The Post-Colonial State and Civil War in Sudan: The Origins of Conflict in Darfur by Noah R. Bassil

Author:Noah R. Bassil [Bassil, Noah R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Africa, General, Political Science, International Relations, Peace
ISBN: 9781780760858
Google: XLQvzAEACAAJ
Goodreads: 15955504
Publisher: I. B. Tauris
Published: 2012-12-18T12:41:17+00:00

CHAPTER 7

THE NIF AND DARFUR: THE ISLAMIST STATE PROJECT AND THE REVOLT OF DARFUR

7.1 Introduction

Finally, a further warning that the current conflict in Darfur is both qualitatively and quantitatively different from the ethnic and tribal clashes that occurred in the 1980s. The violent ethnic-cum-racial strife that gripped Darfur in the late 1980s resulted from state neglect and from mounting inter-ethnic tensions over natural resources. The violence that has gripped Darfur since 2003 has the state at the very centre of the conflict, which ultimately is a struggle for control over western Sudan. The SLA and JEM have taken their cue from the SPLA/M, whose great victory was to escape the predatory state. The centre-periphery dimension of Sudanese politics has altered dramatically since 1989, when the grievances of the people of Darfur revolved mainly around government neglect and underdevelopment on the part of the state. Since 1989, in one way or another, the people of Darfur have been subjected to the predatory behaviour of a state intent on plundering Darfur’s resources and subjugating its people.

The first issue requiring clarification is that of the role of the janjawiid, and the racism and religious intolerance that has been at the forefront of many representations of the Darfur conflict. Only one statement needs to be made in relation to this: the janjawiid and the racist and religious intolerance of the conflict are means in this struggle, and not explanations. An equally important, but more ambiguous component is the role that Hasan al-Turabi, the one-time leader of the NIF and architect of the Islamic republic, has played in the intensification of conflict. In 1999, a split in the ruling party resulted in an internal-party coup that ousted al-Turabi. His power base was in the western Sudan and since the end of 1999 he has been involved in manipulating Islamist sentiment in Darfur to support an overthrow of the government. The forceful nature of the response to the Darfur insurgency was partially out of fear that al-Turabi was behind the anti-government uprising, but more so, the brutality of the response was a result, as Alex de Waal has written, of ‘the routine cruelty of a security cabal, its humanity withered by years in power . . .’1

7.2 War by proxy in Sudan: the militarisation of Sudanese society

The militarisation of Sudanese civil society remains the most potent symbol of the weakness of the Sudanese state and as de Waal argues, militias in Sudan ‘. . . have in places become even more powerful than the armed forces with the result that the power of the central government can no longer extend to these areas.’2 It was also in the weakness of the state that the conditions arose that led to the formation of the militia strategy.

The Sudanese tribal militias grew out of the north-south conflict, when a unit of the SPLA attacked the village of Gardud in south Kordofan populated by the Misseriya semi-nomads of the Baggara tribe.3 In the aftermath of the attack, as Jago Salmon explains,

.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.