Roots of the Conflict

Sudan's current civil war dates from 1983 and is the world's longest running uninterrupted civil war. The conflict in Sudan is complex and difficult to summarize given the country's vast religious and ethnic diversity. From 1983 on, the civil war has been fought between the main opposition army, Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and its allies fighting for political autonomy, and the government military and its militia groups. The conflict is often described as one between the Arab Muslim north and the black African south of which is comprised of Christians or believers of traditional indigenous beliefs. Conflict in Sudan actually stems back to its independence in 1956 and has its roots in racial, ethnic, religious, and political disparities and differences. Over much of the past 45 years southerners have struggled to overcome oppression, isolation, and persecution through seeking political autonomy or independence.

However, the current conflict is more complicated in that both Muslims and Christians can be found on both sides of the conflict — being targeted for destruction and committing atrocities, government-allied militias and opposition armies — and atrocities, fighting, and alliances occur in the north as well as in the south. In addition, many northern Arabs are opposed to Khartoum's extremist Islamic fundamentalist form of government, and many civilian southerners have been killed or attacked by local black southern militias. In fact, many southerners prefer political autonomy to independence while other southerners will accept nothing short of independence before ending the war.

All parties to the conflict have committed atrocities, but the Sudanese military and its militia groups are responsible for the majority of widespread atrocities being committed upon innocent civilians. The UN reported "[c]onsistent and undisputed evidence indicates that the war is being conducted in disregard of human rights and humanitarian law principles, and that violations are perpetrated by all parties, albeit with varying degrees of responsibility, the greater portion being attributable to the Government," and that government supported militia groups "are given free reign to perpetrate destructive and predatory attacks against the civilian population, including the abduction of women and children." The UN expressed great concern that innocent civilians are the primary victims of the atrocities that are being committed and that the human rights situation in Sudan should be top priority for the international community.

The largest opposition force is the SPLA/M (the political side of the SPLA is the SPLM (Sudanese People's Liberation Movement)). The SPLA/M are mainly southern black African Christians or believers of indigenous religions. A force of armies and political groups (of which the SPLA/M also belongs) opposed to the present extremist Sudanese government operate under a united coalition called the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The SPLA/M and the NDA united in 1996 in effort to establish the first major military resistance in northern Sudan. In addition, there are several Muslim opposition groups and independent forces operating in Sudan, some of which have formed other similar alliances.

The current government in Sudan is a military regime that took power via a military coup in 1989 backed by an extremist minority party named the National Islamic Front (NIF). The current president, Omar el-Bashir, a former army general, took power in 1989 and ousted a democratically elected government. The current civil war has primarily occurred in the south, home to 1/7 – 1/8 of the Sudanese population, and therefore, the south has been subjected to most of the violence and forced displacement. The current government of Sudan, situated in the northern capital of Khartoum, has attempted to forcibly Islamicize non-Arabs and non-Muslims in this religiously and ethnically diverse country since seizing power in 1989 through implementing a harsh form of Islamic religious law called Shar'ia. The government has armed militia groups, such as the Murahaleen and other factions operating under Sudanese government authority as the Popular Defense Forces (PDF), that attack military and civilian targets in the south. During the 1990s, several rebel factions defected to the government, and conversely, several pro-government factions defected to the rebel factions thereby exacerbating combatant violence and ethnic tensions. Since 1983, control over areas in southern Sudan has switched back and forth between the government and the rebels repeatedly, although the government managed to control the majority of large towns.

The present government in Khartoum has enacted a policy of targeting groups for destruction who politically oppose this extreme form of Shar'ia, some groups of which are Muslim as well, and/or are religiously, ethnically or racially different from the military regime operating in Khartoum.

Genocide in Sudan

The government in Khartoum has successfully implemented a genocidal strategy targeting those groups it believes to be a threat to its rule because of religion, ethnic identity, race, and/or different political views. So far, over 2 million people – mostly innocent civilians in south and central Sudan – have died as a result of war related causes and another estimated 4.5 million have been internally displaced (refugees within their own country) comprising the largest population of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world. Khartoum is engaged in a governmental practice of intentionally, incessantly and indiscriminately bombing civilian targets and humanitarian relief sites. The present military regime intentionally and repeatedly bombs sites such as schools, churches, hospitals and refugee camps, targeting black African Christians and those of traditional beliefs, and harmoniously inter-religiously tolerant groups such as the Nuba peoples, of which some are Muslim and some are Christian.

The government of Sudan is the only one in the world today engaged in chattel slavery. The practice of abduction and slavery had died out for the most part in Sudan until its revival in the 1980s during the present civil war by pro-government forces operating under Sudanese government authority targeting primarily southern civilians. Tens of thousands of southern women and children have been taken as slaves and sent to the north as concubines and laborers. Many of them have been raped by government militias.

Through the manipulation of foreign food aid, the regime carries out mass, selective starvation. By blocking aid for several months in 1998, tens of thousands starved. Inexcusably, the U.S. government continues to channel most of its food aid to Sudan through the United Nations' Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), which allows Khartoum to veto when, where, and if international food aid can be delivered to south and central Sudan.

The Sudanese government and its militias also carry out "scorched-earth" campaigns against the south that in addition to enslaving women and children, kill men, kidnap, forcibly convert boys and induct them into the regime's military, and annihilate entire communities or relocate them into concentration camps called "peace villages" where "convert to eat" policies are enforced. Individual Christians, including clergy, have been imprisoned, flogged, tortured, crucified, and assassinated for their faith. In 1993, an edict declared the persecution of "apostates," licensing the persecution of Muslims who oppose Khartoum's political policies.

Escalation of Attacks

In 2000, the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) reported on the extensive intensification of "clearly deliberate" aerial attacks and bombings by the Sudanese military against civilian targets. "The Sudanese government is targeting southern Sudanese civilians and relief workers who seek to save the lives of those civilians." In 2000 alone, USCR reported, "at least 167 aerial bombings occurred two-and-a-half times the number of attacks that — occurred in previous years." Unfortunately, several more bombing attacks remained unrecorded. Countless human rights organizations and government reports have documented the continuation of Sudan's brutal bombing campaign and genocidal strategy as continuing to escalate so far in 2001. Despite President Bashir's numerous assurances that the bombing of civilian and humanitarian sites would cease, they have not, and still continue presently.

In most recent years the heaviest conflict areas have been in Bahr el-Ghazal Province in southern Sudan, the north-east area of the Sudan-Eritrea border, the Nuba Mountains region in central Sudan, Eastern Equatoria Province in the extreme southeast corner of Sudan, and the Upper Nile Province which is a large oil-producing region of southern Sudan. These areas have been subjected to heavy government offenses, rebel attacks, government "scorched-earth" tactics aimed at forcing populations to flee oil producing or exploration areas, or heavy inter-ethnic fighting within government supported militia factions near rich oil producing areas.

Oil Escalates the War and is a Disincentive to Peace

That the government of Sudan has not yet prevailed in the war may be due to the fact that, until 1999, it was bankrupt and in default to the IMF and other international lenders. In August 1999, oil developed in south Sudan by foreign companies in a joint venture partnership with the Khartoum government came on scene, and has begun to provide windfall profits for the regime, as well as a critical source of new international respectability. Though U.S. companies are generally barred by anti-terrorist sanctions from investing in Sudan, foreign companies investing in Sudan's oil pipeline are permitted to raise funds in U.S. capital markets. Talisman Energy of Canada and the Chinese government's PetroChina are Khartoum's two major oil partners that are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The proceeds from the oil revenues are being used to support the Sudanese military's actions.

The new oil revenues have enabled Khartoum to escalate the war. Its bombing raids against humanitarian and civilian targets in southern Sudan have doubled over the past year. In June 2001, an article in Middle East Newsline reported diplomats and Western analysts as stating that, "Sudan has used oil revenues to double its military budget in an attempt to stop the advance by rebels in the south. [S]udan could be spending nearly $18 billion on the military during 2001. In 1999, the figure was estimated to be about $9 billion." Therefore, some experts believe that it is safe to conclude that Sudan believes it can win the war through increasing oil export revenues, and by then purchasing heavier artillery from many of the same countries that are presently actively engaged in oil production in Sudan, such as China, Russia, and Malaysia, to fight against opposition groups. However, the majority of those targeted by government aerial attacks remain innocent civilians in effort to clear land surrounding oil producing areas, not advancing rebels. The government of Sudan will not win the war against its opposition by obliterating unarmed innocent civilians with heavier artillery and escalated ground or aerial attacks.

Peace Efforts

Several past peace initiatives to end the conflict have failed, deadlocked on issues of the separation of religion and state, the implementation of a referendum for political autonomy, and the sharing of economic rights. At present, many opposition groups and opposition alliances are seeking a negotiated peace to end the war that builds on past negotiated principles (Declaration of Principles) originally established by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Agency ((IGAD) a grouping of East African nations which has led past efforts to obtain a cease-fire and organize talks between the rebels and the government) that would also require the dismantling of the fundamentalist Islamic government, an interim government representing all groups that would be able to engage in democratic elections, a referendum for the south, and that would possibly include the Nuba Mountains, and the separation of religion and state through the development of a secular constitution.

Several human rights groups are advocating that the U.S. government needs to forge a new policy to address the human rights catastrophe in Sudan. Such actions can be taken without sending U.S. troops or UN peacekeepers. Many advocates for peace in Sudan believe that, as was powerfully demonstrated in the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, political and economic pressure is effective in ending oppression. Survivors' Rights International believes that the genocide in Sudan should be treated no less firmly than South African apartheid. The U.S. should strongly support the opposition's efforts to achieve a just peace and end the war.

The Grassroots Campaign

The government of Sudan is not only a terrorist regime subject to UN and U.S. sanctions, it is a genocidal one. The staggering scale of the atrocities has galvanized a committed core of Congressional members and a nationwide coalition of religious and human rights leaders who believe there is a moral imperative to speak out.

Key leaders – white and black, Republican and Democrat, religious and secular, Christian and non-Christian – are engaged in the effort. A mobilization in Congress is being led by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), Rep. Don Payne (D-NJ), Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Senator Bill Frist (R-TN), Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT).

The Sudan regime's genocidal policies have been specifically condemned by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Rev. Franklin Graham, Prison Ministries President Chuck Colson, Pastor Chuck Singleton, Southern Baptist ethicist Dr. Richard Land, Cardinal Bernard Law, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, and the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, National Black Leadership Council directors Joe Madison and Walter Fauntroy, and Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial's Committee on Conscience has made Sudan the focus of its first "genocide warning." And in early 2001, the NAACP reported it had taken up Sudan. A U.S. House of Representatives resolution in July 1999 condemned the present government in Khartoum for "deliberately and systematically committing genocide in southern Sudan."

U.S. policy toward Sudan so far has been unfocused and ineffective. The Clinton administration itself acknowledged that Sudan was on the "back burner." There is now a new urgency to act. The recent development of oil has enabled Khartoum to escalate the war. The fate of millions of Sudanese hangs in the balance.

Bipartisan Success and the Road Ahead

Recent bipartisan grassroots and congressional efforts have been successful in getting the Sudan Peace Act and the Bachus Amendment (introduced by Rep. Spencer Bachus, Alabama, (R)) passed in the House of Representatives in June 2001, by a landslide vote of 422 to 2. The Sudan Peace Act urges the Bush Administration to grant $10 million dollars in previously appropriated funds to the NDA to help develop a democratic civil society in autonomous regions outside of the Sudanese government's control; requires the Bush Administration to plan for the distribution of food aid outside of the OLS to ensure that the government will not have the ability to further manipulate U.S. humanitarian aid away from those most in need and to take measures to seek an end to the war; to investigate and gather evidence of war crimes; condemns all human rights violations committed by combatants by recognizing that the Sudanese government and its militia groups are primarily responsible; recognizes that slavery and religious persecution are government-backed; and requires that companies seeking to do business in Sudan disclose and report on the nature of the company's activities and relationship to persecution and other human rights violations in Sudan.

The Bachus Amendment, passed in the House as a provision to the Sudan Peace Act, would serve to outright bar foreign oil companies doing business in Sudan from raising money or trading securities in U.S. capital markets given the recognition that oil production activities are fundamentally altering the war and potentially exacerbating violence. Currently, human rights groups, congressional leaders, and other grassroots organizations and faith-based groups are mobilized in effort to get the Sudan Peace Act and a revised Bachus Amendment passed in the Senate as well that would additionally prohibit parent companies and subsidiaries of foreign oil companies operating in Sudan from raising money or trading securities in U.S. capital markets.

Prior to the House of Representatives vote supporting the Sudan Peace Act and the Bachus provision, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 8, 2001, opened the door for greater transparency of companies seeking to operate in rogue states (this change was spearheaded by Frank Wolf, Rep. VA (R), and Roger Robinson, William J. Casey Institute) where U.S. companies are prohibited from operating due to government imposed sanctions (including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, North Korea, Burma, and Cuba). The SEC announced that it would begin requiring foreign firms to disclose any business activities and investments in any rogue states in which U.S. companies are prohibited from operating in effort to better inform U.S. investors and alert them to the potential risks that many have previously been unaware.

The recent success of grassroots and congressional efforts with the Sudan Peace Act and new SEC disclosure requirements prove that a mobilization to stop the genocide in Sudan can turn Sudan into a human rights priority for the Bush administration and our policy makers. Widespread and systematic genocide allowed to continue unchecked in Sudan is contrary to U.S. interests. A just and lasting peace that addresses the roots of conflict in Sudan is shamefully overdue. This will serve American interests and save lives.

Segments courtesy of Center for Religious Freedom

For sources and more information:

UNHCHR 2000 Report: Situation of human rights in the Sudan
UNHCHR 1999 Report: Situation of human rights in the Sudan
UNHCHR 1998 Report: Situation of human rights in the Sudan
USCR Country Report: Sudan
USCR World Refugee Survey 2000: Sudan (this report must be purchased)
Center for Religious Freedom: About the Sudan Campaign

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