Talks on bringing peace to both sides of the Sudan, South Sudan border face
a wall as Khartoum and Juba dig in their heels on political grounds, writes
Salah Khalil
Friday,07 March, 2014
If the governments of Khartoum and Juba are serious about peace, they are
not offering enough to make it happen. After several days of talks with
rebel groups in both countries, the Sudanese and South Sudanese governments
cannot seem to reach a compromise with the rebels on both sides of the
borders of what was once one nation.
On 28 February, a new round of talks between the Khartoum government and the
Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) started, with African
mediators, led by Thabo Mbeki, trying to come up with a compromise formula.
The SPLM-N has made several demands. One was to be recognised as an official
political party, and another was to hold a conference for all Sudanese
political parties in Ethiopia.
Talks between the rebels and the government, SPLM-N negotiators insisted,
should include not only all political parties but also civil society
organisations.
The immediate aim of the talks is to end hostilities and get humanitarian
aid to stranded civilians in rebel-held areas in South Kordofan, Darfur and
the Blue Nile, SPLM-N negotiators said.
Khartoum was not thrilled about the idea that all its opponents should talk
to it around one table. It would rather talk to everyone separately, and
make piecemeal arrangements for each problem that is raised.
The Sudanese government said that it was prepared to discuss the Blue Nile
and Kordofan with the SPLM-N, but other troubled areas in the country are
not to be brought to the negotiating table.
It also made it clear that the SPLM-N fighters must disarm, with a promise
to be integrated in the Sudanese army at a later stage.
After four days of talks, the gap was still too wide to bridge.
In an attempt to narrow the differences, African mediators offered their own
set of proposals, which elicited counterproposals from both Khartoum and the
rebels.
SPLM-N negotiators said that African mediators must oversee a process of
constitutional talks among all Sudanese parties.
Khartoum, for its part, hinted that unless a compromise solution is found, a
military option could not be ruled out.
Adnan Khan, UN resident humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, urged immediate
action on the humanitarian front.
"We cannot allow innocent civilians to continue to pay the price of war or
to make the provision of life-saving humanitarian assistance somehow
conditional upon political progress," he stated.
The talks finally collapsed, with African mediators saying that the matter
will be referred to the African Peace and Security Council (PSC).
Talks between the Juba government and the rebels didn't exactly collapse,
but almost. African mediators have been unable to come up with a
reconciliatory agenda, as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development
(IGAD) had hoped.
South Sudanese Information Minister Michael Makuei said that the IGAD
mediators failed because "they didn't listen to us."
The job of mediators is to close the gap between positions not to "impose
agendas" on both sides, Makuei said.
Two sticking points blocked progress on the talks. One is Juba's refusal to
let top aides of former vice president Riek Machar, whom President Salva
Kiir accuses of plotting to oust him, in the talks. Juba initially arrested
eleven of Machar's allies. It later released seven of them, but barred them
from participating in talks.
The other sticking point is the Ugandan army troops, which took sides with
President Kiir in the recent confrontation. Here, there has been some
progress, as the Sudanese government said that the Ugandans are withdrawing
"gradually" from the country.
For now, Juba says that it is willing to hold a national dialogue,
restructure the government and army, and reform the ruling party.
But it turned down IGAD's proposal for both sides to attend a
"constitutional conference" that may set the ground rules for the country's
future.
Juba rejected the proposal, saying that it cannot have a national dialogue
held outside the country's borders. It reiterated its call for the
opposition to take part in the elections scheduled for March 2015.
To help bring peace to South Sudan, IGAD proposed deploying an African force
of 10 battalions in oil-rich areas and around the capital, Juba.
South Sudan presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said that Ugandan troops
are going to leave South Sudan, a long-standing demand of the rebels. He
added that the Ugandan troops are going to deploy in Western Equatoria,
where they will be on a mission to confront the Ugandan rebel group known as
the Lord's Resistance Army.
Meanwhile, fighting is said to have renewed in the states of Unity and the
Upper Nile.