Imperialism and Slavery, Water and Oil: Conflicts Fueled by U.S. Weapons
by Wells Staley Mays in consultation with John Michael Kahlil Jr., Margaret Lado, Simeon Allolding, Jr., Florence Olebe and Emilio Mogu
Note: Refugees from the south of Sudan living in Portland differ widely in their views of their country's civil war. In the Spring issue of PeaceTalk we presented the view that focuses on the human rights abuses of the Sudanese People's Liberation Front (the guerrilla force in the southern part of the country) and its African allies, the governments of Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt. These countries allow the "hidden white allies," the United States and Great Britain, to supply weapons to the SPLA through routes in their territories.
In this issue, we present the view that focuses on the human rights abuses of the Muslim government of Sudan, in the northern part of the country, with its behind-the-scenes, unofficial "hidden white ally," the United States. No matter which side wins in Sudan, U.S. arms manufacturers are the winners.
No matter which side wins in Sudan, U.S. arms manufacturers are the winners.
In return for cooperation with the U.S.'s anti-Libya policy, the United States aided the northern government enormously in the 1980s, through both overt foreign aid and covert CIA programs. The U.S. now favors international sanctions on Sudan as a "terrorist" state, and is arming neighboring nations to fight the Sudanese military. But the U.S. is also selling weapons to the northern government's strongest ally, Saudi Arabia, which passes them on to the government of Sudan.
Support the Sudan Peace Act H.R. 2906, the Sudan Peace Act, is aimed at relief and a comprehensive solution to the war in Sudan. The Sudan Peace Act passed the Senate on November 19, 1999 by unanimous consent. It was received by the House of Representatives and referred to the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade, where it is currently pending.
It is sponsored by Representative Watts of Oklahoma and co-sponsored by Representatives Payne, Tancredo, Markey, and Wolf. Members of the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy, Export, and Trade are Chuck Hagel (Chair), Craig Thomas, Bill Frist, Richard Lugar, Paul Sarbanes, John Kerry, and Barbara Boxer.
Please urge the Subcommittee members to report it out of committee to the House of Representatives and urge Congressmen Tom Allen and John Baldacci to support H.R. 2906.
Sudan's civil wars have internally displaced 4 million people. Two million have died in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, killed by the northern government's army and by disease and hunger. 1.5 million people are living in camps around Khartoum, and are frequently evicted by force. Five hundred thousand have taken refuge in neighboring countries. One hundred thousand secondary and university students have been drafted into the army. Their whereabouts are unknown. The wealthy and the military junta that rules the northern government have enslaved 250,000 children and women.
After independence in 1956, the regimes in Khartoum inherited the domination of the southern Sudan and Nuba Mountains. They prevented the Africans in these areas from participating in free elections and often marginalized them. They denied the people of the south the tools for social and economic progress. The southern regions are just as the British left them, without any significant infrastructure even for an educational system.
In 1958, President Abboud started forced Islamization and assimilation of the Africans. Harassed, tortured and beaten, the African indigenous peoples took up arms. General Joseph Lagu led them in the Anya-nya war of 1962-1972. Peace was signed by General Nimeri in 1972. In 1983, he abrogated it, declaring Sharia (Moslem) to be the law of the land, thus outlawing the African cultures, vital for identification of the Lokoyas, Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Latukos, Baris, and others. This action ignited the current war.
Water and oil are the two major natural resources that have complicated the conflict. Representatives of the south signed the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement which, they felt, would protect the southern interests in the waters of the Nile and allow a plebiscite on independence for the south by 1977. But Egypt and the northern part of Sudan undermined the agreement by a separate plan to dig the Jonglei Canal, which would divert the waters of the Nile around the agricultural and cattle lands of the south and deliver it to the north and to Egypt. The Jonglei canal would reduce water loss through evaporation in the marshes of the Sudd. Southerners are opposed on environmental grounds, saying as evaporation diminishes, rainfall lessens. Grass, forest and fishing grounds could disappear. They refused this agreement in 1975.
Oil fields as large as those of Saudi Arabia were discovered in the south in 1978. The northern government immediately redrew the boundary between the north and the south so that the richest oil fields were located on the northern side. The northern government further divided the south into three distinct provinces in 1983 in order to further weaken it. The south refused all of the northern demands.
In 1985, a coup d'etat replaced the government in Khartoum, and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) was formed in the south. The mujahadeen, Moslem fundamentalists who volunteer their services for the army, took it over. Their occupation of the south includes forced Islamization and mandatory Arabic language. They have killed most of the southern Sudanese intellectuals. In 1989, the decimation of the Christian population through hangings, crucifixions, tortures, kidnapping of children, forced marriages for young girls, beatings, chaining, and enslavement began.
Civil war, economic mismanagement, high inflation, over 4.5 million displaced persons, and a refugee influx from neighboring countries has devastated Sudan's agricultural economy.
In 1999, the government announced that political groups could again be formed. Still, the fighting continued.
Peace Action Maine hopes that presenting these two views can aid in our understanding of the situation in Sudan. Certainly, U.S. policies on arms sales must be brought under control. We urge our readers to be active in supporting an arms trade code of conduct, which would be a first step in setting some limits. Weapons manufacturers cannot be allowed to profit from these dreadful conflicts. We thank our Sudanese neighbors for bringing their stories to our attention.
Back to Peace Talk Index, September 2000