21 - 27 March 2002
Issue No.578
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 March 2002 Issue No.578 |
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Leaning on Khartoum
Washington's bid to bridge the gnawing gulf between the Sudanese government and armed opposition forces appears to be bearing questionable fruit, writes Gamal Nkrumah
The United States is on a diplomatic offensive to secure peace in Sudan. As a result, an agreement was signed last week simultaneously in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and the Kenyan capital Nairobi between the Sudanese government and the main armed opposition group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Washington is flexing its muscles and engaging in arm-twisting tactics to ensure that the Sudanese government does not renege on its peace pledges. "We want the parties to honestly commit themselves to stop attacking innocent civilians," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Nevertheless, Washington's task is seen as particularly delicate because it entails either incorporating or completely ignoring parallel Sudanese peace initiatives such as the Egyptian-Libyan initiative and an earlier one proposed by the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD), a regional grouping that consists of seven East African countries, including Sudan. Sudan's neighbours -- both the Arab countries to the north and the sub-Saharan African countries to the south -- have long sought an end to the Sudanese conflict, but it seems that Washington now wishes to settle the matter either unilaterally or with a minimum of outside interference.
"We welcome US efforts to secure peace in Sudan. The Sudanese government has no objection to the introduction of an international monitoring mechanism," Professor Ahmed Abdel-Halim, the Sudanese ambassador to Egypt, told Al- Ahram Weekly.
The US secured the agreement from SPLA and the Sudanese government after applying intense pressure on both sides. The Sudanese government tried in vain to include its neighbours in the peace talks. The problem, as far as Washington was concerned, was that Sudan's neighbours often have conflicting interests and agendas. The Carter Foundation based in Atlanta, Georgia, and headed by former US President Jimmy Carter was instrumental in getting the Sudanese protagonists to agree.
Another key figure in the negotiations was John Danforth, the US special envoy to Sudan. In a flurry of diplomatic activity, shuttling between Washington, Khartoum, outlying districts of war-torn Sudan and the capitals of neighbouring African countries, Danforth emphasised the need to establish "zones of tranquillity" to assist humanitarian relief work. The Sudanese government's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) is now closely collaborating with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to assist the 1.5 million people threatened with starvation and death by the war-induced famine that has gripped the Nuba Mountains. This 80,000-sq-km area of rugged and inaccessible granite outcrops in the central Kordofan province is one of the main strongholds of the SPLA.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese civil war is raging in other parts of the country. The US suspended peace discussions with Sudan in February following an attack by a government helicopter gunship on a humanitarian relief centre in Unity State, Upper Nile. More than 40 civilians and relief workers were killed.
SPLA leader John Garang is currently on a two-week tour of the US. He stresses the need to persuade the Sudanese government to accept democratic pluralism as a system of government and to eschew its militant Islamist approach in favour of a secular administration.
Garang urged Washington to step up pressure on the Sudanese government. He doubts the sincerity of Khartoum's desire for peace. The SPLA leader, who was given the red carpet treatment in Washington, said, "This is a window of opportunity," after meeting US Secretary for State Colin Powell. He added that he was optimistic as never before about the prospects for peace in Sudan. Powell concurred. He cites the Joint Military Commission, (JMC) set up to monitor the January cease-fire arrangement, as a cause for his optimism.
Garang also held extensive discussions with Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser; Walter Kansteiner, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs; and US Congress members with a special interest in Sudanese affairs. Garang's US tour is the first in three years. Garang, who obtained his PhD in the US, is keen to muster American support for the SPLA.
In a separate development, Sudanese President General Omar Hassan Al- Bashir met Muammar Gaddafi and Yoweri Museveni, his Libyan and Ugandan counterparts, in Libya to heal the rift between Uganda and Sudan. The two states currently support each other's armed opposition groups. While Uganda backs the SPLA, Sudan, in turn, supports the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA's leader, Joseph Kony, has sought refuge in southern Sudan. Khartoum has in the past used the LRA army to counter-balance the SPLA and to disrupt social and economic life in SPLA-assisted areas of southern Sudan.
Libya's mediating effort resulted in the unprecedented granting of permission by the Sudanese government for the Uganda People Defence Forces (UPDF) to send in troops into southern Sudan to hunt LRA fighters. In return, Uganda has pledged to tone down its support for the SPLA.
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