Sudan

Situation in South Kordofan

Society for Threatened Peoples is deeply concerned about the serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law being perpetrated in South Kordofan in Sudan. Violence erupted in South Kordofan on June 5, 2011, and had a devastating impact on the civilian population. According to testimonies collected on this ground, areas densely populated by the Nuba people still are subject to indiscriminate aerial bombings and artillery shelling by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), accompanied by ground attacks by SAF and aligned paramilitary groups such as the Popular Defence Forces (PDF), the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) and the Central Reserve Forces. These attacks included summary and extrajudicial killings of suspected supporters of SPLM-North and Nuba people. Credible witnesses reported about mass graves, arbitrary arrests and detentions, house-to-house searches, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment during detention, destruction of churches and looting. Eyewitnesses have expressed the fear that ethnic cleansing has been committed and that crimes against humanity and war crimes have been perpetrated by the SAF and aligned paramilitary forces. There are also allegations that SPLA-North has carried out extra-judicial killings.

The attacks have resulted in significant loss of life and have caused the forced displacement of up to 200.000 people in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan. Despite concluding a framework agreement on June 28, 2011, between the conflict parties on security and political arrangements, fighting and serious human rights violations have escalated in the Nuba Mountains. Three Sudanese members of Parliament

resigned on September 19th, saying that the Sudanese Government was responsible for ethnic cleansing and the the killing of 2,132 people in the Nuba mountains since the beginning of June 2011.

The “Preliminary report on violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in South Kordofan from 5 to 30 June 2011”, issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in August 2011, provides a detailed overview on allegations and testimonies indicating massive human rights violations. It is largely based on a report submitted by the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) at the end of June 2011. Regarding the disastrous and alarming situation in South Kordofan we deeply regret the delay in the publication of the OHCHR report and his timely limited documentation of human rights violations committed only in June 2011. Furthermore, we regret that the OHCHR report has been watered down from a leaked provisional version of the UNMIS report which became public in mid-July 2011. More research and documentation of human rights violations in the Nuba Mountains is desperately needed. Due to the restrictions, humanitarian agencies often could not provide humanitarian aid to people in need. Access restrictions on humanitarian relief remain the principle challenge to providing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population. Access to South Kordofan remains difficult, as Sudanese authorities are blocking air and road access to and in the Nuba Mountains. Free access for humanitarian relief and human rights monitors must be ensured.

Massive human rights violations, amounting to crimes against humanity, have been committed in Darfur (Western Sudan) since the outbreak of violence in 2003. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan admitted in December 2006 that the United Nations and the international community had failed to halt the bloodshed in Western Sudan. On July 14, 2011, another peace treaty has been signed for Darfur, but war and massive human rights violations prevail in the crisis region.

There will be no reconciliation in Darfur without justice. Achieving justice and reconciliation requires a balance between leaving violence behind, truth-telling about the past and forms of justice appropriate to the particular society. Different countries have worked towards reconciliation in different ways. The experiences of Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, Angola, Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa and Rwanda mark different approaches: from official amnesia about the past, to truth commissions, healing, forgiveness and prosecutions.

Certainly it is difficult to talk about reconciliation while fighting and massive human rights violations are still going on. But dealing with justice and reconciliation is a long-term process. A genuine reconciliation in Darfur requires the root causes of conflict to be addressed in a comprehensive and just manner. All reconciliation efforts will fail until a comprehensive and just political settlement of the Darfur conflict will be brokered. Written peace agreements are only the starting point for a broad and long-term process of reconciliation.

A genuine reconciliation process in Darfur must include all stakeholders, not only the Sudanese government and the armed resistance movements, but the civilian population as well. The Doha Peace Agreement signed in July 2011 completely lacks support of the civilian population in Western Sudan. Even leading politicians of Northern Sudanese parties - such as the former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi - have criticized the agreement as “provocative” for the other Darfur rebel groups and has described the three months ultimatum given by Khartoum for the rebel movements to join it as being unrealistic and wishful thinking. Instead of achieving real peace and reconciliation, this Doha Peace Agreement only provides an illusion of peace and normality.

The Sudanese authorities have constantly ignored the demands of the two million IDPs and refugees in Chad. Ever since, the refugees have urged Khartoum to ensure their safety, to stop human rights violations, to disarm militias and criminal elements, to maintain law and order, to guarantee their safe return, to rebuild their villages, to offer compensation for destroyed houses and belongings and to bring the perpetrators of massive human rights violations to justice. None of these demands have been fulfilled after eight years of fighting in Darfur.

The lack of justice has been condemned by leading representatives of the IDP and refugees numerous times. On August 16, 2011, Sudan’s minister of Justice Mohammed Bishara Daus has appointed his deputy Essam El-Din Abdul Qadir Zein as new prosecutor for crimes committed in Darfur. Sudan has created the position of a special prosecutor for Darfur in 2003 in order to prove its seriousness in ending impunity. But the two prosecutors who were appointed before have failed to try or bring charges against any individual despite credible reports of atrocities.

Situation in Darfur

The failure of the Sudanese judiciary to act on Darfur has led the UN Security Council in March 2005 to refer the situation in Western Sudan to the International Criminal Court (ICC) - after a UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that the Sudanese judiciary was unwilling or unable to end impunity. Since then the ICC has charged three individuals from the government side, including President Omar Hassan al Bashir, South Kordofan governor Ahmed Haroun and militia leader Ali Kushayb. All three were charged for war crimes and Bashir is also wanted for genocide, but the Sudanese authorities are refusing any cooperation with ICC.

Reconciliation efforts could be supported by truth commissions. They should exist at different levels. At the community level, it should be based on traditional methods of conflict resolution, well known in Western Sudan. But also on the regional level, a consistent and coordinated process of truth and reconciliation might be necessary. But healing and forgiveness should not lead to an unconditional amnesty for all violations of human rights. Severe crimes against humanity must be addressed and people responsible for these crimes brought to justice.

Society for Threatened Peoples calls on the Human Rights Council to urge the Government of Sudan:

• to fully cooperate with ICC and to bring to justice all persons responsible for crimes against humanity and other massive human rights violations,

   

   

• to ensure the safety and safe return of all IDP and refugees from Darfur,

   

   

• to provide compensation to IDP and refugees,

   

   

• to start a genuine reconciliation process.

   

  Society for Threatened Peoples calls on the Human Rights Council to urge all conflict parties in South Kordofan:

   

• to guarantee free and unhindered access for national, international humanitarian organisations and human rights monitors to all civilians,

   

   

• to create humanitarian sanctuary zones providing shelter for civilians from armed combat,

   

   

• to immediately sign a cease-fire agreement,

   

   

• to ensure the respect of international humanitarian law especially with regards to the protection of the civilian population,

   

   

• to guarantee basic human rights, especially to stop intimidation, torture and murder of human rights defenders and journalists,

   

   

• to immediately stop indiscriminate shelling of residential areas in conflict zones,

   

   

• to end impunity and to ensure an international investigation of alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes. The perpetrators of these human rights violations should be brought to justice before competent mechanisms.