Darfur ceasefires: Khartoum pledges are lacking credibility, , Mr. Konaré!
By Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman
December 31, 2007 — African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Alpha Oumar is Konaré reported to have told journalists that the government of Sudan (GOS) announced a cease-fire and he asked the rebels to do the same to see if the government is sincere. In other words, it is to test the credibility of the government. Mr. Konaré is either out of touch with the relentless prevarication and the rhetoric that emanate out to the media from elements in the government of Sudan or he is trying to insulate the Khartoum regime from pressure to respond to key demands and requirements made previously by the UN Security Council. The AU needs to exercise more balanced approach coupled by impartiality treating the GOS and the Darfur rebels equally if chances for successful resolution of the Darfur crisis is sought. The AU chief Mr. Konaré is well aware that the AU Ceasefire Commission and the African Union denounced time after time air bombardment by the government of Sudan (GOS) warplanes of rebel held localities in Darfur in blatant violation of ceasefire agreements jeopardizing efforts for durable truce in the region.
There have been ceasefire agreements in Darfur since the N’djamena Humanitarian Cease Fire Agreement on the 8th of April, 2004, between the Government of Sudan(GOS) , the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Sudan Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) under the auspices of His Excellency, Idriss Deby, President of the Republic of Chad, but they were openly flouted. Reporting the statement by SLM founder Abdelwahid al-Nur that the Sudanese army air and ground attack against rebel positions in West Darfur state killing four civilians, Sudan Tribune rightly said: “Sudan’s government had declared an immediate unilateral ceasefire at the opening of Darfur peace talks in Libya on Saturday October 27, 2007. Dozens of cease-fires have been announced and then breached by Khartoum or the rebels since 2003”. In an urgent communiqué, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) stated that armed forces of the Khartoum regime raided the AU headquarters at EL-Fasher on Saturday 29/12/2007 and abducted the remaining coordinators of Justice and Equality Movement in the Ceasefire Commission (CFC) and the Joint Commission and took them to an unknown destination. Representation of JEM to the CFC was established in accordance to the Addis Ababa Ceasefire Agreement. It is onerous on the AU leaders and the Head of the Hybrid force to take a tough uncompromising stance and secure immediate release of JEM Representatives to the CFC.
The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Khartoum regime’s security elements should be held accountable for not meeting its obligations noted in the UN Security Council Resolution 1556 (2004). Mr. Konaré needs to face up to the realities and reflect to learn few lessons from the blunders made by the Mediators in the recent past. Perhaps he recalls Darfur peace mediators’ pledge to begin negotiations in Sirte, Libya, on October the 27th 2007 despite boycott by two major rebel groups. The result was, as expected, a total fiasco. The main factor for the failure was that the mediators, AU Salim Ahmed Salim and Jan Eliasson, the U.N.’s special envoy to Darfur, adopted the policy of bringing every single individual, several splinter factions of JEM and SLA who had no mandate along with the groups who were created by the government of Sudan into Sirte to negotiate a new peace. Hopes to achieve a political settlement before the planned deployment to Darfur of a 26,000 strong joint AU-U.N. peacekeeping force in January have been shuttered.
The AU Commission Chief may need to remind the regime’s president Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum, he is due to meet, that the deployment of the Hybrid force (UNAMID) specified in UN Security Council Resolution 1769 is not necessarily being made all Africans as the National Congress Party (NCP) government claims. Observers say the Au should take the imitative of having an equal number of non-African troops from the developed world who meet international standards in the planned hybrid AU-UN Peacekeeping force in Darfur to share their expertise and competence both of which would contribute positively to the stabilization of the situation in Darfur in its political, humanitarian and security. People of Darfur, however, welcome the suggestion by Mr. Konaré that the two billion dollars currently being spent on the peacekeeping force could be better spent on infrastructure in Darfur such as schools and hospitals.
In the wake of renewed escalation of aerial bombardments of civilians by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), the people of Darfur urge the international community to pressurize Khartoum to facilitate the deployment of the Joint AU-UN peacekeeping force to curb the ongoing violence against the civilians with the view to create conducive environment for prospective peace talks.
According to IRIN In-Depth the January 2002 Nuba Mountains cease-fire agreement brokered by the US and Swiss governments, managed and monitored by a Joint Military Commission (JMC), comprising representatives from both the government and the SPLM/A and an international monitoring presence, including military and civilian staff was a success. Observers wonder why the ceasefire agreements for which the African Union (AU) formed a Ceasefire Commission (CFC) to monitor observance of the putative ceasefire are without success?! The answer to this Sixty Four Dollar ($64) question has been offered by the author of the report, Murphy: Among these successes, he includes: establishment of an international presence in such a politically sensitive area; cessation of hostilities and a reduction in violence; removal of the long-standing humanitarian blockade; and arrest of the alarming decline of the food security situation in SPLM/A-controlled parts of the mountain region. Pan-As early as April 5th 2005 Pan African Development (PAD) urged the African Union (AU) to extend the mandate of its soldiers to include the protection of civilians in Darfur. Unfortunately, AU force is only allowed to use force to protect themselves or civilians in their vicinity. On occasions, they even failed to protect themselves and/or the representatives in the Ceasefire Commission (CFC) as has happened last week.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]