Issue No.608
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17 - 23 October 2002 Issue No.608 Region |
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Elusive Sudanese peace
Sudanese peace talks resumed in Kenya amid strained regional relations and an escalation of fighting, writes Gamal Nkrumah
The Sudanese government and the country's largest armed opposition group, the Sudan's People's Liberation Army (SPLA), resumed peace talks in the Kenyan hill resort of Machakos on 14 October. The resumption of the talks is set against the backdrop of mounting tensions in the Horn of Africa region. Old rivalries and traditional animosities are rearing their ugly heads, even as mediators are attempting to explore every possibility of working out a lasting resolution to the Sudanese political impasse.
The main impetus for a peaceful settlement to the Sudanese crisis, however, seems to be emanating from Washington. The problem, regional observers warn, appears to be that Washington wants to impose its own perspective of peace ó often narrowly defined by its oil interests as Sudan begins to drill its considerable oil potential.
The United States House of Representatives passed a resolution on 7 October condemning Sudan's human rights violations and urged US President George Bush to impose sanctions against Sudan if it does not comply with international standards of good governance and democracy and negotiate with the SPLA "in good faith." Prominent US public figures have spoken out strongly against the imposition of Islamic Shari'a laws, which they say impinge on the political rights and civil liberties of both Muslim and non-Muslim Sudanese, urging the Sudanese government to accept a rewriting of the Sudanese constitution so as to guarantee civil liberties in Sudan. Penalties suggested by the US Congress if Khartoum does not comply include the downgrading of diplomatic relations and the restriction of the Sudanese government's access to the country's oil revenues.
The Sudanese authorities reacted angrily and dismissed the US Congress resolution, saying that it was instigated by the Zionist lobby and hard-line Christian fundamentalist forces. "Sudan is not a US state," warned Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir. Still, the Sudanese president pledged to uphold the interim peace accord signed in Kenya in September. Under the Machakos protocol, the tentative memorandum of understanding signed by the Sudanese government and the SPLA in Machakos, the southern Sudanese people will decide in a referendum after a transitional period of six years whether or not to secede.
The Machakos peace talks are held under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority of Development (IGAD), a seven-nation regional grouping of East African countries, of which Sudan is a member. But, the main mover behind the scenes in Machakos has been the US, which is pressuring both of the warring protagonists in the Sudanese conflict to accept a full peace agreement before the end of the year. Fighting, however, has escalated as both the SPLA and the Sudanese government want to strengthen their respective positions at the negotiating table in Machakos. The SPLA in conjunction with its allies within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the umbrella opposition organisation grouping the SPLA and other mainly northern Sudanese opposition parties headquartered in Asmara, have advanced on several strategic garrison towns in eastern Sudan.
One dangerous development is that regional powers are being dragged into the Sudanese conflict. Sudanese officials say that Eritrea, an IGAD member state, is arming and militarily assisting Sudanese opposition forces. Sudanese opposition figures retort that Sudanese officials better hold their tongues. "These irresponsible remarks are like pouring oil over the fire. These statements poison the air and are meant to arouse people's suspicions. They are unsubstantiated," Farouk Abu Eissa, the head of the Cairo-based Arab Lawyers Union and official spokesman for the NDA, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "These statements sadly lead to more political polarisation, and might even provoke war between neighbouring countries," Abu Eissa added.
However, the Sudanese authorities insist that Eritrean support accounted for the Sudanese armed opposition's recent military advances. "The Sudanese forces are holding several Eritrean troops as prisoners of war," Prof Ahmed Abdel-Halim, the Sudanese ambassador to Egypt told the Weekly. Ambassador Abdel-Halim said that the Eritreans were the main instigators of the latest eruption of violence in eastern Sudan. "The Eritrean prisoners of war are proof of Eritrea's involvement in the aggression."
Both the Eritreans and the Sudanese opposition deny the charge. "There is absolutely no tangible evidence that there are Eritrean soldiers involved in the latest round of hostilities in eastern Sudan," he said. "Otherwise, why don't they parade them before the cameras and try them in public," Abu Eissa demanded.
In an unprecedented regional development, Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh met with his Sudanese counterpart Omar Hassan Al-Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in the Yemeni capital Sanaa for a summit meeting that observers suspect has a hidden agenda of containing the perceived threat from neighbouring Eritrea. All three countries accuse the Eritrean authorities of instigating violence and disturbances in their respective countries.
Yemen accused Eritrea of violating its territorial integrity in 1996 when the two countries went to war over the ownership of the Red Sea islands of Dahlak and Hanish. And, recently tensions have flared up between the two Red Sea neighbours. Ethiopia, too, charged Eritrea with territorial aggression in 1998, and the two countries fought a bloody border war which lasted for two years. Sudan, which has in the past also accused Eritrea of territorial aggression, recently renewed its charge that Eritrea was involved in the fighting between Sudanese government and armed opposition forces in eastern Sudan that led to the fall of Homeshkoreib, a garrison town not far from the Eritrean-Sudanese border.
Conspicuously absent from the Sanaa summit was Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki, who sees the threat of war from a different perspective. The Eritrean government hotly denied the Sudanese charge. The Eritrean ambassador to Egypt Mahmoud Omar Chirum told the Weekly that Eritrea is deeply concerned about the upsurge of tension in the Horn of Africa and that it wants to work with its neighbours to iron out differences and defuse tensions in the region. He said that he handed a message to Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa from the Eritrean Foreign Minister Ali Sayed Abdallah. Ambassador Chirum also said that he handed a similar message to Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher. Sudan, Somalia and Djibouti are members of the 22-member state Arab League, but Eritrea has resisted attempts by Arab states to make it a member of the pan-Arab organisation.
"The summit, convened at the behest of the Sudanese authorities, is hostile to Eritrea. The emergence of the tripartite against Eritrea is detrimental to regional peace and stability," Ambassador Chirum told the Weekly.
Apart from the perceived Eritrean threat, the Sanaa summit also focused on the upcoming Somali national reconciliation summit scheduled to be convened in Kenya next week. The US-led international fight against terrorism also featured prominently at the summit.
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