FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

People often ask us questions about Sudan and its history.  Below are some frequently asked questions and answers.  We present the questions to various Sudanese friends to provide an answer, and the name of the person who answered the question is noted after each answer.

Please feel free to email us your questions about Sudan at info@sudansunrise.org and we will post the Q&A on this page.

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1. What was the war in Southern Sudan about, and what were the reasons for it?

The war in southern Sudan was about political and religious freedoms in the south. The south went to war with the north in 1983 because the President, Jaafer Mohamed Numeiri, a northerner and a Muslim, had just imposed Islamic Laws on the south, along with the rest of the country. The purpose of the laws was to turn the Sudan into an Islamic nation, ruled by Islamic laws. The south reacted in combat opposition to the laws. The reaction was not just to resist the imposition of the Islamic laws, but to either bring a total democratic revolution to the whole country, or opt for a separate country in the south. The civil war raged for twenty-two years until the government, in January 2005, conceded regional autonomy to the south, as well as the right to hold a referendum in six years time to decide whether to remain part of the north or opt for independence. (Paul Dut Muong)

2. What is the CPA?

CPA is an acronym for Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which the north and the south signed after twenty-two years of the civil war. Although north and south were the only two parties signing,  it was termed "comprehensive" because it was hoped that the agreement would bring peace not only to the south but also to the whole country. However, so far it has failed to achieve a comprehensive peace due to the government’s
unwillingness to negotiate with other political groups that still struggle with it for the rights of their people in the east and west.  (Paul Dut Muong)

3. Why does Sudan still need our help now, when peace has come to the country?

There are two reasons for that. First, despite the CPA, there are still wars in the west and in the east of the country. So there are still humanitarian needs in the Sudan, especially in those two regions. Second, besides the twenty-two-year civil war, 1983-2005, there had been another civil war between the south and the north, from 1955-1972, for similar reasons. The two war periods, with only ten years of peace since 1955, allowed no development, especially in the three regions of west, east, and south of
the country. The south is still reeling under the effects of the war that ended just a year ago. Now, the southerners who had fled the war in the south and took refuge in the north are returning home in southern Sudan, which lacks infrastructure due to the decades of the war. The situation is also complicated by thousands of the Darfurian refugees fleeing the war and taking refuge in the South.  (Paul Dut Muong)

4. What is the genocide in Darfur about, and what are the reasons for it?

The genocide in Darfur is about political freedom and development. Although the government of Sudan had always been Islamic in all its political policies, even before 1955, and the people of Darfur had been loyal to it all along, the region of Darfur remained neglected and extremely underdeveloped. The people of Darfur had long been disgruntled about it, but they could not quite have the courage to demand equal development from the government. But this changed three years ago when they saw that the southerners were making progress in the battle field and extracting their rights from the government, they concluded, “It is the gun barrel that this government understands.” Then they took up arms and started waging a similar war with the government troops in Darfur.  (Paul Dut Muong)
             
5. Was the war in the South religious in nature?

Yes, it was religious in nature. When the president introduced the Islamic Laws to govern the land, which he knew belonged to a population of different faiths, southerners viewed the introduction as a religious challenge and a violation of human rights in the country. The government itself confirmed this assumption when it started sending Muslim troops, called  mujahadeed or Islamic militants, against the south for resisting the imposition of Islam.  (Paul Dut Muong)

6. Is the genocide in Darfur religious in nature?

No, it is not religious because the people of Darfur and the Arabs in the northern government are Muslims. The genocide is political. It is about land ownership and political say in the region. Besides, the Sudan is a country where Arab Muslims have always attempted to make African tribes Arabs. As we speak there are African Sudanese that have been Arabized. Some of these tribes are known in the Sudan as: Arabized Ghulfan, Arabized Karko, Arabized Midob, Arabized Nyimang, Arabized Tagale, Arabized Temein, Arabized Tira, Arabized Zaghawa ... So the resistance of such policies in the west of the country could be termed as a racial conflict.  (Paul Dut Muong)

7. What is the connection between the war in the South and the current genocide in Darfur?

The connection is that the same government that spent years sending the Darfurians as part of its Mujahadeed to fight in the south is the same government fighting Darfurians for challenging its policies in their own region.  (Paul Dut Muong)

8. Is the idea of helping Dafurians controversial among Southern Sudanese? Is it helpful? Why?

In a place where war has been, there are always controversies between two groups that had been former enemies. In the case of southern Sudanese and Darfurians, the wounds inflicted by the civil war between the north and the south, a war in which the government used Darfurians as part of its Mujahadeen, still has not healed completely in the psyche of some southerners. But this is not to say that southerners see helping Darfurians as a controversial move. In fact, southerners themselves are saddened by the suffering of the people of Darfur under the very Islamic regime for which they once fought in the south.  (Paul Dut Muong)

9.  In April 2006, the Washington Post ran an article titled "Groups Plan Rally on Mall to Protest Darfur Violence".  The article was critical of Sudan Sunrise and included a reference that your organization was evangelizing Muslims.  Is your goal in working with Muslims in Darfur to evangelize them?

Please read our response here to the Washington Post article which we felt included grossly misinformed references.  (Reply by Tom Prichard, Executive Director)