Report - Genocide Watch for the Nuba Mountains in Sudan

Originally posted (June 10, 2011) by Genocide Scholar Dr. Gregory Stanton - on his website "Genocide Watch"
http://www.genocidewatch.org/

Due to confirmed reports of a military buildup and atrocities by the Sudanese Army in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, Genocide Watch is issuing a Genocide Watch for the area. The people of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordafan again face genocide by the Government of Sudan.

Many people of the Nuba Mountains fought on the side of the southern Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) during the twenty-year civil war. Now that South Sudan has voted for independence, they are afraid of massive retaliation by the northern government. They are stranded in “northern” Sudan but are ethnically considered “black Africans,” like the people of the south, by the Arab government in Khartoum.

As Alex de Waal, an expert on Sudan, wrote in 2006, “The counterinsurgency fought by the Government of Sudan against the rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the Nuba Mountains of central Sudan during the early 1990’s was not only exceptionally violent, but also aimed at depopulating the area of civilians. Not only did the government aim to defeat the SPLA forces but they also intended a wholesale transformation of Nuba society in such a way that its prior identity was destroyed. The campaign was genocidal in intent and at one point, appeared to be on the brink of success….The conflict took on a distinct racial character. The war was notable for attacks on civilian targets with forced displacement, rape and killing.” (http://howgenocidesend.ssrc.org/de_Waal2/)

The people of the Nuba Mountains fear that they will again be dispossessed of their land and herded into displaced persons camps as they were in the 1990’s. They fear re-imposition of Sharia law by President al Bashir. In violation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the Sudanese Army invaded the oil-rich Abyei area of South Kordofan in May, driving out its Dinka inhabitants, in order to ensure northern victory when Abyei votes on whether to join Sudan or South Sudan. al-Bashir said Abyei belongs to Sudan.


In May elections, Abdel Aziz al Hila, a popular former commander of the SPLA was expected to win the election for Governor of South Kordafan. Instead Ahmed Haroun, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for atrocities perpetrated in Darfur, was declared the winner by Khartoum. The ICC has charged Haroun with 20 counts of crimes against humanity, including persecution, rape and torture, and 22 counts of war crimes, including attacks against the civilian population, destruction of property and outrage upon personal dignity. Haroun was reportedly nearly arrested by SPLA troops this week, but escaped and was immediately evacuated to Khartoum.

Two and a half weeks ago, Sudanese President Omar al Bashir was in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordafan, where he reportedly announced, “If the people here [meaning those in the Nuba Mountains] refuse to honor the results of the [gubernatorial] election, then we will force them back into the mountains and prevent them from having food just as we did before.” Intentional deprivation of food is an act of genocide under Article 2(c) of the Genocide Convention. Open threats such as al-Bashir’s cannot be ignored. Al-Bashir is a serial genocidist with an arrest warrant for genocide in Darfur from the ICC.


Genocide Watch has received confirmed reports of a dramatic increase in the number of heavily armed Government of Sudan troops massing in the Nuba Mountains. According to sources on the ground, over the past three days fighting between government troops and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army have exploded in the Nuba Mountains, at Umm Durein, Toladi, Angaruthu, and Kadugli. An unnamed source reported, “Abdul Aziz al-Hila is back fully in military uniform.” Another reliable source reported over satellite phone, “If Aziz goes down, the entire Nuba Mountains will erupt.”

The open announcement of genocidal intent by al Bashir and the militarization of the Nuba Mountain area are clear early warning signs of imminent genocide and mass atrocities. We urge diplomats at the United Nations and in the African Union to undertake immediate diplomatic action to warn al-Bashir that another genocide in Sudan will not be tolerated.

In Sudan, genocide anew?

by Eric Reeves

Originally posted on Washington Post, June 18th

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-sudan-genocide-anew/2011/06/17/AGVhCVZH_story.html




We are, once again, on the verge of genocidal counterinsurgency in Sudan. History must not be allowed to repeat itself.

By early 2004, it was clear that the ideologically Arabist and Islamist regime in Khartoum was waging a genocidal counterinsurgency war throughout the western region of Darfur. Yet months passed before a broad range of human rights, government and academic voices said as much, even as the consequences of silence and inaction were conspicuous. In February 2004 I argued on this page that a “credible peace forum must be rapidly created. Immediate plans for humanitarian intervention should begin. The alternative is to allow tens of thousands of civilians to die in the weeks and months ahead in what will be continuing genocidal destruction.”

This prediction was borne out in the months that followed, the most destructive phase of the Darfur genocide, in which African tribal groups were mercilessly targeted by soldiers and militias. Sadly, mortality from war-related causes continues to mount. But now we are debating how many hundreds, not tens, of thousands have perished from war-related causes in Darfur.

Today, another episode of genocidal counterinsurgency is beginning in another part of Sudan. Absent a vigorous international response, there will almost certainly be a reprise of ethnically targeted human destruction in the middle of the country, specifically within the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan, which has a rich mixture of African inhabitants.

Sudan was ravaged by a north-south civil war from 1983 to 2005; the war nominally ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by Khartoum and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. But key terms of the agreement were never fulfilled, among them “popular consultations” that were to give the people of South Kordofan a voice in how they were governed. The armed wing of the liberation movement was especially strong in the Nuba Mountains, and Khartoum saw a threat that it was determined to eliminate.

On June 5 a military campaign began in South Kordofan. It has rapidly escalated in ferocity, and disturbing accounts have emerged of the African people of the Nuba being rounded up in house searches and road checkpoints, and subjected to indiscriminate aerial bombardment. All signs point to a new genocide.

It will be similar to the 1990s, when Khartoum declared a jihad against the peoples of the Nuba (who practice a range of religions, including Islam). Because the Nuba Mountains are not geographically contiguous with South Sudan (with which the area is militarily, politically and culturally allied), its people were largely left to fend for themselves.

Then, the regime imposed a total blockade of humanitarian assistance from the south. Many starving Nuba were forced into “peace camps,” where receiving food was conditional upon conversion to Islam. Some who refused were tortured or mutilated. Khartoum’s decade-long campaign killed and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Today, reports from the ground and wire services detail heavy fighting underway in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, and surrounding areas. There are multiple reports (including photos) of military aircraft such as MiG-29s attacking deep in the mountains; on Wednesday these attacks destroyed the key runway at Kauda, critical for transporting humanitarian supplies into the Nuba, a disturbing sign of how Khartoum will carry out the genocide.

Nearly all humanitarian operations in the region have ceased, as Khartoum denies the United Nations air clearances; workers for the U.N. Mission in Sudan have been evacuated or confined to their base. On June 8 that base was raided by Khartoum’s military intelligence, and the United Nations was effectively disabled.

Khartoum’s actions come just days after regime forces seized Abyei, whose indigenous residents are overwhelmingly Dinka Ngok and see themselves as part of the south. The 2005 peace agreement promised them a referendum for self-determination, which Khartoum has aborted. Last month the regime launched a military attack to seize Abyei; the U.N. High Commission for Refugees reports that some 113,000 civilians have fled south — virtually the entire Ngok population. They are living in extremely difficult conditions, and many will die. A U.N. report found that Khartoum’s actions were “tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” a decisive phrase that senior U.N. officials excised from later versions of the text.

The U.N. Security Council demanded on June 3 that Khartoum immediately withdraw its forces from Abyei, but the regime scoffed — as it has at previous council demands, including those bearing on Darfur. This is bad news for the people of Abyei and for the prospects of a just and peaceful separation of Sudan’s north and south, which is scheduled for July 9. For the Nuba people, such fecklessness spells catastrophe.

Too often with Sudan, empty demands and threats signal to the regime that the world is not serious about halting atrocities. Either the international community gets serious about preventing further violence in Abyei and the adjacent region of South Kordofan, or we will again see “tens of thousands of civilians . . . die in the weeks and months ahead in what will be continuing genocidal destruction.”

--------------------------------------------

Eric Reeves is Professor of English Language and Literature at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. He has spent the past twelve years working full-time as a Sudan researcher and analyst, publishing extensively both in the US and internationally. He has testified several times before the Congress, has lectured widely in academic settings, and has served as a consultant to a number of human rights and humanitarian organizations operating in Sudan. Working independently, he has written on all aspects of Sudan's recent history. His book about Darfur (A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide) was published in May 2007. (Read critical praise for A Long Day's Dying.)

He is also at work on a longer-range project surveying the international response to ongoing war and human destruction over the past 25 years ("Sudan – Suffering a Long Way Off"). The project will survey not only the history of Darfur, and the world's failure to halt the first genocide of the 21st century, but the substitution — for over two decades — of humanitarian aid for diplomatic resolve to end conflict in South Sudan and the transitional areas along the North/South border.

Website:

http://www.sudanreeves.org/index.html

Is Omar Hassan al-Bashir Up to Genocide Again?

June 18, 2011, 4:34 PM
Source: The New York Times - Nicholas Kristoff’s Blog
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/is-omar-hassan-al-bashir-up-to-genocide-again/

Reposted with permission of author - Genocide Scholar Samuel Totten


Is Omar Hassan al-Bashir Up to Genocide Again?

By SAMUEL TOTTEN

Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, is a genocide extraordinaire. If medals were given out for such activity, he’d be going for the gold.

In the early to mid 1990s, under Bashir’s leadership, the Government of Sudan (GoS) perpetrated genocidal actions in the Nuba Mountains, largely by starving people to death and preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the victims. Not a decade later, Bashir and his henchmen committed genocide in Darfur, carrying out a scorched earth policy that resulted in an estimated 400,000 plus deaths, over two million internally displaced persons, and another 275,000 plus refugees. More recently, just over the past two weeks, Bashir’s soldiers and militia carried out at least crimes against humanity, if not genocidal actions, in the Nuba Mountains.

Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for the atrocities perpetrated in Darfur, is purportedly furious that the people of South Kordafan refuse to acknowledge the recent election of Ahmed Haroun as governor. Not only do many in the state (which borders the new nation of South Sudan) perceive the election as having been rigged, and thus stolen from the highly popular Abdul Aziz, a former commander of the Sudan Peoples Army, but they are outraged that a man wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on over 40 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes for atrocities perpetrated in Darfur is still free and allowed to run for office.

There are also rumors afloat that Bashir is intent on firming up his hold on all regions of Sudan, as he continues to be miffed that southern Sudan, which Khartoum battled for some twenty years in an internecine war that sucked some two million dead into its maw, seceded from the north. Next month, South Sudan formally becomes an independent state.

Finally, some speculate that Bashir is wrangling to obtain a bit more land along the amorphous border of Sudan and South Sudan. In doing so, it is said that he wishes to strengthen his hand in the ongoing negotiations between the north and the south over oil-rich Abyei.


As is the case in most violent conflicts across the globe, civilians (men, women, children babies, elderly) suffer most grievously. This is particularly true in Sudan because of Bashir’s propensity for targeting an entire population of a region and not just those engaged in fighting his troops. A colleague in the Nuba Mountains related the following examples to me over satellite phone the past week:

* Tens of thousands are on the run, seeking sanctuary anywhere they can find it, following bombings and ground attacks by Sudan Armed Forces (SAF).

* At least two fresh mass graves were discovered late last week; approximately 1,000 dead bodies filled the one in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordafan

* In Kadugli, SAF soldiers and a ragtag assortment of others went door-to-door in search of SPLM/A members and supporters, executing them on the spot.

* In Dilling, another town in South Kordafan, SAF soldiers and militia hunted down SPLM/A members and supporters and sliced their throats, leaving them to perish in puddles of their own blood

* In Kaduguli, soldiers with the United Nations Mission in Sudan allegedly raped girls and women as the latter begged to be allowed into the UN compound as they feared certain death at the hands of the SAF and assorted militia

In conversations with two individuals who have close ties in the Nuba Mountains I was told the following:

• “Many, particularly civilians, are being killed randomly. PDF [Popular Defense Forces] control the roads. All Nuba are wanted, no investigation, only kill (sic) on the spot. People who are black black [dark black] are sought out and killed. Dead bodies are along the road. PDF given long hand on these matters. Please get this out to as many people as possible” – a Nuba Mountains man currently in Kenya, whose family continues to reside in the Nuba Mountains

* “MIGs and Antonov bombers have made 24 hits. They’ve totally destroyed the airstrip, thus no planes will be able to bring in food or water or airlift out any expats with humanitarians organizations or any of the injured. All roads are blocked by the SAF. Now we hear that the bombing was in preparation for a ground attack; if so, many, many more will be killed. Please help us. Ask [your leaders] to establish a no fly zone” — a phone call from inside the Nuba Mountains

A major worry of human rights activists and genocide scholars is that the international community’s attention is focused elsewhere, and understandably: the ongoing tension between Sudan and South Sudan; the Arab Spring (the uprisings in Libya, Syria, Yemen, and the ongoing tension in Egypt); and, of course, Iraq and Afghanistan. Not to mention Pakistan, the perdurable Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and the antics and threats of Iran and North Korea.

Admirably, U.S. Representative Frank Wolf (VA) fired off a letter to President Obama on Saturday, June 12th, 2011 in which he pleaded, “I am deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating situation in Sudan, especially in Abyei and South Kordafan.” Wolf specifically asked Obama to dispatch former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in partnership with Special Envoy Princeton Lyman, to Khartoum to attempt to “secure a peaceful resolution of the crisis.” Continuing, Wolf warned Obama that “I am afraid Sudan could plunge into another major war if a peaceful resolution is not soon found.”

On Thursday, June 15, five scholars (Samuel Totten, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; Eric Reeves, Smith College; Greg Stanton, George Mason University; John Weiss, Cornell University; Bruce Hoffman, Georgetown University; and Ervin Staub, University of Massachusetts, Amherst) sent a letter to Representative Wolf commending him for his concern and actions, presented a list of recommendations that the U.S. and UN should take immediately to quell the violence in the region, and asked him to circulate the letter throughout Congress seeking signatures of support for the recommendations.

Among some of the many recommendations were:

• Call for the arrest and extradition of Ahmed Haroun to the International Criminal Court, noting that he is responsible for the deaths of far more people than President Qaddafi of Libya, and call for him to be dismissed immediately as Governor of South Kordafan;

• Set a short deadline (one week) for the Government of Sudan’s withdrawal from Abyei and a halt to military attacks in South Kordafan. If Khartoum fails to meet the deadline, re-impose those sanctions that have been lifted since the last year of the Bush Administration;

• Demand unfettered humanitarian access and freedom of movement for UNAMID in Darfur and commit significant US training and transportation resources to UNAMID;

• Demand the immediate arrest and prosecution of UNMIS personnel who allegedly raped females in the Nuba Mountains.

• Sign a Congressional letter to the President asking him to instruct the US Ambassador to the United Nations to propose a UN Security Council Resolution that will urgently strengthen the UNMIS mission in South Kordafan by increasing its numbers of combat ready soldiers, and increasing its financing, heavy weaponry, communications, transportation, and logistical capacity.

The scholars suggested that the letter then be sent to President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Susan Rice, among others. To date, Representative Wolf has not responded to the letter.

On June 16, Khartoum announced that the SPLM/A and the Government of Sudan agreed to a cease-fire and to undertake negotiations. However, a source in the Nuba Mountains who must remain unnamed, emailed me this morning (June 17), and said, “Supposedly a ceasefire is in effect but fighting is still going on very near here!”

As of this week an array of human rights organizations (including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch) and anti-genocide groups (Save Darfur and the Enough Project) vigorously attacked this matter, issuing a flurry of updates, broadsides, and pleas for their members/supporters to take action.

If the GoS’ record in Darfur presages its actions in the Nuba Mountains, one can almost bet on it breaching the ceasefire within weeks, if not days. This is no time for activists, human rights organizations, the U.S. or the UN to get complacent. All that does is provide al Bashir with an opportunity to seize more time for more killing.


Samuel Totten is a genocide scholar based at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He served as one of the 24 investigators with the U.S. Atrocities Documentation Project in eastern Chad. His most recent book is “An Oral and Documentary History of the Darfur Genocide” (Praeger Security International, 2010). He was last in the Nuba Mountains in January 2011 conducting research for a new book, “Genocidal Actions Against the Nuba Mountains People: Interviews with Survivors of Mass Starvation and Other Atrocities.”

Genocide Scholars write to Congress urging sanctions against Sudanese Government

June 15, 2011

Dear Members of Congress:

Over the past two weeks, Government of Sudan troops have laid waste to the Nuba Mountains in the state of Southern Kordafan. Jets and Antonov bombers have attacked towns, villages and farms. Tukuls (homes of mud walled with conical shaped roofs), churches, and other buildings have been burned to the ground. Farms have been destroyed.

Tens of thousands of people are on the run. Many have headed into the mountains where there is no food or water. Government of Sudan troops have gone door-to-door in Kudugli and Dilling in search of Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement supporters and executed them on the spot, either shooting them or slicing their throats.

This is the very same Sudanese government that committed the atrocities in Darfur and whose president (Omar al Bashir) is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide. The newly “elected” governor of South Kordafan, Ahmed Haroun, who has been imposed on South Kordafan as its “Governor” by Khartoum, is also wanted by the ICC on over 40 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes for the atrocities perpetrated in Darfur.

Outrage is beginning to swell among human rights activists, genocide scholars and certain members of the media across the United States that the U.S. government has not spoken out publicly against these atrocities and threatened to reimpose sanctions on the Sudanese government.

We believe that it is imperative that the U.S. also addresses these massacres in the UN Security Council. Now is the time to act, not after the Nuba Mountains have become the next genocide by the Government of Sudan.

We represent human rights and scholarly organizations. We urgently request that you support Representative Frank Wolf's (VA) request to President Obama to send former Secretary of State Colin Powell to Khartoum to demand that President Omar al Bashir stop these attacks on his own citizens. 



We also urge you to convince your fellow Members of Congress and the Obama Administration to:

• Suspend further movement toward diplomatic normalization with the Government of Sudan;

• Call for the arrest and extradition of Ahmed Haroun to the International Criminal Court, noting that he is responsible for the deaths of far more people than President Qaddafi of Libya, and call for him to be dismissed immediately as Governor of South Kordafan;

• Set a short deadline (one week) for the Government of Sudan’s withdrawal from Abyei and a halt to military attacks in South Kordafan. If Khartoum fails to meet the deadline, re-impose those sanctions that have been lifted since the last year of the Bush Administration;

• Announce publicly that, unless Khartoum withdraws its forces from Abyei and halts the ethnically targeted violence and forced displacement in South Kordofan, the U.S. will vigorously oppose debt relief for Khartoum in its discussions with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

• Announce plans to further constrain Khartoum’s ability to use the international banking system;

• Announce that there will be no further negotiation over Northern Sudan's status as a terrorism-sponsoring nation; all further discussion will be suspended pending withdrawal of all troops from Abyei and an end to military actions in South Kordofan.

• Demand unfettered humanitarian access and freedom of movement for UNAMID in Darfur and commit significant US training and transportation resources to UNAMID;

• Demand the immediate arrest and prosecution of UNMIS personnel who allegedly raped females in the Nuba Mountains.

• Sign a Congressional letter to the President asking him to instruct the US Ambassador to the United Nations to propose a UN Security Council Resolution that will urgently strengthen the UNMIS mission in South Kordafan by increasing its numbers of combat ready soldiers, and increasing its financing, heavy weaponry, communications, transportation, and logistical capacity.

• Furthermore, we urge you, as Members of Congress, to support a Congressional Resolution that urges the President to instruct the US Ambassador to the United Nations, working with other members of the UN Security Council, to strengthen the mandate of UNMIS, by adding the duty to “use all necessary means to protect the lives of civilians in South Kordafan and Blue Nile provinces.”

This is not the time for realpolitik, but the time to prevent another genocide in Sudan.

In the name of the humanity we all share,

Professor Bruce Hoffman


Director

Center for Peace and Security Studies


Georgetown University


Dr. Eric Reeves

Professor of English

Smith College

Author of A Long Day’s Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide (The Key Publishing House, 2007)

Dr. Gregory Stanton
Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention, Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University

President of Genocide Watch and Chair of the International Alliance to End Genocide

Author of The Eight Stages of Genocide: How Governments Can Tell When Genocide Is Coming and What They Can Do to Stop It (forthcoming, Woodrow Wilson Center Press)

Ervin Staub, Ph.D.

Founding Director of the Ph.D. program in the 
Psychology of Peace and Violence, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Author of Overcoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict and Terrorism

Dr. Samuel Totten

Professor of Genocide Studies

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Fulbright Scholar, National University of Rwanda, 2008

Author of Oral and Documentary History of the Darfur Genocide (Praeger Security International, 2010) and Co-editor (with Eric Markusen) of Genocide in Darfur: Investigating the Atrocities in the Sudan (Routledge, 2006)

Dr. John Hubbel Weiss

Assoc. Professor of History

Cornell University


Founder, Bosnia Coordinating Committee, Ithaca

Founder and Director, Darfur Action Group-Cornell


Former director, Cornell Institute for European Studies


Author of "Lessons from the Failure to Rescue Darfur"