Sudan’s 2 Sides Take Big Step Toward Peace: A Security Pact
By MARC LACEY, The New York Times on September 26, 2003
NAIVASHA, Kenya, Sept. 25 – One of Africa’s longest-running and deadliest wars took a major turn toward peace today as the government of Sudan agreed to withdraw most of its troops from the rebel-held south of the country and begin integrating its soldiers with those of the rebels in a unified army.
The accord between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army will take years to come to fruition, even without setbacks. Still, the security agreement signed today at this Kenyan resort was heralded as the most significant step toward peace since fighting began in 1983.
On a continent torn by nasty conflicts, the war in Sudan has long stood out as particularly vicious.
Two million people, mostly civilians, have died from bullets and bombs as well as war-induced disease and famine. Those who have survived have faced untold suffering in a country that is rich in oil resources but nevertheless as poor as any on the continent.
The religious dimension of the conflict – the north is Islamic and most of the southern rebels belong to the Christian and animist minorities – has turned the war into a pet cause of many American religious conservatives. African-Americans have expressed outrage about government-backed militias’ practice of taking southerners into forced servitude.
Responding to the outcry, the Bush administration has pushed hard since its earliest days for an end to the war. A lasting peace in Sudan would enable the White House to claim victory in stabilizing a mostly Muslim country at a time when Iraq appears more chaotic by the day.
Administration officials have made it clear that Sudan will remain isolated, with sanctions in place and limited diplomatic relations, until there is peace.
Gen. Lazaro K. Sumbeiywo, the Kenyan mediator who has led the talks for the last 18 months, called the pact “a clear demonstration that the Sudanese have jointly decided to cross the bridge of peace together.”
Today’s deal builds on an agreement signed in July 2002 in Machakos, Kenya, that set forth the outlines of Sudan’s future. A referendum is to be held in six years to allow those in the south to decide on unity or independence. Until then Sudan will have a transitional government and army.
According to the security deal, the Sudanese government is to scale back its forces in the south from the current total of more than 100,000 to 12,000. The rebels are to withdraw their forces from areas in the north. Sudan is Africa’s largest country in land area, larger than France, Germany and Spain combined.
Both sides in the conflict will contribute troops to an integrated force. In southern Sudan each side will contribute 12,000 soldiers to the joint force. In two disputed areas, the Nuba Mountains and the southern Blue Nile, the government and the rebels will each contribute 3,000 troops to a combined unit.
The movement of troops is to be completed within two and a half years after the signing of a comprehensive peace accord, which is still in the works. The security deal was considered a major hurdle, but other difficult issues remain.
Sudan is one of the countries that straddle the divide between sub-Saharan Africa and the continent’s predominantly Muslim north. Religious strife is common, as the explosive riots of Nigeria show. The religious and cultural divide is most pronounced in Sudan, which has been at war for much of the last half-century, since it gained independence.
Still unresolved is how to apportion political power between the government and the rebels. One proposal would leave Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir as Sudan’s president – he seized power in a coup in 1989 – but install the main rebel leader, John Garang, as vice president.
That would leave open the question of what to do with Ali Osman Muhammad Taha, an influential Muslim hard-liner who now has the post of first vice president.
Another difficult issue is the status of Khartoum, the capital. The government insists that Khartoum remains an Islamic city, ruled according to the Shariah, the Islamic legal code. But the rebels are pushing for a Shariah-free capital that acknowledges the country’s diversity.
One resolution being discussed would create an administrative zone within Khartoum in which the Shariah would not be in force.
The most challenging issue of all may be how to share the country’s oil wealth. Sudan, which now produces 250,000 barrels a day, took in $1 billion in oil revenue in 2002. But production is expected to drop off unless there is increased exploration, which requires an end to hostilities.
As it is, three Western oil companies have sold their interests in Sudan in the last year, partly as a result of pressure from human rights groups concerned about abuses around the oil fields.