Feature: Peace process in Sudan advances on tortuous road
December 16, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The chance of realizing a comprehensive peace in the conflict-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur is still slim in spite of government efforts on talks with rebel groups while another crisis between Khartoum and southern Sudan remains unsolved.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday welcomed an agreement reached on Dec. 12 between the Sudanese government and south Sudan on key outstanding issues to pave the way for a return of the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) to the unity cabinet.
Earlier on Dec. 11, Sudanese Presidential Assistant Nafie Ali Nafie reiterated the government’s readiness to held peace negotiations with Darfur rebel movements at any time set by the mediators of the United Nations and the African Union (AU).
In fact, peace process in Sudan advanced on tortuous road in 2007.
Terming 2007 as “the year of peace,” Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir has hoped that the underway peace talks between the government and Darfur rebels in Libya’s coastal city of Sirte be the last round before a peace agreement is finalized.
At the beginning of the year, Al-Bashir’s government showed a strong determination to push forward the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) it signed with only one main rebel faction on May 5 but refused by other rebel groups in the region.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) announced on Jan. 4 to start implementing the security arrangements stipulated by the DPA in a bid to enhance the stability and overcome the security tensions in the region of France’s size.
Only three days later, a conflict erupted between al-Tarjam andal-Zrigat tribes in South Darfur State, leading to the killing of 12 persons.
Since then, various violent activities, especially the attacks launched by anti-government militants and conflicts between local tribes, have been obstacles to efforts seeking to bring the stability to the whole region.
Meanwhile, relations between the Sudanese government and a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Mini Arkou Minawi, the only faction which has signed the DPA, have witnessed some tensions, which reached the peak during a street fighting between the police and members of Minawi’s faction in Khartoum on March 30, in which seven SLM members and three policemen were killed.
The ties between Khartoum and the international society have also witnessed some changes, following President al-Bashir’s April16 agreement upon the third phase of a three-phased plan put forward by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to enhance the international peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
When the third phase, which is well-known as “Heavy Support Package”, is completed, a 7000-strong African Union (AU) peacekeeping force existing in Darfur will be replaced by a hybrid peacekeeping force, which will be much bigger in size and more mobilized and well-equipped.
A bloody assault on Sept. 29 by unknown gunmen on a base of the AU peacekeeping force at Haskanita, some 200 km east of Niyala city in South Darfur State, signalled a warning to the international society that the peace and stability in the war-torn region could not be achieved only through the hybrid peacekeeping operation.
Both the UN and the AU have blamed the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) for the Haskanita incident, in which the AU peacekeeping force had suffered the most serious loss with ten soldiers being killed and seven others injured since they came to the region in 2004, but the JEM had refuted the blame.
Due to the mediation efforts of the UN and the AU, which were reached the high tide when UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon paid a historic visit to Sudan on Sept. 3-6, the parties concerned agreed to resume the Darfur peace negotiations on Oct. 27 in Libya’s tourist city of Sirte.
But the absence of the main rebel faction, including Abddul Wahid Mohammed Nour, the founder of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), and JEM led by Khalil Ibrahim, has overcast the prospect of the Sirte negotiations.
The Sudanese government and eight rebel faction participating in the peace talks have withdrawn their chief negotiators from Sirte, leaving some low-ranking members there to symbolize the continuity of the negotiations.
As the peace process in Darfur dragging on, the former southern rebel SPLM movement announced on Oct. 11 surprisingly a decision to suspend the participation of its ministers in the central government to protest over what it called a “procrastination” of the implementation of the peace deal.
This is the most serious crisis for the Sudanese Government of National Unity since it was established in September, 2005, in an accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
According to the CPA, a referendum will be conducted in southern Sudan in 2011 after a transitional period of six years in order to decide whether the area will stay inside Sudan to maintain the voluntary unity or to announce an independence.
Following hard talks between the two sides, President al-Bashir and First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit, who is the Chairman of the SPLM, have both disclosed that most of the pending issues between the two sides had been ironed out following four meetings between them except the issue of the oil-rich Abiye enclave.
In his address at a recent general conference of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), President al-Bashir reiterated that his government and the ruling party had no intention to go back to the war in southern Sudan.
He called for “an effective political partnership” between the NCP and the SPLM in order “to consolidate the pillars of the peace, reinforce the voluntary unity and increase the opportunities for other parties to take part”.
After attending a meeting of African countries neighboring Sudan on Dec. 4 in Egypt’s Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh, Jan Eliasson, UN secretary general’s special envoy, arrived in Khartoum next day to continue mediation efforts to push forward the peace process in Darfur.
The UN envoy met with the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)-Unity leadership and field commanders on Dec. 9 after he traveled to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) announced in a statement.
He “encouraged them to continue and intensify efforts to unite positions and come together on a common negotiation platform” in preparation for the participation of the rebel groups in the peace talks.
Eliasson said earlier that a hard task lies ahead in bringing peace to the western Sudanese region in view of a proliferation of armed groups.
“The military escalation on the ground, in Darfur, and outside Darfur, and outside Sudan continues. We have clashes, we have a very fragile humanitarian situation,” he added.
But Khartoum is optimistic about solution to the Darfur problem.
After a meeting with Eliasson recently, Sudanese Presidential Assistant Nafie told reporters that he discussed with the UN envoy the arrangements for the coming round of talks with rebel movements in Darfur and ways to unify their position in order to make the next negotiations a success.
(Xinhua)