3 policemen, 15 tribesmen die in attack in Darfur

December 5, 2008

The Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy was appalled by the news of the attack in the south Darfur region of Buram and the clash that occurred between two groups, the Habaniya and Falatta. This resulted in the killing of 3 policemen and 15 members from both ethnic groups. This was reported by the Associated Press and other Sudanese sources, such as SUNA. One of the officials from the Sudanese police, Issa Muhamed Abdullah, did not say if any of the 15 were involved in attacking the police. While there has yet to be a resolution regarding this clash, there was no immediate comment from a Falatta tribal leader, while a Habaniya tribal leader claimed that this clash was due to the Habaniya stealing cattle from the Falatta and keeping the cattle on the Habaniya land on the Muslim holiday, Eid.

There is reason to consider that this story may be a technique the Sudanese government is using to avert attention from the complete issue of Darfur and what actual role the Sudanese government may be playing in this story. Highlighting tribal conflict may be an excuse to explain away the conflict between the Sudanese government and the Darfurians. Simply put, the government is trying to distance itself away from the actual conflict. When the government has a major role in instigating conflict between two groups (in this case, ethnic non-Arab and Arab), it is quite disturbing. Damanga believes that this story is propaganda to create confusion about the issue of holding the Sudanese government accountable for its crimes, especially after the indictment of Omar Al-Bashir. A good example of this technique in play was in November 2008, when there was another conflict that arose in the eastern part of Sudan in the city of El-Ghadarif between the Massaleit and Hausa tribes. The situation described above is similar to the Sudanese government using tribal conflict to avoid taking public responsibility for its crimes. This conflict between the Massaleit and Hausa resulted in more than 30 casualties before the conflict was stopped. According to our sources, Al-Bashir had announced publicly to some of his supporters that one group, the Massaleit, was not native to Sudan, and the other group, the Hausa, was native to Sudan.  Although in truth both tribes are native to Sudan. The Sudanese government does not favor the Massaleit not only because the Massaleit are one of the ethnic groups suffering in Darfur at the hands of the Sudanese government, but also because the Massaleit are not supporting the government. The Sudanese government is using a tribe, the Hausa tribe in this case, to do its dirty work. In other words, Al-Bashir favored one group over another, which is a tactic in creating more conflict. Fortunately, leaders of each tribe were able to contain this conflict between the Hausa and Massaleit relatively quickly. Yet the Sudanese government is still trying to win favor for the elections in 2009 in Sudan as well as with Sudanese around the world. The Sudanese government has the power to eliminate or create conflict against any tribe or group that seems to be opposing them. According to Damanga sources, the Sudanese government is also using money among other tactics to buy voter support, especially among tribal leaders, especially reluctant leaders.

Damanga is very concerned about the escalating situation in Darfur and we hope that the United Nations and U.S. government will work together to deploy 26,000 peacekeepers, its full capacity, in the beginning of this New Year. Stop the chaos, killing, and other forms of mass injustice and support the ICC to arrest Al-Bashir, Ahmed Haroun, and Ali Kushayb and other criminals and bring them to justice. There is no peace without justice.