Sudan Illicit Arms Trade

I. Topic Description

Sudan has never been known for its strong governments as rifts between the Arabs (majority) and the Africans (minority) formed due to religion, language, ethnicity, and region and the country went trhough civil war. The government force, the National Islamic Front and the rebellion force, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Throughout the civil war, many human rights were abolished, as Northern Arabs enslaved Southern blacks, etc. In 2002, there was an “era of peace”, in which there were efforts from both sides to share political power equally; however, the violence never stopped throughout the negotiations. In 2004, the government and the SPLA signed the peace deal that ended the war. However, in the Darfur region, the government had let secretly government supported militia, the Janjaweed, to massacre black citizens in Darfur in 2004. Hundreds of thousands of Africans were killed and millions of people have become refugees, fleeing the Darfur area.

As mentioned before the peace deal was signed which gave about half of Sudan’s oil money to the African south and a sharing of government power, but the government was shaky because the new president, Garang, had died and his VP had to take over for him, Kiir. Despite the new peace deal the government seemed to support the Janjaweed and the occurring violence, as it has been proven several times the trend of arms sold to the government lead to the same trend of weapons of the Janjaweed. And the violence was also caused by Southern rebel groups because they had to defend themselves agains thte Janjaweed. Another peace deal was signed, however some Southern groups did not approve and thus did not join. Attempts by the UN to send peacekeepers and work out the problems turned out to be a failure.

Currently, nations around the world have been working together to put on trial Ahmad Harun and Ali-Kosheb who are both held responsible for the murder, the rape, and the other horrifics that occurred and still occur in Darfur. But the government refused to put them on trial which shows the discreet support of the Janjaweed. United States retaliated by reducing business transactions between Sudan and the United States.

None of the peace deals seemed to work as there was bickering basically between the north and the south. A few months ago, in January of 2008, the minister of federal affairs adviser became Musa Hilal, the Janjaweed leader. This given position was highly opposed by most nations as Hilal. In October 2007, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) quit the national unity government, leaving the peace agreement signed in 2005 on the brink of collapse. The SPLA claimed that the governing party, the National Congress Party, had ignored its concerns over boundary between the north and south and how to divide the country's oil wealth.

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