Kenya: Commentary Reviews Sudanese Conflict
Text of report by Kenya Broadcasting Corporation TV, Nairobi, in English on 28th September
For the people of Sudan fighting, destruction and deaths have long been a way of life. If you want to believe the simplistic message spread throughout the western media for decades now, the war in that neighbouring country pitches the predominantly Muslim north against what has for years been described as the Christian and animist south.
The truth is far more complicated and the combatants so varied that talks aimed at achieve peace in Sudan are never between Christians from the south and Muslims from the north. Even more confusing are the many interest groups so involved in the war that they routinely sabotage peace efforts by regional leaders whenever it seems like reason and reality are settling over such talks.
It was therefore with much hope that many Sudanese nationals in both the north and south of Africa's biggest country received the news of talks held in Eritrea between the rebel National Democratic Alliance and the Khartoum government. Even more exciting was the news that Sudan and Uganda had undertaken to stop supporting rebel groups fighting the two governments.
Sudan is a country with great economic potential, a nation rich in minerals. This of course is also the curse of Sudan, for there are agents of foreign investors who have for years been dreaming about the day when they can move into that country and start digging up those minerals as they have elsewhere in Africa for decades.
The fighting rages not because the country's leaders cannot sit down and iron out their differences, but rather because that war has acquired a life of its own and millions of dollars are available for purchasing arms and ammunition.
It is not our intention or place to apportion blame even though there is much for which both sides are to blame. What must be put on top of everything are the people of Sudan who have suffered terribly as a result of the many years of fighting, not to mention deaths and ill health due to famine.
Sudan is not just one huge country with enormous deposits of minerals and the potential to produce enough food for most of sub Saharan Africa. Sudan is made up of people. Unfortunately millions of them cannot live in their homes and have spent years in refugee camps in this country, as well as a huge settlement in their capital Khartoum.
For us in Kenya the war in Sudan is not as distant or as foreign as we would like to imagine. Taken together with the fighting in Somalia the conflicts between neighbours Ethiopia and Eritrea, the rebel attacks in Uganda, the war in Laurent Kabila's Congo and the ethnic war in Rwanda and Burundi, the absence of peace Sudan is harmful to out economy and a further threat to stability in this region.
To advance we must trade more with our neighbours to the east, west, south and north. War has made this virtually impossible. What we have instead is a growing industry in this region based on suffering. The huge refugee camps Kenya has kindly provided for people fleeing from war at home have attracted hundreds of expatriates from Europe and USA, and millions of dollars for feeding them and providing for their most basic needs.
However, what the people of Sudan need is not relief food for ever. Living in tents and surviving on alms from donors may have been justifiable two decades ago, but not any more. What Sudan needs is peace and the efforts being made now to end the fighting and arrive at a solution to one of Africa's oldest conflicts deserves the support of all governments in the region.
For us in Kenya the conflicts around us should serve as a lesson that is a very small step from ethnic hatred and political jostling for power to a war that can destroy a nation, even a nation with perhaps the greatest economic potential in the region. |
