Westerns initiatives that miss the point, a WMD-free Middle East and peace prospects in Sudan -- Dina Ezzat, in three separate articles below, leafs through the agenda of the forthcoming Arab summit
Doing their bit
Has the time come for a nuclear-free Middle East?
A one-day meeting for Arab investors and officials that took place in the Arab League on Friday adopted a set of resolutions that could provide Sudan with much needed financial and technical support for the upcoming task of peace and development building. Some 200 Arab investors of different fields, members of the Sudanese government, and representatives of Arab development funds attended the conference.
Convened a few weeks before the widely predicted mid-March peace deal between the Sudanese government and its long time rival the Sudan Liberation People's Army (SPLA), the Arab conference on investment and development in southern Sudan called on Arab countries to write off $10 billion of Sudanese debt. At the upcoming Tunis Arab Summit on 29 March the Arab League will present this recommendation officially. Arab League sources confirmed that with a final Sudanese peace deal expected around 11 March, Arab countries have to demonstrate solidarity with their southern neighbour before the regular renewal of US sanctions on the country.
According to the July 2002 Machakos Protocols that set in motion the current peace process between the Sudanese government and the SPLA, the peace deal would be followed by a six-year interim period and then a referendum in southern Sudan to decide whether to maintain the unity of the country or split it into a northern Arab state and a southern non-Arab one. The Sudanese government and Arab officials argue that the best incentive for the population in the south to vote for unity is to offer long- overdue development assistance to the southern Sudanese who claim that successive governments in Khartoum have treated them as second-class citizens. "To cancel the Sudanese debt to Arab countries is a serious effort on the part of Arab states to alleviate the huge financial burden that the new Sudan will have to worry about in view of the huge developmental projects that will have to be implemented within the coming six years," said Samir Hosni, head of the Arab-African cooperation department in the Arab League.
The one-day meeting provided an opportunity for Arab governments to offer a general review of the projects they wish to finance, especially in the southern part of Sudan. While no specific deals were actually signed, initial understandings were reached on a number of projects including agricultural products and the oil industry in particular. "The objective was not to get governments and businessmen to sign contracts in a one-day event but rather to get Arab investors to learn about the huge, and largely unexplored, opportunities that they could have in Sudan," Hosni explained.
A follow-up committee is being formed to facilitate regular contact between the participants and to ensure that deals are actually reached and implemented. This committee will also be in charge of arranging a second meeting planned for spring of this year where the SPLA, who were not represented at Friday's event, will be present. "The Arab League had intended to invite representatives of the SPLA but it did not upon the request of the Sudanese government," one Arab League source said. According to this source, the Khartoum government argued that until a peace deal is reached, the SPLA belonged to the political opposition and should not be present at an official meeting.
Meanwhile, the Arab League will be working closely with Arab governments and development funds to create an investment guarantee fund for Sudan to help attract Arab and foreign investments. "We are actually working to establish this fund but we would very much welcome a helping hand from our brothers," said Al-Amin Dafallah, secretary-general of the Southern Sudan Development Fund. "Obviously, the real and strong guarantee for investments in Sudan is peace and [an] end to all hostilities and this is coming round the corner."
But peace in Sudan, Sudanese officials argue, is not just about signing a deal. It is rather about making development opportunities accessible to every Sudanese person, particularly in the south where there is an unmistakable sense of neglect and oppression. "We do believe that the task of development in Sudan is an effort for which we can get help from our Arab brothers [at] the official and governmental levels," argued Suleiman Tikknah, Sudan's minister of international cooperation. Tikknah appreciates the $180 million projects that are currently being implemented, in particular the Arab funds allocated for the construction of the first modern highway, "the peace road", to connect the north and south of the country. "But there is so much more that could be done by Arab businessmen," he said.
According to Dafallah, getting Arab investment to Sudan is a win-win position. "Yes there is an interest for the Sudanese people, but there is also an unmistakable interest for the Arab businessmen who are already facing increasing international competition especially when it comes to the oil industry," he said.
Providing funds is not the only way in which Sudan is expecting its Arab neighbours to support its effort for peace, development and unity. Technical assistance is also required. The Arab League says it is already working on a scheme to provide Sudan with Arab expertise. "We are trying to secure governmental and non- governmental technical support to help with the rehabilitation and development of individual skills of Sudanese citizens," Hosni said. He added that skilled and trained Sudanese workers could have an important role to play in the development of their country, especially in the early phase of the massive development plan that the Sudanese government, with its new ruling partner from the SPLA, is about to adopt once peace is reached.
A number of Egyptian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with a traditional interest in Sudan are already working with the hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees in Egypt. Egyptian and other Arab NGOs are expecting to meet with representatives of the new Sudanese government to draft a plan of action for individual skill development in southern Sudan. "We are not sure about the date yet, but it will be sometime in the late spring or early summer," Hosni said.
In addition to its efforts to provide financial and technical assistance, the Arab League is also engaged in supporting the talks aimed at reaching a peaceful resolution of the 20-year armed conflict between the Khartoum regime and the SPLA. To this end it is currently involved in talks to put an end to the war between the government and rebels in Darfur. "We are working on the political and developmental aspects of peace and unity in Sudan," Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said in his closing remarks to the Arab Conference on Investment and Development in Southern Sudan. He added, "This [has proven] a winning strategy that we intend to keep on pursuing."
