Darfur Crisis Has Complex Roots with No Immediate Solution
http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=A8098E:2F72C9DCivil war in western Sudan erupted February 2003, when armed
rebel group began a series of attacks on government forces and
installations
African Union cease-fire monitorSince rebel groups in the Darfur
region of western Sudan took up arms against the government nearly two
years ago, the violence has resulted in what the United Nations says
is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. From our East Africa
Bureau in Nairobi, VOA correspondent Alisha Ryu examines the roots of
the conflict and the enormous difficulties mediators face in trying to
end the war.
The civil war in western Sudan erupted in February 2003, when an armed
rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), began a series of
attacks on government forces and installations in the region.
The Muslim Darfur-based rebels, made up of members of local tribes,
say they launched the war to force an end to decades of political
marginalization and economic neglect by the Arab-dominated government
in Khartoum.
The SLA says it was also following the example of the southern-based
Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), which fought a devastating
20-year war with Khartoum for a similar cause, and was able to force
the Sudanese government to begin negotiating for a power- and
wealth-sharing peace deal.
After taking several key towns from government forces, the SLA linked
up with another rebel group in Darfur, the Justice and Equality
Movement, whose members come mostly from the powerful Zagawa tribe.
Richard Cornwell According to Sudan expert Richard Cornwell at the
South African-based Institute of Security Studies, many Sudanese
believe this rebel group formed as a result of a power struggle in
1999 between Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and a former
political ally, Hassan al-Turabi.
Mr. Turabi, who is a Zagawa, lost the power struggle, but remained a
popular figure in Sudan. The United Nations has called the Darfur
conflict the world's worst humanitarian disaster. Mr. Cornwell says it
may have started, at least in part, as a power play.
"The Turabi link is very important," said Richard Cornwell. "I mean
there are some people who are of the opinion that Turabi's supporters
in Khartoum and Darfur deliberately manufactured this crisis with a
view of taking power."
Since the beginning of the uprising in Darfur, the United Nations
estimates that nearly 70,000 civilians have been killed and more than
a million and a half others displaced.
The United States, United Nations and human rights groups believe
rebel groups have committed their share of atrocities in the war. But
most of the civilian suffering, they say, has been caused by violence
perpetrated by the Sudanese government and its ally, the ethnic-Arab
militia known as the Janjaweed.
An investigator with the human rights group Amnesty International,
Benedict Goderiaux, describes the brutal way the Khartoum government
has been responding to the rebellion in Darfur.
"What the civilians are subjected to is indiscriminate bombings by the
Sudanese air force and more importantly, ground attacks by the
Janjaweed, often accompanied by Sudanese army soldiers, who circle the
village, kill people, beat women, sometimes rape women and girls, and
then burn the homes, destroy the crops and loot the cattle," said
Benedict Goderiaux.
The Sudanese government vehemently denies charges by the United States
and the United Nations that it has been conducting ethnic cleansing,
if not outright genocide, in Darfur. The government maintains that it
is merely acting to defend against a rebellion that threatens national
stability. Khartoum also denies charges it is supporting and arming
the Janjaweed.
Observers say the government may have had little choice but to use the
Janjaweed as a proxy army. They say many men in the Sudanese army come
from Darfur would likely not have been enthusiastic about attacking
people in their own region.
Analyst Richard Cornwell adds that Khartoum's decision to crush the
Darfur rebellion could have also stemmed from a fear of having to
negotiate another power and wealth sharing deal soon after making
similar concessions to southern SPLA rebels.
"It could be that they're genuinely fearful that the concessions that
they've made to the SPLA in the south, whether they intend to carry
them out or not, has put them in jeopardy and they have to react in a
stronger fashion," he said.
There is evidence that officials in Khartoum view the Darfur rebel
movement as a serious threat to their 15 year hold on power.
The government has repeatedly accused the Darfur rebels, particularly
the SLA, of having military ties with the southern rebels, and with
neighboring Eritrea, which has long supported another rebel group on
Sudan's eastern border.
Sudan says that both Eritrea and the SPLA have been secretly supplying
money and arms to the Darfur rebels in a bid to form political and
military alliances strong enough to overthrow the government in
Khartoum.
Eritrea and the SPLA deny supporting the Darfur rebels. But in an
interview with VOA last August, a senior military spokesman for the
Justice and Equality Movement, Omar Adam, said that changing the
leadership in Khartoum is a goal all the rebel groups in Sudan share.
"We believe that the best way to solve the Sudanese conflict, whether
in the west or the south or in the east, is regime change because the
Khartoum government is responsible for what's going on in Sudan," said
Omar Adam.
Given the complex circumstances and open hostility between Khartoum
and rebel groups, few observers are surprised that Darfur peace talks
sponsored by the African Union seem to be making little, if any,
progress. Indeed mediators are having trouble even keeping the talks
going.