British MPs call for pressure, focus on IGAD principles

A group of British parliamentarians returning from a fact-finding mission in Sudan on Friday urged the international community to step up "political and economic" pressure to force Sudanese belligerents to make commitments towards ending the country's 19-year civil war. The parliamentary group (representing small political parties, pressure groups, religious organisations and Sudanese residing in the United Kingdom) said after completing its mission that members of the international community - notably the United States and British governments, which have recently appointed special envoys for peace in Sudan - needed to find ways of steering the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) back to the negotiating table. "The search for peace in Sudan needs to be given a new momentum and addressed with clarity," Hilton Dawson, Labour party MP for Lancaster and Wyre, who headed the delegation, told a news conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on 12 April, after ending his mission in Sudan. While praising the current international efforts aimed at ending the civil war, the MPs told the news conference that the growing number of peace initiatives for Sudan, as they were operating now, were not "necessarily helping the peace process". According to Dawson, the Sudanese conflict is in "dire need of honest brokers" through the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) initiative, currently chaired by Kenya, or other international actors with a stake in the conflict. "There are no clear answers. But international pressure on both sides should be part of the solution to the Sudanese problem. In our report back, we will make it clear that we believe there is need for honest brokers, either through IGAD, the British government, the US or other international actors. They have a big part to play in this process," Dawson added. "There is a traffic jam of peace initiatives in Sudan, which have not been necessarily helpful," David Drew, Labour MP for Stround, told the news conference. "They are upsetting the peace process in Sudan. What is needed is for these initiatives to converge and cohere, not undercut each other." Although the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A have agreed to the so-called "confidence-building measures" recently proposed by the US government's peace envoy to Sudan, Senator John Danforth, the MPs urged both parties and mediation groups to renew their commitment to the Declaration of Principles - a set of operating standards agreed by the government and SPLM/A in the IGAD process - as the point of convergence for different peace processes. Besides IGAD's, peace initiatives for Sudan have included an Eritrean effort, a Nigerian initiative, supplementary efforts by the US and European nations, and the Egyptian-Libyan joint initiative, which has been widely deemed to be a separate peace initiative competing with IGAD. "IGAD needs to be the fundamental building block for peace in Sudan," said Drew. "At the very least, IGAD has put in place the Declaration of Principles, which is the most simple and honest way to move forward." "We need, as the international community, to go back to IGAD and the Declaration of Principles. All peace initiatives should take both parties to the negotiating table, and follow IGAD principles, to show that they are working towards the same end," he added. The concerns of the MPs generally tally with those in a recent report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), which hailed the recent progress on the four confidence-building measures proposed by Danforth, raising hopes that an end could soon be brought to the conflict. However, ICG also warned that the current window of opportunity for peace could be missed if efforts were not made by the international community to revitalise a comprehensive peace process. "The international community, and in particular the US, must seize this opportunity to revitalise the peace process before the two sides completely re-commit themselves to resolving Africa's longest conflict on the battlefield," ICG said in its April report, entitled "Capturing the Moment: Sudan's Peace Process in the Balance". Danforth's proposals were first made in November 2001, and have since facilitated a ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains in south-central Sudan to allow humanitarian aid to enter the region. They have also brought about the establishment of a commission to investigate allegations of slavery, and Khartoum's agreement to allow times and zones of tranquillity for the implementation of immunisation programmes. However, a recent escalation in fighting around Sudan's oilfields, increasing use of government helicopter gunships against military and civilian targets in the south, and indecision surrounding the nature of international involvement in the peace process all "put at risk Sudan's best chance for peace" since 1983, when the most recent phase in Sudan's civil war began, according to the ICG report. Although Khartoum and the SPLM/A recently signed an agreement to protect civilians and civilian targets in the war, the status of the southern oilfields remains in dispute. While the SPLM/A says oil installations are legitimate targets, Khartoum asserts that the agreement should render them free from attack. While in Sudan, the British parliamentary delegation spoke with Sudanese government officials as well as with representative of the leading opposition Ummah Party and representatives of the SPLM/A, the Sudanese Al-Ayyam newspaper reported on 8 April. Their talks centred on the civil conflict, and political and constitutional issues affecting the country, according to the paper. The delegation's visit was facilitated by a group of international nongovernmental organisations, including CARE International, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and Christian Aid - all engaged in humanitarian operations in southern Sudan.