On the eve of clinching a comprehensive Sudanese peace deal, Khartoum and opposition forces need to rebuild trust Peace talks between the Sudanese government and the country's largest armed opposition group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), look like they are all but concluded, although tough negotiations between the Sudanese government and the armed opposition groups of Darfur lie ahead, reports Gamal Nkrumah The talks were held in Naivasha, 80 kms northwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, under the auspices of the Inter- Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD), a regional organisation which groups seven East African countries, including Sudan. The US has dispatched Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Charles Snyder to Naivasha. On Wednesday US officials expressed optimism that a Sudanese peace deal would be signed in the next few days. "It is the first time they have indicated to us that they think they have resolved the issues. They are expected to sign soon," State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters in Washington. Under the Machakos Protocol signed in Kenya in July 2002 by the SPLA and the Sudanese government, the southern Sudanese will enjoy a six-year period of self-rule before deciding in a referendum whether to secede or remain part of Sudan. While IGAD is officially sponsoring the Sudanese peace talks, the US is the main propelling force behind the talks, and has so far proved adept at applying arm-twisting tactics from behind the scenes. Other key features of the Machakos Protocol include the creation of a federal system of government and the lifting of Sharia law in southern Sudan -- mainly Christian and animist. However, Boucher said that the Sudanese were still working on a final draft on the agreed issues. These include power-sharing arrangements in the six-year interim period; whether or not the Sudanese capital Khartoum would be subjected to Sharia law during the interim period; the administration of three disputed areas: Abyei, the Nuba Mountains and Ingassenna, in the southern Blue Nile. But the two sides have not yet ironed out all their differences. As the Sudanese government scrambles to limit the bad publicity it received from the continuing fighting and humanitarian catastrophe in the western Sudanese war-torn province of Darfur, it is under pressure to sign the agreement with the SPLA. "Non-Muslims are going to be subjected to Sharia law... In the past underprivileged and jobless southerners were the first to suffer from amputation of limbs even though they are not Muslim. That is why we do not want Khartoum to impose Sharia law," Farouk Abu Eissa, the former head of the Cairo-based Arab Lawyers Union and official spokesman for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), told Al-Ahram Weekly. Abu Eissa stressed that civil liberties and democratic rights cannot be restricted simply to southern Sudan. The people of northern Sudan are entitled to civil liberties, democracy and human rights as well. He said that many political groups in northern Sudan do not accept the concept of a theocratic state with limited civil liberties as propagated by the Sudanese government. "The political and economic reconstruction of Sudan must be founded on a new basis, one which takes into account the multi-religious and multi-ethnic make-up of the country. Civil society groups -- including trade unions, independent professional associations and opposition parties -- must be involved in the peace process. The state of emergency must be lifted," he added. Meanwhile, it is the situation in Darfur that most alarms the international community. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned last Friday that Darfur is currently "the world's greatest humanitarian catastrophe". Some 150,000 people have been rendered homeless. The New York-based Human Rights Watch has recently released a report that is severely critical of the Sudanese government's alleged scorched earth policy in western Sudan, and in particular in Darfur. The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), the chief armed opposition group in Darfur, not to be confused with the southern Sudanese-based SPLA, and the other main Darfur armed opposition group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), have been battling both government forces and allied Arabised militias known as Janjaweed. The civilian population of Darfur, Sudan's poorest province, has borne the brunt of the fighting. Unlike the secularist and leftist SLA, JEM is a militant Islamist organisation reputedly linked to the Popular National Congress Party (PNC) of the Sudanese Islamist ideologue and former Parliament Speaker Hassan Al-Turabi. The indigenous population of Darfur is, like the rest of northern Sudan, Muslim, but like southern Sudan it is predominantly non-Arabised. Most of the people of Darfur retain their non-Arab identity. They complain that the Janjaweed militias are desecrating their mosques and other places of public worship, as well as cattle rustling, raping, and destroying life and property. The stalled Darfur peace talks are taking place under the auspices of the Chadian President Idriss Deby. Darfur borders Chad and the impoverished and landlocked country is alarmed at the rate at which Sudanese refugees are crossing the Chad-Sudan border. Chad complains that the Janjaweed, in pursuit of JEM and SLA forces, are crossing over the border and attacking Chadian armed forces.
