[ Interview with Marina Peter, Sudan Focal Point Europe ]

“It’s still a long way to peace in Sudan”

Ms Peter, is the negotiators’ optimism justified? Will there be peace in Sudan soon?
There will soon be a peace agreement but it’s still a long way to peace in Sudan. Above all, an answer needs to be found to the question of how power and resources can be shared out among Sudan’s 500 or so ethnic groups. So far, only a small minority have been represented in government. Unless that changes, there can be no stable peace.

Why did the peace process make such marked progress in the last two years?
For one thing, since September 11, 2001 the government has been very keen to get Sudan removed from the list of countries which are considered by the US government to support terrorism. That has given the process a new dynamism. Secondly, civil society in Sudan – which used to be very suppressed – has become increasingly vociferous in the last three or four years and has been calling for peace vigorously.

What gave civil society such a boost?
In the past, there wasn’t just the war between the government and the SPLA; there were also violent clashes between feuding groups in Sudan. The churches, in particular, tried to help those groups patch up their differences but for a long time their efforts were in vain. A turning point came with the so-called Wunlit Conference in March 1999, which helped bring about a reconciliation between the Dinka and Nuer in the Bar el Ghazal region. That success showed civil society it could make an active contribution to peace, and that experience gave it a great deal of strength and confidence.

How can the international community best support the peace process?
The peace plan provides for a six-year transitional period, after which the people in the south will vote in a referendum on autonomy for the region. In the next six years, many of the actors involved will try to secure their power bases; the international community, together with civil society, needs to keep an eye on that. It mustn’t turn its back on Sudan as soon as a peace deal has been signed.

Would a military peacekeeping mission be helpful?
I doubt whether peace in Sudan – which is a country the size of whole Western Europe – can be secured by military means. What is urgently needed, though, is a kind of international arbiter to help quarrelling groups sort out problems and to ensure that the peace accord is observed.

SPLA and government are on the brink of making a peace pact but conflict is escalating in the western region of Darfur. Is there a risk here of a new and protracted civil war?
Yes, this danger is real. The rebels feel left out of the peace talks and fear that a new government of southern and northern Sudanese might disregard their interests. Darfur has been simmering since the early 1980s. To start with, it was all about land, which was becoming increasingly scarce due to dramatic soil erosion in the region; nomadic pastoralists clashed with settled peasants. Then things came to a head, partly as a result of the government arming the Arabised nomads. Khartum is now deeply involved in the conflict.

Questions by Tillmann Elliesen.