HART signs letter to Theresa May

Recently, HART partnered with several organizations to put together a letter to Theresa May raising concerns over the Khartoum Process and on tackling migration. This is to support UK based Sudanese diaspora groups and to bring to notice the human rights abuses Sudanese people suffer on a regular basis:

The Right Honourable Theresa May MP
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA

20th September 2016

Dear Prime Minister

Re: The Khartoum Process (EU-Horn of Africa Migration Route Initiative)

We write as representatives of the Sudanese diaspora in Britain, from community groups and NGOs across the country. We wish to express our deep concern that the United Kingdom, through its chair role in the European Union-Horn of Africa Migration Route Initiative, otherwise known as the Khartoum Process, will inadvertently finance the same Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries currently terrorising and killing innocent civilians in Sudan. While the Khartoum Process and related instruments, like the Better Migration Management project, aim to address migration and mobility from and through the Horn of Africa, it is vital that these do not contribute to the displacement and human rights abuses which the Sudanese people routinely suffer.

Reports claim that the RSF are being used by the government of Sudan to apprehend migrants crossing Sudanese territory. i Khartoum has never hidden the fact that the RSF is made up of former Janjaweed paramilitaries who ethnically cleansed Darfur of non-Arab ethnic groups, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians and displacing almost half the region’s population of six million people. The RSF’s track record has been exposed in the authoritative report from Human Rights Watch, “Men With No Mercy: RSF Attacks Against Civilians in Darfur, Sudan”ii . Defectors from the RSF recently reported that the Sudanese Vice President, Hassabo Mohammed Abdel Rahman, addressed RSF troops, extorting them to kill any male, and to do “anything they want to the women,” in the vast Jebel Marra area of Darfur, saying “We don’t want anyone there to be alive”.

While the EU has denied that its assistance to Sudan on migration and mobility involves support to the RSF, and we agree that such support is unlikely to be direct, the reality is that cooperation even at a regional level incountry will likely involve working with these partners, as the government relies on the RSF as an instrument of its power, for instance in helping police the country’s borders. There is an inherent risk that funds, equipment, technology or training supplied by the EU will become dual-use and turned both against Sudan’s citizens and against those fleeing through the country’s territory, many of whom often have legitimate claims for Europe’s protection.

The wider concern is that the government of Sudan has become a beneficiary of EU support regarding migration which has already emboldened and legitimised the regime, so undermining efforts to solve Sudan’s internal conflicts via a comprehensive political dialogue. As long as the government of Sudan ethnically cleanses its own citizens, and uses the RSF to do so, thousands of Sudanese will attempt to escape persecution. Instead of a narrow focus on migration, we urge you to please prioritise a commitment to peace-building in Sudan, an area in which the UK has formerly shown true and effective leadership.

If you would like to be in touch about this matter, please contact Olivia Warham MBE at Waging Peace on olivia.warham@wagingpeace.info or 020 3752 5815.

Yours sincerely

Elrayah Hammad Kakki, CEO, Nuba Mountains Peoples foundation
Sallam Tutu, Member of Nuba Mountains Solidarity Abroad in the UK and Northern Ireland
Zaki Samwiil Janguul, Chairman, Nuba Mountains Solidarity Abroad (NMSA) UK and Ireland
Waleed Abdallah, Project Manager, Give Back Project & Plymouth Migrant Communities Forum
Elsadig Elnor, Chairman, Darfur Union in the United Kingdom
Al Hadi Suiam, Chairman, Massalit Community UK & Ireland
Raga Gibreel, Founder, Green Kordofan
Ishag Mekki, Chairperson, Darfur Victims Organisation for Rehabilitation and Relief
Mr Kuwa Bargil, Deputy Chairman, SPLM-N
Kamal Kambal, Activist from Nuba Mountains
Dr Ahmed Idrees, Political activist, Sudanese Medical Doctors Trade Union
Zeinab Kabbashi, President, Beja Corrective Congress
Ezzeldin Gamar Hussain Rahma, HUDO
Ali Abdelatif, Founder, DAAM (Sudanese Diaspora Network Supporting The Pro-Democracy Opposition)
Lucy Thacker, Advocacy Officer, HART
Osman Hamed, General Secretary, Fulani Tribe in the UK Zeinab Kabbashi, President, Popular Front of the United Liberation and Justice
Voice Of Darfur Women
Ibrahim Hashim, Chairperson, Zaghawa Tribe in the UK
Hiber K Mahmoud, TRADO – Tabeldiya Relief and Development Organisation
Ekhlas Ahmed, Founder, Birmingham Sudanese Women’s Group
Mohamed Ishaq Ahmed, Sudanese Darfur Association in Leicester
Ludia Shokia, Nuba Mountains Welfare Association (NMWA)
Hussain Bigera, Darfuri Activist
Gibreel Adam Bilal, Secretary for Media & Spokesperson (JEM)
Dr Ahmed Ibrahim Abdelaziz, Chairman, Tungur Tribe in the UK
Ramah Ahmed Khalil, Sudanese Political Activist & Pro-Democracy Advocate
Suhair Sharif, Founder, NSWA (National Sudanese Women’s Alliance in the Diaspora)
Yassir Baraka, Alliance Sudanese Political Forces (ASPF)
Rehab Jameel, Global Projects & Sustainability Consultant, Sudanese Activist
Dr Abu Amna, Beja Congress Sudan
Ibrahim Haroun, Leicester Sudanese Association
Marwa Ahmed, Sudanese Journalist
The Baroness Cox, House of Lords
Mohamed El Ansari, National Umma Party
Mahgoub Tawer Kafi, Imam
Abdelrasoul Abdelrahman, Chairperson, Tama Tribe in the UK Asia Lessan, Founder, London Sudanese Women’s Group
Hiba Babiker, Member, The Preliminary Committee of Graduates of The University of Khartoum (UK & Ireland)
Olivia Warham MBE, Director, Waging Peace
Rebecca Tinsley, Founder, Article 1

Cc Boris Johnson, Foreign Minister