Sudanese protagonists at three separate forums search for a sensible blueprint for peace and political reform in Sudan, writes Gamal Nkrumah The Sudan is moving to prime position once again at the United Nations where ambassadors are desperately seeking ways of resolving the country's political crises. On Tuesday, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to convene the Sudanese meetings in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, thereby giving a greater role to African countries. The road, however, looks tortuously long for Sudan. While the Sudanese warring parties are hopelessly divided the world wants them to speedily sign peace agreements. "My hope is that the [Sudanese warring] parties will close the differences substantially and it would be great if there were a peace agreement," United States Ambassador to the UN John Danforth told reporters in New York this week. Danforth, who sponsored Tuesday's UN Security Council resolution to move to Kenya, was a former chief envoy to Sudan for US President Bill Clinton and has retained the position for current president, George W Bush. Sudanese political forces are currently being galvanised into action with three ongoing simultaneous meetings that aim at charting the political future of the country. The most promising Sudanese peace talks are those currently taking place in Naivasha, Kenya, and in Cairo. The most intractable Sudanese peace talks are in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, and are centred on finding a solution to the conflict in Darfur, Sudan's westernmost province. The African Union (AU), a continental body of 53 states, is sponsoring the Abuja peace talks. The first round of the Abuja talks took place in August but collapsed in September when the Sudanese protagonists failed to reach an agreement on security and political matters. Meanwhile, the war in Darfur has claimed the lives of 70,000 people and has rendered an estimated 3.5 million people homeless. The Abuja peace talks between the Sudanese government, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), were resumed last week, but have already run into difficulties again. The SLA and JEM want to focus on political issues and not the military matters that concern the Sudanese government the most. "When we start the talks on political issues, we will know each other's vision on ways to resolve the Darfur crisis," explained JEM spokesman Ahmed Tughod. "Already we have formed committees to settle the issue of security so that we can fully focus on the political issue as it is the main issue," Tughod stressed. In contrast the Sudanese government is more worried about containing the uprising in Darfur. They are also very much against international intervention in Darfur. Both the SLA and JEM want the international community to intervene militarily or deploy peace-keeping troops. The Sudanese government does not mind AU monitor troops, but it strongly objects to Western peace-keeping forces being deployed. "We will never accept US planes in Sudanese territory," Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail told reporters in Khartoum this week. "We will allow US aircraft only under an agreement with guarantees between the AU and the Sudanese government that Sudan's national security will not be violated." The talks in Kenya between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) are sponsored by the Inter- Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD), a regional organisation which groups seven East African countries, including Sudan. Meanwhile in Cairo, talks between the Sudanese government and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the umbrella opposition organisation grouping including the SPLA, the country's most powerful armed opposition group, are gathering momentum. The talks sponsored by the Egyptian government are bringing together desperate Sudanese political factions. At some point the Sudanese government will have to accept that a negotiated settlement would best serve the national interests of the country. The Cairo-based Mohamed Othman Al- Mirghani, head of the NDA and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), has issued statements praising the pace of the Cairo peace talks. Farouk Abu Issa, the former head of the Cairo- based Arab Lawyers Union and official spokesman for the NDA concurred. "We have become opposition parties not because we lost at free and fair elections, but because we were forcibly removed from the decision-making process by the military dictatorship now entrenched in power in Khartoum," Abu Issa told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The SLA and JEM in Darfur took up arms against the government because of an impossible political situation in which they found themselves marginalised. They did not take up arms because of the humanitarian crisis." The search for peace in Sudan goes on.
