Too many initiatives and absence of peace in Darfur

By Mahmoud A. Suleiman

September 14, 2008 — The political scene in Sudan has seen and witnessed a plethora of initiatives put forward for the resolution of the five-year or so conflict in Darfur especially in the wake of the recently deteriorating security situation across Darfur and in the aftermath of the indictment by the Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, seeking an arrest warrant for the President of Sudan Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, who he believes “bears criminal responsibility in relation to 10 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes”. Mr. Ocampo says he has the evidence that for over five years, armed forces and the Janjaweed carried out well coordinated attacks, destroyed villages, uprooted millions of civilians from their lands, killed the men and raped the women on the orders of Mr. al-Bashir. Accordingly, the Sudanese President has become the first sitting Head of State to be charged by the ICC.

To name a few of the initiatives, we begin with the one President al-Bashir and his ruling National Congress Party (NCP) government has launched under the banner ‘the Sudanese People’s Initiative’ to remedy the situation in Darfur. The initiative was claimed to aim to hold a general conference to end Darfur crisis by inviting all the Sudanese political forces and the different components of Darfur including the non-signatories rebels to participate in it. Paradoxically, the regime’s president continues using his sloppy language full of volatile rhetoric for bullying purposes. This initiative has been dismissed by Darfur rebel movements, namely, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) as a proposal aimed at defusing row with the International Criminal Court. The most recent initiative comes from the Arab league in which Arab League foreign ministers decided on Monday to establish a committee headed by Qatar and including Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Syria, Libya and Egypt to sponsor peace talks between the rebels and Khartoum. This has been out rightly rejected by the representative bodies of the people of Sudan in Darfur indicating that the Arab League ignored the Darfur crisis as it considered the citizens of Darfur are of an African descent in the face of the Khartoum government’s onslaught at innocent unarmed civilian population five years on. Moreover, the Arab League was biased and fully supported the Khartoum government at all diplomatic and international forums. The Justice and
Equality Movement JEM) spokesperson Ahmed said “We are waiting for the Arab League to condemn the atrocities happening on the ground, such as what the government of Sudan did in Kalma,” referring to the recent attack by government forces on the Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) camp in Nyala, South Darfur State that left more than 30 civilians dead and several seriously injured. The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) also rejected the league’s initiative, claiming it was timed to support Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in efforts to delay potential charges from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and genocide in Darfur. Whereas the Sudanese Media Centre, a news website close to the Intelligence and security services, praised the league’s efforts and quoted presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail as welcoming the meetings. No wonder, the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) welcomed the initiative of the Arab League for peace between the Sudanese government and the armed movements in Darfur.

Earlier, there have been number of peace initiatives which included the British Muslim Darfur Peace Initiative led by Lord Nazir Ahmad joined by renowned journalist Yvonne Ridley and Syed Lakhte Hassanain of the humanitarian group Muslim Hands in which the delegation was trying to “bring together tribal leaders, rebel groups, civil-society, IDP [Internally Displaced Persons] representatives, political parties and Darfur’s ‘silent majority’ as they stated. They also pledged that they wanted to establish an agenda and a venue for a conference and that their visit will be followed with two or three more. Furthermore, Lord Ahmed’s delegation thought that “Darfurians are intelligent enough to work out their own troubles and find what’s best for them.” Lord Ahmed was quoted as saying that the British Muslim peace initiative is independent of the British government. Moreover, was reported as saying “We are not trying to tread over anyone’s efforts. We believe, as we work ‘bottom-up,’ we can meet UN and AU efforts who work ‘top-down.'” While journalist Yvonne Ridley was quoted as have told IOL “There will be opposition from groups with their selfish interest that want Sudan to be unstable,”

Among the initiatives, was that of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu head of ‘Elders’ delegation t that included former UN envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi, US ex-President Jimmy Carter, and Graca Machel, a children’s rights advocate and the wife of Nelson Mandela that arrived in Sudan in an effort for bringing a new peace initiative for Darfur. At the time of the visit, an attack on an African Union army base in Haskaneeta, Northern Darfur region has killed at least 10 peacekeepers.

Marshal Abdul Rahman Suwar al-Dahab, a retired Sudanese military general, who led a military coup that deposed Nimeiri also attempted to broker a peace initiative for Darfur. No significant success has been achieved through his proposals.

The AU commission chairman Jean Ping said, during his visit to Khartoum, that the regional organization (African Union) is drawing up a list of top lawyers to investigate Darfur war crimes in response to the ICC move. The people of Sudan in Darfur responded by saying: “This is the 21st century, Mr. Ping! The African Union (AU) should cease being a club for dictators. It is too late, too little, advise your al-Bashir to face the predicaments of his reprehensible actions in Darfur and comply with the ICC.

From the list above there have been innumerable initiatives, local, regional and International, including the Sudanese people’s initiative that the NCP regime has been orchestrating and trying to sell. The majority of these initiatives are aiming to get the ruling regime of the indicted al-Bashir out of the embarrassing position, in which he is waiting with apprehension for the inevitable imminent impending verdict of the ICC judges of arrest warrant. The people of Darfur are saying that they will not rest until they see all the war criminals brought into the international justice and proceed to recover their legitimate rights looted by the Government of the military junta in Khartoum.

The shortcomings of these initiatives, irrespective of the motives behind, they, unfortunately, miss the obvious point that peace in Darfur is a process and not one-stop quick- fix solution. The conflict in Darfur is getting worse and more complex by the hour and deepened by the NCP government’s mentality that the resolution could be achieved through the use of its military might. Notwithstanding its Chinese made formidable arms, Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) abjectly failed to defeat the Darfur rebel movements in the major battles fought so far and unlikely in the near future! The reality is a deadlock situation and a terrible dilemma and of course more suffering for the people of Sudan in Darfur who live in perpetual fear, loss of live and livelihood while the world debating about initiatives. Worst of all, the initiatives were riddled with serious flaws, such as their self-contradiction and/or inapplicability to the situation. None of the initiatives makes any reference to the horrendous spate of the human rights violations by the GOS against the Darfurians living in the National Capital Khartoum in the aftermath of the JEM attack of Omdurman on the 10th May 2008.

Observers assert that Options of the ruling National Islamic Front (NIF) or National Congress (NCP) have become very limited; to stop the war and acknowledge the existence of a real political issue in Darfur that needs to be resolved through negotiations under the new UN-African Union mediator for Darfur Djibril Yipènè Bassolé who has a difficult task in front of him; and that the International Criminal Court (ICC) will proceed in its procedures to prosecute war criminals in Sudan. Furthermore, political analysts affirm that, in the current circumstances, unless more pressures is exerted on the National Congress Party regime to stop its prevarication and the escape from reality to accept serious peace talks on the negotiating table, in the end this authoritarian regime must either voluntarily relinquish power or else have it taken away by force.

Will the great many initiatives give some respite for the long-waited Darfur peace to commence? Too many cooks spoil the broth and large number of midwives risk to the foetus!

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]