CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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Sudan |
PEACE
Senior Sudanese government officials are famous for mincing their words.
They are also fond of contradicting each other.
So what does «peace» signify for them?In the Sudanese government’s vocabulary, «peace» is nothing more than a word for mitigating international pressure placed on President Al-Bashir‘s Islamist regime. Indeed, the President is on record as saying: «that a peaceful cessation of the south is much better than staying in unity while at war». But at the same time, the President has been quoted by the official television service as saying: «The oil and other resources in southern Sudan are for the benefit of the Arab World. And therefore, it is in the interest of the Arab World to defend Sudan’s territorial integrity by supporting the troops on the ground.»
On 1 January 2003, during the celebration in Malakal, southern Sudan, of the forty-seventh anniversary of Sudan’s independence, President Al-Bashir told a large gathering that «the peace we are working for, must not exclude certain people, or must not be for maintaining the monopoly of a group over another, to replace one rebellion with another. This peace will lead to all Sudanese participating in the decision-making process, sharing in the distribution of the nation’s wealth and in power-sharing. The year 2003 will witness the south’s development being completed, so that the logic of cooperation dominates all walks of life in southern Sudan».
During the same celebration, Egypt’s Minister of Information, Safewat Al-Sharif said: «At this podium, let those who are here present and those who are absent, know that Egypt and Sudan together have become one in heart and body, to defend and preserve the unity of Sudan and its territorial integrity.»
Hardly a week had gone by following these statements, when military police began placing roadblocks on major feeder roads into Khartoum City. The aim was to take young men by force for military training, which lasts a month and half. The trainees are then shipped to the battlegrounds in southern Sudan.
These statements also came after government bulldozers had destroyed several houses belonging to Sudanese African Christians and people from marginalised areas of the country (i.e. southern Sudan, southern Blue Nile and western Sudan), in view of «relocating» them to other arid areas. The victims’ situation was aggravated by Khartoum’s dry, cold, desert winter weather.
It’s clear that the Sudanese Government’s official policy is to continue the war until the Liberation Movement is crushed. But then came the signing of the Machakos One Protocol which included the right of the southern Sudanese to self-determination after an interim period of six years — for the Sudanese Government this was merely a tactical move to mitigate the wrath of the international community, especially the United States, after the events of 11 September 2001.
The Arab Development Fund
Some Arab countries, led by Egypt, Libya and Syria, have embarked on an ambitious development programme for post-war southern Sudan. According to the Middle East News Agency (MENA), the Arab League, in its March 2002 Beirut Summit, adopted a resolution pertaining to Arab participation in the reconstruction efforts of southern Sudan. The League held a Round-Table Conference on 19 December 2002 to discuss means of raising the ambitious southern Sudan development fund of about US $450 million.
Mayom Akier Nyok, a southern Sudanese, describes this as «wily politics!»
The Egypt factor
What is Egypt’s interest in maintaining a united Sudan? This question was posed to Alphonse Wongo, a political analyst from southern Sudan. He says: «Egyptians eat too much and they are about to experience a population explosion. Therefore, they need more land and more food. Egypt is afraid that an independent southern Sudan would develop so fast and might develop a technology that would make use of the Nile water. An independent southern Sudan means a separate agreement will have to be reached over the allocation of Nile water quotas, a thing, which Egyptians vehemently resent».
On the other hand, it’s said that Egypt is officially striving to evolve a technology that will ensure its capacity to drain the Nile water, making use of the Nile Water Agreement. Unofficially, Egypt could be looking for ways and means to pipe the Nile water underground for its domestic use. Be that as it may, control of the Nile remains of strategic interest for Egypt.
Alfred Taban, a correspondent for Reuters, wrote in the Khartoum Monitor of 8 January: «The people of southern Sudan want a resolution of the conflict. They want redress for their grievances, a guarantee of their freedom and rights. They want justice. If that can be achieved in a united Sudan, that is good. They will take it. If the south and the north have to separate in order to bring that about, that is also fine».