Devil in the details
Sudanese peace talks resumed in Kenya this week with a special focus on marginalised regions, writes Gamal Nkrumah
Peace talks between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the country's largest armed opposition group, resumed in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday 4 March. Hopes are pinned on the Sudanese peace talks, scheduled to last for two weeks, for an end to the Sudanese civil war which erupted in 1983. The talks are taking place under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD), a regional organisation that includes seven East African countries, including Sudan. The main initiator of the Sudanese peace talks has been the United States, working mainly behind the scenes and in conjunction with IGAD.
The talks, taking place in the Nairobi suburb of Karen, are divided into two parts. The first, which is scheduled to continue for roughly two weeks, is chaired by the Kenyan government. The focus of the discussion will be three regions, generally acknowledged as being part of northern Sudan, that the SPLA says are politically marginalised, economically disadvantaged and underdeveloped -- the Nuba Mountains in southern Kordofan, the Abeyei region in western Kordofan, and the Angassana region of southern Blue Nile. In deference to Khartoum, discussions of these three regions fall outside the IGAD mandate.
The Sudanese government has strongly objected to involving IGAD in what it considers a sensitive domestic issue, insisting that the three regions are part and parcel of northern Sudan and therefore should not be subjected to interference by the SPLA. The SPLA counters that it has strong popular support in these three remote and peripheral regions.
The Nairobi talks come under the framework of the Machakos Protocol signed between the Sudanese protagonists last July. Major differences were ironed out at Machakos, and much ground has been covered on the issue of self-determination for southern Sudan. Under the Machakos Protocol, the Sudanese government agreed in principle that the southern Sudanese should hold a referendum on secession after six years of power-sharing in a government of national unity. Much controversy remains, however, in the precise nature of power and wealth sharing.
Criticisms are levelled at both the SPLA and the Sudanese government for not including other Sudanese opposition forces in the peace talks, particularly the Sudanese umbrella opposition organisation, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which includes the SPLA. Leading members of the Sudanese northern opposition groups insist that the Sudanese central government at the federal level must be subject to secular, not religious law. Machakos only guarantees secularism in the southern parts of the country.
"There have been serious violations of the memorandum of understanding on the cessation of hostilities signed last November," Farouk Abu-Eissa, the head of the Cairo-based Arab Lawyers Union and official spokesman for the NDA told Al-Ahram Weekly. Fighting continues intermittently in many parts of the country, Abu-Eissa stressed. Meanwhile, major political problems remain. The pivotal question of the separation of religion and the state has not been resolved. Fighting between Sudanese government forces and opposition groups broke out in a fourth remote area this week -- the Mara Mountains of Darfur, Sudan's westernmost province.
Wealth and power sharing in a post-war situation are other serious stumbling blocks to peace in Sudan. The SPLA demands 60 per cent of Sudanese oil wealth but Khartoum has offered only 10 per cent. The SPLA also wants 40 per cent of all Sudanese government posts, but Khartoum has offered only 20 per cent. These sticking points, together with Khartoum's insistence that the national capital remain under Islamic Shari'a law and not secular law, have enraged southern Sudanese.
Northern Sudanese from remote and impoverished regions also feel politically marginalised. They, like their southern compatriots, want to be part of the decision- making process in Sudan. Much of the current spate of fighting in western and eastern Sudan is because of the grievances of the locals.
At the current Nairobi talks, Idris Abdel-Kader, the Sudanese minister of state for peace affairs, heads the Sudanese government delegation while the SPLA delegation is led by Salva Kiir, the number two man in the SPLA and deputy of Dr John Garang, SPLA leader.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki is delegated by IGAD to act as chief mediator. His special envoy to Sudan, Lieutenant General Lazaro Sumbeiywo, described the talks as "promising". Kenya, a leading member state of IGAD, has over the years earned the trust of both the SPLA and the Sudanese government as an unprejudiced mediator and peace facilitator. The Sudanese government, however, has reservations about the impartiality of some other IGAD member states, most notably Eritrea, where the Sudanese opposition NDA is headquartered. Khartoum does not want issues pertaining to the Nuba Mountains, the Abeyei and Angassana regions discussed under the auspices of IGAD.
The peace initiative brokered by IGAD focusses on southern Sudan and not on these three regions, but the SPLA, with Washington's approval, stipulates that the Sudanese peace talks include the three regions as well. The SPLA concedes that even though these three regions are not technically part of southern Sudan, nevertheless, they constitute part of the Sudanese war zone and problems pertaining to the war in these areas should be addressed in the context of the Sudanese peace talks. Khartoum prefers to view the Sudanese conflict as a north- south issue, or as a "southern rebel versus central government" problem, as Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail described the war on the eve of the Nairobi peace talks.
Khartoum, however, is keen to involve IGAD in the broader topics of discussion regarding a peaceful resolution to the Sudanese conflict. After a two-day break, the second part of the Sudanese peace talks scheduled to take place in Nairobi on 22 March will be chaired collectively by IGAD and not just the Kenyan government. The main topics to be discussed will include wealth and power- sharing, security matters, the status of the Sudanese capital Khartoum and the disputed borders between northern and southern Sudan. The SPLA insists that the current borders demarcating northern from southern Sudan were deliberately drawn by the Sudanese government in order to include much of the oil-producing areas in the north. The south produces most of Sudan's newfound oil wealth and southerners feel that they have not profited from the revenues the Sudanese oil exports generate.
"The problems of these three regions are economic and developmental in the main," Ambassador Hassan Abdel- Baki Sudan's representative at the Arab League told the Weekly. "Certain individuals from these three regions have joined the rebels and train in military camps and fight alongside the rebels," he explained. "But, the majority of the population in these areas want to seek solutions to their economic problems and do not want war," the Cairo-based Sudanese diplomat said. He added that the official Sudanese delegation at the peace talks included many delegates from the Nuba Mountains, Abeyei and Angassana regions.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 6 - 12 March 2003 (Issue No. 628)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/628/re1.htm