Doha forum is hardly conducive to resolve the crisis in Darfur
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
June 28, 2010 — The current venue for the Darfur peace negotiations in the Qatari capital Doha has turned abjectly flawed since the joint UN-AU Mediation allowed to be cluttered with a massive number of people unrelated directly as parties to the talks. The Doha platform has become as though an open market for supply and demand or a public auction where nobody knows the negotiating parties, whereas the parties for peace should have been the Government of Sudan (GoS) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) who are fighting each other on the ground, in the battle field in the Greater Darfur Region. This turn of events is due to the Mediation’s lack of the basic knowledge of the process and methods for peace negotiations. Moreover, it is also attributable to the dearth of understanding of the root causes and the complexity of the crisis in Darfur on the part of the host country or as an even worse is the lack of impartiality in treating all the rivals in the Darfur dispute equally and bias in favour of Government of Sudan (GoS) against the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The rebellion of the people of Sudan in Darfur, seven odd years ago, was against the central government of Sudan which exercised chronic injustice, systematic marginalisation and denial of legitimate rights for the development of the region.
Observers believe that the unsystematic partial measures which the Mediator Mr. Djibrill Yipènè Bassolé trying to apply would lead to the emergence of a new crisis similar to or even worse than what happened in the infamous Abuja agreement in Nigeria on the 5th May 200 when the then President Obasanjo of Nigeria and Robert B. Zoellick, US Deputy Secretary of State pressurised and duped one of the parties, Minni Arko Minnawi, current Senior Presidential Assistant and Head of the Transitional Darfur Regional Authority (TDRA) , to thumb the abortive DPA. As if history is repeating itself this time too, but in the Gulf state of Qatar.
Analysts assert that unilateral solutions pursued by the Mediator and the host country in the Doha platform will not resolve the seven-year crisis in Darfur. Any political solution to the issue in the Darfur Region must be comprehensive. The newly created group, Liberation and Justice Movement, that the GoS is currently trying to negotiate with has no military presence on the ground in Darfur. This group can only be categorised as a Civil Society Organisation at best or at its worst a National Congress Party (NCP) Government ploy designated to turn the situation in the Doha venue to its own advantage. Mr. Bassolé needs not to become a carbon copy of his predecessor Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, the former Tanzanian Prime Minister, who was the mediator for the Abuja Darfur peace process! On the other hand, it is more prudent for Jonathan Scott Gration the retired Major General of the United States Air Force, special envoy of the US president to Sudan to use his “Mandate and the authority to drive U.S. policy on Sudan with the view to enhancing fair and serious peace negotiations for a political solution that will give the people of Darfur a meaningful voice.”
Sustainable and comprehensive negotiated peace in Darfur is the strategic goal of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). In order to return to the Doha Forum (JEM) demands the following:
• Impartiality of the host country Qatar and distancing itself from becoming a party in the dispute.
• Separation of the role of the joint UN-AU Mediation from that of the Host country Qatar.
• Clear road map with One Path by identifying the warring Parties for the negotiations.
• Participation of the International Community members, United States of America (US) , European Union (EU), the African Union (AU) the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) as guarantors for the negotiated peace agreement.
• Removal of the huge number of people (more than 500, currently living in three five-star hotels, who have nothing to do with negotiations, in order to avoid confusion.
• Facilitate the return of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) chairman Dr. Khalil Ibrahim Mohamed to access his bases in Darfur to meet and consult with his forces and citizens around the peace negotiations with a view to contribute positively to the measures that enhance the resolution of the crisis in Darfur and restore the legitimate rights to the people of Sudan in Darfur.
• Sudan’s government to avoid its intransigence and be serious about reaching to sustainable comprehensive peace in Darfur through constructive negotiations and not resort to prevarication to buy time and prolong the suffering of the people of Sudan in Darfur.
These are the basic and the minimum demands that JEM has put forward to the Mediator and the host country. Nevertheless, it seem as though they have fallen on deaf ears and met with underestimation, irony and indifference. Analysts assert that any agreement struck in relation to peace in Darfur without the participation of JEM will not be sustainable and would be doomed to failure and return to the square one of the damned war, which came on the green and the dry and destroyed the lives and the livelihood of the Sudanese citizens in Darfur and Kordofan.
It seems that many actors calling for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to return to the Doha platform to continue the negotiations that had been hampered by the ongoing war in Darfur, but the rebel group says that their return is subject to substantial reforms to be made in the platform as previously mentioned in order to provide a climate conducive to lead to an honourable peace just and sustainable comprehensive peace that would put an end to the crisis in Darfur forever. The Question that imposes itself at this juncture and moment with urgency is whether the mediation and the host country are ready to meet those demands within a certain time frame? That is the sixty-four dollars question awaiting a satisfactory answer from HE Ahmed Abdullah al-Mahmoud, Qatari State Minister for Foreign Affairs and Mr. Djibrill Yipènè Bassolé, joint UN-AU Mediator.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]
mohammed ali
Doha forum is hardly conducive to resolve the crisis in Darfur
Oh,is it only JEM who is related to the talks? Is it that all the mediators “lack the basic knowlede of the process and methodes of peace negotiation” all the UN,AU,USA,EU who are mediating now and who mediated in the past lack this knowledge and only JEM members have that knwledge? Are all mediatots, in the past and at present, impartial and biased in favour of the government? I think Sudanese people and Darfuri people and the interational community by and large, are fed up with the grandiose claims of the JEM. JEM should understand that they are very small faction within the rebillion groups, even if they are millitary strong.I am sure if any elections is held in Darfur JEM will not win a single seat!
It is not that obsevers think that Basoole is unsystematic, on the contrary they see him very systematic and patient very dedicated to the peace process.The problem is not with Basoole,Salim Ahmed Salim or the previous Swdish diplomt , the problem is with the JEM, who want to be the sole negotiator in the name of Darfur.Darfuri people donnot and will not accept them as their representative.JEM should unerstand this simple fact!
No analyst asserts that the mediator or the host country are pursuing unilateral solutions.They donnot assert, but they know for a fact that JEM is pursuing AL TURABI’S agenda to bring him back to power.Analyst see that the host country is offering as much as possible support to get peace for the Darfuri people as they pledged to donate one billion dollars for the development of Darfur .
As for Gration he is pursuing his mandate by the book and he is getting all the support from the American President and his administration and he will never be held accountable by JEM members!
It is funny to here the arrogancy you are talking with! You are dictating conditions as if you have won a war aginst all the parties including the mediators, the host country,and all of the international community.It is grandiose to give orders in such a way…remove 500 people who are staying in 5 star hotels…you can not talk in the name of Darfuri alone , they donnot want you to do that.
It is high time that JEM appreciate the suffering of the people of Darfur and Khalil, his brother,Ali El hag’s and Turabi’s expulsion from Al Basheer government should not be used or abused as a cause to increase the agony of Darfur people.
It is high time for JEM to know their size militarly and politicaly and should moniter the dwindling regional and international support they are getting.Everywhere people are fed up with JEM.
Khalil shoul be wise and move directly to Doha and join the negotiation as soon as possible.Politics is never static neither is power! Otherwise he will be loosing his last chance, for if a peace agreement is reached ( as it seems the condition) he cannot this time or his supporters stand against it! Things look different ,now, from ABUJA. The support they were getting will not be there and the so called international community may not be forgiving, as you will be standing on it’s way!!!
Tegani Sisi is very popular in Darfur and he was elected before as governor of Darfur and if Khalil is honest with himself he should admit that he will never be able to stand a competion against him.
Jumbing to the ” chairs “‘ of power in Khartoum on top of the blood and the skulls of Darfurians, while claiming that you are figting in their name is neither fair nor it is just.They sufferd more than enough!