Thursday

28th Mar 2024

Opinion

Sudan asylum decision signals Dutch moral collapse

  • How safe is Sudan, really, given recent massacre and ICC statement? (Photo: Human Rights Watch)

Despite vocal protests by Sudanese refugees in The Hague and an outcry by human rights organisations over a recent decision of the Dutch government to recategorise the asylum status of refugees fleeing genocide in Sudan's Darfur, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile regions, there was no sign of soul-searching in the Dutch population at large, nor in the corridors of power in the European Union.

It was tone-deaf of the Dutch government to have issued its decision in the past weeks, which could lead to deportations, citing the glaring fiction of a much improved security climate in Sudan as its rationale.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, has herself emphatically given the lie to this argument.

The decision also coincided with an earlier, fresh massacre of Darfuri civilians demonstrating against the enduring lethal violence inflicted upon them by state-linked paramilitaries.

The timing of the decision taken by state secretary for justice and security (as well as migration), Ankie Broekers-Knol, is only more painfully myopic, as this past 25 July the death toll of innocents rose considerably in Darfur and more killings have followed since then.

In only a partial accounting of events, over two days in unprovoked attacks, over 80 civilians were killed in Western Darfur and a further nearly 200 more were wounded by the same gunmen from militias allied to and sponsored by the now official and rebranded Janjaweed militia, genocidaires synonymous with mass murder in Darfur, now known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

That members of the RSF brazenly boasted in Arabic language posts on social media of having participated in the very same worst instance of bloodletting in Sudan since the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy peaceful demonstrators during last year's civilian uprising, points to no fear of accountability whatsoever.

This studied ignorance to these cold facts and new body count cannot be overlooked nor can Broekers-Knol formulating policy on the basis of a parallel universe in Sudan that does not correspond to concrete reality, be deflected.

It deserves both scorn and ridicule.

Although the EU was slow to call out the recent killings in Darfur before it issued its condemnation and still propagates the illusion it was merely inter-communal violence, which nullifies the complicity of state actors, Broeker-Knol is only more at contretemps for it.

The key culprit on the ground is the deputy of Sudan's interim Sovereign Council, former arch Janjaweed warlord, human trafficker, and king of Sudan's illicit gold trade, lieutenant-general Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, an unlettered former camel trader of Chadian Arab origin, commonly known by his nomme de guerre, Hemeti.

Hemeti is no less than the commander of the RSF, a force now arguably more powerful than the regular Sudanese Armed Forces.

He is not himself yet formally indicted by the ICC, but he figures prominently in dossiers on the Darfuri genocide in the tribunal, as a self-confessed serial killer and rapist.

Although his uniformed thugs were the primary culprits in the savage government reprisals against unarmed civilian protesters last year in Khartoum and Omdurman, he is now disingenuously rebranding himself as the "defender of the people," and "protector of Darfur."

But Hemeti also boasts of his usefulness to the EU that tacitly empowers him to police the borders of Sudan to prevent African refugees from reaching European shores, which by indirect funding mechanisms has funnelled at least €140m to the RSF for frontier control.

EU money

Hemeti pockets the money and his men regularly rape, torture, and kill the migrants they intercept, and do not otherwise sell off as human chattel in the underground slave trade.

None of this has prevented Broekers-Knol from giving marching orders to Sudanese refugees.

Through the prism of two of the darkest chapters in modern Dutch history, it is only more damning.

Her uninformed decision overlapped not only the recent new slaughters of civilians in Darfur, but also came not long after the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide in former Yugoslavia, the worst genocidal act to take place on European soil since 1945, when a UN Dutch battalion disgraced itself and allowed the slaughter of some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys.

On also this the 76th anniversary of Anne Frank's arrest, this very month, which ensured her cruel fate, the Dutch ministry of justice faces a stark choice over Sudan's refugees - to choose humanity and compassion, or to aid and abet genocide that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, which would disfigure the notion of the Netherlands being one of the more progressive societies on earth, by legitimising a hallucinatory tale that deported Sudanese face no danger.

Anne Frank's ghost, the spirits of the dead in their graves in Srebrenica and Darfur will be watching.

Author bio

Chris Kline is the international spokesman for the chairman of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Abdul Wahid al Nur. He is a former Bloomberg, ABC News, CNN, and Fox News foreign correspondent and war reporter. He is also the Spanish-born grandson of Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno, who liberated the country from Dutch colonial rule.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

What the EU can do for South Sudan - right now

Despite years of conflict, sexual violence, hunger, and corruption, South Sudan is one crisis where a solution may be in sight – and where quick action by the EU could make the difference to help push the country to peace

EU wary over Ukraine weapons in South Sudan

Ukraine, which had signed an EU arms embargo on South Sudan, has since sold attack helicopters used by the government forces in Juba against civilians and hospitals.

Letter

Right of Reply: The EU and Sudan

Concerning the op-ed "Sudan asylum decision signals Dutch moral collapse", we would like to rebut statements made in this article and signal that it contains factual mistakes and misleading statements about the use of EU funds in Sudan.

Feature

Sudanese fleeing violence find no haven in Egypt or EU

Since the cycle of violence started earlier this year in Sudan, more than six million people have been displaced. With increasingly fewer safe areas within the country, thousands have been forced to flee to neighbouring countries — especially Egypt.

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Column

EU's Gaza policy: boon for dictators, bad for democrats

While they woo dictators and autocrats, EU policymakers are becoming ever more estranged from the world's democrats. The real tragedy is the erosion of one of Europe's key assets: its huge reserves of soft power, writes Shada Islam.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us