The Sudanese authorities and Darfur armed opposition groups exacerbate tribal conflict in defiance of the international community, writes Gamal Nkrumah Washington and Khartoum have been at loggerheads ever since the Islamist regime of Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir came to power in 1989. Sudan has been the subject of fierce political debates by successive United States administrations. Matters have now come to a head, with hawks in the administration of US President George W Bush threatening to carry out punitive measures against Khartoum for its refusal to comply with the ruling of the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to hand over and prosecute former Sudanese cabinet minister, Ahmed Haroun, and Janjaweed Leader Ali Khushayeb for instigating violence and committing serious human rights abuses against the people of Darfur. "Sudan is a sovereign nation and we cannot contemplate outsiders' interference in our domestic affairs," Sudanese Ambassador to Egypt Abdel-Moneim Mohamed Mabrouk told Al-Ahram Weekly. However, there are those in the Sudanese government who contend that succumbing to those arguments would be a tragic mistake. Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir was highly critical of the Sudanese authorities for refusing to cooperate with the United Nations and the ICC. He said that they fear that their gross human rights atrocities in Darfur would be uncovered. Khartoum's proxy militia, the ethnic Arab Janjaweed, are wreaking havoc on the hapless indigenous non-Arab population of Darfur. Furthermore, the Sudanese President's failure to hold his cronies accountable for trashing his country's international reputation by defying the international community's wish to deploy UN troops has exacerbated the situation. Kiir, on the other hand, wants the international peacekeepers inside Darfur, policing war-torn province. Never before has the Sudanese president been publicly challenged and contradicted by his first deputy. Members of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of Al-Bashir however, reacted angrily to Kiir to put it bluntly. Kiir, has since toned down his criticism of Khartoum. He insists on transparency, accountability and social justice. Indeed, Kiir is big on the redistribution of wealth and the devolution of power. He says that the problem in Darfur, in particular, and Sudan as a whole is that political power and wealth is concentrated in the capital. Long neglected in Khartoum boardrooms in favour of the central economic powerhouse of the country in and around Khartoum and Al-Gezira, Darfur is still relegated to the economic doldrums. Oil-rich southern Sudan, on the other hand, now appears on every corporate to-do-list. Southern Sudanese expect to see a lot more international investment But can its newfound economic boom be used to improve the economic plight of the poor of southern Sudan? Peace dividends in the form of accelerated economic growth are expected to change the fortunes of this vast region, the size of France, Spain and Italy combined. Still, Sudanese children lack the basic literacy skills needed to find employment in the non- agricultural sectors. The background too is bleak. In the wider African world, the impact of the violence in Darfur may be reverberating. Already two neighbouring countries, Chad and the Central African Republic, are suffering the ripple effects of the war in Darfur. The ethnic composition of these two countries is similar to Darfur's. The three countries agree that there is an urgent need to hold the tribal death squads in some sort of check. This week, the killing of five African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Darfur "deeply shocked and saddened," said AU Commissioner Alpha Oumar Konare. "These attacks have been launched against the backdrop of an increasing spate of harrasment, hijackings, threats and blackmail that have been made against the mission and its leadership by some of those it is supposed to work with and assist," an AU statement read. Sudanese politics are currently in a state of mayhem, especially as they relate to Darfur. However, ferocious fighting is not restricted to Darfur. Violence has erupted in other parts of the country, including Khartoum. Two policemen and nine Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) members were shot dead in Omdurman, the country's overcrowded cultural capital. Following this, the Sudanese president appointed Supreme Court Magistrate Haidar Ahmed Dafaallah chairman of the investigation committee into the Omdurman violence. But Minni Arkwo Minnawi, the SLA leader, while applauding President Al-Bashir for building a government that crosses regional and ethnic lines, said that the government was not doing enough to heal the wounds of the past. As special presidential advisor and head of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), Minnawi wields some power in Khartoum. But he is isolated from the political dynamics in Darfur. He is ostracised by other Darfur leaders who say that his flirting with the government of President Al-Bashir is a reckless gamble. A wiser course of action would be for Sudan to forget petty squabbles and concentrate on the bigger and more serious issue of development. To dwell on differences would be a mistake.
