The signing of a peace accord with eastern Sudanese armed opposition groups might brighten prospects for a similar deal in Darfur, writes Gamal Nkrumah The list of Sudanese achievements in the past year is long and it should help moderate recent complaints from the United States and other Western governments that the Sudanese government is attempting to mend fences with its disparate foes at home and abroad. The latest peace deal the Sudanese government has clinched is with the Eastern Front -- a coalition of forces of the Beja Congress and the Rashaida Free Lions Front. The sprawling eastern region of Sudan is one of the country's poorest and most neglected provinces. There is the widespread belief that now that a deal with the easterners has been struck, Khartoum will regain some moral high ground. The ethnic Beja constitute the largest ethnic group in eastern Sudan while the Rashaida Arab tribes are the second largest. Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir flew to the Eritrean capital where he attended the signing ceremony resplendent in the traditional attire of the Beja tribesmen. Sudanese Vice President Salva Kiir also attended, but it was Presidential Advisor Mustafa Othman Ismail who signed on behalf of the government. The top-level Sudanese officials profusely praised Eritrean President Isaias Aferworki for brokering the deal. Peace talks had taken a long time to get going. Strenuous behind the scenes diplomatic efforts were a reminder to the regime in Khartoum of the groundwork it had still to do in Darfur. "There can be no military solution to the crisis in Darfur," declared President Beshir in Asmara. "Justice is and remains our objective," he explained. In a flurry of diplomatic activity to break the deadlock over Darfur, both the British and Americans dispatched high-ranking diplomats and politicians to Khartoum. Washington's Chief Envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios was dispatched to Darfur and southern Sudan this week. He was cold-shouldered by authorities in Khartoum. Not to be outdone, British International Development Minister Hillary Benn flew to Khartoum and met with the Sudanese president and other officials to assess prospects for peace in Darfur. Natsios's reception, or lack of it, by Khartoum was foreseeable as last Friday US President George W Bush signed the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act which imposes sanctions against those responsible for genocide in Sudan's war-torn westernmost province. "The government of Sudan continues to implement policies and actions that violate human rights, in particular with respect to the conflict in Darfur," explained Bush. Such humanitarian references were quickly moderated as underlying US interests in Sudan surfaced. Bush couldn't hold his tongue this week and spilled the beans: "The pervasive role played by the government of Sudan in Sudan's petroleum and petrochemical industries threaten US national security and foreign policy interests," he extrapolated. Bush's new sanctions prohibit transactions related to Sudan's oil sector. Meanwhile, the Arab League is looking for a concrete foreign policy achievement. The Sudanese government, with tacit Arab connivance, has invested political capital in its campaign to keep foreign peacekeepers out of Darfur. What is crucial is for the Sudanese government to exert more pressure and push for a strengthened African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. Only this would prevent Western powers from complaining that the Sudanese are doing nothing. Western powers disapprove. "As for Darfur, Khartoum might feel less cocky if President Bush announced that he was taking the lead on soliciting troops for a peacekeeping force while asking NATO to start drawing up plans for a possible forced entry should the United Nations fail to act," stated a New York Times editorial entitled "The Age of Impunity" last week. Low morale and lack of direction are Sudan's worst enemies at present. Sudanese government forces have undertaken massive security sweeps in Darfur recently, but it has yet to establish even local ceasefires with active armed opposition groups. Government forces have even clashed with the Minni Arko Minnawi Sudan Liberation Army faction that signed a tentative peace accord with Khartoum in the Nigerian capital Abuja in May. The International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels- based think tank, last Thursday issued a warning that the Sudanese government is continuing "its military campaign with deadly consequences on civilians". "With Khartoum continuing to reject the expanded UN mission in Darfur, the international community must take strong measures to change the regime's calculations of the costs of non-cooperation. Upping the international pressure includes applying targeted sanctions like asset freezes and travel bans on key regimes figures, authorising an investigation into offshore accounts to pave the way for economic sanctions, exploring sanctions on aspects of Sudan's petroleum sector, managing the threat of International Criminal Court prosecutions for atrocity crimes and moving to enforce a no-fly zone over Darfur, and obtaining Chad's consent to a rapid reaction force," the ICG report ominously noted.
