Darfur Issue #4
by Dr. Azhar
ASM and greetings from the Gulf,
I have had the opportunity to speak to a representative of a national relief organization who just got back from Darfur 2 days ago. I have also taken the liberty to speak to a number of Sudanese doctors, who are aplenty in our hospital, to get some more inside views of the real situation in Sudan. In brief, this is my summary:
What is happening in Darfur is not a new and isolated event, and not divorced from the country’s recent history of the past couple of decades. Sudan’s vastness coupled with poverty and low living standards make uprising by villages / rebel groups a no surprise by international standards. The media-painted accounts of Govt-backed arab Janjawids killing the African Sudanese are too complicated for even the locals to conclude, and we are in no better position to judge. What is apparent, if not obvious, is a series of events one cannot ignore.the troubles with western-backed Christian, John Garang, making the South of Sudan almost separated, if not independent from the main state; resurfacing of previous conflicts in the East, bordering Eriteria; and now the current problems in the Western province of Darfur. One can only guess that the North and Central are ‘left to be dealt with’ by forces interested to interfere with affairs in this strongly Muslim-ruled African civilization. A Sudanese physician whom I’ve just spoken to minutes ago, described this simply as the west’s plan to invade, akin to what happened in Iraq.
I found it also interesting to note accounts of my contact and that of a number of Egyptian doctors who spent a stint in Darfur. Accordingly, there is but an ongoing problem there, but nowhere near the hyper inflated reports by the western media. Yes, there were skirmishes and killings (mind you, by all sides) but a magnitude of “genocide” or “the worst humanitarian crisis of this century” as reported by the west is simply a bull.. by local standards and foreign humanitarian workers and observers. There is reportedly ample policing by non-military security forces and even foreign women workers are almost guaranteed safety, hence MERCY Malaysia’s decision to send out a female non-Muslim. What’s also interesting is that UN and many western NGOs were found to prevent the many thousands of Internally Displaced People (IDPs; unlike refugees, they’re still within the borders of their own country) from returning to their villages, as though trying to maintain status quo of a very volatile and insecure crisis situation. This, unless due to security or valid reasons, is very much against the spirit of humanitarian relief where you assist and get people back to their independent live styles in their respective kampungs. Hasten to add their usual uncooperative behaviour especially towards Muslim NGOs (reminding me of the snobbish attitudes of some European NGOs and intimidatingly-arrogant Canadian military personnel, we bumped into in the Dreniza villages of Kosova in 1999). In the weekly humanitarian NGOs’ meet in Khartoum, these UN and western NGOs are now being criticized by the Sudanese Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs for their lack of relief achievements, despite being allocated and given various tasks and assistance. Reports from independent sources and observers also confirmed the safe and secure return of many IDPs back to their villages (100,000 in North Darfur, hundreds daily in South Darfur, but no info on West Darfur), and government assistance, though inadequate (hence required + + + from all of us) by way of food, maize, oil, plastic shelters etc.
While we rely heavily on news channels like the CNN, BBC and others, I remind myself and all of our obligatory duty to vet reports, especially of such nature. Allah’s reminder in Al-Hujurat 49:6 in the verification of news brought by the faasiqun should apply even with a heavier weightage when dealing with those from the kaafirun. Our MERCY experience in the Moluccas Islands of Indonesia was an unforgettable lesson. ‘Religious’ conflicts, which started on Eid ul Fitri in Jan 2000 (when numerous Muslims were killed by the Christians in the streets of Ambon, followed by clashes in the villages of Ternate and elsewhere), were only reported by the BBC in Mar 2001 as a recently Muslim-initiated war. The heavily biased BBC & CNN footages, interviews and video clips that we saw in our Jakarta hotel, showed nothing but some victims from Christian villages and few damaged Churches. Absolutely nothing about the charred remains of men, women and children in a burnt-out masjid in Galela, the literally butchered bodies of many other villages in Northern Maluku, the seriously injured that we met and spoke to (one abdominal gun shot who later succumbed in Ternate, a few fractured tib-fibs and explosion-burnt patients in a maternity-turned-trauma center) in Ambon city.
While MERCY remains apolitical and neutral on humanitarian grounds, I feel duty bound as a responsible Muslim physician to relate these findings to the rest. Agreeably, we need alternatives to mainstream media and Al-Jazeera may be a promising potential. When Washington officially protested to the Qatar government against this Doha-based news station for being biased, anti-US and detrimental to the liberation of Iraq, one only needs to be reminded yet again by the Almighty’s declaration of their sinister agendas in Al-Baqarah 2:120.
On a more personal note, a number of key people in the Sudanese government were notable Muslim scholars during our UK days in the 70s & 80s. Old guards of Newcastle (in the early 80s) will remember a Sudanese brother called Al-Haj Adam Yusuf, now a governor/wakil rakyat back home, not only as an Imam and Khatib but also as an exemplary Muslim scholar to whom, many in Geordieland and throughout the UK turned to for opinion and advice.
In short, it’s a real world out there, maybe cruel to some, for us Muslims to face. And in these trying days of continuous fitnah on the ummah, returning to basic guidelines and consolidating our efforts are but a demand on every believing brother/sister. To those who feel that they should see and hear for themselves, on top of physically contributing to assist, a mission out with MERCY Malaysia, or perhaps Islamic Relief UK, to Darfur would insya allah prove beneficial, in this world and the hereafter. Allahu a’lam.
Azhar Abdul Aziz
Hamad General Hospital
Doha, Qatar
