Transcript Sudan: Civil War & Darfur

Sudan:
Civil War, Independence & Darfur
MAPS as of 7/2011
Republic of Sudan
South Sudan
-1899-1956: Egypt and UK have joint
authority on Sudan (Egypt- North, UK- South)
-Independence 1956 from UK
-UK gave power to Islamic Khartoum…
• 1956-1972
• Cause
1st Civil
War
– General Ibrahim Abboud tried to Islamize South
• Police force/ guerilla forces Anya-Nya (snake poison)
resisted
– 1969: Jaafar al-Nimeiri military coup in North
– Cold War
• USSR-North, USA-South
• Peace
– 1972
– Addis Ababa Peace Agreement
• Power sharing between North and South
• BUT wealth and power in the NORTH
• Years: 1983-2002(3)
• Cause:
– Nimeiri• Encouraged forced Islam-ization of South and allowed exiled Islamic leaders &
terrorists back in country.
• Issued the “September Laws”:
– Sudan became an Islamic state (Arabic official language, Sharia Law)
– Oil discovered in South!
• Major Players
– SPLA
• Major Southern Army/ Resistance group
• Sudanese People’s Liberation Army
• Led by John Garang of the Dinka Tribe
– Omar Al-Bashir
• Sudanese President from 1989-today
• Violent crackdown on South
2nd Civil
War
– Lost Boys
• Refugees from the 2nd Sudanese Civil War (1980’s)
• Peace Treaty
– North/South Peace Process- 2002
– Goal was to provide a referendum for Southern Independence
• Effective!
– Yes to referendum!
– Did NOT address problems of Northern Minorities
Lost Boys of Sudan
• Since 1983, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and
the Sudanese Government have been at war in southern
Sudan. The conflict has already claimed more than 500,000
lives and displaced huge numbers of people. Among these
were at least 20,000 children, mostly boys, between 7 and 17
years of age who were separated from their families. These
'lost boys' of the Sudan trekked enormous distances over a
vast unforgiving wilderness, seeking refuge from the fighting.
Hungry, frightened and weakened by sleeplessness and
disease, they crossed from the Sudan into Ethiopia and back,
with many dying along the way. The survivors are now in
camps in Kenya, the Sudan and Uganda.
• Documentary
• 60 minutes
2002/2003 Peace Agreement
Referendum on Independence…
• South Sudan takes first steps to independence
– Historic election is marked by new fears of Khartoum-inspired violence.
Daniel Howden reports from Bor
– Monday, 12 April 2010
• Bashir wins Sudan election. Now what?
– Sudan announced today that President Omar al-Bashir won the April
11-15 Sudan election n that Critics call a sham. Supporters say it gives
the longtime military ruler new legitimacy.
– By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer / April 26, 2010
• Sudan's Bashir promises southern independence vote on time
– Khartoum. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vowed a promised
referendum on independence for the south will go ahead as planned in
January next year after he was declared winner of a landmark national
election, AFP reports.
"I assure (you) the referendum in south Sudan will take place on
schedule," Bashir said in an address carried by state television.
– 26 April 2010 | 18:41 | FOCUS News Agency
Independence and beyond
• Important Facts:
– January 9th, 2011: South Sudan begins voting on Independence
video
– January 15th, 2011: Voting for independence closes article
– February: Independence confirmed article
• Q & A:
– Article
• Independence July 9th, 2011
• Today:
– Brink of war (CNN explains)
– The South Sudanese government and military, dominated by the
Dinka ethnic group of President Salva Kiir, is fighting rebels
allied with former Vice President Riek Machar of the Nuer ethnic
group
– At stake for now is control of oil-rich regions responsible for more
than 95% of the country's economy, and perhaps leadership of
the country.
• UN:
Genocide:
– The government of Sudan and militias have acted
together in committing widespread atrocities in
Darfur that should be prosecuted by an
international war crimes tribunal, but the violent
acts do not amount to genocide, a U.N.
commission has said. (CNN)
• US:
– The United States was the first to label the killing
genocide. In Sept. 2004, then-Secretary of State
Colin Powell said, "This was a coordinated effort,
not just random violence."
•
The genocide in the Darfur region of western Sudan began
in 2003, when the government of Sudan began sponsoring
attacks against the people of Darfur. The genocide has claimed
400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people.
•
About the size of Texas, the Darfur region is home to
racially mixed tribes of settled peasants, who identify as African,
and nomadic herders, who identify as Arab. The majority of
people in both groups are Muslim.
•
In February 2003, frustrated by poverty and neglect from
the government in Khartoum (the Sudanese capital), two
Darfurian rebel groups launched an uprising against the
Khartoum government. Claiming to be putting down the
Refugees in Menawashi, Darfur
insurrection, the government responded with a scorchedearth campaign against the innocent civilians of Darfur,
enlisting the janjaweed, a militia drawn from members of
Arab tribes in the region, to perpetrate the attacks.
•
Since February 2003, the government-sponsored
Janjaweed have used rape, displacement, organized starvation,
threats against aid workers, and mass murder.
TIMELINE:
•In March 2003, violence broke out between the government and
rebels from Darfur. Nearly 300 thousand people were killed over a
decade of fighting and famine.
•In 2009, the rebels signed a peace agreement with the
government during talks in the Qatari capital but not everyone
accepted the deal.
•April 2013, world leaders begin rebuilding process at a conference
in Doha, Qatar
Darfur
The International Criminal Court is
accepting supporting evidence of children's
drawings of the alleged crimes committed in
Darfur. This sketch by Abdul Maggit depicts
a typical scene of destruction.
Omar Al-Bashir
*President of Sudan
*Charged with genocide by ICC
• 2009:
– “We will NOT bow to
colonialists!”
• 2011:
– “Conflict in Darfur
my responsibility”
• On March 4, 2009 Sudanese
President Omar al Bashir,
became the first sitting
president to be indicted by ICC
for directing a campaign of
mass killing, rape, and pillage
against civilians in Darfur. The
arrest warrant for Bashir
follows arrest warrants issued
by the ICC for former
Sudanese Minister of State for
the Interior Ahmad Harun and
Janjaweed militia leader Ali
Kushayb. The government of
Sudan has not surrendered
either suspect to the ICC.
•
Doha
Accords
Agreement between JEM (largest rebel group)
and
Khartoum Feb 2009.
– “step in the right direction to ending the six-year conflict, but
there is still a long way to go”
– But: “Some experts have serious doubts about whether the
accord can be turned into a significant peace settlement for
Darfur”
• "The proof will be in what happens next," says Sudan expert Alex
De Waal.
– SLA: “Khartoum wants opposition fragmentation.”
• These talks, he claims, are a government tactic to avoid the
International Criminal Court indicting the country's president.
• With the signing of a ceasefire agreement between
the Justice and Equality Movement and Sudan's
president, the BBC's James Copnall considers if
Darfur will find real peace.
Doha 2013
• Rebuilding Darfur: Should international donations be spent on
building infrastructure or on facilitating peace keeping
measures?
• CNN STORY
– Ten years after the start of the fighting in Darfur, world leaders say it is
time to rebuild.
– Delegates from around the world have arrived in Doha, Qatar's capital,
with the objective to raise billions of dollars to pay for infrastructure, food
and clean water.
– The UK took a lead role on Sunday, pledging $16.5m before the
conference began but other countries still have a long way to go to
reach their goal of more than $7bn.
– The UN says it needs more than $170m a year to provide humanitarian
assistance to refugees displaced by the conflict - hundreds of thousands
of Darfur refugees are still living in neighbouring Chad. And while many
say they dream of going home, they are also afraid of what awaits
them.
• “This conference will address a major question, that after 10 years of war and
destruction, let us take Darfur to another step; from relief, from emergency - let
them take these people to development, to reconstruction and let them have a
positive message [for] the people of Darfur, that the entire world is with you and
that through peace and stability you can rebuild your country and you can make
Darfur again powerful and prosperous.
”
– Atta al-Mannan Bakhait, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperaton
How to Prevent the Next Darfur
The world's worst man-made disaster highlights the
potentially catstrophic effects of climate change on
Africa (see TIME article)