NAIROBI – The crisis in the Sudan‘s western region of Darfur has overshadowed the peace process in the south of the country, where more than 2 million people have been killed since 1983.
"[Darfur] is receiving a lot of attention and it’s like the peace process [in the south] has been forgotten," Samson Kwaje, spokesperson for the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SPLA), fighting government forces in the south, told IPS in an interview this week.
"Darfur has overshadowed the current peace process [in the south]," he said, adding: "The peace process [in the south] is equally important and the two should be given equal treatment. They should run simultaneously."
Talks to end the 21-year conflict, between the black Christian south and the Arab Muslim north, kicked off in neighboring Kenya in 2002, under the auspices of the seven-nation Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). IGAD comprises Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.
During the initial stages of the talks, there was a lot of optimism as the United States, Britain, Italy and Norway exerted pressure on the belligerents to reach a peaceful settlement. Six protocols, including on wealth sharing, power sharing and security arrangement, were signed by the two sides. What was left was discussing details of the implementation of the agreement and compiling the six protocols into a single document.
But the talks adjourned on July 28 without an agreement on a permanent ceasefire.
Kenyan mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo, IGAD’s special envoy to the talks, told IPS, "The situation is still quiet. And, as of now, the government is awaiting a decision of the United Nations Security Council, before it can proceed with the peace negotiations."
The UN Security Council issued a 30-day deadline to the Sudan government to rein in the marauding Arab militias, known as Janjaweed (or men on horseback), terrorizing the Darfur region, or face sanctions. The deadline expired Aug. 30. UN special envoy Jan Pronk was expected to brief the 15-member UN Security Council on Sept. 2.
As it anxiously awaits news from the UN headquarters in New York, the government of President Omar al Bashir says it has complied with most of the UN requirements.
"The government is in the process of demilitarizing the troublesome militia. It has, so far, deployed 7,000 troops to the area. Besides, it has set up a court for trying the militias who have been accused of violating human rights there," Neimat Bilal, spokeswoman at the Sudanese Embassy in Kenya, told IPS in an interview on Sept. 1.
"This shows there is progress and effort on the part of the government to restore peace in Darfur," she added.
The conflict in Darfur erupted 18 months ago when two black rebel factions, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), took up arms to demand autonomy.
The Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed on the rebels. Since then, the Janjaweed have been accused of widespread killings, raping, abductions, torching villages and crops, as well as looting cattle of black Muslims in Darfur.
Aid agencies say up to 50,000 people have died from the conflict, while more than 1.4 million have been displaced internally. About 170,000 of these have fled into neighboring Chad for fear of being attacked by the Janjaweed.
African Union (AU) chairman, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria has written to Sudan’s president al Bashir urging him to put an end to all attacks on civilians by government forces and Janjaweed to avoid jeopardizing Darfur peace talks currently underway in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said Wednesday Sudan has failed to rein in the Janjaweed and that a large international force was required in Darfur as soon as possible.
In his monthly briefing, John Ashworth of the South Africa-based Sudan Focal Point, a Catholic church agency, said: "The southern peace process appears to be completely stalled as international and local attention focuses on Darfur. This lack of progress, indeed lack of even any process towards progress, is a cause for concern."
Khalil Ibrahim, the exiled JEM chairman, told journalists recently that Darfur would not accept a bilateral peace agreement between Khartoum and the southern rebels.
"Such a deal will not bring peace to Sudan," he said.
Recently, the SPLA leader John Garang ruled out sending troops to fight the Darfur rebels if southern rebels signed a comprehensive peace deal with Khartoum. And last month Garang offered to deploy 10,000 SPLA troops in Darfur as part of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force.
Rwanda and Nigeria have each sent 150 troops to Darfur. But Khartoum has refused the deployment of a larger peacekeeping force of 2,500 as requested by the African Union.
