Sudan next?

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No observer could possibly deny that conditions in Darfur in western Sudan are sharply deteriorating. The war-torn region is undeniably experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe, facilitated by the absence of an effectual central government.

Even more alarming, however, is the increasing discourse claiming that the Sudanese government is undertaking operations of ethnic cleansing against the inhabitants of Darfur, and especially against non-Arab tribes. Such claims are made despite the lack of an international investigative committee or an official United Nations report addressing the issue of such operations and the government's role in them.

For decades, the international media ignored Darfur and Sudan. When attention was drawn to Sudan, the conflict in Darfur was portrayed as one between Arabs and Africans, a pretext for further perpetuating a negative image of the Arab and Muslim worlds.

The international pressure now exerted on Sudan will no doubt lead to an escalation of the conflict. Foreign intervention is on the cards and a scenario not unlike that now unfolding in Iraq might take place. Rather than presenting a practicable plan to salvage the situation from a humanitarian perspective, Western powers now want the international community to impose sanctions on, and eventually perhaps even wage war, on Sudan.

The Janjaweed militiamen, armed with Russian-made G3 kalashnikovs, hail from both Arab and non-Arab tribes. They emerged in response to the drought of 1984, as well as increased poverty and ignorance. They attack villages, steal cattle and set fire to the villagers' huts.

The most disturbing aspect of the conflict is that the drought gave rise to friction between nomadic Arab and non-Arab settled agriculturalists, with the result that the various tribes acquired weapons with which to defend themselves and formed militias. Strangely enough these militias later turned against the tribes to which they belonged, creating a large, irregular army that occupied an isolated mountainous area. From there they started waging their attacks, and before too long declared a rebellion.

The conflict is not about ethnic cleansing. Due to the weakness of the Sudanese security apparatus, the Janjaweed have become more powerful than the Sudanese police forces. Even the Sudanese army, exhausted by war in the south, is unable to confront the Janjaweed . The decision of the United States Congress to impose sanctions will negatively impact the Sudanese people throughout the country and can, therefore, only be seen as a form of collective punishment. Suspicion in the Arab world is that the US' eagerness to intervene in Darfur is an American conspiracy to gain control of Sudanese oil.