Sudan (country)

H

The al-Bashir Coup

In June 1989 a military coup headed by Brigadier Omar Hassan al-Bashir toppled the Mahdi government. A state of emergency was imposed, and Sudan was ruled through a 15-member Revolutionary Council. Conditions deteriorated in the early 1990s, as the Bashir regime ruthlessly suppressed political opposition and stepped up the war against SPLA in the south, which had by then factionalized into different groups differing in both objectives (overthrow of the government in Khartoum, or complete secession) and tactics. Fighting between the groups weakened their position, as well as making even worse the position of ordinary southern Sudanese.

I

Famine

During the early 1990s, famine was added to the problems of displacement and warfare in the south; efforts of international aid agencies to bring food in were continually frustrated by both the rebels and the government in Khartoum. In 1993 Bashir took tentative steps towards an elected legislature (but not to a return of party politics), including the dissolution of the military government. However, the decision to retain most of his former ministers prompted many to perceive these changes as largely cosmetic. Despite attempts at a peace initiative with the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army early in 1994, the number of refugees continued to swell, and hundreds of thousands of Sudanese faced the growing threat of civil war, homelessness, and starvation. Sudan’s pro-Iraq stance in the Gulf War served to alienate Sudan on the world stage, together with accusations of Sudanese involvement in terrorist actions, including the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. There were also suspicions that Sudan had supported Islamic rebel groups in neighbouring countries, such as Uganda, thereby subverting their governments. The country has few allies, which include Iran, Yemen, and Libya; in the late 1990s its foreign debt soared to three times its GDP.

In March 1996 legislative elections were held, in which the incumbent president polled over 75 per cent of votes cast. An attempted coup d’état occurred later that month, followed by a period of intense unrest in the wake of threatened UN sanctions. A new military Islamic Cabinet was announced in late April, and a few days later the UN imposed diplomatic sanctions on Sudan based on UN Resolution 1044, which formally accuses the country of supporting and sponsoring terrorism.

In March 1998 proposals for a new constitution, planned for late 1998 and enabling greater freedom of expression and association and a multi-party system, were announced. They included the relegalization of the Sudanese Communist Party and a quota system for female representatives in the National Assembly. The announcement was judged by some observers as a sign that the regime was on the defensive and was seeking to break out of isolation, although its army support appeared to remain firm. Although the draft new constitution guarantees freedom of religion, it nevertheless states that Sudan will continue to be governed under Islamic Shari'ah law.

By July 1998 there was widespread famine in Sudan and international aid agencies claimed that some 2.6 million people were in urgent need of food. The agencies were at times impeded in their efforts to deliver food supplies as the government restricted the number of aid flights into the region, using hunger as a weapon against the rebel forces. Peace talks resumed in May in Nairobi between Sudan's northern Islamic government and largely Christian southern rebels; they remained, however, inconclusive.

J

New Constitution

In May 1998 the government's planned new constitution was approved by a referendum, and was signed into law in June. The constitution invalidated previous presidential decrees that included bans on political parties. In November 1998 the National Assembly voted to approve the formation of political parties, and these began registering from January 1999.

The ongoing power struggle and controversies on constitutional issues between President al-Bashir and the parliamentary speaker and head of the National Congress (the National Islamic Front), Hassan Abdullah al-Turabi, escalated in late 1999 and led, in December, to the imposition of a state of emergency by the president. The National Assembly was dissolved, and the Cabinet resigned. A new government was appointed in January 2000, together with a group of state governors and governmental advisers.

K

End to the Civil War

The government announced, in August 1999, a ceasefire in the troubled southern area of the country, with the aim of allowing relief operations. The rebels, however, rejected the ceasefire offer. Negotiations nevertheless continued, and in November a peace accord, mediated by the Djibouti government, was reached. Hailed as the 'Call of the Homeland', the settlement envisaged a transitional four-year period of ceasefire and security-building, with a referendum in 2003 that would give the south of the country the option of secession.

The government and the SPLA recommenced negotiations in February 2000, in Kenya, but new fighting soon broke out again. In March the state of emergency was extended, as the issues between the president and the head of the National Congress remained unresolved. As Sudan's relations with neighbouring countries began to normalize, the United States reopened the embassy in Khartoum, which was closed two years before amid security fears.

In the presidential and parliamentary elections of December that year, al-Bashir won another five-year term. However, his main opposition parties boycotted the elections, claiming they were negative and divisive. Shortly afterwards, al-Bashir extended the state of emergency for another year. Yousif Kuwa, commander of the rebel SPLA divisions in the Nuba mountains of central Sudan died in March 2001. In May, the government launched a further major offensive against the SPLA. Talks in Nairobi failed to bring an end to the fighting and a short-lived ceasefire was broken when the SPLA reported another government offensive against them. Meanwhile, the US had sent a special envoy, former senator John Danforth, to negotiate a permanent truce between the warring factions. A seemingly permanent ceasefire was signed in Lucerne, Switzerland, in January 2002 and was followed by a deal to end the war in July, the most significant proposal of which was the promised referendum on independence after a six-year power-sharing period. Despite the agreement and continuing peace talks, the fighting continued. In May 2004 a further peace deal was proposed (it was signed in December 2004). The deal gives autonomy to the south for a period of six years followed by a referendum on independence at the end of that time. The north and the south have agreed to share the country’s economic wealth throughout that period. The former Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang was appointed as vice-president of the country as part of the peace deal but was killed in a helicopter crash a mere three weeks later, leading to violence in the capital city. By 2005, an estimated 2 million people had died in the civil war that started in 1983.

L

The Darfur Crisis

In 2003 an uprising in the western Sudanese region of Darfur by black African groups, protesting about unfair treatment and calling for greater rights for non-Arabs, led to a determined crackdown by government-backed Arab militias known as Janjaweed. Between 2003 and 2007 the militias are estimated to have forced around 2.5 million people from their homes, with as many as 200,000 fleeing into neighbouring Chad where a humanitarian disaster has ensued. Thousands of people have been killed in the fighting: estimates range as high as 450,000. The militias are accused of systematic mass rape and “ethnic cleansing” in the villages they attack. Initially, back in 2003, both the US Secretary of State Colin Powell and the US Congress reported that there was not enough evidence to claim genocide was taking place in the country; however, these positions were reversed a year later. The UN has concluded that there is insufficient proof that the government has followed a policy of genocide in the region. Nevertheless, a UN Security Council resolution in July 2004 called for the Janjaweed to be disarmed and in 2005 the UN Security Council voted to apply sanctions to the country and to refer war crimes suspects in the Darfur region to the International Criminal Court (ICC); the first charges were made in May 2007 against Janjaweed fighter Ali Kushayb and Sudanese humanitarian affairs minister Ahmed Haroun.

In May 2006 a peace agreement was signed between the government and one faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, the region’s largest rebel group. However, there appeared little progress in the disarmament of the Janjaweed as stipulated in the agreement. Around 7,000 African Union peacekeepers were deployed to the region but the government rejected a UN peacekeeping force. Threats of US and EU sanctions led to further talks, with an AU-UN joint peacekeeping force being proposed. An agreement was reached in the UN in July 2007 to send 19,000 peacekeepers to Darfur.