Do you ever feel like you are caught in a bad cycle of déjà vu?
Since June 5th the Nuba people in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan state have endured attacks on their homes, executions, arbitrary detention, and – perhaps most terrifying of all – indiscriminate bombing from the air. Roughly 73,000 people have been displaced at the hands of their own government.
In a display that surprises no one, the Government of Sudan is once again mounting a vicious offensive against an ethnic minority inside their own borders.
If this all sounds a bit familiar, it’s because Khartoum has done this before. This pattern of targeted violence against civilians, the co-opting and empowerment of sympathetic armed groups, and widespread killing and displacement have been the counterinsurgency tactics of choice for the Sudanese Government for decades. This was most recently the case in Darfur, but if we stretch our memories just a little bit further the parallels can be seen in what many experts have called a genocide in the Nuba Mountains that took place in the 1990’s. Khartoum used similar tactics during two decades of war against the south. These conflicts have been driven by very different conditions and political dynamics, but the tactics used by the Khartoum government are all too predictable.
Indeed, it’s like déjà vu all over again. (And it is likely to repeat itself in Blue Nile State as well, if this pattern is allowed to continue.)
Now, some of you may be surprised that you haven’t heard anything about this, but to quote my Mom – who patiently endured my ranting on the subject just two nights ago – “Oh dear…that WASN’T in the news!” No. It wasn’t…
This is mainly because journalists – along with UN staff, NGOs, independent monitors, and pretty much anyone that might be inclined to talk about these atrocities -- have been barred from accessing areas where the fighting is happening. Nearly all aid agencies have been refused access, leaving displaced people to find shelter and assistance from neighbors in nearby communities, or fend for themselves.
A UN report – leaked last week – has said that the allegations emerging from Southern Kordofan may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Accounts of aerial bombardments with significant loss of civilian lives including women, children and the elderly, targeted killings, house-to house searches, and reports of mass graves are some of the most grave human rights violations taking place in Southern Kordofan.… The International Community cannot afford to remain silent in the face of such deliberate attacks by the Government of Sudan against its own people. If the current conduct of the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces), especially the aerial bombardments, does not stop, it will dissipate the Nuban population of Southern Kordofan.” (emphasis added.)
Now, it is important to note that the SAF, and their paramilitary allies are not the only ones perpetrating attacks against civilians. Actors on both sides of the conflict – including the Sudan People’s Liberation Army – North (SPLA-N) have committed human rights abuses. However, the violations perpetrated by the SAF have been “particularly egregious” according to the UN report. There are no signs that this behavior is likely to let up soon.
There is an urgent need for a fact finding mission to access areas affected by fighting and deliver an honest assessment of the level of humanitarian need. Aid agencies must be allowed to help families in need of assistance, and – most urgently – the aerial bombardments must stop.
It is incumbent upon the international community – the UN, the African Union, and the League of Arab States – to take decisive steps to protect civilians. Yet, in spite of the scale of the violence, the international community has been deafening in its silence. As we have seen before, there seems to be a vain hope that if we just ignore the problem for long enough it might just go away.
Actually, when you look at it that way, maybe déjà vu isn’t the problem here… What is it they say about doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result?
