Mbeki’s report shows little success in implementing recommendations on Sudan
December 12, 2010 (WASHINGTON) – The former South African president Thabo Mbeki had few accomplishments to boast about in his annual report submitted to the African Union (AU) last month on the work of his High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) on Sudan.
But the AUHIP chair has slowly shifted his focus away from Darfur and instead chose to concentrate on helping the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) reach an agreement on key outstanding portions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
The report submitted by Mbeki acknowledged lack of progress on implementing the AUPD recommendations on Darfur.
“In the twelve months since the completion of the AUPD report and the acceptance of its recommendations as AU policy, the implementation of those recommendations has been rather disappointing. On the key dimensions of justice and reconciliation, security, and the peace process and political process, substantive progress has been little than I had hoped,” the report reads.
The former South African leader also appeared to take direct hit at the joint United Nations-African Union mediator for Darfur Dijibril Bassole.
“While the AU-UN Joint Chief Mediator has made efforts to involve Darfurian civil society in the peace talks, his effort has, to date, been purely consultative, selective and ad hoc. This has had the unfortunate result of becoming an issue within Darfur itself. And by limiting the talks to the armed groups, this process has empowered the armed movements to act as spoilers if they so wish, and the two most significant movements, the JEM and the SLM-Abdul-Wahid, have refused to participate in the Doha talks, rendering any agreement that are signed moot”.
Bassole has refused to comment on the report when reached by Sudan Tribune.
Since the establishment of the AUHIP, Mbeki has persistently sought to take over the Darfur dossier from Bassole which caused growing rift between the two men. Mbeki is backed in his position by the AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping on the belief that Bassole is close to Western powers at the UN Security Council (UNSC), according to a diplomatic source who spoke to Sudan Tribune last year.
But both JEM and SLM-Nur share negative views of Mbeki and it will be highly unlikely that they will agree on working with him should he ends up replacing Bassole. Al-Nur has categorically refused any meetings with Mbeki.
JEM spokesperson Ahmed Hussein described Mbeki, AU chairman Ping and head of UNAMID peacekeeping force Ibrahim Gambari as “obstacles to peace [process]” currently underway in Doha.
He further added that Mbeki’s plan for Darfur “will only reignite the cycle of violence” in the restive region.
“The people behind AUPD report are the same people behind the failed Abuja agreement [Darfur Peace Agreement] so it will face the same fate,” the JEM official said.
The most high profile aspect of Mbeki’s recommendations was establishment of a hybrid court consisting of Sudanese and foreign judges to try the Darfur war crimes suspects. He also called for changes in Sudanese laws in order to make the process of bringing justice in Darfur more credible and effective.
The Sudanese government has given a lukewarm reception to the idea and later Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir voiced his rejection saying that local judiciary is capable of bring war crime perpetrators to justice.
“We on our end expressed reservation on this point [hybrid court] because we have an independent judiciary and the judicial institution has the [final] say in forming any courts inside the borders to prosecute any Sudanese [citizen]. Mbeki understands our reservations” Bashir said last year.
Alex De Waal, a Sudan expert and an adviser to AUHIP, told Sudan Tribune last September that Khartoum risks losing African support and sympathy if it continues stonewalling on the proposal.
He also suggested that the AUHIP report will be unfavorable to the Sudanese government on the issue of justice.
“You must watch and see what is in that report” De Waal said.
But Mbeki had little criticism to direct at Khartoum for failing to go by his justice proposal and instead vowed to continue his efforts in convincing Khartoum to implement his recommendations.
“The AUHIP, therefore, has been engaging the Government to spur it into action in this direction. The Panel will continue to work with the Government of Sudan and the people of Darfur to assist to implement justice and reconciliation measures in a credible manner that will contribute to lasting peace for Darfur”.
The panel’s chief even hailed certain steps taken by the government to address the issue of justice.
“I note that the Government has demonstrated awareness of the need to review various aspects of the criminal justice process to ensure that all elements work in an integrated manner to deliver justice. Amongst other things, officials have identified the obligation to develop and implement consistently measures for protection of witnesses and victims participating in criminal justice processes, the provision of effective legal representation for the defence, and the need to promote reconciliation in the aftermath of crimes as areas to which attention would need to be paid”.
“An example of steps being taken by the Government with respect to justice is the recent appointment of a new Prosecutor General for crimes in Darfur. In meetings with the Panel, representatives of the Government, including the Prosecutor General for Darfur, have given assurances that previous investigations are being actively reviewed, and that fresh crimes, including the killings in Tabra on 2 September 2010, will be seriously investigated. Officials have informed the Panel that the Government intends to bring timely prosecutions before the Special Criminal Courts for Events in Darfur. The Panel will continue to follow?up these and other commitments”.
Last October, the Sudanese justice minister Mohamed Bushara Dousa issued a decree removing the special prosecutor for Darfur crimes Nimr Ibrahim Mohamed, more than two years after he was appointed into this position.
There were no reports of any active cases prosecuted by Mohamed during his tenure. He has made a failed attempt to investigate the current governor of South Kordofan Ahmed Haroun who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity he allegedly committed in Darfur when he was the state minister for interior affairs.
The AUPD report from last year had mentioned that Mohamed charged three men, including Ali Kushayb who is also the subject of an outstanding ICC arrest warrant, had been charged with criminal offences in Darfur but that the cases have not yet come to court.
The former special prosecutor told the Panel that he and his limited staff must cover over 500,000 square kilometers with limited road access. The AUPD stressed that “without solid political support, their [Mohamed’s team] efforts cannot make the impact that the victims of Darfur deserve”.
Mbeki said that the AUHUP will “continue to engage the GoS on the details of its proposals to promote criminal justice and reconciliation, including specific measures to strengthen the Special Criminal Courts for Events in Darfur which will be the main forum for the prosecution of the Darfur crimes”.
He reiterated that the hybrid court proposal “remains a central part of the Justice and Reconciliation Response for Darfur” and further added that he considers “visible progress in preparatory work and implementation of criminal justice and other initiatives will be a litmus test of the Government’s commitment to a just peace in Darfur”.
DEMOCRATIC TRANSFORMATION
Mbeki also discussed the issue of democratic transformation in light of the general elections held last April which were marred by boycott from the major opposition parties in the North and the SPLM Northern sector.
The NCP managed to obtain a landslide victory and retained control over the presidency and the parliament. The SPLM on the other end won elections in the South and seats in the national assembly for Southern constituencies.
Mbeki gave the panel a low rating in achieving the goal of democratic transformation saying that their efforts in this regard have so far been “disappointing”.
The AUHIP criticized the Northern opposition parties which were part of the ‘Juba Alliance’ saying that they “proved unable to agree on a strategy for engagement in the electoral process”.
“During the election itself, their performance disappointed their supporters. The exercise in electoral democracy resulted in a National Assembly and a Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly that are dominated, to a greater degree than before, by the ruling parties”.
Northern opposition parties have been unhappy with Mbeki and accused him of siding with the NCP particularly after he tried unsuccessfully last February to get them to reach an agreement with the NCP on the referendum, Darfur, CPA implementation, democratic transformation and elections.
Following Mbeki’s fruitless bid to broker an understanding between the two sides, he sent a letter to leaders of opposition parties acknowledging the deadlock.
Mbeki said in his letter last March that the panel “gained a deeper understanding of the prevalent and most unfortunate mistrust which has so far made it impossible to organize an open and frank encounter among all Sudan’s political leaders to discuss all major national challenges, which we are certain all these leaders desire”.
He further said that “convening the summit [between the NCP and opposition parties] under these circumstances would only serve further to foul the atmosphere in the country by exacerbating the divisions among the Sudanese political leadership”.
Nonetheless Mbeki in his report to the AU lauded the “remarkable relaxation of state control over the media” in the pre-election period and the “more open debate on national political issues than had been seen for more than two decades”.
“This represents an important step towards the democratization of Sudanese political life. Although there have been some retrograde steps since the election, much of the progress towards greater openness has been sustained. This is commendable”.
POST-REFRENDUM ARRANGEMENTS & ABYEI
Mbeki’s report tackled the issue of post-referendum arrangements between the North and South which are proceeding slowly as the country heads towards the key vote in less than a month.
The ex-foes have yet to agree on contentious items such as the future of oil sharing, assets, liabilities, security, international agreements, border demarcation, citizenship and water.
The NCP and SPLM signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a roadmap for post-referendum arrangements last June in Mekelle, Ethiopia.
“The negotiations between the Parties on post?referendum arrangements are proceeding. They need to be accelerated and to be better coordinated. The principal challenge to the post?referendum negotiation process is, however, the lack of a common vision concerning the relations between northern and southern Sudan after the referendum. I hold the view that the technical issues confronting the negotiating teams, however complex they may be, can be overcome in the context of a high?level political agreement on the fundamentals of the north?south relationship”.
The former South African president expressed optimism that a framework agreement put forward by AUHIP and signed by the NCP and SPLM “would provide guidance and sufficient detail to the Parties to enable them to negotiate the detailed arrangements on the future relations between north and south”.
“In this [framework] Agreement, the Parties recognized that the people of southern and northern Sudan have close ties of history, culture, geography and economy, as well as close personal relations that cannot be severed, regardless of the outcome of the South Sudan referendum. In case of a vote for southern secession, the Parties committed to the creation of two viable states, and never to return to war. The Parties committed themselves to the concepts of “soft borders”, mutual security and good neighborliness, and mutually beneficial economic cooperation”.
He warned however that the impasse over Abyei on the North-South borders “has proven one of the most difficult and contentious in the implementation of the CPA”.
“In the opinion of the Panel, a settlement of the Abyei issue will need to be holistic. Such a settlement would include the implementation of existing agreements, notably the Abyei Protocol of the CPA and its provision for a referendum to be held by the people of Abyei Area, to decide whether they belong in Kordofan (northern Sudan) or greater Bahr al Ghazal (southern Sudan), and the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on the position of the northern border of Abyei Area. It would also take into account the concept of Abyei as a ‘bridge’ between north and south, as specified in the CPA, the interests of the communities, and the context of post?referendum arrangements”.
Last week Mbeki announced that the NCP and SPLM agreed on the main proposition he submitted on Abyei and that considerable progress was made but declined to elaborate.
This weekend, the Abyei-native senior SPLM figure Deng Alor said that there are no prospects for resolving the deadlock on the region particularly in light of the failure of the latest presidential meeting to reach any compromise.
He warned that Abyei is now headed towards a unilaterally conducted referendum on the fate of the region.
Edward Leno, who is also another leading SPLM official from Abyei, accused Mbeki of seeking to circumvent the ruling of the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) which redefined the region’s borders.
“How can Mbeki accept to himself to be in a position of standing against international law?” Leno was quoted as saying by the pro-SPLM Ajras Al-Hurriya newspaper last week. He also alleged that the AUHUP chairman has “deals” with parties that want to “obliterate” the CPA.
A civil society leader from Ngok Dinka told ‘Africa Confidential’ newsletter last month that Mbeki was effectively telling the Ngok that the Abyei Protocol and PCA ruling must be renegotiated because the Arab Misseriya tribe “wouldn’t budge”.
The technical commission mandated with demarcating the borders on the ground has yet to start the process because of threats leveled by the Misseriya who objected to the PCA ruling. The tribunal ceded key oilfields to north Sudan but gave the South most of the land including Abyei town which has huge areas of fertile land and one significant oilfield.
The SPLM in control of the South has interpreted the ruling as meaning that the cattle-herding Misseriya tribe have no right to vote in areas assigned by the PCA to the Dinka Ngok.
However, the Misseriya vowed not to allow the vote to take place even if they have to resort to force unless they are allowed to participate.
(ST)