ENTREVISTA FINAL DOCENTE
ENCUESTA A PADRES DE FAMILIA Y ACUDIENTES
Few studies have profoundly addressed this side of the Darfur Crisis. William D.
Brewer (1982) investigates the implication of Gaddafi's arrival to power in Libya as well as historic, regional, and religious factors that have a bearing on the Libyan-Sudanese relationship – but long before the Darfur Crisis emerged. According to Brewer, the relationship between the two countries is characterised as unstable.
While there has been good Libyan-Sudanese collaboration since the military coup, led by colonel Gaddafi in Libya in 1969, which led to Gaddafi’s support of Numayri against communist plotters in 1970, these relations deteriorated quickly later on. The Libyan regime in Tripoli has been accused of being behind several anti-Numayri
41
coup attempts. Brewer demonstrates that these events significantly contributed to increased tension in the relations between Tripoli and Khartoum, especially since they share an adjacent corner of the same desert. He believes that the fundamental threat to Sudanese stability originates from, or via, the sensitive Darfur region.
Brewer argues that Darfur's strategic importance stems from its size and remoteness from Khartoum, as well as its independent past in addition to its conservative religious population, which would render the province an inviting target for Libyan ambitions and machinations.
Within this context, a study by Yehudet Ronen (2011) assesses Libya-Sudan relations by tracing their chronology during the period of 1969–2010. It discusses Tripoli’s essential interests and involvement in its broader geo-strategic neighbouring region. Additionally, the work investigated Libya’s perceptions and alliances as far as they had affected Tripoli’s policy toward Khartoum during the post-Cold War era, concentrating on key issues relevant to understanding Libya’s involvement in Sudan.
Yehudet Ronen also highlights the dramatic strategic change that occurred in Tripoli’s regional policies, abandoning the Arab world in favour of Africa. This study interestingly found that Sudan was a key factor in Libya’s perceptions of volatility in its foreign policy towards the region. Yehudet Ronen contends that Gaddafi has viewed Sudan exclusively through a pragmatic view, shaping his relations with Khartoum according to Libyan perceptions of national interest alone.
The author argues that Sudan was perceived by Gaddafi as an important asset in promoting his strategy to limit threats upon the Libyan regime’s interests, in addition to his desire to implement his vision of the United States of Africa (Ronen 2011, p.
13).
This analysis is confirmed by Elvira Sanchez Mateos (2005) who has proved that the Gaddafi regime's policies are pragmatic and opportunistic, aimed at survival, and also with the aim of achieving maximum credit and changing its image abroad. The writer argues that Gaddafi has had an international agenda, using the regional arena as an approach to achieve his foreign (and even domestic) ambitions. Gaddafi’s regime defined itself as Arab, Islamic and, more recently, African. He also found that Libya's Gaddafi continuously attempted to demonstrate its capacity to act as an effective regional power. Noteworthy, the author argued that within the context of Libya seeking regional power, especially after the relations between Libya and Egypt
42
worsened due to the Egyptian realignment with the USA; Gaddafi formed an axis with Ethiopia and South Yemen to counterbalance Egyptian influence in Sudan in the 1970s. Furthermore, the war with Chad, related to the dispute on the border area of Auzu, is another instance of the Libyan struggle to play a leadership and influential role in its neighbouring areas (Mateos 2005, p. 439). Similarly, Patrick Berg (2008, p. 79) argues that Libya and Egypt were trying to present themselves as hegemonic powers in the region through torpedoing one another’s peace efforts. In pursuit of this strategy they also undermined the joint efforts of the UN and the AU regarding bloody conflicts taking place in Chad and Sudan for instance.
Asim Elhag (2013) contends that Libya, under the Gaddafi regime, has played a significant role in Sudan, contributing to the destabilisation of the country. The key approach used by Gaddafi throughout this period was a policy of intervention in the internal affairs of Sudan by supporting the political opposition as well as the rebel movement in different areas of Sudan. Elhag posits that Tripoli armed the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), led by the late Colonel John Garang, which later led to the secession of southern Sudan in July of 2011, forming the state of South Sudan. The Gaddafi regime supported rebel movements in the Darfur region, which also had greater ambitions in the western part of Sudan. Libyan intervention in Sudanese affairs has essentially influenced the course of Sudanese-Libyan relations. Interestingly, Asim Elhag found that Khartoum was fully aware of the political approach of Gaddafi. Despite this the GoS was fully keen to crack the relationship with Tripoli, as Sudanese authorities were also fully aware of Gaddafi's ability to harm Khartoum. Nevertheless, the policy of intervention pursued by Gaddafi has created a gap in the relations between the two countries, rather than strengthening good neighbourly relations and collaboration. This argument is confirmed by a number of governmental and opposition sources who were interviewed 4 , including Mustafa Osman Ismail (13/01/2013), Hassan Trabi (14/01/2013), Sadiq Al Mahdi (10/01/2013), and Ahmed Derije (18/03/2013).
On the other hand, Asim Elhag (2013) emphasises that the influential role was exchanged among the two regimes in Khartoum and in Tripoli. Due to the increased concerns and fears of the GoS towards Libya’s suspicious activities in Sudan, the
4 For more details about their job title, see Techniques of Analysis and Data Collection in Theory and Methodology chapter.
43
Inqad regime adopted a strategy of neutralising the impact of Gaddafi’s intervention in Sudanese internal affairs by pursuing a similar policy of trying to intervene in internal Libyan affairs by supporting Libyan opposition groups. The aim was to keep Gaddafi busy with internal troubles, until Khartoum could find a suitable opportunity to remove the threat of the Gaddafi regime. According to Asim Elhag the intelligence organs of the Libyan regime were working constantly in order to create instability in Sudan, as authorities in Tripoli were worried because of the Islamic orientation of the Inqad regime, which seized power in 1989.
This development was considered by Gaddafi to be a significant threat to his regime.
These fears increased after the coup attempt (Bab al-Azizia attempt) against Gaddafi’s rule in the early 1980s. Gaddafi accused Islamic groups governed by the Inqad regime for preparing and planning the coup. The author also stresses that all indications were clear that the Gaddafi regime had been involved in the war in Darfur since its eruption in 2003, by providing finance to the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and JEM, along with weapons and other military assistance, as well as providing the Darfur rebel movements with training bases inside Libyan territory. Nonetheless, Khartoum has constantly tried to avoid involvement in any confrontation with Gaddafi through a policy of restraint, based on Sudanese officials' understanding of Gaddafi’s volatile personality. Instead, Sudanese leaders did their best to persuade Gaddafi that he was a key factor for stability in Sudan.
However, this diplomatic approach failed to deter Gaddafi from supporting the movements involved in the Darfur conflict, especially the JEM, and the active and influential Libyan role in the development of the Darfur Crisis continued up until the Revolution of 17 February 2011, which toppled Gaddafi from power. In this respect Andrew S. Natsios (2012, pp. 122 - 126), the US former Special Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan in 2005, and Special Envoy to Sudan from October 2006 to December 2007, confirms Asim Elhag’s argument. Natsios reports that Gaddafi had a great and direct influence on the course of events in West Sudan. According to Natsios Libya was the original source of weaponry for rebel movements in Darfur, which were regularly sent across the Chadian territory into Darfur. Natsios believes that Gaddafi sought to create a Libyan empire, essentially to expand the sphere of his influence in North Africa. Natsios notes that the key approach to achieving his ambition was economic influence.
44
Historically, Darfur has had closer economic ties to Libya than Khartoum, and while authorities in Khartoum were ignoring the western part of the country, Gaddafi was bringing the region into his sphere of impact using Libyan oil revenues to build and/or modernise roads through the desert in order to expand his influence southward.
For the same purpose, according to Natsios, Gaddafi had based seventy security agents in Darfur since the eruption of the crisis in 2003, using money, weapons, and logistical supplements to back insurgents against the regime in Khartoum and its allies. Natsios importantly highlighted three prime themes that formed Gaddafi’s foreign policy and served his vision and desire in the sub-Saharan arena in general, and Darfur in particular: first, Gaddafi’s attempt to expand the influence of the Arab race and culture; second, Gaddafi’s interpretation of Islam; and third, the creation of a Libyan state across Africa (Andrew S. Natsios 2012, pp. 123-124). The approach of investigating the Libyan impact on the Darfur Crisis, in addition to the previous approaches together could offer a clear vision about the influence of regional third-party intervention in intrastate conflicts, which may help in understanding the factors impacting the termination and solving of the crisis and maintain the peace in a short duration as this has direct relevance for decision-makers. This combined approach has not been used before which what differentiate our study from the others.
Conclusion
It is the researchers’ desire to address the Darfur crisis with discerning analysis of the literature to fully comprehend the essence of the crisis and to identify the real causes, as well as the domestic, regional and international repercussions. Furthermore, to offer solutions that assist in overcoming the crisis in the short, intermediate, and long-term. The existing body of literature on the Darfur Crisis reviewed in this thesis has been divided into five main categories: firstly, political dimensions, which include studies that argue that the Darfur Crisis is mainly political, and focus fundamentally on the political causes and internal and external actors, as well as the domestic, regional, and international political repercussions of the interstate war in Sudan. Secondly, studies that have economic dimensions: many scholars have
45
primarily addressed the economic aspects of the crisis as they argue that the key factors that led to such a situation in Darfur are economic. This theme is divided into two components: 1) studies that have attributed the crisis to internal causes, such as the local impacts of climate change, unequal wealth distribution and development within Sudan, agricultural insufficiency, and deterioration in living conditions, poverty, illiteracy, and disease. 2) Research that considers international economic factors as the causes of the crisis. These shed light on the competition between the major powerful states, such as the USA and China, to access energy resources (in particular oil). These international actors have considerably contributed to the deterioration of the situation in Darfur. The third theme that has been identified is ethnic and cultural aspects. This body of literature includes studies conducted essentially on ethnic, cultural, and social factors that have contributed to the eruption of armed conflict in the region and formed its outcomes. These studies contain those that describe the conflict as an Arab-African conflict, genocide, and/or ethnic cleansing.
The fourth theme covers those academic efforts that directly or indirectly relate to international and humanitarian law. A number of research endeavours have been carried out on the implications of internationalising the Darfur issue by referring it to the UNSC and the impact of this action on the paths of the process of resolving the problem. In addition to this, several other studies have focused on the resolutions of the UNSC issued against Sudan, the concept of the responsibility to protect, and how this has affected the peace process in Darfur. The final theme concerns with the investigations related to issue of the impact of external intervention on the crisis, the Libyan intervention as centre focus. Analysis reveals that the Darfur Crisis is much more complicated than initially perceived. When considered carefully, each aspect, whether it be political, economic, ethnic, environmental, or international involvement, has an important impact at different times and in different ways. Each aspect has significant implications, whether internally or externally which often reinforce one other.
Overall, the existing literature can be categorised into two fundamental themes. The first subject involves the causes of the crisis, plus their domestic, regional, and international implications. The second area of concern is the internal and external involvement in the intrastate wars. In addition to the topics that have already been
46
discussed in the existing literature, this study will also investigate the duration of the Darfur Crisis as a further theme (see figure No: 1).
The examination of this protracted crisis raises important questions of why the crisis has not ended, and why there seems to be no clear path to its resolution. This research was selectively fine-tuned to focus more deeply on the management of the Darfur Crisis, through a thorough appraisal of how Libyan intervention (as a very important regional/external actor), has influenced the duration of the Darfur Crisis.
Furthermore, a number of important studies on related topics, such as civil wars, the duration of civil conflicts, the impact of third-party intervention on the duration of civil unrest, and the overall success of crisis management have been also reviewed.
This body of literature has been highly influential, generating a clearer overview to direct the research more effectively. These will be discussed in the following Theory and Methodology chapter. Despite the importance of exist literature on the Darfur Crisis as well as on the impact of external intervention on the intrastate conflicts, it was clear that this literature needs to be developed further.
47
Figure No: 1 the Literature Review Framework of the Study
-
48