Government of Sudan waging war with food as key weapon

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, with responsibility for Development Co-operation and Human Rights, Ms Liz O'Donnell, arrives in Khartoum this week for a one-day official visit. The last time an Irish Minister visited Sudan was when Mr Tom Kitt went in 1993 at the height of another famine. History repeats itself.

What should Ms O'Donnell say to the Khartoum government? The most urgent appeal is for the government to allow unimpeded access to all parts of the south and the Nuba Mountains in need of food aid. The war in the south has led to the interruption of several planting seasons as people are forced to move in search of greater safety. Some 700,000 people - innocent civilians - need food aid. The Khartoum government, short of funds to purchase military hardware, has consistently used food as its greatest weapon in the war.

In many ways the UN consolidated this position when, in 1989, a three-way agreement was reached between the government of Sudan, the rebel SPLA and the UN. Operation Lifeline Sudan allows relief supplies to be delivered inside the war zone only if the government of Sudan permits. In reality, it has meant that the government has full control over who gets food aid and who does not, in many cases who lives and who dies.

In the areas where the government refused access, people have been forced to move in search of food, leading to a cycle of displacement, hunger and disease. This has been the fate of the people of southern Sudan for the last 15 years, trudging from one part of the south to another, into neighbouring countries and in their hundreds of thousands into the Muslim north.

Just as Mr Kitt did in 1993, Ms O'Donnell will undoubtedly bring up this question of access. And rightly so. But there are many more fundamental issues which Trocaire would also like her to raise.

In a recent television interview on Sudan, Ms O'Donnell said there were human rights abuses on both sides. There is no doubt that there have been terrible incidents in the south for which SPLA factions have been responsible. But, let's be honest, when it comes to human rights abuses the government of Sudan is in a different league.

When I first went to Khartoum in 1982, I was there for two weeks before I saw a southerner. My companion, who had lived there for some years, suddenly became animated as he pointed out a tall, dark-skinned African with scars on his face who looked distinctly out of place on a street full of Arabs.

When the war escalated in the south in 1983, and when hundred of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes, the colour of Khartoum quickly changed. More than 1,000,000 southerners now live in squalid conditions on the outskirts of Khartoum.

The government sees the southern population as a nuisance but the south as a valuable asset. Southern life and culture are traded off for the prospect of oil revenue leading to the prestige and prosperity enjoyed by their Saudi neighbours across the Red Sea.

In many dusty suburbs of Khartoum, I have witnessed government bulldozers destroying homes and southerners moved further and further outside the city to semi-desert areas where there are no services or facilities. Access is still extremely difficult for Western aid agencies and remarkably easy for Islamic ones.

The government of Sudan should certainly be questioned on the treatment and conditions of displaced southerners in Khartoum. And it is not just the southerners. The illegal regime of Gen Omer Hassan ElBashir, which took power in a military coup in 1989, enjoys little support in the north and relies on heavy-handed tactics to remain in power.

In the last democratic elections in Sudan in 1986, the National Islamic Front won less than 20 per cent of the vote in what was essentially a northern election, with the vast majority of voters being Muslim. Sudanese Muslims are devout but liberal and, having lived in their midst for seven years, I would certainly not class the majority of them as fundamentalists.

In order to keep power, the government of Sudan has had to silence all opposition in a systematic and brutal fashion. There are Sudanese asylum-seekers all over the world with horrific stories of systematic state terrorism against its citizens.

And there are also those who have not lived to tell the tale; tortured and murdered in the now notorious "ghost houses" all over Khartoum. Teachers, academics and judges with a liberal agenda have been dismissed from their posts.

A compromise is necessary to bring about peace and the southern demand for a state with all religions equal as part of the regional peace process should be respected. The government of Gen El-Bashir should also be questioned about elections and when democracy can be restored.

And what of the government of Sudan's human rights record in the south? There is indiscriminate aerial bombing of civilian targets, often using weapons such as cluster bombs and landmines.

Many commentators have praised the government of Sudan in recent weeks for allowing access of relief supplies to areas previously prohibited. But what about Yei, Mundri, Panyagor and Yomciir, where the UN is still not allowed access? What about Southern Blue Nile where there are huge humanitarian needs and which is still outside the Operation Lifeline Sudan agreement?

The government's appalling record in the Nuba Mountains should also be vigorously challenged. There it has followed a policy of forcibly clearing villages and resettling civilians in so-called "peace villages". This has resulted in extra-judicial executions, rapes and the abduction of women and children.

Finally, as Minister with responsibility for Overseas Development and Human Rights, Ms O'Donnell should point out that the Irish taxpayer is no longer willing to give development assistance to a regime with such blatant disregard for human rights. The only appropriate aid to Sudan while such a regime is in place is humanitarian assistance channelled through the UN and development agencies, such as Trocaire, which has been working in Sudan for 25 years.

Most of our European neighbours have suspended all official aid to Sudan and we welcome the Irish Government decision to do likewise.

Niall Toibin is a development worker with Trocaire who has specialised in Sudan