Transcript Bridget Conley: Sudan - Harry S. Truman Library and Museum

Sudan
The war in the South
The war in the West: Darfur
War in southern Sudan
Historical overview
• Turco-Egyptian Rule, 1821-1884: all of north and
central Sudan under Turco-Egyptian rule.
• The Mahdist Period, 1884-1989: included the
west, north and central regions.
• Anglo-Egyptian condominium, 1899-1955: jointly
ruled by British and Egyptians.
– British largely closed off the south to Northern rule,
separating it.
– Darfur region added to Sudan in 1916, ending Fur
sultanate.
– “Arabized” elite of the north gain control of state
• Independence, 1956.
Post-colonial Sudan
Sudanese independence saw its northern
elite take over the central government.
They envisioned a country with a unified
language, religion and culture. And they
controlled resources, focusing on the
spreading the benefits very narrowly.
Alex de Waal:
“Sudan is not a state but a process. The
process in question is the spread of a set of
exclusivist social values and political-economic
structures associated with the Arab ‘core’ of
Sudan. …The second feature is instability at the
centre of power. A ruling coalition has yet to
emerge, and politics has swung between
authoritarianism and liberalism, secularism and
adherence to political Islam. The third feature is
orientation: to foreign patrons and creditors,
expatriate Sudanese and the Islamist financiers
who control their remittances, and international
aid institutions. “
Sudan at war
• 1955 – 1972: southerners fight against northern
rule. Ends with Addis Ababa Accord, March 1972.
Southern autonomy, incorporate fighters into
national army, English recognized as South’s
principal language.
• 1972 – 1983, peace.
War in Sudan, continued.
• In 1983, President Nimeiri, losing support in North, breaches
accords by imposing Sharia law and dividing south into separate
administrative units.
• SPLM and SPLA created in 1983 oppose above, call for a new
Sudan.
• 1985, Nimeiri deposed. Sadiq Al-Mahdi becomes president,
escalates war by arming Baggara militia in West. As possibility of
ending war appears, he is overthrown in 1989 by General Omar AlBashir, whose National Islamic Front espoused a politicized and
intolerant Islam.
• 1985 – 2004, war in the south and Nuba Mountains (1992).
Atrocities:
•
A divide-to-destroy strategy of pitting ethnic groups against each other, with
enormous loss of civilian life
•
The use of mass starvation as a weapon of destruction: manipulation of aid access
and resources
•
Toleration of the enslavement of women and children by government-allied militias
•
The incessant bombing of hospitals, clinics, schools and other civilian and
humanitarian targets
•
Disruption and destabilization of the communities of those who flee the war zones to
other parts of Sudan
•
Widespread persecution on account of race, ethnicity and religion
2 million dead
4 million displaced
Primary victims:
Nuer, Dinka, and Nuba.
Oil.
Peace and War
• Machakos Agreement, July 2002.
• A comprehensive peace agreement signed on January
9, 2005.
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–
–
–
Self-determination after six years
Access to resources and profits from resources
Separation of state and religion
Power sharing
• Darfur, 2003: a place at the table in new Sudan.
• Responding to Darfur, 2003 - today: “genocide by habit”
Genocide Emergency:
Darfur
Who is who?
• Primary victims: Fur, Masaalit, Tunjur, Zaghawa
speakers.
– African languages, people tend to be agriculturalists.
– Rebel groups, Justice and Equality Movement and
the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement, are largely
composed of these ethnic groups.
• Primary perpetrators: largely from Beni Halba
tribe and northern nomadic herders called
“janjaweit.” Supported and armed by the military
of the Sudanese government.
– Speak Arabic, tend to be animal herders.
– Largely attack only civilian sites.
Stakes of the conflict
• Estimates of tens of thousands dead.
Range of numbers from 60,000 – 400,00.
• 1.6 million displaced.
• Some 200,000 refugees in neighboring
Chad.
• Widespread rape.
U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum
Committee on
Conscience
www.ushmm.org/conscience
Update on the conflict
• African union peacekeeping force.
– Currently 3,200
– Up to 7,000 by September
• Negotiations between government and rebel
forces.
– Declaration of principles signed July 6.
– Negotiations continue at end of August.
• John Garang, leader of SPLA sworn as vicepresident of Sudan, July 11, 2005.