President Al-Bashir’s Political Rallies in Darfur: A Political Perspective

Moving from El Genina in the far west, to Nyalla, Gereida and Shataya in the far south, President Al-Bashir’s consecutive four days rallies in Darfur states, could break previous records of a crowd at a political rally. Tens of thousands of people from all walks of life, some on their camels and horses, have gathered to meet the president, in yet a new practical referendum that the people of Darfur have voluntarily chosen the path of peace and development and renounce conflicts and warfare.

Whilst it is rather customary in today's world, for leaders and presidents address mass gathering and rallies, speaking behind wall of bullet-proof glass, that has not been the case with President Al-Bashir in his tours to Darfur states or elsewhere, as he continued confidently to address public rallies of the people of Darfur in their different localities, in open grounds and open platforms, in a spectacular scene, that further dwarfs or rather turns the table on, the politically manipulated libel and saga of genocide and its accessories.

As reconciliation, development and reconstruction were at the heart of the agenda of this historic visit, President Al-Bashir directed inter alia, the governors of Darfur states, to provide land for the resettlement of IDPs where they do desire, reiterating Sudan government’s commitment to provide further health and education services, by and large accelerate the pace of development in the region, being the salient foundation for cementing peace and stability.

In contrast, subversion and sabotage has always been the modus operandi of the armed movements; President Al-Bashir put the blame on the rebellion for e disrupting development projects in Darfur since its inception, pointing particularly to how in 2003, the government of Sudan signed ambitious contracts with 21 companies, to supply drinking water in Darfur states, however, the insurgency was quick to announce its heroic launch, via the cold blooded assassination of civilian water engineers, blowing up telecommunications towers, to name but a few, disrupting ever since, all sincere development efforts, delaying development projects for 14 years.

Attention should be drawn to the fact that, during his four days tour in Darfur states, the President visited localities in Darfur that has never been visited by any Sudanese Presidents since the year 1971. Therefore this important visit constituted and marked yet another political and moral defeat for the holdout armed rebels, in the aftermath of the devastative military defeats ensued on the ground in recent years, chased out of Darfur to end up into cheap mercenaries and negative forces, serving ulterior and subversive agenda in some of Sudan’s neighboring countries.

On the other hand, it only takes common sense and objectivity, to discern who was really behind the recent shooting that unfortunately led to some fatalities amongst the IDPs; the hiding cronies that were instructed to move the events in the camp towards violence to coincide with the visit. Obviously, the shooting – both in timing and substance – can and can only be understood as a desperate or a last-ditch effort to thwart and overshadow the overarching positive political successes of the President’s extended tour in Darfur States.

Perhaps in continuation of a bad habit, Mr. Eric Reeves in his latest article, rushed to exaggerate politicize the criminal accident in the IDPs camp in Darfur, to suit his already-established hostile agenda against Khartoum. More strikingly, the article was in a way or another, a closing political argument, a sort of a desperate or last minute effort, to derail the increasing prospects of the complete lifting of sanctions on Sudan, looming large on the horizon.

Commenting on the historic visit of President Al-Bashir to Darfur, Mr. Eric Reeves has pursued his very typical black propaganda, mostly divorcing with reason and objectivity to suit his personal agenda (vendetta) against Khartoum. Banging his head against a brick wall, he continues to question of the very stability in Darfur for instance. Having did that, he intentionally or not, nullifies and discredits some heavy weight international testimonies, that clearly prove the otherwise, including, but not limited to;

1. The unanimous decision of the United Nations to scale down the size of its mission (UNAMID) seeking its final exit from Darfur.
2. the visit of the members of the African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) which to Darfur last May, where they not only, hailed the significant improvement in the overall situation in Darfur , but likewise, the cooperation between the government and the council.
3. The important visit of Mr. Paul Steven, the director of the office of the American envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, to Darfur last April 2017, in which he lauded the great efforts being carried out by the government in supporting the stability and security in Darfur states,
4. The visit of head of United States U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mark Green to Darfur last August, expressing hope that the visit would pave the road for further cooperation on all levels.

The historic visit in fact, has not only given the stamp of approval that Darfur is considerably safe and steadily recovering from the scars of the war, outlining a new chapter of peace, development and reconstruction, but it also proves beyond any doubt that all desperate attempts like that of Mr. Reeves, to disrupt this fact are no longer valid and shall certainly fail to pay dividends.

Arguably the paramount message of the president’s visit to Darfur was to declare it loud and proud; reasons that might have justified in the past, that these innocent civilians languish in such miserable IDPs camps like Kalma, have considerably disappeared and are by all means, no longer warranted. Tired of living under the pressure of threats and extortion against their free will, it is high time to set them free of enervated political manipulation. In other word s, it is high time for IDPs in Darfur to be resettled back in their original homes and communities to resume their productive life, in a region truly rich with untapped natural resources.

For years, the agents of the arm movements like Abdul Wahid’s SLA were fully engaged in systematic misleading, fabrication and black propaganda. For years they have been bragging their total control of the IDPs camps, however, mostly against their free will, as has been evident during the course to the visit.

Together with their abetting external benefactors, they manipulated for years, the humanitarian assistance accorded to the camps to further their narrow political and military objectives. IDPs camps in Darfur such as Kalma, has long been transformed into a big open prison, where the most despicable and ugliest types of terrorism, extortion and intimidation have been systematically perpetrated.

If Picture is worth a thousand words, the above fact is duly documented in a highly viewed YouTube video, featuring the very Abdul Wahid, the SLA leader, in very grumpy face and intimidatory voice, overtly and typically blackmailing his fellow civilian IDPs in camps in Darfur, with woe and devastation of both their lives and properties, unless they willy-nilly surrender him their sons, daughters and money to salvage his staggering army, repeatedly mauled by government forces on the ground.

By the same token, attention should be drawn to the article written in November 2016, by that Donald Booth the former United States Special Envoy to Sudan, where he lambasts Abdul Wahid, who according to Mr. Donald, not only failed to set foot in his country in over a decade, and kept on directing his armed groups in Darfur from a satellite phone in his Paris apartment, but also his repeated refusal to negotiate has been a perennial problem for international efforts to end the conflict in Sudan.

The American Special Envoy concludes that Abdul Wahid has become especially damaging as other parties to the conflict ( Sudan government ) begin moving toward peace, therefore peace in Sudan should not be held hostage to the likes of Abdul Wahid‘s refusal to engage.

The issue of IDPs and refugee camps opens in a way a Pandora box of how billions of dollars international resources assigned to IDPs and refugees in Sudan or elsewhere in Africa, have been manipulated or incorporated in a way or another to serve the reinforcement and military strategies of the rebels and thereby prolong the conflicts in question.

In other words how far, assistance in terms of food and non-food items have been diverted – willy-nilly, from civilian population to support the armed groups, that in essence what motivates and makes the armed groups diehard opponents to the very idea dismantling these camps no matter what. The armed movements continued to invest and seek by all the means to maintain the status quo of the IDPs in the camps and to thwart all sincere domestic or international efforts that shall ensue in their return to their original communities and villages.

instead of prioritizing funds and assistance for development and the reconstruction of local communities, leading to the ultimate return of IDPs to their towns and villages, some suspicion and agenda- driven NGOs tend to do the other way round; the entrenchment of these camps, to sustain and fuel the conflicts in question. As a matter of fact, Africa today is increasingly wary to guard against such “faux humanitarianism” as it arguably feeds the war not the people working in their names, Kalma camp cannot be an exception.

In conclusion, perhaps one of the most prominent results of the President’s visit to Darfur, was that there should be no mistake, that there apparently exists in Sudan today, a sharp dichotomy between a government in one hand, endeavoring with all its utmost best to extend the shadow of peace on the ground and to transcend an era of tension and war, towards the unification of the people of Sudan on the basis of consent and national agreement, representing thereby the will and aspiration of the overwhelming majority of the Sudanese people today.

On the other front, there equally exits a minority in the opposition, more specifically amongst the leaders of holdout rebel groups in the Diasporas, which systemized black propaganda, seeking tooth and nail, to invest in and advance the agenda of the war. Surprisingly enough, they continue barefacedly to no avail however, to accuse others with killing and everything that is nasty. At the end of the day “the winners are those who learn to take full responsibility for their actions, and the losers are those who always blame other for their actions and failures”.