Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | Back to Machakos

		10 - 16 October 2002 Issue No. 607 Region	Current issue Previous issue Site map
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Back to Machakos
The Sudanese civil war intensifies even as a resumption of peace talks in Kenya is heralded as the panacea to Sudan's woes, writes Gamal Nkrumah

This week, Sudanese opposition forces have stepped up attacks on Sudanese government army outposts in the south and east of the country. The country's largest armed opposition group, the Sudan's People's Liberation Army (SPLA), has intensified its military offensive against Sudanese government forces in eastern Sudan capturing the strategic garrison town of Homeshkorieb, near the provincial capital of Kassala.
The SPLA carried out its eastern front offensive with the support of its allies within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the umbrella opposition organisation grouping the SPLA and other mainly northern Sudanese opposition parties. Nevertheless, the Sudanese authorities deny that the SPLA has made significant military advances in eastern Sudan, playing down the recent military advances. They described the SPLA claims as "lies".
Khartoum cried foul, charging the Eritreans with assisting the Sudanese armed opposition forces with weapons, ammunition and logistical support. Khartoum even accuses Asmara of dispatching its own troops to fight alongside the Sudanese opposition forces. Sudanese Defence Minister Bakri Hassan Saleh spoke of the "Eritrean aggression". The Sudanese state television accused Eritrea of actually carrying out the attack on the eastern front.
The allegation was angrily refuted by SPLA leader John Garang. The NDA is headquartered in the Eritrean capital Asmara. The Eritrean ambassador in Cairo, Mahmoud Omar Chirum, categorically denied any involvement in the attacks. "This information is incorrect. Eritrea has nothing to do with what has been going on in Sudan," Ambassador Chirum told Al-Ahram Weekly.
"A Libyan inspection team is currently visiting Eritrea to ascertain whether Eritrea did militarily support the SPLA. The Eritrean authorities have offered unfettered access to the inspectors," Chirum added. Libya is currently mediating between Asmara and Khartoum.
Khartoum retorts that the Eritreans are collaborating closely with Israel. "The [SPLA] gains on the battlefront are primarily due to Israeli and Eritrean military assistance," Dr Ahmed Abdel-Halim, the Sudanese ambassador to Egypt told the Weekly. Ambassador Abdel-Halim said that Israel was arming and training the SPLA and warned that the Israelis are also working in tandem with the Eritreans. "Arab countries cannot afford to overlook Israeli intrusion into Sudanese domestic affairs. A peaceful resolution of the Sudanese [civil war] will be realised only under a clear commitment to the cessation of hostilities," Ambassador Abdel-Halim said.
The September collapse of peace talks in Machakos, Kenya, between the Sudanese government and the SPLA was prompted by the Sudanese government's protest against the capture of the southern Sudanese garrison town of Torit. Barely a month later, the SPLA has stormed yet another Sudanese government military outpost in the east of the country.
"The Sudanese government is in disarray and the Sudanese army's recent military setbacks have weakened their position at the negotiating table," Farouk Abu Eissa, the head of the Cairo- based Arab Lawyers Union and official spokesman for the NDA, told the Weekly. Abu Eissa argues that the Sudanese government charges are meant to arouse the suspicion of Arab governments. "It is an outdated Sudanese government ploy aimed at winning the sympathy of Arab states," he explained.
The relentless attacks on Sudanese government outposts in remote areas of the vast country, Africa's largest, has not dampened Khartoum's resolve to seek a negotiated solution to the political turmoil. The SPLA describes the attacks as preemptive, but observers believe that the attacks are designed to strengthen the SPLA's position at the negotiations table ahead of fresh Sudanese peace talks now scheduled to resume on 14 October in Machakos, Kenya.
Khartoum, however, has vowed to recapture the garrison towns in the east and south of the country. Both sides say they want an end to the hostilities -- albeit on their own terms.
The SPLA has embarked on a policy of attacking oil installations in southern Sudan in an effort to halt the flow of oil to northern Sudan. Last week, the SPLA destroyed the main oil pumping station in Higlig, in the heart of the oil producing region Bentui. "The SPLA has asked foreign oil companies to stop production until a just peace deal is negotiated. We reaffirm our position during the second round of the Machakos peace talks to renegotiate all contracts signed by the oil companies with the Sudanese regime as part of a peace agreement," Yasser Arman, SPLA spokesman told the Weekly.
"The oil revenue is used to purchase lethal weapons to exterminate southerners," Arman said. He also drew attention to the Sudanese government ban on humanitarian relief flights to southern Sudan, which is in direct contradiction to the stipulations of the agreement signed between the Sudanese government, the SPLA and Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS). This agreement was designed to provide unfettered humanitarian access to the hungry and needy.
"People in many parts of Sudan are utterly dependent on food and medical aid because of Khartoum's scorched earth policy," Arman warned.
The impressive advances on the battlefields of eastern and southern Sudan might well prove to be a turning point in SPLA's fortunes. Resistance to continuing the debilitating war has spread over the course of the year reaching even mainstream circles. Many in the Sudanese political establishment are now openly questioning the wisdom of pursuing the war in the south of the country, a war which has proven to be a disastrous drain on the country's precious resources.
Ironically, Sudanese President General Omar Hassan Al-Bashir broke ranks with the country's leading ideologue of militant Islam Hassan Al-Turabi in 1999 after the latter's opposition Popular National Congress Party signed a memorandum for peace and understanding with the SPLA in Switzerland two years ago. Al-Turabi has been under house arrest ever since.
The Sudanese government has insisted on a cessation of hostilities and the pull out of the SPLA from the garrison towns it recently captured. And the resumption of peace talks is widely considered to be something of a humiliating concession for Khartoum because it has settled for weaker pre-conditions before agreeing to restart peace talks.
The Machakos peace talks are held under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority of Development, a seven nation regional grouping of East African countries, of which Sudan is a member. The two warring Sudanese sides are now expected to put down the finishing touches and finalise details and terms of the cease-fire agreement under which the southern Sudanese will enjoy a six-year period of self-rule before deciding in a referendum whether to secede or remain part of Sudan. It will be interesting to see, then, how posterity judges the Machakos process.

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