Thank you very much for this opportunity. First of all I think I consider myself as a neutral person here because I don't belong to any political party. When I entered politics in 1965 I went to Parliament as an independent candidate, and I started my political career after the October Revolution 1965, when I started a movement called "The Darfur Development Front." Dr. Ali el Haj was my assistant at the time, he was my deputy, we have been going together even though we have different views. And then later on I joined the Umma Party, and when the Umma Party was divided between Imam al Hadi and Sayyid El Sadiq el Mahdi, I stood with Sadiq al Mahdi, because we were calling for the liberalization of the party, to make it a modern party. And we went to the elections and when Sayyid El Sadiq was not successful in being returned in the 1968 election then I became leader of the opposition on behalf of Sadiq el Mahdi. And then we had that crisis when Nimeiri came. So in the meantime, as a politician, I have seen how things were going from within, and I came to the conclusion that I will never join parties and politics in the Sudan after Nimeiri goes. And that is why, when I left the Sudan in 1983, I had quarrels with Nimeiri over the famine in Sudan. I wanted to declare it, he refused, I left. There was an upheaval, call it a revolution, in '86. People sent for me to come and stand for elections, I refused to come, because if I went to participate in politics I must belong to a party. I don't see that there is any party in the Sudan at the moment that will allow me to go there because I don't think any of them is in a position to solve the problems of the country at the moment. So that is why I am not interested in becoming a minister or becoming somebody. I am interested in serving my country if I can. So I kept out. That is why now my views, my criticism may touch everybody here on this basis.
I agree with Dr. Ali el Haj, strangely enough, on one point he made. I don't consider the problem of being the problem of the north and the south. I consider it as a Sudanese problem. And as such, I consider it as a regional and a political problem. The reasons are that if it is a matter of identity, if the southerners claim that they are Africans, not Arabs, they are not alone. In Darfur we can say that two thirds of the people of Darfur are non-Arabs, they are indigenous Africans. True, they might have acquired the language of Arabic, but they were there before the Arabs came to the Sudan. In Kordofan, half of the people are of African origin, particularly the Nuba. Half are Arabs also, that's true. In the central region and in the east, in the central region particularly, in the Blue Nile area, there are the Ingessanas, there are the Funj people, they were there before the Arabs came. Even the Nubians in the north, they were there before the Arabs came. The Danaqla were there, the Barabra were there. And the Nubians, some of whom were driven out to Kordofan and came to the Nuba Mountains; now they say they are cousins, historically Professor O'Fahey may know better. We have in Darfur the Meidob. Some people say that they originally were Nubians, they were Danaqla who came there, and in fact I found out that they can understand each other's language. And then the Beja. They don't identify themselves with Arabs. So really, this problem of identity, is not only a monopoly of north and south, it cuts across the whole Sudan. Then there is the problem of religion. I think religion has only come to light with the National Islamic Front and particularly when President Nimeiri made the 1983 September Laws. Before that it was not an issue. But the issue was there, the civil war of the south started in 1956, and it started as a political problem. It did not start as a religious problem. I am not denying that religion and race is playing a role, it is true. But I am saying it is exploited by people who are interested in remaining in power, and they are exploiting all these divisive factors in order to find a way to survive politically. So unless we look at things in the real perspective we'll be confused, and we can not really solve the problem. I said it is a regional problem, because if we look at the history of the Sudan, the Sudan as a country is a young country. It started to be formed from 1821 onwards, began by the Turco-Egyptian invasion and before they came, we were separate people living in that area we call Sudan today. There were our brothers the Nubians, there is the Christian kingdom, later on they were Islamized, in the 15th or 14th century. When Dongola was defeated as a capital, it was in the 15th century, there were two kingdoms, Alwa and Maqurra, and these were independent kingdoms, people living along the Nile valley, with their culture, with their heritage, with their way of life. Simultaneously, there were the Beja from the east, who were also conquered sometime by the Turks, before the Egyptians came. There was the kingdom of the Funj, in the centre, with Sennar as its capital. There was the sultanate of Darfur, which goes back to 1560. There is a written history of it, and Professor O'Fahey has highlighted many things, which were not known even to me who am a Fur, and I think anybody who can read one of his books will find the history of Darfur going back to 1560. It was there as a kingdom with international contacts. We had contacts with Egypt and there are documents showing that the Sultans of Darfur had contacts with Napoleon Bonaparte and they had contacts with the Islamic world. In the whole history of the Sudan, Darfur is the only region which sent a covering to the Kaaba, the Holy Place in Mecca. Of all countries, it was the nation that was able even to send presents to Mecca, which was the head of the Islamic world when Saudi-Arabia was a poor country. Then there was the south, which remained more or less as a virgin land, because of the difficulties. There was no conquest in the south until the Anglo-Egyptians came. So when we look at the Sudan as such, it is a new country. I did not mention Kordofan, because Kordofan was once ruled by the Funj, another time by Darfur. But still Kordofan can be put as the west. The people in Kordofan and Darfur they have the same culture, they have the same way of life, even those among Arabs and non-Arabs. The economic activity, the way of life, is the same. So, we have these real entities that are identical, and today the way of life of the riverian people of the north, is different from the way of life of the people of the west. And in fact, the western culture of Darfur, even its Islamic way of life, is much more akin to the African sultanates of Bornu, of Kano, of Wadai in the Chad Basin, more than it is to the east. So, this is the Sudan, with all these different cultures coming together in 1821, ruled by the Turks, ruled by the Anglo-Egyptians, and then coming to independence. In the meantime there was not a chance given to these people to interact, to become a nation, to become one people. The colonial powers still kept these people separate. In the south there were special laws, where the Northerners were not allowed to come. Even in the west this was applied, till I think the -30's, it was a closed region in Darfur, nobody could come. So any contact that was there was very marginal. Everybody kept his identity. So what happened again, another consequence, is that all the cultural contact which was significant within the Sudan came from the north, through Egypt. Whatever happened in Egypt was reflected in the north, in Nubia more than anywhere else, because of the lack of communications. So the Nubians became more enlightened, got more education. And during the colonial period they had a chance of going to school, the schools were first opened there, the university was opened, and they got educated. When they got educated they got the political power, they got the economic power, they got in a position so that when the colonialist left, they were the people who were capable and in a position to take up power. So the power base of the Sudan today, is in the hands of the people whom I would call Nubians. They did not take it by force, they took it by the virtue of the fact that they were the people who were educated, who took over from the West. And - this is a cynical remark I would like to make - from my experience in politics, when somebody has the power don't expect him to share it with you just like that, or say "will you take this part?" You have to struggle for it to get it. So these people have the power. And as such, even the political parties, they were formed there. The Umma party is formed by Nubians, the DUP is formed by Nubians, the Communist Party is by Nubians, the National Islamic Front by Nubians. And these are supposed to be the national parties. So really, the political power is in the hands of the Nubians. The executive power is in the hands of the Nubians. And therefore, how would you expect these people, being human, to say that tomorrow they are going to share the power with the south or the north or anybody else. From my experience also I found out that it is through pressure that you can share power, and I will give you an example. The Sudan, when they had the first election in 1953, they elected an interim government to Sudanize the posts; of course they created ministries. Then, after that, in 1956, the independence, there was a government till this government was overthrown by Abboud in 1958. In all this period there was not single minister from the whole West, which is one-third of Sudan. There was not a single cabinet minister from Kordofan or from Darfur. It may never have been deliberate, but again this is a part of Sudan which is very significant, one third of the country. By historical accident there was nobody to represent it in Parliament as a minister. It was the first time in the history of the western Sudan when in 1965-66 I became a minister from the west, and with me Dr. Buhari. And how did we become ministers? Because I led Darfur Development Front, and the Darfur Development Front was pressing the Umma Party, the Umma Party with leadership from the north. But the followers are westerners. So the majority of MPs who put the Umma Party in power are westerners, but yet the Umma Party will bring all its ministers from the Nubians, not from Darfur. And then again there were constituencies where people vote for religious reasons. Anybody that the religious head brings will be elected. Even if there is a native person from the area his tribe will not vote for him, they will vote for that person, for reasons of religious affiliation. We tried to fight against that. We said, well, parliamentary representation means representation. Somebody who knows the issues and the problems of the people should go to air them in parliament. Not somebody who is alien, somebody people don't know, who is imposed as an MP, and he goes back, becomes a minister, and we never see him till the next elections. So we were fighting against this domination and we managed in the elections of 1965 to stop anybody coming from outside Darfur being elected in Darfur. This was one thing that we got through pressure. The second thing is when we had a conference in El Fasher. Dr. Ali El Haj attended, he chaired it because he became an MP of Darfur Development Front. And in that conference we were talking about federalism, and the system of government. The second thing was that people in the conference asked me that I must join the Umma Party because with my views I would be more useful inside than outside. I went and I joined the Umma Party. And when I joined the Umma Party I struggled and I said, look, it is not fair. We the west have always been part of the power - the back of the Umma Party, and then we get ministers who don't know our brothers, we don't know you. Before you might have said that in Darfur, they are not educated people, but now we are educated people and graduates, we are people who know problems, so you have to share power. So this was the first time that they elected, that they chose me to be a minister and Buhari to be a minister for Kordofan. So this I gave as an example that the Umma Party knew that the base was in Darfur, but never tried to say, well, look the people of Darfur deserve this and that until we pressured and we asked for it. So I believe that unless people ask for their rights, and pressure - and pressure does not necessarily mean arms, it may be by political means - when you know your political issues and when you unite behind your political issue, you may achieve things. And here I will blame our southern brothers who are really facing the bad end of the whole game, because they are dying, because they are fighting a war. They have not united because they don't know their issue. There are people who are fighting outside, may be they know the issues. The people inside, they are divided, and if you are divided you can not pressure. You have to know the issue, you have to unite behind the issue, as long as there is a democratic system. But again, there are many factors that can divide people. And as long as you remain divided, you can complain, you can talk, you can cry, but you'll not get your rights. So, my advice to my brothers from the south is that you unite first of all behind your cause, know it properly, unite behind it, pressure for it and you will get it democratically. If not, you can fight for it, because people fight for causes, and it is legitimate. So, to me the problem is regional in the sense that there is a powerconcentration in some areas, in Khartoum, by some people who happen to be there. And there are other people who ask for it. Because in the 1965 elections, a very strange phenomenon appeared. Before that there were only these two big parties, the Umma Party and the DUP, and the Communist Party, no other parties. Suddenly that year we had the people of the west forming something called Darfur Development Front. We had the people in the Kordofan forming the Nuba Movement. We had the people in the extreme east forming the Beja Movement. We had people in the south forming SANU and the Southern Front. This meant that all these peripheral people who did not coordinate, automatically felt that the limbs which had been rotting, were no more trusting than the central parties representing them. And therefore they had to fight for themselves to get their rights. And this was a start for a regional movement, and in fact in 1968 we came together, the Nuba Movement and the Darfur Development Front and SANU and the Beja, and formed what we called the New Forces Congress. And this New Forces Congress was the force behind me, which made me the leader of opposition. And we were fighting for the regions and we were fighting that one day we may be able to widen it. Because through that you can press the political parties to reform, and if they reform, there is no need. If they don't reform, this will be a nucleus for a new party which will gain support of all the regions as long as it is a party that is not sectarian, but is a party that is really working for the political, daily, living interest of the ordinary people in the rural Sudan who are being neglected, or who have been not properly ruled by the central government. So to summarize, I think the issue, if we want to really solve it, we don't have to look at it in terms of religion, because that will make it more complicated. We in the West have much in common with the South. We were in the New Forces Congress, and I am a Muslim. So religion was out of the question. In Darfur we have people who are Arabs hundred per cent. I am not an Arab hundred per cent, I am not a born Arab at least because even the word Arab is very difficult to define. Is it cultural or is it racial? If it is racial, I am not. Culturally, may be, I am speaking Arabic and I am a Muslim, so I could be an Arab. But still, even if you go to the racial aspect of it. In Darfur, the Fur, the Masalit, Zaghawa who are originally indigenous, and other tribes, and the real Arab tribes, who are real Arabs, we all rallied behind this Darfur Development Front irrespective of our origin, because we felt that this is a common forum that identified our problems, and that we have to stick together to fight together for our problems. This we can enlarge. And then we from Darfur with all Muslims came with our brothers from the south and formed the New Forces Congress. We did not care whether they were Muslims or not. So, I think, if we look at the issue in this way - true, I am a Muslim myself, but I don't agree with the National Islamic Front. I think the Sudan should be a secular country and I would fight for that and would like the people to do it. So it is not only the southerners, who are Christians, that have to fight for their rights. There are Muslims who would fight for their rights as well. Thank you.
