An Egyptian soldier on his way to Darfur
Egypt plays a pivotal role in Darfur crisis; it is crystallized in the attempt of Egypt to solve the crisis peacefully and settle the differences between the parties in conflict so as to stop bloodshed and prevent the foreign interference in the Sudanese affairs, thus, maintaing the unity of Sudan.
When I first met A. Sultan, it was difficult to get him to talk about anything other than his longing for a girlfriend. He was like a child wanting a toy, so strong was his belief that once he had one, he would be happier.
He told me he was going to train for Darfur when I first met him, but it never quite seemed real. This skinny kid with glasses? Someone I partied with? Someone who was too nice to correct my Arabic?
His attempts at womanizing annoyed me, but I still wanted to talk to him. He promised to give me an interview before he left, and this is it.
A. was suddenly sincere and insightful, but he retained that childish quality that made me simultaneously irritated by and reluctant to shatter his faith in fictional things.
How did you end up joining the miltary?
Thousands of thousands of students when they finish they should go to do their national service. The military, they choose. If they need translators, they take all the translators. Well this year, unfortunately, they need translators. They need A LOT of translators. They need them in the military hotels, in the military information center in Nasr City, and, of course, for the UN. They send them with the UN troops. I’ll be a translator with the peacekeepers.
They took this year like 50 translators…to Darfur this year…there will be in the streets and in the UN bases.
I’ll take 35 days training with the Egyptian military, which is basic, and I’ll take another 45 days training with the UN in Swiss.
Do you know what you will learn in the training?
In the Egyptian training they teach you like how to wake up early, how to tie your clothes, how respect your bosses. If I’ll be in the streets with the UN with the peacekeepers, of course they’re going to teach me how to use guns, because I have to to protect myself. In the Egyptian training they teach us how to use guns like three times. They don’t teach you how to use guns properly.
What was the intiation like? Did they make you sign oaths?
Of course we sign. And they show us it’s like a choice, you can choose to be, but actually no, you have to. And you have to go any-fucking-where they say, and that’s why I’m mad at them.
So they were somewhat deceptive?
Well, you can not really judge the military. You cannot really say something about it, because many, many people have a view about it. When you go there you find something totally different, and then you go outside and tell your friend about the military: “I saw that.”
Do you remember how you first found out you were going?
It was terrible because we were around 4,000, 4,000 people in this thing! Imagine like 4,000 and a guy came up with a microphone and he announced the year, and he said “87…all don’t have to go.”
And everyone was really happy— imagine 4,000 shouting— and then he said “but the translators English, French, Hebrew, and Russian…”
Around 250 to get in the military this year from the Haram military base. It was really sad to see you’re all going 4,000, and then only 250, and you’re one of them. And all the people left.
Who did you first tell that you were going to have to go?
My father, he called me. He showed me that he’s happy, but he’s not. And they told us in the same day to come over next week. And they took our IDs and like every half an hour a soldier came and let some people go, make some people leave, until we became like 100. And then he told me this 100 will go to Darfur. So I was really upset.
What information did you get about Darfur before you knew you were going to go?
Nothing…what they say in the news that’s all. Really they don’t tell us what’s happening here and why it’s the problem. You just show up. . of course in the training they’re going to tell us what is the situation there.
It’s not that really bad because some countries it’s a lot worse. In like Israel, women have to go to the military. All the people they train them in guns and fighting, not like here. Here they teach you the thing that you will do in the year, like you could be a translator in the hotel.
How will you communicate with people at home while you’re there?
I will have some holidays, of course. I’ll have six months here ‘cause it’s a year so I’ll spend six months in Darfur.
Do they let you bring your cell phone or anything?
Nothing. In the training, nothing. We don’t have to bring anything, even MP3 player. Well, after that, maybe you could have MP3 player after the 45 days.
What is your opinion on Egypt having miltary actions in other countries?
What I feel toward that? I don’t think it’s a good idea to send some people to a dangerous place. You can send the soldiers, you don’t have to send the people who just graduated: the translators, the doctors. They didn’t see anything, they didn’t have any experience in life. I just graduated and I might die there. So that’s it? That’s my life?…I just graduated so I need to see the world. I need to work, I need to have a family. They send soldiers because they accepted to be soldiers from the beginning, but I didn’t accept to be a soldier.
Do you know anyone who’s gone to Darfur?
No and that’s the thing that makes me scared, is that no one has really lived this experience. So I have to live it in my own.
The troops are expected to arrive by March from Egypt, South Africa, Senegal and Bangladesh, UNAMID said, adding that further troops will arrive from Nepal, Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia later in the year.
Unlike so many other soliders though, his story does have a happy ending. The week A. went to the army base to begin training, he was dismissed without explanation. He didn’t ask for one.
