Civil Society Demands War Crimes Probe
Joyce Mulama
NAIROBI, Dec 10, 2003 (IPS) — Sudan’s fledgling civil society organisations are demanding the setting up of a truth and reconciliation commission as soon as the final peace agreement between the government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army is signed.
The agreement, expected to be signed by the end of the year, seeks to bring to an end Africa’s longest-running conflict, which erupted in 1983.
The organisations, which met in Nairobi on Dec. 6, under the New Sudanese Indigenous NGOs Network (NESI), say such a commission would be a perfect mechanism for ensuring reconciliation in a country that has witnessed appalling human rights abuses since 1983.
More than two million people, mostly in the south, have been killed since 1983. And about four million persons have been displaced, and another half-million have fled abroad, mostly to neighbouring countries.
“The TRC will act as a tool for bringing harmony, co-existence and forgiveness among the people of Sudan,” remarked Suzanne Jambo, coordinator of NESI.
Jambo says debate on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has begun in earnest. “We are educating the people about it. We already have a mechanism in place, like south-south dialogue, where we are trying to unite warring factions in the south, preaching about peace and reconciliation,” she says.
Jambo’s remarks coincided with the arrival in Kenya of Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha and SPLA leader Col John Garang for what could be the final round of peace talks in Naivasha, a town some 85 kilometres from the capital, Nairobi.
The two men’s presence in Kenya has been described by Sudanese civil society as a show of commitment about “reconciliation, including the idea of TRC”.
“The SPLA supports formation of a TRC and we are going to negotiate with the government of Sudan. If they agree, fine. If they do not, we cannot enforce it,” Deng Alor, member of SPLA delegation told IPS in a telephone interview this week.
But the idea of a TRC seems to be new to the government. “I’m not aware about such a commission,” said a source at the Sudan Embassy in Nairobi, who requested anonymity. “What I know is that the two leaders are meeting to settle controversial issues in this round of talks that is very crucial and critical.”
Taha and Garang have been locked up in a one-on-one meeting since Dec. 7. They are expected to resolve sticky issues of wealth and power sharing which have proved to be a major hurdle in reaching a peaceful settlement in the Horn of African nation.
Security arrangement was another obstacle to the peace process but was resolved Sep. 24 when the two leaders, meeting for the first time then, signed the pact. It spelt out an integrated army of 24,000 troops: 12,000 from the rebel movement and the other 12,000 from the government during the six-year transitional period.
Players in the peace negotiations, which began in Kenya mid last year under the auspices of Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), are hopeful that the current meeting will culminate into a concrete peace that will see an end to the suffering of the people of Africa’s largest nation.
IGAD comprises Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Uganda and Sudan itself.
“The meeting between the two leaders signals a commitment to end hostility between the south and north, and is a step towards achieving a lasting peace,” Gen Lazarus Sumbeiywo, IGAD mediator, told IPS.
A commitment to a peaceful Sudan was also displayed Dec. 5 when Yassir Arman and Pagan Amun, both of SPLA, visited the Sudanese capital of Khartoum for the first time in 20 years.
“Before achievements of the on-going peace talks, it was a punishable offence, a big crime for any SPLA leader to go to the government-controlled area,” said Alor, who is also governor of the SPLA-held Bahr el Ghazal region in South Sudan. “This shows change of heart by the government, which is giving the Sudanese hope for a warless nation.”
Hopes for peace heightened when U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, visited Kenya in October. While in Naivasha, he urged the warring parties to sign an accord by the end of this year. The United States, Italy, Norway and Britain are IGAD partners, observing the talks.
Sudan’s conflict has been fuelled by animosity between the Arab Muslim north and Black Christian south since the country’s independence from Britain in 1956.
Sudan only enjoyed an interlude of peace from 1972 to 1983, following the Addis Ababa Accord in 1972, brokered by the All Africa Conference of Churches and World Council of Churches.