[allAfrica.com] [Africa_2004] New Day Dawns On Troubled Sudan The Nation (Nairobi) NEWS July 13, 2004 Posted to the web July 12, 2004 By Lucas Barasa in New Site, Sudan Nairobi It is a sunny day. The Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/Army leader, Dr John Garang, is sitting in the shade of a grass-thatch house. Ten metres away, nine-year-old Lomonyen Lino is queuing for a chance for a photo session with the "chairman", as Dr Garang is popularly known in New Sudan. Lino is not accompanying anybody to this historic event, the first of its kind since Sudan gained independence 48 years ago. He is a chief, or sultan in local Arabic dialect, and is among more than 400 traditional leaders and kings attending the conference on the six-point pact signed between SPLM/A and the Khartoum government in Naivasha two months ago. Lino succeeded his father as chief of the tiny Toposa pastoralist community living along the Sudan-Kenya border when the old man died last year. Lino, however, is illiterate and spoke to the Nation at the ceremony at New Site town of Kopoeta County through a translator as he mixed freely with other chiefs, kings and traditional leaders, some as old as 80. Apart from being given a new African dress, each of the chiefs, traditional leaders and kings who took two weeks to discuss the peace deal before unanimously endorsing it and giving their proposals on the reconstruction of New Sudan, had a rare photo session with Dr Garang, some of whom had not seen him before. They were also registered officially as administrators in New Sudan, an area struggling to find its footing after the war that started in 1983 and claimed 2 million lives. New Sudan comprises the three former Southern Sudan provinces of Equatoria, Barh-el Ghazal and Upper Nile. Though not in southern Sudan the Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile and Abyei are also included in New Sudan following their take-over by SPLM/A during the war. Since the signing of the protocol, Dr Garang has been in New Sudan explaining to the people and seeking views on the 21-year war and how to lay a foundation for the reconstruction of Africa's most expansive country. "More than 600,000 people have attended the rallies so far, with the one in Abyei attracting 150,000," he told the chiefs on Saturday night on the compound of an non-governmental organisation run by his wife Rebecca, which caters for widows, orphans and internally displaced people. He added: "I want the Sudanese to own the agreement, unlike the Anya Nya I (an earlier agreement), which collapsed because it was imposed from top by the leadership, and some Sudanese only heard about it on radio." Expressing confidence that the Naivasha agreement "will fundamentally change the Sudan," Dr Garang stressed: "This is your agreement, it is not my agreement, it is not of the leadership council, it is your agreement." The pact, he added, would ensure the Sudanese people's fundamental rights and development, and peace would be useless unless it improved their lives. "It must see our children go to school, laugh and giggle again - a thing they have been unable to do in the last 21 years," he said. On the killings in Darfur, which are described in some quarters as the worst human catastrophe, Dr Garang accused the Khartoum government of making peace in southern Sudan and "war in Darfur." "It is serious. The agreement should translate into peace in the other areas of the country where there's war," Dr Garang said, adding that war had erupted in eastern Sudan as well. The government of national unity agreed upon in Naivasha, he said, did not allow the Khartoum administration to fight its own citizens. He cited Darfur and eastern Sudan as Khartoum's new targets in its war on civilians. He supported the international community's threat to impose sanctions on the government if no agreement was found between the warring parties in Darfur. The Janjaweed, the militias accused of being behind the Darfur killings, he said, were a wing of the Khartoum government forces, and reports that they had been issued with police uniforms, if true, was only meant to make them efficient in killing more people. He said the absorption of some of the Janjaweed into the national police and army was a temporary arrangement following a visit to Darfur by United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan and US Secretary of State Colin Powell. The role of the chiefs, traditional leaders and kings in the implementation of the Naivasha agreement, arms control, demining, ethnic and sectional conflicts, rule of law and order, improvement of infrastructure and restructuring SPLM/ A featured prominently during the chiefs' discussions. The Kamuto Declaration was passed during the meeting, with the chiefs, kings and traditional leaders, like rainmakers and herbalists, declaring ownership of the six-point protocol and offering to help in the implementation. They would educate people in their role on on the pact to enable them to make a wise decision during a referendum after six years on whether the Sudan should remain united or the south should secede. They want a Sudan free of marginalisation and injustice, war monuments and memorials constructed in honour of martyrs, heroes and civilians killed during war. They want also mutual forgiveness and reconciliation. Dialogue among the southerners should also be promoted, with SPLA being professional after signing the final peace agreement with Khartoum, a means of transport provided and social-economic activities improved. According to the protocol, there would be several components of government in New Sudan - for southern Sudan, Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile and Abyei to have an executive council under a presidency in the interim period. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) democracy and governance team leader, Stephanie Funk, said the creation of democracy in New Sudan needed "creating space for all views to be heard". He congratulated SPLM/ A for organising the meeting. Said Norwegian People's Aid country director for Sudan, Mr Oddvar Bjorknes: "You (people of New Sudan) won the war and you must fight to win. You need a different set of tools other than the AK47." Unity was learning to live with differences, he said, adding that even in Norway, people living in the west were regarded by their eastern counterparts as stupid, while the westerners viewed the easterners as arrogant, "but we do not fight." The people of New Sudan, he said, needed strong leadership with dignity, respect and reason. Only the signing of two technical annexes remain - a comprehensive ceasefire and the implementation modalities before a final peace agreement may be reached between the SPLM/A and the Khartoum government. Already the two sides have started ceasefire discussions in Naivasha, and Dr Garang said on Sunday the final peace deal was expected to be signed next month or September. The agreements already reached are on wealth sharing, religion, security arrangements and government. They exclude southern Sudan from being governed under the sharia (Islamic) law, and name Dr Garang as First Vice-President in President Omar el Bashir's government. Sudan will also have three armies, SPLA in the south, one for the government and a joint one. Many people interviewed during the weekend celebrations at New Site, also called Tent City, welcomed the peace deal and celebrated through songs and dance the whole of Saturday night.   =============================================================================   Copyright © 2004 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). =============================================================================