(source: A mugshot of Omar al-Bashir taken from Girifna Facebook page.)

These government tactics also led to the International Criminal Court arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. Charges of genocide are pending review.

A Geoffrey York article published yesterday in The Globe and Mail, introduced me to a dissident group based in Khartoum called Girifna, which according to their website literally means “we are disgusted” and metaphorically, “we have had enough.” They describe their beginning:

In the evening of October 30, 2009 a group of three friends in Khartoum noticed on the eve of registration day that Sudanese citizens had no information about where to go to register and no national campaigning by the government or civil society groups was taking place. This was a problem, because no registration meant no voting. The group was propelled to start a peaceful quest for change based on a campaign that urges citizens to register so that they have a role in ridding the country of the National Congress Party (NCP) that has ruled for 20 years through a military coup. On the following day the group printed informational brochures urging people to register and they received support from many others who helped with the funding and distribution.

(source: Girifna logo taken from their Facebook page.)

Voter education is Sudan is important, particularly since there has not been any multiparty elections in the country since 1986, so much of the population have never had the opportunity to choosing their government representatives.

High illiteracy rates throughout the country—particularly in outlying regions in the South, Darfur and elsewhere—makes voter education necessary to consider the elections free and fair. With government control of most of the media landscape, popular education like handing out anti-establishment voter education pamphlets (see video below) by Girifna activists is indeed an act of bravery.

(source: Girifna)

In fact, I just copied this from the @girifna titter feed: “2 OF our guys were beaten and arrested by the NCP in Ombada Khartoum and now we r in the police station.” Considering the group is only five-and-a-half months old, a test of their bravery may just be getting started… Solidarity!

Maggie Fick wrote an interesting article from Juba, Southern Sudan after meeting with Girifna members.

The voting period that started on Sunday, April 11 will end in the evening of April 15. Results were scheduled to be released by April 18 but the two-day polling extension may push the results announcement back as well.

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Girifna Soap Advertizement (the photo on the shirt is the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir):

Members of Girifna hand out information pamphlets:

A woman from Lurcuk Payam receives a tetanus vaccination, March 20, 2009. (by David Widgington)

[Montréal, Québec, Canada -1°C] I visited Southern Sudan March/April 2009. It seems like such a long time ago. Reviewing the video footage and photographs I took during my visit, brings me back. Below is my latest video montage of a particular day: March 20, 2009.

This is the day I joined a team of World Vision staff on one of their vaccination programs. We went to Lurcuk Payam in Tonj North County, Warrap State. The one-and-a-half-hour drive along bumpy roads that are inaccessible during the rainy season, took us past clusters of traditional tukul homes and herds of strolling big-horned cows.

We arrived at 11h00 under the shade of the biggest tree that stood outside of the local clinic and borehole well where women come to fetch water. Two vaccinators spent five hours giving innoculations for measles, tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria and tetanus. In all, 276 Lurcuk children are vaccinated and 167 women of childbearing years receive a tetanus vaccine.

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Census and Voter Registration

A Juba resident makes her registration for the Natonal Elections in April 2010, by Bonifacio Taban.

There are prerequisites to conducting a democratic election that include a census of the population to determine who can vote and in which electoral constituency. The Sudan census has been contested by the SPLM and analysed by others.

Citizens are required to add themselves to the voter list during the voter registration process, followed by a verification of the voter list after its publication. The Carter Center provided observers to provide an impartial assessment of the process. Registration of political party lists with their representatives ended yesterday after a seven-day extension. 

Political Campaigning

Once the politicians place themselves inside the arena of an election, democratic principles require than they are able to voice their positions in an election campaign. This is when they can criticize current government practices and provide an alternative approaches to governence that will make the electorate choose them on a ballot. In Sudan, elections campaigning begins on February 13 and ends on April 9, two days before voting begins.

The Sudan Electionnaire is an English/Arabic quiz that will compare you view on 30 debated issues with the positions of the 16 main parties for the upcoming elections. Once the set of questions are completed a ranking shows how your answers match party programmes. A very interesting tool that was released by The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Sudan, the University of Khartoum Institute of Peace Research with funding from the UK Department for International Development.

Media Coverage

Thousands of wind-up and solar-powered blue radios distributed by NDI in Sudan are bringing a dialogue about national issues to isolated communities. (courtesy: National Democratic Institute)

Even before campaigning starts, the media’s role in election coverage is crucial. Radio, television, print, online media and ‘under-the-village-tree’ journalists act as messengers between the voters and those seeking votes. Journalists provide analysis and perspective to the public debate and hold politicians accountable to their proposed platforms and promises as the campaign progresses. They also provide an amplified mouthpeice to citizens wishing to express their opinions to the politicians and other citizens. Sudan Votes, another website affiliated with Sudan Electionnaire, has election reporting resources including a media code of conduct, a Reuters Reporter’s Guide to Election Coverage (.pdf), election broadcast guidelines, and media election process reference material.

Voter Education

Sudan has not held elections in 24 years and a civil war raged in the country for most of those years, so the election process is not well known by the Sudanese. With literacy rates among the lowest in the world (see chart below), particualrly in poorly developed Southern Sudan and Darfur, voter education is a significant challenge if the April elections are to be fair and democratic. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) prepared a Sudan Civic and Voter Education Baseline Study (.pdf) in 2008 with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency.

Electoral System

Typical elections might require the selection of one, two or three representatives. (view a clip, below, of the first presidential election in Afghanistan,  in 2004) In Southern Sudan, each electorate will have twelve (12) representatives to choose from for three levels of government.

Three votes will be cast to select 1) the President of the Republic of Sudan, 2) the President of the Government of Southern Sudan, and 3) the respective State Governor.

North versus South Sudan Statistics (courtesy: Oxfam, UN)

Southern Sudanese will have three votes to cast for each of the following three legislatures: 1) the National Assembly in Khartoum, 2) the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly in Juba, and 3) the State Legislative Assembly in their respective State. Each of the three legislature votes is divided into three components: 1) 60% of the members are elected to represent geographical constituencies at their respective levels, 2) 25% of the seats are to be filled by women members elected by proportional representation from party lists at state level, and 3) 15% of the members are elected by proportional representation also from party lists at the state level.

Considering the above literacy and education rates in Southern Sudan, it will take considerable effort to educate the average electorate about the details of such a complex ballot system.

Ballot Papers

Drafting ballot papers that will allow illiterate citizens to make their selection is a design challenge of mammoth proportions. There are at least sixteen political parties vying for votes in Sudan. Many of the parties are represented on the twelve seperate ballots in the South. Each ballot will have to distinguish each representative from the other, and a ballot will need to quickly depict which seat in which legislative assembly are the representatives seeking election. They elaborate electoral system will all have to be represented visually and comprehensively in a complex election that can confuse experienced literate voters.

Polling Stations

The logistical demands of establishing up to 30,000 polling stations, printing approximately 220 million ballot papers representing the various constituencies, then distributing them—with the ballot boxes and other material—to each of the polling locations is daunting in itself. It is particularly challenging in a country the size of Sudan where lack of basic infrastructure, community remoteness and insecurity can interfere with the most coordinated of efforts.

Sudan’s April 2010 elections may be the most complex elections ever organized. Anywhere. Considering that a self-determination referendum is expected in 2011, one wonders if it would have been more realistic and appropriate to hold a simpler election process. Perhaps it would have been sufficient to elect only the three executive seats: President of the Republic of Sudan, President of the Government of Southern Sudan and Governor of each state. The simplification could have left constituent representative elections for a post-referendum Sudan, which most observers agree will result in a yes vote for independence of the South from the rest of Sudan.

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Watch a video clip by Dominique Morissette of Afghanistan’s first presidential elections held on November 9, 2004. The video is best viewed in full-screen mode.

Local drumist, Ajing Deng beats the drum as the dancers follows along. With him is a very young boy who is also caugh up in the action of drum beating. He is at it at a very young age, but its part of the rich tradition of the Sudanese culture.

International focus moved away from Sudan’s long civil war toward the regional rebellion and government’s genocidal reaction that began in Darfur around 2003. Darfur rebels became active with the objective of being included into the peace talks that resulted with the CPA deal. Unfortunately, they were excluded for reasons that are still not clear to me.

The signing of the CPA initiated a six-year interim period, during which time the central government in Khartoum and the semi-autonomous Government of Southern Sudan are to pass laws that will allow the two regions to coexist. Border issues are to be resolved, oil wealth distribution is to be made equitable, cencus and election legislation is to be passed. According to the CPA, if the two regions are still unable to coexist after the six years, then in 2011, Southern Sudan will hold a self-determination referendum to decide whether or not for independence, creating Africca’s newest independent state.

The 5th anniversary and Sudan’s first democratic, multiparty elections to be held in April 2010 are drawing more attention to the situation in all of Sudan. The myopic, but still important, focus on Darfur is being brought into the fold of the larger and more precarious situation in Southern Sudan, where much of the civil war was fought. If war returns to Southern Sudan, it will consume all of Sudan and the larger region.

One of the symptoms of the resurgent interest in maintaining the CPA in Sudan is Sudan 365, A Beat for Peace. Musicians from around the world (Sudan, UK, Australia, Japan, Brazil, Ireland, Egypt, Rwanda, Spain, Russia, USA, India, and elsewhere), take a video of themselves playing (mostly) percussian instruments that have been edited together in the video below as a single music video. Known artists like Radiohead’s Philip Selway, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, Snow Patrol’s Jonny Quinn, the Police’s Stewart Copeland, have participated.

If you want to add your beat to the melée, you just need to upload your peace beat. It’s time to get the drums out and call your friends!

Al Jazeera’s Inside Story asks if Sudan’s elections can take place on time without a reform to the electoral laws. In this episode, aired yesterday, (Tuesday Dec. 8, 2009) included a discussion with:

• Abdelwahab El-Affendi Senior Research Fellow at the University of Westminster Centre for the Study of Democracy who was in London England;
• Rabie Abdul Atti, Advisor to Sudan’s Ministry of Information who was in Khartoum, Sudan; and
• Ali Al Haj Mohamed, the Deputy Secretary General of Sudan’s Popular Congress Party who was in Bonn, Germany.

A state of mistrust between the partners for peace currently ruling Sudan has put the old North/South rivals back on a collison course. Three senior leaders of the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) were briefly held on Monday in a police crackdown against opposition protests which demanded changes to the country’s electoral law.

Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, condemned the arrests, saying they broke the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 that ended a devastating 22-year civil war between North and South. Police had announced that the electoral reform demonstrations would be considered illegal. However, several hundred opposition protesters marched through the streets of Khartoum and Omdurman, waving placards and chanting: “We want our freedom.”

The SPLM and the ruling NCP of Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, have failed to agree on democratic reforms ahead of elections next April.

During a 7-week visit to Southern Sudan, I interviewed over a dozen Southern Sudanese men and women. Each person offers an intimate view of their lives during the 21-year civil war and since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005. We get a glimpse into their family lives and their hope for a country with an uncertain future.

Alberto, tells about his education first in a Minor Seminary in Kenya, then in a Major Seminary in Khartoum toward his vocation of becoming a priest. He offers a glimpse into the family structure and community influence of being the son of the 19th wife of an Executive Chief. His hopes for a continued peace are revealed as are his willingness to take up arms should an unjust war return to Sudan.

Interview recorded in within the International Organization for Migration compound in Malualkon, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Southern Sudan. the street scenes were filmed from the front passenger seat of an IOM vehicle in the town of Aweil. The photographs were taken during various visits to various villages in Northern Bahr el Ghazal in  March 2009.

Special thanks to everyone at the Malualkon office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and to the villagers in the area who shared their stories with me during my visit.

For other videos from Southern Sudan visit the Video/Audio page.

To end Abdelrazik’s ordeal, he needed travel documents from the Canadian government to allow him to fly home. After months of refusing to provide Abdelrazik with these documents, a Canadian Federal Court Judge ordered the Canadian Government on June 4, 2009, to “issue [Abousfian Abdelrazik] an emergency passport in order that he may return to and enter Canada” and to “arrange transportation for [Mr. Abdelrazik] from Khartoum to Montreal, Canada such that he arrives in Canada no later than 30 days from the date hereof.”

In his story, Abdelrazik tells how he was twice arrested and imprisoned, why he took sanctuary inside the Canadian Embassy (much to the embassy’s consternation), and when he was put on the United Nations 1267 no-fly list by the United States.

For more details about his story, visit Peoples Commission Network website.

The video below is a ten-minute condensation of his presentation, in his own words, of the lengthy ordeal at the hands of Canadian, American and Sudanese intelligence agencies that left him in forced exile in Sudan for six years.

I’m starting a few video series from the footage from Southern Sudan. You may have already viewed the first in the portrait series: Video Portrait #1. Well below is the first in another series of one-minute shorts that mix footage I recorded in Southern Sudan with archival audio from the Prelinger Archive. Rick Prelinger, the founder of the archive was in Montréal recently during the 38th edition of Montréal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma (FNC).

I plan on posting as much of the video footage from the Southern Sudan trip with the new understanding that it will provide an important archive of the region during its post-war six-year interim period. A slice of it anyway. There is not much footage from the South and even less that contains opinions, hopes, concerns of the people who actually live there. I was lucky to have access to many people. I managed to interview dozens of people. Some spoke English while others shared their perspectives in their local dialect as expressed to me through an interpreter.

The video below, is my first within the Burning Billboard/Prelinger Archive series. The series will juxtapose ideas of a postwar consumer society with the simplicity of postwar footage from Southern Sudan.

I remember watching Riz Khan talking with Mogadishu rapper K’naan about Somalia (part 1, part 2). K’naan lives in Toronto now but I don’t I recall any Canadian media produce this kind of serious political analysis, an in-depth interview with an insightful rapper, including questions taken from the viewership. I was exhilarated by the show and tuned in nightly during my brief stays in Juba then again in Wau.

I remember watching an Inside Story episode on China’s questioning the value of the US dollar (part 1, part 2). A quick search online found one Canadian reference to the story in the National Post, two months after Al Jazeera’s Inside Story.

Another show, I watched on a regular basis was Witness with its host, Rageh Omaar. Before joining Al Jazeera, he worked as developing world correspondent for the BBC. His latest television report: America’s New Frontline: Diplomats or Warriors (see four-part series videos below) focuses on the American military command in Africa or Africom. Africom was “the culmination of a 10-year thought process within the Department of Defense (DoD)” and established on February 6, 2007 by President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. They were “acknowledging the emerging strategic importance of Africa” and needed to establish a U.S. Africa Command on the continent.

In part four of the series, Rageh Omaar discusses Africom’s role in pushing Operation Lightning Thunder, a massive assault on the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) along the borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Southern Sudan, beginning in December 2008. This is after peace talks in Juba are stalled after LRA leader, Joseph Kony, refuses to leave the bush to sign an agreement. Operation Lighting Thunder failed to capture Kony and scattered the rebel cult/army, comprised mainly of abducted child soldiers. An unfortunate side-effect of the assault’s failure are the LRA’s reprisal killings in the Congo, and Southern Sudan. Recent attacks in Western Equatoria State, Southern Sudan by LRA rebels have left many dead and forced up to 100,000 people to leave their villages in fear for their lives.

The Witness series provides an opportunity to review recent US policy with an approach unavailable in North American media. I will certainly continue to watch Al Jazeera as part of my information regime.

America’s New Frontline: Diplomats or Warriors – Part 1

America’s New Frontline: Diplomats or Warriors – Part 2

America’s New Frontline: Diplomats or Warriors – Part 3

America’s New Frontline: Diplomats or Warriors – Part 4

During a 7-week visit to Southern Sudan, I interviewed about a dozen Southern Sudanese men and women. Each one offers an intimate view of their lives during the 21-year civil war and since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005. We get a glimpse into their family lives and their hope for a country with an uncertain future.

Interview recorded in Warrap Town, and roving footage from back of motorbike recorded in Wau (March 2009).

Thanks to Martin Peter Siba Mungu for the tour of Wau from the back of his motorcycle.

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For other videos from Southern Sudan visit the Video/Audio page.