Darfur Referendum, another Victory for Doha Peace Document (DDPD) (Triumph Over Fear (2)
Washington’s implicit approach towards Darfur was somehow explicitly accentuated by its fully sponsored organ; “the Save Darfur movement”, which is basically designed to further destabilize the country. Prof.Mahmood Mamdani, was true, when he says that “Save Darfur” has become adept at commodifying human suffering, and marketing it. It has turned human rights activism into an entrepreneurial activity. “Save Darfur” is not a peace movement but a mobilization for war. Every one of “Save Darfur’s” mobilizing demand – from the demand for sanctions, or disinvestment, or a no fly zone – are so many steps in a war dance. "
Prof. Mamdani adds “Save Darfur’s” core interest is not reform, but punishment. Like the War on Terror, “Save Darfur” obscures the political and social causes of violence. Indeed, any attempt to discuss the causes of violence is seen as, detracting from the “suffering’ of victims”. The overriding claim is that violence is its own explanation, so that the only way to end violence is more violence. From this point of view, violence is not only the problem; it is also the solution. "
For years the “Save Darfur coalition” has been pumping out a message about an ongoing genocide which is essentially untrue. By massively inflating the real death toll and offering what seems to be the most ‘common sense’ solution – send in western troops – it has put all the other humanitarian agencies and human rights groups at a massive disadvantage when it came to fundraising and ensured that it is its own message that has dominated the debate.
There are wide allegations that millions of “Save Darfur” dollars fundraised on sympathy for victims’ platform has been misappropriated. Such organization, at the end of the day, is accountable to no one, it helps no one and it has created a self-perpetuating circle, which in any other industry could get its organizers’ prosecuted for fraud.
Having mentioned the word ‘fraud’, let us be reminded how history has recorded, with utmost bitterness, how a renowned NGO as Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and its cronies, for instance, have campaigned for years, in the name of the so called slave redemption in the Sudan. How that highly publicized redemptions managed to touch millions of hearts - and wallets – across the world but particularly in the United States.
How millions of dollars have been raised, turning Slavery into a fundraising phenomenon at that time, making of "poor " Sudan , the most high-profile African cause in the US since apartheid. Shows like celebrities and politicians chaining themselves to railings in protest, Pop stars giving free concerts. Little girls have giving their lunch money, became the undisputed breaking news.
However, the moment of truth was bound to come, few years later, the world good conscience, was in a bitter ‘rendezvous with reality’; the whole saga of the so called slave-redemption, soon proved to be nothing but, a false promise; a careful deceit, stage-managed by corrupt western NGOs officials .That seemingly noble endeavor, of the so called slave redemption in Sudan, was in most cases, nothing more than an elaborate scam.
Khartoum insists that the unrest in Darfur has now almost ended, and the very successful conduct of April Administrative Referendum, is a clear testimony of security and normalcy returning to the war- scarred region. Funds spent on UNAMID operations and personnel which exceeds 1.2 billion dollars a year, the bulk of which is spent purchasing of big vehicles, paying huge salaries, renting big apartments for staffs... Extra, should be better diverted to contribute in addressing the very root cause of the conflict in Darfur, namely development
Prof. Mamdani enumerates three major causes for the conflict in Darfur; Britain role in dividing up the land in Darfur into many tribal homelands, except that it favored settled over nomadic tribes so much that the camel nomads of the north were given not tribal homeland.
Then came the role 40-year drought and desertification, which led to an extension of the Sahara southward boundary by almost 100 kilometers, forcing the nomads to move south, the result was a classical ecological conflict between nomads and peasants over the best resourced land in central Darfur.
Finally, the spillover from the civil war in Chad in the mid-1980s, militarizing Darfur .which was according to Prof. Mamdani, the direct effect of Ronald Reagan's presidency, which led to an expansion of the Cold War into this part of Africa.
The essential lesson has yet to learned , all multi-ethnic states are inherently fragile, even in Western Europe, witness Belgium, Spain and even the UK, they are all prone to break up if destabilized. Naturally Sudan should not be an exception.
Over the past decade a general consensus amongst scholars, practitioners of peace building as well as publics of war-torn societies has emerged on the need of balancing of reconciliation and justice. South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is now part of the standard repertoire of international peace building activities and are routinely included in negotiated peace settlement.
Likewise accountability and reconciliation, signed in late June 2007 by the government of Uganda and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), could have been a major step towards ending to the long and cruel civil war in the northern part of Uganda, which was unfortunately subsequently thwarted by the negative intervention of the ICC in the conflict.
Somewhat similar mechanism has been evident elsewhere in the world; in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia, in Spain after the demise of the Franco regime, where amnesia was the outcome of a negotiated compromise between the successor elites, or impunity was established through formal amnesty legislation: Pinochet’s Chile at the end of the 1970s remains a striking example.
Again, likewise in Darfur, yet before the current repugnant foreign intervention, traditional justice and reconciliation system of “ judiya” and the “ajawid” has been successfully adapted and evolved during the long years of violent conflicts; showing how local communities in Darfur do regulate conflict in their midst. Against all odds, all hope that traditional leaders in Darfur community, working within the framework of traditional justice, are sincerely allowed to exercise their historical role in restoring normalcy and security to Darfur.
By Mubarak M.Musa Diplomat; Sudan Embassy Kiev
sudanvisiondaily.com
