Abohoraira Ali
On May 5, a leader of one of the main factions of the largest rebel group in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM), signed a peace deal with the Sudanese government to end the bloody three-year conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. The government agreed to disarm the government-backed janjaweed militia, incorporate rebel fighters into the Sudanese armed forces, and inject millions of dollars into the devastated and impoverished region.
After initially rejecting the African Union-brokered deal, the other key SLM faction later signed the agreement. A third rebel group — the Justice and Equality Movement — and sections of the SLA held out, calling for further concessions, including greater autonomy for Darfur, and are involved in ongoing peace negotiations in Washington.
The deal came as the United Nations World Food Program warned that cutbacks in food aid to the region due to shortfalls from donor countries may lead to a massive humanitarian crisis. The government has restricted access to the region by aid organisations, further hampering delivery of much-needed food.
On May 7, the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) issued a statement criticising the Darfur agreement. The statement argued that, like the January 2005 agreement with the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement that ended the two-decade-long civil war in Sudan's south, the Darfur agreement excludes all but a few groups. The main Darfur rebel groups were pressured into signing by the United States. Groups that refused to sign and raised concerns about the agreement have been ignored and progressive parties were not involved.
The agreement does not address the key problems in Darfur and has not allowed input from those most affected — the people of Darfur. The agreement presents the Sudanese government as a neutral player, rather than as the cause of the conflict. While the deal calls for the disarming of the janjaweed, it doesn't address how this will be carried out, nor does it provide the basis for bringing the janjaweed or government and army leaders to justice for their crimes, which include widespread rapes and killings.
The US and other imperialist countries see the current Sudanese government as the best regime to provide stability for the exploitation of oil and other resources in the region, including in Chad, Cote d'Voire and the Central African Republic, so they pushed for a rapid signing of the agreement.
The US has promoted conflict in Africa as a way of gaining greater control and influence over the continent and its extensive natural resources. The SCP statement described the Darfur agreement as a "business deal" between the US and other Western powers and the Sudanese government.
Without the participation of all groups and communities in Darfur in new negotiations to discuss and determine a genuine solution, Darfur's immense troubles will be recurring.
Several activists in Port Sudan were recently arrested for distributing the SCP statement.
[Abohoraira Ali is a member of the Sudanese Communist Party.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 24, 2006.
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