Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Sudan: Who Cares About Genocide?

Sudan has been shattered, impoverished and torn apart by systematic racial hatred and religious intolerance. The Islamist, Arab-supremacist regime of President Gen. Omar el-Bashir has little concern for 'infidels' and 'blacks', especially those who oppose and resist Islamisation and Arabisation.

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended Sudan's civil war mandated that, if South Sudan seceded, the three disputed border regions of Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile would each have the right to a referendum to determine whether they would be part of Sudan or South Sudan.   Though geographically linked into the north (Abyei less so), they are culturally and politically aligned with the South because they are predominantly non-Arab and non-Muslim.

The regime in Khartoum desperately wants the oil reserves in Abyei and South Kordofan and the water of Blue Nile. What it does not want is the oppositional 'infidels' and 'blacks' who live there to exercise their right to self-determination. Bashir launched his jihad before the secession even took place. Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) ethnically cleansed and occupied Abyei in May 2011. For this crime, Bashir was rewarded with impunity; even UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon refused to call it ethnic cleansing on the grounds that the people might return.  

Emboldened, Bashir expanded his jihad into South Kordofan. In early June 2011 SAF-allied Arab militias invaded Kadugli, the capital, having been instructed to 'sweep away the rubbish' (i.e. the Nuba, the 'blacks'). After weeks of terror on the ground in which tens of thousands were killed, the aerial bombardment began. Hundreds of thousands of predominantly Christian Africans were displaced as homes and farms were bombed. Again, Bashir was rewarded with impunity. Further emboldened, he expanded his jihad into Blue Nile.

By means of massive population displacement along with systematic destruction of crops and denial of humanitarian aid, the regime is effecting a final solution: the elimination of oppositional 'infidels' and 'blacks' from the resource-rich 'new south'. [When the genocide is complete, Bashir will doubtless organise referendums to be lauded by the West as evidence of his transition to democracy!]

According to the anti-genocide Enough Project, 81.5 percent of families in the Nuba Mountains survive on one meal a day and three percent are classed as having Severe Acute Malnutrition, meaning in the absence of medical intervention they will soon die. These statistics are moving upwards. Local church groups are struggling just to keep the population alive. Agreements concerning humanitarian aid have been signed but never implemented. Why is this behaviour of Khartoum tolerated? Furthermore, refugee camps just over the border in Unity and Upper Nile states, South Sudan, are struggling greatly to host more than 200,000 refugees.

Driven by starvation in the displacement camps, some Dinka Ngok have recently returned to Abyei only to find that everything has been destroyed, even their boreholes.
As reported by Christian media agency Morning Star News (MSN), aerial bombardment of Christian towns across South Kordofan has increased considerably over the past month. MSN cites Nuba Reports, a network of local citizen journalists committed to providing credible coverage of the atrocities being committed against the Nuba in South Kordofan. It was established by an American aid worker who remained when his Christian aid organisation was forced to evacuate. The reports are shocking and include lists of towns bombed in recent weeks, along with names and ages of victims. Due to the absence of medical aid, many of the injured will ultimately die from infection.

Why is the 'International Community' so indifferent to this genocide? Is it because the victims are predominantly Christians and Christian deaths are less economically and strategically significant as they do not increase the risk of regional sectarian war? Why is the media not interested? Is it because the media is only interested in those conflicts from which they can get sensational ratings-boosting live coverage? Is a double-barrelled racism in play: the victims are black, diminishing interest; the perpetrators are Arab-Muslims, diminishing expectation? But the West, if it is to claim any morality, must care about African genocides and demand more from Arab Muslims. One major problem is that the US and much of the West have 'de-coupled' Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile from Sudan policy. This means 'engagement' with Sudan can proceed without reference to these crises. However, if the West keeps treating Sudan's threatened non-Muslims and non-Arabs as if they do not exist, then it will not be long before they actually do not exist! So much for 'never again'!





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