Prolonged civil war and systematic persecution of the
Christian and Animist minorities in Muslim-majority Sudan have been
largely ignored by the global community. Yet the hostilities still
continue. The term genocide is used freely in reference to Rwanda or
Bosnia, but although it is estimated that 2 million non-Muslims have been
killed in Sudan, the world hesitates to call this genocide.
This paper discusses the background to the conflict
and how the minorities in Sudan have become victims of genocide, while the
world remains ignorant of their plight. It will also analyze how the
country has changed through a process of Islamization and introduction of
Sharia or Islamic law, which gives non-Muslims a subjugated
“protected” status of dhimmi. It is the imposition of Sharia
law which triggered the second outbreak of civil war in 1983. This
implementation of Sharia means that it is legal to execute
apostates from Islam and to impose the severe hadd punishments, for
example, the amputation of a hand for stealing. In practice, the
non-Muslims suffer more from these Islamic punishments, partly because the
Christians are so poor that they are driven to theft, and partly because
Muslims usually have influential relatives who can exert pressure to
prevent severe punishments.
The 1973 Constitution was suspended in 1989 after the
military coup which brought Omar al Bashir to power. The government is
effectively controlled by a small group of men of the National Islamic
Front who rule by military force and political decree. Until 1999, the
main architect of the regime’s Islamist policy was Hassan Turabi. His aim
was to make Sudan an Islamic center to rival Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the
“cleansing” of Sudan of non-Muslim influence was a priority of
governmental policy.
A new constitution was implemented in 1999 which
provides for freedom of religion, but Islamic law and custom remain
sources of legislation, and in practice, the government continues to
severely restrict freedom of religion.
There is
no respect for the rule of law which could ensure the enforcement of a
just order, and therefore, sectarian violence, persecution, slavery and
genocide persist in this war-torn country.
