Washington Post Monday morning: Refugees in Sudan Told To Stay Silent About Abuses

Here are excerpts from a disturbing story published in Monday morning's Washington Post:

Refugees in Sudan Told To Stay Silent About Abuses

By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, June 28, 2004

ABU SHOUK, Sudan, June 27 -- The Sudanese villagers in this western region of Darfur were bombed. They were raped. Their huts were burned and their grain pillaged. Now, those who fled the chaos say they are being silenced.

The Sudanese government dispatched 500 men last week to this sweltering camp of 40,000 near El Fashir, capital of North Darfur state, the refugees and aid workers said. The men, some dressed in civilian clothes, others in military uniforms, warned the refugees to keep quiet about their experiences when Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan visit the region next week..

.."They kicked us and said, 'Stop talking,' " said Malki Ali Abduallah, 25, who fled the fighting six months ago with six children and a cooking pot. "I said, 'No, no, no. I am angry. I am tired. I don't want to be quiet.

"You already stole my life. What else can you take?" she recounted saying, sweating in the 115 degree midday heat as 40 people gathered around her in support, many telling similar stories.

Near the crowd, however, stern-faced men wearing safari outfits, pilot sunglasses and leopard-skin slippers listened in and made calls on cell phones. The villagers and the aid workers said the men were among those dispatched by the government.

The men also told the villagers that they would impersonate victims when the U.S. and U.N. delegations arrived and tell them that the government had done nothing wrong and that rebels operating against the government in the region were to blame, the villagers and aid workers said..

The Arab militias operate brazenly. Here, from later in the article, is an excerpt about the Wolf and Brownback visit to the same camp on Sunday:

..Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) visited the camp Sunday to survey the humanitarian crisis, which the United Nations and other aid agencies have said will kill hundreds of thousands from famine and disease if Sudan fails to allow greater access to the area and rein in the marauding Arab militiamen, known as Janjaweed. Four pickup trucks carrying dozens of militiamen raced around the area as the U.S. delegation toured the camp.

Comments

[Ingrid]

Hello Jim, Dan and Joanne, If it has only taken me a few months to realise Sudan's President Bashir is a nonsense, one can be sure that the US, UN Security Council, G8 and EU leaders (and the British in particular as it was a colony) have known it all along.

Colin Powell is due in Darfur tomorrow and will be with Kofi Annan in Khartoum on Wednesday bringing an extra $95m in US aid with the backing of signed statements and demands from leaders of the international community (one of which is to get aid through unhindered); satellite photographic evidence of ethnic cleansing in Darfur; witness statements and reports detailing names of perpetrators for prosecution (which, in my view, may be the reason why Sudan was not removed as a member on the UN Human Rights).

It appears that the rebel groups' bases are in Europe. Urgent meetings have gone on behind the scenes here in Britain, and Europe, over past several weeks. Many countries are involved in helping, including Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Kuwait and Libya, adding to the pressure on Khartoum. Colin Powell and Kofi Annan have half the world behind them (and even more so if the wealthy Arab nations would help). Bashir is cornered real tight. Seems to me the bullies in their "leopard skin" slippers are too late to make any difference :-)
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For your interest, incase you have not already seen it, note this Reuters report June 26
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L26612882.htm Darfur rebels want trials, no-fly zone before talks.

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Also, please note the Chairman of the SLM met with British officials in London last week. Here are some excerpts from Mathaba's website (not the easiest to navigate or deep link to on page continuations - which is why I am copying extracts here - hope there is enough room in this comment box):

Posted 06/27 from FreeSudan: Darfur SLM Chairman in London Conference Abdel Wahid Muhammad Nour, Chairman of the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) was the first speaker at the London Conference on an Alternative to the Sudan Dictatorship Government. Excerpt:

He is a former army officer in the Sudanese Armed Forces and is currently visiting London to discuss with British officials the situation in Darfur. He declined to discuss the subject matters of the talks which he said were confidential.

He spoke at length of the suffering of the people of Darfur who are suffering marginalisation, high hidden taxes (for example on sugar) without services in return, education and health services are non-existent and donations even to these sectors are banned for fear of the dictatorship that monies would fund revolt against the regime.

Mr Nour confirmed that the Sudan government is even taxing herders and shephards although the state is almost non-existent in the region. He said that if there is no rain in Darfur the people will starve. It is naturally impossible in Darfur to be part of the Internet world as there are no services or computers given the absence of infrastructure and schools.

Mr Nour also alleged that the government is behind social conflicts in Darfur, after all the tribes of Darfur were in social harmony and understanding regarding lands and territories. The government dictatorship played tribes against one another, making a negative effect to the positive African tradition of extended families.

The SLM chairman further said that the government was carrying out ethnic cleansing and repatriation of African tribes. 93% of the Africans homes are totally burned down by the government forces and the local Arab 'janjaweed' militia tribe which has been told by the government to replace the African tribes and live in their place.

Some of the janjaweed come from Chad and others from Mauritania - an African state with a history of Arabs enslaving non-Arab Africans until this day - and the government has told them there must be 'Arabisation and Islamisation'. Women were raped and the worst scenes are seen - killing, rape, stabbings and the mass extermination of villages.

The janjaweed kill everyone except many of the children and women which are abducted into slavery and sexual abuse and women are told they are slaves. Amnesty International reports detail part of the violations. The UN has termed the Darfur situation the world's worst humanitarian disaster of the current time.

The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) chairman said they have documentation about everything and the bombing by government aircraft.
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Posted: 06/27 From FreeSudan: SLM 'part of the New Sudan' Chairman says. Excerpt:

The Manifesto of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) states that we are part of the "New Sudan" said the SLM Chairman Mr Abdelwahid Nour at a London seminar hosted by the Sudan Civic Foundation discussing alternatives to the current regime in Sudan.

The one united Sudan where everyone is enjoying citizenship is what the SLM is striving for, Mr Nour said, adding that there has to be a democracy without any scope for totalitarianism and that to preserve the unity of Sudan is the responsibility of all.

The SLM sees that all Sudanese problems must be solved everywhere, solutions must be found he said.
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Posted: 06/27 From: FreeSudan: Dr Sidgi Awad Kaballo Speaks at London Seminar on Sudan. Excerpt:

The second speaker at today's Sudan Civic Society Conference on Alternatives to the Current Regime in Sudan was Dr Sidgi Awad Kaballo of Omdurman.

Dr Sidgi Kaballo holds an economics degree from the University of Khartoum 1976 and a doctorate from the University of Leeds on the political economy of Sudan. He has also worked in development consultancies as well as being a university professor and a member of the Sudanese Communist Party and the Sudan Victims of Torture Group.

Dr Kaballo has published more than 40 articles and 4 researches, particularly on privatisation and "arab economy".

He first turned to the theme of the seminar which was "alternatives". Kaballo said that it is easy for academics to write down good alternatives which may be published but go nowhere. He maintained that the good alternative is the one which is practical and said that all theoretical alternatives are not practical.

Dr Kaballo also said that the good alternatives have to be fought for. Alternatives must be adaptable and have to be re-drafted to be put in place. What you arrive at may be something different from what you envisaged at first, he said, due to the conflict and the need for compromises.

The alternative could be another form of the initial one, new alternatives are always possible.

He referred to a famous statement by the Sudanese Communist Party that the alternative for the future is determined by today's struggle.

Dr Kaballo, addressing the seminar on alternatives to the current Sudan regime at the Sudan Civic Foundation held today in London, said that he cannot use the word "Inqaz" (Arabic for foundation, the name of the current regime's islamist 'revolution') claiming that it is dictatorship. He said it is an alternative word to dictatorship.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) should blame itself if its alternatives are not developed, Dr Kaballo said, addressing the London seminar on alternatives to the current regime in Sudan which was held today with the participation of hundreds of Sudanese popular masses and hosted by the Sudanese Civic Foundation.

The Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) imposed its alternative by way of armed struggle, Dr Kaballo said. The NDA did not do so. "I told Sadiq Mahdi that there must be a program for daily struggle", he said in Arabic to the audience.

A direct daily struggle program was agreed upon but not implemented by the NDA. The actions to find or bring about alternatives was not followed, he said.

Dr Kaballo affirmed that the present status quo in the Sudan is a military dictatorship, whichever form it takes or mask it wears. They put their hands on all the national wealth and usurped it from the people, who are left naked in the street. They are parasites. The regime failed to impose an agreed upon ideology or program.

The middle class in Sudan disappeared leaving people either at the top or bottom, with almost all the people remaining in Sudan at the very bottom, below subsistence level. The poverty rate in Sudan is 97% according to a distinguished muslim professor in Khartoum.

Many families in Sudan are provided for from abroad by expatriats, Dr Kaballo said. "It is true there is some relief but the oppressive and authoritarian law is there."

The press laws very concept in Sudan contradicts the system. The alternative is not agreed upon even by islamists. Those islamists, currently in power in Sudan by way of the military dictatorship, when they were previously in opposition, had an alternative. The press situation today is totally different from the alternative they had then proposed, he confirmed. "They cannot even implement their backward alternative", Dr Kaballo said.
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PS Having said all that, yesterday I received an email from a non-blogging friend who saw the below BBC report and sent me the link with this message:

"You might find it rewarding to make contact with the UN and to ask them about the official guidelines which clearly delay UN action until matters (like this one) have reached disgraceful proportions."

** Sudan under pressure over Darfur **
The US and the EU express "grave concern" about the conflict-torn Darfur region, urging Sudan to end violence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/world/africa/3843323.stm

[Noam]

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[Rafael]

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