24 - 30 January 2002
Issue No.570
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 24 - 30 January 2002 Issue No.570 |
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Sudanese breakthrough
The Sudanese government and the leading armed opposition have signed a cease-fire for the Nuba Mountains region in western Sudan, writes Gamal Nkrumah
Following the 11 September attacks on the United States, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir's Islamist-oriented government handed over vitally-important intelligence files to US authorities in the hope of winning over the Americans. Let bygones be bygones, Khartoum effectively pleaded, stabbing its one-time militant Islamist allies in the back. In fact, some observers suggest that much of the credit for the US's speedy defeat of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan should go to Khartoum.
It appears that the Sudanese authorities were hoping that having done their bit in the US-led anti-terrorism war, Washington would let them off the hook as far as the Sudanese civil war was concerned and allow them to strike hard at opposition forces. Unfortunately for the Sudanese government, that was not the case. Instead, the US seems to be stepping up its pressure on Khartoum to bring the war to an end.
The Sudanese government and the country's chief armed opposition group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) signed a six-month cease-fire agreement on Saturday aimed at ending fighting in the Nuba Mountains, in the southern Kordofan region of western Sudan. The densely-populated region is a SPLA stronghold but has been suffering from famine because of the intensification of the war. Saturday's agreement permits the delivery of humanitarian aid to the region.
The truce between Khartoum and the SPLA was hammered out in talks in Buergenstock, Switzerland, and is renewable every six months, according to a joint statement by the Swiss and US governments who sponsored and supervised the peace talks. Under the agreement, a truce-monitoring commission will be set up, to be staffed by both government and SPLA representatives, and it will have a chairman who is not a Sudanese national. The accord this week also provides for an International Monitoring Unit of 10-15 international observers from countries to be agreed to by the two adversaries.
Not everyone in Sudan is applauding the agreement, however. Some forces in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) -- the umbrella organisation grouping northern and southern opposition forces including the SPLA -- have expressed misgivings about SPLA leader John Garang reaching agreements separately without first consulting his allies in the NDA.
The Sudanese government, however, welcomed the accord. "It is a step towards normalising life and facilitating relief and rehabilitation operations in the Nuba Mountains and creating an atmosphere conducive to reaching peace," Sudanese ambassador to Egypt Ahmed Abdel-Halim Mohamed told Al- Ahram Weekly.
The agreement is the fruit of considerable effort exerted in recent months. "The Sudanese government and the SPLA accepted the principle of a cease-fire in the strategic region [the Nuba Mountains] during November last year, but the SPLA accused Khartoum last month of violating that accord," explained Mansour Khaled, a former Sudanese foreign minister and current adviser to SPLA leader Garang.
Khaled concurred with the Sudanese ambassador that the agreement was a step in the right direction. "It is a good step, but it is limited. We are still waiting to find a comprehensive settlement and to address the causes of the problem which have not yet been addressed," he told the Weekly.
Khaled noted that international observers would be stationed in the country for the first time in the history of the conflict and said he hoped that the Sudanese government will cooperate with the international truce committee. "These days nobody can say no to Washington. And Khartoum is no exception. There was a great deal of arm-twisting going on and we are pleased by the results," he said.
For the Sudanese government, which is eager to export oil produced in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains region has particular importance because a major pipeline traverses it. The Sudanese government has been pinning its hopes for economic salvation on the much sought after foreign exchange that oil revenues bring in. Meanwhile, the SPLA has in the past threatened to disrupt oil production and destroy oil installations.
In the war-torn Nuba Mountains, considerable effort lies ahead for the government and relief agencies. There is great concern about mines and traps left behind by Sudanese government forces. Relief agencies have expressed concern about reaching the needy in the Nuba Mountains. Over 158,000 people have fled their homes because of recent fighting there.
Khartoum has in the past protested that cease-fire monitors gave an unfair advantage to the SPLA. A US proposal to introduce international monitors to Sudan to guard against aerial bombardment of civilians throughout the country would hamper the Sudanese government's strategy of punitive strikes against villages sympathetic to the SPLA, or suspected of aiding and giving shelter SPLA forces. "The foreign monitors will restrain government forces and restrict the range of government troop operations, while giving the SPLA freedom to move because it is an irregular army," said Farouk Abu Eissa, head of the Cairo- based Arab Lawyers Union and a leading NDA figure. "A halt to bombing civilian targets is one of four proposals made by US special envoy to Sudan, John Danforth, as part of a US initiative towards ending Sudan's civil war. Danforth told the Sudanese authorities point blank that this was a test of their commitment to peace," said Abu Eissa.
Khartoum objects to claims of punitive strikes against civilians. "Contrary to US allegations, Sudanese government forces do not adopt a policy of deliberate bombardment of civilians," Ambassador Mohamed protested. The US has also charged that the Sudanese authorities either turn a blind eye to, or actually encourage, the abduction of southern and western Sudanese villagers and the institutionalisation of slavery.
Khartoum counters that humanitarian relief agencies -- many of which are charitable organisations with a Christian affiliation -- support the SPLA under the pretext of providing aid. The Americans argue that old habits die hard.
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