Issue No. 613
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21 - 27 November 2002 Issue No. 613 Region |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | |||
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Third time lucky?
Sudanese peace talks ended on a sombre note this week in Kenya, for prickly issues were hurriedly postponed to the next round of peace talks, writes Gamal Nkrumah
The latest round of talks between the Sudanese government and the country's largest armed opposition group, the Sudan's People's Liberation Army (SPLA), ended this week in failure in spite of the tremendous pressure exerted by the United States on the Sudanese protagonists to iron out their differences and sign a peace deal. To begin with, the venue of the talks moved from provincial Machakos to the Kenyan capital Nairobi. After a month's break, ostensibly because of the run-up to the Kenyan presidential and parliamentary elections in December, the Sudanese peace talks are scheduled to resume in Kenya on 16 January 2003 for a third round. Many thorny issues remain unresolved, and the Sudanese government and the SPLA agreed to defer several key issues to the January round.
Two issues -- power-sharing and the apportioning of Sudan's oil wealth -- dominated discussions. While the SPLA initially insisted that it receive 85 per cent of oil revenues, the government said that the SPLA was to have only 15 per cent.
The modalities of power-sharing proved to be equally difficult to resolve. According to Sudanese government officials, the SPLA reluctantly agreed to the government proposal for the formation of a government of national unity. "We put forward a proposal for the creation of a government of national unity which will include not just the SPLA but all major opposition forces," Ambassador Hassan Abdel-Bagui Sudan's chief envoy to the Cairo-based Arab League told Al-Ahram Weekly.
The SPLA also clashed with the Sudanese government over the post of the vice-president. "The SPLA position is that the vice- president from southern Sudan could assume the office of president in the event of the presidency falling vacant, but Khartoum refused to budge on the issue, saying instead that another Sudanese government-appointed northerner should replace a northern president," Yassir Arman SPLA official spokesman told the Weekly.
Another bone of contention was over the Sudanese capital. The SPLA insisted that Khartoum, as national capital and federal territory, be declared a secular zone where Islamic Shari'a laws are not applied. The government refused point blank to grant the SPLA that specific request.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the umbrella opposition organisation grouping the SPLA and other mainly northern Sudanese opposition parties wants the entire country to be declared a secular state. Khartoum only conceded to the exemption of southern Sudan from the Shari'a. "They are squabbling over trivial issues such as who is going to be president and who's going to be vice-president. Their quarrel is over the boring details, instead of focusing on the political future of Sudan," Farouk Abu-Eissa, the head of the Cairo-based Arab Lawyers Union and official spokesman for the NDA told the Weekly.
"Sudan is a multi-religious, multi-racial and multi-cultural country. Sudan should, therefore, be declared a secular state. Eligibility for public office, including the presidency, public service, and the enjoyment of all political rights, should be based on citizenship and not religion," Abu-Eissa added.
Many Sudanese political commentators are unhappy with the nature of the talks. They feel that the Sudanese peace discussions should not be restricted to the warring protagonists but should be expanded to include the major political forces in the country -- and especially the NDA and the Umma Party. All forces across the Sudanese political spectrum must be included, argued Abu-Eissa. "You cannot form a government of national unity when only two parties -- the government and the SPLA -- are to decide the country's political future.
The Sudanese 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 United States is the main motivational force behind the peace talks in Kenya. Italy, Norway, UK and US acted as special observers at the talks.
Khartoum is especially aggrieved because US President George W Bush signed into law the Sudan Peace Act on 21 October. Under the Act, Washington pledged to provide $100 million a year in assistance to areas outside Sudanese government control.
American critics of Washington's Sudan policy include no less important a figure than Nobel Peace Prize winner former US President Jimmy Carter who warned against Washington's long-term commitment to overthrowing the Sudanese government and stated publicly that the US government policy on Sudan has been the biggest obstacle to peace in the country. Carter is on record as stating that Washington's Sudan policy "reinforces SPLA intransigence" at the negotiating table.
Still, many observers remain cautiously optimistic about chances for peace in Sudan. "There are now new circumstances and developments which could favour an agreement on a comprehensive political solution," former Sudanese prime minister and leader of the opposition Umma Party, Sadig Al-Mahdi told the Weekly. The Umma Party pulled out of the NDA a couple of years ago. But like the NDA, the Umma Party has been somewhat ambivalent about the July deal between the Sudanese government and SPLA giving southern Sudan a six-year self-rule period followed by a referendum to establish southern Sudanese self-determination.
In a separate development, the vice-chancellor of the University of Khartoum ordered the university, Sudan's oldest institution of higher learning to be closed indefinitely. Violent clashes between Islamist pro-government and secularist pro-opposition groups erupted on 22 October. Police intervened in what began as celebrations marking the 35th anniversary of popular upheaval that overthrew the military dictatorship of Ibrahim Aboud. But, matters took a turn for the worse last Thursday. Angry anti- government students hurled stones and Molotov cocktails and used knives in pitch battles with police and pro-government student groups.
The University of Khartoum, where 18,000 students are enrolled, is a traditional hotbed of opposition to the Islamist regime in Khartoum. Students, and especially University of Khartoum students, have spearheaded mass protests against military regimes in the past. The Sudanese government was, therefore, ruthless in its suppression of the student protests. "Government troops forcibly entered the main mosques on campus in pursuit of students who sought refuge there. The government troops desecrated the mosques, beating up the congregation and the imam," Abu-Eissa told the Weekly.
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