Sudan peace implementation raises concern – Eritrean comment
Feb 12, 2006 (ASMARA) — An editorial published by the Eritrean Ministry of Information’s Shabait website on 11 February said the inadequate handling of the peace agreement signed with the SPLM is causing grave concern.
According to the SPLA leaders, the SPLM has not yet had a say in the policy-making decisions despite the power sharing agreement that was concluded and that the southern region is being cheated out of its fair share of the oil profits, the text said.
The comment draw attention to the fact that Khartoum’s “unwillingness” to solve eastern and western Sudan crisis seems to be threatening to draw back the newly-gained positive developments.
It says Sudanese government must show strong and sincere efforts to keep alive the peace process and prevent its receding without achieving a lasting solution. Peace deal should be honoured and maintained, and the government and the political parties should work responsibly to settle their differences.
Below the full text of the comment :
The Sudanese Reconciliation Process: An Issue Requiring Strong and Sincere Efforts
Feb 11, 2006 — Ever since independence in 1956, the Sudanese nation the largest country in Africa and richly endowed with natural resources- is still unable to experience peace and tranquility due to the lack of an all-inclusive political approach and economic inequality between different areas. In their attempt to segregate and isolate the peoples of the southern Sudan, the eastern and western Bejas and the Darfur region- a group which makes up 52% of the country’s population- successive Sudanese regimes had plunged Sudan into a terrible civil war and political turmoil which lasted for a long time and claimed the lives of around two million people.
Being one of the major problems in Africa, the Sudanese internal crisis had affected not only the Sudan itself but the entire east African region as well. Thus, neighboring countries and the international community as a whole had significantly contributed to the efforts to fi nd a lasting political solution for the country’s internal conflicts. Eritrea , being a neighboring country and having fraternal and historical ties with the Sudanese people, is one of the nations that had vastly contributed both individually and through IGAD- to the Sudanese reconciliation process. It is to be recalled that Eritrea had initiated the peace proposal drafted in 1994 to find a solution to the conflict. The proposal, known as the “Asmara Declaration” later on provided the basis for the Naivasha Agreement.
Last year’s agreement between the Sudanese government and the southern opposition parties to share power, as well as the government’s agreement to hold talks with some of the northern political parties, were welcome developments that gave a new hope to the people and states that had been exerting relentless efforts to help establish peace and harmony in Sudan. However, the concerns the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) have been voicing regarding the inadequate handling of the Naivasha Agreement is causing grave concern. According to the SPLA leaders, their party has yet not had a say in the policy-making decisions despite the power sharing agreement that was concluded and that the Southern region is being cheated out of its fair share of the oil profits. Other northern Sudanese parties also voice similar complaints regarding the deliberate plots engineered by the Sudanese government to exclude them from the decision making process. Moreover, the Sudanese government’s unwillingness and political unprepared ness to talk about possible solutions to the problems in Darfur and Eastern Sudan seems to be threatening to draw back the newly gained positive developments. The government’s attempts to weaken the different opposition parties by creating conflicts among them are also having similar negative effects on the peace process.
Hence, strong and sincere efforts are needed on the part of the Sudanese government and the various political parties in the country to keep alive the peace process and prevent its receding without achieving a lasting solution. The agreements reached in Naivasha should be honored and maintained, and the government and the political parties should work responsibly to settle their differences. And Eritrea , realizing that peace in Sudan is not only in the interest of the Sudanese people but also that of Eritrea ‘s, is ready as ever to contribute to efforts to keep intact the positive developments already scored in the Sudanese peace process and finding solutions to other unresolved problems.
(ST)