Mahgoub El-Tigani

The SHRO-Cairo Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Sudan (June 1 – September 30, 2003) reported continuous war effort by the Sudan Government versus the ethically-identified African-descent Sudanese of DarFur. The Sudan Liberation Movement and Army equally continue to fight government and militias troops. The result is a disastrous situation typical of war wherever it occurs on both sides, especially among civilians.

The civilian victims are estimated in thousands, mostly women, children, and aged people, according to reliable information by inside informants, human rights and democracy groups of the victimized population, news agencies, and other sources.

The murderous regime of Khartoum, however, continues to massacre people without saying a word about the civilian victims or establishments – an attitude that only war-mongers did throughout the episodes of war, which is the worst waste of humanity, worldwide. The government only had a few words to say about the “martyring” army regulars who in fact were bureaucratically compelled, as always, to bloodshed their own kin and kith for a worthless salary (since a high percentage of state budget is heavily wasted in arms’ commissions plus all kinds of privileges for senior NIF officers to continue the war) or a falsified motive of “defending Faith and the Homeland,” as the NIF strategists/executives heretically endorsed against the genuine ethos of religion, Sudanese heritage, and international norms.

Without collective, consistent, and strong action by both armed forces and civilian democrats there is no near end for a ruling Brotherhood killing policy that is firmly based on a hallucinating ideology of “kill to rule, torture to master, and rub to thrive” – the Hassan Turabi’s Holy Commandments that, for sure, have been blindly obeyed by his fascinated disciples (including Omer Bashir, ‘Ali Osman, Bakri Hassan Salih, Professor Ibrahim the Jihad education planner and executive (together with the former leftist ‘Abdel-Basit Sabdarat), Dr. ‘Ali Nafi’ (a former academician), al-Tayeb Sikha (a former physician) and the other well-known NIF Beasts of Sudan) to the extent of pushing master Turabi out of the way because he signed a letter of understanding with the SPLM (thus ‘politically’ showing a little bit of remorse) for the hundreds of thousands of the Sudanese innocent people he, Bashir, Osman, and the other Brotherhood rulers have been most actively victimizing for more than a decade with the most sophisticated war machines all over the country, especially the South.

Among all this list of NIF State-sponsored egregious crimes, the al-Bashir tyranny never hesitated to incite and then to escalate a war of genocide against the DarFur indigenous peoples who went in rebellion against the injustices of the ruling regime following a longer list of economic disparities, political failures, and mal-administration of the DarFur region: the immediate and continuous outcome is this horrible war between the Sudan Government accompanied with Arab-supported militias versus the DarFur Sudanese African groups, namely the Zagawa, Massaleit, Fur, and many others.

The SHRO-Cairo report that the victims’ ages of the DarFur ethnically-identified African-descent citizens are mostly in the late 40s or above 60s indicate the brutality of the genocide the Sudan Government is now waging: the savage retaliation campaign is selectively killing the elderly, the women, and the children. So, where are the young ones?! The Sudan Government armies and Arab-militias are not virtually fighting the Zagawa or the Massaleit youth who took up the arms to force the government to straighten out State policies and practices, regardless of the huge casualties among the warring sides: individuals, families, communities, and the whole nation. The failures of Sudan Government to subdue Sudanese rebellions are endless: they never succeeded in the South Mountains, the Ingessana Hills, the Red Sea Hills, or the Nuba Mountains. Should the war continues in DarFur, the government military failures will drag on for decades in the Jebel Merra Mountains.

The meaningless NIF conscription that is brutalizing Sudan children with the Muslim Brotherhood jihad indoctrination in all stages of education, is practically projected and actually implemented by the massacring of thousands of the innocent citizens who were extra-judicially killed or persecuted with endless ordeals of intimidation, tortures, and displacement; the conscripting ruling beasts go on and on, nonetheless, to waste the lives of hundreds of army officers and regulars who certainly, at some point, would have to say “No! Enough is enough!” as they did in the preceding times.

The Sudanese Army must move as it did before, under the heroic command of the late General Fathi Ahmed ‘Ali, with a collective memorandum rejecting the war effort in DarFur and asking for State-principled stand for a comprehensive peace political agreement; not simply a cease-fire or security exchange.

Ironically, most if not all of the NIF senior army officers were signatory to the General’s Peace Ultimatum in February 1988 before Bashir was “carefully” recruited by ‘Ali Osman for a most miserable role to play (not less than destroying the modern, democratically developing Sudan) via the June 1989 disastrous coup. The Brigadier is still the same: intellectually confused; but remarkably determined to satisfy the hunger of his everlasting mentor ‘Ali Osman to conquer the Sudanese state and society, including the encouragement of female circumcision in support of the Brotherhood imams (so-called ‘ulama) although the “president’s” health minister together with a government-sponsored conference of health specialists called for a full stoppage of this horrible transgressing practice against women bodies.

The new arrangements of the security/military situation between the Sudan Government and the SPLM should help with the cease-fire under way to allow army officers and regulars of the Sudanese Armed Forces (particularly in the North!) to reject further NIF deployments to DarFur to subdue the rebellion by force, as the state’s armed forces were wrongfully made to kill the innocent citizens of the South for decades in obedience of remorseless rulers, especially the Brotherhood Beasts.

War will never solve the dilemma of DarFur. Only democratic peace negotiations would. Towards this end, the ruling NIF Brotherhood must suffer a strong diplomatic, political, and economic pressure both nationally and internationally. The NDA would have to show in the streets.

The DarFur Liberation Movement and Army, the government troops and the Arab militias must stop all military operations. The Machekos Protocol is a possible ongoing platform; still it has to embrace equally all Sudanese opposition groups, especially the National Democratic Alliance and the Civil Society groups.

There is no viable solution for the Sudan’s Crisis without an All-Sudanese Constitutional Conference; that is the Sudanese way for which there is no substitute, whatever, in the final analysis.

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The Sudanese Human Rights Quarterly Issue 16, October 2003 reports:

THE WESTERN SUDAN CIVIL WAR These four months witnessed continuous escalation of hostilities in DarFur. Armed operations led to grievous losses in the lives of thousands of people, besides the displacement of tens of thousands from villages. In June and July, the government troops and the government-controlled militias killed almost 3,000 people, displaced about 100,000 citizens mostly women and children, demolished about 100 villages, and buried or poisoned many waterholes or wells. The areas severely attacked were Kabkabiya, al-Tinna, Kutum, Kadjanbar (east of the Merra Mountains), Wadi Salih, Mifgar, Kas, and Kornoy.

A few examples of the armed conflict in the region manifested the invasion by government troops and militias accompanied by the PDFs and the Ganjoid (Arab militias) of the Kurma area (78 kilometers west of al-Fashir). Tens of the innocent citizens were killed between the 17th and the 19th of June. The names of the murdered citizens or those bodily hurt included Mutasim ‘Abd-Allah Haroun Suliman (student, 19 years old); Ibrahim Humaid (Chief of the Diladima village, 50 years old); Humaid Mohamed ‘Abd-Allah (farmer, 35); Mohamedain Ibrahim (farmer, 41); Isma’il Mohamed (farmer in his 40ies); Adam Yaqoub (farmer, 50); Ibrahim Suliman ‘Abd-al-Rasoul (farmer, 45); Mohamed Adam Haroun (farmer, 40); Surkab Adam (farmer, 47); and Khadija Mohamed Suliman (housewife, in her 30ies). The invasion sacked and then demolished the villages of Joortoba, Bibi, Diladima, Jumba, Roma, Umleyona, Korron, Tartura, Tangolat, Ustani, and Tamarang. Many villagers were hurt, including ‘Abd-Allah Tibin Mohamed (40ies), Abbakar Haroun Abbakar (40), Mohamed ‘Abd-Allah ‘Abd-al-Rasoul (40), and Mohamed Adam Salih (40).

The Friday morning of July 25 witnessed the attack of government troops with Arab militias invading the village of Shoba, to the south of the Kabkabiya town in Northern DarFur. The invasion caused the death of 14 citizens and the injury of many elderly. The murdered citizens were Isma’il Adam Tura (63), Mohamed Adam Tura (70), Adam Mohamed Musa (80), Ishaq Bakr Haroun (78), ‘Abd-Allah Abbakar Omar (75), Siddiq Adam Suliman (68), Mohamed ‘Id (60), Musa Daoud, Mohamed Ahmed Bukhari (55), Yahiya Mohamed Salami (45), Mohamed Idris Adam Suliman (28), Mohamed Ishaq Atim (23), ‘Ali Adam Suliman (70), and Nouradeen Siddiq Adam (13). The injured party included Halima ‘Abd-Allah Ahmed (78), Adam Mohamed Ahmed Shugar (43), and Khatir Salih Mohamed (32).

The government troops and Arab militias launched revengeful attacks in DarFur in response to the occupation of SLA troops of the city of Kutum in August 1. The acts of revenge targeted the Zagawa, Fur, Massaleit and other African-descent ethnicities. Between the 5th and the 7th of August, the government troops extra-judicially killed about 300 suspects following the withdrawal of the SLA force from the city. The vengeance was meant to terrorize the African-descent citizens in the city. Subsequently, the governor of the region, Yousif Kabir, admitted the occurrence of the invasion saying that, “it was run by militias that claimed some connection with the government.”

On August 18, governmental attacks covered 19 villages to the south and west of al-Jinaina city. In these attacks, whole villages were destroyed in Tarbiba, Kassiya, Shishta, Haraza, and other villages around Bayda town. The attacks killed about 50 Massaleit, Dago, and Singer peoples. On August 19, more attacks killed 10 citizens in Khazan Abu Jadeed, Tawila, Hajir, and other villages.

The severe military actions in the region devastated the African-descent peoples, leading hundreds of thousands of the terrorized population to desert their residential areas to seek protection in the big cities. The health and the education conditions largely deteriorated. The food situation eventually worsened through the demolishment of the villagers’ provision. On August 25, for example, Arab militias sacked a store of grain, a health unit, and a local market in the village of Mado of the Sayah district. This state of affairs blocked the arrival of relief to the area. The Kutum authorities, moreover, suspended relief activities for 6 months in Kutum, and they put a hold on the Kabkabiya relief activity.

Despite the cease-fire agreement signed in September (eventually implemented starting September 6) between the Sudan Government and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), the government troops killed 76 civilians on September 13 at the Kashaba area north of Kutum, and further attacked Abuliya where 16 civilians were also killed. On September 22, the troops demolished a number of villages in the Wadi Salih, Kutum, and Jebel Marrah areas.

AERIAL RAIDS OF CIVILIANS The government air force operated the aerial raiding of 20 villages or more in western Sudan throughout the days of June 17, 18, and 19 - thus murdering 300 villagers and injuring at least 200 people. The SLM accused the government of using poisonous gas in the bombardment; however, no investigation was conduced about this accusation.

5:30 to 7 p.m. in the evening of Saturday June 21, a government air fighter repeatedly attacked Koroni (250 kilometers to the north-west of al-Fashir) to destroy a well used by the villagers for drinking water. The aerial bombardment led to the extra-judicial killing of these villagers among others: Abbakar Yousif shumu Haroun (student, 15); ‘Aysha ‘Uthman Nour (housewife, 25); Zainab ‘Uthman (student, 13); Nidal Isma’il (child, 7); Khadiga Barido Haqo (housewife, 32); Mohamed Ahmed (student, 17); Mohamed ‘Abd-Allah Isma’il (shepherd, 20); Fatima Mohamed Isma’il (housewife, 38); and Safa Mohamed ‘Ali (housewife, 40). The aerial invasion wasted the cattle, sheep, horses, and camels of the villagers; destroyed 87 houses; and forced 20,000 civilians to leave the area in search of safety around the cities.

August 27, a government antinov attacked Habila and other villages to the south of Jinaina. This attack killed 27 Massaleit and seriously wounded 33 persons. Many of the murdered civilians were women and children including Sa’adiya ‘Abdel-Rahman Arbab, Sa’adiya Mohamed Matar, Magda Yaqoub, Taqwa Musa Belal, Fatima Ahmed Mohamed, Halima ‘Abd-Allah Adam, Fatima ‘Abd-Allah Yahya, Zahra ‘Abd-Allah Yahya, Moniyra Adam ‘Abdel-Karim, Sa’ida Harran, Zainab Ahmed Yousif, Nada ‘Abdel-Magid Mohamed ‘Ali, Weam ‘Abdel-Mageed Mohamed ‘Ali, Halima Adam Bella, and Safa Yaqoub. Among the murdered males (including children) were Mustafa ‘Abdel-Rahman Arbab, Ibrahim Hassan, Zahir Adam ‘Abdel-Karim, ‘Abdel-Latif ‘Abdel-Rahman Ishaq, Ahmed Omar Shu’aib, Abbakar Haroun Isma’il, Torbo Younis Hamdi, Omar Adam Bahar, Hamdan Bahar Khair-Allah, and ‘Abdel-Rahman Nabbi (a child). Among the wounded civilians were ‘Ida Ahmed Hussain, Marwa Yaqoub Ibrahim Hassan, Safa Yaqoub Ibrahim Hassan, Roqaiya Suliman Ahmed, Tayba Ishaq Abbakar, ‘Aysha Tajadeen ‘Abdel-Rahman, Haja Ahmed Mohamed, Um al-Nas Syam, Fatoma Mohamed Adam, Fatima Mohamed ‘Ali, Roqaya ‘Uthman ‘Abboud, Mohamed Yousif ‘Ali, ‘Abd-Allah Qamar Mohamed, Yousif Adam Zakariya, Ishaq al-Toam Ibrahim, ‘Abd-Allah ‘Ali Mustafa, Mohamed Qamar ‘Abd-Allah, Mubarak ‘Abd-Allah Mohamed, Mohamed Haroun Ahmed, al-Tayeb ‘Abdel-Rahim Adam, Siddiq Syam Ibrahim, ‘Abd-Allah al-Goani E’issa, Abubakar ‘Abdel-Rahman Arbab, Adam ‘Abd-Allah Yahya Omar, Omar Ibrahim Mohamed Abubakar, Habib Abubakar Mahmoud, Jum’a Mohamed Ishaq, Mohamed ‘Abdel-Mageed Mohamed, Jum’a Omar Musa, Mohamed Ibrahim Khamis, Ayoub Adam Yaqoub, Daoud Adam Mohamed al-Merghani, and Ishaq al-Toam Ibrahim.

In September, antinov fighters and other helicopters attacked with machine guns the Kornoy area, Disa, Ambro, Tina, Morni, Sabra, Saliya, Um Sayal, Korngo, Hamra, Daya and other villages.