16 - 22 May 2002
Issue No.586
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 May 2002 Issue No.586 |
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Moving to implementation
Agreements have been signed and initiatives are on the table. Soha Abdelaty tries to discover why Cairo and Khartoum continue to take only small steps towards each other
Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir met with President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo yesterday, to discuss bilateral relations, the Egyptian-Libyan initiative for reconciliation in Sudan, and the latest developments in the Middle East.
Over the past few years, Egypt and Sudan have begun thawing chilly relations, with officials on both sides attempting to cement economic ties as well as bring peace to war-ridden Sudan. While neither of these objectives has been fully achieved, meetings like yesterday's are an opportunity for the two sides to reaffirm their commitment to enhancing relations.
This was especially true regarding increased economic ties. "There are numerous cooperation agreements proposed," Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said ahead of the Bashir visit.
Relations between the two neighbours chilled in the 1990s, when Sudan was a breeding ground for militant Islamists and Egypt suffered a scourge of terrorist attacks. The perpetrators of an assassination attempt on Mubarak in Addis Ababa in 1995 were believed to have fled to Sudan.
Soon thereafter, Khartoum began drying up its militant hotbeds, and in 1999 sidelined radical National Islamic Front leader Hassan Al-Turabi from Sudanese politics. As early as 1996, Egyptian- Sudanese relations appeared to be on the mend. As Bashir stepped off his aeroplane in Cairo to attend an Arab summit, he warmly embraced Mubarak in full view of the cameras.
More recently, meetings between the two sides have been stepped up, and Egypt -- which has for years hosted many leading Sudanese opposition figures -- co-sponsored a peace initiative with Libya to bring together warring Sudanese factions. Bilateral ties have also seen progress, and were given a further boost last year when Mubarak and Bashir agreed to create a joint businessmen's council, as well as upgrade a bilateral committee for cooperation.
Now called the Supreme Joint Committee, its first meeting was held last July in Khartoum, and chaired by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha. Some 20 agreements, protocols and memoranda of understanding were signed, along with an executive programme for cooperation in the fields of agriculture, trade and education.
But very few of these agreements have actually begun implementation, which promises to be a main talking point at next July's Supreme Joint Committee meeting.
Iglal Raafat, an expert on Sudan and professor of Political Science at Cairo University, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "there are many opportunities in Sudan that have not been utilised." Citing industry, agriculture and medicine as potential sectors for investment, Raafat said, "The Sudanese are clearly asking us to cooperate with them in these fields." Meanwhile, other countries -- both from around the world, as well as within the Middle East -- have taken advantage of these investment opportunities, at times even using Egyptian labour in their projects.
"The government and private investors have to exert more effort," Raafat said. "Egypt has been very busy with the Palestinian issue, and I hope it realises that activating relations with other Arab countries is just as important."
The same is true when it comes to ending the civil war in Sudan. The Egyptian-Libyan initiative for peace -- proposed back in 1999 -- was given a healthy boost when it was fine-tuned into a nine-point peace plan last August and accepted by all the parties involved in the conflict. Since then, however, no substantial steps have been taken to implement the initiative's nine points.
Maher said the problem lies not with the brokers of the initiative, but with the conflicting parties themselves. "It all depends on the readiness of the Sudanese parties. Some still need further consultations."
According to Raafat, one of the reasons the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has distanced itself from the initiative, is because it overlooks two of the main demands of the southern people: self-determination and the establishment of a secular state. "The parties have agreed to the initiative in principle, but with implementation, objections came up," noted Raafat.
She also thinks the initiative lacks an implementation mechanism and a responsible body whose job would be to oversee it. According to Raafat, the Egyptian-Libyan committee, the body that is supposed to do just that, "is not a secretariat," and thus has at times proven its limitations.
The US has also been trying to broker a peace agreement in Sudan, within the framework of both the Egyptian-Libyan initiative, and the one proposed by the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD), a 1996 attempt at peace brokered by several of the East African states bordering Sudan.
All the parties seem to agree in principle on the idea of coordinating between the two initiatives, but very little has actually been done. Egypt refused to attend a meeting in Nairobi organised by the IGAD earlier this month. "I think it is still too early to call for this consultative meeting," said Maher, "until our contacts with Kenya to formulate the foundations for coordination between the two initiatives are done."
According to Raafat, coordination is a tantamount step towards bringing peace to Sudan. "The Egyptian-Libyan initiative alone cannot achieve much and IGAD has long proven that it cannot either. We have to take part in this American effort."
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