Sudan: Bereft with Over Fifty Years of Conflict

Very few of us know much about Sudan- other than that it has a place in it called “Darfur” where there is a violent civil war. We have all seen the t-shirts that say “Save Darfur” and many of us have seen the Invisible Children movie, but what are we trying to save them from? What really is going on there? I pride myself as being someone who knows what happens outside of the United States daily, but I have recently realized how little I actually know about what stemmed this conflict. It seems totally ludicrous that any one can try to fix a problem without knowing the causes of the conflict (let alone where the country is located), so today when I came across the BBC headline “Darfur: Little Hope Five Years On”, I planned on writing my own policy prescription for how to restore peace to the region but quickly realized that I too knew very little about what the actual problem was. In noting my own ignorance, I recognized that many of my readers and peers are probably just as in the dark. So in hopes of enlightening both myself and others on what is really happening, my "policy prescription" has expanded to include a brief history of Sudan, specifically leading to the conflict in Darfur. While the most recent clash broke out in 2003, the country has actually been ravaged by civil war since independence. With this in mind, bringing peace to Sudan seems a bit more complicated and dreary, although still entirely possible because of massive international attention and intervention.

According to the U.S. Department of State's nation profile, Sudan is the largest country in Africa, covering as much land mass as the continental United States east of the Mississippi River. Although its citizens are called “Sudanese”, the country is actually made up of several different tribes, with vastly varying beliefs, that came under British imperialist rule in the early nineteenth century. Because the borders of African nations were arbitrarily drawn by the Europeans, it is little surprise that civil war broke out almost immediately following Sudan’s independence in 1953. The internal conflict raged between the North, consisting of Arabic Islamics, and the South, a compilation of tribes that consider themselves Black African, until 2002 when peace talks began to unite rifts. In the course of those fifty years, it is estimated that the war cost over $1.5 million a day, a figure that can only be minimized by the death of 1.2 million people.

As though this story is not devastating enough in and of itself, in February 2003 there were increasing numbers of attacks on civilians, specifically the Non- Arab tribes. Because the government was doing little to stop the violence, two rebel groups took it upon themselves to protect their land and people. These two militias, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have been fighting against an Arab nomad group knows as the Janjaweed (who is supported and financed by the Sudanese government) for over six years now with no end in sight. While those involved claim their grievances to be based on ethnic and tribal inequality within Sudan, the conflict has been exacerbated by drought, overpopulation and starvation.

By September of the following year, the international community had recognized that a genocide was occurring in Darfur and both sides were responsible. The United Nations has passed several resolutions to “protect the civilian population and humanitarian participants, seek avenues toward a political settlement to the humanitarian and political crisis, and recognize the need for the rapid deployment of an expanded African Union mission in Darfur” (Profile). In addition, the UN Security Council, the United States, and the African Union have sent a peace-keeping task force to the region, which is supposed to eventually number over 26,000 strong. On top of all of these measures, the government and militia groups have signed numerous cease fires. Still the fighting has continued interminably.

The situation in Darfur is a far uglier one than imaginable. The conflict can be prolonged indefinitely because both the rebel groups and military army have access to and make use of a largely unlimited resource: soldiers, specifically children who are captured and trained to fight. As for the people living in the region who have managed to escape capture and death, their circumstances are not much better. Today it is believed that over 2 million Sudanese people have fled to neighboring Chad and are now living in camps for internally displaced people (IDP). A BBC journalist who recently visited one of these sites spoke to several refugees who reported “toddlers being burnt alive in villages as men on horseback razed their houses to the ground; women being raped as they fled their homes looking for safety” (Henshaw). Only four days ago, people in Chad heard bombs beings dropped from helicopters that have been identified as belonging to the Sudanese government army (‘Still Bombing’). As a direct result, refugees who are trying to reenter Sudan to look for their family are being denied passage. In addition, Chad fears the conflict may cross their borders, so IDP camps are being relocated farther from the fighting.

With all this in mind, what can be done to stop the war that has not already been tried? First, the entire UN peace keeping force needs to be deployed. Currently only 9,000 of the 26,000 task force are actually in Darfur. Perhaps there should be consideration of bringing even more military power into the region. Because most of the raids occur at night, patrols consisting of people familiar with the terrain should be placed around villages to minimize these surprise attacks on unarmed civilians. In addition, more effort should be made to capture the top officials of the army and rebel groups as a way to break down the power structures. It is not effective to simply kill those who are ransacking towns because as mentioned earlier, soldiers are not hard to come by. On the political side, harsher punishments need to be placed on high officials in the militaries who are responsible for ordering large scale human rights violations that have led to this massive genocide wherein over 400,000 people have been killed. Those responsible need to reach a cease-fire that can be enforced, beginning by placing leaders in prison upon reaching an agreement. Following this, all of the soldiers need to be demobilized and placed through a rigorous reintegration program as a way to ensure that smaller factions do not restart conflicts in the future. While this is taking place, international volunteer groups should rebuild towns with homes and schools for the internally displaced people to return to. As another preventative measure, the Sudanese government should work to help alleviate the marginalized lifestyle the natives of Darfur endured prior to the conflict. Although all of these measures will help to end the immediate civil war, the international community needs to address border issues in not only Sudan, but throughout most of Africa as a way to lessen the chance of a similar outbreak of conflict. This is not to suggest that borders should be redrawn because this would undoubtedly lead to widespread unrest; however, government policies should address both majority rule and minority rights within each nation.

There are no words in the English language that can even begin to describe the atrocities that have taken place in Sudan since it became an independent nation. The fact that we still have been unable to resolve the circumstances in Darfur is evidence that the international community is not doing enough to protect and guarantee basic civil rights and liberties to people around the globe. Much more can still be done by the UN, the African Union, single nations, human rights organizations, and each of us as individuals. As the banner says, we need to do all we can to make sure that what is happening in Darfur happens "Never Again."

International Legitimacy: Engaging the World's Leading Forums

While my main goal for this blog is to create a forum where I can share my thoughts on how globalization is affecting African nations, I also aim for this to be a resource for anyone wishing to extend their knowledge about the topics I discuss within my writing. With this in mind, in my link roll I have placed the links to ten websites that are of highest quality and credibility within the field of International Relations. UNICEF is an extremely well known non governmental organization; their breadth is incredibly extensive, so the website is quite daunting for anyone who does not know what they are explicitly looking for. Because of this, I have included two pages buried within UNICEF’s archives that are extremely relevant for Africa’s future and development: Unite for Children Unite Against AIDS and The State of The World’s Children 2008. The former is fairly easy to navigate and provides valuable insight while the latter is more interactive and engages the material effectively. The logo shown to the right is that of the United Nations, the most renown international coalition of states; their website, like UNICEF’s, is an amazing compilation of tremendous information that has been meticulously organized for in depth research; it is extremely thorough in its content but perhaps too thorough for any novice trying to attain an overview of current world affairs. One of the UN’s departments, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has created an efficient site, allowing for simple searches; however the page is filled with an overwhelming amount of textual headlines making it seem busier than need be. The United Nations Women Watch is similar to the FAO in its profuse overuse of words on its homepage, but the site is filled with great pertinent stories and links to other great sources! The Center for Global Development is yet another website that makes liberal use of small font and information cramming. The benefit to this page is that the headlines are updated almost daily, and the articles are extremely thorough and well written. I have made direct reference and links to the ONE Campaign in previous posts and have made it available again because the website provides its information so successfully making it an invaluable forum. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also been successful in creating a simple, traversable site with easy access to all of its pertinent information. Lastly, BBC Africa is one of the best places for anyone trying to get a general overview of the daily passings of affairs on the continent. The information is relevant, updated around the clock, and is one of the most credible sites of international news reporting.

Child Soldiers: A Global Crisis

The use of child soldiers is one of the most horrific tragedies of modern warfare and one of the most ignored. Today, over 250,000 children are still being used to fight wars across the globe, most prominently in Asia and Africa. This staggering statistic has been solely a figure for more than three decades; however, as we are now living in a world that is increasingly shrinking because of the pervasiveness of technology, it is time that the world recognized this genocide against our youth. While globalization has played a role in getting these stories out to the world, it actually acts as a double-edged sword. On the one side, it has contributed enormously to the rise of children in warfare, but at the same time, it has also made the crisis global in reach and enabled international society to unite and combat the malice.

Child soldiers have been used in an increasing number of conflicts for the last half-century at such drastic rates because globalization and technology have proliferated the availability of arms and weaponry. Small governments and resistance groups in third world countries who previously had no access to modern weapons, now can have them imported for a small sum, legally and illegally, with little difficulty. The devastation of modern warfare has spread over great distances and to greater numbers of people as we are progressively more able to reach remote areas of the world that were once impenetrable. Not only has technology increased the availability and lowered the cost of arms, it has also created weapons light and simple enough that children as young as five years old can carry and fire them. One hundred fifty years ago soldiers had to be able to maneuver cannons and bayonets effectively, a task impossible for anyone not of significant size; now with a gun like the AK-47 and other automatic weapons, strength no longer matters.

The other "edge" of globalization's sword is that it has enabled the issue to be publicized en masse to the world's population. The internet and home video cameras make it possible for average people to witness the human rights atrocities being committed in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda and Sierra Leone to name a few. One well known example is the Invisible Children story; because of new technology and mass media, three college students were able to create a documentary that has turned into an international movement to stop child soldiering in The Sudan. Other recent movies like Blood Diamond and The Last King of Scotland have also helped to draw public attention to the international crises taking place. Hundreds of thousands of people are now getting involved and donating to international organizations like UNICEF and Amnesty International to help actively end the atrocities of these children that would otherwise be unknown, unnoticed, and forgotten. Because people have access to these stories, they are helping to bring about change in the lives of children half way across the globe.

Now that the international public on a large scale has taken notice of this international crisis and demanded change, the U.N. has been able to take steps to eliminate the use of child soldiering throughout the world. In 2000, a majority of the members ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention of Rights of the Child in the Involvement in Armed Conflict. This regulation outlaws conscripting any person under the age of 18 into an armed force group. Not only does this apply to rebel groups, but governments are also forbidden from drafting underaged people. The protocol was the first monumental legislation implemented that acknowledged the problem even existed; however, it did little beyond that because punishments were vague and thus not enforced. The United Nations has intervened in a few wars where children were involved, like Sudan, but only after massive international public attention was drawn to the crisis. In the last few months, the U.N. General Secretary has been trying to persuade the Security Council to place trade, travel and arms sales sanctions on countries that are still using child soldiers in combat zones. As shown on this map, the countries where there are child soldiers being used in conflicts include Afghanistan, Colombia, Nepal, the Philippines and several African nations; coincidentally, all of them are members of the UN and have all ratified the Optional Protocol on the Rights of the Child. If these new sanctions are achieved and enforced, they could be yet another key piece in halting the international child soldiering crisis.

Even as international bodies are able to make progress in removing children from war fronts, an entirely new set of monumental issues arises with reintroducing former soldiers into society. When the children are captured from their homes, they are put through a horrifying "indoctrination" process that ties them to the army. Because of the total brain-washing the children receive at such a young age, the reintegration process is a daunting task that needs to be completely effective in every case in order to guarantee first, that the children do not reenter the armed forces and second that the child soldier phenomenon does not repeat itself. The reintegration process used by international organizations is called "D.D.R"; thus far it has been the most effective way of helping former child soldiers become successful, productive members of their society. The first step to the process is 'Disarmament'- stripping the child of the only safety he or she has had since being forcibly conscripted. In most cases, the children have to be forcibly recaptured and taken to rehabilitation centers because their fighting units are the only family they have known, and their leaders constantly instill fear that the world outside the unit is an enemy. The second step, 'Demobilization', is more crucial, complicated, and time consuming because the brain-washing and indoctrination need to be reversed; this is achieved through psychological healing, teaching basic social skills, providing basic education, and breaking physiological addictions to brown-brown, a highly addictive substance given to child soldiers. The last step in the process is 'Reintegration' into society which is just as convoluted as the two preceding parts because many children do not remember their real names nor where they came from, and in many cases, the families have already been killed or moved to Internally-Displaced People (IDP) camps.

While this process is extremely complex and not entirely uplifting, it has been successful in the reintegration of many former child soldiers back into their societies. However, the most crucial issue that is yet to be addressed entails massive global mobilization; doctors, teachers, psychologists, lawyers, resources and funding are extremely low in supply, thus their success is limited to helping only a small number of the children who need to reintegrated. The story of child soldiers is bereft with tragedy and to date the ending has not been much different because as an international society, not enough has been done to help save the current children in warfare and few preventative methods have been implemented. However, we are living in an increasingly globalized world that gives each of us more power to gt involved to end this human rights atrocity.