17 - 23 January 2002
Issue No.569
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 17 - 23 January 2002 Issue No.569 |
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Sudan at the crossroads
The Sudanese are desperately trying to plaster over their immediate past by focusing on US involvement in the region, writes Gamal Nkrumah
Sudan currently stands at a crucial historical juncture. The country has been propelled by internal and international developments to redefine its relationships with its Arab and African neighbours, and especially with the global superpower, the United States. The dynamics of domestic Sudanese politics and the discovery of oil quantities amenable to commercial exploitation are drawing in interested parties from near and far. A flurry of diplomatic activity promises to reactivate the stalled Sudanese peace process to end the civil war, which has ravaged the southern part of the country for almost two decades now.
Senator John Danforth, US President George Bush's special envoy for peace in Sudan, held talks this week with senior Sudanese officials in Khartoum. The Sudanese authorities have appealed to the US to take additional steps in its mediation efforts to end the Sudanese civil war that has claimed the lives of an estimated three million people and has left in its wake widespread destruction of property, public utilities and infrastructure. Development, with the notable exception of the oil extraction industry, has ground to an abrupt halt.
In a closely linked development, representatives of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) met with Sudanese government officials in Burgenstock, Switzerland, on Monday to discuss the terms of a cease-fire in the Nuba Mountain region of western Sudan. The meeting, which took place under the auspices of the Swiss and US governments, was to focus on humanitarian aspects of the war, most notably the United Nations relief programme Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) run in conjunction with the SPLA and the Sudanese government. Khartoum in the past insisted that the OLS cover southern Sudan only, but Washington and the SPLA, which controls vast swathes of territory in the Nuba Mountains, want to include this region in Western Sudan along with the South in the OLS programme. After the intervention of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan following a visit to Sudan last year, the Sudanese authorities committed themselves to include the Nuba Mountains in the OLS, which would technically indicate Khartoum's acknowledgment that the SPLA does indeed control parts of western Sudan.
Abdel-Aziz Adam Al-Helw, the SPLA commander is to head the delegation along with SPLA official spokesman Yasser Arman. Al- Helw, took over as SPLA commander of the Nuba Mountain region, after the death of the veteran SPLA commander Yusuf Kuwa, who was largely responsible for winning the mainly Muslim region over to the southern Sudanese- dominated SPLA. The government was represented by Mutref Siddiqi, the foreign undersecretary and intelligence chief.
US officials claim they are particularly concerned about reports of abductions of children and slavery in the war-torn region, as well as by enforced Islamisation campaigns.
The SPLA claimed that the Sudanese government launched a massive military offensive in defiance of a cease-fire brokered by US peace envoy John Danforth.
The Sudanese authorities are said to have evicted thousands of civilians from oil-rich areas to make way for oil installations run by foreign firms.
In a separate development Riek Machar, leader of the Sudan People's Democratic Front and Garang signed a "declaration of unity" in the Kenyan capital Nairobi last Monday to merge their respective armies. The move was designed to consolidate the southern-based armed opposition to the regime.
US officials are concerned about recent revelations that many Sudanese passports were found on premises vacated by fleeing Arab Afghans in Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar and other former Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan. The revelations did not come as a surprise, but the prevalence of individuals carrying Sudanese passports -- obviously not all of them actually of Sudanese nationality -- has raised many questions.
Sudan, suspected of harbouring terrorists and still classified by Washington as a state sponsoring terrorism, is fearful of a US punitive attack. However, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman put on a brave face and played down the possibility of a US strike on suspected terrorist targets in Sudan. "The US diplomatic, security, political and humanitarian presence in Khartoum has never been so visible," Osman said at a press conference in Khartoum last week.
The Arab League, the Organisation of African Unity and the Non-Aligned Movement all condemned the US attack on Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan in 1998, Osman reminded the assembled journalists. He said that a new round of attacks on Sudan would bring worldwide condemnation.
Even prominent members of the Sudanese opposition refute the charge that Al-Qa'eda members are being sheltered in Sudan. "It is doubtful that Al-Qa'eda has an actual physical presence in Sudan at the moment," Mansour Khaled, a former foreign minister of Sudan, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "But this," he quickly added, "is not to deny that there is a significant number of Al- Qa'eda sympathisers in the current Islamist- oriented regime and in the Sudanese political establishment."
"It must be remembered that Al-Qa'eda was hatched in Sudan. The period of incubation for Al-Qa'eda was between 1992-96 in Sudan and the forum was the Popular Islamic Congress. Bin Laden himself, Ayman Al-Zawahri and Mustafa Hamza were prominent figures at such congresses," Khaled pointed out.
Moreover, it is an open secret that Sudan was a major transit point for mujahidin on their way to Algeria. Members of the then ruling National Islamic Front (NIF) headed by Hassan Al-Turabi were instrumental in facilitating and overseeing the technical and logistical aspects of these operations. Some members of the Sudanese government had a hand in these operations, or at least were well aware of the mujahidin's activities, Khaled explained.
The US did not veto the United Nations Security Council decision to lift UN sanctions on Sudan a couple of months ago. Washington, however, has resolutely refused to lift the unilateral sanctions it still imposes on Sudan. The Islamist government in Sudan, which in the past gave refuge for five years -- from 1990 to 1995 -- to Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, has since 11 September been at pains to distance itself from militant Islamist groups and especially Bin Laden's Al-Qa'eda network. The Islamist regime in Sudan provided the ideological recruiting ground for Al-Qa'eda, but today it has handed over confidential intelligence files to the US authorities.
Washington is pleased, but insists that Khartoum must be prepared to talk about the status of the oil-rich southern third of the country, redress its human rights record and institute thoroughgoing democratic reforms.
In another intriguing political development, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir has offered to mediate between leaders of the fragmented Umma Party -- one of the largest opposition groups in the country. Divisions within the party threaten to rip it apart with a core group surrounding Umma Party leader and Sudanese Prime Minister Sadig Al- Mahdi, and his cousin -- who was until recently responsible for political affairs within the party hierarchy -- Mubarak Al-Mahdi. Both men assured Al-Bashir, however, that they were quite capable of sorting out their differences without presidential assistance. Al-Bashir stressed that the maintenance of a strong and vigorous Umma Party is a critical necessity for the advancement of the chances of national reconciliation and peace in the country.
Nor was interest in the unity and well-being of the Umma Party confined to the Sudanese. Regional powers sought vigorously to heal the growing rift between Sadig and Mubarak Al-Mahdi. Libya's African Affairs Minister Ali Al-Treiki, who was on an official visit to Khartoum to participate as an observer in the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit in Khartoum, extended his stay to mediate between the Al-Mahdi cousins. The Libyans have succeeded in "breaking the ice" between the two men, a Libyan embassy spokesman buoyantly declared.
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