wfn.org | Title: Hope for peace growing in Sudan

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches 7 Press Update
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 14/11/2003 - pu-03-44

Following long civil war, hope for peace is growing in Sudan

 Cf. WCC Press Update PU-03-43 of 13 November 2003
 Cf. WCC Press Update PU-03-42 of 11 November 2003
 Cf. WCC Press Release PR-03-33 of 6 November 2003

 Media contact in New York: Jeffrey Penn, Mobile +1 646 265
0405
 Free high-resolution photos available - see below

Following decades of violence and civil war in the Sudan, peace
may be just
around the corner, according to panelists who spoke at a 12
November public
forum entitled "Peace in Sudan" during the World Council of
Churches (WCC)
International Affairs and Advocacy Week in New York.

"I do believe that the Sudan is positively heading towards a
peace which is
not likely to be reversed," said Dr Francis Deng, director of
the Centre
for Displacement Studies, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced
International
Studies, Johns Hopkins University, USA. "Significant progress is
being made
and we are heading in the right direction," he said.

Deng said that his assessment was tempered by his own experience
in the
Sudan, and by the long history of conflict that has plagued the
east
African nation. "My vision for a peaceful Sudan is not based on
blind
expectations," he claimed.

National identity crisis

"The underlying element of the conflict is a crisis of national
identity
which stems from geographic, religious, and cultural
differences, " Deng
said. Those differences divided the predominantly Arab and
Muslim north
from the predominantly African and Christian south - a process
that began
during the British colonial period and accelerated in the
post-colonial
period.  Over time, he added, the differences grew more intense
and more
stratified.

"The British helped entrench the dualism of the north and south,
and that
duality continued in the post-colonial period, when government
leaders in
the north sought to unify the country through assimilation,"
Deng said.

Although the Sudan was not initially divided along religious
lines,
northern leaders hoping to consolidate their own power after
independence
"realized that they could not appeal to divisions based on
ethnicity or
race, so they intensified the divisions along religious lines".

With scant attention from most of the world, violence and
conflict
escalated until an end of hostilities was brokered in the early
1970s. Yet
despite a relatively peaceful respite following the Addis Ababa
Agreement
in 1972, "the agreement did not solve the problem of national
identity,"
Deng reported. At the time, government leaders in the north
assumed that
the south had been pacified, but resistance there continued to
grow, and
fighting resumed in the early 1980s.

More violence and divisions

The growing resistance movements of the 1980s "were not seeking
to break
away, but rather to bring about a new redefinition of the Sudan
where
everyone - especially in the south - could participate in the
life of the
nation" Deng said. For nearly a decade during the 1990s, peace
efforts
stalled, violence and human rights abuses increased, and the
fierce
religious divisions of the nation worsened.

Only when African neighbours began to get involved in the 1990s
did
northern leaders get serious about brokering a new peace
agreement, Deng
said. "During the same period, the US seemed to ignore Sudan, as
if the
problems weren't important to their strategic interests," he
added. "That
posture began to change after the attacks on 11 September, 2001
and the
subsequent US declaration of war against global terror."

"Since Sudan is nestled between most of Africa and the Middle
East, the US
began to perceive its strategic importance in the region and,
noting that
Osama Bin Laden once lived there, was probably concerned that
the country
might become a source of international terrorism", Deng added.

"I was very pleased when President Bush appointed former US
Senator John
Danforth as a special envoy in 2000 to help negotiate a peace
settlement,"
Deng said. "The leadership of the US is needed to help end the
war, and I
believe that US efforts could be instrumental in securing the
peace."

Monumental challenges

Negotiations are now underway among various factions in the
Sudan, aimed at
formal accords by 2003. According to Deng, peace negotiators
face
"monumental challenges" in their efforts. "Will the government
and the
SPLA/M be able to shift from a war orientation to successful
governing?" he
asked. "How do you reconstruct communities and social structures
that have
been totally shattered during the war?"

For Deng, peaceful solutions will not succeed "unless legitimate
grievances
are addressed, and we address the root causes of the Sudanese
conflict.
Often the conflicts are symptoms of much deeper problems and
inequities."
Among the issues that must be addressed, Deng includes personal
and
national security, poverty and marginalization, and concerns
about health -
especially the problem of HIV/AIDS, "that has ravaged portions
of the
country," he reported.

"In such a tenuous environment, the role of the churches is very
important
in providing alternative sources of support, education, and
assistance, "
Deng emphasized.

Role of the churches

"The churches' most important role has possibly been
facilitating
people-to-people peace dialogues," said Stein Villumstad,
Norwegian Church
Aid's regional representative for Eastern Africa and chair of
Church
Ecumenical Action in Sudan. "These grassroots processes have
been essential in preparing for formal peace talks on higher
levels," he
added. "The coherence between local action and international
advocacy
through the Sudan Ecumenical Forum has been another significant
contribution to the peace process."

Villumstad traced the complex history of ecumenical partnerships
and
cooperation within the Sudan, noting that churches there were
often divided
by the regional and civil conflicts over the past several
decades.  He
urged the WCC and other ecumenical partners to continue,
"accompanying"
efforts as peace negotiations continue.

"The churches of the Sudan will face significant challenges
after any peace
accord," said Polycarp Ochilo, Service and Witness coordinator
with the All
African Council of Churches. "Forgiveness and reconciliation
will be very
important in a post-war Sudan, and the churches will have to
lead the way."

Ochilio also said that Sudanese churches would have to provide
leadership
in civic education, the reintegration of displaced peoples,
reconstruction
of civil society, and the promotion of human rights and
restoration of
human dignity. "In the future, beyond mere rhetoric, the
churches of the
Sudan will need accompaniment from ecumenical partners," he
asserted. "And
most of all, the Sudanese will need your prayers."

 Free high-resolution photos from the WCC New York Advocacy Week
are
 available on our website:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/churchcenter-ny.html 

 The complete programme of public seminars of the Advocacy Week
and biodata
 about the key speakers are available at:
 http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/press_corner/advocacyweek-prog.html

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