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Fragmented negotiations
6/2004 |
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[ Sudan ]
Fragmented negotiations
Peace in Sudan is still nowhere in sight, despite signs that a peace treaty is imminent between the central government and the SPLM (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement) from the southern regions. Centres of conflict in other regions remain worrisome. The Sudan Forum, an organisation largely made up of church bodies, was agreed on this at a conference held in Hermannsburg, Lower Saxony in early May.
At the same time that it is busy negotiating with the SPLM, the government in Khartoum is taking increasingly violent steps against the people of the western Darfur region. In spite of a cease-fire with rebel groups, militias, supported by the army, are systematically driving the civilian population out of the area. Approximately one million of the six to seven million Darfuris have been displaced. A similar fate is threatening the population in the north-east. Spokespersons from the churches and civil society point out that the conflict in Darfur is connected to the ongoing negotiations concerning Southern Sudan. The government is withdrawing troops from Southern Sudan and sending them to Darfur. The rebellion in Western Sudan intensified in early 2003 due to a general belief that Khartoum and the SPLM would negotiate the future of the entire country on their own. It was believed that only those taking up arms would be heard at all. The Sudan government and the SPLM are both balking against including Darfur in their talks. SPLM representatives fear that the negotiations might then be put back by several years. The government, on the other hand, fears a domino effect, with rebellion spreading to other disadvantaged areas of the country. As a consequence, talks on Southern Sudan are taking place in Kenya, while those on Darfur are being held in Chad.
“What we’ve got here at the moment are two peace processes”, says Christian Manahl of the European Commission. He says that the EU backs mediation initiatives by African nations and supports the idea of two phases of action. According to this approach, the warring factions alone will negotiate a peace treaty as well as the steps, which will then be needed to restructure the country. The EU is insisting that Darfur receive immediate humanitarian aid and that the cease-fire be strictly observed and monitored internationally. A peace treaty between the SPLM and Khartoum must first be in place before agreed steps towards democracy and constitutional reform can be introduced. Once a peace treaty is concluded the EU plans to release 430 million Euro for development assistance in Sudan, part of which will pass to a new, partly-autonomous government under the SPLM. Germany’s federal government supports the EU approach in principle, explains Mathias Meyer of the Foreign Office. It would, however, have liked to see unarmed opposition groups included at an earlier stage in the proceedings.
At the Hermannsburg conference the conviction was frequently expressed that the main problem is not concluding a peace agreement, but enforcing it. Most church representatives do not trust the government. They say its pledges of peace are merely the result of US pressure, however, Washington was no more interested in talk of secession for Southern Sudan than neighbouring African states. It therefore appears uncertain whether the planned referendum will in fact take place as agreed after the six year transitional period.
Bernd Ludermann
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