Darfur rebel Arabs under Sudan assault

Towards the end of the Abuja talks, an Arabintellectual sympathetic to the Darfur rebels remarked: 'Ninety percent ofthe Arabs of Darfur are neutral so far. We cannot continue like this ifthere is no agreement. We may take a role.' Eighteen months later they are,slowly but surely, in many ways. In recent weeks the Sudan government hasbegun responding with predictable force-aerial bombardment, ground attack,arrests of family members. Alex has drawn attention to how the Arabs ofDarfur feel abandoned by the international community, collectively demonizedfor the sins of the government and the Janjawiid. (Re-Visiting North Darfur's Arabs, 29 November 2007). But there is a new problem today, and one thatneeds addressing urgently: how are the growing number of Arabs who havechosen to stand against the government to be protected as the governmentturns its guns on them, in their turn?

The Arab challenge is absolutely critical. Without Arab support, Khartoumcould not prosecute its war in Darfur as it is. The regular army is poorlymotivated, poorly trained and demoralized by a series of crushing defeats.Much of its officer class dislikes the enforced partnership with theJanjawiid and the abuses that have characterized it, for which theInternational Criminal Court is now pressing charges.

At the centre of the latest storm is a 31-year-old Arab called Anwar AhmadKhater, the founder of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) that took uparms against the government last year and a member of the Mahamid tribe(Awlad Zeid section) from which most of Musa Hilal's forces are drawn. Atleast 26 of his men were killed last week when government forces attackedone of his camps in the Jebel Kengo area north-east of Zalingei. Someescaped on donkeys after their cars were destroyed and were given refuge bylocal farmers who offered them water, not caring that they were Arabs. As anSRF militant said in reporting the attack: 'You see how wonderful Darfur is,but for this mess of government policy and individuals spreading hatred.'

A number of Anwar's relatives have been arrested, including several of hisbrothers, and children in the family have been interrogated about hiswhereabouts. A security officer told one of them: 'We should have killed himwhen we had the chance. He is more dangerous to us than Abdel Wahid [Mohamedal Nur, the leader of the original Sudan Liberation Army] because he isworking in our zone'. In other words, he is active among Arabs-seeking aboveall to neutralize them, to prevent the government using them for its ownnefarious purposes.

Many Darfurians-including Abdel Wahid, who puts great emphasis on goodrelations with Arab tribes-believe that Anwar Khater is the personbest-equipped to unite the Arabs of Darfur. He is educated (a computerengineer) and free of any suspicion of Janjawiidism (unlike the other Arab'rebel' making news at the moment, Mohamed Hamdan Dogolo 'Hemeti'). The fewforeigners who have met him say he has enormous charisma. Most importantly,perhaps, Anwar Khater has cachet among the Mahamid: his father, AhmadKhater, was an advisor to Hilal Abdalla, the late sheikh of the Mahamid whois as much revered among the Arabs of Darfur as his son, Musa Hilal, iscontroversial.

Offered a scholarship to the U.S. on completing his studies, but notpermitted by the government to take it up, Anwar Khater returned to Darfurfrom Khartoum in 2004 and immediately began rallying Arabs against thegovernment. He was detained by Security twice in 2004, once afterdistributing pamphlets in Zalingei denouncing the political and economicmarginalization of Darfur. In 2005, he was detained for a month after asimilar protest in Geneina. In 2006, as his influence grew, especially amongyoung Arabs, he was detained by Musa Hilal and flown to Khartoum, where hewas imprisoned for more than three months. Security chief Salah Gosh toldhim: 'The UN [peacekeepers] will fight you as Arabs. If you do not join usyou will never survive in Darfur. The international community's war will beimposed on Darfur.'

Upon his release, Anwar Khater returned to Darfur once more and began tomake contacts with internationals to explain the program of the SudaneseRevolutionary Front-a name recently hijacked by Hemeti, with whom AnwarKhater has refused to cooperate, saying 'I can never put my hand in the handof anyone accused of killing innocent people'. His main concern, he said atthe time, was to combat the government's efforts to isolate Darfur's Arabsand make them voiceless. Since then, he has been working, quietly, to bringArab dissidents from different tribes together in a single, united body. Hehas forged good relations with several SLA factions including that of AbdelWahid.

The SRF's rebellion is just one example of a new mood among the Arabs ofDarfur. Another is the mutiny of Hemeti, whom U.S. officials consider one ofthe most abusive government-supported militia leaders of Darfur, responsiblefor much burning, killing and rape. When Hemeti mutinied in October, hecited the double betrayal of Darfur's Arabs: broken promises to providetheir nomadic communities with health and veterinary services, and schoolsand water, and unfulfilled commitments to pay militia salaries and givecompensation for war dead. He said he took up arms to defend his tribe afterthousands of camels were stolen and scores of his relatives were abducted bySLA Zaghawa rebels. That was then. Today the Zaghawa SLA leader, MinniMinawi, is Senior Assistant to President Omar Bashir-with power, on paper,over reforming Arab militias after becoming the only rebel leader to signthe Darfur Peace Agreement in May 2006.

The significance of Hemeti's revolt is very different to that of AnwarKhater's. His record makes him a problematic figure, both for theinternational community and the rebel movements. But while Anwar Khatar hascredibility as a young and educated Arab leader with clean hands, Hemeti hasguns. The government gave Hemeti brand-new vehicles, Thuraya telephones,heavy weapons and, reportedly, millions of dollars as the price ofparticipation in an offensive against the rebels after they tried to takethe war to Kordofan three months ago. But Hemeti double-crossed them,withdrew with his forces to Jebel Marra, and announced his opposition toKhartoum. In response, the government unleashed its air force and groundforces against him.

Both Abdel Wahid's SLA and Khalil Ibrahim's Justice and Equality Movementhave signed non-aggression pacts with Hemeti and his militia. Abdel Wahidtold me in Paris a month ago, 'There is no UN force to stop the Janjawiidkilling my people and I have no force to stop them, so I have to bring themon my side or neutralize them.' Neutralization may be as far as he is wilingto go with Hemeti, but he wants Anwar Khater on his side. Anwar, for hispart, does not rule out eventual unity, but not until political programmesare clarified and the SLA has put its chaotic house in order.

With only a few hundred armed men, the strategy of the SRF thus far has beento target those responsible for recruiting Arabs into the Janjawiid. 'Arabs,' Anwar Khater said last year, 'do not access humanitarian aid because theinternational community considers that the Arabs are the perpetrators of allthe crimes committed in Darfur. This is not true.'

The SRC believes that Khartoum plans a 'comprehensive attack' on its men inthe coming days, 'to finish Anwar during the holidays when UN staff will beon holiday'-and before the UNAMID force becomes operational. Anwar, theysay, 'can be the bridge between Arabs and the international community' - ifhe survives.

* Julie Flint is independent journalist who led a Human Rights Watch trip toSudan. Her report for Human Rights Watch, "Darfur Destroyed". She is theco-author of "Darfur: A Short History of a Long War."