Population
30 million
Capital City
Khartoum
Leadership
Head of State
H.E. Lt. General
Omer Hassan
President
Ahmed Al-Bashir
Religion
70% Suni-Muslim
Minorities include:
animists
Christian
Hindu
Sudan
Ambassador
to the
U.S.
Ambassador
His Excellency
Khidir Haroun Ahmed
Embassy of the
Republic of Sudan
2210 Massachusetts
Ave. NW
Washington DC 20008
Phone: (202) 338-8565
Fax: (202) 667-2406
Email
info@
sudanembassyus.org
BIO Sudan has experienced civil war for 34 of the past 45 years. The latest spate erupted in 1989, when the National Islamic
Front (NIF, also known as the National Congress) seized power
from an elected government for the sole purpose of undermining a
peace initiative. The regime espouses Islamism, and in line with this
ideology the NIF decided to institute Sharia law throughout this
religiously and ethnically diverse nation. This led to a resumption
of civil war, which has raged unabated for the last 18 years. Since
then an estimated two million people have died as a result of
violence, man-made famine, and disease, while over four million
have been displaced as the government has waged war against its
own people in the south, in the Nuba mountains, in the Ingessena
Hills and in other marginalized areas of Sudan.
The War in the South
The Government of Sudan (GoS) is opposed by southern armed
forces the largest of which is the Sudan People’s Liberation Army
(SPLM). Prior to his seizure of power, the Sudanese president,
Omar el Bashir played a key role in the Sudanese military assault
on the peoples of southern Sudan. Under his political leadership
the northern Sudanese power elite continues to conduct a policy of
ethnic cleansing against the peoples of southern Sudan who
traditionally inhabit areas surrounding the country’s oil fields in
order to facilitate further exploitation of this resource.
By declaring the civil war a Jihad or holy war, the GoS added a
religious aspect to a conflict that was previously primarily a matter
of race and power - southerners and Nubans are overwhelmingly
of black African descent, northerners are predominantly Arab, and
power lies in the north of the country. The declaration of a Jihad also
facilitates the recruiting of forces and justifies even the most brutal acts
committed against the people of southern Sudan, who are
predominantly Christian or traditional believers.
I'd like to see more
photos please
Read
The Sudan Story
by Dr. Anne D. Zimmerman
Can you recommend
some
other Sudan
websites?
The abuses committed by GoS forces against civilians in the south have been documented by such
reputable human rights organizations as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Christian Aid, as
well as by successive United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Sudan. The regime manipulates aid delivery,
denying access to areas that it has declared ‘No Go’, and attacks installations that are clearly civilian or
humanitarian. Government soldiers and militia groups raid villages, loot livestock, destroy crops and abduct
women and children, often into slavery, in an effort to depopulate oil field areas.
Southern civilians and non-military facilities are frequently bombed by retrofitted, inaccurate Antonov planes.
Targets include hospitals, schools, market places, food distribution centers and churches. For example, on
October 5, 6 and 8, government Antonov planes bombed Mangayath village in Bahr el-Ghazal province
that served as home to 20,000 displaced people in attacks that appeared timed to coincide with the arrival
of the United Nations relief plane which had cleared its landing times with the Sudanese Government.
According to figures compiled by NGOs on the ground, there were seven other aerial attacks on civilian
facilities during September and nine incidents during November 2001. A total of 19 civilians were killed
during the November bombings.
There were no confirmed bombings in December. However, this did not last. The Social Communications
office of the Catholic Diocese of Torit in Eastern Equatoria province recently reported that on January 10,
eight bombs were dropped on the village of Murahatiha, four were dropped on Tirrangore, and 13 on
Hiyala. There have also been authoritative reports from Bahr el-Ghazal indicating that Mading Achoot, a
location a few kilometers from Malualkon, has also recently been bombed (January 6, 2002).
Oil revenues have added new impetus to the civil war. Prior to oil coming on line, the warring parties had
more or less fought each other to a standstill. Oil revenues changed this. The GoS has significantly in-
creased its military expenditure, and its most recent purchase consists of an undisclosed number of Russian
MiG-29 fighter-jets. The GoS has also been able to purchase Hind helicopters, two of which pursued a
relief plane after it took off from an airstrip near Bentiu in early December 2001.
Several international oil companies, such as the China National Petroleum Corporation, Talisman Energy
(Canada), OMV (Austria) and Lundin Oil (Sweden), have purchased oil concessions in Sudan despite
being cognizant, or willfully ignorant of the tactics employed by the GoS in areas surrounding the oilfields.
Southern Sudanese victims of oil production from the province of Western Upper Nile are currently being
helped to sue Talisman Energy in a New York court on behalf of a larger group of plaintiffs for $1 billion in
relief under the Alien Tort Claims Act.
In November 2001 the respected periodical Africa Confidential reported that members of the defunct South
African mercenary outfit Executive Outcomes have regrouped to form an organization known as NFD
and are currently employed by the GoS to train Sudanese special forces officers in counter-insurgency
operations to guard the oil fields. The NFD had been recommended to the GoS by Libyan state security for
which it had undertaken similar work in 1999.
The Abuse of Civil and Political Rights
The El Bashir regime has been systematically abusing the human rights of the Sudanese people since
seizing power. In the north of the country the regime has sought to maintain power by constant illegal
extensions of the state of emergency. The GoS routinely detains and tortures trade unionists, human rights
activists and all other political opponents who object to its undemocratic seizure of power and its abusive
policies. Opponents are subject to arbitrary arrest and detention, and several have been tortured in
specifically designated centers known locally as ‘Ghost Houses’.
Press freedom is routinely and severely curtailed. The BBC and Reuters correspondent, Alfred Taban
underwent a series of arrests last year and was being investigated on possible charges of ‘inciting religious
and racial conflict’. On November 28, 2001 the government announced a lifting of press censorship,
however, newspapers known to be critical of the regime continued to experience censorship until this year,
when it was reported that the restrictions had been lifted in the lead up to Senator Danforth’s visit.
In his most recent report to the UN General Assembly (November 8, 2001), Gerhart Baum, the Special
Rapporteur on Sudan, stated that ‘the human rights situation …has worsened further during the past
months’, and that political freedom had been restricted rather than relaxed during 2001.
Sharia Law
The application of certain punishments stipulated under Sharia Law also provides scope for the abuse of
rights. In Sudan Sharia is applicable to all, regardless of their religious affiliation. In a recent case high-
lighted by the Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) the Sudanese Victims of Torture Group (SVTG)
and the World Organization against Torture (OMCT), a Christian woman, Abok Alfa Akok, was sentenced
to death by stoning following a flawed judicial process in the criminal court in Nyala City, Southern Darfur
for having committed adultery. The entire court proceedings were conducted in Arabic. Abok does not
speak Arabic, was not provided with a translator, and was never made aware of the consequences of
her admission of guilt, which was later retracted. Her co-accused, a Muslim man whom she later insisted
had raped her, denied the charges and was released after Abok failed to produce four witnesses to
corroborate her version of events. The SVTG has engaged a lawyer on her behalf who has launched
an appeal against the sentence. However, a positive outcome is far from certain.
One of the punishments sanctioned by Sharia Law as practised in Sudan is that of cross amputation. This
punishment involves the loss of the right hand and left leg. The SVTG recently received information of the
pending cross amputations. On December 27, 2001 Adam Ibrahim Osman and AbdAllaha Ismail Ibrahim,
both from Alfashir City, were sentenced by the Special Emergency Tribunal to cross amputation (right
hand and left leg) in Alfashir City. These sentences are yet to be carried out.
Although these men were convicted of armed robbery and possession of unlicensed weapons, for which
the prescribed punishment is cross amputation, the use of amputation is itself a violation of the Government
of Sudan's international obligations as a signatory to the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Relations with the USA
For a time Sudan played host to Osama bin Laden following his expulsion from Saudi Arabia. However,
Bin Laden relocated to Afghanistan following US retaliation against Sudan after the bombings of the
American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by his operatives.
While Europe, encouraged by the United Kingdom, has entered into ‘Critical Engagement’ with the
Sudanese regime, relations with the USA remained frosty during Clinton Administration. However, the
GoS saw the advent of the Bush presidency as an opportunity to win over the USA. The arrest and
imprisonment of Hassan al Turabi, the regimes’ chief ideologue, coupled with Sudan’s expressions of
sympathy and offers of help to the US in the aftermath of September 11 persuaded the Bush administration
to end US opposition to the lifting of Security Council sanctions that had been imposed on Sudan in 1997,
when the country sheltered the would be assassins of President Mubarak. Thus in its quest for Muslim
allies in the international ‘War against Terrorism’, the US Administration overlooked the fact that Sudan
practices internal, state terrorism against its own people.
The Bush Administration is alleged to have prevailed upon the US Congress to put aside any work on the
Sudan Peace Act, which passed the House of Representatives and which would have allowed for foreign
oil companies doing business in Sudan to be barred from selling shares and other securities in the United "
States. Instead the Senate passed a version of the Act that did not include the stock-market sanctions, and
in September, the Congress (House and Senate combined) backed away from establishing a committee to
reconcile the differences betweens the two versions of the bill and differences between the House of
Representatives and the State Department over its contents. However, President Bush extended US
sanctions imposed in November 1997 by the Clinton regime for one year. The President said he had
maintained the sanctions against Sudan because of "continuing concern about its record on terrorism and
the prevalence of human rights violations," including slavery and restrictions on political and religious
freedom.
The US Special Envoy to Sudan succeeded in persuading the GoS to finally allow aid into the Nuba
Mountains in central Sudan, where a ferocious government onslaught has been unleashed, causing the
population to dwindle to fewer than 500,000 from over 1 million in 1985. However, not only did the GoS
bomb the Nuba on the eve of Senator Danforth’s first visit, the GoS also took advantage of the temporary
cease-fire negotiated by the Senator as part of a package of confidence building measures to attack
community leaders in the Nuba, the most prominent of whom was Judge Agostino el Nur Shamila, who
was assassinated in November 2001.
Senator Danforth is currently in Sudan. He had planned to visit Eritrea prior to flying to Sudan but instead
rushed straight to Khartoum following reports from United Nations personnel that the GoS had violated the
Nuba Mountain cease-fire.
The Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A)
The SPLA is the main southern guerrilla force fighting the NIF regime, and controls vast portions of
southern Sudan. Since 1997, SPLA has controlled a region larger than France where it has set up civil
structures, despite having limited resources.
SPLA soldiers have at times been accused of abuses of human rights, including rape and looting. The
SPLA has also been criticized for recruiting child soldiers, and for curtailing freedom in areas under its
control. However, the SPLA appears aware of these failings and of the need to address them. In
February 2001, the SPLA demobilized more than 2,500 former child soldiers aged between eight and
18 in accordance with an agreement with UNICEF. The SPLA also appointed a representative to the
United Nations High Commission for Human Rights charged with securing international assistance for
human rights training for soldiers and administrators of civil society. Recently the SPLA announced that in
the interests of the liberation struggle the organization had merged with its former rival, the Sudan Peoples
Defense force (SPDF), under the name SPLM/SPLA, and had agreed that the new entity should be
governed by collective leadership.
Peace Initiatives
The main parties to the conflict, and neighboring countries affected by the conflict, have met since 1993
under the auspices of a regional arrangement called the Inter Governmental Authority on Development
(IGAD). A second peace initiative is the Libya/Egypt Initiative, known as LEI. The IGAD Declaration of
Principles (DOP) entitles the south and other marginalized areas of the country to a referendum on
self-determination. It also allows for the separation of religion and state. The GoS has agreed to the DOP,
but began advocating the LEI initiative, which does not allow for self-determination, and which the
southerners see as an attempt to weaken the provisions within IGAD. Consequently both proposals
stalled for a season. Peace talks brokered by Nigeria also stalled.
However, a new round of IGAD talks began in Khartoum on January 12, 2002, and it was recently
announced that the IGAD chairman, President Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya, has been mandated to merge
IGAD with the LEI. It remains to be seen if provisions for self-determination and a separation of religion and
state survive the merger process, particularly in view of the fact that Sudan has been wooing fellow IGAD
states with offers of cheap oil.
A new peace initiative emerged on January 10, when the SPLA and the GoS were invited to talks on a
limited ceasefire in a joint Swiss-US initiative. Negotiations will initially focus on a limited but renewable
ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains. However, given the GoS violations of earlier limited ceasefire provisions
in the Nuba, it is clear that a strong and credible verification and monitoring system will need to be in place
to enforce compliance.