All Sudanese choose peace
except Garang
by Muriel Mirak-Weissbach
Executive Intelligence Review April 18 1997, pp. 53-54
In the second half of April, a momentous event is scheduled to take place in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. No one should expect that CNN or any major Western media outlet will cover it, because it flies in the face of the slanders which have been spread by those media against Sudan. Nonetheless, the event will have vast consequences on the future not only of Sudan, but of many neighboring African nations.
On April 21, a definitive Peace Treaty is to be signed, between the government of Gen. Omar al Bashir, and leaders of the rebel forces who had been waging war against the central authorities since 1983. The signing ceremony is to take place just over one year after the two sides signed a Political Charter, outlining the principles on the basis of which a final treaty could be negotiated.
At the time of the April 10, 1996 Charter, two leaders of major factions of the rebel forces had signed, Commander Dr. Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon, chairman of the South Sudan Independence Movement (SSIM) and commander in chief of the South Sudan Independence Army (SSIA), and Commander Kerbino Kuanyin, chairman of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM/A), Bahr el Ghazal group. Witnesses to the signing included the founder of the SPLAS, Arok Thon Arok.
By now, leaders of five factions are part of the peace process, including James Othow Along, SPLM/A-United, Fashoda; Theophilus Ochang, of the Equatoria Defense Force (EDF); Mohamed Haruka Kafi, of the SPLA/M, Nuba Mountains; the Independent Group led by Kuanj Makoi, Arok Thon Arok, Shal Deng, and others; and Lawrence Lual, minister of education of the SPLM. Yet others are expected to join, as well.
This means, that the only rebel force which is holding out, refusing to join the peace process, is that of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army faction of John Garang. It lays bare the fact, that the continued military and political opposition identified with Garang, has nothing to do with the internal dynamics of the 14-year civil war, but is the expression solely of the commitment, on the part of the British Privy Council and its allies in the United States, to manipulate local forces, like those of Garang, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, to fuel a war, in hopes of breaking up the nation.
As President al Bashir said, in announcing plans to sign the agreement after the Adhha Eid holiday, this peace treaty represents the ``ultimate challenge'' to Garang and his backers. The draft treaty, which has been hammered out through a year-long process of negotiation among the parties to the Political Charter, satisfies literally all the demands which those insurgents have {claimed} were behind their rebellion. Were they honest in that claim, they would have no other choice than to join the process, and sign as well.
On April 6, Mohamed Al Amin Khalifa, secretary general of the Supreme Council for Peace which sponsored the talks, held a press conference in Khartoum, to illustrate the main lines of the agreement. Implementing the principles agreed upon in the Political Charter (see {EIR,} Jan. 24, pp. 22-45), the treaty establishes a transitional period of four years, after which a final status will be determined, through a referendum. The transitional period is due to begin as of the establishment of a Coordination Council for the southern states, which make up 10 of the 26 federal states. The Coordination Council will be made up of a chairman, deputy chairman, and 13 coordination ministers, as well as the 10 {walis} of the southern states. The council will be affiliated to the Presidency of the Republic, and will run the affairs of the south in the transition period.
The responsibility of the Coordination Council will be to coordinate between the states and the government, the general supervision of the federal government and of the development process in the south, and the peace process.
The priorities during the interim period are reconstruction and development of the economy of the southern part of the country, which has been devastated by the civil war, the repatriation of the refugees and displaced persons back to the region, completion of the establishment of the political institutions in the south, and holding of the referendum. The referendum, as President al Bashir confirmed on April 8, would allow citizens of the south to choose between remaining within the national unity of Sudan, or separating from it.
As for power and wealth-sharing, which is guaranteed in the Political Charter, the treaty envisions the following: The federal institutions will have authority over questions pertaining to national defense, security, foreign policy, and economic planning, whereas the states will have executive power over agricultural and industrial development, education, health, tourism, internal security, and order. Taxation will be both federal and local, and the revenues will be accordingly allocated. In addition, a national fund will be established for the distribution of federal income, whereby a percentage will be made available to the least developed states and states participating in national projects.
Regarding the questions of religion and related legal regimes, an area of significant debate during the last year, an agreement has been struck whereby Islamic law ({Sharia}) and custom (the prevailing legal norms) will provide the basis for legislation. In addition, as spelled out in the charter, ``states may enact legislation complementary to the federal law in matters peculiar to those states.'' Such fine differentiations have been considered necessary to satisfy the aspirations of the population, which is multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-lingual. The national language agreed upon in the treaty is Arabic, and the second language is English.
The peace agreement confirms the principles laid out in the charter, that all fundamental freedoms are guaranteed: freedom of expression, movement, belief, thought, press, and organization, as well as all human rights defined in international charters. The Supreme Court is recognized as protector of the constitution, and as mediator in conflicts among institutions. After it has been signed, the treaty itself will be introduced to the National Assembly (the parliament) for ratification as (constitutional) law. This law would be subject to amendment by a majority of two-thirds in the parliament.
Finally, on the military front, a general amnesty is to be declared after the signing. According to the {Dawn} newspaper, reporting on April 9 on the press conference, Minister al Khalifa said, there would be a ``joint government and rebel military council to oversee the implementation of the cease-fire and coordinate the activities of the government Army and the rebel forces which will remain under their respective commanders for the whole of the four-year interim period,'' and the ``future of the rebel forces will be determined after the interim period.''