On 4th of March 2009, the Khartoum regime expelled thirteen of the world’s most distinguished humanitarian organizations from Darfur and the rest of North Sudan.Since this measure was imposed Darfuri Internally Displaced persons IDPs enduring inhumane conditions in their miserable camps have incurred a dramatic rise in their death toll, due to acute malnutrition, food insecurity, and lack of medicine, potable water and disease outbreaks prompted by such conditions. Moreover, the Khartoum regime launched barbarous multiple chemical weapons attacks against the innocent civilian population of the Jebel Marra region on the 15th of January 2016.
Using its formidable arsenal, airborne forces and partner, genocidaireJanjaweed militias, now formally incorporated into the army’s order of battle as the Rapid Support Forces, the regime inflicted thousands of casualties, primarily innocent civilians, among them many children. As ever sexual violence remains a tool of war for the dictatorship and hundreds of women and girls were gang-raped. This escalation of state terror in the Jebel Marra displaced more than 500,000 further people creating a massive new refugee problem in Central, South and North Darfur. Humanitarian conditions in the IDP camps have only deteriorated more and millions live in abject conditions on the very edge of survival.Among the newly displaced, some 70,000 civilians seeking refuge from air attacks, constant raiding and artillery bombardments, now suffer the most primitive conditions, living in the caves of the Jebel Marra. In the 21st Century theirs is a Stone Age existence.
Scores of villages have been freshly depopulated and a forced Arabization process continues unabated, a new neo-colonial policy where ethnically African inhabitants with ancestral ties to the land of Darfur since time immemorial, are forcibly uprooted to be replaced by settlers of Arab origin and other newcomers from the neighboring countries of Chad, Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Libya. This disastrous and unjust measure can in time lead only to future conflict and ugly sectarianism if not corrected. If not stopped the bitter seeds being planted today, will yield another burnt harvest of misery, violence and fear tomorrow.
Therefore, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army unequivocally states the following pressing demands:
1- We solemnly renew our appeal to the world community especially the United States of America, European Union and United Kingdom and all civilized nations to meet their historic responsibility and do their utmost to stop the ongoing genocide in Darfur, halt state aggression against South Kordofan and Blue Nile States, and bring an end to the civil war in South Sudan.
2- We appeal to the world community and the United Nation’s Security Council to pressure Khartoum so unfettered access to all International relief and humanitarian organizations expelled by the Sudanese regime from Darfur and throughout Sudan since March of 2009, may be reinstated. We further call for all aggression by the Sudanese dictatorship to cease immediately, in particular in the Jebel Marra region but across Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile States.
3- We appeal to the UNSC to fully implement all of its adopted resolutions pertaining to the situation in Darfur and Sudan. Khartoum has failed persistently to meet its obligations under UNSC Resolutions, and must be held accountable under international law so sustainable peace can become a viable reality. There is no other alternative. This cannot be optional. The dictatorship’s relentless scorched earth policy must cease forthwith. The constant razing of villages and repeated criminal attacks against civilians and humanitarian workers must also come to an end.
4- We urge the UN Security Council rescind the decision to reduce UNAMID’s troop strength by 40%, when the combined AU-UN force in Darfur has no peace to keep, is already overstretched, under-manned, under-equipped, under-sourced and functions with an inadequate and unrealistic mandate. We urge as we have repeatedly that UNAMID operate under a more persuasive and muscular peace enforcement mandate. Sudan Liberation Army forces do not carry out offensive operations, they only respond to government aggression and protect liberated areas for the sake of the people, to preserve them from extermination. Should a stronger UNAMID mandate come into force, the SLA will only venture from its bases in self-defense only when provoked by regime troops and will continue to refrain from ever being the aggressor. We do not resist the regime by force of arms because we relish it, we only defend ourselves because we have been left no choice, and are largely an abandoned people and ours is an invisible genocide. We would be happy to expand a cooperative spirit and rapport with UNAMID, if UNAMID ever properly fulfills its mission brief.
5- We urgently request an international inquiryinto the true conditions of the ongoing genocide in Darfur and reiterate our appeal to UNSC and the world community to send a fact-finding mission to the region to better inform the outside world of the suffering of our people. In tandem with this, we demand that the international press no longer face an embargo and journalists be allowed without hindrance to witness and report on events in Darfur for the sake of the free flow of transparent information to the outside world, as in any conflict zone. We remain bewildered that the UN has frozen the death count in Darfur since 2008, to 300,000 fatalities for reasons beyond our comprehension, when the true butcher’s bill since then has nearly doubled.
7-We call on the international community to impose a no- fly zone over Darfur, so the Sudanese regime will no longer be able to subject the civilian population to aerial attack and bombardments that now hold a new horror for us, the use of chemical weaponry. We also demand that an international team of inspectors be sent to Khartoum to inspect Sudanese chemical weapons stocks and that they be decommissioned and that all shipments of such weapons and the materials to build them, be intercepted by international forces, where violation of these measures would bring clear legal penalties against the regime, under international law.
8) In the name of humanity, we demand that the European Union cease funneling hundreds of millions of euros to active genocidaires in the Sudanese military and security forces, in the worst possible form of Realpolitik, to stem the flow of refugees and migrants to European shores. It is a complete moral collapse not worthy of European civilization and only empowers and emboldens a brutal dictatorship to greater heights of savagery.
We wish the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, was less morally flexible towards al Bashir’s bloodstained regime, than she has proven thus far. Her support for the regime now also helps enable a modern -day slave trade in Libya, in light of the clear nexus between Khartoum and the Libyan human traffickers. This is unconscionable in the context of European democratic principles, pledge to uphold human rights and more so in any understanding of human decency. We urge Madam Mogherini to adjust her moral compass with the utmost haste and greater moral clarity, as ultimately history will hold her conduct accountable in an unflattering light for this profound error in ethical judgement and callous policy of appeasement towards self-evident, state terror.
9) We equally implore the United States of America, which not long ago soundly condemned the Sudanese regime for its atrocious conduct, at the UNSC, to also cease its paradoxical rehabilitation o f an illegitimate regime, whose President Omar al Bashir, is the sole sitting head of state on earth, rightly indicted by the International Criminal Court at the Hague, for Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes and Genocide, whom we fully expect will face impartial justice one day.
We recognize Washington’s inconsistent dual policy towards Khartoum and potential easing of sanctions is intended to prompt greater cooperation by the regime in mutual efforts to better confront the scourge of growing Islamist terror threatening the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa and indeed the West and the world as a whole. But with all due respect, we submit without any hesitation that this is a sorely misguided policy, lacking in any tangible basis, that does self-harm to America’s own security interests and stated strategic aims to better contain extremist currents in the continent of Africa.
The Sudanese regime pays deferential lip service to the notion it is no longer a sponsor of Salafi terrorism and now an ally in the same struggle, but it only does so to prevent its own collapse, to gain benefit and help ease its pariah status, when the infrastructure of the nation is crumbling, the economy is in a ruinous state, worsening by the day, and protests are spreading across the country, as popular anger over entrenched corruption and government authoritarianism reaches critical mass. The writing on the wall is clear, the days of the regime are numbered, for those that can read the signs correctly.
In practice, Khartoum, by the very nature of the regime itself, as both a hardline, Islamist, theocratic and military dictatorship, has not changed, rather, quietly it continues to sponsor, support, arm and enable a host of radical Wahhabi, armed groups in their destabilizing activities throughout Africa. We are painfully aware of this, as they are among those that bring hell to our people every day. To name just two, the Khartoum regime still cooperates with franchises linked to both Al Qaida and DAESH and some of them operate on Sudanese territory, just as there is direct and ongoing collusion between the regime and extremist Salafi militias in Libya. In light ofUS and EU special operations forces fighting the same groups in Libya in covert action, we humbly suggest Washington would do well to take Khartoum’s duplicity better into account.
In closing we ask the United States, as the leader of the Free World, to acknowledge we have no grievance with America, to the contrary we are great admirers of American democracy and in no small part base our liberation struggle inspired by your values as a free nation and the example of your own revolution against the tyranny of colonial rule. We were grateful when the USA was the first nation on earth under President George W Bush’s tenure in the White House to correctly decry and recognize the plight of our people as genocide. We were also hopeful when as a candidate the future President Barak Obama, made ending the agony of Darfur a campaign pledge. But we were dismayed and egregiously disappointed at the end of his time in office, that one of the closing acts of the first African American President in history was to ease punitive measures against Khartoum.
We hope and pray you will rectify matters, better recognize we are your natural allies in dire need of your assistance in a common struggle against a common enemy.The first genocide of the 21st Century is not just a matter for Darfuris and Sudanese and only Africans, but all civilized peoples, as the evil of genocide has never ceased to be the devil’s work and left unchecked is a stain upon all humanity.
International law was first consecrated during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, where the US, just as with the creation of the UN, was a key architect in codifying into law a structure for universal human morality and conduct. The world owes you a great debt in this regard. We ask merely that you do not forget this core component of your greatness as a nation and forget our plight. Were you to do so in a concrete and timely fashion, you would readily see that our hands are outstretched in friendship towards you and our gratitude would never diminish. If America will not lead in this instance, then who will, in particular when Russia and China arm those that slaughter us with impunity? How is it you will likely soon take retaliatory action in tandem with the UK and France against the Syrian regime for yet again having used chemical weapons against its own people, but all the horrors described here, not least among them, chemical warfare against the citizens of Sudan at the hands of its own ruthless dictator, to match al Assad in ferocity, spark no outcry or action? As we offer desperate prayers for a just peace each day, we look to you for firm and lucid leadership but with heads unbowed, will not surrender our liberation struggle, until it is honorable, logical and not suicidal to do so.
Respectfully,
Abdul Wahid Mohammed Ahmed Al-Nour
Chairman of Sudan Liberation Movement
13th of April 2018An Urgent Appeal from Sudan Liberation Movement to the UN, US, EU and AU
On 4th of March 2009, the Khartoum regime expelled thirteen of the world’s most distinguished humanitarian organizations from Darfur and the rest of North Sudan.Since this measure was imposed Darfuri Internally Displaced persons IDPs enduring inhumane conditions in their miserable camps have incurred a dramatic rise in their death toll, due to acute malnutrition, food insecurity, and lack of medicine, potable water and disease outbreaks prompted by such conditions. Moreover, the Khartoum regime launched barbarous multiple chemical weapons attacks against the innocent civilian population of the Jebel Marra region on the 15th of January 2016.
Using its formidable arsenal, airborne forces and partner, genocidaireJanjaweed militias, now formally incorporated into the army’s order of battle as the Rapid Support Forces, the regime inflicted thousands of casualties, primarily innocent civilians, among them many children. As ever sexual violence remains a tool of war for the dictatorship and hundreds of women and girls were gang-raped. This escalation of state terror in the Jebel Marra displaced more than 500,000 further people creating a massive new refugee problem in Central, South and North Darfur. Humanitarian conditions in the IDP camps have only deteriorated more and millions live in abject conditions on the very edge of survival.Among the newly displaced, some 70,000 civilians seeking refuge from air attacks, constant raiding and artillery bombardments, now suffer the most primitive conditions, living in the caves of the Jebel Marra. In the 21st Century theirs is a Stone Age existence.
Scores of villages have been freshly depopulated and a forced Arabization process continues unabated, a new neo-colonial policy where ethnically African inhabitants with ancestral ties to the land of Darfur since time immemorial, are forcibly uprooted to be replaced by settlers of Arab origin and other newcomers from the neighboring countries of Chad, Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Libya. This disastrous and unjust measure can in time lead only to future conflict and ugly sectarianism if not corrected. If not stopped the bitter seeds being planted today, will yield another burnt harvest of misery, violence and fear tomorrow.
Therefore, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army unequivocally states the following pressing demands:
1- We solemnly renew our appeal to the world community especially the United States of America, European Union and United Kingdom and all civilized nations to meet their historic responsibility and do their utmost to stop the ongoing genocide in Darfur, halt state aggression against South Kordofan and Blue Nile States, and bring an end to the civil war in South Sudan.
2- We appeal to the world community and the United Nation’s Security Council to pressure Khartoum so unfettered access to all International relief and humanitarian organizations expelled by the Sudanese regime from Darfur and throughout Sudan since March of 2009, may be reinstated. We further call for all aggression by the Sudanese dictatorship to cease immediately, in particular in the Jebel Marra region but across Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile States.
3- We appeal to the UNSC to fully implement all of its adopted resolutions pertaining to the situation in Darfur and Sudan. Khartoum has failed persistently to meet its obligations under UNSC Resolutions, and must be held accountable under international law so sustainable peace can become a viable reality. There is no other alternative. This cannot be optional. The dictatorship’s relentless scorched earth policy must cease forthwith. The constant razing of villages and repeated criminal attacks against civilians and humanitarian workers must also come to an end.
4- We urge the UN Security Council rescind the decision to reduce UNAMID’s troop strength by 40%, when the combined AU-UN force in Darfur has no peace to keep, is already overstretched, under-manned, under-equipped, under-sourced and functions with an inadequate and unrealistic mandate. We urge as we have repeatedly that UNAMID operate under a more persuasive and muscular peace enforcement mandate. Sudan Liberation Army forces do not carry out offensive operations, they only respond to government aggression and protect liberated areas for the sake of the people, to preserve them from extermination. Should a stronger UNAMID mandate come into force, the SLA will only venture from its bases in self-defense only when provoked by regime troops and will continue to refrain from ever being the aggressor. We do not resist the regime by force of arms because we relish it, we only defend ourselves because we have been left no choice, and are largely an abandoned people and ours is an invisible genocide. We would be happy to expand a cooperative spirit and rapport with UNAMID, if UNAMID ever properly fulfills its mission brief.
5- We urgently request an international inquiryinto the true conditions of the ongoing genocide in Darfur and reiterate our appeal to UNSC and the world community to send a fact-finding mission to the region to better inform the outside world of the suffering of our people. In tandem with this, we demand that the international press no longer face an embargo and journalists be allowed without hindrance to witness and report on events in Darfur for the sake of the free flow of transparent information to the outside world, as in any conflict zone. We remain bewildered that the UN has frozen the death count in Darfur since 2008, to 300,000 fatalities for reasons beyond our comprehension, when the true butcher’s bill since then has nearly doubled.
7-We call on the international community to impose a no- fly zone over Darfur, so the Sudanese regime will no longer be able to subject the civilian population to aerial attack and bombardments that now hold a new horror for us, the use of chemical weaponry. We also demand that an international team of inspectors be sent to Khartoum to inspect Sudanese chemical weapons stocks and that they be decommissioned and that all shipments of such weapons and the materials to build them, be intercepted by international forces, where violation of these measures would bring clear legal penalties against the regime, under international law.
8) In the name of humanity, we demand that the European Union cease funneling hundreds of millions of euros to active genocidaires in the Sudanese military and security forces, in the worst possible form of Realpolitik, to stem the flow of refugees and migrants to European shores. It is a complete moral collapse not worthy of European civilization and only empowers and emboldens a brutal dictatorship to greater heights of savagery.
We wish the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, was less morally flexible towards al Bashir’s bloodstained regime, than she has proven thus far. Her support for the regime now also helps enable a modern -day slave trade in Libya, in light of the clear nexus between Khartoum and the Libyan human traffickers. This is unconscionable in the context of European democratic principles, pledge to uphold human rights and more so in any understanding of human decency. We urge Madam Mogherini to adjust her moral compass with the utmost haste and greater moral clarity, as ultimately history will hold her conduct accountable in an unflattering light for this profound error in ethical judgement and callous policy of appeasement towards self-evident, state terror.
9) We equally implore the United States of America, which not long ago soundly condemned the Sudanese regime for its atrocious conduct, at the UNSC, to also cease its paradoxical rehabilitation o f an illegitimate regime, whose President Omar al Bashir, is the sole sitting head of state on earth, rightly indicted by the International Criminal Court at the Hague, for Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes and Genocide, whom we fully expect will face impartial justice one day.
We recognize Washington’s inconsistent dual policy towards Khartoum and potential easing of sanctions is intended to prompt greater cooperation by the regime in mutual efforts to better confront the scourge of growing Islamist terror threatening the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa and indeed the West and the world as a whole. But with all due respect, we submit without any hesitation that this is a sorely misguided policy, lacking in any tangible basis, that does self-harm to America’s own security interests and stated strategic aims to better contain extremist currents in the continent of Africa.
The Sudanese regime pays deferential lip service to the notion it is no longer a sponsor of Salafi terrorism and now an ally in the same struggle, but it only does so to prevent its own collapse, to gain benefit and help ease its pariah status, when the infrastructure of the nation is crumbling, the economy is in a ruinous state, worsening by the day, and protests are spreading across the country, as popular anger over entrenched corruption and government authoritarianism reaches critical mass. The writing on the wall is clear, the days of the regime are numbered, for those that can read the signs correctly.
In practice, Khartoum, by the very nature of the regime itself, as both a hardline, Islamist, theocratic and military dictatorship, has not changed, rather, quietly it continues to sponsor, support, arm and enable a host of radical Wahhabi, armed groups in their destabilizing activities throughout Africa. We are painfully aware of this, as they are among those that bring hell to our people every day. To name just two, the Khartoum regime still cooperates with franchises linked to both Al Qaida and DAESH and some of them operate on Sudanese territory, just as there is direct and ongoing collusion between the regime and extremist Salafi militias in Libya. In light ofUS and EU special operations forces fighting the same groups in Libya in covert action, we humbly suggest Washington would do well to take Khartoum’s duplicity better into account.
In closing we ask the United States, as the leader of the Free World, to acknowledge we have no grievance with America, to the contrary we are great admirers of American democracy and in no small part base our liberation struggle inspired by your values as a free nation and the example of your own revolution against the tyranny of colonial rule. We were grateful when the USA was the first nation on earth under President George W Bush’s tenure in the White House to correctly decry and recognize the plight of our people as genocide. We were also hopeful when as a candidate the future President Barak Obama, made ending the agony of Darfur a campaign pledge. But we were dismayed and egregiously disappointed at the end of his time in office, that one of the closing acts of the first African American President in history was to ease punitive measures against Khartoum.
We hope and pray you will rectify matters, better recognize we are your natural allies in dire need of your assistance in a common struggle against a common enemy.The first genocide of the 21st Century is not just a matter for Darfuris and Sudanese and only Africans, but all civilized peoples, as the evil of genocide has never ceased to be the devil’s work and left unchecked is a stain upon all humanity.
International law was first consecrated during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, where the US, just as with the creation of the UN, was a key architect in codifying into law a structure for universal human morality and conduct. The world owes you a great debt in this regard. We ask merely that you do not forget this core component of your greatness as a nation and forget our plight. Were you to do so in a concrete and timely fashion, you would readily see that our hands are outstretched in friendship towards you and our gratitude would never diminish. If America will not lead in this instance, then who will, in particular when Russia and China arm those that slaughter us with impunity? How is it you will likely soon take retaliatory action in tandem with the UK and France against the Syrian regime for yet again having used chemical weapons against its own people, but all the horrors described here, not least among them, chemical warfare against the citizens of Sudan at the hands of its own ruthless dictator, to match al Assad in ferocity, spark no outcry or action? As we offer desperate prayers for a just peace each day, we look to you for firm and lucid leadership but with heads unbowed, will not surrender our liberation struggle, until it is honorable, logical and not suicidal to do so.
Respectfully,
Abdul Wahid Mohammed Ahmed Al-Nour
Chairman of Sudan Liberation Movement
13th of April 2018