Sudan official to ask clerics advice on Darfur blood money issue

The chairman of the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA) disclosed he will ask clerics’ advice (fatwa) about the blood money issue going on in Darfur, which he said is being imposed at gunpoint and not according to traditional methods. Dr. Tijani Sese made the announcement during the Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees conference held in Nyala, South Darfur, on Monday and Tuesday.Insurgents have become encouraged to demand increasingly more blood money (diyya) from residents in Darfur, Sese said, disclosing he would request clerics’ advice on how to deal with the issue. He did not specify who these insurgents are.In Sudan, a designated clerics’ committee is responsible for providing advice on anything related to the sharia law. President Omar Al Bashir also resorts to fatwa on, for example, traveling overseas.Sese also claimed war has become a source of prosperity in Darfur and that some “warlords” benefit from the increasing prices of fuel and sugar.  Monopoly Merchants often complain to Radio Dabanga that high-ranking officers of the Sudanese security services control the distribution of goods delivered in Darfur, especially sugar, flour and fuel, a source said.This generates much financial benefits to these officers who withhold large amounts of commodities and resell them for high prices or upon the payment of bribes, in line with reports.In other occasions, security services elements accuse traders of holding monopoly on certain products they may have in stock “which lead to prices’ increase”. In order not to be taken to court, merchants say they end up paying them bribes. Record levelsRadio Dabanga has been receiving frequent reports about militias imposing exorbitant amounts of blood money on displaced persons of Darfur, which have reached record levels recently.Many of these incidents are reported to be forged, with sources affirming that militias falsely accuse displaced of killing cows, camels or people and force them to pay blood money.According to the sharia law, families of murder victims may decide to accept diyya or to have the perpetrator of the crime sentenced to death.Diyya amounts should normally vary between 20 million and 30 million Sudanese pounds (when a person was killed by mistake or on purpose, respectively), a source explained.However, Radio Dabanga recently reported that at the moment blood money amounts vary between 100 million and 375 million (correspondingly in Saraf Jidad and in Murnei, both in West Darfur).File photo: 25 March 2013. Nyala: Chairman of the Darfur Regional Authority, Tijani Sese, delivers his speech at the Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees Conference in the Koral Hotel in Nyala, South Darfur (Albert González Farran/ UNAMID)Related:Impressions of Darfur displaced, Sudan figures in Nyala summit aftermath (27 March 2013)‘Mass demonstration’ in W Darfur camp against militias’ ‘abuses’ (26 March 2013)