4 VIDEO CHATS: Sudan War and Civilisation feat. Layla AbdelRahi & Ushari Ahmed Mahmud Khalil

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: Here are four 30-minute video chats between Dr Layla AbdelRahim and Dr Ushari Ahmed Mahmud Khalil. The chats cover wide ranging topics focusing on Sudan's war and civilisation. After finding Part 2 by accident and viewing it, I am documenting all 4 here.

War and Civilisation 1: What we can learn from Sudan - 14 Nov 2023
War and Civilisation 2: Sudan and the Roots of Turmoil - 9 Dec 2023
War and Civilisation 3: The Genealogy of Genocide - 30 Dec 2023
War and Civilisation 4: The State is Corruption - 6 January 2024

Image credit: Ushari Ahmed Mahmud Khalil Facebook

War and Civilisation 1: What we can learn from Sudan 

14 Nov 2023

To view the 26 minute video discussion click here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/war-and-1-what-92303767

Description:

All raging wars are alike; each peaceful initiative fails in its own way.

September this year marked the 40th anniversary of the implementation of Shari'a Laws in Sudan. 1983 thus took a step out of the geopolitical crossroads into the direction of today.

Even though humanity has waged war for thousands of years, we are still surprised each time a new war erupts. We are baffled by the narrative on the “other” side. We are outraged. Dismayed. And passionately, we fall into the trap of the narrative we believe.

I was a teenager, studying civil engineering and working several jobs at a time, when the Second Civil War in Sudan broke out. The narratives explaining the war seemed lopsided to me, even false. So, I decided to investigate for myself. Ushari and I met at the Sudan Times daily. Bona Malwal was the editor-in-chief at the time. Indignant at the cruelty and injustices around us, we both strove to uncover the truth and right the wrongs. It is rare to meet someone with such integrity and dedication as Ushari. Even after political imprisonment and now in exile, he remains the voice of human conscience.

I hope you will find this conversation interesting and helpful in your own endeavours to better humanity. This is the first of five parts.

You can support Ushari Ahmed Mahmud Khalil’s work by engaging his translation services or donations and follow him on Twitter; YouTube; Faceook.

Ushari Mahmud analyses and reports on the political situation in Sudan. He started as a sociolinguist dedicated to understanding the impact of the diversity of languages in Sudan on the society and politics. His M.A. thesis at the I.A.A.S (Institute for African and Asian Studies) at the University of Khartoum in 1974 was titled “The Phonology of a Dying Nubian Language Birgid”.

He defended his doctoral dissertation in 1979 at Georgetown University on pidgin Arabic in South Sudan, titled “Linguistic variation and change in the aspectual system of Juba Arabic”.

In 1987, he and his colleague, Suleyman Ali Baldo - a defender of human rights - published a report on “Al Dhaein Massacre and Slavery in Sudan” for which both were imprisoned.

His book on language, titled “Arabic in the southern Sudan: History and spread of pidgin creole”.

A relevant article by Zeinab Mohammed Salih: “Viewpoint from Sudan — where Black people are called slaves”.

___

War and Civilisation 2: Sudan and the Roots of Turmoil

9 Dec 2023

To view the 32 minute video discussion click here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/war-and-2-sudan-94372301

Description:

In this part of my conversation with Ushari Ahmad Mahmud Khalil, we delve into the root of the unending turmoil in Sudan. We discuss religion and the role it plays in framing the politics around resources.

Sources and further reading:

Mahmoud Mohammed Taha

Glimpses of the life and thoughts of Ustadh Mahmoud Mohamed Taha. Documentary by Steve Howard, Ohio University

Interview with Asma Mahmoud Mohammed Taha (daughter) by Steve Howard

Documentary by Ahmed Al Muhanna in 2 parts (Arabic)

A brief history of Mahmoud Mohammed Taha’s life and work

An overview of events regarding Mahmoud Mohammed Taha

Book: Quest for Divinity: A Critical Examination of the Thought of Mahmud Mohammad Taha, by  Mohamed A. Mahmoud

On the thought of Mahmoud Mohammad Taha

Jean-René Milot wrote a Master’s thesis on Mahmoud Mohammed Taha at the Faculty of Law, University of Montreal in 2007

U.S. and Muslim Brotherhood

See books and articles by the Montreal-born, American journalist Ian Johnson

Investigative journalist Robert Dreyfuss’ work, for example: Cold War, Holy Warrior

Eric Reeves on U.S chargé d’affaires to Sudan Steven Koutsis’ statements on U.S interests and policies vis à vis Sudan

Wildlife trafficking

UN report on wildlife trafficking

European Union funding the Janjaweed to Curb Migration

An independent report by the Swedish Development Forum on EU funding the Janjaweed (RSF) to stop migration

A report by Suliman Baldo “Border Control from Hell: How the EU’s migration partnership legitimizes Sudan’s ‘militia state’” (2017)

UN project ReliefWeb on Baldo’s report: “Border Control from Hell: How the EU’s migration partnership legitimizes Sudan’s “militia state” Support Forces (RSF) to stop migration to Europe”

A question to the European Parliament on EU funds for the Rapid Support Forces (Janjaweed) in Sudan to curb migration to Europe

Criticism of EU and UN training and funding the RSF or Janjaweed in Sudan

An article by Bashair Ahmed and Salih Amaar “Escaping Sudan’s Prison: Deciphering the Realities of the EU-Sudan Migration Deal”

Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan Relations

South Sudan:

Putin and South Sudan leader agree to cooperate on security Military base

Russia and South Sudan agreement on mining uranium and lithium in South Sudan

Sudan:

Cooperation on gold and rare metals mining in Sudan

Expert on world politics and professor of political science Natalia Piskounova’s analysis of Sudan’s strife for dominating mining resources

Sudan and Russia agree on military base 

Music By Ayman Mao

Tags Sudan geopolitics religion resources war

___

War and Civilisation 3: The Genealogy of Genocide

30 Dec 2023

To view the 28 minute video discussion click here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/war-and-3-of-95549957

Description:

Sources and further reading

History of slavery in Sudan

Map of eastern slave trade route through Sudan

Professor of Anthropology from South Sudan, Jok Madut Jok, on slavery in Sudan

UN definition of “crimes against humanity”

“My Career Redeeming Slaves” by John Eibner, in the Middle East Quarterly, Dec 1999, pp. 3-16

Ushari and Baldo

On Ushari’s detention and imprisonment for his work on human rights

Sudanese forces for change: beware of Sadiq Almahdi

Map of 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries Sudan

Report on Sharia law and the death penalty

South Sudan Secession

The timeline in the video comes from the Center of International Media Assistance

Al Arabiya on the referendum for the secession of South Sudan

Photo credits

The following come from archaeologist Shadia Taha:

Photograph of camel caravan entering Suakin port in the 1830s from Durham Sudan Archive

Map of trade routes

Plan of Suakin’s districts on the three islands and the historic centre from British Museum

Suakin, between the sea and the desert: connected landscapes

Photographs from and more info on the ancient Sudanese Kingdom of Kush

Photographs of John Garang, Ushari, and myself were taken by Atem Yaak, journalist and former Deputy Minister of Information (from my personal archive).

Photographs of SPLA/M leadership.

Omar al Bashir and John Garang sign peace deal and John Garang joins the government.

Photograph of Addis Ababa airport 1984

Photograph of Juba, capital of South Sudan

An early 20th-century IWW poster depicts the workers who hold the edifices of capitalism on their shoulders. Above are the government and religion. From 1911 IWW newspaper/WikiMedia Commons.

This poster echoes Leo Tolstoy’s famous quote from “What Then Must We Do?”:

“I sit on a man's back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible… except by getting off his back”.

Photograph of woman, man, and sheep in Khartoum market by Marwan Ali from AP

Photographs of the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue and an American soldier from AP

Photograph of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Ghaddafi from a 2015 article on Donald Trump

Photograph of Old City, Mosul, Iraq by Felipe Dana, AP

Photograph of destroyed Iraq, 20 years on by Khalid Mohammed, AP

Photographs of Iraq from Wiki commons:

Lamassu from the Assyrian gallery at the Iraq Museum, Baghdad

One of the oldest Christian monasteries, Dayro d-Mor Mattai monastery in Bartella, Nineveh, Iraq. Holds a rich collection of Syriac Christian manuscripts

The head of an Akkadian ruler from Nineveh, presumably depicting either Sargon of Akkad, or Sargon's grandson Naram-Sin in bronze

Tags Islamic Brotherhood SPLA/SPLM Sudan civilisation domestication genocide pol slavery war

___

War and Civilisation 4: The State is Corruption

6 January 2024

To view the 30 minute video discussion click here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/war-and-4-state-95977497

Description:

Sources & References

Map of Sudan comes from ISS 

EU tied to violence in South Sudan

Working at the nexus of human and nonhuman animal exploitation

Music by Tinariwen Sahara 

Contact information for Ushari Ahmad Mahmud Khalil

Tags SPLA/SPLM Sudan civilisation politics war

___

END

EU stops funding EU-Horn of Africa Migration Route Initiative or Khartoum process

Article from Forbes.com

By FREY LINSDAY

Dated Tuesday 06 August 2019, 09:26am

The EU Says It Has Stopped Giving Money To Sudan For Migration Control

In late July, the EU said it had suspended projects related to migration and border control in Sudan and the surrounding countries. 

Until recently, the bloc was giving money to the Sudanese authorities in exchange for them preventing migrants from sub-Saharan Africa heading northward. That arrangement has now been at least temporarily halted.

These projects are collectively referred to under the banner of the EU-Horn of Africa Migration Route Initiative, or more simply, the "Khartoum process." The material and funds provided through the process have very likely been used to entrench the power of the Sudanese authorities and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and have possibly directly contributed to the violence we are now seeing in Sudan.

Less well known than similar EU arrangements with Turkey and Libya, the Khartoum Process (KP) serves nonetheless a similar purpose. 

"The Khartoum Process is basically about extraterritorial control of migration on the whole," says Dr. Mohamed Babiker of the University of Khartoum. "It is actually using Sudan as a buffer zone to control migration."

The process was born around the same time as the Valletta Conference on Migration which took place in 2015, amid the turmoil of the migrant crisis. The EU Trust Fund For Africa was created at the conference and endowed with hundreds of millions of euros for, in the EU's words, "stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa." 

Babiker says it does not address the root causes of migration at all.

"It doesn't take into consideration the dynamics in the region, the concerns of the population in terms of their aspirations for development and human rights protection and living a decent life."

Instead, he said, it is a way for the EU to outsource migration control to other countries, ostensibly for their own protection but just as much to prevent them reaching Europe, as with the Turkey-EU deal.

Babiker said that over the last few years in Sudan he has seen many EU-funded training programs run under the KP umbrella. They did not appear to him to be addressing the root causes of migration:

"The main focus was border management, running the borders rather than actually dealing with core issues related to the root cause of migration and also human trafficking, refugee protection. The main purpose behind the Khartoum Process is to control the borders.  That's why we call it extraterritorial control."

But the implications of the Khartoum Process go further than just outsourcing the EU's migrant problems, which has been a fairly established policy tool for the bloc since the migrant crisis.

Conflict is nothing new to Sudan, but since long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in April, the country has descended into violence as pro-democracy demonstrators clash with, or more accurately are brutally attacked by, the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), under the control of a council of army generals who took power in April.

While it has not been proven that the material resources provided to the Sudanese authorities by the EU through the Khartoum Process have flown directly to the RSF, they no doubt contributed to their ability to build patrolling and enforcement capacity in the region. In any case, Babiker said the resources were delivered with almost no requirement for accountability once received by Sudan: "These are not accountable governments. So the funding normally ends up entrenching and empowering abusive forces like security operators."

"There are so many questions to be asked about the EU policy with respect to the fact that the RSF has shown its hand as a brutality repressive force," says Maddy Crowther, Co-Executive Director of Waging Peace, a London-based human rights organization which focuses on Sudan. She says that while now might not be the right time to interrogate the Khartoum Process, the priority being of course the current conflict, the process will eventually need to come under serious review. "It will be a travesty if the EU isn't asked really tough questions about how they got to a situation where they were possibly complicit in human rights abuses and atrocities."

Even apart from these very serious concerns, academics such as Babiker and his colleague Lutz Oette of University of London’s School for Oriental and African Studies, say the Khartoum Process was flawed from the start.

For one thing, Babiker points out that migration control is unlikely to be well enforced, or even desirable, in a region where tribal communities exist across, and often pass over, relatively arbitrary colonial borders: "As a policy, it wouldn't work because the concept of borders does not exist."

Moreover, putting responsibility for migrant welfare in the hands of a government with a poor human rights record is a terrible idea in and of itself.

"Our analysis of (the first phase of the Khartoum Process) highlighted the risks for refugees and migrants in Sudan, several of whom were deported to Eritrea where they faced persecution," says Oette. "Others were subjected to ill-treatment in Sudan. There have also been reports that Sudanese forces colluded in smuggling and trafficking."

Oette says with the Rapid Support Forces, who have also been accused of serious crimes in Darfur, in charge of border controls there is little reason to think they will be satisfying the ostensibly humanitarian aims of the Khartoum Process.

"The violence unleashed in Sudan, particularly by the Rapid Support Forces, a key player in enforcing migration controls, serves as an epitaph for an ill-conceived partnership, and as a lesson for policymakers to learn from past failings. The Khartoum Process, particularly Sudan's role, needs a fundamental rethink and new approach."

Oette and Babiker argue that any future collaboration on migration between the EU and countries in the Horn of Africa needs to be evidence-based and well considered, with a goal that goes beyond short-term expedience: "This means looking at the situation on the ground, genuinely engaging with the people concerned, tackling the broader governance problems, and developing an empirically grounded mid-to long-term strategy."

Babiker says that if the EU does want to reduce migration from and through Sudan, it would do best to focus its efforts on helping the country stabilize.

"The EU should put its weight into resolving the Sudanese issue; pushing for democratic transformation and rule of law. Because the result will be counter-productive if the same old approach is followed in terms of controlling migration. One of the policies that needs to be adopted is actually a stable Sudan, a democratic Sudan, where people have rights and can enjoy the rule of law."

Follow me on Twitter.

Frey Lindsay

I am a journalist focussed on business, migration and how the two intersect. As host and producer of the Migrant Crisis Podcast, I covered the massive upheavals across Europe and the world over the last few years, telling stories on the ground from such flashpoints as the Greek islands, Australia and the Serbia/Hungary border. Previously I was a reporter at verdict.co.uk and Share Radio, and my work has also appeared in World Finance Magazine and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Follow me on twitter @FreyLindsayMCP, or email me on friederik.lindsay@gmail.com. 

SOURCE: https://www.forbes.com/sites/freylindsay/2019/08/06/the-eu-says-it-has-stopped-giving-money-to-sudan-for-migration-control/#621ab7f47faf