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Activists distressed at indifference in Muslim world
The Muslim world has traditionally responded well to distress calls from its members in all corners of the globe, with the exception, perhaps, of the cries from their brothers in Darfur, a region in western Sudan that has seen some of the worst humanitarian tragedies in recent years resulting from long years of civil war
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he Muslim world has traditionally responded well to distress calls from its members in all corners of the globe, with the exception, perhaps, of the cries from their brothers in Darfur, a region in western Sudan that has seen some of the worst humanitarian tragedies in recent years resulting from long years of civil war.
The reason for this silence, according to visiting Darfur activists, is because the Sudan government has convinced Islamic countries around the world, and Indonesia, that their solidarity should lie with Khartoum in the current war.
Abdul Hadi Matar, a Darfur human rights activist based in Melbourne, said Sudan had managed to frame the civil war as a conflict between Muslims and Christians/the West, which is completely inaccurate in describing the fight between Khartoum and the rebels.
“This is nothing to do with religion. It’s more a case of ethnic war between Arabs and Africans, pitting Muslims against Muslims,” Matar said. But as part of the propaganda war, Khartoum went so far as to claim “‘Darfur rebels are collaborating with Christians and Jews’,” he added.
Matar contrasted the silence in Muslim countries and governments with their response to the Bosnia war in the 1990s, when they made strong representations at the United Nations as well as sending humanitarian assistance.
“This makes me frustrated,” he said.
Alpha Lisimba, who heads the Darfur Australia Network (DAN), believes Indonesia, as a democracy with the world’s largest Muslim population, can help the cause of the Darfur people by lobbying the government in Khartoum, as well as Arab countries and China, which count among the largest supporters of the Sudan government.
“Indonesia has a moral responsibility to help the Darfur people,” Lisimba said.
Matar and Lisimba were in Jakarta to be part of the World Democracy Movement symposium, which concluded on Wednesday. During their visit, assisted by Australian Parliament Member Michael Danby, the Darfur activists failed to meet any Indonesian government officials or members of parliament to explain the plight of their people.
Darfur took up arms against Khartoum in 2003, claiming that in spite of their majority in numbers, they had for decades been neglected by a government that had left most of them impoverished.
Physicians for Human Rights says up to 200,000 people have been killed in the Darfur conflicts through wars as well as famine, and 2.5 million people have been displaced and are living in refugee camps in Sudan and another 300,000 in neighboring Chad.
An international peacekeeping force is currently in place in Sudan to oversee peace and also provide protection to relief operations. Indonesia is one of several predominantly Muslim countries asked by Khartoum to take part in the force.
Matar denounced as “unfair and unjust” the elections taking place in Sudan this past week, which were held as part of a comprehensive peace agreement signed in 2005 with all rebel factions including Darfur. He said millions of Darfur people were not registered and therefore could not vote.
The elections will likely return incumbent president Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir to office for another five years, even though he has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes against humanity.
Matar said the Darfur rebels were not looking for a separate state.
“We are not separatists. We are part of Sudan. We want power sharing,” he said.
Lisimba lamented that international attention and support had been waning, partly following the signing of the peace agreement in 2005, and in the case of international aid agencies, because many had diverted operations to Haiti after the devastating earthquake in January.
However, the situation on the ground in Darfur has hardly improved, he said.
“There is still no security, there is no peace and there is no development,” he said.
Lisimba, completing his PhD on energy security in Africa at Monash University in Melbourne, longs
to return to Darfur, which he left in 2000 when his village came under attack.
Currently living in Melbourne with his wife, Lisimba said communications with his mother in Darfur were difficult but not impossible.
Matar also hasn’t returned since he left Darfur in 1997 but looks forward to the day of returning to a peaceful Darfur. He is joined in Australia by his wife and three children.
Matar and Lisimba run the Darfur Australia Network (www.darfuraustralianetwork.org) along with 600 other Darfur refugees who have been resettled in Australia under the United Nations refugee program.
Whither Islamic solidarity: Darfur activists Alpha Lisimba (left) and Abdul Hadi Matar question the lack of solidarity from Muslim countries to the plight of their brothers and sisters in the Western region of Sudan. Lisimba and Matar took part in the World Movement for Democracy conference in Jakarta which ended Wednesday. JP/Endy M. Bayuni
