Light at the end of the tunnel
The Sudanese government and its chief armed opposition group finalised an agreement on security that is designed to end Africa's longest-running conflict, writes Gamal Nkrumah
Sudanese Vice President Ali Othman Taha and John Garang, the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the country's largest armed opposition group, concluded an agreement on military and security arrangements in Sudan that covers a six-year interim period, after which the people of southern Sudan will vote in a referendum on self-determination. Last week's agreement is widely seen as a major precursor to peace in Sudan.
Under the security agreement, signed in Naivasha, Kenya, 80 kilometres northwest of the capital Nairobi, the bulk of the Sudanese government forces will vacate southern Sudan -- the main theatre of the Sudanese civil war. The Sudanese government forces will essentially be deployed only in the northern part of the country -- but a few contingents of government troops will remain in certain southern garrison towns and the southern regional capital Juba. Meanwhile, a modest contingent of SPLA troops will be stationed in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. The two armies will initially maintain autonomy, but gradual steps will be taken to amalgamate them into a single national army.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Beshir hailed the signing of the security agreement as an important milestone and said that he hoped that the Sudanese people will celebrate a final peace settlement before the end of the year. The Sudanese president said that "90 per cent of the outstanding questions" have been resolved.
The long-awaited historic accord that will formally end the 20 year-long conflict, Africa's longest running, has not yet been signed, but the biggest stumbling blocks have been removed and the remaining hurdles are not insurmountable. The Sudanese government and the SPLA have agreed to extend for another two months a truce signed last February, but a final comprehensive ceasefire has not yet been signed.
The two sides are, however, scheduled to resume talks on 10 October. Taha and Garang will again head their respective delegations. There is much diplomacy to be undertaken before then. Indeed, Taha arrived in Cairo on Tuesday for consultations with the Egyptian authorities. Taha briefed President Hosni Mubarak on the latest political developments in Sudan. Mubarak lauded the progress in the Sudanese peace talks and Cairo is especially keen to comb through the finer details of the security agreement. Egypt was the first stop on a tour that would take Taha to a number of Arab and Western capitals.
The United States is especially keen to end the Sudanese conflict because it hopes that Sudan's considerable, untapped oil reserves can be exploited by US oil companies. Washington, which has been pressing the protagonists to negotiate in good faith, has welcomed the progress in the Sudanese peace negotiations. To encourage the Sudanese government to reach a permanent peace settlement with the SPLA, Washington indicated that it would lift sanctions imposed on Sudan during the administration of former President Bill Clinton, when Sudan was declared a state sponsoring terrorism. The US had previously threatened to tighten sanctions if the Sudanese government did not seriously commit itself to ending the Sudanese civil war. Washington has also put pressure on the SPLA to cooperate fully in the Sudanese peace process.
Garang too welcomed the signing of the security agreement, stressing that he was looking forward to returning to his house in Khartoum. The SPLA leader spoke of the deeply-rooted ties that bind the peoples of northern and southern Sudan.
However, there are concerns among certain segments of the Sudanese population that reprisals against northerners living in the South will ensue once the bulk of the Sudanese government forces vacate the garrison towns in the South.
They fear that with this withdrawal, law and order will collapse and that angry Southerners will embark on vicious campaigns of ethnic cleansing and revenge killings against resident northern Sudanese.
Northern Sudanese merchants in southern Sudan, in particular, are anxious about their peacetime fate, given the possible confiscation of their property in the South by the SPLA.
The Sudanese peace talks are taking place under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD), a regional organisation comprised of seven East African countries including Sudan.
African Union Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare hailed the landmark agreement and congratulated Taha and Garang "for the sense of compromise and commitment they have displayed".
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the umbrella opposition organisation grouping the SPLA and other mainly northern Sudanese opposition parties that has been excluded from the talks, has tentatively welcomed the security agreement. But major political figures want more inclusive peace talks.
"We welcomed the signing of the security agreement, but the SPLA and the Sudanese ruling party [the National Congress] are not the only two Sudanese political groupings. For lasting peace in Sudan all the other political groups in Sudan must be brought into the peace process. They must have a say in the political future of the country," Farouk Abu Eissa, the head of the Cairo- based Arab Lawyers Union and official spokesman for the NDA, told Al-Ahram Weekly.
"The political and economic reconstruction of Sudan must be founded on a new basis, one which takes into account the multi- religious and multi-cultural make-up of the country. Civil society groups -- including labour unions, independent professional associations and opposition political parties -- must be involved in the peace process. The state of emergency must be lifted," he added.
Among the pending issues are the fate of three politically marginalised and economically disadvantaged and underdeveloped regions -- the Nuba Mountains in southern Kordofan, the Abeyei region in western Kordofan, and the Ingassena region of southern Blue Nile. The SPLA says these should be administered as part of southern Sudan because there is overwhelming support for the SPLA in the three areas. The Sudanese government objects, stressing that they are part of the North historically and geographically.
Another bone of contention is the status of Khartoum. The SPLA insists that as a national capital Khartoum should be administered as a secular federal area. The Sudanese government argues that because Khartoum is situated in northern Sudan it should be governed by Islamic Shari'a laws.
