SHRO Cairo Reports

November 4, 2001

PROPOSED PROGRAM OF ACTION TO STOP SOUTH SUDANESE HOLOCAUST

Since mid decades of the former century to the present decade of this century, the civil war between the central governments of Sudan and the People of South Sudan resulted in a holocaust of 2 million South Sudanese, as well as hundreds of thousands of the other warring groups.

Shadows of the Mundukurus - Khalid Kodi

Unlike many places in the planet, however, this horrific war continues unabated while the International Community, Organization of African Unity, the Arab League, and even the United Nations hardly exerted sufficient effort to resolve the deep political crisis that underlies this astronomical tragedy. In the course of the war, the social life was virtually devastated, the animal wealth of many indigenous groups largely perished and civilian establishments, including schools, hospitals, and worshipping places were savagely destroyed by the government’s offensive.

In all these decades, the governments of the North claimed sovereignty over the South only to inflict destruction policies that did a great harm to the necessary climate of confidence between the two parts of the country. Since independence of the Sudan in 1956 up to this moment, not a single development establishment was ever made in the South Sudan similar to the huge development schemes of the North.

The recent discoveries of oil in Bantiu and other southern locations brought additional suffering to the South Sudanese as the existing terrorist government of Khartoum applies acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, enslavement, and other crimes against humanity to crush the legitimate resistance of the South Sudanese vis-à-vis these heinous attacks.

The Palestinian-Israeli civil striving that often amounted to a full battlefield between the armored troops of Israel versus the unarmed civilian Palestinians generated a great attention following the Intifadah Uprising of the Palestinians to establish a Palestinian State in the Palestinian territories. The most recent war in Afghanistan created more international concerns as more States play an active role to put an end to the armed conflict of that nation.

In both cases of the Israeli-Palestinian armed conflict and the warring operations of the US-led anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan, including the Afghan internal engagements, the international, the Arab, and the African media presented a daily coverage of the disaster of these conflicts. The media coverage apparently motivated the world to call for the immediate stoppage of war, as the killing of innocent humans and the destruction of residential areas, civil establishments and property bleed the conscientious feelings of the human race.

The world, notwithstanding, has never been sensitized to appreciate the urgent needs of the two-centuries’ South Sudanese Holocaust. In actual reality, the world’s consciousness must have been equally burdened with the heavy guilt of unheeding the Sudanese crisis. The Sudanese Africans continue to die while many States silently share with the criminal Government of Sudan the conspiracy of silence regarding the South Sudanese Holocaust that suffered so far the lives of more than 2 million Sudanese by acts of war.

This is a situation that reflects one of the most immoral, negligent, and dehumanizing episodes in the current history of mankind. The morality and ethical commitment of the world towards the cause of human worth, dignity, and respect will only be fulfilled when equal support is equally offered to the victims of war in the Sudan, as is obviously the case with respect to the other war-stricken areas of the world. The hopeless performance of several international and regional entities that are conventionally entrusted with the task of facilitating peace making and peace keeping of the conflict in accordance with international norms deserves a special attention.

The greatest danger that is threatening the whole situation with additional war disaster is the adamant willingness of the Government of Sudan to prolong the war. Besides the continuous obstruction of peace talks and the wrongful politicization of the war, Omer Al-Bashir, the self-appointed senior official of the Khartoum rule, pledged days ago (despite his fake commitment to enhance democracy and anti-terrorism policies) to prolong the South Sudanese Holocaust. The sole aim of Al-Bashir’s war is to stay in power.

Since June 1989, the slogan of the Bashir regime centered on the hatred of the African Sudanese. It is that hatred that is consistently abusing the State powers to kill the South Sudanese, abuse the South natural resources, and destroy civilian establishments. With that hatred and the deeds of hatred, the Bashir rule has already acquired the disdainful status of a shameless terrorist killer.

Other than the IGAD nations and the sisterly States of Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, and South Africa, the position of many African States to stop the South Sudanese Holocaust is helpless. The negligence of many Muslim or Christian communities to the crimes of the Sudan’s ruling regime is shameful. The blind-eye policy of the Arab League towards the brutality of Sudan Government towards the South Sudanese and the Sudanese of the Nuba Mountain, the Ingessana Hills, DarFur, and the Eastern Sudan is useless.

The occasional concerns of the United Nations to bring about peace between the warring parties are insufficient. The endeavors of many European States are meager, as non-principled oil dealings softened their human rights stands against the Government of Sudan at the expense of the vital interests of the South Sudanese powerless population.

The US commendable humanitarian aid to the needy population of the war-affected areas and the diplomatic support of the US Government to the Sudanese democratic movement to put an end to this misery by exerting necessary pressure on the mischievous regime is highly appreciated. The American activity, however, is best advised to collaborate closely with the National Democratic Alliance as a major partner of the conflict to insure a permanent political settlement of the crisis.

The key factor to enforce the political solution is the full stoppage of the South Sudanese Holocaust, which means an immediate long-term cease-fire between the warring parties under international guarantees and regional supervision. The IGAD and all other regional initiatives must faithfully recognize the right of self-determination for the People of the South, the Nuba Mountains, and the Ingessana.

The International Community, including the African, Arab, Muslim, and Christian states and communities must play a greater role to resolve the conflict. The following strategic steps are suggested by our Organization to provide for a Program of Action to stop the South Sudanese Holocaust.

The SHRO-Cairo human rights group hereby calls upon the International Community to:

• Impose effective sanctions on the Government of Sudan to abide-by the United Nations Charter and all international conventions that clearly prohibit all acts of genocide, terrorism, enslavement, and ethnic cleansing, and obligate all States Parties to protect the lives, property, and interests of the civilian population.
• Strengthen the political and diplomatic efficiency of the democratic opposition of Sudan, namely the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to force the ruling regime to involve in serious peace negotiations with the NDA.
• Encourage democratic dialogue between the South-South groups as well as the North-North groups as a necessary step to successfully process the South-North democratic negotiations.
• To further achieve these fundamental goals, all international and regional entities must promote a workable Program of Action to put a final stop on the civil war of Sudan. The Program suggested by the SHRO-Cairo calls upon the International Community to protect the South Sudanese and the other victims of war from the Government of Sudan’s genocide war.

The proposed Program should:

• Allocate media programs on a daily basis to reflect the horrors of the Sudanese African Holocaust, as is the case with the Middle East and the Afghan armed conflicts. The funding of these programs should be shared by both international and regional entities. SHRO-Cairo urges, in particular, the Government of Japan to support the proposed activity. The would-be personnel of the proposed media programs must fairly include South Sudanese media experts, as well as the NDA’s war-affected groups.
• Maximize the pressure on the warring parties, especially the Government of Sudan, to abandon all acts of terrorism, to insure the safety and well being of the civilians, and to adopt a permanent cease-fire to implement the process of the fair and permanent peace.
• Exert the greatest pressure possible to force the Government of Sudan to stop air bombing and the starvation policies against the civilian population of the South as is now witnessed in the Bahr Al-Ghazal Region, in general, and the Raga County, in particular.
• Stop drilling the South oil as a major step to encourage the process of peace and national unity.
• Create the climate conducive to serious talks between the NDA and the GoS by the cancellation of the Presidential Decree No. 2 that repressively enforces a permanent state of emergency, tortures the populace with public security tools, and persecutes the Sudanese non-governmental parties and the other Civil Society organizations.

Signed,

Mahgoub El-Tigani SHRO-Cairo President

Addressed to:

The United Nations, New York The Human Rights Commission, Geneva The Government of Japan, Tokyo The Arab League, Cairo The American Envoy to Sudan, Washington, DC The NDA Leadership Council (Sudan) The SPLM/SPLA Leadership (Sudan) The Arab Lawyers Union, Cairo Endowment for Democracy, Washington, DC Human Rights Watch, New York Amnesty International, UK Human Rights Organizations and Democracy Groups Sudanese Lists in the International Internet The Jazeera Channel, Qatar CNN BC NBC Sudan-Update, London International and National Press The Sudanese at Home and in the Diaspora