wfn.org | AANA BULLETIN No. 28/03 July 21, 2003 (c)

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AANA BULLETIN No. 28/03 July 21, 2003 (c)

BOOK  REVIEW

Sudan Conflict: 'Too Many Agreements Dishonoured'

Title -  Too Many Agreements Dishonoured: southern Sudan
Author: Abel Alier
Volume: 376 pages
Year of  publication: 2003.
Publisher: Ithaca, 8 Southern court, Reading, RG1 4Qs
Copyright: Abel Alier, 2003
Printer: Lebanon

NAIROBI (AANA) July 21 - The author of the book  under review, Abel 
Alier,	has an admirable background.

A lawyer by profession and a prominent politician, he was the second 
southern Sudanese to study law, after Joseph Garang, who was executed by 
President Nimeiri, following an aborted coup in July, 1971.

Alier became the first Southerner to get an appointment in the Judiciary as 
Legal Assistant in 1959, and rose to Magistrate and District Judge, before 
being appointed the first President of the High Executive Council, after 
the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972, which yielded a South Sudan Autonomous 
Regional Government.

Judge Alier was thus, one of the signatories of the Addis Accord, brokered 
by the All Africa Conference of Churches and the World Council of 
Churches.  The Accord brought relative peace in Sudan for eleven years, 
before being abrogated by  President Nimeiri in 1983, marking the beginning 
of the present war.

 From this solid background, the arguments he presents in the book under 
review, and the subsequent fears he expresses over Sudan's peace process, 
can be considered well grounded.

The paperback book is a third edition of a series that he has published 
concerning Sudan conflict. In this edition, Alier gives an account of how a 
previous major peace deal in Sudan was dishonoured, and uses this to raise 
some questions concerning the current peace negotiations going on in Kenya.

Alier, spells out that after he wrote the second edition of his series in 
1991, two peace agreements were concluded in 1997, between the Government 
of National Salvation (Khartoum government) and two breakaway factions of 
the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) led  at that time by 
three commanders, namely Dr. Riek Machar, Kerubino Kuayin Bol, and Dr. Lam 
Akol  Ajawin.

The two pacts were Khartoum and Fashoda Peace Agreements. According to the 
author, they acknowledged the right of the people of southern Sudan to 
self-determination. This right was to be exercised after a referendum 
towards the end of a four-year interim period. Two options, unity or 
independence, were to be the subject of the referendum.

The agreement also provided for equitable sharing of oil revenues between 
the central  government, the southern Sudan Co-ordinating Council, and 
Unity State in Western Upper Nile in the South.

To demonstrate commitment, the Khartoum-Fashoda Peace Agreements were 
included in the 1998 constitution. Thus, self-determination for southern 
Sudan, with its options of unity or independence, became part of the 
fundamental law of the land.

At this stage, it was considered an inevitable development, that peace was 
indeed forthcoming. But, says the author, after the expiration of the 
four-year interim period, no referendum was carried out.

Kerubino Kuanyin Bol stormed out of Wau on January 28, 1998, protesting 
against the government's reluctance to implement terms of the 
Khartoum-Fashoda Agreements.   He later died in mysterious circumstances in 
Western Upper Nile in September, 1999.	The region was then largely under 
the control of the Government of National Salvation and Paulino Matip, 
a  government's militia commander.

  In 2000, Dr Riek Machar's patience ran out as well. He took a French 
leave and eventually returned to  the "bush".

Former Unity State Governor, Taban Deng Gai, a close associate of Dr Riek 
Machar, also walked out of Khartoum for Nairobi, citing similar complaints. 
He returned to the SPLM/A in December, 2001.

Come 2002, Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin, then a Minister for Transport in the 
central government, got dismissed for protesting about the government's 
determination to dishonour the peace agreements. In short, the pacts had 
simply gone down the drain.

On July 20,2002, the Government of Sudan and Sudan People's Liberation 
Movement/Army (SPLM/A) signed the Machakos Protocol, mediated by the 
Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD).

Among other things, the Machakos Protocol acknowledged the right of 
self-determination for the people of southern Sudan.  This right, says the 
book, will be exercised in a referendum within six years of the 
transitional period. Again, the options for the people will be a choice 
between unity and independence.

The author, however, raises concern that until now, the parties have not 
reached an agreement on subjects like power sharing, wealth sharing and 
future status of the government army and the rebel forces  during the 
transitional periods.

The big question, that the book raises therefore is: "Even if the parties 
reached an agreement on these outstanding issues of the long standing 
North-South conflict, will the North observe and respect the terms of yet 
another agreement?"

Reviewed by Makur Kot Dhuor