is now to be shattered by the Arabs’ purging of the Africans and of their “wrong religions” and “wrong ethnic” ties. This “cleansing” is obviously supported by the regime. It puts an end to the conflict resolution mechanisms that the various ethnic groups had so successfully employed in the era prior to the creation of the nation of the Sudan.18 The regime in the north was able to sit back and relax, while the uncontrollable violence (or so it was made to seem) was being unleashed against the civilians in the south. To put the situation in a nutshell: the regime in Khartoum opened the hunting season upon these civilians.19
In the course of our talks in the refugee camp in Boro, we meet large number of eyewitnesses to the assaults carried out by the Sudanese army and by their paramilitary allies. A number of women from the village of Dafak report having been the objects of a bombardment carried out on May 12, 2007 by the Sudanese air force. This attack forced the women to flee.
A 25 year old woman and her four children have fled. They arrived at the camp only 25 days ago. They belong to the Meziriyah group, and lived in the village of Jokan, which is located in the county of Buram. Mariam and her family departed from their village on the night of the first Monday in the first week in January. She reports that her village was attacked in the night. “They came late in the evening. They were on foot and in cars. They shot most of the villagers, and then burned the village down. We had no one to help us. I took my children and ran away. The attackers shot at me.” We asked her if she could describe the attackers in more detail. She said that they wore green uniforms with insignia of rank, and, as well, dark blue caps. The particular targets of their attacks were the Zaghawa, a African ethnic group. The assault had robbed the woman of her 30 livestock and all of her stores of grain. Shortly after our interview with this woman, we were able to speak to her eight year old daughter. The child remembered running away at night, with her mother holding her hand. She also recalled hearing shots.
Several days subsequently, on January 18, 2008, the village of Malaaka, which is located in the vicinity of Rudom, was reportedly attacked. We learn of the assault from another young mother. She fled, along with her three children, from the village to the camp. The woman states that the Janjaweed had attacked the village in the early morning. As she says: “They came at three in the morning. I heard their shooting. I put one of my children on my back and one on my chest. I grabbed the hand of the third one. And we ran away.” The woman later learned of her brother’s having been shot in his chest.
Eyewitness accounts constitute important evidence. They will thus form part of the report that we will submit to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations on the ongoing violations of human rights by both the militia and by the Sudanese army.
*
What is putting the salt in the region’s drinking water? Our search for answers starts in the Thar Jath oil field. We fly on February 12, 2008 from Raga to Leer, which is where we set up our new camp. It serves as our base for our research into the source of the contamination of water. On our day of arrival, we travel from Leer to Adok, which is a port on the Nile. It is a transport node. It joins the roads coming from the oil fields with the waterway to the north. An excellently-maintained (at least until Bentiu), all-weather gravel road links Adok to Bentiu, the capital of Sudan’s Unity state. This road makes the oil fields easily accessible. The previous residents of the area have had to pay a high price for the building of this road. Lundin Oil is based in Sweden. In 2000, the company was undertaking sample drilling in the region. Lundin Oil lodged at the time a complaint with the Khartoum regime: the bad roads found in its region of concession would cause delays in its operations. Conducted during the dry season, the next campaigns waged by the regime’s troops were against the population in the area. Their settlements stood in the way of the construction of the road. The region was thus efficaciously “cleansed” for this purpose. Tens of thousands of people were either killed or forced to flee. Their villages were destroyed.20 In 2003, Human Rights Watch submitted a nearly 600 page report on the relationships among these events, and on the causes of the civil war in Sudan.21 Our enjoyment of this road—after all the bumpy trails that we had been forced to endure—and of the speed it enabled thus gave us a strange feeling.
We proceed on the following morning along the road to the Thar Jath oil field, in which the contamination of the environment was said to exist. We travel northwards down the broad road, enjoying the overwhelming views of absolutely unspoiled nature. The area on whose edge we are now traversing is one of the world’s largest contiguous wetlands. The Nile’s dividing itself into rivulets whose currents are scarcely perceptible has created a huge delta. With its actual size depending on the amounts of rainfall and of water conveyed from the lake serving as the source of the Nile, these wetlands—the “Sudd”—covers an area of up to 5.7 million hectares. This is the size of Belgium. During the dry season, herders let their large herds of cattle and goats graze in the meter-high grass growing on the fertile ground. The diversity of fauna existing in this gigantic habitat of marsh and flood plain has been compared by experts to that of the Serengeti.22 Birds decked out in the brightest colors imaginable accompany us on our way. A bald eagle perches directly on the road. Species of birds unknown to us—each more colorful than the one previously—join a lizard about a meter long that is lying bored in the blindingly hot sun in imparting an interesting impression of the diversity found in the region.
In conjunction with the international Ramsar Convention,23 the Sudd was incorporated on World Environment Day into the list of wetlands of worldwide importance.24 This made the Sudd the second habitat in Sudan to be accorded this honor, which was conferred in an official ceremony staged in Khartoum. This honor was due to the exceptional importance of these wetlands, which are the fourth largest in the world. The Sudd fulfills all of the criteria foreseen for being conferred such a classification. These criteria are laid down in the Ramsar Convention.25 The awarding of the status of being a protected area—as narrowly defined—does not, however, ensue from this incorporation. The Sudd’s protection is the responsibility of the Sudanese government, which is now called upon to create an appropriate body of rules and control mechanisms.26
The Sudd is gigantic. It is comprised of a variety of ecosystems, with these including open water and its underwater vegetation; floating vegetation found on the edges of expanses of water; classic marshes; woods flooded on a seasonal basis; grass hollows irrigated by rain and by floods; meadows; and bush brush. The Sudd is the winter home of species of birds whose protection is of both regional and of international importance. They include the white pelican, whose wings can attain a span of up to 3.6 meters, white storks, crowned cranes and sea swallows. The wetlands are full of plants, fish, birds and mammals. The latter include the endangered Mongalla gazelle, the eland, the African elephant, and the shoe bill stork. Giant herds of peripatetic mammals subsist upon the grass growing in the wetlands during the dry season.27
Recently-compiled scientific studies help get a grasp of the biodiversity found in this region. In 2007, the regime in Southern Sudan and the USA-based Wildlife Conservation Society jointly published and presented at inventory—the first compiled in 25 years—of the biodiversity found in Southern Sudan. One of the American researchers involved reported that his first encounter with this richness of flora and flora left him rubbing his eyes.28 “I thought I was hallucinating,” he told the New York Times.29 The researchers’ counts were extrapolated to yield a total of nearly 1.5 million gazelles and antelopes. Among the latter: healthy populations of white-eared kobs, which are found only in this region and in Uganda. The researchers took to the air to observe closely-packed herds of animals covering an expanse of 80 kilometers in length and 50 kilometers in breadth.30 Sighted in the region were even the oryx antelopes, which had been regarded as being extinct in this area, along with herds of elephants, giraffes, lions and leopards.31 Crocodiles and hippopotamuses throng the region’s lagoons and lakes.32
The civil wars in Mozambique and Angola allowed poachers to all but wipe out the wild animals. The researchers thus approached their expedition to Sudan with grave trepidations.33 The animal population found in northwestern area of Southern Sudan turned out in fact to have been ravaged by poachers. This was also the case in Boma national park,
