SUDAN: Pact To End Sudan Conflict To Be Signed Apr. 21

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

LONDON, Apr 14 1997 (IPS) - An agreement to end Sudan’s 14-year civil war will be signed in the capital Khartoum on Apr. 21, according to rebel sources here.

Joseph Malwaal, who is the representative of South Sudan Independence Movement (SSIM) in the United Kingdom and Ireland, told IPS on Monday that a number of top rebel leaders would start arriving in Khartoum in the next few days to sign the agreement.

“Our leaders are at the moment in southern Sudan conducting a series of consultations among themselves before travelling to Khartoum to take part in the ceremony,” he said.

Those who will sign the agreement with Khartoum government will include Riak Machar of the SSIM, Kerubino Kwanyin Bol of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA-Bahr el Ghazal Group) and Theophillo Ochan of the Equatoria Defence Force (EDF).

Not participating in the deal is the principal rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), led by Colonel John Garang.

Garang, whose army has been weakened by a 1991 split within the rebel Movement, has accused rivals Machar, Bol and Ochan of a “sell out” to the Islamist regime in Khartoum. He said the group had destroyed the cause of south Sudan by “surrendering” to the “enemy”.

But Garang’s view has been dismissed by Sirr Anai Kelueljang, editor and publisher of the London-based Southern Sudan Bulletin, as unrealistic. “This agreement is important not only for Sudan but also for Africa because it has been negotiated without fo reign interference,” he told IPS.

“It is an internal settlement, which has been negotiated by the Sudanese people themselves,” he said.

The agreement is the brainchild of the Political Charter signed by the Sudanese government and several rebel factions in Khartoum in April 1996.

It provides for a four-year transitional government in the main southern city of Juba, after which southerners will decide in an internationally supervised referendum either to vote for separation or unity.

Malwaal said the controversial issue of religion, which has been dogging the Sudan since independence in 1956, has also been resolved. He said southerners would no longer be subjected to Islamic Sharia laws, but that they would now exercise their rights

in legislation based on customary laws.

The conflict in the Sudan between Arabised north and African south, and which has been on and off since 1955, heightened in 1983 after former president Gaafar Nimeiri imposed the Islamic Sharia, and effectively relegated the non-Muslim population in the south, who form 35 percent of their country’s 30 million people to second class citizens.

Nimeiri’s decision to impose the laws led to the formation in 1983 of the SPLA. But Garang’s ambition to “liberate” Africa’s largest nation and establish a “democratic, secular Sudan,” in the view of his key commanders, did not go far enough.

In 1991 three commanders, led by Machar, announced the overthrow of Garang and called for self-determination, a key grassroots demand, for the people of the south.

Garang survived the coup and has now joined hands with a number of northern opposition groups to topple the Islamic regime in Khartoum in a bid to pre-empt the proposed agreement.

Under the umbrella body of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the group has opened up a new front on the border with Eritrea and Ethiopia, from where they are engaging government forces in guerrilla warfare.

Malwaal said once they established a government in Juba, they would appeal to Garang and his soldiers to lay down their arms and join the peace process.

“There will be no reason for him to fight because southerners will have the chance to vote in a referendum either for separation or unity after four years,” he said. “And if Garang wants the south to remain part of a united Sudan — fine. Let him come home and campaign for it,” he added.

President Omar Hassan al Bashir said last week that his government would declare general amnesty as soon as the agreement was signed and rectified, and added that the repatriation of thousands of refugees from neighbouring countries would follow.

Hassan al Turabi, speaker of the Sudanese parliament, is also optimistic about the deal. He told the weekly edition of the leading Egyptian daily Al Ahram recently that he expected the war to end soon.

“Indeed, I see an end to the civil war in southern Sudan in the not-so-distant future. The issue of self-determination has been settled through a political charter signed by the Sudanese government and most of the leading rebel factions in Khartoum in A pril 1996.

“Whatever that charter and the would-be-agreement might lead to will no doubt be accepted by all the concerned parties — the government and people of the Sudan, including the southerners. Such an option would certainly bring peace and stability to the

country, and please everyone in the Sudan,” he said.

Turabi, who is widely regarded as Sudan’s de facto ruler, is the leader of the powerful National Islamic Front.