Bashir forms higher body to follow-up peace in Darfur
May 2, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese president Omer al-Bashir has formed the High Follow-Up Committee for Peace in Darfur (HFCPD) to oversee the implementation of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) after criticisms of the government’s slowness to release funds necessary to enforce the deal.
Tijani el-Sissi head of Darfur Regional Authority (DRA) on Monday met in Doha with the head of international follow-up committee of the DDPD Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Mahmoud to discuss ways to ensure funds needed to launch the implementation of the peace agreement.
Sudanese government is facing economic difficulties after the independence of South Sudan but also dedicating all its resources to fight rebel groups active in South Kordofan. Since last April Khartoum also mobilizes efforts to confront South Sudan after a brief occupation of Heglig.
Last week, Sissi briefed the Sudanese parliament that the finance ministry failed to secure 200 million dollars the government is committed to allocate for the implementation of economic projects and to repatriate IDPs and refugees as well as to hold different initiatives agreed between the parties.
President Bashir in a presidential decree issued on Wednesday appointed himself as chairman of the HFCPD which is tasked with the implementation and the follow up of the DDPD and to coordinate the actions of the different authorities at the national and regional levels.
Bashir also appointed First Vice-President Ali Osman Taha and DRA Chairman as two deputies to oversee the activities of the 20-member committee.
He also reformed the office of Darfur peace follow-up headed by state minister at the presidency Amin Hassan Omer to include representatives of finance, defence, and foreign affairs ministries among other.
The office is charged with preparation of plans and propositions to the HFCPD but also has to follow up the implementation of presidential decisions. On the other hand it is also tasked with contacts with rebel groups willing to join the peace process.
Amin Hassan Omer was Sudanese government top negotiator in the Doha peace process.
Darfur regional authority was planning to hold a dialogue conference and other activities with the displaced, refugees in Chad and other people affected by the conflict in western Sudan which started in 2003.
The DDPD was signed in Doha by the government and the former rebel Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) of Tijani al-Sissi on 14 July after more than two years of talks. The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) was part of the process but rejected the deal.
Since JEM, and two main factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) who were not part of the Doha process joined the Sudan people’s Liberation Movement – North which fights Khartoum in South Kordofan since June 2011.
The four rebel groups formed an alliance in November 2011, Sudan Revolutionary Front, aiming to topple Khartoum based regime.
UN reports from Darfur signal the decrease of violence against civilians and fighting between the government and rebels groups who moved their troops to South Kordofan where they fight besides the SPLM-N.
However, the IDPs complain from the lack of humanitarian assistance as the government encourages international donors to invest in development projects stressing the displaced should now quit their camps.
(ST)