Khartoum dialogue process aborted sustainable peace in Sudan
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
The October 10 2016 extravaganza of the Wathba Works Final Conference Ceremony brought nothing to the Sudanese people but Bashir remaining further on the Helm. He tried hard in vain for the people of Sudan to believe him on the issue of Peace in Darfur, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, Eastern Sudan and Nubia in the far Nilotic North. The fate of the Prisoners of War (POWs) on the Dungeons of the NCP regime in Sudan remains dire. The death squads of the Janjaweed militia, a new spade, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) the affiliates of the regime of the NCP continue to wreak havoc in the land of Sudan killing unarmed noncombatant Sudanese citizens, undeterred by law with impunity. Moreover, the head of the ruling regime of the NCP Omar al-Bashir has announced as did announce the Commander of the militia Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that the beginning of the month of December 2016 would be the date of the complete elimination of the rebellion and forcing the reluctant armed movements leaders of the National Dialogue acquiesce and make them surrender and sign the Wathba whether they accepted or refused.
Wathba Showcase Finale
The NCP regime president’s showcasing of his defunct Wathba Dialogue came with no surprise for the Sudanese people who are sick and tired about Bashir’s boring Sitcoms over the decades to bring more disasters over above the continuing ones. The Truth is finally out after more than two years of Deception and fraud of the alleged ‘national’ dialogue on October 10. 2016 at the Friendship Hall in Khartoum, Sudan.
For Many Sudanese, this is just the ‘start of the beginning of another era of reign of the NCP regime to metamorphose itself and make the frivolous outcome of the infamous ‘Wathba’ as though a serious matter that overcome the woes and address the unsolvable issues of the country.
At the Wathba banquet, the NCP regime elements and associate ‘parties’ chanted the usual religiosity ‘Trademark’ slogans of the former National Islamic Front (NIF) interspersed by the Waving stick President Omar al-Bashir’s puzzlingly violent dances. While the chorus would Cheer lifting the index finger up with repeating and chanting the phrase of Allah Akbar, God is Greater. And thus tried legitimizing the National Dialogue Conference, whether refused or blessed by the people of Sudan; fête accompli or willy-nilly!
Sadly, one still doubts that the NCP will ever practice what they preach, say sorry and ask the victims of their despicable crimes and atrocities they have perpetrated in the rights of the citizens of Sudan in the Darfur region and elsewhere. However, the soars of those crimes would never heal. Thus, it is 27 years on. The regime and its infamous proxy Janjaweed militias, known as Rapid Support Force (RSF) continue the horrendous genocidal warfare with the view to keeping the genocidal criminal, fugitive from the international justice, Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir on the helm of Sudan to protect him from the apprehension by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, Netherlands.
Having followed the news and events leading to the so-called Final Conference of the National Dialogue, one feels it is worth pointing out a few issues, as shown in the foregoing above lines.
We all learn from experiences and try our best to develop the means for each stage. Every stage requires new tools that accommodate certain circumstances. The new goals might not be suitable for previous tools. Nevertheless, it seems and, unfortunately, that the ruling regime of the NCP does not learn from experiences, lessons, and does not take cues from the repeated mistakes. The Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM), the National Islamic Front (NIF) and the National Congress Party (NCP) acquired Immunity to learn from the lessons of the past as if they are the French Bourbon royal family! National Islamic Front regime and then the NCP has been presenting Islam in an uglier pattern and a view point contradicting the peaceful teaching of the Qur’an and what is attributed to Islam by the group on occasions became shrouded by cloud of concealment which shrouded the origins of the truth. Having said that in a sort of digression, let us now delve into the matter.
The Outputs and outcomes of the National Dialogue Presented by the NCP regime to the final Conference on October 10, 2016 in Khartoum are nothing but Intended for Deception, which would not fool the acumen of a sane Individual. The outputs of the so-called Wathba are devoid of the Real national dialogue liabilities, which include:
• Preparatory meeting outside Sudan without exclusion to anyone
• Cessation of hostilities and war
• The release of prisoners of war and prisoners of conscience and political prisoners
• Addressing the situation of displaced persons and refugees
• Rewarding compensation for survivors of the horrors of the civil war in conflict zones
• Conducting reconciliations between the population and mend the social fabric
• Reconciliations include transitional justice similar reconciliations State of South Africa after the end of apartheid
• Return of displaced persons and refugees to their native lands and ownership of the Hawakeer of their respective owners and the removal of the foreigners who occupy indigenous lands is also important
• Serious discussion about the real federal government/governance issues of Sudan according to the four levels of government federal, regional, state and local levels
• A transitional government for a period to be agreed upon is working on a permanent constitution for the Sudan and preparing for national elections free, fair and transparent
• Unfortunately, the ruling regime of the NCP is not serious about reaching a sustainable peace for Sudan and it works tirelessly to foil all the peace initiatives because in the perception of the government in Khartoum that True peace in their sense means the arrest of President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir and hand him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, but not so in the eyes of the Sudanese opposition both Civilian and armed.
• Unfortunately, the Sudanese issue remains intractable because of the intransigence of the Sudanese government and almost lost the case and seep between the government of Omar al-Bashir and the divided opposition components in inside and outside Sudan
• The solution to the incurable issues of Sudan in the government’s response to a just peace transparent benefits because the situation in Sudan is still in dire straits and is unfair to the ordinary citizen remains suffering the hardships of living, disease and displacement and migration and becomes prey to gangs of militants to wreak havoc in the land of corruption and commit more crimes against humanity and war crimes and ethnic cleansing and genocide at the sight and hearing of the world
• The situation reached by Sudan from destruction and the continuing miserable deterioration and their effects on people’s lives as a result of civil wars of attrition need to comprehensive solutions because there is no one victorious in those wars, but all of Sudan and its people are crushingly defeated
• The insistence of Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir and his entourage that the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) is Not subject to be opened is an issue that stems from the rusty mentality of intransigence. It is noteworthy that some of the armed Darfur movements such as the Sudan Liberation Movement Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur wing and the Sudan Liberation Movement Minni Arko Minnawi wing did not attend state of Qatar at the time of issuance of the Doha document for peace in Darfur (DDPD) in 2010. Accordingly, that document should be open for negotiation to be comprehensive
• It’s sad and funny laughable that Omar al-Bashir says he does not want any foreign intervention in solving the issues of Sudan, and at that he seems laughing at himself where he knows very well that Sudan has become the headquarters of the Army of the United Nations called UNAMID, consisting of thousands of soldiers and police to add to this the permanent presence of envoys rapporteurs of the United States of America and other Western countries, and in addition to the presence of representatives of the government of Sudan in platform the African Union (AU) in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa continuous
• It seems that the excessive intransigence of Omar al-Bashir at this time stems from the proximity between his regime and the European Union and the positions of US President Barack Obama’s Administration, which is seeking to make the Sudan among the countries that contribute to the fight against international terrorism
• What remains absent from the mind of the affiliates of the regime of the NCP is that the relationships of the major States such as the United States with under developed nations are built on temporary interests, but do not seek radical solutions to the thorny dilemmas such as Sudan’s chronic problems
• Bet on relations with western countries to resolve Sudan’s internal problems proved an utter failure in nearly three decades
• Unfortunately, some of those referred to as politicians try the use of the immediate and temporary instincts instead of their minds and the wisdom that stems from their thoughts When making fateful crucial decisions for Sudan
• Lasting peace and stability can only prevail in Sudan with the availability of sincere good well intentions without equivocation of the ruling regime of the NCP first and then from the opposition after a check on the credibility of the positions of al-Bashir and his entourage
• The breaking type of news that the so-called 7+7 committee of the Wathba Dialogue has agreed to accelerate the constitutional reforms paving the way for the formation of a transitional government and the implementation of the dialogue resolution indicates exclusion of the components of the “True Opposition, both Civilian and Armed” of the outcome of the self-Dialogue staged by Omer al-Bashir and thus the curtain came down on the non-sitcom, which lies inside of it all the shovels of demolition of the State of Sudan and its people http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article60633
The lawlessness and growing of epidemic of religious extremism that afflicting the African countries neighbouring Sudan and the Arab region countries and globally around the regional and international conflicts have caused the thorny issues of the people of Sudan disappear in Darfur and in other war zones. Consequently, the components of the Sudanese people continue languishing under extreme woes. Hardships include social, cultural, economic pressures in the absence of democracy and the decline of human rights and freedoms of expression imposed by the oppressive regime of the (NCP). Moreover, the regime employs systematic killing by proxy wars of attrition through the diabolical ignorant criminal Janjaweed militias besides the use of chemical weapons for mass destruction, as in the Jebel Marra area of west Darfur region. The 27 lean years of the rule of the (NCP) regime led by the racist genocidal criminal Omer Hassan that their claim that they apply Islamic Sharia law in Sudan proved as nothing but a matter of hypocritical décor. Their true intention is not a matter of adhering to the Islamic religion, which came to all humanity for the promotion of virtue, peace, love and living in harmony and the prohibition of murder, tyranny and injustice.
We find that the al-Qaida and now the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Arabic acronym -Daash – and Boko Haram and so forth of terrorist organizations; they are only waves from one source which is either relating the Salafi ideology, or to thought of the Kharijites. Those fundamentalist ideologies did not exist before the advent of the petro-dollar weapon! Naturally, and as might be expected, of course, the ideology of the global Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM) and the National Islamic Front (NIF) and its successor the National Congress Party (NCP) in Sudan have their origin from the hardline fundamentalist Salafi ideology. And is the misfortune that afflicted the people of Sudan by the hardline fundamentalist thought in a moment of grim time of the ill-fated coming of the NIF/NCP entity.
Moreover, the US has exploited the hard-line fundamentalist Salafi ideology to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, where its Government embraced the Communist ideology in the Cold War period in which the two poles of the world, imperialist capitalist and Communist then compete in the seventies of the twentieth century. Now, after the United States of America singled out alone hegemony and became a monopole, it continued to exploit the categories of Islamic militant fundamentalism in order to achieve political goals and economic interests in conflict zones. The USA focused its plans especially in the Middle East and Central Asia and Asia Minor and parts of Africa, Sudan and Libya examples par excellence! The end justifies the means. Thus, the US promises the lifting of economic sanctions on Sudan in exchange for the participation of the Government of the genocidal criminal Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir in the fight against terrorism, bearing in mind that the United States placed Sudan as one of the countries that harbour terrorism since the presidency of the US President Bill Clinton. Furthermore, the European Union (EU) started offering al-Bashir kudos in kind of millions of euros to stem the influx of migration from the Horn of African countries to the shores of Europe via Libya and the Mediterranean Sea.
The (NCP) regime in Khartoum seeks to subdue the people of Sudan in the region of Darfur by means of a war of attrition waged through utilising the proxy Janjaweed militia , renamed Rapid Support Force (RSF) in which impunity, chaos, and inter-ethnic violence serve the regime’s ultimate military and political purposes. The genocidal NCP regime utilizes evil militias who have no moral scruples or adherence to religious norms and inhumane working only in order to satisfy their diabolical instincts of earning the Grand and a thirst for killing and bloodshed the unarmed civilian citizens to proudly feel victorious. The genocide in the Darfur region during the past thirteen years was not, by any reckoning, a particularly endurable state of affairs. The crimes perpetrated in Darfur by the NCP government against the civilian population should reflect badly and sadly, on the Islamic religion, though they care not giving any fig for the suffering of fellow human beings. In spite of past eras on the tragedy of the people of Sudan in Darfur at the hands of militias and the military of the government of the National Congress Party (NCP), there is still some chance for Omar al-Bashir and his entourage to repair what they could salvage and repair in Sudan to come back to life licking its wounds. The ruling NCP regime should not miss this widow of opportunity before it becomes too late where there would be no benefit for remorse and no benefit to cry over spilled milk, as the saying goes!
The NCP regime needs to grab this moment of democratic change opportunity for Sudan. Furthermore, President Omar al-Bashir and band need to take lessons from history that everything is likely to decrease regardless of its fully old and prosperity. Let anyone of the Sudanese political class be balm if the eternity becomes gall. Moreover, let not be like a swollen cat that pretends the lions charge! Opt for durable sustainable peace. As we know that, the word peace is one of the ninety-nine names of Allah and known to Muslims. But those reprehensible use of chemical weapons, carried out by the group of Omar al-Bashir against civilians in Darfur, is a business for the devil and not for the sake of Allah the Merciful as they claim.
Last and not least, Omer al-Bashir’s National Dialogue, better known as Wathba, gallery in the Friendship Hall in Khartoum has resulted in the abortion of the long-awaited sustainable peace.
As the adage goes, the wanton is subject for wasting his chance and the loss of opportunity of others by his intransigence.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/