Sudan�s government accused the Clinton administration of
attempting to use Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement and Army (SPLA/SPLM)
leader John Garang�s rebellion in the South in order to overthrow the
government in Khartoum.
"The United States adopted John Garang for the last
decade and used him as an arm for its own policy in this part of
Africa," Mahdi Ibrahim Mohamed, Sudan�s minister of information and
communication, told delegation members Jan. 10.
"Now, we see a shift. The U.S. can make a difference,"
said Mr. Mohamed, who served as Sudan�s ambassador in Washington until
August 1998 when U.S. Cruise missiles destroyed the El Shifa
pharmaceutical plant, amid erroneous U.S. claims that it was owned by
Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden and manufactured chemical weapon
components.
Members of the delegation included: Hodari Abdul-Ali,
Coalition to Give Peace a Chance in Sudan; Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid,
Muslim Alliance in North America; Dr. Imari Obadele, foreign minister of
Provisional Government of the Republic of New Africa. Other delegates
included Imam Abdul Alim Musa, Masjid Al-Islam Washington, D.C.; the
Rev. Dr. Kwame Abayomi, senior minister Unity United Methodist Church,
and a member of the Baltimore City Council; Jameel Johnson, chief of
staff for Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.); Dr. Ihsan Bagby, chair of the
Department of International Studies at Shaw University, and Council on
American Islamic Relations board member; Imam Dawud Abdur-Rahman,
Coalition to Give Peace a Chance in Sudan; and Fareed Nu�man, a
researcher and photojournalist from Philadelphia.
The Sudanese perception of the Bush administration is
that: "We want to bring this war to an end," Mr. Mohamed said. "It might
be, only America has all the cards in its hand. IGAD has been doing
this, Egypt and Libya have been trying this, now America is trying
this," he said concerning various ongoing peace efforts. The IGAD is the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, a regional body composed of
Sudan and its neighbors.
"War in the country will not stop without foreign
intervention because Sudan has complexities," Haroun Kafi, chairman of
the Sudan People�s Liberation Army-Nuba Faction agreed, according to a
published report.
Mr. Kafi appealed to the U.S. government to rally other
countries to support a political solution, as well as immediate direct
international diplomatic intervention and development assistance.
Independent fact-finding delegations such as the
Coalition to Give Peace in the Sudan a Chance may help continue momentum
toward better popular understanding of the war in Sudan, which is being
brought about by new U.S. policy, according to Africa expert Melvin
Foote, president of the Constituency for Africa.
"I think that people are now seeing for themselves. The
U.S. government has now looked at it a little closer and started to see
that the positions they staked out have been false and untenable. So, I
think we�re on the right track," Mr. Foote, in Khartoum to observe the
ninth summit and the 21st ministerial conference of the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), told The Final
Call in an interview.
"We feel that we played a good role, informing people
about what�s going on, coming out and talking to everybody, not just
government, but talking to opposition leaders, different parties, people
who had no reason to support the government. We made those facts known
to the government, made the facts known to our Congress, and I think
that has gone a long way to improving the environment," Mr. Foote
admitted, concerning a report he authored in January 2001 about the
crisis here.
"A lot of the allegations against the Sudanese
government have been false, a lot of the allegations against the
Southerners have been false. So a lot that has gone on here has been
from outside sources that for whatever reasons didn�t want peace, wanted
the war to continue," Mr. Foote continued.
"People have been making money off the war, gun-runners,
people have been making money off the food, relief operations, NGOs have
been making money. Churches have been making money. Money has been
raised because of the allegations of slavery," he said.
The principal obstacles to peace which the government of
Sudan must ultimately come to grips with are self determination for the
people of the South, and economic redistribution, according to
independent observers and leaders of various rebel movements.
The issue of self determination is the main issue, Sadiq
al Mahdi, leader of the Umma Party told reporters Jan. 9. Granting
self-determination to Southern Sudanese�even if that means independence
from Sudan�is a proper step, Mr. Al Mahdi said, according to published
reports.
Mr. Al Mahdi�s opposition party illustrates the complex
political web, which has been distorted particularly by American news
media, and other groups who portray the dispute as simply one between
Arab Muslims in the North, versus Black African Christians in the South.
Mr. Al Mahdi is a Muslim and is part of government opposition.
Many Southern Christians and believers in traditional
African religions (Animists) support the Khartoum government, while many
Muslims from various northern regions, including the Nuba Mountains,
have joined rebel factions.
There must be special economic efforts in the Nuba
Mountains, Dr. Juma Kunda, a Christian pastor and professor at the
University of Juba told the Coalition to Give Peace a Chance delegation
Jan. 10. The government, he complained, cannot show one single
development project in his Nuba Mountain home region, or anywhere else
in the south of Sudan, that would give rebels a reason to lay down their
arms and support the government.
Mr. Foote agrees. "There has to be a massive
redistribution of not only resources, economically, but also power.
There�s got to be autonomy in the South. As far as I see it, there�s got
to be a federation. Southerners are going to have to rule the South, no
doubt about it. Khartoum is going to have to come to grips with that,"
Mr. Foote told The Final Call. Government authorities are
prepared to accept whatever choice the people of the South make, they
insist, telling the Coalition to Give Peace a Chance delegation that a
new constitution, approved in 1998 after an agreement with several but
not all rebel groups, takes the extraordinary step of providing for a
plebiscite among Southerners to determine their future.
U.S. lobby groups, however, have distorted the picture
and confused Blacks in the U.S. by making unfounded allegations that the
government participates in or condones slavery, government authorities
insists.
"In all these cases (of alleged slavery) that are
reported when you trace them objectively you�ll find that these cases
happen in the territory under John Garang," Mr. Mohamed said. "And
surprisingly, instead of holding him responsible for that, they hold the
government (responsible), where the territory has not been under their
control."
Mr. Mohamed, having been in the United States, said he
knows "how sensitive the issue of slavery is." Blacks were oppressed for
centuries and don�t want to see the practice repeated against anyone,
and Whites feel guilty about its lingering legacy, he said.
As far as reports of slavery and racial or religious
intolerance supported by the government are concerned: "All of those
have been overstated," said Mr. Foote. "I haven�t seen any real racial
intolerance here. You see a lot of Southerners in Khartoum. They have
about three million Southerners in Khartoum. If it was that way, they
would have (gone) to Nairobi or other places nearby. Why would they come
here?
"When I first came here, everybody told me it was
slavery. Everybody told me it was civil rights abuses. A lot of this
stuff is symptoms of the war," he said.
The question of so-called slavery�which is more
accurately described as a centuries-old practice of tribal abductions
involving disputes over land, water, cattle and grazing rights�as well
as many other problems troubling Sudan have been exacerbated because of
the war, many observers insist.
"What you do have is rural people who have a practice
they call abductions. We�ve studied it, we�ve met with all the people
responsible for it. We looked at the program very carefully," Mr. Foote
said.
While there is some evidence, that as part of the war
effort, the Sudanese government has encouraged the destabilization of
rural areas, and encouraged de-population around some of the
oil-producing areas in the South, the real culprits are some groups
active in the U.S. and others who don�t want to see the war to end, he
said.
With the Danforth mission arriving, a commitment by IGAD
to help find a solution, as well as peace initiatives led by Egyptian
and Libyan diplomats already underway, government officials and
independent observers are confident that the peace movement is "on the
right track, we�re on the right train, and full steam ahead," officials
said.
Photos: 1-Dr. Juma Kunda, a professor at
the University of Juba, briefs members of a People Delegation of Blacks
from the United States visiting the Sudan on a fact-finding mission Jan.
10 on concerns of residents of the Nuba Mountains, as Badawi Elizeirig,
Minister of Education in the Sinnar State, and Ibn Omar Saboor, of the
Department of Peace in the Western Kordofan State listen. All
three men are from the contested Nuba Mountain region of Sudan.
KHARTOUM
(Finalcall.com)�Peace
can break out in Sudan if any of several initiatives underway to end
Africa�s longest on-going rebellion are successful. Ironically, the
Sudanese government, rebels fighting the war in southern regions of
this, Africa�s largest country, as well as independent observers all
agree that the expected return of U.S. Special Envoy John Danforth on
Jan. 13 is one of the more hopeful signs.