Savo Heleta - Research

The Darfur Conflict From the Perspective of

the Rebel Justice and Equality Movement

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In 2003, a conflict broke out in Darfur, Sudan’s western province,

between the mainly “African” rebels and the government forces and

their proxy “Arab” militias. It is estimated that about 200,000 people

have so far died in the conflict from fighting, diseases, and starvation.

The UN and aid agencies estimate that over two million Darfurians, out of

the population of about six million, are living in refugee camps. Even though the majority of all deaths in Darfur have occurred in 2003 and 2004, the conflict is nowhere near the end.

Even after more than five years since the Darfur conflict began, there is hardly any comprehensive information about the rebels’ aims, objectives, and plans for the future. We cannot fully understand the conflict and plan peace negotiations between the warring parties if we do not know enough about the rebels.

This study critically explores the aims and perspectives of the Justice and Equality Movement, currently the most powerful Darfur rebel movement. The author has used the first-hand information gathered through interviews with the representatives of the rebel movement and additional data about the conflict and the rebels collected through an extensive literature analysis to portray the movement and its aims, perspectives, and plans for the future. Using the grounded theory approach as the data analysis tool, the author has presented key findings about the Darfur conflict from the perspective of the Justice and Equality Movement that have emerged from the data collected in this study.

The study was written in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Magister Philosophiae in Conflict Transformation and Management at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The study was supervised by Dr. Gavin Bradshaw.

Short summary of the findings

The views and perspectives of the Justice and Equality

Movement regarding the causes of the Darfur conflict

and current rebellion do not differ significantly from the

majority of historians and Sudan and Darfur experts.

Decades-long economic, political, and social neglect

and marginalization of Darfur by the successive central

governments of Sudan are seen as the main causes of

the Darfur conflict and rebellion. However, the JEM

representatives argue that the current Sudanese regime

which came to power in 1989 has marginalized Darfur

more than any other colonial and post-independence

regime in the country. At the same time, the

manipulation of ethnic and tribal identities and the

environmental degradation in Darfur are seen as

important causes of the conflict.

During the course of the conflict, the JEM has evolved from a rebel to a revolutionary movement. The movement’s primary aim is to topple the current Sudanese regime and fundamentally change the country. Only time will tell if the Justice and Equality Movement will be able to defeat the regime and bring about revolutionary change in Sudan. This will depend on many factors, such as the ability to attract support in other parts of the country, cooperation with other rebel movements, finance, military power, international support, and, in the event of their victory, the implementation of substantial political and/or socio-economic changes in the country.

As this study has found, the JEM is not an Islamist movement, as it is often argued by the Western media and analysts, but a movement of the marginalized people who want to change the government of Sudan and end decades of neglect and marginalization. Even though the support for the JEM and the movement’s military capabilities were minimal before May 2006, the movement has grown into currently the most powerful Darfur rebel/revolutionary movement.

The fragmentation of the Darfur rebels is seen as one of the major obstacles to an effective peace process. The main causes of the rebel fragmentation are fighting over power, control, and leadership, as well as the divide-and-rule tactics by the government of Sudan. Cooperation among the rebels is hardly achievable due to divisions and years of fighting between the groups.

After almost six years of fighting and destruction that took over 200,000 lives and forced more than two million people from their homes, Darfur and its people urgently need a negotiated political solution to the conflict that will satisfy all the parties. As Alex de Waal points out, “the crisis in Darfur is political. It’s a civil war, and like all wars it needs a political settlement.” The goal of the mediators who work on a new Darfur peace process must be solving the root causes of the conflict and ending the marginalization of the province. A peace agreement will last only if it accommodates and is signed by all parties. Everything else will be a short-term solution and a further protraction of conflict and violence.

Review

From the examination report by Dr. Gavin Bradshaw, the professor of conflict management at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa:

In his extensive study of the Darfur conflict from the perspective of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, Savo Heleta has made a real contribution to our understanding of the complexities of the conflict in Darfur and also in respect of the possibility of resolving this deep-rooted conflict. Heleta has identified the lack of knowledge of the rebel movements in Darfur as one of the major stumbling blocks in the way of resolving the conflict and has set out to address this through the current research.

Savo Heleta has shed a new light on the conflict and challenges the conventional, simplistic wisdom of mainly western media. Furthermore, Heleta has made a set of recommendations that, if properly heeded, would enable at least the possibility of progress towards a sound negotiation process and possible solution to the Darfur conflict.

Click here to open the PDF file or right click and save the file on your computer

(115 pages / 1.1 MB)