International engagement needed to save peace pact - ICG

Stronger international engagement is needed to prevent the unravelling of the Sudanese peace agreement, which ended one of Africa’s longest and bloodiest civil wars, the International Crisis Group (ICG) warned. Fifteen months after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) by the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in January 2005, there was little cause for optimism, David Mozersky, senior analyst for the ICG, warned on Thursday. "The unstable partnership between a strong but unwilling NCP and a weak but committed SPLM/A is making the implementation process highly volatile," he said. In its latest report on Sudan, published on Monday, the ICG urged the international community to establish a technical secretariat that would set benchmarks to monitor the implementation of the CPA and to make better use of its financial leverage to overcome political obstacles between the parties. United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, who returned from southern Sudan on Tuesday, agreed that the international community seemed "to be slacking on this last leg of the marathon to bring peace and security and prosperity to the biggest country of Africa, Sudan". "I have seen a waning interest in Sudan this year, compared to last year, and this shouldn’t happen, because this is really the moment of truth for international compassion and solidarity with Sudan," he said. "A lot can be lost if we are slipping now." The CPA was the culmination of more than two-and-a-half years of negotiations to end Sudan’s 21-year civil war. It provided for a six-year interim period with democratic elections by 2009, followed by a self-determination referendum for the south. According to the ICG, the implementation of the agreement has been an uphill battle, with the NCP exploiting the gaps within the CPA and the weaknesses of the SPLM to delay and frustrate the process. The partnership between the parties had broken down, Mozersky said. Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir himself, rather than the joint NCP-SPLM/A presidency, controlled the implementation of the CPA. "Many of the decisions on the implementation of the joint commissions foreseen under the peace agreement are taken by presidential decree, some of which are in blatant contradiction with the CPA," he said. Other problems included the lack of transparency in the allocation of oil revenues for the reconstruction of the south and the alleged continued NCP support to southern militias and the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army, which are creating havoc in southern Sudan. The SPLM/A was in urgent need of institutional support, the ICG observed, as its lack of capacity was limiting its effectiveness in the government of national unity. "They [SPLM/A officials] took note of my point that they should behave as responsible partners in a unity government and they have to do much more to that effect, which they are not at the moment," Egeland said. "The international community cannot save the CPA single-handedly, but they are a key player," Mozersky observed. "They have made a big investment in Sudan, and they have to follow through to make sure the peace lasts." Still, progress was being made in the south, as exemplified by the hundreds of thousands of people who were returning home, Egeland said. "I spent the night from Sunday to Monday on a barge going down the Nile from Juba to Bor, together with 350 jubilant displaced people as they were returning home after 15 to 20 years of war exile," he said. "Following these people home was one of my happiest days as emergency relief coordinator." The UN envoy also met an elderly lady who was making the journey all alone. She had had five children, but all four boys had died as soldiers in the civil war, and the girl had died of a conflict-related disease. "That was heart-breaking, and it just shows how much southern Sudan suffered through generations of war and how important it is now that we stay the course," Egeland said.