Darfur Crisis Worsens

from the September 12, 2006 eNews issue

Throughout the last year the humanitarian situation in the Darfur region of Sudan has continued to deteriorate. It has long been acknowledged that action must be taken, yet despite the severity of the situation it seems very little progress has been made to stop the bloodshed and suffering. For many it is too late, nothing can be done.

Sudan became an independent nation in 1956, but since its inception it has been wrought with civil war between the Muslim north and the primarily Christian south. In 1972 a peace agreement was reached that gave the south autonomy, and for a period of 11 years there was relative peace. Then civil war broke out again in 1983, following the discovery of oil in the south and the declaration of Islamic law by the north. The war between the north and south has continued throughout the last 21 years despite numerous regime changes in the north and the emergence of various factions of rebel forces in the south. Attempts were made to bring about peace without much success, until last year when the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement signed a historic agreement that officially brought the 21-year civil war to an end.

Darfur Genocide

In February of 2003 a separate conflict began in the west in a region known as Darfur. Rebel groups in Darfur complained of being marginalized and neglected by the northern government in Khartoum. They claimed that the Muslim leadership has favored Arab nomads in the region over the African farmers. The Khartoum government responded by mobilizing an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed. The Janjaweed ride throughout the region mounted on horseback and camel, attacking non-Arab villages and towns, often after government planes have bombed the area. Witnesses have accused the Janjaweed of burning villages, kidnapping and enslaving children, contaminating water sources and systematically raping women.

Many believe the Janjaweed are using rape as a form of ethnic cleansing. Within Sudanese culture children carry the lineage of their father, so if a rape victim becomes pregnant the child would be considered Arab and would most likely be rejected by the community. One news reporter told of a town in central Darfur in which 400 women said they had been raped by Arab militiamen. It is difficult to estimate exactly how many women have been attacked. Many women are afraid to admit that they have been raped, and some claim the government threatened them to keep quite.

Humanitarian agencies estimate that more than 300,000 people have died as a result of the conflict and 2 million more have been forced to flee their homes. Approximately 200,000 refugees have fled the country and the rest have settled in camps throughout the region. Those in refugee camps still live in fear of the Janjaweed and are suffering from disease and starvation. Tens of thousands of people are without shelter or sanitation, receive no food aid, and have to drink contaminated water. Militiamen often attack anyone who ventures away from the refugee camps to search for food and water.

Humanitarian aid organizations have had a very difficult time gaining access to the region (mostly because of government restrictions). Both the US and the UN have threatened to bring additional sanctions against the Sudan if it does not take steps to disarm the Janjaweed and allow humanitarian aid to enter the region.

Supporting Terrorism

Sudan has been on the US State Department’s list of states that sponsor terrorism since 1993. The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Sudan from 1996 to 2001 because of its involvement with terrorism. The Islamic Arab government that controls most of the country - which is plagued by internal conflict - has provided sanctuary to terrorists and has let terrorist groups plan and carry out operations from within its borders.

Sudan has given shelter to Islamic and Middle Eastern terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, which used Sudan as its main operational and training base from 1991 to 1996. Since the September 11 attacks, international investigators suspect it has become a financial hub for the terror network. Al-Qaeda operatives have reportedly smuggled large amounts of gold into Sudan.

Sudan has also harbored members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Lebanese group Hezbollah, and others. These terrorists do not carry out attacks within Sudan but plan and support terrorism elsewhere. Hamas and Hezbollah have reportedly maintained training camps in Sudan. The National Islamic Front, the strict Islamist party that governs much of Sudan, does not consider any of these groups terrorist organizations.

Black Gold

If the situation in Sudan is really as bad as humanitarian groups say it is, why hasn't something been done to stop the atrocities? Why hasn't the UN sent a peacekeeping force to the region? The answer to this question can perhaps be found in Sudan's massive oil reserves. When Sudan began producing oil in 1999, its government began collecting $500 million a year in revenue (about 80 percent of which went to buy weapons). Sudan's oil minister inaugurated its newest pipeline in April which will raise oil production to 500,000 barrels per day and provides a structure to potentially double output in the coming year. If Sudan's reserves are really as big as experts suspect, Sudan has the potential to collect tens of billions of dollars a year in oil revenue.

So who has benefited the most from Sudan's new found oil wealth? China is, by far, the single biggest consumer of Sudanese oil. China's transformation from an insular, agrarian society into a key force in the global economy has spawned a voracious appetite for raw materials. The pressure to find new sources of oil has grown as China has swelled into the world's second-largest consumer and as production at the largest of its domestic fields is declining. According to government statistics, China's imports have grown from about 6 percent of its oil needs a decade ago to roughly one-third today and are forecast to rise to rise to 60 percent by 2020.

The Darfur region is known to have major yet untapped oil reserves, representing a vast amount of potential wealth at a time when crude oil has risen to nearly $75 a barrel. The China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), owned by the Chinese government, has invested over $300 million in an expansion of Sudan's largest refinery, doubling its output. The refinery now supplies most of Sudan’s petroleum needs. The CNPC began oil production at a field in southern Darfur in 2004 and it holds a large share in Sudan's southern oil fields. Another Chinese firm, Sinopec Corp., built a 1,000-mile pipeline from that complex to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where China's Petroleum Engineering Construction Group has built a tanker terminal. All in all, China buys about two-thirds of Sudan's oil.

Sudan is China's largest overseas oil project. China is also Sudan's largest supplier of arms. Chinese-made tanks, fighter planes, bombers, helicopters, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades have intensified Sudan's internal strife.

From its seat on the United Nations Security Council, China has been Sudan's chief diplomatic ally. In recent months, the council has attempted to pressure Sudan's predominantly Arab government to protect the African tribes by threatening to sanction its oil sales. However China has used its veto power to stop any Security Council resolutions against Sudan, thus prolonging the cycle of violence in the region.