The Questionable Case for Lifting Sudan Sanctions: Testimonies of Sudan Resistance Leaders-Part 1

General Abakar M. Abdallah of Sudan United Movement

by Jerry Gordon and Deborah Martin

Janjaweed militia members

On April 26, 2017, the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights held a hearing on The Questionable Case for Easing Sanctions Sudan Sanctions The issue arose with the partial lifting by President Obama, just prior to leaving office in January 2017, of the 20-year economic sanctions against the Khartoum Regime of indicted war criminal Sudan President Omar Hassan al Bashir. A provision of the partial lifting of Sudan sanctions was a six month look back to determine if acts of terrorism and genocide have continued against the indigenous African people especially in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile Region. 

The hearings was chaired by Rep.Chris Smith (R-4^th CD NJ) and Ranking Member Rep. Karen Bass (D -37^th CD CA). Among the witnesses who are slated to appear are:

Mr. Brad Brooks-Rubin
Policy Director
The Sentry
[full text of statement]
.

Mr. David Dettoni
Senior Advisor
Sudan Relief Fund
[full text of statement]
.

Mr. Mohamed Abubakr
President
The African Middle Eastern Leadership Project
[full text of statement]
 

The Honorable Princeton N. Lyman
Senior Advisor to the President
United States Institute of Peace
[full text of statement]
 

Watch the archived video  webcast of the hearing:

Over the past six months, The New English Review has published reports attesting to the continuing ethnic cleansing and genocide of indigenous peoples in these conflict regions citing specific instances of Khartoum Regime backed Janjaweed Militia- now renamed Rapid Support Force (RSF) or Peace Forces engaged in ethnic cleansing of villages and Internally Displaced Person Camps. The Janjaweed RSF Peace force is under the control of the National Intelligence Security Service (NISS) and Sudan Armed Force (SAF) Command. These reports have also uncovered a Secret Arab Coalition Plan that would replace indigenous people with Arab tribes to be completed prior to 2020. In many instances jihadist terrorists have been recruited from across the Sahel region and the Middle East. The objective of the Arab Coalition Plan is to resettle them in the lands formerly occupied by African tribal people with a view to creating a 150,000 man Jihad Army to create a Sharia-ruled Caliphate across the Sahel. The Arab Coalition Plan of the Khartoum Regime of President Bashir has the financial backing of the Emeriti members Gulf Cooperation Council and Saudi Arabia. These Jihadi recruits have been trained and organized in more than 16 camps in the Khartoum Region and equipped with arms and militarized pickup trucks. Further, there have been instances where the Janjaweed/ RSF Peace Forces have used prohibited chemical weapons of mass destruction coupled with bombings by Russian-supplied Antonov cargo planes of the Sudan Air Force on indigenous populations. And despite the evidence of abetting regional Islamic terrorism, the USAFRICOM, pursuant to so-called evidence of counterterrorism  cooperation by the Bashir regime has included it in quarterly security reviews at its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

For these reasons the authors solicited witness testimony from Sudan resistance leaders in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains exposing the Bashir regime’s Jihad genocide objectives of the Arab Coalition Plan.

Part I presents the testimoniy submitted to the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights of: Lt. Gen. Abakar M. Abdallah, Chairman of the Sudan United Movement (SUM).

 

Testimony of Lt. Gen. Abakar M. Abdallah
Chairman of the Sudan United Movement (SUM)
Submitted to the US House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Africa and Global Human Rights
April 26, 2017

My name is Lt. Gen. Abakar M. Abdallah. I am Chairman of the Sudan United Movement (SUM). I thank the United States Congress and this Committee for their continuous commitments in supporting the oppressed people of the Sudan (Darfur, Southern Kordofan, Blue, Beja, and Mannassir) in their struggle to achieve peace and stability.

I am a member of the Zaghawa tribe and a native of Darfur. I served 23 years in the Chadian Army rising to the rank of Lt. General. I am a graduate of the US Army Intelligence School located at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the US Army War College and the Counterterrorism program of the National Defense University located at Fort McNair in Washington, DC. I wish to apprise the Subcommittee of the status of the Jihad genocide being committed in Darfur by the National Congress Party (NCP) regime of indicted war criminal, Sudan President Omar al-Bashir. The facts on the ground in Darfur do not justifying continuing the partial lifting of US Sanctions against the Bashir Regime. Moreover, the regime is pursuing aggressive ethnic cleansing of Darfurian indigenous African people and their replacement with Arab tribes and international terrorist groups recruited for the NCP Regime Rapid Support Forces (RSF-Reorganized Janjaweed militias).

 President Bashir’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continually pillages and loots everything from the villages and the Internally Displaced Population Camps in Darfur. They rape women, burn homes, destroy water sources, damage crops, seize grazing animals on farms and fruit plantations. President Bashir’s objective is to inflict poverty and entirely remove the population of Darfur from their land and replace them with new settlers the regime brings in from foreign states. Bashir’s NCP regime continually commits Genocide on the people of Darfur, Kordofan, and the Blue Nile. Therefore, there is an urgent need to stop him from committing further atrocities.

The current security situation is worse and human right abuses in Darfur are continuing despite the fact that President Obama partially lifting Sudan’s twenty years of US economic sanctions imposed at the result of President Bashir’s support of terrorism and violation of human rights. The actions of genocide, war crimes and human right abuses have not ended in Darfur, Kordofan, and Blue Nile that have occurred for over 15 years. The situation remains the same. Killing, torturing, rape and ejection continue in all parts of Darfur, Kordofan and the Blue Nile. Furthermore, the regime continues recruiting, training, and financing of Arab tribal militias and terrorism. Former US President Obama’s cooperation with the Islamic regime in Khartoum undermined United States engagement directed at preventing human right violations and protection of the  innocent population targeted by the Sudan regime’s long years of brutality.

We are presenting this testimony with the objective of informing the United States Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Global Human Rights on the current volatile security situation and human right violations in Darfur and Kordofan caused by the regime’s Janjaweed militias and the reasons behind the Khartoum regime’s continual commission of atrocities against innocent civilians. We request the US Subcommittee on Africa to urge President Trump’s Administration to reverse President Obama’s decision and reinstate vigorous economic sanctions against the Sudan regime. Further we are requesting assistance for the Sudan United Movement to disarm Janjaweed militias leading to possible regime change in Sudan. This would assist in establishing a democratic system of government that respects the rights of all Sudanese people.

While Obama partially lifted economic sanctions against the genocidal Bashir regime, its Janjaweed militias, renamed “Peace Forces”, massacred over 80 people in Nertiti and Geneina in Central and Western Darfur regions in early January 2017.  The indicted war criminal President Omar Hassan Ahmed al Bashir’s Islamic Peace Forces have been committing genocide, war crimes and crimes against the African population of non- Arab origin since the 1980s. Following the partial lifting of economic sanctions the Regime’s “Desert Shield” Militias killed and wounded over 119 people in Sodari, South Kordofan in April, 2017. The massacring of over 119 innocent civilians by the Bashir’s militias illustrates the regime’s continual human rights violation not only in Darfur but in the other conflict regions of Sudan. Nothing has changed on the ground.

With the objective of furthering the Islamic extremist ideology, they have extended killing to the innocent population of the adjacent Central African Republic and Chad. This is all part of the National Congress Party regime’s plan to establish through ethnic cleansing of African tribes a Caliphate in the Sahel sub-region of Northern Africa.

The regime recruits, trains, organizes these militias and provides them with trucks, arms and logistic supplies. It unleashes them with full authority to kill anyone who opposes the implementation of the Arab Coalition policies which seeks to make demographic changes not only in Darfur but in the whole African Sahel Sub-region culminating in the establishment of a Caliphate. The primary role of the Arab militias is to ensure the survival of the regime and create a veritable Jihadist under the banner of the Islamic movement of the Muslim Brotherhood.

On April 18, 2017 the regime deployed 7, 000 militia some of whom it brought in from Libya and had been organizing and training in the area of Jelly, Kabcabiyia, North Darfur. Organizing and deploying these militias in line with the regime’s policies to implement the Arab Coalition Plan. The Arab Coalition Plan was found in the Arabic Language version of 11 pages captured during the fighting between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) (Reorganized Janjaweed Militias) and Darfur rebels in October of the year 2014 in Donkey Hush, North Darfur. The document was found in an abandoned military truck of the RSF.

The document contains statements or evaluations of the Arab Coalition project that began in 1987 and has been continuously update through the last evaluation in 2014. The objective of President Bashir’s regime and its Janjaweed militias is to eradicate the people of Darfur and occupy the land. We have translated the document into English to reveal what is behind the Arab coalition organization in cooperation with the Khartoum regime creating and arming of Janjaweed militias.

The most important part of the document is the evaluation of 2014 in which they distribute the entire Darfur region to different Arab tribes.  They intend to finish their project prior to the year 2020. If the Arab Coalition Plan is left unchecked and Janjaweed militias are not disarmed the genocide human right atrocities in Darfur will continue. The Arab Coalition is not only supported by the Bashir regime but also by the Arab League and Arab governments in Middle East.

It is unfortunate that Darfur people become prey to the oil rich Middle East Arab States who stand firmly behind Bashir supporting him financially and politically. The worse thing is to see the international community embracing the Arab regime of Khartoum and witness African countries not only distancing themselves from Darfur but not even understanding what is the real cause of the problem. They just blindly support Bashir’s genocidal regime. Darfur genocide is one of the world’s longest genocides and is visible to all. Darfur’s problem is more than the conflict between the Darfur resistance movements and the Bashir regime.  It is the Arab policy of establishing a Caliphate in the African Sahel region. We request the US government address this crisis not as simply conflict between two parties. This conflict has three parties: (1) indigenous people or original citizens of Darfur, (2) the new Arab settlers that the regime brings from foreign countries that constitutes the Janjaweed militias; and, (3) the Khartoum regime and its Arab Cabal, notably Saudi Arabia and State of Qatar that supports President Bashir financially.

Why did President Bashir select Darfur to be used as baseline to create a Caliphate in the African Sahel Region? Geographically Darfur occupies a strategic location linking the African sub-Sahara Sahel region Middle East and Europe through the vast Sahara desert to the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The region is an important strategic location in the continent linking West African nations and North Africa. Since the early days of Islam; the Darfur region has been a crossing point where people coming from different directions met. Based on its strategic location, the Sudan government makes this region a hub for all extremist and transnational terrorist groups.

These groups include al Qaeda, Janjaweed, and Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) currently present in areas of Merlin Camp and Ain al Khadra near Kafia Kingi and Mountain Abu-Rassin Central African Republic (CAR), Mali Jihadists, Boko Haram, and ISIS.  These groups are integrated in the RSF, while Central African rebels are currently operating with some SELEKA factions in CAR. Others include South Sudan rebels, Chadian rebels, and ISIS. These groups are trained and organized in Sudan prior to sending to their various regions of operation. One example is the South Sudan Islamic Liberation Movement that Ali Tamim Fartak is organized in Niyala, capital the South Darfur region. These groups regularly move back and forth between the countries in the region, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. Darfur is a land locked region that links all the roads from sub-Sahara Africa going to Middle East, Egypt and Europe via the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Forces of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) were initially deployed in 2007 in Darfur with the mandate to protect civilians. Unfortunately these forces came under the strict control of the Sudan’s regime. Therefore; it could not conduct independent operations without permission from the Sudan’s security forces. As a result it has become completely ineffective and consequently failed to provide security for the vulnerable indigenous Darfurian population. Neither could it write credible reports on human right violations carry out by the Janjaweed militias. The organization became in effect a puppet of the National Congress Party regime of President Bashir.

Since the inception of UNAMID in Darfur none of its reports on human right violations and none of its forces protect any civilians threatened by the Janjaweed militias. Most of the killing, rape, torture, and other human right abuses in Darfur pass without recording and notification of the international community because of the ineffectiveness of UNAMID force deployed in Darfur. For example, when UNAMID reported that regime security forces conducted mass rape of 200 women in Tabit; the Sudan regime summoned its chief representative and threatened to withdraw its forces from Sudan. Since then none of the UN or AU agents have spoken of the Tabit mass rape that occurred in 2015.

Peace will not come to Darfur without support of US Congress and US Administration. Peace in Darfur will not come without replacement of Bashir and disarming the Janjaweed militia and removing terrorist groups from Darfur.

The Khartoum regime has no intentions of making peace in Sudan. The regime is using peace negotiations and dialogue as a means of deceiving the international community to allow it to remain in power and continue atrocities against the vulnerable population of Darfur. What has been achieved from these false peace negotiations and false peace agreements signed whether in Abuja, Nigeria, Doha, Qatar or elsewhere? Have any of these initiatives brought peace in Darfur?  Why do we believe that this regime wanting to bring peace?

The US bilateral talks were held at the time while the NCP government in Khartoum continuously finances and provides safe havens to international terrorists and their organizations. The Islamic extremist regime of Khartoum used negotiations with Obama’s Administration to attack the civilian population in Jebel Marra using weapons of mass destruction. The Amnesty International’s report “Scorched Earth Poisoned Air” report issued on September 29, 2016 presented a credible explanation of the use of smoke type chemical agents. The organization interviewed several people from Jebel Marra and provided pictures of the victims exposed to these prohibited chemical agents. As a result, we recommend to US Congress urge President Trump’s Administration not to help NCP regime escape responsibility for crimes it is committing against the people of Sudan.

Under the cover of these false peace deals Russian supplied Antonov cargo planes continually drop bombs on population settlements including chemicals agents. Janjaweed militias continue massacring and plundering unprotected populations and properties in Darfur. Women are systematically raped at gun point. Following these peace deals for Darfur, more people are displaced, more villages are burned, more men are tortured and killed, more women are raped, and more atrocities are committed. 

This is not the first time the NCP regime has been accused of using weapons of mass destruction in Sudan. It used them in South Sudan in 1999 and again in South Kordofan and Blue Nile in 2016. Despite several reports accusing the radical Islamic government of using prohibited weapons, the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) has done nothing. It is unfair and unacceptable for UNSC to maintain silence and not question President Bashir or investigate the episodes in Jebel Marra on the use of chemical weapons. We request US government investigate of the Bashir regime use of chemicals weapons and treatment of wounded victims.

In conclusion.

President Bashir of Sudan continually commits genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity on the African population of non-Arab origin in Darfur, Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Darfur. President Bashir’s failure to sign genuine peace agreements and breaching ceasefires aggravated the security situation in conflict areas in Sudan that endangers the lives of the indigenous civilian population. President Bashir continually recruits trains, and arms Janjaweed militias and transnational terrorist groups causing the security instability of Sudan notably in Darfur and the conflict areas. The true intention of President Bashir and his Janjaweed militias is to implement the Arab Coalition Plan we recovered from an abandoned Rapid Support Force truck in Donkey Hush, Darfur in 2014. What is happening in Darfur is continuous destruction of indigenous African population with intention to make a complete a total ethnic cleaning and demographic change?

Part II is here. Part III is here.