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Sudan: Peace Deal in 'Critical Phase' As Donors Meet
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
6 May 2008
Posted to the web 6 May 2008
Juba
Sudanese officials and representatives of donor nations opened a major conference in Norway on 5 May, amid warnings that the provisions of a three-year-old peace accord had fallen dangerously behind schedule.
On the second day of the conference, Norway pledged US$500 million for 2008-11 and the EU promised $435 million for the same period.
Many in Southern Sudan, especially returning refugees and internally displaced people who flocked back after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed in 2005, feel frustrated by the lack of services and facilities such as health and educational institutions. The CPA allows for proposed elections in 2009 and a referendum on secession in 2011.
"I do not understand why the GOSS [Government of Southern Sudan] cannot provide a little percentage of its revenues to provide water," a participant at a recent meeting on water problems said in Malakal, Upper Nile State.
His frustration was shared by a local politician. "We cannot spend the whole [six-year] CPA interim period on emergencies," Peter Pal Riak, state minister for infrastructure in Upper Nile, said. "The people [of Southern Sudan] will not realise what peace has brought unless they receive services."
Norway's minister for environment and international development, Erik Solheim, in a statement issued before the 5-7 May meeting, warned: "The Comprehensive Peace Agreement is in a critical phase ... The parties must redouble their efforts to implement the agreement."
He linked the agreement to the crisis in Darfur: "The situation in Sudan is highly complex, and there is little hope for achieving peace in Darfur unless the North-South peace agreement is successfully implemented."
Border disputes
Several key provisions of the CPA have yet to be completed. These include final redeployment of both forces; the training and deployment of Joint Integrated Units; disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of ex-combatants; border demarcation; resolution of the status of the disputed Abyei region, and the distribution of its oil revenues.
"Both parties must be pressured to comply with their commitments," Refugees International, an advocacy group, urged in a statement released as the Oslo meeting began.
"The parties continue to dispute whether redeployment of armed forces is fully complete and there is still no agreement on border demarcation. In fact, fighting is taking place between Northern and Southern armed groups at the disputed border. [A population] census is taking place in an atmosphere of great tension and distrust between the parties, and its results will no doubt be disputed. Elections and the referendum on self-determination are future potential flashpoints for conflict," the statement added.
High prices
Donors say the Oslo meeting provides an opportunity to take stock and examine issues such as the high costs of construction in the south. According to Laurence Clarke, a World Bank official for Southern Sudan, constructing a classroom block in Southern Sudan costs $250,000 - three times the cost in Angola ($80,000) and Liberia ($60,000).
"I realise it's a large difference between the two [and] we know what is reasonable for post-conflict countries," he said in Juba, Southern Sudan's capital. The high price could arise from the fact that materials and labour are imported.
"Everything is expensive in Sudan," Clarke added said. "The contractors are expensive; the cement is about $30 a bag - three times the regional costs."
The North and South are making a combined request for about $6 billion in reconstruction funds for the next three years, of which $2.5 billion is for the South, according to press reports.
More than 30 countries and organisations are sending delegates to the Oslo meeting. Apart from senior Sudanese officials, other participants include UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, World Bank Africa regional Vice-President Obiageli Ezekwesili, EC Commissioner Louis Michel, and US Sudan envoy Richard Williamson.
Three years after their forces stopped fighting each other, relations between North and South remain very strained.
In a report released in March, the International Crisis Group (ICG) warned that underlying difficulties between the two had hampered implementation of the CPA, while mounting tension in Abyei created a risk of renewed clashes.
The report cited the main threats to the CPA as personalities who felt threatened by the peace deal, divisions with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and the pre-occupation among international partners with Darfur.
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