Moving the mountains
Nuba people evicted to ‘peace villages’ as civil war continues.

The Sudanese Government is continuing its policy of ‘cleansing the mountains’. This is a euphemism for moving tens of thousands of people from their homes in the Nuba Hills and sending them to so-called ‘Peace Villages’.

Escapees from these villages say that men were forced to join Government militias or become farm labourers, and women were sent to work as unpaid servants in the North of the country. Some young boys have been sold as slaves. A reporter travelling in Nuba country recently saw ‘dozens if not scores of burnt-out and flattened villages’.

There is also evidence that the Government is expelling Nuba from Khartoum and other cities and sending them to ‘Peace Villages’ against their will. This development marks a new twist in the ‘cleansing’ campaign. Many

Nuba moved to the cities in the first place because they had been driven from their lands. Those who have managed to remain in the Hills often find themselves working as labourers on their own land, which has been ‘sold’ by the authorities.

For years the Nuba Hills have been forcibly cut off from the outside world. No food, medicine or humanitarian agencies have been allowed into the region, except for Islamic agencies supported by the regime, which aim to proselytize among the Nuba. Two-thirds of the Nuba are Muslim and the other third mainly Christian, but these faiths overlap with older regional religious practice.

In January 1992 the Governor of Kordofan and the head of the pro-Government militia declared a Jihad (Holy War) against the Nuba. This was followed by a Fatwa (Islamic Decree) by prominent local Imams which justified the killing of the Nuba by describing them as ‘infidels’. The Arab nomads of Kordofan, who have also been badly affected by the seizure and ‘sale’ of land, have been incited against their Nuba neighbours.

In November 1994 the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Sudan, Dr Gaspar Biro, repeated allegations of serious human-rights violations in the Nuba Hills. His written report was published on 14 February 1995 and indicates a further deterioration in the conditions of the Nuba.

It appears that the Sudanese Government is collaborating with local authorities who want to depopulate the area and help themselves to its rich agricultural land.

Aidan Rankin/Survival International

Deathly silence
As the conflict between the Turkish Government and the Kurdish opposition continues, journalists are falling victim to the violence. In 1992-94, 32 Turkish journalists and other media employees, most working for pro-Kurdish newspapers, were murdered. More than 100 Kurdish and Turkish journalists and writers are currently imprisoned, many of them for active advocacy of a political solution to the conflict. Eastern Anatolia has become too dangerous for foreign journalists. There is a growing tendency in Turkey to blame foreign sources for the strife – articles by foreign observers are widely perceived as hostile and destructive.

Source: World Press Review Vol 42 No 3

DAVID RANSOM

Enough
Stung by the criticisms of the ‘50 Years is Enough’ (FYE) campaign (see NI 257) the World Bank has issued a point-by-point rebuttal. On the question of ‘structural adjustment’ the Bank remains adamant, claiming that among the countries that ‘have begun to enjoy benefits associated with the successful implementation of appropriate economic policies’ is Mexico – a country which has been experiencing such a sudden and severe economic crisis that the ripple-effect threatens to destabilize the world’s financial institutions.

David Ransom

Sky’s the limit
The Cameroon Government has opened Africa’s first ozone-monitoring office and pledged to phase out the use of chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) which damage the earth’s ozone layer. Without denying the global problem of ozone depletion, it is still somewhat puzzling why Cameroon should be prioritizing it. An average Cameroonian annually consumes a tiny 8.7 grams of CFCs per head. With more than half the population lacking access to health services, locals are wondering what the fuss is all about. Environmental activists are pointing out that the Government would do better to stop the rapid commercial logging of forests. Citizens of Yaoundé, the capital, want to know why, when the Government claims to have no money to clear the garbage which threatens to engulf the city, it is launching a media campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of ozone depletion.

Source: Ndikum Patrick Tanifom/Gemini

Poor showing
Longtime NI contributors Mari Marcel and Stan Thekaekara have put together a widely praised report – Across the Geographical Divide – on the poor in Britain. The pair were flown in from the Nilgiris in South India to visit the housing estates of Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow. What they saw shocked them. Despite noting that poor people in Britain seemed to be better off than their Indian counterparts, they found that in Britain poverty often meant decades of unemployment and the increased loss of skills and initiative which was very different from the Indian experience. They were most struck by the demoralization amongst Britain’s poor.

The report is available from Directory of Social Change, 24 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2DP.
Tel: (+) 171 209 5151 at a cost of £10 (plus £2.50 p&p).

Complaints - Women aged 25 to 50 top number: % singles bottom number: % in a stable relationship

Germany is the Lonely Hearts capital of Europe with 12 million single Germans in search of a partner. Lonely Hearts adverts spill out of almost every newspaper and magazine at a rate of an estimated 100,000 a week. And that does not include all the radio and television spots and e-mail messages. Lonely Hearts parties organized by the group Fisch sucht Fahrrad (Fish seeks bicycle – from the feminist joke that a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle) are taking place across the country, drawing over 1,000 single people each time. They may be on the right track. A survey by German magazine Bunte has found that single women report higher levels of ill-health than women in stable relationships – with the perhaps obvious exceptions of insomnia and backache.

Petar Hadji-Ristic/Gemini

Kash