Dialogues and meetings by the new government reveal a changing constellation in Sudan, notes Gamal Nkrumah By tradition, practice and Sudanese political lore, opponents have always had to resort to outsiders to mediate and iron out their differences. The current peace talks in Qatar between the Sudanese government of President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir and a miscellany of armed opposition groups from Darfur is a case in point. The talks come at a time when many Sudanese applaud Al-Bashir's success in subduing the guerrilla insurgency in Darfur. The Sudanese government delegation in Qatar is headed by Amin Hassan Omar and the Darfur armed opposition by Al-Tijani Sisi, head of the Liberation and Justice Movement, not to be confused with the far more influential Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). JEM signed a framework accord in February in Qatar with the Sudanese government. However, JEM broke off peace talks and refused to ratify the agreement. JEM leader Ibrahim Khalil and his mentor Sudan's chief Islamist ideologue and leader of the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) were both incarcerated in the Chadian capital N'djamena and Khartoum respectively. They were later released even though Al-Bashir has urged INTERPOL to arrest the JEM leader for alleged war crimes in Darfur. Even without JEM participation at the Qatar peace talks on Darfur, Al-Bashir was optimistic that the JEM boycott would not spell the end of peace negotiations. "The Qatar peace talks are the final round," the Sudanese president declared. The International Criminal Court for War Crimes continues to hound Al-Bashir from afar, but the Sudanese president is unperturbed. It was not an issue in Doha. "The current Doha round will be the last for any armed group and there will be no legitimacy through the gun, only through the ballot box," noted Al-Bashir in an apparent snub intended for JEM. He has the support, he reckons, of several key Darfur armed opposition groups in Qatar's capital Doha. The Qatari Minister of State Ahmed Abdallah Al-Mahmoud, acting as chief mediator in the Darfur peace talks, was hopeful of the other armed opposition groups in Darfur joining in the peace process. "We hope that the negotiations will yield the anticipated results and that the rest of our Darfur brethren will join without exceptions," he noted at the start of the Doha peace talks. At this sensitive point, it is crucial that all the major players in Sudan, including the armed opposition groups in Darfur, work well together. However, the Darfur factions have emphasised that they reject a "false peace". They indicated in no uncertain terms that they want lasting peace. More goodwill and mutual respect on all sides would be a good start. The Sudanese government, in turn, says that it supports a peace process where there are no "winners and losers. A win-win situation is ideal," the head of the Sudanese government delegation said in Qatar. Yet another bone of contention is the dispute over Sudan's oil wealth between the Sudanese government and the SPLM. According to the CPA, there should be a 50- 50 split of oil revenues between Khartoum and the SPLM, even though southern Sudan produces more than 90 per cent of Sudan's oil. The southern Sudanese have long bitterly complained that they did not get enough oil revenues and that the Sudanese government cheats them, a charge Khartoum vigorously denies. These criticisms are common, but they are also unfair insists Al-Bashir. "The SPLM in the new government of national unity shall take the portfolio Energy Ministry so they can be sure they are getting their share of the petrol," Al-Bashir assured southerners this week. The Sudanese government faces a genuine constraint in that it is obliged to fulfil its promise to give the South its due. Some NCP stalwarts contend that bending to the demands of southerners will do nothing to advance the cause of Sudanese unity. Khartoum is hoping that outsiders will be more judicious. United States President Barack Obama officially congratulated Sudanese Vice-President Salva Kiir for his election as president of South Sudan. Obama, according to the South Sudanese presidential office, urged Kiir to capitalise on the vote of confidence that the southern Sudanese electorate has invested in him. The meeting between United States Vice-President Joseph Biden and Kiir in the Kenyan capital Nairobi comes at a crucial historical juncture. The two leaders met on Wednesday and focussed on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of January 2005 signed between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Sudanese government led by the ruling National Congress Party of Al-Bashir. The fact that a top Obama administration official such as Biden met with Kiir outside Sudanese soil to discuss pertinent questions concerning Sudan is itself of great significance not only for the people of southern Sudan, but for all Sudanese. Kiir, however, is a top official of the Sudanese government. He is Biden's counterpart. However, he is also the head of an autonomous region that is about to stage a referendum on national self- determination for the southern Sudanese. Biden must offer reassurance that the US is impartial and will not interfere in domestic Sudanese affairs. The Sudanese are justifiably tired of being viewed as a quasi- democracy that is riddled by civil war. Biden is on an African tour that took him to Egypt's Red Sea resort where he met with President Hosni Mubarak and focussed on Sudan and Darfur. Biden flew to Kenya on the second leg of his journey where he deliberated with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. He is scheduled to meet with South African President Jacob Zuma on the eve of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Biden is accompanied by a high-level delegation including US Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson and the National Security Council's senior director for Africa Michelle Gavin. Gration and Carson pressed for sending Obama administration officials to the inauguration ceremony of Al-Bashir and Kiir, a request that was vehemently opposed by US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and was ultimately rejected by the Obama who sent a low-key consular official of the US embassy in Khartoum to represent the US.
