"An Optimistic Look 
At Sudan's Future"
Interview: Dr. Ghazi Attabani
Executive Intelligence Review, March 13, 1998, pp. 31-33
Dr. Ghazi is the outgoing secretary general of Sudan's 
National Congress. He was interviewed in Khartoum.

EIR: Dr. Ghazi, could you give us your view of the significance of the second National Congress?

Ghazi: This second meeting has, first of all, come after many significant developments in the political arena, especially the signing of the peace agreement in April last year, so we had to be more inclusive in the conference, in the sense that six factions have joined the peace process and are therefore represented in the Congress. So in terms of membership, it's much more inclusive this time, not only for the southerners, but even for the northern opposition forces who came back from the Arab countries where they were, especially from Cairo, and also from London.

Second of all, the papers which were presented before the Congress, included structural changes in the Congress, and they also included a vision of what the Constitution should look like and a vision of how the future should look for the coming three years, in the three-year plan. This is the first time that the Congress has discussed such papers.

EIR: What will be the next steps in the evolution of the political process of the country?

Ghazi: Right now, this evening actually, we have convened a second most important body in the structure of the National Congress, that is the consultative body Shura, which is composed of 650 people. These people are supposed to elect today about 24 members in order to complete the leadership council. The first thing is to complete all the structures of the National Congress, the next is to embark on a national campaign to explain what our view of the Constitution is, and to rally support behind the Constitution, which will be submitted to a referendum later this year. So we will be very busy in the next period to work on the Constitution and to prepare the next phase, leading into the twenty-first century.

EIR: The other big event is the implementation of the 1997 peace agreement with the different forces in the South. What is the status of this right now, and are you confident that this will be fully implemented, despite the fact that John Garang still does not want to be part of it?

Ghazi: I am fairly optimistic, because the agreement addresses all the concerns and ambitions and interests of the southern political forces. The fact that John Garang has not yet joined the agreement relates to some tribal differences between himself and other major tribes in the South. Now he sees the agreement as one between the government and rival tribes in the South, but the content of the agreement itself is quite sound and appealing to southern political forces, so that is the main point of strength.

The agreement is in the process of being implemented, the chairman of the Coordinating Council has been appointed and half of the members of the Council have been appointed--actually not appointed, but have been made known; they were Walis [governors] in the southern states. Unfortunately, we had this setback when Kerobino, one of the signators of the agreement, mutinied against the armed forces in the South, but the other political forces and other factions are still committed to the agreement and we expect complete implementation of the agreement very soon.

EIR: Could you give us a sense of the evolution of the economy in the last period? You see an improvement; do you see certain targets that you want to reach?

Ghazi: Over the past eight years, we have lifted the country from a growth rate of 1% to a growth rate of 11.4%, and now it has come down to 7.5%. That gives you an idea of the goals of development in this country. We have been doing it all on our own, without outside help, but now, with the oil production being developed--we have just seen the signing of one of the major agreements on projects with international companies--we expect Sudan's economic future to change dramatically and quantitatively in the coming period, and that will put us in a different perspective. Coupled with the fact that Sudan has embarked also on an ambitious social development program, development banking on the human being, which is evident from the fact that we have 30 universities--compared to any other African country, that is quite a big number--I think in the first decade of the next century, we'll see a much better Sudan.

EIR: Will you revive the Jonglei Canal project?

Ghazi: That is in our thinking, and the whole idea has to be rekindled, the whole idea has to be rethought, together with the Egyptian government, provided that full peace is reached in the South.

EIR: There obviously is an improvement in Egyptian-Sudanese relations; what do you expect from this?

Ghazi: There have been a number of positive signs in the past few months, we still maintain the will and we believe that in Egypt they maintain the same will, and I think that it's just a matter of putting things in place and discussing details on how to normalize relations; not only to normalize relations, but also to embark on a new stage of integration and cooperation, economically, politically, and in other aspects.