Sudan: Final Words

The break-up of Sudan, aided and abetted by the United States, can be seen as another example of ill-conceived outside interference in an internal conflict in the name of democracy and human rights. The record for holding together the multi-ethnic states left behind by Western colonialism and former empires, without autocratic and often brutal centralized rule, is slim. This is a hard truth. And once such states are broken, they do not heal themselves. 

The full piece on my final thoughts on the string of Sudan entries may be found on TransConflict: http://www.transconflict.com/2016/05/what-lesson-from-sudan-035/

Final Journal Entries in Khartoum. August 2004

Aug 7:  Now that Sudan is a hot issue, all sorts of actors are in the policy-making mix.  And they know nothing so drift quickly into group think.  The group think -- even within US government -- is informed very much by the media and the perceived need to respond to it.  Washington does not do policy anymore.  It reacts to the day's press.  Very dysfunctional.

In the case of Sudan, policy was already in the hands of a small group of pols in USAID that saw the regime here in the same way that their counterparts in DOD saw Saddam.  ([They] have a long history of support for the "Christians" in the south.)  The regime is bad but we cannot simply push it over....  [N]ow that a USAID person has become AF Assistant Secretary, their capture is complete except....  (USAID already runs its own policy with the Darfur rebels.)  Add the USAID angle to the group think and we are heading for a policy calling for things the GOS cannot do -- like disarm the jinjaweed -- that will lead to a confrontation that may turn Sudan into another Somalia. (The EU and Egyptians are quite serious about Darfur and are already afraid we will blow it.)  Sent a cable on this yesterday but doubt anyone is listening.  (Powell gets it but relies far too much on his "battalion commanders" like the new A/S.) 

August 19: Just back from a three-hour GOS/UN meeting that started at 7:30pm. The goverment started its behavior in Darfur to try to ensure it did not become "internationalized." So they end up talking about how they will investigate rape cases to a room full of foreigners.

August 26:  Yesterday I sent in a cable that suggests a course of action for the next step that puts off sanctions. I have found out that my efforts led the Secretary to beat back the recent USAID effort to piss on the UN efforts here to find a peaceful way forward. One week to go.

August 27: Well, my tour is complete. Went and briefed Rev. Jackson this afternoon. Looked a little older than I last saw him but still sharp. Pointed him in a few directions. Meanwhile, a hijacked Libyan plane sits on the local runway.

August 30: Spent part of the day with Senator Corzine and Dick Holbrooke. Worked well. Corzine is a regular guy, as perhaps only a self-made millionaire elected senator can be. ...

Holbrooke has a big ego but seemed also to be able to figure out quickly if someone knows his shit. I was frank in explaining why I am leaving this week, in the middle of things.

Spoke to Treasury Secretary Snow this evening too. Corzine's banker friend Collins (whose private plane he came in on) called Snow about the Sudan embassy's banking problem and then handed the phone to me. I briefed him on the Sudanese Embassy's banking problem.

Note:  I departed Khartoum for home  on September 2.  Coming soon, Brasila cables.

Journal Entries for July 11-15, 2004: The Life of a Diplomat

July 11: Just back from UK poolside party.  Took NYRB and New Yorker writer Samantha Power there.  Spend a few hours chatting with her during the day.  Hopefully won't actually see my name in print. Spent two hours also with Mubarak [Al Mahdi] and [Foreign Minister] Mustapha.

July 12: Went on Hash today.  It was a very pleasant walk through rural Khartoum to the Blue Nile.  I promised the UK ambassador's two sons that I'd do it.  Two bright lads, 13 and almost 17.  Was otherwise busy with meeting another tribal chief, etc.  Spoke to the Minister this evening about freeing political detainees.

July 15: Just attended the first “JIM” (Joint Information Meeting). Four hours (8pm-midnight) that was mostly surreal. The only new GOS information was unbelievable -- about 100,000 voluntary refugee returnees and another 158,000 IDP returnees. Otherwise, challenges to us to present specific info on what we said about continued insecurity, continued jinjaweed activity and government attacks. As far as GOS sees it, they are taking actions -- more police, arrests -- and Darfur is getting more secure. Says can't disarm all jinjaweed right away while rebels are still attacking.

Journal Entry for July 9, 2004: Some Personal Reflections on Doing US Diplomacy

Saw a sight today that hit me in my stomach.  On the side of a road, a women -- she would have been tall if the could stand upright -- walking on her feet and hands.  I see such people every few days, walking through the city on their hands and knees or feet.  It was as if she was a four-legged animal loping along.  She appeared young and two small children were following her.  Her children?  My god, what a story she lives everyday, a story so different from ours, a story of love no doubt, a human story, but one full of things I can only imagine, so many common indignities. 

Last night at bowling, the guy who works there, who's job it is to smile and hover over the patrons, especially the foreigners, approached me.  The sort of person you learn to accept, expect in the Third World.  He had asked me before if he could give me his papers.  Last night he had them, he'd been holding them for me.  I accepted.  Turns out this smiling, inconsequential person was a rebel in Ethiopia for years.  His side won but the faction he was in lost favor.  He was arrested and imprisoned various times and finally had to flee to Sudan.  Lt. Solomon, formerly a major in the new Ethiopian army, demoted before his last arrest.  He has applied for asylum in Sudan and exists with a series of three month passes from the UN while it considers his case.  Been living that way for the last few years.  Now he wants my help.

We are trying to help these people help themselves.  Yet we are dancing with real devils, smiling, courteous killers.  I have gone out on various limbs, am standing on some thin ice.  Sometimes I feel that I've lost my way.

I feel so far from home.  And I worry sometimes that I'll never find it again.  Where can you ever be at home when you see what we have done to ourselves?  But when I do get there, I think I'll stay.  I have asked to stay here, will feel dissed if they don't want me.  But I think I need to get out of here.  If they don't want me, I'll serve it out and leave without regrets. 

 

Journal Entries for May 25-28, 2004 on signing the Protocols between the Sudanese Government and the SPLM

May 25: It appears that "peace" is at hand, or to be more exact, that the final three pieces of the "general framework agreement" will be signed tomorrow morning in Kenya. The honchos told Powell this on Sunday when he called and the gang is gathering in Kenya. This is actually still a step or two from the final peace agreement & comprehensive ceasefire but it is a big hurdle passed, provided it happens. With Darfur still a problem, we won't do much in response....

Been taking it easy the last few days, even sunning myself in my garden. Following closely the government's new and improved approach to Darfur. Will have lunch here at home with the security/intell chief [note: Salah Gosh*] on Thursday. But then plan on smoking a peace cigar (in lieu of pipe) Friday on the shore of the Blue Nile and then cruising into our version of the Memorial Day weekend.

May 27: Yesterday, the Sudan government and the SPLM finally signed agreements on the last part of the framework for peace. It took a long time and there are still a few steps to go before a final agreement. In fact, I spent the day thinking about the remaining steps and also about the conflict still going on in Darfur. Didn't think to celebrate or anything. (Though I did tell the staff today -- it happened to be the day of our Embassy awards ceremony** -- that they could be proud of their efforts that contributed to peace for their country.)

On the way home, I passed a large gathering in the center of town. Stopped to take a look. It was an SPLM rally of celebration for peace. When they realized the American Charge was there, they invited me up to speak to the crowd and started chanting pro-USA slogans. The crowd was mostly southerners, a couple of hundred, and mostly students. The rally was organized by the SPLM Youth. The group had been underground until recently. I met the leaders when they declared their group openly several weeks ago. The leaders were earnest young men with Western suits. We all were sweating. I spoke briefly about the US support for southerners to be treated justly and equally and about continuing to work for a peaceful, democratic and united Sudan. They cheered. It only hit me then that for many people, the signing yesterday means peace. They want peace. They want to live normally and many just want to go home.

I had forgotten that all this diplomacy -- words, threats, promises, lies, truths, half-truths, hypocrisies, feints, etc -- was about something very real to lots of people, peace.

May 28: Sometime this afternoon while I was working in the office, a haboob came in. The skies are cloudy and the city is covered in a dust cloud. From inside my air conditioned house, it almost seems like dusk on a fall day. Except that it's well over a 100 outside and the weak light coming in through the windows casts a strange orange glow on everything. Not unpleasant as long as the sand doesn't clog the AC.

Off soon to have drinks with the Norwegian Charge and the guy who got us the pig. Imagine me sitting somewhere in an orange glow drinking something stiff and chatting about pork. When I've sunk deep enough into that reality, I'll go to the home of the assistant president for in-depth political analysis of post-peace agreement. He always has tasty sweets and good coffee to make up for the lack of booze. Finally, it'll be the Ethiopian Embassy to celebrate the 13th anniversary of the overthrow of the previous government. Probably no booze there either but by then I won't need any. Reality here is heady enough.

Spoke thrice with the Foreign Minister in the last 20 hours. On Darfur. Our relations may spike upwards with the peace signing.

Note: * The first time I met one-on-one with Gosh, he put his hand on my knee and informed me that he could have me killed and get away with it.  Indeed, in 1973 the US Ambassador and his deputy were assassinated by Black September folks never caught.

 ** A photo from our awards ceremony:

 

04 Khartoum 0550: GOS Announces Suspension of Permits for Darfur & Other Meansures

Per the previous entry (also see note below):

Note:  Behind this cable and the Embassy effort to bring the Sudanese government into a peace process on Darfur was also my effort to convince Washington to agree to providing support from the US military (in the form of logistics) for the African Union (AU) monitoring effort to be put together.  The US regional command in Djibouti (the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, CJTF-HOA) was eager.  But in Washington, the Departments of State and Defense plus the NSC were opposed.  They didn't want to see any US boots on the ground in Sudan.  I argued that the investment could be modest but the impact great.  The Sudanese government would take the AU effort much more seriously if the US were supporting it and the AU certainly needed logistic support to be at all effective.  The difference of opinion over Darfur (plus the enmity of USAID political appointees who saw Darfur as a side issue or one to use against the government) played a large part in Washington's decision not to allow me to extend for a second year.

Journal Entry for May 19, 2004: An Evening with Another El Madhi

Attended a speech by Sadiq El Mahdi this evening. It was part of a regular Wednesday evening gathering of the Umma Party faithful at the party HQ in Omdurman. It was really hot and I hunkered down for two hours of Arabic. Desert cooling once again put to the test. Crowd numbered maybe two thousand on the veranda and lawn of the building. Some guy kept popping up from the side singing praise. At one point he seemed to get very agitated and appeared to be pointing to me, the only gringo on the scene. He may have been singing my praise or calling down the wrath of God or neither.

Until Sadiq showed up, Mr. Kalifa sat next to me and we chatted in English. Kalifa is the grandson of the Kalifa, the follower of The Mahdi who took over at his death and ruled Sudan until the British defeated him. Kalifa the Younger is now #3 in the Umma Party.

Sadiq -- the former Prime Minister overthrown in 1989 -- arrived to great ovation and sat next to me. He asked me how much of the speeches I was following. I said "none at all" although I think I did hear an occasional salaam (peace) and Ameriki. He got his niece to translate for me during his speech. (He spoke about Darfur and peace.) When he was done, and after two hours of sweating steadily but gently and watching little tiny moths land on my white shirt, I took my leave. Another wonderful night in Sudan.

Note:  Previous El Mahdi encounter here.

Journal Entry for May 14, 2004: Darfur, Khartoum night life and local traffic

Spent this evening chatting and having a few beers with the African Union team that has just been to the west (Darfur) to arrange the logistics for a peace monitoring effort. We sat on the roof of my political officer, also part of the team. It cooled down rapidly tonight. Fell to 98 degrees by 7:30. But it was still 98 at 10pm. There were lots of people out at clubs, restaurants and on the street. On the way back, passed one well-lit place with two people in full body costumes out in front. They were waving and looking jolly. The costumes were furry and, I am quite sure, like a sauna inside. One was a rabbit. The ears drooped and the arms were too long for the person, so they drooped too. I hope it is shift work.

As usual, drove through the new phase of road construction. Lots of it going on. Roads are being broadened and extended. This is very necessary because of the burgeoning traffic congestion. But roads are built or rebuilt without any discernible attention to alternate traffic routes. Sometimes, you'll come to a street that used to go somewhere but now ends in a ditch or pile of dirt. Sometimes, you'll be riding on an old road when it stops. You can see the new road ahead or to the side but you'll need to go over some rough ground to get there. Everybody going both ways faces the same challenge. So the traffic backs up and everyone runs for whatever space they can get. Soon, everyone is lost in the dust, especially at night. The same thing happens in reverse. You'll be zooming down a nice new paved road until suddenly it stops. There may or may not be another road in sight. My driver always seems to know where to go and eventually we get there.

My favorite example of road work is a large exchange near the embassy. Four lanes of traffic meet at a major intersection. The old intersection: a couple of dirt roads plus a paved one. They are building a new exchange which is sorely needed. Only problem is that while they are building it, where the old one used to be, there is now no official intersection at all. Instead, the two roads pass close enough together that traffic "leaks" from one to the other over maybe 20 feet of construction area. Here traffic congeals and cars pass each other every which way and up. I like to think of it as a macro example of the physics phenomenon of "quantum tunneling." Particles from two different realms get so close they just sort of "pass through" barriers to magically reach the other side. Who needs an actual intersection. That is so old physics!

04 Khartoum 0490: Dinner with the Grandson of the Mahdi*

* Note:  The State Department archives did not contain the full text of this cable so part between paras 4 & 5 is missing.  But here follows the entry for my journal for May 13:

"Last night I spent three hours dining with the grandson of The Mahdi. (If you don't know who that is, rent the DVD of the movie Khartoum starring Charleton Heston & Laurence Oivilier.)

We dined on the veranda of the Imam El Mahdi's palace overlooking the Nile River. It was grand. There was just enough breeze for desert cooling (evaporating sweat). The Imam told me the story of his father, the only one of The Mahdi's ten sons to survive the war with the British. Abdel-Rahman was 13 when he was wounded in a battle that killed two of his brothers. By the time he died in 1959, he had helped his country reach independence from the British and had met Winston Churchill, who had fought with the British in the 1890s. Just the two of us talking under the stars about The Mahdi's effort to reform Islam and the sect's continued efforts to do the same without violence. The Imam is head of the Ansar, the descendants of the warriors – who the British called the Dervishes – of The Mahdi. A high point. The West has much to learn about Islam and they of us. Most want to have this exchange. The common enemy is the terrorists.

Most Sudanese are too polite to mention their outrage over the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by American forces. (The Imam didn’t.) But it is a real black mark against us."

From My Journal for May 9, 2004: Visit to Malakal

Went to Malakal yesterday to look into GOS-militia violence against civilians there. One day, there and back with CPMT. Also checked out where [my son] will be for a week of his internship.

Tonight, went to the EU national day reception. It was 107o at 9:00pm. I had on my guayabera and was sweating profusely. My EU colleagues were all in their suits and long sleeves. The Brit looked like we was standing under an invisible shower. I stayed 107 minutes and gave up. I had done enough business and drank two beers.

From my Journal for March 20, 2004

Got up early for tennis today and then to work. But this afternoon, I visited the new and first-ever shopping mall in Sudan. Walked through the metal detectors into a space not yet full of shops. But there was a Payless Shoe Store and a hypermarket. Bought some lentils, spices and olives. But what I really came for was to try the bowling alley. It's run -- as I think everything is -- by the Turks. There are maybe 10 lanes and they have electronic scoring and appear regulation. I bowled three games -- one for free from the manager -- and on the last reached my high score for the day, 102. The lane had a wicked curve and desperately needs polishing. It was impossible to hook left and anything from the right really hooked right. But I was bowling in Sudan!

Note:  I should add that the spectacle of the American Charge at such an typically American activity grew a bit of a crowd.  A local bowling hustler -- just learning his tricks -- bowled with me for a game.  As I remember it, it was competition that helped me reach the heights of 102. 

From my Journal for March 17 & 19: Dealing with Government treatment of darfur IDPs in Mayo Camp, Khartoum

March 17: Shit is getting pretty near hitting the fan here. Spent the evening hearing reports of police violence against Darfur displaced persons at a camp near Khartoum. We made plans to be part of a dip convoy to the camp first thing tomorrow morning. Then we hear that eight have been killed and the violence is continuing. Tried to reach someone in GOS to ask them to intercede. Nothing accomplished. Tomorrow, at nine, off we go. The thugs are out of the closet and daring us not to dance with them.

March 19: Been an interesting 24 hours. Began yesterday with meeting a group of Western diplomatic colleagues at the Dutch embassy. We rendezvoused and set off for Mayo Camp to see if there was anything we could do to help the Darfur refugees there. We heard that some were being taken elsewhere and that the violence had continued through the night. The government now admitted to three killed, two women and a man. But we had reports that 15 had been killed and more wounded. The government was clearly trying to get rid of the camp before it attracted any more attention to the war in Darfur. We – US, French, British, Dutch and others – wanted to get there before they could do any more harm or erase the evidence. We failed. A couple of miles or so from the camp, near a market on a road full of traffic, we ran into a police roadblock, laid just for us. Not waiting for the usual bullshit explanations, I jumped from the car and started walking down the road. The police caught up to me. They tried to tell me that I could not go on, that I did not have permission. As the others caught up to me – I also had my bodyguards – I explained that we did not need permission. I said I would continue walking down the road. They said they could not allow that. I said they would have to detain me to stop me and continued walking. The police began to threaten and I paused to allow my security to explain to them that they could not impede or touch a diplomat. Things got heated. I made some calls to government people who eventually told me that I had permission. I also took a picture of the police block. This led to the police seeking to take my camera away from me. I eventually agreed to erase the picture and before being physically assaulted by a plainclothes policeman who was threatening me – he was a thug – I gave the police a memory chip that I had switched for the real one. A police general arrived with a pickup full of plainclothes thugs. He explained that the police were carrying out an “operation” at the camp and needed more time to “clean up.” They could not allow us to go any further for our own security. He assured me everything would be okay in a few hours and we could return then. We then agreed to turn back. As we were doing this, a UN team got a bit closer to the camp via another route and smelled tear gas and saw people fleeing. Later, a team did reach the camp but found it by that time deserted. Also latter, the foreign minister passed a message saying he was angry with me for trying to force the police to let us through. I rejected his position and instead said that we were protesting our treatment by the police.

04 Khartoum 0147: AF Acting A/AS Snyder and USAID A/A Winter Press Darfur and Abyei with Sudanese Foreign Minister

Also see journal entries below.

 

Journal entry for February 12:  It's been an intense 48 hours. Some of the most intensive bureaucratics I've ever seen and with the good guys -- Charlie -- on the ropes and the bad guys -- USAID -- running the ship toward an iceberg. Not sure where things stand or will stand when the dust settles.

I'm tired but have to await two visitors return. Charlie leaves at 2am but I have said my good-byes. This has been too intense for me, not the diplomacy or policy stuff but the shear degree of human stupidity, smallness and meanness involved while real people struggle with life and death matters.

See also:  Journal Entries for February 13 & 14 and note for 04 Khartoum 0252

04 Khartoum 0108: Supporting Human Right and Democracy*

* The next three cables were overlooked earlier.

04 Khartoum 0254: Darfur Diplomacy Update

 Also, see note below.

From my journal of March 2:

"Had a pleasant and productive lunch with the Foreign Minister at his Blue Nile-side residence. With British ambassador and Dutch charge. Lasted three hours. We refined the formula for the meeting in Chad. When I got back, learned that USAID is still doing some free-lancing, except since they are in charge, they think it's me doing the free-lancing. But we appear to be on track. In the end, may have to bow out and let them take the seats and – they think – the glory. The way we do foreign policy has degraded mightily in the years I have been in the business."

04 Khartoum 0252: Government and Darfur Rebels Accept Chad Plus Meeting

Also, see note below.

Note:  The reference to an "external player" mentioned in para 2 was to political appointees from USAID.  They were trying to prevent a Darfur negotiation from moving forward unless it was folded into the North-South peace process.  These USAID officials were pro-SPLM and very much opposed to the Khartoum regime.  They saw bringing the Darfur conflict into the wider negotiations with the government as a way to increase pressure on it and perhaps further dismember Sudan.  These USAID appointees came from the Christian fundamentalist NGO community supportive of the SPLM as Christian black Africans vs Islamic Arabs.  They originally sought to keep Darfur off our agenda because they saw it as a distraction to the "main show."

The following is from my journal entry for March 8.  The "perfect storm" I was hoping to avoid was the reaction from USAID Washington to our joint EU/US effort to get Darfur talks going without bringing in extra issues.

"I think missed a weekend somewhere. I had 15 minutes of free time in the office today and didn't know what to do with it. Started at 8:15 with the UK ambassador and wound up at 8pm after a two hour meeting with a senior official. Along the way, spent another 1½ hours with the French Ambassador. Got home to a dark house and microwaved one of the dishes James left for me. Of course, at least I have a cook and don't have to clean my own dishes.

I've been doing a bunch of stuff – to avoid a “perfect storm” – without DC reaction. Won't have any until tomorrow given time difference. Another consequence of not having a weekend."

04 Khartoum 0215: The Darfur Rebels Call*

*  This cable posted a bit out of sequence.

04 Khartoum 0228: The Jinjaweed

Journal Entry for March 4, 2004: An evening with the Sufi -- Sophist Night

Tonight I went to a “Sophist Night” in old Omdurman. The occasion was to mark the death of the founder of a school of Islamic jurisprudence who was also the progenitor of the extended clan that traced their descent back to him. A prominent human rights activist and secularist – Ghazi Sulieman – was this year’s organizer of the celebration and invited me. The sophists came out of a 9^th century movement within Islam to base one’s relationship to God on reasoned knowledge of the Koran. Various schools of thought developed over the centuries and there are many, many schools that differ in ways that I’ll never understand. Sufism came from this movement.

The celebration took place outside and started at 8:30 pm. I was a bit late but no matter and I was escorted to a place of honor and supplied with drink and food throughout the evening. The field was decorated like a country fair, with lights and a bandstand. But there were no rides and the bandstand was for the speakers and leaders of prayer. Rows of seats circled the stand but with a clear space in front. Various people went to the microphone to make speeches about the founding teacher (sheik), pray or chant. All during the evening, groups from other schools came to pay their respects (thus “Sophist Night”). As they arrived, Ghazi would dance over to them with his ceremonial stick held high in his right hand, pumping it up and down as he went. (The fist or stick pumped this way while dancing by all the men to be greeted is the custom in Sudan for important gatherings.) The group would then dance by “in review.” They dressed colorfully – some all white, some green or red – and usually had percussion sections. The schools reminded me very much of the traditional samba schools of Brazil. And the chanting often reminded me of blues music. Indeed, both the samba schools, the blues and Sufi schools share a common African culture. The Sudanese Sufi’s are Islamic by faith but African by impulse. The Sudanese in prayer can barely refrain from dancing and some don’t even try. I saw little children – it was a family get together although the women sat on the side and did not take part in the ceremonies – breaking into a spontaneous dance that clearly served as precursor to the grownup version called worship. Once the schools danced through, they went over to the side where some really got into the spirit of things through chanting and dancing to their own music.

The evening was warm but not oppressive and the people were very friendly. Ghazi was dressed in his trademark white pants with blue suit-jacket. His hair slanted upwards as usual and I often saw him dancing with his stick in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Two teenage girls (his daughters?) wore jeans and no head-coverings and seemed to serve as his messengers, running here and there. At the end of the ceremony, a small group of people gathered around me to talk. One was a retired general who had trained in the U.S. in the 70s. Another was an opposition politician. Ghazi explained to me that what I had seen that evening was Sudan’s “civil society”, a people united by a shared faith that was their own, varied and apolitical. He also explained that he had dressed in his suit to make a point to the government that a secularist could be a sheik. The small group I was with all agreed that the radicals who mixed religion with politics have to go because they are “alien” to Sudan. On Sophist Night, I could feel what they mean.

04 Khartoum 0196 - SPLM Surfaces in Khartoum