POLITICS-SUDAN: The End of War Within Reach – Mediator

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Katy Salmon

NAIROBI, Feb 6 2003 (IPS) - The mediator trying to end Sudan’s 20-year civil war says ”the end of the war is within reach”.

Speaking at the end of two-weeks of negotiations between the government of Sudan and rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) on Thursday, mediator Lazaro Sumbeiwyo said the talks had been positive and ”we can build on this to become the end of the war”.

He predicted that ”before the end of this year there will be (a comprehensive peace) agreement”.

On Tuesday, the two parties agreed that monitors from countries bordering Sudan as well as the United States, Britain, Italy and Norway will be sent to Sudan to report on cease-fire violations.

This new agreement will give teeth to the cease-fire signed in October last year, which runs through to Mar 31. The cessation of hostilities has proven ineffective because there were no independent monitors on the ground to verify counter-accusations of cease-fire violations.

”We didn’t have a mechanism of implementing it. Now we have a mechanism to check when there is violation, we go there and check. We are able now to point fingers at who started the firing,” Sumbeiywo said.

The mediator says that there are now only a few issues left to be discussed.

”It’s about near the end because it’s only the question of the few issues on power and the security arrangements,” he explained.

The two sides have yet to agree on a neutral capital, with the government pushing for Khartoum to remain the capital of Sudan, while the rebels argue that it is not fair because it is under Islamic Sharia (law).

They also have to work out how to share power in the presidency, National Assembly and civil service.

With the monitors in place and, hopefully, an end to hostilities, there should be a better atmosphere to iron out these issues at the next session. Almost a week of the just-ended two-week session was wasted arguing over cease-fire violations. The SPLA temporarily walked out of the talks in protest at ongoing fighting.

”This is important because we wasted a lot of time the last session talking about violations of the Memorandum of Understanding and fighting in Western Upper Nile, Eastern Upper Nile,” says SPLA spokesperson Samson Kwaje.

”We hope that when we come back the next time and we adhere to this addendum, we’ll have a better atmosphere of talking and we’ll have more time to discuss substantial issues instead of procedural,” he says.

Mohamed Dirdeiry, a senior official at the Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, is equally optimistic about the arrival of monitors.

”We can right now say positively that the war had been stopped. I think this means peace is just around the corner. This is the first time for us to talk about stopping war since we started fighting 19 years back. It’s a very big achievement. I think it’s a real achievement,” he says.

Significant progress was also made on the question of wealth sharing between northern and southern Sudan. Representatives from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) attended the talks, bringing fresh ideas on sharing out assets like Sudan’s newfound oil wealth.

”They showed them how to divide and they have agreed. There are no percentages. It’s on requirement. That’s what the World Bank advised us. You make up a budget and that is what is financed. Not dividing the money,” explains Sumbeiywo.

Next Wednesday, the technical committee of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which is organising the talks, will meet to discuss the deployment of cease-fire monitors. The number of observers has not yet been decided because it is unclear how much money will be available to finance them.

Talks between the government of Sudan and the rebels will resume on Mar 1. The first item on the agenda will be the status of three disputed areas.

The areas are technically part of northern Sudan, according to the borders at independence in 1956. But the SPLA argues that the people of Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains and Abyei have been fighting on its side and so should be offered the same concessions as the south is being given.

As these areas are outside the mandate of IGAD, they will be discussed under the mediation of Kenya, rather than the regional body. This is something of a technical fudge though as Sumbeiywo will still be the mediator.

”I am going to chair it as a Kenyan. They’ve given the mandate to Kenyans to assist them resolve the conflict in these areas,” he explains.

Rather than being allocated to either the north or the south, it is possible that the areas could be granted an autonomous status.

”Can we arrange a system of autonomous governance, they become trustees of the African Union?” suggests Kwaje.

”We are open. But these areas must be given the chance to decide. Like southern Sudan, they should be given the chance to determine their fate,” he says.

However, Dirdeiry says it is unlikely that they will want what is being offered to the south because the issue is not one of Islam versus Christianity, but simply underdevelopment.

”They are Muslims. I don’t think there’ll be any demand for being exempted from Sharia,” says Dirdeiry.

However, the SPLA argue that the people in the three disputed areas are not Muslims.

After this issue is discussed, the two sides will then move on to security arrangements before returning to power and wealth sharing.

”It’s a technical way of going – leaving issues so that there is a trade off at the end. You take this, I take this, and that is the end of the exercise,” says Sumbeiywo optimistically.

The SPLA took up arms against the government in 1983 to fight for greater autonomy for the south. The war has killed some two million people, mainly through war-related famine.