DCF, The Islamic Fundamentalists are torturing and persecuting the Africans once again in the Sudan. Please say a prayer for the southern Sudanese, and also take thetime to write your Congressional Representative and ask him/her to lean on the Administration to pressure the Sudan to stop these tactics...
Ols Food Helps Nif Regime to Convert the Population to Islam
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News Article by SDG on October 15, 1998 at 22:15:35:
Ols Food Helps Nif Regime to Convert the Population to Islam
Africa News Service
15-OCT-98
London (Sudan Democratic Gazett, October 15, 1998) - The famine situation is now changing for the better in parts of northern Bahr El Ghazal, not because of improved food delivery by the United National Operation Lifeline Sudan (the OLS) but because of the traditional survival mechanisms of the local people.
This picture contrasted with the situation in the few remaining towns in the province that are controlled by the National Islamic Front (NIF) regime, where the OLS food helps the regime to convert the local population to Islam. Elsewhere in the province, the irregularity of the OLS food supplies continues to traumatise the stricken population.
This reporter has just returned from a week long visit to northern Bahr El Ghazal where I witnessed for myself the international effort to combat the famine. This was my first visit to the province for two months. In late June the famine situation was traumatising. People were dying in large numbers and had become mere statistics in an internationally orchestrated political game. That situation has only marginally improved, largely due to local self help efforts and the redistribution of food through traditional tribal mechanisms of Southern Sudan.
Redistribution in Twic County
In the Twic Dinka county of northern Gogrial, the local people realised in late June that the OLS would not deliver enough food to feed everybody and the little that arrived would not sustain the population if it relied solely on the OLS mechanisms. The local people organised themselves and decided that once the OLS food had been delivered to its target population, that food would be made available at local community redistribution points with the worst off being the first to benefit from it. Once this system was put into action the results were dramatic.
Famine related deaths ceased. By mid September, even though there had not been enough food supplies coming into the area, the general condition of the Twic people had improved. With the arrival of the seasonal rains, the conditions improved further for the people. While the few crops planted suffered because of the excessive flooding, the floods brought plenty of fish and wild fruits. The OLS food was an essential addition and appreciated by the local people who said so loudly and clearly. However, it was clear that the local people wished that the OLS and even the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA), the humanitarian arm of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), had just a little respect for the traditional Dinka value systems and would allow the relief food to be distributed via these channels.
When the OLS delivers food to an area it has a target list of those people it considers need the food and ignores the rest of the population. The Twic Dinka instituted a traditional redistribution system whereby those who appeared on the OLS list handed the food over to the clan, which is the smallest unit in the Dinka hierarchy. The clan then identified the worst affected members who were then fed first. Others were fed in turn depending on their need. Using this method, the clans made the little food available go a long way and kept all the members of the clan alive. Under this system, no human being is ever considered to be beyond help and thus dispensable, which is in marked contrast to the the OLS system which often appears to be based on the survival of the fittest.
In other Dinka areas of Bahr El Ghazal the local communities did not realise until it was too late that the OLS had neither the resources nor the logistical ability to deliver enough food and so did not make any alternative provisions. As a result, the famine has continued to claim its victims in these areas. Those who have survived so far are much more vulnerable, especially the children.
Faulty OLS Strategy
The entire premise upon which the OLS bases its food delivery strategy in Southern Sudan is inhumane and utterly debasing to the people it is supposed to serve. There is no respect for or appreciation of local traditions or institutions
Firstly, the OLS system clearly assumes that only severely weakened individuals are in need of the food supplies but then distinguishes between those it considers can be saved and others that it considers to be hopeless cases. The really weak individuals are allowed to die as the OLS believes there is little point in wasting precious food resources on them.
Secondly, the OLS system assumes that only its officials are honest enough to distribute the food to the needy. They compile their own faulty statistics, unfortunately often with the aid of local SPLA personnel who have a vested interest in inflating certain figures, and ignore the traditional tribal leaderships which know their own people a lot better than any outsiders. The tribal chiefs and clan leaders would be utterly ashamed before their people if they were to take relief food for themselves while their own people starve. It just is not done. This is the Dinka way which the OLS does not care to respect. If the OLS were to distribute its relief food through the traditional tribal systems or via the civil authority, there would be greater efficiency, accountability, openness and honesty.
Instead, the OLS boasts of "direct distribution" and as a consequence reaches only a small number of the people in need. The traditional tribal systems would ensure the widest possible distribution. Every member of the community would be assured by the collective self- supporting value system of receiving something.
Thirdly, the OLS system is aimed at breaking down the tribal systems in favour of imposing an individualistic Western context whereby a single member of the community can be rich while others perish. The system encourages corruption because only a small number of people have access to the economic power which can buy into this distribution system. There is no transparency to the system and no one individual is responsible for the well being of the community as a whole, or for its individual parts. The collective attitude of the traditional system has the tribal chiefs, clan headmen and family heads responsible both individually and collectively to their community.
In areas where the food has been distributed only to individuals listed by the OLS after consultation with the SRRA, the worst off individuals have not necessarily received any food. This is because these lists favour those who are close to what is seen as the authority in the area. Food is obtainable only to those in authority or those who are close to them. The system is totally corrupt as the neediest have no right to the food =97 by virtue of their being in need alone!
It is to be hoped that the OLS will adopt and respect the traditional tribal systems during 1999 which promises to be just as bad a famine year as this has been. The main difference in a year's time will be that the people will be much weaker and far more susceptible to famine when it comes. Many of the weakest will not be able to travel to the OLS distribution centres and yet will surely be entitled to relief food. These people will be reachable through the traditional tribal systems.
Donors could make a difference directly by donating relief supplies to the NGOs who have chosen to work outside of the OLS umbrella. They deal with and through the local people and go to the areas where there is real need. It is to be hoped that donor countries will no longer ignore the evidence in Southern Sudan that the OLS has been corrupt and no longer serves the purpose that it was intended for. However, the Gazette would like at the same time to appeal directly to the consciences of those running the OLS to examine what is actually happening and rectify the situation by giving the traditional tribal systems a chance.
Need for Early Delivery
If everyone works together to deliver supplies as early as December 1998, then there is a chance that famine in 1999 can be averted. The 1999 needs are well established now: the 1998 famine has not been fully combated; the rains have failed again and where they have arrived they have mostly come too late and too heavily for the new crops to succeed; seeds were not distributed in time for much of the population; the security situation remains poor due to the devastation wrought by the Arab militias from the North; and the local people in Bahr El Ghazal and western Upper Nile will be experiencing their third year of famine, becoming ever weaker and more vulnerable. It has to be hoped that the international community will adopt a much more efficient system than the OLS has so far offered.
OLS Food for Conversion
It may sometimes appear that the Gazette has an axe to grind against the OLS.
Our repeated criticisms can often give the impression that we are criticising the OLS for criticism's sake. That is not the case. The international community created the OLS for the purpose of helping the suffering people in Sudan. The initial intention was to provide a means for delivering relief food that was beyond the control of any authority in Khartoum and thus could not be used by Khartoum as a weapon of war. The Gazette merely wishes to ensure that the OLS lives up to its obligations to the people on whose behalf it is sent to help and serves the people of Southern Sudan who have been totally disenfranchised by the NIF regime. The Gazette is rightly concerned that the OLS has become just another arm of the NIF regime and is being used to further repress and subjugate the Southern people. The Gazette will continue to voice its criticisms until the present OLS is either replaced or mends its ways and truly begins to fulfil its obligations to those in need in Southern Sudan.
In our September edition we reported that the OLS was concentrating on delivering relief supplies to the NIF controlled towns in Bahr El Ghazal such as Wau. The effect of this policy was to encourage people in the surrounding countryside to uproot themselves and move into the towns. Once there, the people are vulnerable to the machinations of the NIF regime. Their lives have been totally disrupted. The towns have neither the amenities to serve their needs nor the traditional tribal structures to support them. They have become dependent on handouts.
Initially we believed that the NIF regime was intent upon undermining support for the SPLA by depopulating the countryside. This was, however, only one aspect of the policy. A more sinister aspect has been that the OLS hands over relief food to the Islamic relief agencies run by the regime, who then use the lure of food to force the hungry, displaced populations to convert to Islam. Whether or not the OLS was a party to such criminal designs, the OLS relief food is being used in this way.
Travellers from Wau, who walked to Aweil district in northern Gogrial to convey the news to me when I was there last month, were adamant that the relief food is being used in such a way. Whether through direct complicity or sheer ignorance of these facts, the OLS has made the NIF regime's task so much easier. A starving person is in no position to resist adopting an Islamic name or reciting a verse from the Koran. They are at the mercy of the people in control of the food supplies and will do whatever is asked of them in order to receive it. Hundreds of Southerners, mainly Dinka, are being "converted to Islam" through the misuse of the OLS relief supplies.
The OLS is guilty of handing over food to the Islamic agencies rather than insisting upon distributing it themselves, as elsewhere in Bahr El Ghazal. The OLS has appeased the NIF regime in doing this and probably feels that it has safeguarded further airdrops elsewhere in the region. It is a short sighted policy.
For years now the NIF regime has insisted that the OLS hands over relief supplies to regime agents for distribution. It is well known that all of the Islamic agencies set up by the regime actively propagate the Islamic religion. These include the Islamic Relief Association and the Islamic African Relief Association. The use of these agencies created many disputes between the regime and the international NGOs in the past. The OLS is well aware of these facts. Unfortunately, the OLS has now decided to give up contesting the NIF's authority and is handing over its food without a second thought.
Centres for Islamisation
There are several centres in Wau Town that are being used for the conversion of the Southern people to Islam. The central nerve of the operation is the Mechanical Transport Department compound to the north- east of the town. It is conveniently placed just south of the airport where the OLS relief flights from El Obeid in Northern Sudan regularly land, and close to the army headquarters. The OLS would no doubt argue that it hands over food to the rightful authority for distribution to the needy and has no knowledge of it being used for religious conversions. Such an argument does not stand up to any degree of scrutiny. Probably the OLS has calculated that it cannot afford to resist the regime at a time when it closes down the OLS operation on a whim.
Some OLS officials have proffered the strange argument that any relief supplies or items brought into a country become the property of the sitting government and any agency bringing such items in has no course to resist that government under international law. Are these the OLS officials really suggesting that their role is to strengthen the NIF regime against its innocent Southern victims? How different are Southerners to other people in the world where local populations are protected from their own criminal regimes? How much more entitled is the NIF regime to relief food than the traditional tribal chiefs of Southern Sudan? The SPLA is a more legitimate representative of the Southern people than any authority in Khartoum could ever hope to be. Unfortunately, and to the deep regret of many Southern Sudanese, the SPLA has elected not to exercise this authority.
With OLS assistance, the NIF regime now boasts of having completed the lslamisation of the South. How much longer will the international community ignore all the shortcomings of the OLS? A system has been set up that is unfair and as repressive to the Southern people as anything dreamt up by Khartoum. It is better that the OLS is asked to close down its operations if those who support it cannot reform it.
Sudan Democratic Gazette No. 101 - October 1998
By Bona Malwal |
