Sudan Experts Spotlight Role of Arab Militia in Abyei Violence [PART 3 OF 5] | Voice of America - English
Observers of Sudan say the Khartoum government is actively pitting rival ethnic groups against each other in the oil-rich Abyei region. The area became the focus of international attention recently when forces from the Southern Sudan People?s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and President Omar al-Bashir?s government in Khartoum clashed. The conflict destroyed towns and villages, displaced thousands of people and raised concerns of a return to civil war in Sudan. Abyei is claimed by both the SPLM and the al-Bashir administration.
Peter Moszynski, a British aid worker who?s operated inAbyei since 1981, says the harsh environment and scarcity of essentialresources play a role in the ?almost constant tension? in the region. ?One of the reasons why there?s currently conflict thereis because both the local Arab Misseriya [group] and the local Dinkasoutherners are annual pastoralists who move backwards and forwards accordingto the rain with their cattle herds. In a way, the conflicts have started overArabs and Dinkas fighting over grazing rights, but of course this is somethingthat both sides have been [exploiting] because of strategic interests.? ?They were one of the first groups co-opted as tribalmilitias by the previous [Sudanese] government in 1987, when they were armed asa way to fight the predominantly southern SPLA [Sudan People?s LiberationArmy]. These [Misseriya] are quite related to?other Arab groups that make [up]the janjaweed in Darfur. [Abyei] borders on southern Darfur.? Moszynski says the janjaweed Arab militia, which isaccused of killing black Africans in Darfur on behalf of Khartoum, has much incommon with the Misseriya. ?Whoever?s been in power in Khartoum over the last fewdecades, they?ve always been able to use divide and rule to get their policiesacross ? predominantly by arming local militias. They?ve been giving guns topeople who want to argue about land and grazing rights. However, it creates thestrategic situation where the non-Arab population of Abyei is now beingcompletely displaced.? But Moszynski says Khartoum has been using such ?ethnictribal conflicts? as an excuse to attack areas like Abyei under the guise ofmaintaining ?law and order.? Deng says traditional leaders from both the Ngok Dinka andthe Misseriya have in the past successfully resolved disagreements betweentheir peoples. Deng is convinced that it remains in Khartoum?s intereststo keep the Dinka and Misseriya at each other?s throats. The longer this goeson, he says, the longer the government of Sudan will be able to argue to keepits troops in and around Abyei, and in so doing, the greater the chance of aresumption of civil war between the south and north.