On 22nd June 2011, the Ministry of Labour has issued a general
directive to all government departments to enforce retirement on any
Sudanese of Southern origin as a direct consequence of denationalizing
them, i.e. stripping them of their Northern Sudanese nationality.
Another similar directive was sent to all private sectors.
Accordingly, tens of thousands of Northerners of South origin have
been purged from Civil Service. To add hurt to insult, official
farewell parties were made at the altar of this civil genocide. Many
of these infamous parties were televised and broadcast. These cynical
parties were made in honour of those whose majority have never seen
the South and who have been living in the North for most of their
lives. 21 thousand soldiers were purged from the army overnight; those
were the same soldiers who have fought with the Sudanese army against
the Sudan People Liberation Army (SLA) for years and years. Now they
are demanded to go to join the army they have spent their lives
fighting against for no reason other than the fact that their origin
goes back to the South. More than 4 thousands police members were also
purged. The number this civil genocide is far more than that of the
disciplined forces in the various sectors of the Civil Service.
Nothing can be more erroneous as those people are not Southerners by
all respects; those are simply Northerners of South origin in the same
way as the Minister of Interior (Ibrahim Mahmoud, who is responsible
of the Civil Registry and nationality) is a Northern Sudanese of
Eritrean origin. In his days of university studentship in Egypt, he
used to preside on the Eritrean Student Union.
Below, the argument and discussion that show how wrong this decision
is, in all respects, is offered:
Who can tell that I am not a Southerner?
The Khartoum government lacks the legal ground to identify any of its
subjects as being of so and so ethnicity as it has dropped off the
question of ethnicity in its last census. So, the Khartoum government
is not in the place to say how many Dinkas or how many Nuers or
Shilluks exist in the Sudan, North and South as well. Likewise, it
cannot prove that a particular person is a Dinka or Nubian or Fur. It
is true that in the nationality application forms there is a question
about the ethnicity of the applicant (the tribe in particular);
however, those who have got their nationality document in this way do
not exceed 12 million since independence (including the deceased).
Furthermore, all the documents that go before 1995 have been damaged.
Having counted the population as being 40 million in the last census
proves that the nationality document is redundant in deciding who is a
Sudanese and who is not. At least 28 million, out of those 40, do not
have nationality document but nevertheless are considered as Sudanese
by the government.
What does the Nationality Law says about this?
The nationality law states that any foreign person who stays in the
Sudan legally for 5 consecutive years becomes qualified for Sudanese
nationality. The sliding majority of those Northerners of South origin
have been living in the North for more than 20 years. So, if they were
foreigners, they would have been qualified for nationality. In the
Sudan we have many ethnic groups of foreign origin, such as those
whose origin goes back to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Chad, Nigeria,
Ethiopia, Eritrea etc. How come that we cannot have ethnic groups such
as the Dinka, Shilluk, Nuer etc whose origin takes them back to
Southern Sudan?
What does the CPA says about this?
The CPA has set forth a clear criterion of those who are eligible to
claim Southern identity, consequently establishing a sufficient
definition of who is a Southerner. It clearly states that those of
Southern origin and who have come to the North from the South in so
and so period, or those who have either parent from the South, can
claim the Southern identity and consequently can register to vote in
the then upcoming referendum. However, those who are qualified to
claim Southern identity, but have been living long enough in the North
and accordingly have qualified for citizenship can remain anywhere in
the North if they opt for this, i.e. it is optional. The objectivity
of option is that those registered in the referendum have made their
decision to be Southerners; those who have not registered, even though
they are qualified to do so, have also made their decision to remain
as Northerners.
What do the International Laws say about this?
All international laws and conventions pertaining to nationality
clearly state that everybody is entitled to enjoy a nationality.
Article 15 of the Declaration of Human Rights clearly states that
“every one has a right to a nationality”; it further states that “no
one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality”. This is further
supported by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and the UN Human Rights Committee The 1961 Convention on the Reduction
of Statelessness, which entered into force in 1975, makes it a
specific duty of states to prevent statelessness. Article 1 reads that
“A Contracting State shall grant its nationality to a person born in
its territory who would otherwise be stateless.” The convention
forbids stripping of nationality (denationalisation) “on racial,
ethnic, religious or political grounds.” Even in cases of State
Succession, no citizen of either the succeeded or successor State
should be deprived of the nationality they have acquired through
lawful means. Article 1 in the International Law Commission, Draft
Articles on Nationality of Natural Persons in relation to the
Succession of States, with commentaries, 1999, clearly states that
“Every individual who, on the date of the succession of States, had
the nationality of the predecessor State, irrespective of the mode of
acquisition of that nationality, has the right to the nationality of
at least one of the States concerned.” Other articles provide that
States must take “all appropriate measures” to prevent statelessness
resulting from State Succession, and that persons shall not be denied
the right to retain or acquire a nationality by being discriminated
against on any ground.
Having said this with regard to the internal law, it is worth
mentioning that in March, 2011, in Addis Ababa, under the supervision
of the African Supreme Committee which is headed by Thabo Mbeki, both
the Government of Khartoum and the Sudan People Liberation Movement
(SPLM) conclude the Framework Agreement which clearly has stated that
in the wake of the cession of Southern Sudan, all citizens either
living in the North or the South will have the right to maintain the
status quo if they opt to do so. As usual, the Government of Khartoum
has declined ratifying this agreement the moment its delegation
touched ground in Khartoum back from Addis Ababa. The separatists of
the North, the true makers of the cession of the South, could not
tolerate to have any African of South origin in the North after
succeeding in getting rid of the South.
The Apartheid State of North Sudan
There are at least 4.5 million Northerners of South origin who have
nothing to do with the unfolding situation of cession as they have not
participated in the referendum. The cession of Southern Sudan has been
brought about by two factors; the first is the growing sentiment of
anti black, anti African, and anti Southerner among a certain sector
of Northern Sudanese who are ready to die in order to win the badge of
Arabism. There has been a surge of this trend that started gaining
momentum with the wake of the fanatically Islamist and
Arab-chauvinistic regime of al Ingaz. This is the major factor that
has created the conditions of cession. In such a state it was
inevitable for any people to opt for cession, in particular the
Southerners who have been living under the yoke of racism for
centuries. The second factor is merely technical, i.e. the polling,
which has been exercised by about 3.5 million representing the 8
millions of Sudanese citizens living in the South plus about 160.000
who lived in the North and who had registered as Southerners for the
referendum. This proves that the 4.5 millions of Northerners of South
origin have nothing to do with either the referendum or its result. To
take those 4.5 millions as accountable for the cession of the South by
either the government of Khartoum or its ranks and media institutions
of hatred is merely racist. To have this measure taken by the
government of Khartoum means that the North Sudan is simply undergoing
through a phase of an Apartheid State. The Islamo-Arabists of the
Khartoum regime want to project their own failure to maintaining unity
on the Southerners, but having no such Southerners within its boundary
has made them to target those Northerners of South origin. The 4.5
millions of Northerners of South origin cannot be used, victimized,
and sacrificed for the sake of saving the culprits to answer for their
responsibility when the day of reckoning comes.
The President who threatens his People
The regime of Khartoum is working hard to deepen the rift between
Africanism and Arabism in the identity awareness of Sudanese people by
not only enhancing this discourse of anti Africaism, chauvinistic pro
Arabism, but further by initiating it through its top echelon
officials. The fiery words of the President of State (who is indicted
by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against
humanity and genocide) in one of his late public speeches where he
vowed to chase out any Southerner who dares remain in the North after
July 9th, still resonates in the ears of Sudanese people. In that
ill-welcomed speech, the President of the State did not bother to give
any definition of who is a Southerner. To the public, a southerner is
defined by the racial complexion, a criterion no State that respects
itself or its subjects can use without being racist. The two parts of
the Sudan now are in need of strengthening the ties that bring them
together more than ever. The keyword today for the two parts of the
Sudan is "interdependency" where the existence of Northerners of South
origin (and Southerners of North origin) will surely pave the way to
good developmental relations and will serve as a bridge between the
shores of the two parts of the country. All other aspects of
interdependency, whether cultural or economical, comes after this
humane and material bridging. The regime of Khartoum is fully aware
that the Sudanese people will very soon awake to face the grim fact
that their beloved country is no more the same and that they will
understandably be held responsible for this.
Action needed!
The national, regional and international NGOs and civil societies
institutions, and the free Pan African elites and intellectuals
worldwide cannot maintain their ethical and moral integrity if they
allow this state fascism and apartheid orientations in the Sudan to
blackmail them so as to relinquish and capitulate. We have all to
stand up and face this new wave of state racism. Who is a Northerner
is that Sudanese person who has lawfully qualified for Sudanese
nationality and who has chosen to live in the North; who is a
Southerner is that Sudanese person who has lawfully qualified for
Sudanese nationality and who has chosen to live in the South. The
foreigners are those who do not fall in either groups. The Sudanese
Northerners of Southern origin are being officially discriminated
against by the government of Khartoum. This is taking place as part of
a process of demographic engineering plans upon which African people
in Darfur are being replaced by Arab groups brought over from the
Niger; African Nubas are being replaced by Arabised groups in Southern
Kordufan and Abyei; the Beja of Eastern Sudan are being replaced by
fanatically Islamist groups from over Eritrea and Egyptian peasants;
the Nubians in the far North are being replaced by Egyptian peasants
brought from over the delta. The current slogan that resonates all
over the region: "the people want to change the Regime!" is being
turned by the Islamist regime of Khartoum into: "the Regime wants to
change the People!" For people to change their bad regimes is
commonplace; but for a detestable corrupt regime to decide to change
its people is a matter that cannot be achieved without those retched
people get killed in cold blood as what has happened in Darfur and
what is happening right now in Southern Kordufan.
B.F.Bankie
Sudan Sensitisation Project (SSP)
www.bankie.info
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