offered, it would seem necessary to arrive at a political solution. No one seems to be doing that.

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1. Wikipedia -search "Muhammad Ahmad" Even after the Mahdi proclaimed a jihād or holy war, against the Egyptian Ottoman government, Muhammad Ahmad was dismissed as a religious fanatic. The government paid more attention when his religious zeal turned to denunciation of tax collectors. Tax collectors accompanied by a military expedition were sent to reassert the government's authority on Aba Island, but the government's forces were ambushed and nearly annihilated by the Mahdi's followers. To avoid arrest, the Mahdi and a party of his followers, the Ansār "Helpers" (known in the West inaccurately as "the Dervishes"), made a long march to Kurdufan. There he gained a large number of recruits, especially from the Baqqara.

..... They were also joined by the Hadendowa Beja, who were rallied to the Mahdi by an Ansār captain, Osman Digna.

Late in 1883, the Ansār, armed only with spears and swords, overwhelmed an 8000-man Egyptian force not far from Al Ubayyid ("El Obied") in the Battle of El Obied, and seized their rifles and ammunition. The Mahdi followed up this victory by laying siege to al-Ubayyid and starving it into submission after four months.

2. Emily Wax, (Africa editor, Washington Post) "5 truths about Darfur"

In 1990, Chad's Idriss Deby came to power by launching a military blitzkrieg from Darfur and overthrowing President Hissan Habre. Deby hails from the elite Zaghawa tribe, which makes up one of the Darfur rebel groups trying to topple the government. ...... Now the Sudanese rebels have bases in Chad; I interviewed them in towns full of Darfurians who tried to escape the fighting. Meanwhile, Khartoum is accused of supporting Chad's anti-Deby rebels, ..... Last week, bands of Chadian rebels nearly took over the capital, N'Djamena.......

We called it a genocide and then