Washington, DC — The government of Sudan and the rebel Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement and Army (SPLA/M) signed off on an agreement banning deliberate, targeted attacks on civilians, Tuesday. Both the government and SPLA say they will refrain from using human shields and "take all precautions to prevent the loss of human life."
The two parties have also agreed that two "verification missions" will be established. One will be in Khartoum and the other will be in Rumdek in southern Sudan. They are empowered to "decide when an alleged operation warrants investigation" and to "independently" investigate, with the final decision to be "made by the chief of the relevant office."
In addition to agreeing to refrain from attacks on "non-combatant civilians, churches, schools, religious premises, health and food distribution centers for relief operations," both the SPLA/M and Khartoum reached agreement on what had been an especially contentious issue: attacks on "objects or facilities indispensable to the survival of civilian populations or of a civilian nature."
Khartoum had interpreted this as ruling out attacks on oil installations. The SPLA/M held they were military target. "The government cannot be allowed to exploit the oil and build its military capacity," SPLA/M leader John Garang told allAfrica.com shortly before the agreement was signed.
In a statement last week, a Department of State spokesperson agreed with Garang and the SPLA, saying that civilians killed in attacks directed at oil installations could be considered ``collateral damage'', according to the usual rules of war.
The agreement represents, at best, only a tentative first step toward ending Sudan's long war in which an estimated two million people have died since 1983.
"Our strategy is to use the armed struggle and combine it with 'intifada' - popular uprising - in order to effect fundamental change in Khartoum," said Garang. At the same time, Garang said, this strategy also calls for trying to talk to Khartoum about "peacefully dismantling the regime or establishing a confederated arrangement during an interim period." A referendum on self-determination would follow.
Garang has just ended a two-week visit to the U.S.that included meetings with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and National Security Council Deputy Director, Stephen Hadley.
Garang, visiting Washington for the first time in three years, has been trying to persuade the Bush Administration and the Congress that he represents a viable alternative to the NIF government in Khartoum: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a coalition of his organization and northern, Muslim opposition groups "is a structure that can replace the NIF. "The best way forward is to build up the NDA as a viable alternative to the NIF (Khartoum's National Islamic Front government)."
Dr Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon, leader of the Sudanese People's Defense Force (SPDF) is traveling with Garang. Dr. Machar represented one side of what amounted to a war within a war that broke out in 1991 as faction fighting within the SPLA terrorized people and villages. Finally, in 1997, Machar defected from the SPLA, signed his own peace deal with Khartoum and joined that government. But he broke with Khartoum last year in February, accusing the government of having sent troops to fight his SPDF soldiers in Wahdah State.
In January The SPLA and SPDF announced they had merged under the name SPLM/SPLA and agreed on collective leadership. At a Nairobi press conference then, Garang and Machar said their agreement put an end to the fighting between SPLA/M and SPDF. They also announced that their agreement provided for the establishment of technical committees to work on recommendations for the integration of military forces, political structures and streamlined methods for humanitarian assistance.
The merger is a kind of model, Garang suggested at a Washington, D.C. luncheon two weeks ago; "At the end of the day, any political settlement must be comprehensive and it must unite all the political forces." And out of this process, will come a ceasefire. "A comprehensive ceasefire can meaningfully only be a part of a comprehensive political settlement."
But, says Garang, "without prejudice" to this broad political negotiation, "We should start socio-economic development in the areas that we [already] administer. Children cannot wait for peace in order to go to school." The SPLA is planning to introduce its own currency that will be called the New Sudan pound. However, he says, this should not be considered an indication that the SPLA/M had secessionist intentions
On humanitarian grounds USAID has already committed to supporting the SPLA/M in the South, and Garang said the aid agency has committed US$42.5m over the next five years - US$20m for education and US$22.5 for agriculture. When asked about this, A USAID spokesperson stressed that the money will not be given to Garang's group, but administered by NGOs. Since the mid-1990s, about 80 percent of U.S. aid to Sudan has gone to southern, rebel-controlled areas.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Congress, however, with the support of the administration has designed a more political money package. Two years ago the legislative body approved a US$10m grant to the NDA. The Sudan Peace Act adopted by the House in June 2001 called for disbursement of that money. But so far, says Garang, he's seen none of it.
Garang said he doesn't rule out negotiating with the NIF. And though he is suspicious of Khartoum's sincerity and motives,the kind of cooperation developing between Sudan and the United States might give the U.S.the leverage to facilitate a real breakthrough. But Sudanese government cooperation with the United States "is only tactical," he insisted. "They are saying they have changed but they have not changed, cannot change and will not change.
"If sufficient pressure can be brought to bear on the regime it is possible to move toward a peaceful settlement, not to join the regime but to effect a peaceful transition from the Taliban-like regime, the theocratic regime of Sudan to a new Sudanese political dispensation."
