Lee,
There's an old Spanish saying: "En Dios rogando y con el mazo dando"- which means "trust in God, but keep your powder dry". Best advice to give currently to the SPLA leadership as you can see from the attached article, that the NIF Junta does not desire to let the southern half of the country go its own way or to have a secular governmental structure in the Sudan.
Still I believe that Round One of the brief "peace talks" served a very valid purpose in that for the first time the parties have taken positions publicly as to where they wish the current fighting to go. Diplomatically speaking that is the first step in seeking a just peace for all parties- clarifying positions. That has now been done....
And FWIW the Indonesians are actually the "Champion Church Burners" in 1996-7, having burnt down 347 Christian Churches throughout Indonesia. (Indonesia has a 10% and growing Christian minority made up mainly of ethnic Chinese protestants and ethnic Indonesian Muslim converts -so you can imagine how popular both of those groups are.... I am excluding the Melanesian populations of east Timor which the Indonesian Army occupied in 1974. The Timorese are 99% Roman Catholic. And the widespread torture, deportations, and murders of Melanesians there is another story....).
But I have seen that God works in many quite fascinating ways- and he/she will straighten the mess out in the Sudan- and in a fashion so that oil will flow freely and unimpeded by either party to the dispute, is my prediction.... See attached article for a news update.....
Sincerely,
Doug F.
Full story FOCUS-Sudan govt calls for federation in south
03:27 p.m Nov 10, 1997 Eastern
By Matthew Bigg
NAIROBI, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Sudan's government has called for a federation between north and south in reply to rebel demands for confederation at peace talks which were drawing to a close on Monday.
The Khartoum government and the political wing of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) were drafting a joint communique on Monday ahead of a meeting on Tuesday morning with Kenya's President Daniel arap Moi, a senior Kenyan foreign ministry official said.
Tuesday's meeting, the first with Moi since discussions began on October 29, would signal the end of the first phase of the talks about ending Sudan's 14-year civil war, the official said.
''They are working on a joint communique and it won't be released until the meeting with the president tomorrow (Tuesday) morning,'' the ministry official said.
Both sides said they would hold news conferences on Tuesday afternoon and that further meetings would be scheduled for next year.
''The talks were not successful because the government has come with nothing, but we have to continue,'' a senior official with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement -- the SPLA's political branch -- told Reuters.
John Garang's SPLA has strong regional backing, including military support, and its recent successes on the battlefield counted against any dramatic breakthrough at the Nairobi talks, diplomats said.
One reason for a suspension of the talks was impending general elections in Kenya, diplomatic analysts added. Mediator Kalonzo Musyoka, Moi's foreign minister, is also the organising secretary of the ruling Kenya African National Union party.
Khartoum has proposed federalism for the south in answer to a demand by the SPLA's political wing for confederation between the north and south.
In a confidential four-page document the government said last week it supported self-determination for the south on the basis of a federation and autonomy.
''The right of self-determination to the people of southern Sudan shall be re-affirmed by all parties as a political solution for the conflict in southern Sudan,'' said the document, provided by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement.
''Federalism shall be adopted throughout the Sudan as a formula for self-administration and decentralisation to satisfy the aspirations of the Sudanese people.
''Each state is autonomous and has its elected legislature, cabinet of ministers and independent judicial organ.... All powers, except those universally accepted as federal, are devolved to the states,'' said the document.
On the disputed question of Islamic sharia law, the document said: ''Sharia and custom shall be the sources of legislation in the Sudan'' but it proposed that ''the basis of rights and duties in the Sudan shall be citizenship.''
Khartoum's decision in 1983 to impose sharia law on the whole of Sudan including the largely Christian south has fuelled the war, which has claimed an estimated 1.3 million lives since its modern phase began in 1983.
The document is the first formal response to an SPLA call last week for a referendum on self-determination after a two-year period of confederation between north and south.
Confederation was unacceptable to Khartoum since it implied agreement between two sovereign states, sources close to the talks said.
But a senior SPLM official told Reuters on Monday they had rejected Khartoum's federation proposal, since it sought to impose sharia on a still-unified state.
''They want to have their cake and eat it. They want to have sharia, but they don't want the two states to be constituted. Under our system each can have its internal government,'' the SPLM official said.
Under SPLM's confederation system the north would be free to have sharia within its territory during the interim period, the official said.
-- Nairobi Newsroom ++ 254 2 330261 |
