Sudan rulers look unwilling to share power – Analysts
By Amil Khan
Sept 5, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s ruling elite looks unwilling to share power with former southern rebels, despite agreeing to do so in a January peace deal to end Africa’s longest civil war, analysts and diplomats say.
“It seems at the moment that they might be trying to set up a shadow government as advisers inside the presidency,” a western diplomat in Khartoum told Reuters. “The signs aren’t good that they are serious about power-sharing.”
The ruling National Congress Party and the former rebels are expected to announce a new coalition government in the coming days as part of a deal to share power and wealth between the Arab elite concentrated in the north and non-Arabs in the south.
But some say the government only signed the peace deal to stop the civil war.
“They were interested in silencing the guns and that’s it,” said Alfred Taban, chairman of the board of directors of the English-language daily Khartoum Monitor.
The peace deal allows the south a referendum on secession in six years time.
Fighters in the western Darfur region of the country launched a separate rebellion in early 2003 complaining of marginalisation and official neglect of their areas.
Rebels in the east have also fought government troops.
The government says it wants rebel groups to enter the political process but Darfur rebels say the government is trying to stop the fighting without implementing real change.
The government will begin a sixth round of peace talks with the Darfur rebels on Sept. 15. Khartoum also says it is ready to talk to the eastern rebels.
INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE
Some analysts say the government has to be forced to stick to its agreement to share power and wealth with the former southern rebels whose leader John Garang died in a helicopter crash in July to be replaced by his deputy Salva Kir.
“There is a need to bring in the international community and the pro-democratic opposition, including political parties and other local organisations,” said David Mozersky, senior Sudan analyst with the International Crisis Group (ICG).
He said the government would have to be pushed to put the peace deal into action. “They won’t do it themselves.”
The new government was due to be announced on Aug. 9 but Garang’s death delayed the process.
Sudanese analysts said the government also needed to become accountable and transparent to convince many non-Arabs of the benefits of unity.
“Local groups that work in human rights, education, poverty eradication need to pressure the government, said Faisal Mohamed Salih, editor-in-chief of al-Adwa daily newspaper.
“They need to make the government respond to the needs of all the people,” he added.
One western observer said the government understood it needed to abide by the commitments of the peace deal to restore its standing in the international community. Sudan, a budding oil producer, faces a number U.S. sanctions.
“They know what they have to do. It remains to be seen if that is what they will do,” the observer said.
(Reuters)