Human rights defenders from over 70 countries around the globe participated in a Dublin conference hosted by Front Line Defenders, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (http://www.frontlinedefenders.org), in October 2005. The three day platform saw individual human rights defenders give moving testimonies of the work they do and the hardships, challenges and risks they face daily. Pambazuka News will be publishing a series of these testimonies over the coming weeks, beginning with that of Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, who recounts the experiences of the Sudan Social Development Organization in Darfur.

“I am giving this testimony on behalf of my organization, Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), and myself.

What is Sudan?

The word in Arabic (Sudan) literally means the blacks. It was used in ancient history to describe the land South of Egypt. In modern history it was used as a name to describe inhabitants of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Chad (the French Sudan) and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Sudan in its now known political boundaries, came as a result of the territory’ sharing between the colonial powers in the 20th century.

This country is characterized by its multi-ethnic, multi-cultural multi-religious population. There are more than 600 groups living in the country. These groups when setting the boundaries were not consulted as to whether or not they wanted to live together to form one nation. They were packed in these boundaries without consultation.

That means in reality that there is no one nation called Sudanese, but a country lived in by groups with diverse races, cultures and religions.

How it is ruled?

The colonial powers adopted a governance structure which is centralized, run and controlled by Khartoum. This system was inherited by a clique of Sudanese after independence in 1956, who preserved the same social, economic and political structure.

The basic features of this structure are:

- A small section of the Sudanese people are active in exploiting the resources of the country and have control over the state apparatus and the resources of the country, and impose policies and culture that serve their greedy interests.

- The majority of the population with their ethnic, religious and cultural diversities are ruled by this minority. Their right to be masters over the wealth that they produce and to participate in the general affairs of their country and regions is denied. Also their right to express their cultures and heritage is denied.

In spite of slogans and allegations of implementing decentralization, regionalism, federation and the just redistribution of power and national wealth, the hegemony and domination of the minority has deepened much more.

On the cultural aspect, traditions, cultures, and customs of the majority of the peoples were marginalized and a racial, narrow-minded vision of the identity of the country established.

The majority of people, as a result of the continuation of this structure, experienced the suffering of poverty, ignorance, diseases, and deprivation, and faced different kinds of calamities, like war, famines and epidemics which affected to a great extent the rural areas. This led to increasing numbers of emigrants and displaced people towards cities to dwell in miserable conditions. Misery became the general feature of their life in urban and rural areas.

The following manifests the essence of this system of governance structure:

- The strict centralization avails to the government of Khartoum an absolute power to decide on all crucial local and national issues. This situation marginalizes and deprives the will of all people.

- The preservation, by the different governments, of the aspects of uneven development inherited from the colonial state is made even worse to the extent that the least developed regions were much more underdeveloped. The phenomenon of economic collapse and the decline of the standard of living is common to all the nation but has hit rural areas with great severity and damage.

- The adoption of a dangerous and incapable concept of Sudanese identity that stands on the ground of religious and ethnic superiority.

- The establishment of the religious state giving all the mentioned grievances their institutional embodiment and their most horrible expression as manifested in the existing wars and in the ethnic and religious purging and mass annihilation. The religious state also deprives people from their rights of citizenship and creates a second-class citizen, it also supports economic and social inequality and renders the unity of the country impossible.

Due to these policies, Sudan has never lived in peace since its independence. War in the south began even before the colonial troops left the country. The central government in Khartoum adopted policies of divide and rule and used local conflicts to wage war against its opponents. The regular army has always fought by proxy using tribal militias. The more people start demanding equality and justice the more brutal becomes the central government. In the south of Sudan, in a long war, 2 million people have been killed, Five million persons were displaced or took refuge. The ongoing war in the Darfur killed 300,000 persons, about 2 million persons are displaced.

Emergence of SUDO

In this environment, looking at the condition of the country and the people, some 54 Sudanese men and women gathered and formed a national NGO, under the name of the Sudan Social Development Organization, known as SUDO, to work towards the welfare of the Sudanese people.

The SUDO mission is to contribute to the creation of a general human rights movement capable of defending itself and seeking a society free from all forms of human rights violations.

SUDO considers providing and availing basic needs and services a basic human right. It adopts a rights based approach on all its interventions. SUDO finds it impossible in societies like Sudan to advocate for political rights without economic and social rights. Therefore drilling a borehole or building a clinic or school is a very good event to advocate for political and social rights. Training and advocacy programs can be conducted concurrently while providing the service.

Given the conditions of the country, being ruled by a dictatorship and controlled by security, registering an NGO with such a mission was on its own a challenge.

From the first day of its registration SUDO started to work, and adopted an approach of going directly to the grassroots community.

In this short testimony I will just give a brief about the SUDO experience in the defense of human rights in Darfur as an example.

While working in Darfur since it was formed in 2001, SUDO recognized the ongoing conflict in the region. Although very young and vulnerable SUDO started advocating about what was going on in the region. We approached diplomatic missions in the Sudan as early as 2002, telling them about abuses in the region, attacks on villages, killing of civilians, burning of houses, and the looting and destruction of property. SUDO reported the systematic trend of attacks, systematic killing of individuals and mass killings of certain tribal groups.

SUDO reports were not listened to, not because they were discredited but because the political environment was not accepting to believe what had been said. SUDO worked closely with Amnesty International to highlight the gravity of what was going on in the region, in terms of human rights abuses, but both Amnesty and SUDO were not listened to. Although we managed to get out credible reports throughout 2002 and 2003, western governments were not wanting to accept the fact that there was another war going on in the Sudan. Western governments were by that time very involved in the peace process between the so-called South and North. One of the diplomats was even telling us “Why Darfur now?” Our reply was: “It is not our choice, we have not invented it.”

Hundreds were detained arbitrary and SUDO worked closely with Amnesty International for their release. We mobilized local communities and thanks to these efforts we managed to free many who were innocent, but with severe regret many lost their lives under torture. Slowly the war started to get a political dimension. By the end of 2002, a political/armed group named itself as the Darfur Liberation Front (DLF) and later transformed to the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement SLA/M. The trend of the war has changed. Instead of militias backed by government forces attacking villagers the government army started to launch systematic attacks against civilians. SLA has launched very painful, planned attacks against government army garrisons, and the government has retaliated by using heavy bombardment, air raids against villages, and concurrently used militias to attack villages burn, loot, rape and kill.

SUDO and other international organizations started reporting what was happening to the public and the Western missions in Khartoum, but still very little response was noticed. The government reacted by putting restrictions on INGO (international NGOs) movement, confining them to the main cities in Darfur, Geneina, Fasher and Nyala. The government started to gather outlaws, free criminals from the prisons, grant them amnesty and recruit them to join it on its war campaign.

SUDO, being a national NGO, has not abided by the restriction of movement. SUDO staff and members went to all areas in Darfur, seeing the misery of the fighting and the burden inflicted upon the civilians. Hundreds, thousands of women and children were forced to leave the burned villages, their dead husbands, sons and fathers and flee bare footed for days and weeks. They were without water and food, forced into camps at the outskirts of deserted towns, and away from the eyes of the humanitarian organizations. They were without shelter and clothes and subject to the attacks of the government militias called Janjaweed. SUDO reported in one instance, in one of these collection of people, the death of a child every second day. By the end of 2003, the international community started its very slow movement, forced by the magnitude and gravity of the situation.

In its effort to highlight the Darfur cause SUDO suffered a lot. Many of its members, volunteers and staff were arrested and tortured, but in spite of that continued to work. SUDO intervened with humanitarian assistance to the people in need and managed to pull in many international organizations to come in, and give assistance. Our staff has carried the risk on their shoulders, under fire and bombardment, in Kaila, Mershing, Zalingei and many other places. They are in the front assisting people. Young men and women, risking their own lives, opening a road for international assistance. SUDO staff have faced militias and talked in very dangerous situations to the tribes who were involved in the conflict. Still to date SUDO staff is working, delivering a service to the people in need, despite the danger they face. Our staff is working in areas designated by UN security as unsafe.

Although it is an emergency, SUDO, still based on its mission, is protecting people, our field monitors, victims of rape, victims of other violations. Our protection officers are resource persons at the forefront, assisting UN agencies to deliver their duties. They are training police and other law enforcement forces, at camps and towns, in human rights, trying to ensure their abidance with international human rights conventions.

A Short Personal Testimony

I have gone through different detention experiences by the ruling regime, since they came to power in 1989. But I had also had my share with other colleagues in relation to the Darfur conflict. I was arrested three times since December 2003. The first was meant to shut my mouth on the 24th of December 2003. I was arrested from home by 8 security members with Kalashnikovs in plain clothes, at 11.00 pm. My house and my office were searched. I was interrogated for two days at security offices and then transferred to the security detention centre in the general federal prison of Sudan called Kober. After being kept in that detention center for more than 45 days, I went on hunger strike on the 8th of February. On the 10th of February I was transferred to the prosecutor of the crimes against the state and charged under 9 articles of the Sudanese penal code. Five of these charges carry the death penalty. I went on trial for about 8 months, until the case was drawn from the court by the prosecutor general, due to lack of evidence, internal and international pressure.

Again I was detained from my village with a friend on the 24th of January 2005, and kept in solitary at a ghost house called Abu Ghyreib, for two months. I went on hunger strike for 12 days, after which due to internal and international pressure I was transferred to the Prosecutor of the crimes against the state and charged with an attempt of suicide and then transferred to the hospital to be treated from the effect of the hunger strike. I lost 10 kilogrammes of my weight on the hunger strike. I was released from the hospital, without the charge being dropped. On the 8th of May, while I was due to board a plane to Dublin to receive an award from Front Line I was detained again, my passport was confiscated and I was banned from travel. I stayed 3 days at the security detention centre together with my friend and my driver, and was then transferred to the prosecutor of the crimes against the state under accusation of espionage and photographing military areas. I walked out from the prosecutor office 10 days later without being stopped.

Still I ask, whether I deserve being awarded a prize (for human rights work), when I can recall individuals, paying with their lives trying to protect their people’s rights. Do I really deserve it?”

* Please send comments to

Chad's President Idriss Deby urged the United Nations on Wednesday to take control of Sudan's volatile Darfur region because he said Khartoum was using the conflict there to destabilise neighbouring states. Deby, who faces threats from rebel attacks on Chad's eastern frontier with Sudan and from army desertions at home, made the call during a meeting of central African leaders which he convened in N'Djamena to discuss tensions with Khartoum.

The main opposition party in the Democratic Republic of Congo has reversed its decision to boycott the first full elections in four decades. Etienne Tshisekedi said that his Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) would after all take part in the polls due by July 2006. They had called for a boycott of a referendum two weeks ago in which a big majority backed a new constitution. The UDPS said the West had unfairly supported those backing a "yes" vote.

What better way to start the New Year than a story of the millions of US $ lost by greedy people through Nigerian internet scams! Nigerian blog, Nigerian Times - (http://nigeriantimes.blogspot.com/2006/01/yahoo-yahoo-internet-scammers…) writes a rejoinder to an article in the Miami Herald on Nigerian scammers. He admits that greediness and gullibility are largely responsible but adds that the CIA, FBI and Interpol have the technology to trace and arrest the scammers via their hotmail and yahoo accounts. In fact in Nigeria, scammers are called “Yahoo-Yahoo boys” because 99% of them use Yahoo accounts. It is impossible to have any sympathy for people that fall for these scams – everyone knows that gluttony is bad for the health and the pocket!

“These Internet Scams can be stopped once and for all if the Americans and Europeans and other foreigners stop being GREEDY, IGNORANT and GULLIBLE and if the CIA, FBI and INTERPOL can do their work accordingly.”

Ethan Zuckerman’s My Heart is in Accra - My Hearts in Accra (http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=312) points to an article in the New York Times that updates an old story - attempts to re-brand Ghana as a homeland for Africans enslaved and brought across the Atlantic to return home to. The issue of “homeland” for many old Diasporans is a highly problematic one. As Ethan points out, being labelled as “white” (“obruni”) when you are a white man is one thing but for Africans from the Diaspora it is confusing and disappointing.

“But it’s obviously very different to hear yourself called ‘obruni’ when you’re an African-American in Ghana. And it’s even harder to hear the message many of my African-American friends heard while visiting Ghana - that they were ‘lucky’ because they ‘got to live in America’. While this may be an astonishingly insensitive thing to say to people looking for their ancestry after being uprooted by one of the greatest crimes in history, it makes some sense when seen from the perspective of a young Ghanaian. Many Ghanaians are desperate to emigrate to the US or the UK - it’s hard to understand, from that perspective, why people ‘lucky’ enough to live in America would be looking back towards Africa.”

British/Ghanaian Artistic director of Institute of Contemporary Arts Ekow Eshun’s “Black Gold of the Sun” is an excellent example of “the tribulations” of “going back home”.

Rantings of a Sandmonkey - Rantings of a Sandmonkey (http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/2006/01/egypt-to-deport-sudanese…) presents a visual commentary on the killing and removal of Sudanese refugees from Cairo which mocks the reason given by the Egyptian government for their actions – the refugees were evicted, beaten and killed for “being too violent”.

Passion of the Present - Passion of the Present (http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2006/01/egypt_celebrate.h…) also writes on the eviction and killings of Sudanese refugees noting that it is the 50th anniversary of Sudan’s independence from “Anglo-Egyptian condominium rule (January 1, 1956)”

“There is no reliable casualty report, in part because Egyptian security forces are not returning the dead to their families. But the Cairo representative of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement has reported, on behalf of the SPLM Committee in Cairo, the results of a canvassing of area hospitals: 180 dead at Giza Hospital, 27 dead at Zeinhom Hospital, 35 dead at Manshiet Bakry Hospital, 23 dead at Kasr El Ein Hospital.”

Kenyan blogger, Gukira - Gukira (http://gukira.blogspot.com/2006/01/tribes-and-democracy.html) writes on “tribes, language and culture” and myths of the West, stating:

“I've never bought the myth that tribes should be renamed nations to satisfy some western acknowledgement that our traditional organizations were complex. And I've also never bought the idea that cultural and linguistic complexity should be sacrificed in the name of national unity, as though English and Swahili lack specific histories.”

The African Cup of Nations starts next month in Egypt. Black Looks - Black Looks (http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks/2006/01/happy_new_year_.html) looks at how the Africa cup impacts on European football as team managers look for creative ways to avoid allowing their African players to participate in the tournament.

“English and European football are happy to benefit from the talent of African footballers but are not prepared to pay the price - one month every two years. Admittedly the African Nations Cup comes at an awkward time for European football but this is something FIFA and CAF (Confédération Africaine de Football) need to address. Like the European and World Cup maybe the African Cup of Nations could be played over the summer but even then I predict there would be complaints from teams and players because neither accord African football with the same respect and consideration as European football.”

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Nigeria's anti-corruption agency is investigating a former state governor who is widely expected to run for president in 2007 in connection with funds looted during the rule of General Sani Abacha, a spokesman said on Wednesday. The probe into the accounts of Buba Marwa, who was military administrator of Lagos state under Abacha, is the first attempt by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to go after a highly placed official from that era over looted funds.

Chad has reacted angrily to warnings from the World Bank, after its parliament voted to relax controls on the use of its oil revenues. The government has accused the World Bank of acting like a coloniser. The body lent Chad more than $39m (£23m) to build a pipeline with an estimated total cost of almost $4bn. It was on condition that Chad's churches, trade unions and non-governmental organisations monitored how oil revenues were spent.

After being politically crucified over charges of malfeasance and mismanagement, the U.N. Secretariat has responded with a new "whistle-blower protection policy" aimed at encouraging staffers, contractors, consultants and even the public to help expose corruption in the world body. The new policy, which comes into force in January, assures whistle-blowers that there will be no retaliation for reporting misconduct and "for cooperating with duly authorised audits or investigations".

The African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR), an African Union (AU) institution, has adopted a resolution strongly denouncing Zimbabwe's human rights practices. "This will exert a lot of pressure on Zimbabwe - this is the first time such a significant body, so close to African heads of state, observes and condemns such defiance of human rights compliance," Arnold Tsunga, Director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, told IRIN.

The latest White Band Day 3 took place in December. Here are some of the updates about events that took place all over Africa.

* South Africa: A big rally was organized in South Africa on 10 December to highlight trade injustice as a violation of human rights.
* Somalia: Hundreds of youth and Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) wore white bands in the three prominent urban areas in Somalia - Mogadishu, Afgoye and Bossaso districts.
* Zambia: The Zambia anti poverty campaign held a pre World Trade Organisation (WTO) interfaith walk to voice their demands for trade justice ahead of the WTO Ministerial meeting. Zambian Trade Minister Dipak Patel answered questions on trade and poverty.
* Senegal: Students in Senegal marked White Band Day 3 with a series of events, including a petition, discussions and a demonstration to shed light on trade injustice.

Angola’s government, in need of reconstruction funds after the country’s long civil war, was in the process of negotiating a new loan with the International Monetary Fund in 2004. The IMF, aware of Angola’s long history of corruption and poor governance since independence from Portuguese colonial rule in 1975, was keen to include measures to cut corruption and tighten the country’s economic management. But as bank officials pushed harder for a signature, the government suddenly broke off negotiations. The Angolans had received a counter-offer: a $2 billion loan proposed by China’s export-credit agency, Exim Bank. The deal from Beijing came with minimal rates of interest, a generous payback period, and none of the IMF’s “conditionalities”. The government in Luanda accepted China’s offer.

A new report by UNICEF details the impact of conflict on children’s lives in Darfur, almost three years after the violence began. The key findings of the report are: the economy of Darfur is in steep decline, creating and reinforcing a reliance on humanitarian aid; as a result, conditions are worsening for children who live in areas outside the camps, in communities hitherto not directly affected by the fighting; low-level violence continues unabated almost daily, creating a climate of fear and further crippling core economic activities; Darfur has become “ghettoed,” with groups from all tribes afraid to move beyond their immediate environments.

How is a small country to compete in a global marketplace where size is rewarded? Case in point is the tiny Southern African country Swaziland, nestled between the geographic giants South Africa and Mozambique. New thinking must come into play if the little kingdom is to survive as a viable state. "Economically, 2005 was defined as either disappointing or downright disastrous, depending on who is speaking. No one had a positive appraisal. We learned it can no longer be business as usual, because there is no such thing as business as usual in a changing world," said Richard Dube, a public transport company owner.

Arab and Middle East civil society groups are accusing a United Nations agency of collaborating with Egyptian police in action which caused the deaths of at least 25 Sudanese refugees in a downtown Cairo park on Friday (December 31). The refugees, including women and children, have been staging a public sit-in for the past three months protesting their treatment by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and were demanding relocation to a third country. But Friday evening, a police force of nearly 4,000 officers cordoned off the Sudanese encampment, fired water cannons at them and beat them indiscriminately. Hundreds were dragged into buses and transferred to unknown destinations.

The Right Honorable Prime Minister, as you should appreciate, it’s not usual for an ordinary Ugandan to write to you an open letter. But these are not ordinary times, in light of the arbitrarily manner with which your government is meddling in Uganda’s governance through its withdrawing of budgetary support in a manner reminiscent of the days of the empire.

Certainly I do thank you for the development support you offered Uganda in the last 15 or so years. It changed lives for the better including of the most vulnerable. While your vision of a just world as articulated in your third term is also most commendable.

However, many find dubious the reasons Britain provided for its aid cut. The more surprising in light of Britain’s long inteference in Uganda’s governance, dating back more that 100 years and starting with the colonial experience. And as you should recall, for more than 80 of these years Britain undermined rather than promoted Uganda’s good political governance.

For British colonialism, which we experienced for 60 years, was the exact antithesis of democratic governance. No elections, no accountable structures, no responsiveness or meaningful social programmes. Actually colonialism left us a legacy of underdevelopment and an autocratic culture and institutions. One which we have been attempting to undo, for the most part successfully, in the last 20 years!

Allow me to remind you that Britain was also instrumental in propping up both the Milton Obote (I and II) and Idi Amin regimes. For when Obote abrogated Uganda’s 1962 Lancaster House constitution, the Labour government under Harrold Wilson conveniently adopted a business as usual approach! Later Heath’s regime encouraged, to put it mildly, the Amin coup. Indeed Britain was the first to recognize and internationally legitimized Amin junta.

The pattern was much similar to Obote’s fraudulent return to power in 1980. Indeed Britain trained the murderous Uganda National Liberation Army and most conspicuously never criticized that regime’s attempted genocide. Hence the question, Rt.Hon. Prime Minister, where do you get the moral authority to now lecture us on our democratization process, in light of the above most dismal history?

Britain claims that Uganda does not have the commitment towards maintaining an independent judiciary. Please further substantiate on this serious allegation. We cherish the independence of our judiciary, which for your information is currently and ably arbitrating major disputes in the land.

In sum sir, Ugandans primarily through their own devices re-established the rule of law and we do not need patronizing foreigners to claim to be the guarantors of our freedoms, when in actual essence they were the source of the very governance problems we are grappling with now.

Sir, Britain also thinks that our freedom of the press is under threat! This impression requires correction. For actually, and for your information, Ugandans enjoy more press freedom than the British.

Then there is the claim that Ugandans have no freedom of association. This we find incredulous! Parties are now legally recognised and many recently held unprecedented vibrant and democratic delegates conferences which renewed their leadership.

Concerning the case of Kizza Besigye and the Ituri 22, we could probably seek guidance from Britain’s long history. How do you treat treason suspects? Are they feted? Let off the hook, outside due process, because, for instance, they are noblemen and politically well connected? In our case of the above the accused have been rigorously subjected to an expeditious due process of the law. It is this process that will provide the final verdict.

Ironically the effects of your glaring blunders could be the opposite of what you intended. Many Ugandans now question the donor’s biased meddling and patronizing attitudes. This is consolidating a strong nationalist ideology that questions the wisdom of our exposing ourselves to your arrogance and arbitrary methods of work.

There has never been a year like it. In 2005 people campaigned in more than 80 countries to "make poverty history". Yet, gloomy figures emerged at the UN General Assembly meeting in September when the "Millennium Development Goals" were reviewed. On present progress, it would be 2150 not 2015 before the target to halve the number of people living in poverty would be reached.

After a decade of triumphs for Africa's democrats - the ending of apartheid in South Africa, the ousting of Congolese tyrant Mobutu Sese Seko and free multiparty elections in Ghana, Kenya and Senegal - several regimes have reverted to violent repression and election-rigging to cling to power. National incomes may be rising but so is social inequality, fuelling political tensions.The fruits of higher growth are not resulting in social development.

I have just finished going through the compilation of your editorial series for the year 2005. I think they are fantastic. This must involve a great deal of dedication and devotion to one's duty indeed! More grease to your pen in the coming year.

We wish to immensely appreciate the quality and incisive coverage of the Pan-African issues. We at Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations (KARA) are pleased to be associated with you and look forward to a possible partnership with yourselves. Thank you.

A commentator in the weekly regional newspaper the East African argues that as a political party, Narc (the ruling National Rainbow Coalition) is as good as dead. Unable to quell the simmering rifts between its constituent factions, the leadership of Kenya's National Rainbow Coalition appears increasingly tremulous, shiftless, and for a governing party, rudderless.

An analysis appearing in the East African, observes: "The government's sense of accountability to taxpayers, is lacking. The Executive will dutifully sit down each year with bilateral and multilateral development financiers and haggle over figures, answer questions and make promises to be more accountable. There is no such meeting with citizens. The budget process has opened up, albeit minimally, but the accountability process has not".