From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Mar 15 2010 - 07:53:45 EST
Sudan's east rumbles with discontent ahead of election
By Guillaume Lavallee (AFP) – 1 day ago
KASSALA, Sudan — Overshadowed by unrest in the south and war in Darfur,
Sudan's neglected and impoverished east rumbles with discontent ahead of
next month's multiparty polls, the country's first since 1986.
In Kassala, a town wallowing at the base of the granite Taka mountains which
jut out from sun-baked plains, unemployed men passed the time of day in the
market, sipping on their "jabana" spiced coffee.
Nearby, Ahmed Abdel Baqi, a merchant in a dusty little shop tucked in an
alley, complained about business. "The economy is not good. Business is
bad."
Eastern Sudan, an area as large as Italy and divided into the three states
of Kassala, Al-Qadarif and the Red Sea, has a long history of rebellion
against the central government in Khartoum.
A 2006 peace agreement with the Eastern Front, a coalition of rebel groups,
promised government jobs and 600 million dollars for development over five
years.
But the unkept promises have given way to bitterness among the region's four
million inhabitants as they approach the general election.
President Omar al-Beshir, wanted for war crimes by the International
Criminal Court over the Darfur conflict, faces 11 candidates in the April
election, including Sadiq al-Mahdi, the prime minister he overthrew in 1989.
"We have missed our chance," said Salah Sarkuwin, an official with a former
rebel group, the Beja Congress.
"Under the terms of our agreement, thousands of our graduates were to be
integrated into public office, and those in the government were to rise in
the ranks, but none of that has happened."
The Beja Congress, named after the most prominent Eastern ethnic group, and
the Free Lions of the Rashadaya tribe took up arms against Khartoum in 1994,
protesting of an unfair distribution of wealth between Sudan's regions.
The development aid never came, says Sarkuwin. "Only 30 million has been
invested," after three years.
Compared with the conflict in south Sudan, which killed about two million
people in two decades and ended in a power-sharing agreement in 2005 with
the possibility of independence, the eastern rebellion petered out.
The agreement and its pledges were not included in the Sudanese
constitution, and only neighbouring Eritrea oversaw the signing of the
accords, unlike the international focus on the conflict in Darfur, western
Sudan.
The former rebels now fear they will have nothing to show for it by the end
of 2011 when the agreement expires.
Analysts say the area remains neglected. It is not the focus of aid and
development groups, and it has suffered from meagre rain fall while its gold
and oil deposits are badly managed.
"The NCP has concentrated development in Port Sudan," said Abdullah Abu
Fatima, a dissident running for governor of the Red Sea State, which has the
country's main port as its capital.
Several opposition parties have united behind Abu Fatima to defeat the
ruling National Congress Party governor.
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