On 13 June St. Antony’s College hosted a talk on ‘Four years of Implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)’. St. Antony’s College has a proud tradition of supporting Sudan and of giving a voice to the Sudanese Diaspora. Dr. Ahmed Al-Shahi, in his opening remarks, spoke of the college’s reputation for educating both Sudanese students and British students headed for Sudan. Participants from all over Sudan and from all Sudan’s major political parties attended. Some had travelled from Sudan to come to the conference. With elections looming in Sudan this appeared to be a critical moment to debate the future of the country.
The first speaker was Sir Derek Plumby, Chairman of the Assessment and Evaluation Commission of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Sir Derek was upbeat and optimistic. He did list some of the problems of the past: the ICC ruling might appear to have weakened the agreement; the drop in global oil prices had come at the expense of South Sudan; and the war in Darfur had drawn funds as well as attention away from CPA implementation. And he urged that all parties move with caution. The Abiyei Protocol was not secure; nor was the demarcation between North and South of Sudan. But ultimately, he assured the audience, the CPA was a success. War between North and South had not re-started and a new era of cooperation had dawned on Sudan. He gave thanks to all those involved in CPA implementation.
When Pagan Amum, Secretary-General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), came to speak the tone changed. The CPA, he declared, “had been implemented in letter but had been killed in spirit”. He repeated this remark several times in the course of his speech. SPLM1 had a long list of grievances against the National Congress Party: Southerners were not adequately represented in either the government or the civil service; wealth-sharing provisions had not been implemented; and the NCP had continued to arm particular ethnic groups. Even after the signing of the CPA, war had broken out in many parts of Sudan and attempts had been made by the NCP to destabilise and divide the SPLM.
The mood changed once again with the talk of Dr. Sayyid Al-Khateeb. Sudan had two choices: war or sustainable peace. He spelled out the requirements for peace:
Political Will
Empathy
Alliance-Building
Cessation
Execution
He assured the audience that a tremendous effort was being made to uphold all the provisions of the CPA. He was aware that this was a difficult time and that a number of different issues had piled up. It was not humanly possible, he stated, to address all these issues at once but there was no lack of effort nor was there was no lack of good will. He rebutted several of the accusations made by Pagan Amum. Southern member of the audience did not appear to take him seriously. Many of them burst out in laughter.
Lunch was to follow. Participants were eagerly scribbling down notes for the afternoon session. After lunch audience came comments/questions. There were many with much to say.
Yassin Hassan of the Census Commission outlined the commission’s findings and stated that the census had been a success. Later Pagan Amum claimed that the findings were unbelievable. The figures vastly under-estimated the number of Southerners living in the North.
A young South Sudanese woman, Golda Abbe, speaking on behalf of Sudanese youth thanked the speakers for coming to the talk, but demanded of all Sudanese politicians of all parties that they stop playing political games. This was an important moment for Sudan. She said extreme caution was needed. The 1972 Addis Ababa agreement had collapsed. History must not be allowed to repeat itself.
Suah Sharif, of the Umma Party, remarked upon the emphasis of both speakers on ‘multi-party’ democracy. Yet no mention had been made of any party but the SPLM or the NCP.
Much was made of the issue of unity. Several Northerners stated that unity was desirable for both North and South but had not been made attractive. A Southerner responded that the North was engaged in a long-standing occupation of the North. Unity could never be made attractive – ‘it was too ugly’.
Much was crammed into the final session of the day. Many points were made from the audience and not all were answered directly from the floor.
One audience member talked about voter education. There had been a lack of effort to build up citizenship skills before the election.
An Irish journalist spoke about the importance of international engagement. This had been essential to creating peace in Ireland. Sir Derek agreed in no uncertain terms. He said that there had been confusion in what the speakers had been saying. Many had assumed that unity demanded international engagement but the issues were separate. International engagement was indeed imperative to successful CPA implementation whether or not the South of Sudan was going to gain independence. At times the meeting was highly charged and Sir Derek was consistently diplomatic. “Finger pointing”, he declared was ‘not productive”.
Pagan Amum talked in depth about the problem of corruption. He referred to the Transparency International report, which listed Sudan as the fifth worst country in Africa. Ending corruption, he argued, was the fundamental challenge to the implementation of the CPA.
Dr. Sayyid Al-Khateeb was clearly very frustrated by the end of the talk. He stated that the opposition to the National Congress Party were making wild accusations and doing nothing to support the claims they had been making.
Bona Malwal, of the St. Antony’s Sudan Programme and SPLM advisor to the Presidency of Sudan, closed the meeting. He stated his opposition to Bashir but also to the ICC ruling against him. The indictment, he argued, represented an unfair demand on those trying to carry forward the CPA. He went on to make the point that while many Southerners are demanding independence from the North and while separation does indeed seems very likely, these was still reason to build a healthy relationship with those from the North. Good relations would seem to be the key to lasting peace.
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