Among many civil conflicts in Africa, Sudan is the one that has witnessed the longest history of civil war (1983-2010). Shaped by millions of unsheltered and starving civilians, this civil war has now been a flashback on the global platform, since Africa is located in the oil-rich region. This paper aims to address the main issues for why despite the end of the formal conflict in Sudan; global human rights actors have remained unable to stop the war-like patterns. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that Sudan has been the platform of war not only for the human activists, but also for the political entities. Those entities that have been sustained in this region by many of the major local and global actors include the state institutions, UN agencies, and international NGOs.
Civilian Displacement
Pham (2008) suggests “The Darfur tragedy characterized by the United Nations as ‘the world’s worst humanitarian crisis is contemporary the best example to demonstrate endless series of internal conflicts” (Pham, 2008). Such crisis that demonstrates war-like agenda is the issue of civilian displacement. Analysis should be done in context with human rights sovereignty because brutal civil conflict has continued to internally displace large numbers of citizens, particularly in South. The issue to be addressed points towards the dilemma that has neither let the refugees cross an international border as international protection has not been granted to them, nor have classified to be called them as refugees. This has caused civilians to the risk and has raised the issue of human security. With more than 25 million internally displaced civilians and human rights abuses, it is a matter of international concern to solve the conflict between national sovereignty and protection of the basic human rights (Mayotte, 1994).
Human rights perspective questions about the breakdown of civil administration that led from the spread of famine abuse and disease to the situation where all the village medical centers and rural dispensaries had been abandoned. Certain aspects of these communities have long shown a disregard for human rights, equity considerations, and the environment. In addition, the social order, including the socio-cultural dimension, was in the process of change before displacement (Tigani & Eltigani, 1995, p. 45). One cannot put the onus of such disregard onto the shoulders of UN human rights agencies. A long-running civil war that has only produced a backlash of the humanitarian crisis demands socioeconomic and socio-cultural causes to be analyzed. “This civil war has been the reaction of the stereotypes that consider Christian against Muslim, African against Arab, and democrat against fundamentalist” (El-Affendi, 2001).
Religious Activism
Another reason for unending war-like circumstances is the constant spread of religious activists. Under stereotypical supervision, Sudanese activists have escorted the proponents of Islamization to mold laws according to religion and politics in context with an important achievement. Nonetheless, the laws only created new complexities and raised new questions, among which the second civil war appeared as an answer in the south (Sidahmed & Sidahmed, 2004, p. 52). At the legal level, UN humanitarian agencies suffered from such an experiment that raised the issues of human rights violations and administration of justice under religiously inspired laws. Thus, at this stage, human rights NGOs experienced the drive under religion and analyzed it not only in the paradigm of legal or societal arenas, but also as implementation of an ideology that was responsible for legitimization discourse. In this regard, NIF (National Islamic Front) has played positive role to the extent that it has put to regard and accepted all attacks on behalf of the domestic as well as international opposition. This has granted Sudan’s Islamic orientation, some freedom to confront the challenges by the outside world, and has motivated religious activists to demonstrate their hatred openly for the so-called Islamic model being built in Sudan. Of course, the pressure has not been built solely because of the regime’s military nature, but for the various human rights abuses Sudan has witnessed all these years.
Political Conflict
All the way from hunger and devastation to diplomatic military assistance as foreign aid, politics has remained and been used as a weapon. This suggests that every international actor apart from the human rights agencies has wanted to ‘have a lion’s share’ in war. Therefore, in the name of war, the first half of the 1990s have witnessed adverse humanitarian situations, escorted by a number of efforts put by international humanitarian agencies to put an end to the war. Benefits have been granted to international NGOs in context with humanitarian assets and properties. This was also applied to violent encounters resulting in casualties among refugees and locally employed staff (Riehl, 2001, p. 9). Riehl (2001, p. 9) suggests “formal agreements were made keeping in view the principles of relief work and the rules and regulations as necessary to ensure the continuity of the aid flow and its unhampered organization and distribution”. With the end of the decade, strategic military adopted diplomatic attitude towards humanitarian agencies and consider the situation as ‘normal’ to run managerial activities of NGOs. The reason for stating Sudan’s political condition as normal was the demand for administration fees and revenues. On the other hand, international NGOs were never prepared to pay any charges, as NGO activities were based on building rehabilitation and development activities for the refugees who already lost faith in humanitarian agencies.
Political Harassment over Oil
In addition, the politically harassed Sudan has been accused of supporting terrorism and producing more serious human rights problems to its neighbors. Politically, Sudan’s condition has remained vulnerable for it has only taken interest in world affairs on a peripheral basis, where it has acted remotely to most countries while participating little in recent international events. For instance when Europe confronted the Cold War, Sudan never opted any strategic policies or values, and remain undeveloped and seemingly poor in resources. However, due to its presence in rich oil regions, it was never overlooked by Western European countries. Similarly the Soviet Union sought to gain influence over the new state, and kept an eye on Sudan as its gateway to Africa (O’Ballance, 2000, p. 2). Thus, among other political actors who tried to export communism, besides USSR was Belgium, Britain and France who hoped that Sudan would keep its gates firmly shut against the Soviets. On the other hand was the Arab League, who expected too much from this poor country. To stand as the extensive eastern defensive supporter of the Arabic-speaking block against Israel, was a difficult task for Sudan, which somehow she managed to fulfill. This clearly suggests that foreign relations were never been prioritized by the political leaders and the choices and policy decisions they developed were created by their own ideological motivation, which might be the result of historical alliances or power considerations. Whatever be the motivation factor behind such policies, it was clear that such steps were taken as a response to domestic priorities and pressures, which aided the conquest of oil, economic aid, arms supply, and the demands of the regional power holders.
While analyzing Sudan’s troubled relations with its neighboring countries, Egypt is the foremost. Since the conflict between the two exists historically, both countries accuse each other of terrorists in the name of ‘jehad’. However, with the new discovery of oil, Sudan was granted enough means and a stronger motive to assault neighboring countries who used to be enemies in the past (Dupraz, 2002). Dupraz (2002) suggests that since 200,000 barrels of oil is produced each day, this caused the Khartoum government to evacuate the Southerners as part of their diplomatic policy was to clear the ground for oil, in order to give advantage to foreign companies”.
After the failure of the ten-year comprehensive strategy to reshape the country in the name of ‘Islamic call’, a new plan was implemented. This plan normalized the religious and cultural aspect, but after years of implementation, the Sudanese Strategic Report discovered some unspecified targets formed by the ministry. These targets were vulnerable by the global actors and participants and lacked credibility as they could not be measured or demonstrated means of achieving the targets. “The plan lacked specific implementation of goals, comprehensive overviews, and avoided serious issues like the aftermath of the civil war and its implications for the south and north” (Sidahmed & Sidahmed, 2004, p. 60). The most significant aspect the report lacked was the specification of oil discovery and means to export oil for the socioeconomic status.
This not only changed Sudan’s status on the world stage because of its newfound oil wealth, but also encouraged her to join the club of oil exporters by 1999. This was the greatest change Sudan has ever witnessed to overcome its needs for oil products that had affected its foreign relations. With the help of oil export partners, Sudan managed to export oil to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Uganda, which also shifted the regional political condition towards betterment.
Risks
Contemporary greatest risk to the political liberation is the renege conflict of NIF that has already ended up in a reshaped north-south conflict. “Not only NIF has been able to stick to the January 2005 peace agreement that resulted in a 20-year war between south and north, but also provoked a prolong series of actions directed against both the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and its military forces” (Reeves, 2008). Although the government has been able to bring back few of the aid agencies that were expelled from Darfur, it is evident that no political party is sincere to work in good faith, if existing humanitarian agreements confront denial of the citizens. Contemporary protection sector is vulnerable to protect the minorities, like lack of complaint centers for women to deal with sexual and gender-based violence. Thus, advancement of rights for women, children, and religious minorities must be increased by dialogue and persuasion (Horowitz & Schnabel, 2004, p. 66).
Human Rights Benchmarks to progress
With the January 2011 referendum, the US government is trying hard to bring peace, particularly in the South. Therefore the benchmarks and pressures to be analyzed by the national and international NGOs include clear statement of intent. This means focussed goals and substantive achievements in Sudan must not be based solely on the process-related accomplishments that include proposing or signing a set of policies or visa issuance. Achievements must be based upon changes that are verifiable in accordance with the changing grounds. These must be by the key elements of the CPA (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) and assess Sudanese society based on allowing civil freedom along with the efforts to unite with the Southern part (2010a). “CPA national reforms must be adhered to which suggests no room for civil rights violation and passes a national security law which allows special powers to the security department to arrest and capture citizens without charge” (2010a). This way it limits violence and its usage by government security forces against peaceful political demonstrations. However national security law will not be used in any stance as a weapon to threaten civil society, human rights activists, and political actors. Other benchmarks include granting liberty to press and social gatherings.
By creating standards of benchmarks, global NGOs would be encouraged to measure domestic violence so as to enable the Security Council members understand their responsibilities and take action in humanitarian crises. Such benchmarks would serve as a gateway to force states to defend their positions in context with the right intention, instead of using them for their own selfish reasons (Bellamy, 2006).
Conclusion
Despite political and economic difficulties, in a war-torn country, Sudan has been able to take its place along with other actors in the region. This shows that in the process of bringing peace to the country, no religious or social regime has worked, better than real politics. No doubt, Sudan has gone a long way to pay a heavy price for experimenting with its foreign relations and has suffered from its domestic policy. However, the worsening economic situation has made this clear that there is a continued need for oil resources and political maturity to serve the overall national interest of Sudan.
References
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