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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 July 1999 Issue No. 438 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 July 1999 Issue No. 438
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters 'United as never before'
By Gamal NkrumahLeaders of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Asmara-based umbrella organisation that groups together Sudanese opposition parties, met in Cairo on Monday to brief the Egyptian government and senior members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) on the latest developments in Sudan and the effort to reach a peaceful settlement between the government and exiled opposition groups. The meeting took place at the NDP headquarters with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Youssef Wali officiating.
Sadiq Al-Mahdi, leader of the Umma Party and Othman Al-Mirghani, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and NDA president were present. However conspicuously absent was John Garang leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) -- the leading southern political group fighting for autonomy for southern Sudan and the secularisation of the state.
"The most important aspect of the meeting is to review what we [the NDA] agreed upon in Asmara: that for the very first time we have looked seriously into a peaceful solution to Sudan's problems as a viable option available to the Sudanese opposition. This meeting was due in large measure to mediation efforts by Egypt and Libya, and Kamel Idriss, a Sudanese national with the United Nations's World Intellectual Property Organisation. But the initiative was personal and had nothing to do with the UN, explained Farouk Abu Eissa, the secretary-general of the Cairo-based Arab Lawyers Union and official spokesman of the NDA.
Abu Eissa told Al-Ahram Weekly that the meeting was, "yet another big blow to the NIF regime in Khartoum." He added, "we have before us three options: an intifada or popular uprising, the armed struggle to overthrow the regime by force, or a peaceful resolution of the Sudanese crisis through a negotiated settlement. We think the peace agreement is conditional and the Sudanese government must comply with our demands," Abu Eissa stressed.
The NDA's main but conditional demands include the insistence that the ruling National Islamic Front (NIF) regime abrogate the so-called Tawalie Law which organises and controls the formation of political parties in Sudan. Second, the NDA insists that laws that are restrictive of basic human freedoms such as the National Security Law be repealed with immediate effect. Third, political prisoners must be freed. Fourth, the private property confiscated by the regime be returned to the rightful owners.
Commander Nhial Deng Nhial, the SPLA governor of Bahr Al-Ghazal province headed the SPLA delegation, which included former Foreign Minister Mansour Khalid, chief political adviser to Garang and Yasir Arman, official spokesperson for the SPLA.
Khalid, in statements to the Weekly, reaffirmed the unity of the NDA. "There is absolutely no question of a split within the NDA. We are united as never before. The recent exploration of a possible peaceful resolution of the Sudanese crisis doesn't represent a policy shift but a serious attempt to look into all possible means of resolving the Sudanese political crisis," Khalid said.
The Cairo NDA meeting took place at a time when Sudan has come under fire from Washington following a visit to southern Sudan by US Senator Sam Brownback, member of the Senate's Foreign relations Committee, and an influential Africa hand. Senator Brownback went to Sudan at the invitation of Garang and the senator's damning report had tremendous ripple effects.
"After visiting Sudan personally and witnessing the effects of human rights abuses brutally practiced by the Sudanese government against its own people, I have condemned the government for bombing civilians, for enslaving the population, for manufacturing famine, and for forced religious conversions.
"The Khartoum government is attempting to spread their form of government throughout Africa. They support terrorists who bomb our embassies and plot to murder the leaders of our allies. They support militia who steal women and children and sell them like cattle in open air slave markets. They deliberately withhold American food aid as a weapon of war against their own people and induce famine conditions that killed at least 100,000 last year," Brownback said. He reiterated the American position on halting all trade and economic relations with Khartoum, called for the establishment of a no-fly zone over southern Sudan and warned American companies against doing business with Sudan.
Haidar Ibrahim, director of the Cairo-based Sudanese Studies Centre, was critical of certain aspects of the report. He pointed out that under the pretext of humanitarian intervention, Washington could intervene militarily in Sudan the way it did in Kosovo. In 1993, Washington officially placed the government of Sudan on a list of seven states sponsoring terrorism, and there is no sign that Washington will revise its position, even though several Arab and European states -- including Washington's staunch ally Britain -- have recently resumed full diplomatic relations with Khartoum.
Meanwhile, the number of Western, and increasingly East Asian, business interests in Sudan is on the rise. A noteworthy example is the six oil fields producing an estimated 150,000 barrels per day in Bentui region of southern Sudan. Crude from there is now being pumped through a 1,610 km pipeline linking the oil-fields to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. While the outbreak of fighting in Bentui is hampering development, Talisman Energy -- Canada's largest independent oil and gas producer and owner of 25 per cent of the Sudanese oil-extracting and exporting project -- says that there is rapid progress. First export sales are expected in the third quarter of 1999.
Observers, however, warn that fighting in the anti-NIF government ethnic Beja-controlled area of north-east Sudan and its proximity to the Eritrean border and NDA strongholds will prove to be a serious problem. The NDA has already issued public statements emphasising that the pipeline is a legitimate military target.
