Anxiety builds in Nuba Mountains of Sudan | Voice of America - English
Sudan watchers are warning of rising tension in the central Nuba Mountains region. Most members of the Nuba ethnic group allied themselves with the southern breakaway group the Sudan People?s Liberation Movement (SPLM) during its bitter 20-year war with the government in Khartoum. In 2005, a peace agreement ended the conflict and gave the southern Sudanese the option of seceding from the north in a referendum in 2011. But the Nuba were excluded from this part of the deal.
Analysts, communityleaders and aid workers in Sudan say Nuba resentment of the SPLM is building,as many feel the movement has ?betrayed? them. They warn that the Nuba onceagain seem to be preparing for war, in anticipation of the southern Sudanesevoting to separate from the north in the forthcoming referendum. This, the Nubafear, will deliver them into the hands of their enemies and subject them to theruling Islamic National Congress Party?s harsh legal system, sharia. ?I don?t know for how muchlonger we leaders can keep the people calm. We are in a disarray here,? saysSuleiman Rahhal, of Nuba Survival, a group that?s advocating for Nuba rights. The Nuba live ina mountain range in the eastern part of Sudan?s South Kordofanregion, where they mainly eke out a living as subsistence farmers. ?During the war, we joined theSPLA (the Sudan People?s Liberation Army, the SPLM?s armed wing) becauseKhartoum was oppressing us with sharia (Islamic law),? Rahhal explains.?People were stoned to death, whipped, for minor offences. They hated usbecause we were black; they didn?t see us as real Muslims. We fought manybattles, much Nuba blood was spilt for the cause of freedom for all Sudanese.? Says Roger Winter, aformer United States Special Representative to Sudan, ?The Nuba were under adeclared jihad (holy war) by the government.? Rahhal says the governmentof President Omar al-Bashir has perpetrated ?ethnic cleansing? in the NubaMountains, a charge the authorities deny. But Rahhal continues, ?They did thesame as what?s happening in Darfur right now ? only very few independent peoplecame into our area to witness what was happening here. The Nuba suffered inisolation.? According to Rahhal, his peoplesided with the SPLM because they saw in its then leader, John Garang, an allywho in the future would free them from Khartoum?s yoke and allow them to oneday form part of a new, democratic Sudan. It didn?t seem to matter, Rahhalsays, that most Nuba were Muslims and most southerners were Christians. ?When Dr. Garang came up with the idea of a united,liberated Sudan, we wanted to join that fight. This was also our desire, thesame as Dr. Garang?s. We wanted self-determination. We were united with theSPLA not in religious faith, but in faith of common humanity.? But now, says Rahhal, much of this confidence hasbeen eroded by the consequences of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA),signed by the al-Bashir administration and the SPLM in January 2005 in theKenyan town of Naivasha. ?The CPA was good for Sudan, but mostly very bad forthe Nuba,? Rahhal says. ?My heart really goes out to the Nuba people. They?vesuffered disproportionately in this war. They really were the targets of aquiet genocide, a silent genocide,? says Daniel Jok Deng, who manages an aidorganization operating in the Nuba Mountains. ?The CPA put the Nuba in a kindof no man?s land. They didn?t win the same rights that the south won throughthe struggle, although they engaged in the same struggle.? According to the peacedeal, the people of the Nuba Mountains do not have the option of voting forself-determination and separation from Khartoum in a referendum scheduled for2011, as do others who live in southern Sudan and marginalized areas of Sudanwho previously allied themselves with the SPLM, such as those in the Abyeiregion. A clause in the CPA,entitled ?popular consultation,? says political leaders in the Sudan mustmerely ?consult? with the Nuba to gauge their desires ahead of the referendum.Sudan analyst and veteran aid worker Peter Moszynski explains, ?Just before hedied, I asked John Garang what was the difference between self-determinationand popular consultation. He said self-determination is something that?senshrined in the peace agreement and it can?t be altered. If the people votefor it, it?s going to happen. Whereas popular consultation just means peoplehave the right to be consulted ? but that whatever the people say, theirdesires are not necessarily going to be taken into account in the near future.? He adds, ?There?stherefore a good chance that the Nuba Mountains will officially be assimilatedinto the north.? This, states Rahhal, isanathema to the Nuba, given their previous persecution at the hands ofKhartoum?s troops and militias. ?To my understanding, this (popular consultation)doesn?t lead to anywhere. It doesn?t give the (Nuba) people a full right todetermine what they want. If they want absolute autonomy, they don?t have that(right). It is just ambiguous terms that doesn?t lead to anywhere.? Dengsays, ?The Nuba feel that the SPLM leadership sacrificed them in order tosecure the signing of the peace agreement and a future for southern Sudan, inthe midst of huge international pressure, that they were in effect thrown tothe wolves to pacify Khartoum.? Rahhalpoints out that the Nuba never had any official representatives at the CPAnegotiations. ?Thereforewe had no one to fight for our rights. We just had to trust the SPLM.? ButRahhal adds that ?burning resentment? is now the order of the day in the NubaMountains. ?Wehear that Juba (the capital of southern Sudan) is being built up, that thesouth is being developed, but we are seeing nothing here, we are just goingbackwards. The CPA has meant nothing to us. The Naivasha agreement neveraddressed (the Nuba?s) grievances or their aspirations and demands.? TheCPA also makes provision for Sudan to hold national elections in 2009. ButRahhal says the polls will be ?meaningless? to the Nuba. ?What is the point ofthe Nuba voting when we are going to be given to northern Sudan anyway heasks. Deng says ?disenchantmentis everywhere? in the Nuba Mountains these days. ?If the south separates and leaves the Nuba (people) behindin a Sudan that still follows the policies that they rebelled against, theconcept of betrayal (by the SPLM) becomes very relevant,? he comments. Moszynski explains thesituation in more cynical terms. ?Unlike Abyei, the NubaMountains doesn?t have much oil; they don?t have many resources. They?re alsomostly Muslim. They will be left on the northern side of the border again ifthe country separates.? Moszynski says the Nubainvested all their hope in Garang and essentially trusted that he would never?sell? them to the al-Bashir administration ? no matter what the contents ofthe CPA. ?Dr. Garang was dedicatedto the concept of a united Sudan, a Sudan that would embrace the Nuba and givethem a measure of autonomy in their own territory. However, post-Garang, theSPLM?s separatists have risen, and Sudan now seems bent on a course ofsecession. The future is looking bleak for marginalized people like the Nuba.? Following Garang?s deathin a helicopter crash a few months after the peace deal was signed, saysMoszynski, Nuba hopes faded fast. ?The recent actions of Khartoum have further cemented thelikelihood that southerners under the present conditions, with ongoing conflictand atrocities in Darfur and the destruction of Abyei by government troops,would vote to secede, hence leaving the Nuba in a very vulnerable position.? Deng is convinced that theNuba Mountains is fast building towards an ?explosion.? ?Although people may not be focusing on Nuba Mountains rightnow, it definitely is a flashpoint. If the rights of the people of NubaMountains are not recognized and upheld, then I think we can fear the worst inNuba (Mountains) as well.? Winter agrees, saying theNuba Mountains ?has the mixture ? ethnic, religious and otherwise ? thatsometimes tends to be fodder for violence in Sudan. It?s a vulnerable place,which is clearly geographically in the north, although the population isculturally southern (Sudanese) and African.? Ezekiel Gatkuoth, theSPLM?s mission chief in the United States and one of its negotiators withKhartoum, agrees that discontent is simmering in the Nuba Mountains but blamesmost of the tension on the Sudan government. Khartoum, he maintains, ?has notbeen serious in implementing the peal deal protocols that pertain to the area.? He says the main reasonfor ?bad feelings? in the Nuba Mountains is that civil servants from Khartoumare ?treated better and paid better? than local civil servants allied to theSPLM. ?These two (branches of)civil service have to be harmonized so that it can be integrated and peopletreated fairly. Then things will improve,? he says. The gist of Gatkuoth?sargument is that it?s the Sudan government?s failure to implement keyconditions of the CPA in the Nuba Mountains, rather than any SPLM actions,that?s inflaming emotions in the region. ?Of course the NubaMountains is a flashpoint. We need to be very concerned. It is just like Abyeibecause it is on the borderline; anything can happen at anytime,? heacknowledges. But he denies that theSPLM is set to ?sacrifice? the Nuba to the north in order to gainself-determination. ?There is no such thing asbetrayal from our side. The SPLM is not a southern party; we are a nationalparty. We care about the Nuba. They are our people,? he emphasizes. He alsodenies that the SPLM is ?selling out? the Nuba because they are Muslims, andlive in a poor area with little wealth. ?The SPLM is a party ofmarginalized people. We are for Nuba Mountains, we are for Southern Blue Nileand we are also for Abyei. We are for Darfur and we are for Nubia and also weare for eastern Sudan. And we will never, ever abandon anybody who ismarginalized in Sudan. Whoever is analyzing that we are betraying the people ofNuba Mountains is clearly not assessing the situation correctly,? he says. Tothis, Rahhal responds: ?I can?t trust SPLM?. They are not taking the issue of the Nuba seriously.? Rahhal points out that another source of bitternessin the Nuba Mountains is that the area doesn?t have a ?single representative?in the SPLM administration. ?Even the NCP has some Nuba in its government inKhartoum,? he says. Gatkuoth responds that ?some? Nuba do have positionsin the southern government, although he concedes that they don?t occupy topposts ?at the moment.? Moszynski warns that many Nuba who previously foughtagainst Khartoum?s troops in the past did not surrender their weapons after thepeace agreement was signed but instead hid them. ?I don?t doubt that someof these people, if things don?t go their way, will resume a guerilla war, eventhough the SPLA won?t support them,? he says. ?In a way you have to worry moreabout these areas with regard to geography and topography. The Nuba Mountains,as its name suggests, is very mountainous. Now one thing about mountains ? it?svery hard for tanks and artillery and soldiers to operate there. So it?s veryeasy for the rebels to become ensconced in the hills. It?s hard to defeat themthere, which is why they were able to hold out for more than two decades in thecivil war.? Rahhal adds, ?What I seeamong some Nuba leaders is preparation for conflict, not preparation forelections or peace.? Some Nuba, he says, feeltheir ?true war? is only just beginning.