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Sudan |
CIVIL WAR
Sudan appears as divided as ever, and the recent elections
have done nothing
to improve the situation
After his victory in the presidential elections, the incumbent President, Omer Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, met with southern Sudanese political leaders at the premises of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP). He was quoted by the Khartoum Monitor, Sudan’s only English Daily (3 January 2001 issue), as saying: «Those southerners who remained behind in the south to take up arms, are agents of the enemies of the Sudan.»
He praised the southern Sudanese who opted to come to Khartoum, saying they are «peace lovers and patriotic citizens.» He warned them: «It is your duty to convince those who had taken up arms, to come back to the towns and join the government to develop the country. If they do not listen to your call, we shall recruit more fighters and face them militarily.»
The NCP‘s secretary-general, Professor Ibrahim Ahmed Omar, said: «Those who described the elections as a waste of time, have been proved wrong by the successful way the elections have ended.»
Election controversy
However, a veteran opposition southern Sudanese politician from the Democratic Forces Front (DFF), Dr. Toby Maduot, described the electoral process as «flawed from the onset and therefore, it is immaterial to say whether it is free and fair or not. When President Bashir announced the presidential and parliamentary elections, he vowed to follow the path of openness and democracy. With this, we thought he would first form a transitional broad-based government where all the political forces in the country would participate before any elections could be held,» said Maduot. «We were surprised when he decreed the holding of the elections before any consensus was reached on contentious issues with the opposition parties. Even the fact that there is a war raging in the country did not deter the incumbent President.»
Why the Sudanese are divided
Dr. Maduot enumerated four issues, which divide the Sudanese people. According to him, these are: Socio-economic disparities; differences over governance; identity crisis; the problem of religion.
«If these four divisive issues are resolved, I see no reason why we cannot live in unity and diversity,» he asserted. «But, as things stand, there is no freedom of religion in the country because religion is not separated from the state. Christians are not free to worship, because the government is bent on promoting Islam as the state religion. Those who wield power, especially in the central government, are all die-hard Muslims. The undersecretaries and managers of institutions and parastatal bodies in the country are all Muslims. Educational, health, environmental and economic planning are all done by northerners. Despite the fact that there are a good number of Christians in the country, the Religious Affairs Department is manned by Muslims.»
Dr Maduot continued: «All of us must agree that Sudan is in a state of war and therefore, must work to stop the fighting. Today, we have an estimated two million lives lost, and 4.5 million displaced, which is one fifth of the world’s displaced peoples, according to United Nations figures. He said the President’s remarks made right after his election victory, shows that he intends to resolve Sudan’s crisis by military means, which is unfortunate. «I think the oil money has made the Muslim-Arab dominated government back-off from dialogue with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).»
It should be noted that one of the reasons which led to the re-defection of Taban Deng Gai to the bush, was the President’s option to end the civil war by military means. (Taban Deng is one of Dr. Riak Macar’s officers. Dr Macar is the leader of the Sudan People’s Democratic Front and one of the signatories of the Khartoum Peace Agreement, signed in 1997).
Deng resigned from his position of State Minister in the Federal Ministry of Roads and Communications on 9 December 2000, just before the elections. He went to his home town in the Upper Nile State under the pretext of campaigning for the elections. He gave the following reasons for his resignation: Firstly, the lack of seriousness by the government in its peace and reconciliation initiative. There’s no doubt that the government is simply exploiting the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) Peace Initiative, so as to buy time for its military option. Secondly, because, the government has chosen a military option, exploiting the revenue from oil to fund its military machine, rather than a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
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