FMR focuses on progress in peace implementation

The Refugee Studies Centre of the University of Oxford has published a special issue of its magazine Forced Migration Review (FMR), focussing on the prospects for peace in Sudan. The magazine offers a range of opinion on the inclusiveness of the peace process, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement’s prospects for success, feasibility of plans to assist the return of IDPs and refugees, and recovery and development strategies. Tim Morris, editor of the magazine, said one in five people in Sudan was displaced. "Never before in the modern history of forced migration has it been planned to return so many [internally displaced] people - despite enormous logistical, financial, political, cultural challenges," he said. Speaking during the launch in Khartoum on 30 November, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, Sudanese state minister for international cooperation, said: "We as SPLM [southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement] representatives are well aware of anger of IDPs in camps - we will continue to hold Khartoum State government to account. Now there are opportunities for citizens to speak out, to contact their representatives. Southerners can take their place as real citizens of Sudan." Many of the 38 authors, including well-known Sudanese scholars, aid workers, and journalists regretted the failure to achieve peace in Darfur, the ongoing crisis in eastern Sudan, the exclusion of women from the peace process, the significant delays in merging the northern and southern armies, and the delays in receiving funding pledged by the international community in Oslo in April, 2005. In a statement, the magazine’s editors said: "If Sudanese can return home with dignity, if gross inequalities in distribution of wealth and provision of services can be redressed, if Sudanese women are given space to contribute to its recovery and if Sudan can leap up the human development ladder to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the Sudanese will have much to teach other countries emerging from the shadow of war." The full text is online at: www.fmreview.org