SLM/A Open letter to the World on Darfur Peace Agreement

May 2, 2006 (ABUJA) — Peaceful settlement to the conflict in Darfur is one of our vital objectives. The clear solution is for us to seize this historic opportunity to achieve peace and begin the task of recovery and reconstruction. Yet, it will be hard to reach enlisting peace unless there is a fair and equal access to political and economic power that is based on regional autonomy, equal political and economic representation, compensation and security.

We believe that the African Union (AU) and the International Community did great efforts to help us achieve a just and comprehensive peace agreement. However, the fruits of our five moth negotiations resulted in a very disappointing outcome. We have not accomplished even our minimum negotiation positions. With respect to all this, the African Union has no full and clear mandate to deal with the Darfur conflict.

The African Union (AU) has developed to localizing and resolving conflicts on the African continent. Its premise is that the original conception of the United Nations with regard to regional diplomacy, as expressed in the UN Charter, involved permissive concession to regionalism. Chapter VII of the UN Charter does not explicitly involve fundamental reliance upon regional organizations as important pillars of the world system. Within the context of the UN Charter, however, regional organizations were to handle frontier disputes and other issues of regional concern. Disputants in a regional conflict were to exhaust local remedies in accordance with Article 33 and were encouraged to resort to regional arrangements for peaceful settlement of conflicts before approaching the UN. In this regard, relations between regional organizations and the UN system were, therefore, envisioned to complement and not necessarily to supplement each other.

Although the UN Charter provides that interstate disputes and conflicts of regional character should be settled within the framework of Articles 33, 51, and 52. It is generally acknowledged that some regional organizations, such as the African Union (AU), have weak constitutional powers and limited financial, material, and political resources that will not allow them to handle conflicts like the Darfur conflict. This is not to suggest that the African Union (AU) should not have a built-in capacity to relieve the UN off the burden of handling intraregional conflicts, especially in promoting the doctrine of “Try the AU first”. Significantly, at the inception of the African Union (AU), there was no specific mention of specialized regional institutions for peace settlements and security concerns as envisioned in both Articles 51 and 52 of the UN Charter. The AU, however, conforms to both Chapter VII and Article 51 of that Charter.

As the above mentioned, the African Union (AU) has no full mandate to act effectively to resolve the Darfur conflict. We can observe this clearly in the African Union (AU) troops on the ground in Darfur. They always claim that they can only report the ceasefire violations and they do not have the mandate to protect civilians. Due to such excuse, they failed to protect our civilian populations from the atrocities of government troops and its Janjaweed militias. Similarly, they (AU) failed to address or even pay attention to our negotiation positions which we believe that might help us to reach a just and comprehensive peace agreement.

Accordingly, we are hesitant to sign a peace treaty that drafted by the African Union on 1 May 2006. We believe that to reach a comprehensive peace agreement, we need an autonomous region that shall unify Darfur and carry more political weight than the current existing three states. Also, we require a fair representation that shall realize a third vice president, from Darfur. Compensation is crucial for our victimized people. So, individual victims of genocide should be compensated.

Finally, we ask for guarantees that those who have been displaced by government forces and its Janjaweed militias will be safe when they return back to their homes and guarantees that the government will disarm its militias that have been unleashed on our civilian population in Darfur. Thus, the solution is for us to seize this historic opportunity and achieve regional autonomy, equal representation, compensation and security for our people. In doing so, we will be able to attain a just and comprehensive peace which in turn, will begin the task of reconciliation, recovery and reconstruction in Darfur. So, we appeal to you to assist us to achieve this endeavor.

– Jaffer Monro,
Spokesman & Press Secretary
– Sudan Liberation Movement/Army
– Email: [email protected]
– Abuja GSM – +234-806-591-4551