The SPLM's spat with Khartoum highlights the tragic plight of the Sudanese and bodes ill for national unity, frets Gamal Nkrumah Last Thursday, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) announced that it was suspending participation in the coalition government of Sudanese national unity in protest about alleged deception by the ruling National Congress Party (NCP). The SPLM accused the NCP of reneging on promises made in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The CPA was designed to politically transform Sudan into a vibrant democracy, or at least that is what the SPLM had hoped for. The SPLM is now convinced that the NCP had no intention from the start to abide by the terms of the CPA. The rank and file of the SPLM suspect that the treacherous NCP now has no qualms about ripping up agreements. The ruling NCP, for its part, denied the charge, warning that elements within the SPLM are determined to render the CPA irrelevant and ultimately to pave the way for the secession of southern Sudan. Khartoum contends that talk of a new set-piece confrontation between the NCP and the SPLM is exaggerated. Whatever the Sudanese government may be saying, the current disagreement between the SPLM and the NCP is in fact a turning point for Sudan. Egypt, in particular, and most of Sudan's neighbours are dreading the outcome of the stand-off. No neighbour of Sudan wishes to interfere in the domestic affairs of the country. The will of the Sudanese people must be respected, whatever the outcome of the power struggle. However, unlike Western powers who might posit the break-up of Sudan as being to their advantage, Egypt and Sudan's neighbours are keen to preserve Sudanese unity, territorial integrity and national sovereignty. The threat of fullblown civil war is a most sobering scenario for them. Aside from all the fanfare, the SPLM withdrawal from the Sudanese government was an accident waiting to happen. The seeds of discontent were all too apparent. To begin with, the fact that southern Sudan is administered under the terms of the CPA as an autonomous region with its own distinct currency and legal set-up, its own regional legislature, judiciary and executive invariably sows the seeds of secession. The SPLM's move raised the alarm bells in Western capitals. It was anything but unexpected. It also captured the mood of the southerners and is bound to have serious repercussions on the political fortunes of Sudan as a whole. Regardless of its other purposes, the SPLM action was obviously designed to tell the world that the southern Sudanese, and all disfranchised peoples of Sudan, cannot tolerate their political and socio-economic marginalisation any longer. To them, it is as if the CPA never happened. Sometimes these days it seems that it never really did. According to the CPA, Sudan's oil wealth is to be shared on a 50-50 basis between the SPLA and the Sudanese government. The SPLA insists that so far the government has monopolised oil revenues. Darfur's children are growing up barefoot and plagued by intestinal worms. Some are so malnourished that they are not growing at all. Stunted growth, though, is not the only problem. There is the mental scarification and psychological trauma caused by war. Southern Sudan is not much different, even today, after the signing of the CPA. Semi-autonomous southern Sudan, presided over by SPLM leader Vice-President Salva Kiir, is a region in turmoil. "Our partners do not have the will to implement the CPA," Kiir told a delegation of elder statespersons that visited southern Sudan and Darfur last week. The delegation included former US president Jimmy Carter, Graca Machel, the wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela and widow of the late Mozambican president Samora Machel, and Desmond Tutu, Archbishop of South Africa. Indeed, other SPLM leaders corroborated Kiir's fears and complaints. "The international community should put pressure on the NCP. The problem is not us, the problem is the NCP," Rebecca Garang, Sudanese presidential advisor and widow of the late SPLM leader John Garang told Al-Ahram Weekly. "My late husband worked for the unity of Sudan, but the contempt with which the NCP holds the aspirations of the people of southern Sudan augurs ill for the country as a whole," she explained, adding that the international community was partly to blame for the present political predicament. "The international community has shifted to Darfur, forgetting the southerners. But the CPA and Darfur are one and the same," Garang stressed. "If the CPA is being implemented in the South, then the people of Darfur will have the incentive to go into a deal with the NCP," she extrapolated. Indeed, the fact that the challenges faced by southern Sudan and those experienced in western Sudan (Darfur) are similar in nature and are inextricably intertwined. If the south secedes and opts for independence, in all probability Darfur and perhaps some other far-flung Sudanese backwaters might be tempted to follow suit. Be that as it may, Sudanese officials and NCP stalwarts have adopted a radically different approach to the crisis. The NCP number two Nafie Ali Nafie, former Sudanese intelligence chief and currently NCP deputy chairman and chief government negotiator for Darfur, contends that the problem is that the SPLM wants more than its share of the oil wealth of the country. He also sees the hidden hand of foreign powers bent on igniting the already combustible situation in southern Sudan and Darfur. "They want to see the break-up of Sudan," Nafie noted. Nafie acknowledged the political "impasse" over the oil-rich region of Abiye, an area on the border between northern and southern Sudan. Its ethnic composition is complex with ethnic Arab tribes and indigenous non- Arabised peoples vying for political control. Meanwhile, the SPLM complain that the Sudanese authorities are harassing their activists in Khartoum. SPLM Secretary-General protested against arbitrary detentions of SPLM members by the Sudanese security forces and the police search of SPLM offices in Khartoum. Arman bitterly complained about an "organised campaign" targeting the political activities of the SPLM and accused the Sudanese authorities of launching "provocative operations" against the SPLM. SPLM ministers decided 11 October to suspend participation in the national government, including Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol. The SPLM had, until then, 19 ministers and deputy ministers in the Sudanese cabinet. However, Riek Machar, Kiir's deputy, flew to Khartoum for talks with Sudanese authorities and delivered a letter from Kiir to Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir. "We are knocking at the door of the NCP and we hope to have an answer and to work together for a real partnership," Arman told reporters in Khartoum. "We are ready to sit with the NCP to discuss the problems," he added. Arman, too, stressed the key issue of Abiye. Breaking the Abiye deadlock is of vital importance if the SPLM grievances are to be properly addressed. The SPLM also cite the failure of Khartoum to withdraw northern troops from the south as the major hurdle to peace in the south. The authorities in the north, however, highlight the bellicose nature of certain elements within the SPLM and their eagerness to ruin the CPA. "The heart of the problem is that a group within the SPLM wants to end our partnership. This group thinks that in allying itself with foreign parties it can destroy our political project," Nafie was quoted as saying. Another grave development is the lack of security in the south and in Darfur which is hampering the humanitarian relief effort. Since the beginning of the year no less than 130 vehicles belonging to humanitarian relief organisations have been hijacked and their passengers abducted and murdered, with all sides accusing all the others. Many humanitarian relief organisations have pulled out of Sudan for security reasons. Andrew Natsios, the chief US envoy to Sudan, warned that important deadlines have been missed as far as the CPA is concerned. He warned of the ominous implications of the SPLM's withdrawal from government. Washington was "deeply concerned", Natsios said. Meanwhile, the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) spokeswoman Radhia Achouri expressed satisfaction with the seriousness in which the SPLM and the Sudanese authorities are determined to mend fences. "High-level discussions will be taking place shortly between the two parties," she disclosed. Achouri warned of the serious consequences that might be in store if the SPLM conundrum is not resolved. Southern Sudan is scheduled to hold a referendum in 2011 on whether to secede and form an independent nation. Some Sudan observers suspect that the SPLA withdrawal is in some ways a portentous gung-ho affair. Some southern Sudanese have substantiated such convictions. Secession is an attractive option for many southern Sudanese. But, those in the know realise that southern politicians would be deceiving themselves if they think that independence is necessarily a good thing in itself.
