2018-08-15
By Max Larkin, GI Co-editor
The GIG is The Greens arm for international relations, focussing on peace and justice, especially in regions where these are in short supply. They are currently focussing on West Papua, Cambodia, the Nuclear Disarmament process and are looking into how to get involved with Sudan.
This discussion was organized by Vivienne Glance, Australian Greens International Secretary for 2018 and who has been engaged in the Sudanese movement since 2004, and Maureen Boyle, the WA rep for GIG.
Our first presenter was Rafeif Ismail, herself a refugee from Sudan at age 6 and who was a Greens (WA) Senate candidate in 2016 and candidate for Mirrabooka in the 2017 state election. She is a passionate young scholar who has already offered a lot to the Australian community whilst bringing awareness to the strife her people are under in Sudan.
Rafeif firstly outlined the history and politics of Sudan for the largely unaware attendees. She described the successive rise of oppressive governments in Sudan, through a series of coups following independence in 1956; outlining the use of religious law to condemn their people to a life of misery, including lowering the legal age of marriage for girls to 10, bombing non-Islamic communities and the use of chemical weapons on innocent civilians.
The long-running president, and essentially dictator, Omar al-Bashir, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
Rafeif pointed out that Australia is not condemning the dictatorship but in fact continuing trade with the existing Sudanese Government and even letting them open up an embassy in Canberra. In fact, the Australian government is not under any pressure whatsoever to act against the dictatorship and will, if left unchecked, continue to aid in the exploitation of Sudanese people for cheap natural resources.
As an example of the oppression in Sudan, Rafeif related the story of Noura Hussein, who was forced to marry at 16, refused, stabbed her ‘husband’ in self-defence while he was attempting to rape her, and was imprisoned and sentenced to death. There has been a global online campaign to try and save her –at change.org/JusticeforNoura. On 28 June we learned that this campaign had been successful in that Noura’s death sentence had been commuted to five years imprisonment plus a large fine – but the campaign to lift these latest penalties continues. This suggests that the incumbent authorities are susceptible to global campaigns.
Rafeif’s enlightening presentation was followed up by one from Father Samuel Morad Trurkash from the Nuba Mountains. He explained that, though his people were the oldest in Sudan they are also exploited terribly; comparisons can be made to the treatment of indigenous Australians in our own country. The Nuba Mountains are rich in natural resources and the Nuba people have been campaigning for the wealth to be spread and schools, hospitals and general infrastructure to be built as recompense.
The al-Bashir Dictatorship responded with warfare and now these peaceful people live in caves under the threat of airstrikes. The horrors of war are real and they are taking place in Sudan by a government which has no regard for its people but only for the land that they reside on.
Father Samuel made a grim joke about how there are no roads, but that there are no cars to drive on them anyway.
The last speaker was Afeif Ismail, a famous Sudanese poet and writer who was imprisoned more than 20 times for protesting for the rights of his people. Sudanese poets are considered the voice of the nation and Afeif Ismael spoke so strongly that you could feel the intenseness and wisdom of his nation’s spirit.
He spoke of the imprisonment with such strength and sadness that it affected everybody in the room. His story is a sad one but it is hopeful in it’s undertones. He read three very powerful poems for our benefit, to show the disparity, sadness and violence affecting his people in Sudan.
The fact that these three speakers have not given up on their homeland speaks great lengths of the passion they have for their people and desire to help them stay safe by raising awareness internationally of the issues they are facing.
The plight of the Sudanese people is not shown on mainstream media and many wish to ignore this issue but The Greens are a party that is proud to stand up for Human rights in any circumstance, no matter the economics.
If you would like to get involved with the issues facing Sudan or GIG in any way you can:
Contact Maureen Boyle WA GIG rep at maureen.boyle@postgrad.curtin.edu.au
Like the Australian Greens Go Global FB page - https://www.facebook.com/AustralianGreensGoGlobal/
Keep an eye open for events listed in Green Announce, the GWA weekly events newsletter.
Header photo: Father Samuel, Macheel Mekyal Keira and Afeif Ismail.
Text photo: Village in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan. Photo credit: Rita Willaert, Wikimedia Commons