105 - Sudan - Approaches to Armed Groups Kuol ... - The ICHRP

The material is presented in the context of local traditional values. The strategy of disseminating the
Ground Rules with a high degree of local involvement guaranteed the success of the SPLM/OLS
agreement to create a better environment for relief delivery. The dissemination in this manner is
reassuring to all parties targeted by the programme. The example of such a close engagement
provides a group like the SPLA with an opportunity of enlightenment bound to reduce the level of
human rights abuses especially against the civilian populations.
BACKGROUND OF NORTH-SOUTH RELATIONS
Ethnic and Cultural Dimensions
5. The natural and cultural barriers had limited the interaction between the people of northern and
southern Sudan before the subjection of their country to Turko-Egyptian domination in 1820. The
kind of contact that followed after this major political development laid further strain on the people's
relationship and diminished the opportunities for mutual understanding or cooperation. The Islamic
composition of the northerners encouraged the new Muslim rulers to engage the former in extending
their authority. The regime enjoyed unchallenged power, directed from Khartoum, before the
Mahdist uprising against it started in 1881.
6. In the Turko-Egyptian period, Islam was used to segregate against the non-Muslim southern people
and force many of them into slavery. The Turkish regime, as it was popularly known, was bent on
draining the country of its human and natural resources. Northern and a few foreign traders were
supported by the authorities in Khartoum to organise numerous 'Zeribas' across southern Sudan as
market centres for slaves and other commercial goods extracted from the locality 1 . The exploitation
of the south in this manner continued without respite until the Anglo-Egyptian regime seized power
and ruled the country in the period between 1898 and 1956. This ruling power drew the borders of
modern Sudan and maintained a semblance of unity between its people.
7. The stark racial and cultural dividing lines between the north and the south of the country impelled
the imposition of the Closed Districts policy of the 1940s 2 . The need was felt to protect the more
disadvantaged southern people from any further cultural and economic exploitation by their northern
neighbours. The movement and activities of the northerners in the south were therefore restricted by
law. Christian missionaries, instead, were encouraged to widen their activities among southern
communities. The educational system used English as the medium of instruction and introduced the
teaching of some vernacular languages. The numbers of southern Sudanese who joined the
government during the years that preceded the country's independence were negligible in comparison
to the northern Sudanese who continued to maintain the Islamic and Arabic cultural outlook and
received more benefits from the government's developmental efforts.
The First Civil War
8. The southern Sudanese demanded that special arrangements should be made in the system of rule to
ensure a fair status for the south in the wake of Independence. But the lack of commitment by the
colonial authorities and the indifference of northern politicians towards southern demands triggered
the mutiny of southern troops in Torit garrison in 1955. The accumulation of the following events
agitated public opinion in the south, causing the mutiny to develop into a full-blown civil war:
1 Schweinfurth, George (1873) “The Heart of Africa”, Vol. II, London.
2 Johnson, Douglas (1994) “Nuer Prophets”, Clarendon Press, p. 29.
2