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Darfuris are advocating a return to the cast-off tribal potentates to solve problems in the war-torn province. (Google photo) |
CAIRO — As diplomacy failed to resolve the five-year old Darfur conflict, Darfuris are advocating a return to the cast-off tribal potentates to solve problems in the war-torn province.
"These are people who could win the trust of their community," Walid Madibbo told the Washington Post on Saturday, July 5.
Madibbo, from the Arab Rizeigat tribe, joined his uncle in organizing a three-day festival to revive the role of tribal leaders in solving problems in the province.
The festival brought together tribal leaders, intellectuals, businessmen and spiritual gurus to discuss local politics and conflict in their region.
"If they connect with the masses, I think they could easily connect with their hearts," Madibbo said.
Spending long afternoons talking easily over glasses of tea, the participants also were given lectures on conflict resolution and the importance of culture in binding the society together.
"We've been promoting the use of traditional methods to solve conflicts," said Henry Anyidoho, the deputy political head of the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan.
"You see all over Africa, where that system is broken, you have problems. Where that system is in place, you have no problems."
Political
Darfuri tribal leaders stressed that the Darfur conflict was sparked by political, not ethnic reasons.
"The problem is between Darfurians and the government, this is not between Arabs and Africans," Abdel Majid Ibrahim Mohamed, a prominent leader of the African Fur tribe, told the Post.
"It's the government that is cooking these things up."
Mohamed said African and Arab tribes in Darfur are socially and historically connected.
"I don't believe in this Arab and non-Arab description. There are Fur married to Arabs, so there's a social interlocking between them."
The Darfur conflict broke out when rebels took up arms against the Khartoum regime accusing it of discrimination.
The UN estimates some 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease in Darfur, a region the size of France.
Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
Up to 2 million have been forced out of their homes in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
"This is not a tribal conflict or ethnic conflict," said Mahmoud Musa Madibbo, the leader of Arab Rizeigat tribe.
"It's a conflict of interests. And we've been living together for 400 years."
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