AFRICA/SUDAN - “Jihad is exploited to subdue rebel ethnic groups” says a missionary with years of experience in Sudan

Khartoum (Fides Service)- “The government of Sudan is used to playing with names in this case it is pulling the wool over the eyes of the international community” a missionary with years of experience in Sudan told Fides with regard to recent statements by the Sudanese government concerning the Janjaweed militia. The secretary general of the National Congress party Ibrahim Omar, said that not all the Arab tribes in Darfur will not be disarmed only the Janjaweed. ''The government of Sudan and the international community have different opinions as to who are Janjaweed militia - he said at press conference at the Sudanese embassy in Egypt - disarmament of Arab militia has the government sees it has already started, but we cannot call Arab tribes and leaders Janjaweed”.
“Janjaweed is a recent term” the missionary recalls. “Until the 1980s these militia groups were called Murahilin or nomads. They were used to fight other peoples in Sudan, the Nuba in particular. Like the Janjaweed today the Murahilin were mostly Arab or Arabised herdsmen for example the Reizeigat Baqqara. The government used these tribes to subdue rebels. In the name of the Muslim holy war or Jihad they are allowed to raid and kill other peoples, to use their women and children as slaves and steal their land and herds”.
The missionary says this is all part of a logic which is more nationalist than religious: “Many scholars say Sudan is not a nation it is a group of tribes. The government wants to subdue the poorest tribes with the help of Arab Muslim tribes to form a nation. This has been the policy of all teh different regimes in Khartoum: to make Sudan an Arab and Muslim nation”.
“So religion is used with the ethnic element. In Darfur for example, the two movements which oppose the regime are made up of people who are Muslims but they are not Arabs. In this conflict the ethnic element prevails although the precepts of the Jihad are used to subdue rebels” the missionary concludes. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 24/9/2004 righe 34 parole 401)