Sudan sounds a lot like Biafra; the first attempt in
the late 60's to balkonize a Muslim country.
This is the first article I've read that varifies my
suspicions that Darfar is another strategy after they
did not get what they wanted in by total severing of
Southern Sudan.
> May 31, 2006
> Op-Ed Contributor
> Strategic Victimhood in Sudan
> By Alan J. Kuperman
> Austin, Tex.
>
> THOUSANDS of Americans who wear green wristbands and
> demand
> military intervention to stop Sudan's Arab
> government from perpetrating
> genocide against black tribes in Darfur must be
> perplexed by recent
> developments.
>
> Without such intervention, Sudan's government last
> month agreed to a
> peace accord pledging to disarm Arab janjaweed
> militias and resettle
> displaced civilians. By contrast, Darfur's black
> rebels, who are touted by
> the wristband crowd as freedom fighters, rejected
> the deal because it did
> not give them full regional control. Put simply, the
> rebels were willing to
> let genocide continue against their own people
> rather than compromise
> their demand for power.
>
> International mediators were shamefaced. They had
> presented the plan as
> take it or leave it, to compel Khartoum's
> acceptance. But now the
> ostensible representatives of the victims were
> balking. Embarrassed
> American officials were forced to ask Sudan for
> further concessions
> beyond the ultimatum that it had already accepted.
>
> Fortunately, Khartoum again acquiesced. But two of
> Darfur's three main
> rebel groups still rejected peace. Frustrated
> American negotiators
> accentuated the positive ? the strongest rebel group
> did sign ? and
> expressed hope that the dissenters would soon join.
>
> But that hope was crushed last week when the rebels
> viciously turned on
> each other. As this newspaper reported, "The rebels
> have unleashed a
> tide of violence against the very civilians they
> once joined forces to
> protect."
>
> Seemingly bizarre, this rejection of peace by
> factions claiming to seek it
> is actually revelatory. It helps explain why
> violence originally broke out in
> Darfur, how the Save Darfur movement unintentionally
> poured fuel on the
> fire, and what can be done to stanch genocidal
> violence in Sudan and
> elsewhere.
>
> Darfur was never the simplistic morality tale
> purveyed by the news media
> and humanitarian organizations. The region's blacks,
> painted as long-
> suffering victims, actually were the oppressors less
> than two decades
> ago ? denying Arab nomads access to grazing areas
> essential to their
> survival. Violence was initiated not by Arab
> militias but by the black
> rebels who in 2003 attacked police and military
> installations. The
> Islamists are not in the government but in a
> faction of the rebels
> sponsored by former Deputy Prime Minister Hassan
> al-Turabi, after he
> was expelled from the regime. Cease-fires often have
> been violated first by
> the rebels, not the government, which has pledged
> repeatedly to admit
> international peacekeepers if the rebels halt their
> attacks.
>
> This reality has been obscured by Sudan's criminally
> irresponsible
> reaction to the rebellion: arming militias to carry
> out a scorched-earth
> counterinsurgency. These Arab forces, who already
> resented the black
> tribes over past land disputes and recent attacks,
> were only too happy to
> rape and pillage any village suspected of supporting
> the rebels.
>
> In light of janjaweed atrocities, it is natural to
> romanticize the other side
> as freedom fighters. But Darfur's rebels do not
> deserve that title. They
> took up arms not to stop genocide ? which erupted
> only after they
> rebelled ? but to gain tribal domination.
>
> The strongest faction, representing the minority
> Zaghawa tribe, signed the
> sweetened peace deal in hopes of legitimizing its
> claim to control Darfur.
> But that claim is vehemently opposed by rebels
> representing the larger
> Fur tribe. Such internecine disputes only recently
> hit the headlines, but
> the rebels have long wasted resources fighting each
> other rather than
> protecting their people.
>
> Advocates of intervention play down rebel
> responsibility because it is
> easier to build support for stopping genocide than
> for becoming entangled
> in yet another messy civil war. But their persistent
> calls for intervention
> have actually worsened the violence.
>
> The rebels, much weaker than the government, would
> logically have sued
> for peace long ago. Because of the Save Darfur
> movement, however, the
> rebels believe that the longer they provoke
> genocidal retaliation, the more
> the West will pressure Sudan to hand them control of
> the region. Sadly,
> this message was reinforced when the rebels' initial
> rejection of peace
> last month was rewarded by American officials'
> extracting further
> concessions from Khartoum.
>
> The key to rescuing Darfur is to reverse these
> perverse incentives. Spoiler
> rebels should be told that the game is over, and
> that further resistance will
> no longer be rewarded but punished by the loss of
> posts reserved for them
> in the peace agreement.
>
> Ultimately, if the rebels refuse, military force
> will be required to defeat
> them. But this is no job for United Nations
> peacekeepers. Iraq,
> Afghanistan and Somalia show that even the United
> States military
> cannot stamp out rebels on their home turf;
> second-rate
> international troops would stand even less chance.
>
> Rather, we should let Sudan's army handle any
> recalcitrant rebels, on
> condition that it eschew war crimes. This option
> will be distasteful to
> many, but Sudan has signed a peace treaty, so it
> deserves the right to
> defend its sovereignty against rebels who refuse to,
> so long as it observes
> the treaty and the laws of war.
>
> Indeed, to avoid further catastrophes like Darfur,
> the United States should
> announce a policy of never intervening to help
> provocative rebels,
> diplomatically or militarily, so long as opposing
> armies avoid excessive
> retaliation. This would encourage restraint on both
> sides. Instead we
> should redirect intervention resources to support
> "people power"
> movements that pursue change peacefully, as they
> have done
> successfully over the past two decades in the
> Philippines, Indonesia,
> Serbia and elsewhere.
>
> America, born in revolution, has a soft spot for
> rebels who claim to be
> freedom fighters, including those in Darfur. But to
> reduce genocidal
> violence, we must withhold support for the cynical
> provocations of
> militants who bear little resemblance to our
> founders.
>
> Alan J. Kuperman, an assistant professor of public
> affairs at the University
> of Texas, is an editor of "Gambling on Humanitarian
> Intervention: Moral
> Hazard, Rebellion and Civil War."
>
>
>
> Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Loraine
= = = = = = = = = = =
Read "Internment Camps of Bangladesh," by Loraine Mirza
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