SRI ALERT: SUDAN
March 29, 2001

What Amounts to Genocide in Sudan?

The people of Sudan, Africa's largest country, are enduring the longest and bloodiest uninterrupted civil war in Africa's history. So far, 2 million people have died and 4 million have been forced to flee their villages and homes, largely due to the genocidal atrocities being committed upon them by the government in Khartoum. The government in Khartoum (the capital of Sudan) indiscriminately bombs unarmed innocent civilians and humanitarian sites in central and southern Sudan such as schools, churches, international humanitarian relief sites, open markets, and hospitals; destroys food supplies leaving thousands of civilians to starve as a tactic of war; utilizes militias groups such as the fierce Murahaleen to attack, burn and loot villages while tolerating in exchange as payment the freedom of such militia groups to murder, rape, abduct and enslave thousands of civilians – most of whom are women and children then sold into slavery in northern Sudan and often forced to convert to Islam; instigates tribal and ethnic warfare among southerners in effort to keep the south divided; and employs a policy of state-wide persecution based on race, ethnicity, and religion. Thus, victims of these atrocities are targets of the government in Khartoum because they are religiously, ethnically, and/or also politically, opposed to the imposition of its extreme form of Islamic (Shar'ia) law throughout the country.

Additionally, the government in Khartoum is using its policy of widespread persecution against non-Islamic, non-Arabic civilians and those politically opposed to its government to justify and accelerate the systematic commission of genocidal atrocities against these groups because these groups also inhabit land surrounding oil fields and land marked for oil development and/or exploration that the government therefore needs or wants vacated. In the last two years, since the government began doubling its oil revenues through exports and partnered with Western and Asian oil companies, the government increased the ferocity and frequency of military and militia attacks, and other atrocities upon civilian groups that the Khartoum regime had previously targeted for destruction based on race, ethnicity, or religion in order to permanently clear oil rich land in central and southern Sudan. Commonly referred to as a "scorched earth" strategy, the government stepped up aerial bombings and ground attacks on villages to kill, terrorize, torch, and destroy surrounding land needed for oil production and development making these areas virtually uninhabitable for those who might consider returning. As a result, millions of civilians have been forcibly displaced from their homes, unable to return even if they wished to do so because large swaths of land have been burned and destroyed along with homes, schools, hospitals, and markets. Many of those civilians that have been forced to flee their homes have fled to other provinces in southern and central Sudan (termed, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)) overcrowding existing inhabited areas that the government has now earmarked for future oil development thereby forecasting the potential for this already catastrophic situation to worsen should these areas soon be subjected to Khartoum's scorched earth strategy as well.

Therefore, the connection between the increase in Khartoum's oil revenues and the increase in its commission of genocidal atrocities against those persecuted groups it has targeted for destruction is clear. As the government in Khartoum has doubled its oil revenues over the last two years it has doubled its military expenditures, having invested in heavier weaponry as evidenced in its use of larger more devastating bombs on civilian targets, and markedly increased the frequency and severity of its scorched earth strategy through stepping up indiscriminate bombings and attacks by its military and militia groups against persecuted groups who also happen to be inhabiting oil rich land. Thus, it is safe to conclude that oil revenues are funding the war. More frightening to conclude is that the government in Khartoum believes it is winning the war through pumping all its oil revenue into greater military expenditures, and that it will win the war so long as it can continue to increase its oil revenues so that it can then continue to fund the buildup of heavier weaponry to use upon groups it has targeted for destruction based on race, religion, ethnicity, and/or political opposition. The government in Khartoum has wrapped its own survival and that of the Sudanese people into a horrid cycle of violence centered on the progressive attainment of oil reserves, otherwise referred to as "oil blood."

With this extra element of dramatically increased oil export revenues having been added two years ago to the longest running civil war in history after 16 years of fighting at that time, which has obviously given the government in Khartoum a new driving force to expeditiously and overwhelmingly step up its genocidal campaign against its opposition within the last two years, it is high time for the international community to act to halt such atrocities immediately before the world witnesses quite possibly one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes seen thus far of monumental proportions. And yet, Sudan has been estimated to increase its oil revenues dramatically more in coming years. Given Khartoum's pattern of funneling all oil export revenue into building up its weaponry as opposed to fueling its devastated economy, the war is sure to intensify to a new level again shortly and the death toll is sure to continue to mount to immense proportions as well.

Now, making a devastating situation worse, the United Nation's World Food Program has warned that 3 million people are currently in danger of starving to death due to drought and fighting. Urgent food supplies will need to be distributed to those at risk of starvation. The government in Khartoum has also employed a strategy of "engineered famine" against civilians by destroying food supplies and bombing and obstructing international humanitarian relief sites and aid. The government of Khartoum uses famine as a weapon of war against those living in central and northern Sudan (such as the Nuba – many of which are Muslim – and the Nubians) and those living in southern Sudan, primarily Africans of indigenous tribal beliefs (the two largest tribes being the Dinka and the Nuer) and Christians, and tens of thousands have already died of famine in the past as a result. Here, the main opposition army, the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA), has also engaged in the commission of human rights and humanitarian abuses through obstructing and diverting food aid away from innocent civilians for instance. It is crucial that the warring tribal factions of the south no longer fall victim to Khartoum's "divide-to-destroy" strategy and immediately halt all inter-tribal, intra-tribal and ethnic warfare and unite in the demand for an immediate cessation of all atrocities being committed upon or impacting innocent civilians in order for relief to reach all those at risk of starvation.

Khartoum's combined strategy of relentlessly bombing civilian and humanitarian targets; engineering famine; tolerating the abduction and enslavement of mostly women and children by government supported militias enjoying impunity; instigating tribal and ethnic warfare to divide and destroy such groups; and instituting widespread persecution on account of race, ethnicity, and religion as state policy amounts to genocide. With 2 million dead, 4 million internally displaced, and 3 million more now facing starvation, it is high time for the U.S., alongside the international community and specifically those countries whose companies are oil partners with Sudan on any level, to diligently pressure and act to bring about the immediate cessation of indiscriminate bombings and ground attacks upon all civilians and humanitarian relief sites, and to secure the cessation of Khartoum's genocidal campaign in its entirety against all groups it has targeted for destruction.

For more information:

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Committee on Conscience Genocide Warning on Sudan

OneWorld U.S. Special Report: Independence for Southern Sudan?

Sudan: Human Rights Watch World Report 2001

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