Darfur

Facts, Interpretations, and Possibilities

Presentation material for educators and activists

developed by: UnderstandingSudan.org

latest version: February 13, 2007

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University of California, Berkeley 2007

Dedicated to the future of Sudan

UNICEF/HQ05-0943/Ron Haviv http://www.unicef.org/childalert/darfur

Hamudi Abdullah Mohammed in Kalma IDP Camp, South Darfur

UNICEF/2004/Westerbeek
http://www.unicef.org/emerg/darfur/index_24605.html

Cover Photo from UNICEF Darfur Emergency September October 2005 Report http://www.unicef.org/emerg/darfur/files/DARFUREMERGSEPT_OCT2005.pdf

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 Objectives
Complicate the picture
There are many causes to the conflict and humanitarian catastrophe, many actors involved, and much vocabulary to be learned and debated The conflict is not just local, but can be seen as extending over many scales: from farmers and nomads fighting over water to the great powers of the U.N. Security Council negotiating the international order

Highlight how discourse shapes understanding and action and encourage self-reflection
Ethnicity and race are ideas constructed by peoples actions and discourses Genocide is debated in legal and policy circles Intervention without a context can be a pretext

Emphasize
Importance of knowing history Importance of committing to long run involvement
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Darfur1

Geography
Sudan in the Region2

Sudan in the World

1. http:// rightsmaps.com/html/sudmap1.html and 2. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L03772791.htm

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Ethnicity in Darfur: Multiple and Mutable

Academics prefer the phrase ethnic group over tribe Darfurians tell a variety of histories Darfurians explain their ethnic identities in different ways Identities can become simplified, polarized and cemented through communal and especially sexual violence But experiences as refugees and displacement can have the opposite effect
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Current Situation in Darfur

(October/November 2006) Multiplicity of rebel groups:
Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) fractured; Minni Minawi faction signed Darfur Peace Agreement with government Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) fractures Several groups have formed loose alliance called National Redemption Front

Government-backed militia, janjawid, est. 20,000 persons 200,000 deaths estimated overall since February 2003. 218,000 refugees in 12 UNHCR camps in Chad2
Not all refugees in Chad are in camps

2 million persons internally displaced (IDPs)3 4 million persons in need of humanitarian assistance. 3
1. Coalition for International Justice, 5/05; 2. UNICEF, 12/20/05; 3. UN, Darfur Humanitarian Profile, 10/1/06

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Five Ways of Seeing the Crisis (Framing Stories)

Anti-government positions Arab supremacism Arabs against black Africans (Musa Hilal) Regime in-fighting by proxy Turabi versus Beshir and Taha Straight up scorched earth response to rebel threat; Regime has little legitimacy but much oil money, response is massive retaliation that may or may not be controllable- like warlordism Pro-government positions Farmers versus herders because of desertification Me-too spoilers of the main peace agreement
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Five Ways of Seeing the Crisis

1. Arab supremacism Arabs against black Africans
-Little is known about importance of ethnic identities among ordinary persons in Darfur One famous study by Frederick Barth suggested that ethnic labbels were very fluid Some suggest a recent hardening of identities Fur, Zaghawa, Masalit, Tunjur, Meidob farmers => called by others, in colloquial Arabic: zurga or zunji (translated into English as black) Rizeigat, Hamar, Humr, Bani Halba nomads => Arab (groups claiming descent from Arabian groups and typically practicing pastoralism) -Regional conflict Chad, Libya) in 1970s and 1980s generated Tajamu alArabi Arab Gathering, a group of Darfurians espousing Arab solidarity against other groups Ideology of supremacy adapted by marginalized Arab (nomadic) groups with Musa Hilal as leader -Encouraged by Islamicist, Arab regime in Khartoum, supported with weapons and mobility, and inflamed by international currents (war
on terror, clash of civilizations)
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 A Janjawiid Leader

Musa Hilal

Son of Sheikh Hilal Musa, Nazir of Um Julul,

sub-clan of Abbala (camelherding) Rizeigat, claiming descent from Juhayna Arab nomads who came into Darfur from the West between the 14th and 18th Centuries.

In 2002 jailed because of violence in Darfur.

Human Rights Watch, 2004 http://hrw.org/video/2005/musa/

Government of Sudan released him to lead militia counterattacks after SLA April 2003 surprise attacks on El Fasher. Claimed in 2004 HRW interview that GOS military officers lead PDF militias.
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Five Ways of Seeing the Crisis 2. Regime in-fighting by proxy:

Hasan el Turabi versus Omar el Beshir and Ali Osman Taha

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Five Ways of Seeing the Crisis

2. Regime in-fighting by proxy: Turabi versus Beshir

and Taha

- June 1989 Coup followed by Islamicization

-Overthrew government of Prime Minister Sadiq el Mahdi Grandson of Mahdi
Leader of Umma Party Turabis brother-in-law

-Continued civil war with SPLA in the South of the country.

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The Mahdi
Mohamed Ahmed defeated the TurcoEgyptians along with British mercenaries (Charles Chinese Gordon) in 1885. He died soon after, but his successor, the Khalifa Abdullah al-Taaishi, established an independent state that lasted until British with Egyptian help re-conquered much of Sudan in 1898.
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Five Ways of Seeing the Crisis

3. Straight up scorched earth response to threat Regime has little legitimacy but much oil money Many soldiers in regular military who had fought in the South came from west so could not easily deploy them in Darfur. Other rebels based in Darfur had in the 1980s overthrown Chad regime Resort to militias out of habit
Used PDFs in South and Nuba Mountains in long running civil war Jihad in mid-1990s in Nuba Mountains

Response to rebel threat in western Darfur was proxy militias who may or may not be controllable Counter-Insurgency on the Cheap- A. de Waal
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Anglo-Egyptian Condominium
British defeated Sultan Ali Dinar in 1916 by force and used
local nomads as militias in process. The Sultanate of Darfur was then incorporated into Sudan. Aerial bombing was also part of the British campaign to subdue recalcitrant natives.

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SPLA

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Five Ways of Seeing the Crisis

4. Farmers versus herders
because of desertification
Ecology of region
The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) North to South increase in precipitation Transhumant Routes

Variation in arability of terrian and soil

The Dar Fur Sultanate had established the Hakura system of land tenure, where tribal leaders controlled large tracts of land pressures on land increase conflicts
Rainfall Analysis - Cumulative Amounts in relative terms : % of long term average
Sudan Agromet Dekadal Bulletin, Vol 2, Issue 19, 11-20 September 2004 http://www.mundo.u-net.com/samis/
University of California, Berkeley 2007

1980s: Drought/Desertification

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Five Ways of Seeing the Crisis 5. Me-too spoilers of the main peace agreement

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UnderstandingSudan.org

University of California, Berkeley 2007

Five Ways of Seeing the Crisis 5. Me-too spoilers of the main peace agreement
How to get respect: The SPLA got concessions only after 23 years of fighting. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement splits oil revenues between the GOS and the South. What about the rest of the country? US, UK, Norway specifically choose to limit negotiations to North-South talks SLA in Darfur has origins in SPLA took One Sudan of Garang to heart. Pick up weapon to get attention February 2003
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Why Intervene in Darfur?

Continued child mortality among the displaced Continued insecurity and loss of capability for livelihoods in the camps Insecurity persists with no political solution

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Variants of Intervention
Peacekeepers and monitors work in cooperation with Sudan government, recognizing sovereignty Safe havens around towns with guaranteed relief corridors, with no government authority bad idea; Makes displacement more permanent Darfur declared autonomous region under U.N. Authority

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Current Interventions in Darfur

Humanitarian Intervention
13 UN agencies and 83 NGOs and Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies 13,869 Staff (12,895 national; 974 international as of Nov. 2005)

Peace-monitoring/Protection Forces
African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) with support from European Union's African Peace Facility, UN and US (though US House just voted to cut funds 1/3/06.) Currently 6,848 personnel in Darfur (peacekeepers, civilian police and military observers). Many say should be double or as much as 45,000.

International Political Actions

UN Resolutions International Criminal Court March 05 UN SCR 1593 referred situation to ICC AU led peace process
Negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria
Five point agenda agreed to: 1) The general principles; 2) security arrangements for an enhanced humanitarian ceasefire; 3) comprehensive ceasefire and final security arrangements: 4) social reintegration; 5) and time line for implementation,

January 06 mini-Summit in Libya -- Now postponed

Regional Involvements
Chad, President Idriss Deby faces internal threats and supposedly is quite ill; recently diverted money from Chad oil pipeline to military uses, prompting World Bank and donors to cut-off assistance Libya, Egypt, Uganda, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia are involved in complicated ways
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Further interventions?
Regime Change? Negotiated Peace? Nation building? Multilateralism?

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Genocide?
Declaration triggers intervention?
Varying Definitions
1948 Geneva Convention Lay and Customary international usage

Political equivocations Political will (e.g. US House defunding AU mission)

Uses by parties
GOS selective denigration of Arabs (re Iraq, Palestine). Double standards: Why not DR Congo? Internalized locally contributes to hardening of identities Mobilizing international action

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Conclusions
Be wary of African and Arab labels
What histories are they hiding? How are they being used
Locally? Internationally?

Historically inaccurate, yet incredibly powerful in the present

The power of discourse, of labels, of names

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Conclusions continued
Be committed to the long term
Educating ones self
History, languages, cultures Larger regional scene (Chad, Libya, Uganda Lords Resistance Army)

Getting back to normal will take a long time.

Return of IDPs and Refugees? Truth and Reconciliation? Justice? Re-establishing basic routines of production, reproduction of life. Who will decide access and control over resources?
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Conclusions continued
Be committed to the long term
International aid how to be part of a sustainable solution?
Jan Egelund, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and
Emergency Relief Coordinator

Dont wait for emergencies, create funds up front beforehand. Tony Blair and G8: Aid commitments to Africa? AU and NEPAD African solutions?

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Conclusions continued
Rethink aid and development Interdependencies
Consumption and Production Oil, Gum Arabic, Livestock, Water Political Frameworks
War on Terror Small arms proliferation Peace-keeping, Peace-making.

Gendered aspects of violence, justice, recovery?

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UnderstandingSudan.org

University of California, Berkeley 2007