Sudan: Peace at Snail's Pace - Peter Moszynski

Despite the chaos and bloodletting in Darfur and mounting violence across the rest of northern Sudan, implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between government and SPLA continues to proceed almost as planned, albeit at a snail's pace.

Both sides insist that an Interim National Constitution will be in place before July 9, when a new Government of National Unity is due to take power in Khartoum, accompanied by a semi-autonomous Government of South Sudan and a three man presidency comprising President Omar el Bashir, John Garang de Mabior as First Vice President and Ali Osman Taha as Vice President.

According to the CPA, John Garang is also supposed to be President of South Sudan, although there is mounting opposition among many southerners to his holding both key posts.

The draft currently under discussion by both main players (although boycotted by the northern opposition) is based on Sudan's existing 1998 constitution but intertwined with some of the key clauses of the CPA. At first sight it appears fairly liberal, although it is clearly not the final product. As the "Fundamental Bases of the Constitution" the following principles are specified:

"a) The unity of the Sudan shall be based on the free will of its people, the rule of law, democratic governance, accountability, equality, respect and justice for all citizens,

b) Religion, beliefs, customs and traditions are a source of moral strength and inspiration for the Sudanese people,

c) The cultural and social diversity of the Sudanese people shall be the foundation of national cohesion and shall not be used for causing division,

d) The authority and powers of government emanate from the sovereign will of the people exercised by them in free, direct, and periodic elections conducted through universal adult suffrage in secret balloting;"

The draft describes Sudan as "an all embracing homeland wherein races and cultures coalesce and religions co-exist in harmony", although it attempts to fudge the issue of whether the constitution is Islamic or secular by specifying:

"(1) Nationally enacted legislation having effect only in respect of the states outside Southern Sudan shall have as its sources of legislation Sharia and the consensus of the people;

(2) Nationally enacted legislation applicable to Southern Sudan and/or states of Southern Sudan shall have as its sources of legislation popular consensus, the values and the customs of the people of the Sudan, including their traditions and religious beliefs,having regard to the Sudan's diversity".

However, so many stakeholders now appear excluded from the constituent process that it remains to be seen whether this diversity is really going to be represented or whether the political arena will be restricted to appointees of the two main parties. The failure to include the main southern militias in the agreements clearly stores up trouble for the future, as does the lack of participation of most of the northern opposition.

Popular Congress leader Hassan el Turabi was released from Kober prison to house arrest last month and opposition activists still complain of the government's continued use of emergency laws to harass members - driving political activity underground and creating additional militancy. Dozens of Popular Congress Party members are currently standing trial for their role in last year's alleged coup plot (which no one outside Khartoum's security apparatus seems to have heard about).

Another bizarre case is the suspension of the pro-Islamist Al Wifaq daily for running articles considered blasphemous. EditorMohamed Ahmed for Mohamed Taha, a prominent Islamist journalist and former member of the National Islamic Front, is charged with publishing an article on 21 April 2005 that cast doubt on the parentage of Prophet Mohamed and also defamed one of his companions, Omar Bin al-Aas.

The prosecutor is demanding that the Islamic punishment for apostasy, the death penalty, be implemented against Taha. In a strange twist, police had to use tear gas to break up a lynch mob attempting to storm the court.

Amnesty International is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, who was arrested in Khartoum on the eve of his departure to Ireland to receive an award from the Dublin-based Front Line, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.

The award was to have been presented by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, on 13 May, after Dr Mudawi Ibrahim was chosen to receive the award by a jury of members of the Irish and European parliaments.

Members of the National Security and Intelligence Agency arrested Dr Mudawi Ibrahim, in Khartoum North on 8 May along with two colleagues Yasir Salim and his driver, Abdallah Taha. They are being held incommunicado without charge, reportedly in the National Security Centre in Khartoum North.

"The Sudanese government is continuing to pursue a path of harassment of human rights defenders and critics," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of the Amnesty International's Africa Programme. "At the same time as the National Constitutional Review Commission is discussing the new Constitution of Sudan, which will incorporate a Bill of Rights, the government of Sudan is carrying out arbitrary arrests and detaining peaceful human rights defenders and critics without trial," said Kolawole Olaniyan. "The Sudanese security services plainly regard human rights as a matter for rhetoric, not practice".

The first advanced contingent of United Nations Mission to Sudan (UNMIS) blue berets arrived in late April. Twelve Nepalese troops were sent to establish an operational headquarters in Kassala in Eastern Sudan, through which an eventual 10,700 peacekeepers will eventually be deployed in support of the North South deal. Initial deployments to the main garrison towns of south Sudan are expected in the next few weeks, although large scale forces will not arrive until after the end of the rains in September.

SPLA delegations arrived in Khartoum in April, en route to Wau, Malakal and Juba, where they met with government counterparts and UNMIS planning officers to agree access routes and terms of deployments and ceasefire monitoring. UN Special Representative Jan Pronk flew in to Malakal in early May attempting to iron out last minute snags prior to the arrival of the UNMIS advance detachments.

The Ceasefire Joint MilitaryCommittee subsequently held its first meeting on 8 May, in south Sudan's main city of Juba, attended by representatives of the Sudanese military and the SPLA, as well as UNMIS officials.

UN force commander Bangladeshi Major-General Fazle Elahi Akbar, who chaired the meeting, commented: "The senior observers of both parties have confirmed that the Sudan Armed Forces and the SPLA will comply with the tasks laid upon them by the senior representatives who met in Naivasha (Kenya), on January 9, 2005," Yet continuing delays in the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement have led to the postponement of certain key pre-deployment issues, such as the mine-clearance of key access routes, and it is unlikely that the UNMIS peacekeepers will be fully in place before the end of the year - or even longer if the Africa Union Mission to Sudan (AMIS) is anything to go by.

After months of procrastination and inaction, the African Union currently has 2,200 troops, police and observers in Darfur. On 28 April to the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare called for AMIS forces to be increased to 7,700 by the end of September and to 12,300 by early 2006. NATO has offered to assist with vehicles and helicopters, although Khartoum remains adamant that no non-AU forces be deployed in Darfur.

Insisting on a rapid increase in the number of forces deployedin Darfur, which he insisted needed to be greater than the 12,000 relief workers currently employed in the area, UNemergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland commented: "We have a window of opportunity for Sudan which we cannot fail to use. The stakes are incredibly high."