Rebel disorganisation delays east Sudan peace deal

August 6, 2007 (ASMARA) — Squabbling among east Sudanese rebels and disorganisation in their ranks are hampering implementation of a deal that ended a decade long insurgency, a former rebel leader said on Monday.

The Eastern Front took up arms against Khartoum in the 1990s, accusing it of neglect in an echo of the grievances expressed by insurgents in Sudan’s west and south.

A peace deal mediated by neighbouring Eritrea ended the low-level revolt in October but internal divisions within the group, disputes over posts and lack of political structure have helped cause delays.

“The most important point is that when we started creating the Eastern Front, we didn’t finish the hierarchy, the institutions and the political programme,” said Amna Dirar, a senior Eastern Front official.

Since the deal, the Front has met in Eritrea — which has hosted Sudanese opposition figures for years — hoping to work out divisions over the allocation of positions.

“Self interest has also delayed the implementation of the agreement,” Amna told Reuters by telephone. She said the Front planned to leave the Eritrean capital in mid-August.

The former rebels comprise the non-Arab Beja and the pure Arab Rashaidiya tribes.

A power-sharing clause in the peace deal gave the Front one junior minister in Khartoum, an assistant to the president, an adviser to the president and a number of parliamentary seats.

While government posts were decided based on an ethnic quota, divisions arose when fixing positions within the Front.

“Lacking any clear ideology or political agenda, the first fall-back position is ethnic or tribal loyalties … it creates conflict,” said an Asmara-based analyst.

The east is home to the nation’s largest gold mine and Sudan’s only port. Sudan’s oil pipeline runs there, carrying 500,000 barrels per day of crude.

But it has one of the highest malnutrition rates in the country and has little development.

During the conflict, eastern rebels allied themselves with former southern rebels and those from Darfur. But after insurgents elsewhere signed peace deals with Khartoum, the eastern rebels found themselves in a weaker negotiating position.

(Reuters)