1st Quarter, 2000

The Civil War in Sudan

The devastating civil war in Sudan that began in 1955 has now raged for 33 of the past 44 years. Since we last wrote about the Sudan crisis in August 1998, there have been both promising and discouraging developments.

Perhaps the most promising has been the People-to-People process, a grassroots peace and reconciliation initiative among peoples in the southern Sudan, which is facilitated by the New Sudan Council of Churches.

Perhaps the most discouraging development has been the complications ensuing from oil production by the Canadian firm Talisman Energy, which many argue provides substantial funds that the Sudanese government can use to pay for their war effort. In addition, slavery has re-emerged as a human rights concern, and a growing number of Christians in the United States have become alarmed about the proliferation of slave practices in the Sudan.

Finally, the U.S. government's policy of isolating the Sudanese government within the international community, and its controversial consideration of food aid to rebel movements have fuelled the policy debate. And throughout, people continue to suffer. Over two million people have died from war-related causes since 1983, and up to four million have been displaced; still millions more have survived while subject to hunger and human rights abuses. There have been aerial bombings of civilian targets, looting of cattle and grain, wholesale destruction of villages, extrajudicial executions, and abduction of women and children.

More than a Religious Conflict

The roots of Sudan's ongoing civil war have an ancient history, but the modern context is influenced by the colonial period when the country was ruled jointly by Britain and Egypt (1899-1955). Northern and southern Sudan were administered separately during this rule. The Anglo- Egyptian colonialists made substantial investments in developing the North, while leaving the South-about one-third of Sudanese territory- economically and politically impoverished. At independence in 1956, the North and South became united under a government ruled from Khartoum in the North. The Government of Sudan began to impose its national vision on the South and a civil war erupted.

A variety of motives fuel the war. The Sudanese government seeks political hegemony over a unified Sudan, while most southern Sudanese want self-determination either in the form of autonomy or independence from the North. Southerners rebelled on the conviction that the government in Khartoum sought to impose on them the Arabic language and the religion of Islam. Both sides seek control of southern resources, including oil fields, the Nile River waters, fishing sites and grazing land.

There is rich diversity to Sudan. Roughly 40 percent of the population is Arab and 60 percent African. Roughly 60 percent are Muslim. There are close to 600 ethnic groups and over 100 languages spoken in the South. It is true that both Arab and Islamic identities prevail in the North, and African and Christian identities in the South; still, it is an over- simplification to reduce Sudanese diversity to this equation.

The Arab-Muslim and African- Christian images, while qualified, carry some truth as to divisions within the population. Recent threats by the Sudanese government to seize church property add reality to this image. However, this oversimplified image of religious and ethnic separation has been used to fuel the conflict by manipulating religious sentiment.

Factions and Friction

The war is being fought largely in the South, with devastating consequences for the southern Sudanese. The largely Dinka, mostly southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) is the main rebel organization in the South, although there has been significant fragmentation and rivalry among groups within that region.

Political opposition as well as some armed resistance to the government also exists in the North. Many of these opposition groups fall under the umbrella of the National Democratic Alliance.

A series of Khartoum governments have existed since the fighting began. The fourth and current one-led by Gen. Omar Hassan al Bashir and the National Islamic Front--came into power in a military coup in 1989, effectively blocking an imminent peace settlement.

Since 1993, Sudan's neighbors, including Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, and Uganda, have worked through the Inter- Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to mediate a peaceful settlement of the civil war. The war continues as neither side is able to win militarily, yet both remain committed to military engagement.

The Peace Process

Southern Sudanese have initiated an important call to peacemaking facilitated by the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) through a series of grassroots People-to-People conferences. These gatherings, designed to address ethnic conflicts among the various southern groups, have been facilitated by PC (USA) minister and former mission co- worker, William Lowery. The Wunlit Peace Conference held in Bahr el Ghazal province in February-March 1999 has been heralded as a key building block- the second in a series of peace conferences-to promote peace and reconciliation in the South.

Through the People-to-People process, local Nuer and Dinka chiefs (head of prominent ethnic groups), religious leaders and women on the West Bank of the Nile, who had been on opposite sides of the war since 1991, refiised to wait for warring rebel leaders to meet and discuss peace. They developed a peace covenant signed by all participants, hoping that this action from the grassroots upward would have an impact on the leaders
around them. It has already begun to do so.

The NSCC has now expanded these peace efforts to the East Bank of the Nile. Many Southerners feel that if the southern Sudanese can unify themselves at the grassroots level, then the political and military leaders will have no choice but to follow. Some seem to be following. Several government-sponsored militia groups among the Nuer have now joined the reconciliation process. The process is to culminate in a broader All-South Inclusive Conference.

The People-to-People peace process is compelling evidence that the Sudanese are engaged in their own initiatives for a more just and peaceful Sudan. The role of the United States and of faith-based communities in the United States is not to "rescue" the Sudanese. Rather, our role is to find ways to be supportive of Sudanese initiatives- ways that embrace genuine partnership and solidarity.

Sudan's Oil

Talisman Energy in Canada has joined with a consortium of Chinese and Malay companies to exploit oil resources in Sudan, and this past year oil began to flow. Controversy has surrounded this Sudanese oil project because it has been reported that people have been forcibly removed from the oil fields and the Sudanese military has used oil company airstrips.

It is argued that oil revenues sustain Sudan's war effort and provide disincentives to search for peace. While the Canadian government has declined to put additional pressure on Talisman, a shareholder divestment campaign has begun both in Canada and in the United States.

Slave Redemption

Slavery's resurgence in Sudan is rooted in the civil war. Though inter-ethnic abductions have been a problem among Southerners, Slave raids are conducted primarily in the province of Bahr El Ghazal by a government-backect, armed militia known as the Muraheleen. In these raids, children and women are abducted to become domestic slaves or concubines.

A number of international groups, church members, and U.S. school children have engaged in the practice of "slave redemption" by raising funds to purchase the enslaved. While many southern Sudanese perceive that it is not a conclusive solution, international intervention has been welcomed by the families of the slaves.

Concern exists, however, that slave redemption by international groups creates a more substantial market for slave purchases and could increase the destructive raids and the number of people taken as slaves. While some slaves are freed, others may be enslaved in order to take advantage of the international money available.

People of faith in the United States may differ about the wisdom of slave redemption in Sudan. But all should be able to work together to encourage an end to the war that has intensified this practice, while bringing death and devastation throughout Sudan.

The U.S. Stake in Sudan

U.S. policy in recent years has focused on isolation and containment of the Sudanese government. In contrast, European nations and Canada have moved toward dialogue with Sudan's government as a more promising way toward peace.

Arguably, the U.S. has been motivated more by its perceptions that the Sudanese government engages in support for international terrorism than by concern about the civil war. The U.S. government has sympathized with the South historically. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has met with SPLM/A leader Dr. John Garang on several occasions recently.

The U.S. government has given its greatest attention to four issues: international terrorism, regional destabilization, human rights abuses, and humanitarian concerns. The Clinton administration placed Sudan on its list of state sponsors of terrorism and applied unilateral sanctions, and-suspicious of a Khartoum connection to the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998-the U.S. bombed a privately owned pharmaceutical factory in a suburb of Khartoum.

Seeing a Sudanese agenda of regional destabilization, the U.S. has provided "non-lethal" military assistance to Sudan's neighbors. The U.S. has also protested human rights abuses and has provided substantial humanitarian aid. The U.S. has been the largest supporter of the massive international U.N.-led relief effort, Operation Lifeline Sudan. The United States has supported IGAD in its efforts to bring about a negotiated settlement (The U.S. is an IGAD Partner, along with various European nations). In, 1999 the Clinton administration named a special envoy to Sudan, Harry Johnston, former U.S. Congressman and chair of the African subcommittee, with a mandate to pursue three issues: human rights, humanitarian assistance, and the IGAD process.

After great debate within the State Department, the Clinton administration has, at least for now, decided not to provide food aid to combatants in the South, which the Congress had authorized in its 1999 appropriations legislation. Many NGOs had protested the step, seeing it as undermining their humanitarian efforts and complicating the peace process.

Making Peace

In seeking an end to the war, Sudanese people have embarked on a number of initiatives on international, national and local levels. At this time, it is crucial that the international community accompany, encourage, and support these initiatives. Peace is not built from outside but from within. As Christians, we are called to solidarity with our Sudanese brothers and sisters. We must support them as they find solutions to their own problems.

Suggested actions:

1. Write letters to Secretary Albright, Envoy Harry Johnston, and Undersecretary of State for Africa Susan Rice (U.S. State Department) to ask their support for the following actions.

• Take steps to strengthen the mediation role of IGAD through offering funding and technical assistance, applying diplomatic leverage on the parties, and bringing the weight of the UN Security Council to the process.
  
• Impose an immediate arms embargo on the sale or supply of arms and ammunition, as well as military material and services, against all warring factions in light of the human rights abuses by all parties to the conflict.

Honorable
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Honorable
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington D.C. 20515

General Assembly guidance

The above suggested actions are consistent with the 1999 resolution, "Sudan: Situation and Response."

• Promote and strengthen grassroots efforts at peace and reconciliation, particularly in the South.
• Support the NSCC-sponsored People-to-people Peace Conferences as they are extended to other communities in the South.
• Encourage them to support a package aimed at Sudan as a whole for post-war settlement aid for reconstruction, future mechanisms for debt relief, and' normalization of diplomatic and economic relations.
• Urge the extension of the cease-fire to include all areas of southern Sudan and the region.
• Insist on continued access of UN human rights monitors to all areas of Sudan.