NCP opposed to peaceful resolution for the Darfur Crisis

By Mahmoud A. Suleiman

December 20, 2009 — The Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has assured, in principle, its commitment to the Doha, Qatari mediated peace talks and in full cooperation with the joint UN/AU mediator Mr. Djibril Bassolé provided there is a clear answer to the perpetual question who will be the partners to the negotiations, definition of the role of the Darfuri civil society organisations and a presence of an indisputable road map for the peace process. The Emir of the State of Qatar HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, His Highness Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H.E. Mr. Ahmad Bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud, seemed genuinely committed to make peace in Darfur paid of through successful round of talks! However, the goodwill and confidence building agreement signed between JEM and the Government of National Unity (GONU) of Sudan in Doha on 17th February 2009 remains not honoured by the GONU. The agreement stipulates that prisoners of war (POWs) and political detainees from both sides should be released. It also states that GONU should facilitate the work of aid organizations to deliver food and humanitarian assistance to IDPs in Darfur. Instead the NCP regime expelled the main international Humanitarian Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that used to provide sustenance for the Darfur IDPs and passed death sentences on the Prisoners Of War (POWs) belonging to the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) captured during the unprecedented attack, on Odenamed Operation Long Arm, on the Sudanese National Capital Khartoum in May the 10th 2008, while the movement has fulfilled all terms of the agreement.

Differences are still rife and existing between the parties on the peace efforts made to resolve the issue of Sudan in Darfur as a result of the intransigence of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in Khartoum. This would lead to further suffering of displaced civilians and refugees in the camps as well as to more loss of opportunities to return to their villages and lack of access of their children to Educational opportunities, which will not be compensated even if peace is achieved in the coming months. Therefore the international community needs to exert ongoing pressure on the elements of the NCP regime which tends to listen only to that form of language but never ever to the softly- softly approach adopted by the different envoys, including the current U.S. envoy to Sudan Scott Gration, to the helpless strife-torn war-weary region of Darfur in Sudan. The inherent notoriety of NCP/NIF will continue to follow them like fleas on a dog, but detrimental causing serious impediment to livelihood of the people of Sudan unless the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) implements and acta on the innumerable Major Resolutions it has adopted under the Power of Chapter VII of the UN Charter over the years on the Darfur crisis, sooner than later. The economic interests of some permanent members of the UNSC such as the Peoples Republic China and Russia in Sudan are acknowledged though must not take precedence over justice. The positions of major powers should encompass the atrocities that have been committed in Darfur as amounting to threats to world peace as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The world is tasked to protect, through the international law, the vulnerable individuals who are under oppressive regimes akin to NIF/NCP in Khartoum. U.S. President Barack Obama’s newly launched carrot-and-stick policy aimed at ending the NCP/NIF violence in Sudan’s Darfur region and the semi-autonomous south is unlikely to bear fruits in the foreseeing future. 300000-400000 people were killed and 2.7 million fled their homes between 2003 and 2008 as the National Congress Party paramilitary forces and its ruthless allied militias preyed over defenceless unarmed civilians exploiting pseudoethnic differences. Enough is enough; action before rhetoric is needed. NIF/NCP regime can not be discouraged or deterred by threats of words. History tells us that it’s possible to change the situation in which further progress towards peace seems impossible (the stalemate) in Darfur—if the world leaders have the political will, commitment and concerted effort. This will be speedier in the presence of a clear commitment from the United States, analysts assert.

Roger P. Winter, former assistant administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance for the US Agency for the International Development and former Special representative of the US deputy Secretary of State for Sudan, writing in the Mediterranean Quarterly in 2007 said the following extracts from his article about the NCP: “Sudan’s NCP is controlled by an intellectually capable, radically committed, conspiratorial, compassionless nucleus of individuals, long referred to as National Islamic Front (NIF). In the seventeen years since these individuals came to power by coup to abort an incipient peace process, they have consistently defied the International Community and won. NIF has never paid a price for their crimes. Almost all of them are still in important positions. The NIF core is a competent cadre of men who have an agenda, the purpose of which has killed millions of Sudanese and uprooted and destroyed the lives of millions more. While their agenda is radically ideological, it is equally about personal power and enrichment. They are not at all Suicidal, but they respond only to credible threats against their power and prosperity. The International Community with its limitless posturing and (too often) empty words has, to date, never constituted a credible threat. During the seventeen year reign, the NIF has engaged seriously with critics only once, that being when confronted by a strong Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) and an energetic International Coalition led by the United States of America. The result was the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), a detailed document that ended a 21-year war between the NIF government and the people of Southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile and Abyei. Despite Khartoum’s implementation of the agreement, albeit slowly and selectively, in my view the CPA is now at very serious risk of survival”!

However, the author, Mr. Winter, did not allude to the fact that the elements in the National Congress Party (NCP) who have imposed dictatorship in the name of Islam, and Islam being innocent of their evil acts, do not learn from their repetitive mistakes and never gain an understanding of the lessons that occur around the world where dictatorships collapse, cruel oppressive rulers go to the dustbin of history “Nobody ever shed a tear over their demise” while the formerly oppressed people become free to continue a life in dignity. The calamity of this group, the elements in the NCP regime, is that they build their policies on unfounded arrogance, contempt towards others and complacency all of which blind their ability to see and deafen their insight to listen or acknowledge. The NCP members in the rogue regime do not see the events that have been happening locally, in their region and around the world; their position is akin to what the Holy Qur’an, English Translation of the Meanings and Commentary in Sura 40, Gafir Aya 29, that the Pharaoh of Egypt said to his people: “but I point out to you that which I see (myself) nor do I guide you But to the path of Right i.e. What I have show you what I see and what I guide you but the way of righteousness”! What is certain is that they are mortal sooner or later their party will be over. Nevertheless, the glitter of power and wealth they control without the right, will keep on cheating them to cling on living ‘day by day’ as the popular Sudanese saying goes! They are neither interested in the livelihoods nor in the fate of the Sudanese people. They don’t damn care about the country or its people as long as they are in power even if that is going to be detrimental to the mere existence of Sudan as a state; the end justifies the means is their motto.

1-The NCP is preoccupied with rigging elections to have a mandate and legitimacy to face the ICC. Thus they are not interested in any peace deal that may weaken its grip on power.

2- NCP signed the CPA under presence and a sizable portion of its membership is not willing to implement it leave alone getting into another agreement that may rid them of further power and wealth.

3- The fact that the NCP is meddling with the SPLM and contributing to its splintering ( Lam Akol as an example) and its instigation of tribal wars in South Sudan are a strong move that NCP is not at all interested in peace not only in Darfur but in the whole country.

4- Why NCP keeps insisting on having pure African senior staff in UNAMID and the African mediation? Is it out of Pan Africanism? Has the Riverians ever showed any inclination towards Africa in their history of ruling Sudan for over 5 decades.

5- The NCP is under no pressure to engage in the peace talks with good faith because the joint mediation and the Qataris have no have no real leverage over them.

Has the International Community (UNSC, US, and the rest of the World powers) listened to the voice of reason even for a moment? That is a “sixty-four-dollar question $64 question “!

Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Leader of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]