The Star:
The bombers swoop in from overhead,
indiscriminately bombing villages and innocent civilians. Ethnic
cleansing continues unabated. 417,000 people have been displaced — so
far.
No, this is not Syria. This is Sudan, again.
You might remember Sudan from such
other atrocities as the 20-year north-south civil war that killed 2
million people, and the genocide in Darfur that killed 300,000 and
displaced 2.5 million. Now, welcome to South Kordofan, a southern
Sudanese province. The targets are the Nuba people. The culprit is the
usual one, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the butcher of Sudan, genocidaire par excellence.
More than any uprising associated
with the Arab Spring, Sudan is the true test to whatever claim we wish
to make over our humanitarian ideals, and the oft-cited but less-oft
practised Responsibility to Protect.
These most recent tensions exploded
when a June 2011 election saw Ahmed Haroun elected as governor of South
Kordofan, home to the Nuba people. Haroun is wanted for war crimes and
crimes against humanity committed in Darfur and has proven himself one
of Bashir’s most loyal practitioners of divide-and-rule and ethnic
cleansing. Under the comprehensive peace agreement that ended the civil
war, the Nuba were supposed to have a measure of say in their own future
given their cultural and ethnic distinction. Such a say never came.
Caught on the wrong side of the
border between Sudan and South Sudan, the Nuba’s ethnicity makes them
closer to those in newly independent South Sudan. For this allegiance
they have paid dearly since Haroun was elected and transposed his Darfur
playbook into the Nuba mountains.
“They say our skin is like charcoal,” a Nuba told NBC’s Ann Curry, who sneaked into the region off-limits to journalists.
The Antonov bombers drop the same
bombs that ravaged Darfur in what has become an almost daily occurrence.
Rape is commonplace. Civilians flee and starve; tens of thousands are
taking refuge in caves. “We are fighting just to live,” a rebel leader
told Curry. Haroun has threatened to expel aid groups from the region.
Make no mistake, this campaign will
only get worse. More people will die. Bashir has no aversion to mass
slaughter. Nicholas Kristoff of the New York Times, who has
tirelessly tried to bring attention to the plight of Sudan, notes that
the 7,000 estimated killed in Syria is within the margin of error for
estimates of how many Sudanese Omar al-Bashir has killed.
This all begets the usual question of
what can be done. There are concrete steps that can be taken, many draw
upon lessons from the Arab Spring and the international diplomatic
response to Iran’s nuclear program:
• Sudan’s
bombers cannot be allowed to fly. Aerial bombardment is Sudan’s
preferred method of destruction. It was in Darfur and it is now in the
Nuba Mountains. The Security Council imposed a no-fly zone in Libya and
it must do the same in South Kordofan. The killing will not stop until
the bombs stop falling.
• Humanitarian
assistance and protection of civilians must become a paramount goal.
Aid groups must be given unimpeded access and their protection assured.
Furthermore, the UN mission currently in Sudan must have its mission
level raised to a Chapter VII mission, permitting it to use force to
protect civilians.
• Sudan must
feel the economic consequences of its murderous government. Targeted
economic sanctions in Iran have started to take a major toll on Iran’s
economy, putting tremendous pressure on the regime. No such sanctions
exist in Sudan. Until Bashir hears from his own supporters that killing
is impinging upon their ability to live normal lives he will not change.
Responses to events in Libya and
Syria, including Russia’s recent but quiet about-face regarding the
Assad regime, teach us that such challenging solutions are not out of
reach when supported with strong, concerted diplomatic efforts. All that
is missing is will.
It is 10 years since violence erupted
in Darfur. It took four years for the world to properly take a stand.
Those intervening years saw the worst of the slaughter in Darfur and the
first genocide of this century.
The same history is repeating itself before our very eyes. Bashir is flipping us the finger again, and calling our bluff.
It is up to us to prove him wrong. The Nuba people do not have four years to wait; neither should we.
Josh Scheinert was the first advocacy director of STAND, Canada’s largest Darfur activist group.
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق