Sudanese peace talks flounder over the legal status of the capital Khartoum, writes Gamal Nkrumah Peace talks between Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) John Garang were stalled last week in Naivasha, 80 kilometres northwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi. The legal-cum-religious status of Khartoum has proven the straw that broke the camel's back of Sudanese peace talks. The Sudanese negotiators at the peace talks in Naivasha, Kenya, hold the future of the war-torn country in their hands. Sudanese government papers declared, a little prematurely perhaps, that a peace deal was to be signed on Wednesday. But as Al-Ahram Weekly went to press, no such deal was clinched. The Sudanese peace talks are taking place under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD), a regional organisation which groups seven East African countries, including Sudan. But the US is the main impelling force for peace in Sudan. Kenyan Special Envoy for Peace in Sudan and Chief Mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo said that the issue of the status of Khartoum is the main stumbling block but that he is hopeful that a deal could be clinched over the weekend. Kenya is currently holding the chairmanship of the IGAD ministerial sub-committee on Sudan. Reports of a breakthrough came mainly from Khartoum. SPLA officials have not corroborated Khartoum's idly optimistic statements yet. Sudanese authorities said that a deal might be clinched by Friday. The administration of US President George W Bush dispatched its special adviser on Sudan, Jeff Millington, to Kenya to iron out the remaining differences, including the legal and religious status of Khartoum. The SPLA, it was reported on Tuesday, offered a compromise. Initially, the southern Sudanese- based movement had insisted that the Sudanese capital Khartoum be declared a secular territory where the Islamic Shari'a law is inapplicable in accordance with its status as national or federal capital. The SPLA softened its stand and reluctantly conceded that with a Muslim majority population, Khartoum could be legally governed by Islamic Shari'a laws, but says that non- Muslims should be exempt from being subject to Islamic law. The Sudanese government apparently refused point blank. The regime in Khartoum has proven to be incongruously intransigent on the question of Islamic Shari'a law -- its veritable raison d'être. Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al- Beshir stood his ground and according to reports from Khartoum the SPLA relented, agreeing with the government that both Muslims and non- Muslims be subject to Islamic Shari'a law. On Wednesday, SPLA officials denied that they have consented to such a deal. SPLA officials reiterated their position that they have compromised a great deal and that they cannot compromise or make any further concessions on this particular question. The position of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the umbrella opposition organisation grouping the SPLA and other mainly northern Sudanese opposition parties, is clear on the subject of the religious and legal status of Khartoum. Most groups within the NDA want to see a secular national capital. But some leaders like Mohamed Othman Al-Mirghani, the head of the NDA and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and a religious leader in his own right are somewhat ambiguous on the subject. Still, the NDA as a whole have backed the SPLA position. "It would be shocking if the SPLA reneged on this question," Farouk Abu Eissa, former head of the Cairo-based Arab Lawyers Union and official spokesman for the NDA told the Weekly. "Khartoum is the national capital and must be secular." SPLA officials concur. "The government insists that everyone must be subjected to Shari'a law. We on the other hand are advocating Shari'a law for Muslims and secular law for non- Muslims," Mansour Khalid, special adviser to the SPLA leader John Garang told the Weekly. Other differences between the SPLA and the Sudanese government include the status of three disputed areas -- the Nuba Mountains in southern Kordofan, the Abeyei region in western Kordofan, and the Ingassena region of southern Blue Nile. An agreement on power sharing in the three areas controlled by the SPLA is imminent. The Sudanese government is reluctant to admit that the SPLA is the dominant political force in these three areas, but Washington is stepping up pressure on Khartoum to accept the de facto situation in the disputed territories. The United States has taken a keen interest in the Sudanese peace process. Secretary of State Colin Powell, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Charles Snyder and other senior officials of the Bush administration have warned that the Sudanese must come to an agreement as soon as possible or be subject to US sanctions. Under the 2002 Sudan Peace Act, US President George W Bush must determine whether progress towards a Sudanese negotiated settlement is achieved by the Sudanese government and the SPLA. The Bush administration could in theory impose sanctions accordingly. "[The Sudan Peace Act] requires us to make clear which party, or both, is or are responsible for failure to achieve agreement and that determination obviously will affect how we deal with the parties in the future," said White House spokesman Richard Boucher. On the other hand, a diplomatic breakthrough is expected to have profound economic repercussions. If the Sudanese protagonists sign a peace deal, the US is expected to increase development assistance and develop trade ties with Khartoum. Washington also wants to see progress on the Darfur front. The Sudanese government and two armed opposition groups in Darfur signed a cease-fire agreement last week. A tentative peace now holds. "We managed through painful negotiations to reach an agreement," said SLA's negotiator Dr Sharif Harir. The European Union, too, has also taken a keen interest in the political future of Sudan. Military intervention in a peacekeeping capacity has been suggested by EU officials. "There is no reason why the EU could not go to Sudan," the top EU military official Gustav Hagglund told the London- based Financial Times. The chief armed opposition group in Darfur is Sudan's Liberation Army (SLA), not to be confused with the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). The SLA is a fully-fledged member of the organisation. The other main Darfur armed opposition group, the Movement for Justice and Equality (JEM), has so far not made any moves to join the NDA. 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 speaker of the Sudanese parliament Hassan Al-Turabi. Both groups, however, have warned that the main problem in Darfur is the Sudanese government-backed Arabised Janjaweed militias who have been initiating the fighting. The Sudanese authorities deny that they are fighting a war by proxy in Darfur. "The problem in the world Janjaweed has become a coverall for so many things. There are militias that are outside the rule of law, and this is one of the things we are going to crack down on," Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail warned. Sudanese Investment Minister Sharif Ahmed Omar Badr, the Sudanese government's representative at the talks in Chad sounded optimistic about the chances of lasting peace in Darfur. Human rights groups and the UN support the cease-fire signed by government and SLA and JEM, but warn that the government-backed militias carried out brutal atrocities and are engaged in a systematic policy of "ethnic cleansing" to decimate the indigenous non-Arab population of Darfur. The Bush administration has taken up the cause of the indigenous peoples of Darfur. The world "must not remain complicit in the brutalisation of Darfur", warned US President George W Bush recently. US officials welcomed the Darfur cease- fire agreement. "This agreement is a crucial, first step towards ending atrocities and reversing the humanitarian crisis in Darfur," said a US State Department spokesman.
