Eastern Sudan Front: Quiescence at war & discordance in peace (2)

By Mohamed Ibrahim

June 25, 2007 — The Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement (ESAP )signed in October 14th last year in the Eritrean capital Asmara between Government Of Sudan (GOS) and the Eastern front (EF) had silenced the low scale insurgency in the Sudanese –Eritrean borders , but the real conflict is yet to start Mohamed Osman Ibrahim continues his argument ….

The NCP didn’t try to hide its strategy of incorporating the EF issue in the security negotiations suitcase with Eritrea. Its senior officials stated it publicly but stood short from confronting the EF leaders when they encounter them with this degrading stunt until May 2006 (the same month President El-Bashir declared his government approval to the Asmara negations) . A GOS senior official met with a group of Eastern Sudanese activists as Abu Mohamed Abu Amna described it in www.sudaneseonline.com/ar /article_11671.shtml “the GOS official amazed the audience when he revealed that the Eastern- Sudan’s issue had been sorted out between the two countries …he emphasized that Eritrea had an interest to improve things with Sudan …he mentioned that the talks would not take longer & will only be of a formalization kind) .In fact no one should be amazed by the NCP man’s revelation . It was the secret that everyone knows.

GOS never felt threatened by the EF neither politically nor militarily .The NCP officials followed the tactic of starving the EF from the educated cadres by offering those (potential cadres) with better alternatives or maintaining close security monitoring on them .The Ala group did the same as GOS to the educated cadres by maltreating them & pushing them to escape. In that atmosphere educated were labeled as opportunists & unequipped to cope with the difficulties of the armed struggle.

In this occasion it’s worth-mentioning the real joke emerged from a conversation between some of the BC Central Committee (BCCC) members. One member enthusiastically kept asking for a 4 literate cadres to be attached to his department .Another responded impatiently to this request by saying “hang on there; we don’t have 4 literate members in the BCCC .You better forget about your department “! The sour repartee said it all.

With the Naivasha agreement and Abuja negotiations with Darfur rebels, some of the Beja activists in Port Sudan (mainly from the large Ommar Aar tribe) felt that their people might get sidelined in the new redistribution of the power & wealth .They infuriated the government with their excessive political activities until January the 26th 2006 when the GOS committed a massacre by shooting more than 25 innocent Beja(s) to death.

The incident attracted wide condemnation but the government was defiant. NCP power broker Kamal Obeid who was in Cairo at the

time ,declared the government’s move to investigate the matter but he described the armless protesters as “very aggressive and the police fired in self defense”. Instead of consoling the victim’s families, the government detained some 60 Beja activists in a prison almost 2000km far from their hometown Port Sudan.

Bearing in mind the importance of Port Sudan for the lucrative oil industry the GOS opted for compensating the Beja & the EF with a saving face solution. The move was propelled by the GOS Beja members who were embarrassed by the Port Sudan massacre. The Relations between GOS and the Ethiopian government were wearing thin because of the Addis Ababa occupation of a large fertile land in el-Gedarif state & its expanding US-backed regional exercises.

The GOS is always get paranoid by the US activities, so it’s better to sort out everything & minimize the Yankee’s chances of having a pretext to intervene from the East.

On the other hand Eritrea was in a situation! A part from its need of the oil from its booming-with petrol revenues neighbour and its need to secure its 600 kilometers bordering tape with Sudan, Asmara needed to be released from the Sudanese opposition burden to address some other challenges.

Let us read from Dr. Jan Pronk’s blog “the increased tension between Ethiopia and Eritrea may result in a third war between these countries in four decades. This too would have major consequences for their common neighbor, and in particular East Sudan. UN agencies have already started preparations for a massive inflow of refugees”.

Highly regarded researcher John Young wrote in his paper mentioned in part (1) of this essay ; that ” a major obstacle to Eritrea launching a war against Ethiopia to regain the lost territories is the need to ensure that its western borders with Sudan is secure. And that border can only be made secure by the imposition of a radically different government in Khartoum than at present (in the short term that appears unlikely), or reaching a peace agreement between the EF and the GOS”.

In addition to that Eritrea’s relations with the international community are not at their best; on the contrary they are at their worst since the independence of the beautiful country in 1991. With the expulsion of the UN peace keepers(US , Canada, Russia troops) from the borders area with Ethiopia, the growing tensions with the US & the decrease in the international aid, apparently Asmara made its mind to deal positively with the realities of Geography and History .It’s hard to see an Eritrean person without affectionate reminiscences from Sudan.

In this sense it’s good for the Eritrean Government to win its peoples hearts in this crucial time.

In summary both Sudan & Eritrea are in need of each other .All is Greek to the poor EF so, let the negotiations start.

The highly discreet Eritrean Government obviously didn’t disclose the game’s regulations to the all parts involved .Every one was silent on the issue of the international guarantors to the agreement but not Abdella Musa (the self-installed EF spokesman in Sudan ) .He told Alsahafa Arabic daily www.alsahafa.info/index.php?type=3&id=2147499222 that they are insisting on international guarantors to their future agreement with GOS . He named the UN & Britain as potential guarantors. The interviewer asked him ” why international guarantees?” and he replied “because of what happened to the Khartoum Peace Agreement , the reason of its failure was the absence of the international guarantees , at the same time what made the Naivasha succeeds is the international community “.

Abdella Musa is one of the most influential Beja leftist activists .He is belonging to a well connected family .He spent a great deal of his time advocating for the labour movement as a trade unionist and a communist. In my only encounter with him I was amazed to hear him urging for a transformation in Sinkat village politics from a tribal conflict to a type of conflict that might involve labourers vs. employers or so. A man with such great talents is not welcomed to the glory of the EF .Later on, the EF guardians made him learn that.

It’s conspicuous that Mr A.Musa’s statement was not in harmony with the elusive EF agenda. During the Concordis International seminar in Asmara the EF chairman stated that they will not negotiate with the GOS without international guarantors and he promised transparent talks, but he was just talking.

When the real negotiations started; a bunch of new leaders emerged in the hallways. They talked to journalists and took some funny titles. One used to describe himself as the head of wealth-sharing committee while another one was tipped by his compatriots to take care of the same very file.

What infuriated the Omar Aar tribe in the Red Sea is the fact that they haven’t been represented in the EF negotiating delegation. In Port Sudan they were not in good terms with the government. They felt that they have forced the GOS to the negotiation table with the EF by their active work and protests in Port Sudan.The resentment amongst their elite was extraordinary.

Some of the Omar Aar members accused Eritrea of implanting some of its citizens from the Tigre tribes in the EF to act as Fifth Columnists in the negotiations and in the future power sharing.

Exactly as the NCP senior official predicted when he met with Eastern-Sudanese activists in Europe, the negotiation went on very smoothly and a quick agreement was reached in October the 14th last year. No one hailed the agreement like the Eritrean Ministry of Information’s website which described it as historic.

Eritrea held a ceremony and some dignitaries attended. In the ceremony EF Chairman Musa Mohamed Ahmed dedicated long passages of his speech to praise Eritrea, struggling with the reading of the pre-written remarks he conveyed the message of allegiance to Eritrea rather than anything else.

Not every one was happy with the outcome but many waited until the distribution of the booty.

Mohamed Jameil Ahmed was not among the waiting for the booty group. The brilliant Beja writer, poet and novelist was the first to study the agreement and speak out his mind about its loopholes. He wrote an outstanding critique in Arabic with the title (Asmara agreement: a just settlement or an intermittent tactic).He mentioned that the agreement appeared to be a settlement for the two regimes differences rather than a just settlement to the Eastern Sudan crisis.

While some of the Omar Aar tribesmen are accusing Asmara of serving the Tigre tribes interests at their expense, Mr. Jameil had another point of view. He wrote “what happened in Asmara was a margin for maneuvering, polarization & rearranging of the exchanged cards between the two regimes at the expense of the real interests of the East of Sudan citizens in general & against one of the population blocs of the area: the Tigre in particular ).

He went on describing the EF as an umbrella organization comprising movements carrying symbolic names while in fact they are serving tribal interests. The FLO represented the Arab Rashaida , the BC represented the Hadendowa and the Atmun (Ommar Aar ) but no real representation of the Tigre, he wrote.

Jameil described the Tigre activists who participated in the negotiations as names admitted by the (pressure and compromise) of the two regimes.

He mentioned many of the Tigre grievances to be neglected by ESAP and described the Tigre as the biggest loser of the political game “the substantial proof for that is the effects of the war took place between the government & the opposition in 1997 in Southern Tokar area which inhabits the Tigre who had been forced to flee more than 20 villages & centres between Garora & Marafit. This people had never been resettled, compensated or even accommodated in temporary camps around the big cities. They are still living with their kin(s) without any kind of support from the government or humanitarian aid agencies), he wrote.

The Beja tribes are mainly the Hadendowa, Ommar Aar, Beni Amir-Habab (the Tigre) and some other six groups. The biggest Hadendowa component (the Jamilab headed by influential Betai family), ninety percent of the educated & affluent Ommar Aar and the highly organized Tigre are not happy with the outcome. Some are regrouping for yet another split and reorganization on tribal and racist basis. The EF will deploy a couple of thousands soldiers in Eastern Sudan obviously to guard its gains but no doubt this troops will poison the atmosphere of the political conflict and might lead the armless to acquire this kind of new political tool.

The NCP with its strong newly acquired support within the Beja people will monitor the EF activities closely and would save no effort to have them in hand. The stigmatizing campaign against the EF troops is already in place.

In this bleak & tense situation one could only hope that all parties involved will stick to the democratic means in solving any future differences.

* The author is Sudanese based in Australia. He posts regularly articles on the political situation in different Sudanese Arabic language websites. He can be reached via his blog http://mohamed-ibrahim.blogspot.com/