9 - 15 August 2001
Issue No.546
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 9 - 15 August 2001 Issue No.546 |
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Back to the drawing board?
With an emphatic affirmation of his government's commitment to Shari'a, Sudan's Al-Bashir has threatened to derail the Egyptian-Libyan initiative for peace in Sudan, writes Gamal Nkrumah
An announcement by the Sudanese government on Friday that it backs the convening of an Arab- African summit on the Egyptian-Libyan initiative for peace in Sudan signals a ray of hope from Khartoum. Libyan and Sudanese officials said that the meeting, scheduled for early next month in the Libyan capital Tripoli, will bring Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Saudi Arabia together with Sudan, Libya and Egypt. But Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher denied knowledge of the summit. "There has not been any agreement on holding such a summit," he told reporters on Tuesday.
The confusion over the summit came amid exchanged accusations between Sudanese government and opposition forces over their committment to the Egyptian-Libyan initiative. On Monday, Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman denied that accepting the initiative meant revoking the Sharia laws or the governments Islamist ideology. He also denounced the East African Inter-government Authority on Development (IGAD) peace initiative for Sudan, asserting that it was incapable of securig peace in his country.
Taha's comments reaffirmed earlier inflammatory statements by Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir. In a rally last week, Al-Bashir vowed he would never alter his government's Islamist principles and orientation. "We have come to set up Shari'a, and I say -- for the second, third, and fourth time -- that the [National] Salvation [Revolution] government will never change," Al-Bashir insisted.
Ominously, Al-Bashir made the controversial declaration at a passing-out parade of military students in Shambat, Khartoum. The president's remarks come shortly after the leadership council of his ruling National Congress Party (NCP) approved the nine- point Egyptian-Libyan initiative memorandum on Sudan.
Opposition leaders party to the initiative, particularly southern Sudanese rebels led by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), were soon crying foul. The umbrella Sudanese opposition group, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), immediately voiced its outrage and concern over Al-Bashir's statements. "Al- Bashir has no intention of giving in to opposition demands for the separation of religion and state in Sudan. He is determined to forcibly impose his theocratic agenda on the Sudanese people. This is one fundamental issue that has clearly emerged in recent weeks," Farouk Abu Eissa, the head of the Cairo-based Arab Lawyers Union and official spokesman for the NDA, told Al-Ahram Weekly.
The SPLA was also quick to denounce Al-Bashir. "Al-Bashir's statements confirm what we have been saying all along: that he has no intention of relinquishing power and that he will not change his ideological stance regarding the imposition of Shari'a rule in multi-religious and multi-cultural Sudan," SPLA leader John Garang told the Weekly.
The SPLA charged the government with intensifying its bombing of the civilian southern Sudanese population in East Equatoria province, forcing people displaced by the civil war to flee into the bush without access to food, medicine or shelter during the peak of the rainy season. Over four million people, mainly southern Sudanese, have been rendered homeless by the 18-year-old civil war and more than one million people have lost their lives in the conflict.
Al-Bashir's statements were regarded as a provocation and an acute embarrassment for southern politicians who had aligned themselves with the Sudanese government. The pro-government Southern Sudan Coordination Council (SSCC) expressed its disappointment in Al-Bashir's pronouncements. Moreover, SSCC Deputy Chairman Theophilus Ochang took the opportunity to launch into a criticism of the Egyptian-Libyan initiative, noting that it ignores the southern Sudanese people's right to self- determination. Mere assurances will not satisfy the southern Sudanese, Ochang warned, and Al- Bashir's recent remarks risk further weakening southerners' faith in the current initiative.
Southern Sudanese groups, including the SSCC and the SPLA, recently accepted the Egyptian-Libyan initiative in principle. However, like the umbrella NDA grouping, they introduced three additional recommendations; namely, the separation of religion and state, respect for the right of southern Sudanese to self- determination, and the need to amalgamate the Egyptian-Libyan initiative with the IGAD initiative. The Egyptian-Libyan initiative, in sharp contrast to the IGAD initiative, makes no reference to self-determination. The Egyptian-Libyan initiative stresses the need for territorial integrity and unity in Sudan. Both Egyptian and Libyan authorities have expressed reservations about self- determination for southern Sudan and Al-Bashir clearly concurs, adding that his government will not "partition the country in exchange for peace."
The government and opposition also seem to have different intrepretation for the Egyptian-Libyan proposal to form a "transitional government" in Sudan. In his remarks on Monday, Vice President Taha denied that forming the proposed transitional government would mean dismantling the current one led by Al-Bashir, as the opposition parties demand. "If the opposition NDA bleieves that the joint (Egyptian-Libyan) initiative would achieve for them what they could not reach through war, then they are dreaming." He added that the opposition demand to form a transitional governemnt was "incomprehensible. The [ruling] Salvation government will remain and survive, and elections will decide between us and the opposition."
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