Special Session of the Inter-Ministerial Committee of the

African Union on the Crisis in Darfur

19th to the 20th of March, 2009
Sham el Sheik, Egypt

Ministerial Brief
Introduction

The region of Darfur that is the centrepiece of the Inter-ministerial Committee of the African

Union is located in the West of the Republic of the Sudan. Historically for several hundreds of

years, Darfur was an independent Sultanate but was later incorporated into the Sudan by

Anglo-Egyptian forces. Darfur is governed as a federation on an interim basis by the

Transitional Darfur Regional Authority (TDRA) which coordinates three federal states namely;

the state of West Darfur, the state of South Darfur, and the state of North Darfur. The TDRA

exercises authority over an area of 493,180 square kilometres, a vast territory that has an

equivalent size to that of the Republic of France. The TDRA was established after the signing

of the Darfur Agreement that gave it an interim authority in the region in the run up to a

referendum on autonomy for Darfur that is to be held no later than 2011. The current

chairperson of the authority is Minni Arcua Minnawi who is the leader of the largest faction of

the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA).

The crisis in the Darfur has seen the region remain in a state of humanitarian emergency since

the year 2003 when a rebellion begun against the Arab-dominated Sudanese central

government, with the two key Darfur rebel groups; the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)

and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLA). The rebels accused the government of

neglecting the Darfur region and oppressing non-Arab Sudanese in favour of Arab Sudanese.

The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army is a nation-wide, multi-ethnic and secular Sudanese

opposition party, whose principle objective is the creation of a free, secular and democratic

State in Sudan. The party’s principles are based on equal civil rights, the rule of law, and

market economy.

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The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) is a rebel group that is led by Khalil Ibrahim.

Similarly to the SLM/A, the JEM is fighting against the Sudanese government. The JEM is also

a member of the Eastern Front, a defunct rebel coalition formerly active in the east of Sudan

along the Eritrean border. However, the JEM lost access to its funding from Eritrea when the

Eastern Front signed a peace deal with the central government in Khartoum.

In early 2006, the JEM declared a merger with the SLM and went ahead to form the Alliance of

Revolutionary Forces of West Sudan along with other rebel groups. However, in direct regard

to peace talks, the JEM and SLM negotiated as separate groups with the central government in

May 2006. The SLM/A agreed to a draft peace agreement with the central government

however, a splinter faction of the SLM, refrained from signing the agreement. The agreement

between the main SLM faction led by Minni Arcua Minnawi and the central government was

signed in Abuja, Nigeria on 5th May 2006..

The crisis in Darfur came to light in 2005 with the release of a United Nations report which

claimed that mass murder and rape was taking place in Darfur. However, the report did liken

the reported atrocities to genocide but claimed that they were being carried out by a state

sponsored militia known as the Janjaweed.

The Janjaweed are armed militia who were originally found in Darfur alone but have since

expanded their activities to eastern Chad as well. The Janjaweed are nomadic Arabic-speaking

African tribes and are essentially Afro-Arabs in nature. Since break out of the rebellion in 2003,

the Janjaweed have been one of the key players in the Darfur conflict in favour of the central

government. The Janjaweed, supported unofficially by the central government are currently

engaged in conflict against the JEM and the SLA.

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The Creation of the Crisis in Darfur

The situation in Darfur is one that has a very complex ethnic reality. A general westernised way

of looking at the conflict as generated by the news media is, a war between Arabs and

Africans. Darfur as has been said is divided intro three ethnic zones. The northern zone

includes Arab and non-Arab, mainly Zaghawa who are camel nomads. The central zone is

inhabited by non-Arab sedentary farmers such as the Fur, Masalit and others who are farmers

and in the south zone; the inhabitants are Arabic-speaking cattle nomads known as the

Baqqara.

One of the root causes of the present crisis can be traced back to the 1980s, when Darfur

suffered prolonged droughts that in turn accelerated the desertification of northern and central

Darfur. This natural phenomenon led to the pressure on water and grazing resources as the

camel nomads were forced to move southwards. Early conflicts over water resources were

either settled with spears or through mediation, however, modern day conflict of a similar

nature proved difficult to settle with the existence of modern day illicit weaponry.

The situation became serious when the-then government in 1980’s gave arms to the Arabic-

speaking cattle nomads, the Baqqara, of southern Darfur to defend themselves against the

Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA). However, the-then government’s short sighted

solution facilitated insecurity when the Baggara turned their government issued weapons on

the Fur, Masalit and others. The SPLA also contributed to the crisis when it tried to open a front

in southern Darfur. With all these developments, the Arab tribal militias first called Murahilin but

now commonly referred to as Janjaweed, began to get out of control.

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The ethnicization of the conflict has grown more rapidly with the injection of an ideological and

some-what racist dimension to the conflict that has seen the parties to the conflict defining

themselves as either "Arab" or "Zurq" (black). Further to that, the racial attitudes and

dimensions traditionally directed toward slaves have been redirected towards the sedentary

non-Arab communities of Darfur. The dimensions in regard to race comes to the forefront in

numerous aid agency reports of rape and mass killings that are supposedly supported by the

central government. Other speculations list the end goal of the conflict as ‘a possible oil

pipeline through Darfur’’.

Since the crisis begun, the rebellion has created a situation that has led to the displacement of

an estimated 2.5 million people. International agencies have accused the Government of the

Sudan of suppressing information and tampering with evidence related to proving that the

conflict in Darfur is in fact “genocide”.

The Crisis in Darfur

The Republic of the Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statute thus the International Criminal

Court (ICC) does not have jurisdiction in the Sudan to investigate crimes that may or may have

not taken place in Darfur. This can however be bypassed with a direct request in the form of a

referral on a question or case from the UN Security council to the ICC, a request that is

submitted under Article 13.b of the Rome Statute.

In March 2005, the United Nations Security Council formally referred the case of the situation in

Darfur to the Prosecutor of the ICC and it stood seized on the matter of the report of the

International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur that was authorized by UN Security Council

Resolution 1564 of 2004. The permanent members of the Security Council made it known that

the authorization remained general and did not mention of any specific crimes. In a follow up to

this, the chief ICC prosecutor in a fourth report to the Security Council, found reasonable

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grounds to believe that the individuals identified in the UN Security Council Resolution 1593

had committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, but did not find sufficient evidence to

prosecute the implicated personalities on any counts of genocide.

In early 2007 the United Nations officially levied accusations against the Government of the

Sudan's. The accusations included the alleged orchestrating and taking part in what the UN

termed as "gross violations" in Darfur. In a follow up to this, the UN issued an international

appeal for action to be taken to protect civilians in the region. In August 2006, the United

Nations Security Council through Resolution 1706, called for a 26,000 UN peacekeeping force

designated as UNAMID to supplement the already deployed 7,000 African Union Mission in

Sudan peacekeeping force.

In April 2007, Judges of the ICC issued arrest warrants against militia leaders as well as senior

Government officials of the Republic of the Sudan, namely; the former Minister of State for the

Interior, Ahmed Haroun, and the Janjaweed Militia leader, Ali Kushayb. The warrants were

based on the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In July 2008, in a follow up to international pressure, prosecutors at the International Criminal

Court (ICC) filed ten charges of war crimes against The President of the Republic of the

Sudan's, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir. The charges filled were; three counts of genocide,

five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. The prosecutors pushed for further action

and requested the issuance of an arrest warrant for the accused. The issuance of the warrant

in March 2009 is likely to further complicate the crisis in Darfur.

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Simulating the Inter-Ministerial Committee of the African Union on the Crisis in Darfur, Special
Session to be held at Sham el Sheik, Egypt on the 19 th and the 20th of March 2009.

The Inter-ministerial Committee of the African Union on the Crisis in Darfur shall be a two day

simulation event that shall be run at the Ministerial level. Member States of the African Union

have been invited to send their relevant external (foreign) relations ministers to the special

session that shall be hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Egypt at the

sea side holiday resort of Sham el Sheik.

The special session on the crisis in Darfur shall be directed by the Bureau of the Inter-

Ministerial Committee in accordance with the Ministerial level structures, roles, and functions of

the said committees. The Special Session shall implement all previously adopted decisions

including the decision session to adopt Model United Nations Rules of Procedure that was

made by the Inter-Ministerial Committee of the AU at its immediate previous sitting.

The special session shall have a Council of Ministers that shall act as a General Assembly and

shall be the supreme decision making body. Subordinate to the Council of Ministers shall be

the Technical Committee on Politics and Security and the Specialized Committee on

Humanitarian Affairs.

Each member state of the African Union shall send a maximum number of two accredited

ministerial level delegates with preference from external relations, security and humanitarian

affairs dockets.

The direction of debate during the special session shall be done by the Bureau of the Inter-

Ministerial Committee. The shall comprise of;

 The President of the Council of Ministers

 Vice Presidents of the Council of Ministers

 1 Rapporteur

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  1 Chief of Protocol

NB: In line with the norms and regulations of an Inter-Ministerial Bureau of the African Union,

all the members of the Bureau hold the Rank Minister or its recognized Equivalent.

The 4 Vice Presidents of the Council of Ministers are drawn from any of the listed Economic

Groupings of the African Union;

1. The Arab Maghreb Union (UMA)

2. The Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD)

3. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

4. The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS)

5. The Intergovernmental authority on Development (IGAD)

6. The East African Community (EAC)

7. The Common Market for Eastern & Southern Africa (COMESA)

8. The Southern African Development Community (SADC)

Accreditation and Registration

Accreditation and Registration of delegates shall be carried out by the Inter-Ministerial Protocol

and Liaison Service. All credentials should be submitted to the Protocol and Liaison Service

before the 17th of March, 2009 and should bear the following address;

Inter-Ministerial Committee of the African Union on the Crisis in Darfur

Accreditation and Registration Department,

The Executive Council of the African Union – Extraordinary Events Section

Téléphone : + 159-1-300483/300435

13 Salah Salem street

Fax : + 159-1-300479

Sham El Sheik

E-mail : sct.ciua@tvcabo.co.eg