Issue No. 603
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12 - 18 September 2002 Issue No. 603 Home news |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Cairo resumes Sudan effort
Cairo has a new opportunity to bring peace to war-torn Sudan, after the breakdown of the Machakos agreement. Soha Abdelaty reports
Ending the Sudanese civil war has been a goal of Egyptian diplomatic efforts for some time. Although Cairo had its own ideas of how to end the 20-year-long conflict, the Egyptian peace initiative, co-sponsored by the Libyans, was put aside after the Sudanese government and the southern rebel movement, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) signed a peace agreement, the Machakos Protocol, in July.
Cairo did not take part in the negotiations leading up to the US-brokered agreement. When the agreement was first signed, Egyptian officials declined to issue a reaction to the peace plan as they had not been informed about its details. Even so, a rift between Egypt and Sudan did not occur. Following the breakdown of the agreement, owing to the resumption of fighting last week between the SPLA and Sudanese state forces, relations between Egypt and Sudan are expected to grow stronger. Sudanese officials are now rushing to their Egyptian counterparts to revive the Egyptian-Libyan initiative, seeking an active Egyptian role in bringing about peace.
"Egypt's absence from the Machakos agreement was the main reason behind its failure," Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail said last week. "My government is keen for a strong Egyptian presence... The coming period will witness comprehensive coordination in order for Egypt to be present with all its influence in the efforts to bring peace," he added.
Ismail also emphasised that Egypt has the potential to play a unique role in ending the conflict. "Egypt's relations with all of the parties to the conflict qualifies it to play a bigger role in reaching a solution for the problem through rebuilding confidence between the parties," he told the members of the Egyptian Foreign Relations Council. "Our relations with Egypt are a matter of life or death," he concluded.
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 in August 2001 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.
For their part, Egyptian officials welcomed the opportunity to re-engage in working towards the resolution of the conflict.
Soon after fighting between the SPLA and the Sudanese government broke out last week, Egyptian officials began a series of meetings with Sudanese and Libyan officials to bring back the Egyptian-Libyan initiative. Towards this end, the foreign ministers of the three countries held a meeting last week with President Hosni Mubarak. "President Mubarak directed me to meet with the Sudanese and Libyan ministers to discuss the re- activation of the initiative," Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said on Saturday. "The joint initiative is viable and it is time to activate it," he added. Sudanese Foreign Minister Ismail also said that he would soon provide Mubarak with a detailed report on the situation in the south in the wake of the collapse of Machakos. Ismail was scheduled to visit Cairo again yesterday.
After meeting Mubarak last week the three ministers held separate talks to discuss the necessary steps towards re-activating the joint initiative. "This meeting was held within the framework of the initiative. We are all interested that this initiative contribute to establishing peace and stability in Sudan," Maher told reporters. Libyan Foreign Minister Ali Al-Treiky said that the three ministers have agreed to resume the meetings of the committee that was formed to follow up on the initiative. Ismail emphasised the importance his government accords to the initiative at this point in the conflict. "The government was never against the joint initiative. On the contrary, it has always encouraged the initiative, in view of the fact that it provides for a comprehensive solution to the Sudanese problem." He also downplayed the significance of the Machakos agreement. "With regards to Machakos, it is a protocol. This protocol will be implemented when we reach a comprehensive peace agreement because this protocol is supposed to be followed by several others towards achieving a final settlement. Since this protocol has been suspended, talk about any agreement is irrelevant."
Although the time is now ripe for Cairo to be at the forefront once again, it remains to be seen whether the re-activation of the initiative will succeed. To date, none of the other parties involved in the conflict has made public their views about reviving the peace plan. Observers note that while the parties have agreed to the initiative in principle, differences usually begin to arise once implementation starts. Specifically, the SPLA has at times distanced itself from the initiative because it overlooks two of the main demands of the people in the south: self-determination and the establishment of a secular state.
But officials are counting on the SPLA's initial acceptance of the joint initiative last summer to allow for its implementation this time around. "I believe that the south is part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which adopted this initiative and agreed upon it," Libya's Al-Treiky said last week.
Furthermore, sceptical observers note that the reason the initiative was put aside in the first place was that it remained stagnant for quite some time when no serious efforts were made to take steps to implement it.
See interview with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail
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