Damanga Denounces Al Bashir’s Declaration of War on Southern Sudan

November 25, 2007

Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy condemns Al Bashir of Sudan for his misleading comments to the media, regarding the war between his government and the government of Southern Sudan. Al Bashir for no apparent reason has declared war or jihad against the South of Sudan, and the SPLM-A. At the time the government of Southern Sudan joined the government of Sudan, there were still underlying, unresolved issues between the two parties. The problems being that the government of Sudan never respected the SPLM and the people of Southern Sudan, and they did not implement the CPA (Comprehensive Peace Agreement). Instead of Al Bashir and the NCP to work with the government of Southern Sudan, the SPLM to resolve the problems and to achieve peace by implementing the CPA, they are accusing the SPLM of declaring war, and the NCP’s Youth Division Secretary Hajj Suwar is recruiting fighters for jihad from refugee camps. The same people they are terrorizing, are the ones they want to recruit to fight a jihad for them. We find this rather absurd.

Al Bashir and his government think that they can deceive the refugees in the camps in the name of Islam to have them kill each other. They are only deceiving themselves. Those victims of the same Islamic government will never be fooled again to be used in the name of Jihad. If Al Bashir knows that the people in the refugee camps are Muslims, why is he killing them, and at the same time, trying to recruit them to fight against one another? These tactics of propaganda that has been used to murder innocent citizens, both Muslims and Christians, will never work again. Al Bashir has to stop these games, because all the people of Sudan who have been used to kill each other in the name of Islam have realized that this is a “divide and conquer” strategy.

Al Bashir has refused to let Denmark, Sweden, and Norway to bring in their engineering unit to help the UN Peace keeping troops. Meanwhile he is allowing the Chinese government to continue helping the war. He is doing all these to appear like an authentic Muslim, and to show that he has respect for the Prophet Muhammad. If he really respects the Prophet, he will never kill Muslims and other innocent people. He does not understand the meaning of being a true Muslim. The aim of Al Bashir and the NCP is to obstruct peace efforts in Sudan, and to ensure that peace is never realized. Al Bashir stop playing with fire, and allow the peace keepers from the International community to get aid into Darfur as soon as possible before it becomes too late.

Damanga is deeply concerned about the irresponsible statement made by Al Bashir, and fears that this will make the situation more complicated. We urge the UN peace keepers including Europeans, Americans, and Africans and the rest of the world to be deployed to Darfur without any delay. We stress that those who have committed crimes against humanity, and genocide be held seriously accountable, starting with Al Bashir and all his colleagues in the NCP and the Janjaweed Arab militia