On June 30th Sudan’s military government will celebrate its fifth year in power. But the Government of National Salvation, as they like to call themselves, has brought little to the people of Sudan.
It is Sudan’s non-Muslims who have most to fear from the regime. Christians and animists in the South claim the government puts great pressure on them to convert to Islam, or otherwise persecutes them for their beliefs.
Today Sudan TV celebrates the army’s victory over the Southern rebels.
The Southern rebels oppose the government’s Islamic agenda. But these Sudanese troops are now more confident than ever that their war is in its final chapter. With the rebels divided and all rebel held towns recaptured the government now feels free to realise its dream of creating a united Islamic Sudan.
With the army now firmly in control of Juba city, the Southern capital, Archbishop Benjamina no longer needs his bomb shelter ...
Benjemina: I have not used it for a year now.
... but he fears the real battle has only just begun - the battle against Islamisation.
Bengemina Yugusuk, Archbishop of Juba: Our people are poor and they go to the Islamic organisation to take food and register their names there and also they are given money free. So we say this money which is given free is winning our people to Islam.”
Most vulnerable are the hundreds of thousands of war refugees scattered in camps across Sudan. They are mostly Christian or animist. Few international aid organisations are allowed to work with these refugees. The allegation is, that unless they convert to Islam they won’t get food.
Q: If you are Christian do you get food?
Anonymous Refugees: We don’t get food.
Q: Why?
Refugees: Because he is not a Muslim.
Q: Do you have to be a Muslim to get the food?
Refugees: They give you food money ... and clothes
Q: If you refuse to become a Muslim?
Refuguees: If you refuse they won’t give you anything.
Q: Yes.
In terms of personal freedom there has been a heavy price to pay for what the Government euphemistically calls 'peace from within’. Sudan’s people are firmly in the vice-like grip of a police state. And when it comes to the foreign media the security services panic.
Although the TV crew had official press passes their government imposed minder was himself arrested.
Policeman: “You have to go with me to the court.”
Ibrahim, the minder: “How do I know you are official.”
Policeman “You have to go to the court to resolve this matter.”
One of the few new buildings in Khartoum is the impressive new headquarters for its Security Service. The building has become a legend before even opening. At great personal risk this man pointed out the building, then he told what he heard the security forces did to his brother.
Brother: He has been killed
Interviewer: You think he has been killed?
Brother: Yes ... by being pushed out of an aeroplane.
Interviewer: The door of the plane was opened, up in the air, and he was pushed out.
Brother: Is this common.
Interviewer: Yes!
Sudanese tread warily near the new multi million pound security building on the banks of the Nile River. Throughout Khartoum there are widespread rumours of the building’s sinister agenda.
Int: Who can go to Security?
A: If you go to Security they will kill you. They will arrest you and ask you many questions. If you fail to answer these questions they will take you as well.
Ostracised and impoverished Sudan desperately needs to attract new investment. It has significant reserves of oil but no money to exploit them and thus far the petroleum industry has shown caution.
Sudanese Oil Technician: The Sudanese crude oil has a very low sulphur content which makes it very attractive internationally.
Previously hampered by the Civil War, the Government is now determined to exploit this underground wealth but is faced with international reticence from the oil magnates.
Energy Minister: Those powers are not interested in allowing Sudan to explore its potential and to become a super power which may threaten them.
The area of greatest potential oil wealth is also near the Nuba mountains where concern focuses on accusations of ethnic cleansing and the forced relocation of an entire people. For their alliance with the SPLA rebels, and resistance to the government’s Islamic policies it’s alleged that up to two thirds of the Nuba people have been forced out of their mountain villages.
Entire villages are removed en mass and relocated around army camps like this one in the flatlands outside Kadougli city. International aid organisations are rarely permitted to work here.
The government and its forces are also accused of deliberately starving and burning the Nuba out of the mountains. These Sudanese soldiers are often no more than mercenaries, have minimal training and are notoriously cruel. The Sudanese claim these relocations are in fact providing shelter for a people desperate to escape the fighting in the mountains.
Q: How old is this village?
Mohammed Abdul Rahman, Peace Camp Administrator: It is about 2 years old
Q:Where was it before?
Rahman: It was in the mountain.
Destroyed villages tell the other side of this story. Rare footage shows the devastation left behind after government troops visited the Nuba village of Kuaten.
Villagers: We were attacked by the Sudanese army in the early hours of the morning. They burned all the churches and the village of Kuaten. They killed so many people that we ran away. The village was destroyed.
With the congregation hiding in terror inside, Sudanese forces allegedly set fire to this church leaving everyone for dead. The church minister was one of the very few who survived the attack.
It’s evidence like this that has caused the world to turn its back on Sudan.
Burnt Priest: We were in church praying when the government army came and besieged the church. After they burned the church with the people inside, the military threw me into the embers and they left.
The government says such claims are exaggerated. They say the Nuba people are grateful for the security the soldiers bring, and it may be true that the Nuba are better off here than in their war-torn mountain homeland but it doesn’t justify a brutal policy.
Int. Dr Habib Mohammed Mahtoum Governor Southern Kordofan State (Nuba Region): We give them service, we give them food, we give them glasses we used to make these villages the same as before or better than before. Therefore we called them peace villages. The same villages, not new villages and not camps, you see. And what has been said in the West is not right.
For the benefit of the cameras the authorities pulled out sacks of clothes which we were told had been in storage nearby for months.
The Sudanese government is desperate to cover up the reality behind their activities in the Nuba mountains. The evidence though is hard to dismiss and until the Sudanese face up to the allegations neither foreign investment or an end to the war are at all likely.
It is Sudan’s non-Muslims who have most to fear from the regime. Christians and animists in the South claim the government puts great pressure on them to convert to Islam, or otherwise persecutes them for their beliefs.
Today Sudan TV celebrates the army’s victory over the Southern rebels.
The Southern rebels oppose the government’s Islamic agenda. But these Sudanese troops are now more confident than ever that their war is in its final chapter. With the rebels divided and all rebel held towns recaptured the government now feels free to realise its dream of creating a united Islamic Sudan.
With the army now firmly in control of Juba city, the Southern capital, Archbishop Benjamina no longer needs his bomb shelter ...
Benjemina: I have not used it for a year now.
... but he fears the real battle has only just begun - the battle against Islamisation.
Bengemina Yugusuk, Archbishop of Juba: Our people are poor and they go to the Islamic organisation to take food and register their names there and also they are given money free. So we say this money which is given free is winning our people to Islam.”
Most vulnerable are the hundreds of thousands of war refugees scattered in camps across Sudan. They are mostly Christian or animist. Few international aid organisations are allowed to work with these refugees. The allegation is, that unless they convert to Islam they won’t get food.
Q: If you are Christian do you get food?
Anonymous Refugees: We don’t get food.
Q: Why?
Refugees: Because he is not a Muslim.
Q: Do you have to be a Muslim to get the food?
Refugees: They give you food money ... and clothes
Q: If you refuse to become a Muslim?
Refuguees: If you refuse they won’t give you anything.
Q: Yes.
In terms of personal freedom there has been a heavy price to pay for what the Government euphemistically calls 'peace from within’. Sudan’s people are firmly in the vice-like grip of a police state. And when it comes to the foreign media the security services panic.
Although the TV crew had official press passes their government imposed minder was himself arrested.
Policeman: “You have to go with me to the court.”
Ibrahim, the minder: “How do I know you are official.”
Policeman “You have to go to the court to resolve this matter.”
One of the few new buildings in Khartoum is the impressive new headquarters for its Security Service. The building has become a legend before even opening. At great personal risk this man pointed out the building, then he told what he heard the security forces did to his brother.
Brother: He has been killed
Interviewer: You think he has been killed?
Brother: Yes ... by being pushed out of an aeroplane.
Interviewer: The door of the plane was opened, up in the air, and he was pushed out.
Brother: Is this common.
Interviewer: Yes!
Sudanese tread warily near the new multi million pound security building on the banks of the Nile River. Throughout Khartoum there are widespread rumours of the building’s sinister agenda.
Int: Who can go to Security?
A: If you go to Security they will kill you. They will arrest you and ask you many questions. If you fail to answer these questions they will take you as well.
Ostracised and impoverished Sudan desperately needs to attract new investment. It has significant reserves of oil but no money to exploit them and thus far the petroleum industry has shown caution.
Sudanese Oil Technician: The Sudanese crude oil has a very low sulphur content which makes it very attractive internationally.
Previously hampered by the Civil War, the Government is now determined to exploit this underground wealth but is faced with international reticence from the oil magnates.
Energy Minister: Those powers are not interested in allowing Sudan to explore its potential and to become a super power which may threaten them.
The area of greatest potential oil wealth is also near the Nuba mountains where concern focuses on accusations of ethnic cleansing and the forced relocation of an entire people. For their alliance with the SPLA rebels, and resistance to the government’s Islamic policies it’s alleged that up to two thirds of the Nuba people have been forced out of their mountain villages.
Entire villages are removed en mass and relocated around army camps like this one in the flatlands outside Kadougli city. International aid organisations are rarely permitted to work here.
The government and its forces are also accused of deliberately starving and burning the Nuba out of the mountains. These Sudanese soldiers are often no more than mercenaries, have minimal training and are notoriously cruel. The Sudanese claim these relocations are in fact providing shelter for a people desperate to escape the fighting in the mountains.
Q: How old is this village?
Mohammed Abdul Rahman, Peace Camp Administrator: It is about 2 years old
Q:Where was it before?
Rahman: It was in the mountain.
Destroyed villages tell the other side of this story. Rare footage shows the devastation left behind after government troops visited the Nuba village of Kuaten.
Villagers: We were attacked by the Sudanese army in the early hours of the morning. They burned all the churches and the village of Kuaten. They killed so many people that we ran away. The village was destroyed.
With the congregation hiding in terror inside, Sudanese forces allegedly set fire to this church leaving everyone for dead. The church minister was one of the very few who survived the attack.
It’s evidence like this that has caused the world to turn its back on Sudan.
Burnt Priest: We were in church praying when the government army came and besieged the church. After they burned the church with the people inside, the military threw me into the embers and they left.
The government says such claims are exaggerated. They say the Nuba people are grateful for the security the soldiers bring, and it may be true that the Nuba are better off here than in their war-torn mountain homeland but it doesn’t justify a brutal policy.
Int. Dr Habib Mohammed Mahtoum Governor Southern Kordofan State (Nuba Region): We give them service, we give them food, we give them glasses we used to make these villages the same as before or better than before. Therefore we called them peace villages. The same villages, not new villages and not camps, you see. And what has been said in the West is not right.
For the benefit of the cameras the authorities pulled out sacks of clothes which we were told had been in storage nearby for months.
The Sudanese government is desperate to cover up the reality behind their activities in the Nuba mountains. The evidence though is hard to dismiss and until the Sudanese face up to the allegations neither foreign investment or an end to the war are at all likely.