Sudan: Conflict and trade on the agenda of talks with South Africa
Moyiga Nduru
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 30, 2004 (IPS) — South African President Thabo Mbeki begins a three-day visit to Sudan, Thursday, during which initiatives to end the various conflicts in the East African country will come under discussion.
Mbeki will also explore how trade between South Africa and Sudan can be increased. He is travelling with a delegation that includes Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka – and Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa. South Africa’s first lady, Zanele Mbeki, is also part of the delegation.
The president’s visit comes as Sudanese government and rebel representatives are racing against time to conclude a peace agreement for the south of the country.
Khartoum has been holding talks with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) since 2002 in the north-western Kenyan town of Naivasha, to end a 21-year conflict in south Sudan – Africa’s longest-running civil war. The fighting has pitted the country’s Islamic government against Christians and followers of traditional African religions who are resisting attempts at control by the Muslim north.
The presence of oil reserves, mostly in the south, has aggravated the dispute over who should control this region of Sudan. About two million people have been killed in the conflict, and as a result of disease and famine sparked by war. An additional four million people are said to have been displaced.
Last month, government and rebels pledged to wrap up their negotiations by Dec. 31. This promise was made in writing to the United Nations Security Council during an exceptional meeting of council members in the Kenyan capital – Nairobi. Sudanese peace talks are being mediated by a regional body, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development.
“The visit to Sudan must be understood within the context of the expected conclusion of the Naivasha Comprehensive Peace Agreement between both the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) scheduled for 31 December 2004,” Ronnie Mamoepa, a spokesman for South Africa’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement, Tuesday.
An aide to Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed el-Bashir told a government media outlet over the weekend that a final peace accord would only be signed on Jan. 10 in Nairobi.
However, the SPLM/A says two outstanding issues relating to a ceasefire in the south and implementation of the agreement should be worked out by Dec. 31, (a ceasefire was signed by government and rebels in 2002, although clashes between the two parties continued to take place afterwards).
“We expect the signatures of both the Sudan government and SPLM to be appended to the two annexes by December 31,” a rebel representative told IPS Wednesday in a telephone interview from Nairobi.
Mamoepa also said that his government, in conjunction with the University of South Africa, had agreed to train SPLM/A officials so that they could participate effectively in the transitional government that would be set up in Sudan after the conclusion of peace talks.
Under various peace protocols already signed by the warring parties, this interim administration will govern Sudan for six years, after which the south will hold a referendum on whether to secede from the rest of the country.
While in Sudan, Mbeki will address a special sitting of parliament and inaugurate the chancery of the South African mission in Khartoum. He is also scheduled to receive a briefing on another conflict in the western region of Darfur, which got underway almost two years ago – but became the focus of international attention this year.
Two rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), took up arms in February 2003 to protest against alleged marginalization of the region.
Their actions have invited reprisals from government forces and Arab militias known as the Janjaweed (“men on horseback”), who are accused of terrorizing civilians in a bid to stamp out the rebellion. Members of the Fur, Masaalit and Zaghawa tribes have found themselves the target of a scorched earth campaign that has killed some 70,000 people – and driven an additional two million from their towns and villages. Human rights activists say this campaign amounts to genocide.
Nomadic Arabs in Darfur had previously clashed with settled farmers from the Fur, Masaalit and Zaghawa over land ownership in the region.
The African Union (AU) is hosting peace talks between Khartoum, the SLA/M and the JEM, which are to resume next month.
Although warring groups reached a ceasefire in April, conflict between them has persisted. This week, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) suspended aid to parts of Darfur after additional attacks in the neighbouring state of West Kordofan led to the closure of a main road that the WFP uses to transport supplies to Darfur.
Up to 900 AU troops have been deployed in Darfur to monitor the ceasefire, but their mandate does not extend to enforcing it. And, while the forces are allowed to intervene to protect civilians who come under attack, aid and human rights groups say this has done little to increase security in the region.
Nonetheless, AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare is hopeful that an end to conflict in southern Sudan will improve the climate for resolving the crisis in Darfur.
In a statement issued Dec. 27, Konare said he believed “the conclusion of the talks would usher the people of the Sudan into a new era that will lead to an equitable political dispensation as well as create a conducive condition for the resolution of the conflict in Darfur.”
As concerns trade between South Africa and Sudan, the trade balance between the two countries is currently in South Africa’s favour. According to government figures, exports to Sudan for 2003 totalled about 50 million dollars – and about 32 million dollars for the first six months of 2004. Imports from Sudan stood at 426, 333 dollars for 2003 and 112,000 dollars for the first half of this year.
South Africa exports metals, vehicles, wood pulp, plastics, chemicals and other goods to Sudan – while vegetables, animal fats, plastics and machinery are imported from the country.
South African companies which have shown an interest in dealing with Sudan include the Global Railway Engineering Consortium of South Africa, which signed a 21-million-dollar contract with the Sudanese Railway Corporation Dec. 9 for the rehabilitation of railways. Funding for the venture is being provided by South Africa’s Rand Merchant Bank, says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.