Government cannot bring them all in a Zaf-fa!
By Mahgoub El-Tigani
Egypt’s T.V. Da-irat al-Hiwar hot discussion on the DarFur’s Crisis led Ambassador Dr. Ahmed ‘Abd al-Halim to exclaim: “The Government can not bring them all in a Zaf-fa (parade)!”
These words remind with John Prendergast’s piece-meal approach concerning the Sudan’s Crisis: the SPLM-Government bilateral negotiations, followed by the DarFur Rebels-Government peace talks, and yet to come the East-Government, Nile provinces-Government maturing conflict and then negotiations versus an All-Sudanese Comprehensive Settlement of the Sudan’s Crisis.
Ambassador ‘Abd al-Halim was reacting to a point raised by the NDA leader Ustaz Farouq Abu Eissa that, “the government is required to adopt a comprehensive solution that should enable all the Sudanese to decide on the ongoing political crisis of the country.”
Abu Eissa strongly emphasized: “the government has not moved timely to deal with the crisis. Delaying the comprehensive solution will add more complexities to the situation. It is true the government has not originally initiated the crisis. But the government did complicate the crisis to unprecedented extent. The people of DarFur rejected all policies enforced by this government to control the crisis.”
The director of the Arab-African Research Center in Cairo, Ustaz Hilmi Sha’rawi, asked the government to call for a national conference for all Sudanese parties to the conflict to avert the danger of foreign intervention.
Abu Eissa explained that “The government doesn’t have the political will to resolve the crisis. That is why the People of DarFur were very displeased with the Arab League when it decided to give a chance for the government to resolve the problem. The DarFurians expressed their satisfaction only when the Arab League agreed with the African Union to send troops to ensure security of the region.”
In the meantime, the failure of the government to force Janjaweeds’ disarmament, put them to fair trials, and ensure immediate return of the displaced citizens necessitated the UN most recent report to the Security Council. The report plainly states, “The government has not been able to resolve the crisis in Darfur, and has not met some of the core commitments it has made” (BBC: 2 September 2004).
A specialist from Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies criticized both the government and the DarFur rebels for human rights violations. Here, Abu Eissa made the point that the government “has no right to describe the Sudan Liberation Movement as simply armed militias equal to the Janjaweed militias that the government lately claimed has been committing armed robbery in the region. The DarFurians are victims. The Janjaweed are aggressors. You cannot speak about the culprit and the victim as one thing”
“The Movement is patriotic. It is pursuing legitimate goals for large sections of the people of DarFur to enjoy social justice and the other fundamental rights,” emphasized Abu Eissa.
This week, the NDA-government Cairo meetings concluded, under the auspices of President Mubarak, in an agreement “to continue negotiations on the basis of the Jeddah Agreement,” which exempts the NIF government from political accountability and moves criminal allegations against NIF leaders to vague possibilities of judicial prosecution.
Ambassador ‘Abd al-Halim reminded the participants: “it was the Egyptian Libyan Initiative that brought the government and the NDA to the table of negotiations.” The NDA leader concluded his speech saying, “The role Egypt played in the conflict stopped the possibility of foreign intervention. This role is not a stand by side of the government, as some Egyptian journalists wrongfully assert.”
Will the Abuja/Cairo opposition-government negotiations put an end to the East/Nile provinces’ increasing pressure upon the government to resolve the political conflict via direct bilateral negotiations (which lends support to the Prendergast’s think-tank piece-meal approach), or will the Sudanese Nation force collective political will upon the government via a national constitutional conference that might certainly bring the provisional Nivasha Agreements to a national confirmation by further revisions, a Zef-fa that the Ambassador rejects?!
*Member of Sudanese Writers’ Union (in exile) and the president of Sudan Human Rights Organization Cairo-Branch.