Ironing out the differences
Khartoum looks to Cairo to throw a lifeline, and Egypt readily obliges, reports Gamal Nkrumah
On Sunday, President Hosni Mubarak received his Sudanese counterpart for bilateral talks in Cairo. Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Beshir briefed Mubarak on a number of issues of mutual interest. Al-Beshir is making a final push to persuade the southern Sudanese people to sign a peace deal to end Sudan's civil war. He needs all the assistance Egypt can muster.
Al-Beshir's visit reflects the growing political ties that bind the two countries. Mubarak visited Khartoum last April and bilateral relations have improved considerably in the past three years after the ouster of the former speaker of the Sudanese Parliament Hassan Al-Turabi, Sudan's chief ideologue of militant Islam.
The Egyptian-Sudanese summit comes at a time when the peace talks in Naivasha, Kenya, between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) -- the largest and most powerful armed opposition group in the country -- have reached a most delicate, make-or-break stage.
"Egypt has never been isolated from the Sudanese peace process," Egypt's Minister of Information Safwat El-Sherif told reporters in Cairo. "Egypt's aim has been to achieve peace and stability and stop the bloodshed while preserving a goal which is loftier, broader and more far-reaching -- that the agreement should lead to a voluntary union between all the [Sudanese] parties, [northern and southern]." El-Sherif said Egypt had pledged to "continue to push and follow up on the peace process".
The Sudanese president concurred with Mubarak that a final Sudanese peace deal must pave the way for northern and southern Sudan to stay together in "voluntary union". Egypt, which has played a relatively minor role in the peace talks, has staked a claim to a big role in the socio-economic reconstruction of southern Sudan.
Egypt's main concern is the protection of its share of Nile waters, the only source of water for most of the country. Egypt fears that the southerners will be given a chance to break away from the Arab and Muslim-dominated northern Sudan, which might potentially complicate Egypt's quest for water security.
Egypt and Sudan have inched closer politically in the past two years. The two countries need each other as never before and are working on drafting a new set of bilateral agreements that would lay the foundation of comprehensive integration. Egyptians and Sudanese would be granted the right to visit, live, work and own property in each other's countries. The drafts are scheduled to be ready for review by 15 February.
El-Sherif added that the summit also dealt with the situation in the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict, the future of Iraq, and some of the African continent's most important economic and political issues.
Both the SPLA and the Sudanese government have come under intense pressure from the United States to conclude a peace deal. Khartoum feels that the US, the European Union and neighbouring non-Arab African countries are sympathetic to the SPLA cause. Khartoum therefore is "seeking the support of Egypt and other Arab states at the negotiating table", explains Cairo University political science professor, Iglal Raafat.
"Egypt is poised to play a pivotal role in Sudan after a final peace agreement is signed between the Sudanese government and the SPLA," Raafat told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail had said immediately before the Egyptian-Sudanese summit that Mubarak and Al-Beshir would focus on developments in the Sudanese peace talks in Kenya. The talks are taking place under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) -- a regional grouping of seven East African countries which includes Kenya and Sudan but not Egypt.
Egypt, however, has been offered observer status at the Sudanese peace talks. Still, Cairo has felt sidelined in the past, and has indicated that it would like to play a more prominent role in the Sudanese peace process.
Egypt declined to accept observer status at the IGAD-sponsored peace talks in Kenya for two reasons, Raafat says. "First, Egypt felt that its special relationship with Sudan necessitates a bigger role than mere observer status. And secondly, Egypt harbours grave reservations regarding self-determination for southern Sudan, which Cairo fears might lead to secession and a break-up of Sudan."
The Sudanese government has indicated that it would also prefer to see Egypt play a more decisive role in the peace process. Egypt has a vested interest in fostering a stronger sense of national unity in Sudan.
The Sudanese president said that he was keen to update his Egyptian counterpart on the progress of the current negotiations in Kenya. He said that he acknowledged Egypt's "pivotal role" in the Sudanese peace process, and was banking on Egyptian support for Sudan. The Sudanese president added that he wanted to review the situation in the "African and Arab region" with President Mubarak.
Al-Beshir's visit to Cairo comes at a time when talks between the Sudanese government and the SPLA are facing serious difficulties. There are important differences in perspectives and perceived interests between the Sudanese government and the SPLA. These differences threaten to obstruct the two sides from reaching a final peace agreement that would end a conflict that has been raging for the past two decades. The Sudanese conflict, Africa's longest-running civil war, has ended the lives of over two million people.
A stumbling block has been the disagreement over the final status of three disputed regions that straddle the borderline area between northern and southern Sudan: Abyei, southern Kordofan; Ingassena or the southern Blue Nile region; and the Nuba Mountains region of Kordofan. The Sudanese government insists that Abyei -- predominantly populated by ethnic Dinka who want to join their tribal kin in southern Sudan -- continues to be administered as part of northern Sudan.
The SPLA, however, wants Abyei to be administered as part of southern Sudan. The SPLA also wants the people of the Nuba Mountains and Ingassena to be granted the right to self- determination.
This is not the first time that Egypt and Sudan have agreed to improve the mechanisms of integration between the two states. But this is the first time that the interests of the southern Sudanese have been taken seriously into account. Raafat said that previous integration plans were foiled because they were dependent on governments rather than on grassroots and popular foundations.
SPLA Spokesman Yasser Araman told the Weekly that even though talks concerning the three areas have run into difficulties, he expected a solution to be reached in the coming few weeks. Araman said that a final Sudanese peace agreement could only be reached when the status of the three disputed regions is determined, and other differences between the Sudanese government and the SPLA are resolved. He expressed his conviction that these differences can be ironed out.
