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History and Background
Sudan, the largest country in
Africa, bordering nine countries, has been at war within itself
for 30 of its 40 years of independence, that is, 17 years of the
Anyanya war (1955-1972 and 13 years of the present war waged by
the SPLA from 1983 to the present.
This is too much suffering and
misery for any country and for any people to go through. Obviously
something must be very wrong for a human community to subject itself
to generations of war! It is necessary to look deep into "what
went wrong" in order to find viable solutions to the Sudanese
conflict.To do this, it is necessary to present a brief historical
background of the Sudan and to identity the Problem of Sudan.
The present Republic of the Sudan got its name
from the word "Bilaad-el-sud" which in Arabic means "the
Country of the Blacks". In the Bible times, Sudan was known
as "Cush", and there are many references to it in the
Bible. The 25th Egyptian dynasty (750-654 BC) was a Sudanese dynasty,
when the Sudanese ruled over Egypt and beyond.
This was the time of famous Sudanese kings, like
"Piankhy" and his son, "Tirhakah". They were
known by their subjects as the "powerful jet black rulers"
admired for their fairness and justice, and equally known for their
courage and successful military expeditions.
One such military expedition into Palestine by
a Sudanese general involved one million Sudanese troops, and is
recorded well in the Book of 2 Chronicles Chapter 14 verses 8-10
the Good News Bible:
" King Asa (had an army of 300,000 men from
Judah, armed with shelds and sprears, and 280,000 men from Benjamin
armed with shields and bows. All of them were brave, well trained
men.
A Sudanese named Zerah invaded Judah with an army
of one million men and three hundred chariots and advanced as far
as Mareshah. Asa went to fight him, and both sides took up their
positions at Zephathah Valley near Mareshah."
In about 450 AD, Christianity entered Northern
Sudan and the Christian Kingdoms of Nubia, Merowe, Mekuria, Soba
and Alwa flourished for about 1,000 years.The Arab and Islamic invasion
of the Sudan started in about 700 AD, and this was resisted by the
Sudanese Christian Kingdoms up to 1505 AD, when the last Kingdoms
were thus superseded by Sudanese Islamic Kingdom such as the Fung
Sultanate in the East and the Isalmic Sultanate of Darfur in the
West.
The second wave of Islamic expansion in the Sudan
was the Turko-Egyptian invasion mainly in the form of military slave
expeditins from 1820. This was a cruel period of the inhumanity
slavery and the slave trade, when the Turko-Egyptian forces combined
with Northern Sudanese Arab slave traders to conduct raids into
Southern Sudan for what they called "black gold" (slaves),
"white gold" (ivory) and "yellow gold" (real
gold).
The slave trade continued under Turko-Egyptian
rule up to 1881, when an indigenous uprising led by Mohammed Ahmed,
who called himself the "Mahdi" (Messiah) defeated and
killed General Gordon and overran Khartoum.
The Mahdist State (1881-1897) was established and
slave hunting was greatly intensified with devastating consequences
to the civil population, especially in Southern Sudan where whole
trives were completely decimated.
The rampant slave trade in the Sudan and the humiliation
of the defeat and death of General Gordon compelled the British
and Egyptians to send a combined force, under Lord Kitchner, to
re-conquer the Sudan.
The Mahdist forces were defeated at the end of
1897, and thus was established the so called condominium rule, known
as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1898-1956) which in reality was British
colonial rule.
During the 58 years of Anglo-Egyptian administration,
both Northern Sudan and Southern Sudan were administered separately
as two different entities under the Governor General.
This was similar to the case of Rhodesia, where
Northern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, although administered
from Salisbury under one Prime Minister, yet each of the three territories
was granted the right to self-determination, resulting in the emergence
of the three independent states of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
This experience was ushered in political stability in this region.
In fact, the emerging political and economic realities
are indicating a movement towards a better unity, that is, unity
in diversity. In addition, the British introduced the concept of
the "Closed Districts" which included Southern Sudan,
Nuba Mountains of Southern Kordofan and the Fung areas of Southern
Blue Nile.
The intention of British rule was to close off
these areas from the North to protect the indigenous African populations
of these areas from the vagaries of the Arab slave traders and from
Islamization and Arabisation.
The Northern Sudan was thus ruled as a colonial
territory along Islamic/Arab lines with its future and cultural
orientation towards Egypt and the Arab World, while Southern Sudan
was ruled as an African colonial territory where African culture,
language and Christianity were all encouraged to flourish in exclusion
of anything Arab or Islamic, and with its future and cultural orientation
towards Africa.
Indeed pass permits were required for travel between
the North and South (and other Closed Districts). However in 1947,
the British abruptly reversed their policy of "Closed Districts"
and separate futures for North and Southern Sudan, and instead decided
that the South and North would become independent as one country.
The failure of the colonial authorities to allow
the people of the "Closed Districts" to exercise their
right to self-determination is one of the main factors that contributed
to the first civil war in the Sudan (1955-1972).
Indeed when Southern units in the (colonial) Sudan
Defence Force learned of the impending independence of the Sudan
as one country under Northern domination, these units rebelled in
August 1995 in Torit, four months before independence (January 1,
1956) and that was the beginning of the first war!
The avowed aim of first civial war was "independence
of Southern Sudan" and it was led by the Southern Sudan Liberation
Movement (SSLM) and its military wing the "Anyanaya" guerrilla
army. Generally, Southerners felt that what happened at independence
was a mere replacement of one set of colonial masters for another
and of a worst type, and thus the Anyanya called for full independence
of Southern Sudan.
This war was successfully resolved by the Addis
Ababa Peace Agreement of 1972, which was meditated by Emperor Haille
Selassie of Ethiopia, the All African Council of Churches and six
African countries. But the was high it is estimated that between
750,000 and 1,500,000 Southern Sudanese died in the Anyanya war.
The Addis Ababa Agreement granted Southern Sudan
regional autonomy, with its own legislature, executive and judiciary,
worked out interim security arrangements by which 6,000 Anyanya
guerrillas were absorbed in the national and another 4,000 in the
Police and Prisons services.
Relative peae lasted for 10 years, although this
was punctuated by instances of isolated mutinies by disgruntled
former Anyanya soldiers and a growing realisation by most Southerners
that the peace would not last. Thus while North worked to undermine
the Addis Ababa agreement, Southerners prepared for war.
The Addis Ababa Agreement failed to satisfy the
aspirations of the peoples of the "Closed Districts" as
the agreement neither put them in the centre of power in parity
with the North nor did it allow them the right of self-determination.
At the same the North continued with its project
of Islamization and Arabization of the country, and thus President
Numeiri started a process of eroding whatever gains Southerners
achieved in the Addis Ababa Agreement, and finally abrogated the
Agreement altogether in June 1983 when he divided the South into
three separate mini-Regions.
Worst still President Numeirie attempted to annex
the newly discovered oil fields in the South to the North, and proceeded
in September 1983 to establish Islamic Sharia as the supreme law
of the Land.
Numeiri's abrogation of the Addis Ababa agreement
and Southern frustration and dissatisfaction with it, coupled with
the increased pace of Islamization and Arabization of the South,
led to the outbreak of hostilities.
On May 16th 1983, the Sudanese Army attacked one
of its own units of the former Anyanya guerrillas absorbed in the
national army, Battalions 105 and 104 that were stationed in Bor
and Ayod respectively on the accusation that these units had rebelled
or were about to rebel.
This incident led to the formation the Sudan People's
Liberation Movement and Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLM/SPLA),
as these units took to the bush and were subsequently joined by
students, intellectuals, government officials and the peasantry,
and the SPLM/SPLA has been leading the struggle since then to the
present.
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The above Information was extracted from
SPLMToday.com
http://www.splmtoday.com/modules.php?name=Splm&page=cvlwar§=1
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