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September 12, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese parliament on Monday endorsed the extension of the state of emergency in the border state of Blue Nile and also approved the military campaign undertaken by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) against the fighters from the Sudan People Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N).
The chairman of the national assembly's special session Ismail al-Haj Moussa announced the decision by the legislative body concurring with president Omer Hassan al-Bashir's imposition of emergency law this month.
Moussa said the parliament called on the government to continue the “military resolution of the insurgency irrespective of any talks”.
But MP Mohamed Al-Hassan al-Amin from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) objected to the indefinite extension of the emergency state saying it is unconstitutional.
Al-Amin said that article 211 of the constitution states that the state of emergency can only be extended for a specified amount of time.
However, he was countered by the parliament speaker Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir who said that his objections were raised after the resolution was already adopted.
Fighting broke out this month in the Blue Nile state between SAF and SPLM-N but circumstances regarding who started it remain unclear.
The Blue Nile governor Malik Agar who is also the head of SPLM-N was removed by Bashir and declared a fugitive by other Sudanese officials.
This follows fighting in South Kordofan last June between government forces and SPLM-N units led by former deputy governor Abdel-Aziz al-Hilu.
Bashir rejected a framework agreement on cessation of hostilities in South Kordofan that was mediated by an African Union panel despite being signed by one of his key aides.
The Sudanese parliament expressed its total rejection of any foreign interference and urged the government not to bow to any pressure» exerted to stop the military campaign.
Meanwhile the defense minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein told the national assembly that the SPLM-N forces have sustained heavy losses in the Blue Nile. He said that the SPLM-N lost around a 100 fighters including seven officers as well scores of injuries and POW's.
He also disclosed that SPLM-N made several attempts to take over the town of Geissan most recently a few days ago with the participation of a battalion from the Republic of South Sudan. Hussein stressed that SAF is imposing a blockade Kabbanat region where he said SPLM-N units have assembled.
At today's session MP's shouted slogans describing Agar as a “traitor” and vowed not to negotiate with him.
Last week the United States special envoy to Sudan Princeton Lyman said the situation in the border States is “very dangerous”.
"The two sides are not still talking to each other. That means the situation remains very dangerous. Fighting is going on," Lyman said after meeting Sudan's Foreign Minister, Ali Ahmed Karti, and other officials.
Lyman also criticized Khartoum's decision to close down SPLM-N offices.
"If there is going to be a discussion and political talks, who are you going to talk to? Of course you are going to talk to the SPLM-North. It's a major political party in Sudan. Closing down offices does not help," he said.
The US official also warned Sudan that the normalization of ties process is in danger given the humanitarian situation in the two states.
Tensions have mounted in Blue Nile and other territories along Sudan's poorly-defined border with South Sudan since the south declared independence in July.
The territories are all still home to tens of thousands of people from ethnic groups that sided with the south during decades of civil war that led up to independence.
The Rest @ Sudan Tribune
Showing posts with label The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). Show all posts
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
South Sudan's Five Challenges
South Sudan finds itself at a complex crossroads, and Alex Thurston has written the most accurate and succinct analysis of the situation I have seen so far. Here it is.
- Shimron
***************
Attention is turning from South Sudan’s referendum on independence, which yielded a nearly unanimous “yes” vote, to South’s Sudan’s future. Here are five challenges the new country will face:
1. Borders
Even though North Sudan appears resigned to the South’s secession, the two countries will still have to agree on the precise border that divides them. One major piece of that puzzle is Abyei, an oil-rich region that was supposed to hold its own referendum and decide whether it would secede along with the South or remain with the North. Due to disagreements between North and South Sudanese leaders, Abyei’s referendum was postponed indefinitely. Verbal and physical conflict in Abyei (between the largely pro-secession Ngok Dinka farmers and the largely pro-unity Misseriya Arab pastoralists) punctuated the voting earlier this month.
Now that the voting is over, Abyei remains a “potential tinderbox.”
On the southern side, the secretary general of the ruling party, the Southern People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Pagan Amum, has said that if the Abyei referendum is not conducted, the only remaining option is for Abyei to be transferred to the south by presidential decree. On the northern side, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has said he will not accept Abyei being part of the south.
The Ngok Dinka say they fear that if they do not make their declaration before the votes are counted in the southern referendum, they will miss their chance to join the south.
The Ngok Dinka were ready to make their declaration before voting started on Jan. 9. But two high-level officials from the SPLM persuaded them to hold off.
The officials said a declaration before the referendum would give the north “an excuse to disrupt” the vote, said Juac Agok, deputy chairman of the SPLM in Abyei.
The SPLM is now asking them to wait until after July 9, when southern independence would formally begin.
But Agok said, “I don’t think it will be possible for me to convince the people of Abyei to wait.”
The seriousness of the situation in Abyei is so great that one analyst calls it “the key to South Sudan['s] stability.” Without a solution that both governments and the people of Abyei can accept, violence may escalate.
2. Oil
Oil is the primary driver of Sudan’s economy. The US Energy Information Administration says, “In 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund, oil represented over 90 percent of export earnings. For South Sudan (Juba), oil represented 98 percent of total revenues for the year compared to Khartoum at 65 percent.” The Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 (which provided for the referendum) established a 50-50 revenue-sharing agreement between North and South, but now the two countries will have to negotiate a new agreement on revenues. Addressing issues like transparency, a report released in early January argued, will be key to establishing trust and peace between North and South, who must rely on each other when it comes to oil: Three-quarters of the oil is in the South, but the North has the pipelines and refineries.
In addition to this challenge, South Sudan has its own internal challenges when it comes to oil revenues: accusations of government corruption and continued poverty in the midst of rising government income threaten to increase public discontent with the Government of South Sudan. Fast growth has led to income inequality and a sense of chaos in Juba. South Sudan will have to use oil revenues carefully in achieving development and building a unified society.
3. Integration and Citizenship
Who is a citizen in South Sudan? With refugees and members of the diaspora returning from near and far, and with everyone in the new country pondering its political future, South Sudan will need to develop a basis for national integration, citizenship, and unity that relies on more than just opposition to the North. Maggie Fick captures this problem poignantly:
A Southern Sudanese told me that “the referendum is the only thing that united us southerners.”
He believes that one of the hardest tasks of the southern government in the coming years will be to create the idea of being a Southern Sudanese citizen—an idea that will arguably be foreign to many ofthese citizens.
After my friend made the above comment, he proceeded to give me an extensive history lesson on “the struggle,” speaking with pride and deep knowledge about the causes of the south’s two post-independence rebellions against regimes in Khartoum. He drew upon stories of battles fought in areas of the south that he has never visited but that appear vividly in his oral retelling of years of bloody conflict that eventually led to the south gaining the chance to decide its own destiny in a self-determination vote.
If this isn’t pride for a nation and in a group of people than I don’t know what is.
But the new Southern Sudan will be about more than the struggle of the past, and it will be a new struggle for the new country’s leaders to forge a path that includes not only those groups who fought in the war but also those people who were born in refugee camps in East Africa, who grew up in Nebraska, who studied at Oxford and who drive motorcycle taxis in Juba.
Picking the country’s name (it may well remain “South Sudan”), national anthem, flag, and emblem is a first step, but crafting national unity and integrating newcomers will take a long time.
4. Political Reform
This point is related to the last point. Along with building a sense of one nation, South Sudan will face the challenge of allowing multiple voices to speak. South Sudan will face international and internal pressures to move beyond the one-party model that allows the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) to dominate.
The International Crisis Group’s Zack Vertin ably explains the issue:
The rebel movement turned governing party — the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement — dominates the political arena. Since the end of the war, opposition voices have suppressed grievances and taken a back seat to the SPLM so as to preserve the goal shared by all southerners — self-determination. But now that the vote has been cast, that common denominator is gone. When the jubilation of last week’s vote subsides, the political environment will slowly begin to transform. The current leadership must respond accordingly, recognizing that a genuine opening of political space is both necessary and in their long-term interest. They must find a way to equitably manage the South’s own diversity, lest they simply duplicate the sort of autocratic regime they’ve finally managed to escape.
Allowing political pluralism means more than just who wins at the ballot box – it also means addressing human rights issues (h/t Rob Crilly), managing dissent, and promoting positive relations between ethnic groups. None of that will be easy.
5. Development
South Sudan’s development challenges are wide-ranging and stark. A Reuters report from 2010 puts South Sudan’s predicament bluntly: “By many yardsticks, it is the least-developed place on earth: 70 percent of its people have no access to any form of healthcare, one in five women die in childbirth and one in five children fail to make it to their fifth birthday.” UNDP provides alarming statistics on education, disease, sustainability, and other issues in South Sudan. These problems are not just economic – they also threaten to undercut political stability. The worst outcome, as Rob Crilly says, would be for South Sudan, burdened by economic crisis and political failure, to join the world’s failed states.
*********************************
This list is not comprehensive, and I hope commenters will weigh in on these issues and others. What have I missed? What challenges do you see ahead for South Sudan?
The Rest @ Sahel Bog
- Shimron
***************
Attention is turning from South Sudan’s referendum on independence, which yielded a nearly unanimous “yes” vote, to South’s Sudan’s future. Here are five challenges the new country will face:
1. Borders
Even though North Sudan appears resigned to the South’s secession, the two countries will still have to agree on the precise border that divides them. One major piece of that puzzle is Abyei, an oil-rich region that was supposed to hold its own referendum and decide whether it would secede along with the South or remain with the North. Due to disagreements between North and South Sudanese leaders, Abyei’s referendum was postponed indefinitely. Verbal and physical conflict in Abyei (between the largely pro-secession Ngok Dinka farmers and the largely pro-unity Misseriya Arab pastoralists) punctuated the voting earlier this month.
Now that the voting is over, Abyei remains a “potential tinderbox.”
On the southern side, the secretary general of the ruling party, the Southern People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Pagan Amum, has said that if the Abyei referendum is not conducted, the only remaining option is for Abyei to be transferred to the south by presidential decree. On the northern side, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has said he will not accept Abyei being part of the south.
The Ngok Dinka say they fear that if they do not make their declaration before the votes are counted in the southern referendum, they will miss their chance to join the south.
The Ngok Dinka were ready to make their declaration before voting started on Jan. 9. But two high-level officials from the SPLM persuaded them to hold off.
The officials said a declaration before the referendum would give the north “an excuse to disrupt” the vote, said Juac Agok, deputy chairman of the SPLM in Abyei.
The SPLM is now asking them to wait until after July 9, when southern independence would formally begin.
But Agok said, “I don’t think it will be possible for me to convince the people of Abyei to wait.”
The seriousness of the situation in Abyei is so great that one analyst calls it “the key to South Sudan['s] stability.” Without a solution that both governments and the people of Abyei can accept, violence may escalate.
2. Oil
Oil is the primary driver of Sudan’s economy. The US Energy Information Administration says, “In 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund, oil represented over 90 percent of export earnings. For South Sudan (Juba), oil represented 98 percent of total revenues for the year compared to Khartoum at 65 percent.” The Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 (which provided for the referendum) established a 50-50 revenue-sharing agreement between North and South, but now the two countries will have to negotiate a new agreement on revenues. Addressing issues like transparency, a report released in early January argued, will be key to establishing trust and peace between North and South, who must rely on each other when it comes to oil: Three-quarters of the oil is in the South, but the North has the pipelines and refineries.
In addition to this challenge, South Sudan has its own internal challenges when it comes to oil revenues: accusations of government corruption and continued poverty in the midst of rising government income threaten to increase public discontent with the Government of South Sudan. Fast growth has led to income inequality and a sense of chaos in Juba. South Sudan will have to use oil revenues carefully in achieving development and building a unified society.
3. Integration and Citizenship
Who is a citizen in South Sudan? With refugees and members of the diaspora returning from near and far, and with everyone in the new country pondering its political future, South Sudan will need to develop a basis for national integration, citizenship, and unity that relies on more than just opposition to the North. Maggie Fick captures this problem poignantly:
A Southern Sudanese told me that “the referendum is the only thing that united us southerners.”
He believes that one of the hardest tasks of the southern government in the coming years will be to create the idea of being a Southern Sudanese citizen—an idea that will arguably be foreign to many ofthese citizens.
After my friend made the above comment, he proceeded to give me an extensive history lesson on “the struggle,” speaking with pride and deep knowledge about the causes of the south’s two post-independence rebellions against regimes in Khartoum. He drew upon stories of battles fought in areas of the south that he has never visited but that appear vividly in his oral retelling of years of bloody conflict that eventually led to the south gaining the chance to decide its own destiny in a self-determination vote.
If this isn’t pride for a nation and in a group of people than I don’t know what is.
But the new Southern Sudan will be about more than the struggle of the past, and it will be a new struggle for the new country’s leaders to forge a path that includes not only those groups who fought in the war but also those people who were born in refugee camps in East Africa, who grew up in Nebraska, who studied at Oxford and who drive motorcycle taxis in Juba.
Picking the country’s name (it may well remain “South Sudan”), national anthem, flag, and emblem is a first step, but crafting national unity and integrating newcomers will take a long time.
4. Political Reform
This point is related to the last point. Along with building a sense of one nation, South Sudan will face the challenge of allowing multiple voices to speak. South Sudan will face international and internal pressures to move beyond the one-party model that allows the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) to dominate.
The International Crisis Group’s Zack Vertin ably explains the issue:
The rebel movement turned governing party — the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement — dominates the political arena. Since the end of the war, opposition voices have suppressed grievances and taken a back seat to the SPLM so as to preserve the goal shared by all southerners — self-determination. But now that the vote has been cast, that common denominator is gone. When the jubilation of last week’s vote subsides, the political environment will slowly begin to transform. The current leadership must respond accordingly, recognizing that a genuine opening of political space is both necessary and in their long-term interest. They must find a way to equitably manage the South’s own diversity, lest they simply duplicate the sort of autocratic regime they’ve finally managed to escape.
Allowing political pluralism means more than just who wins at the ballot box – it also means addressing human rights issues (h/t Rob Crilly), managing dissent, and promoting positive relations between ethnic groups. None of that will be easy.
5. Development
South Sudan’s development challenges are wide-ranging and stark. A Reuters report from 2010 puts South Sudan’s predicament bluntly: “By many yardsticks, it is the least-developed place on earth: 70 percent of its people have no access to any form of healthcare, one in five women die in childbirth and one in five children fail to make it to their fifth birthday.” UNDP provides alarming statistics on education, disease, sustainability, and other issues in South Sudan. These problems are not just economic – they also threaten to undercut political stability. The worst outcome, as Rob Crilly says, would be for South Sudan, burdened by economic crisis and political failure, to join the world’s failed states.
*********************************
This list is not comprehensive, and I hope commenters will weigh in on these issues and others. What have I missed? What challenges do you see ahead for South Sudan?
The Rest @ Sahel Bog
Thursday, August 02, 2007
SPLM Commemorates Death of Dr. John Garang
July 30, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Under the slogan of "Two Years for Peace and Democratic Transformation", thousands of Sudanese marked the second anniversary of former SPLM leader John Garang’s tragic death in a helicopter crash, amid renewed calls to uphold the fragile peace deal he brokered.
Pagan Amum (left) and Malik Agar wave their hands to greet people attending the second anniversary of Garang Death, Khartoum, July 30, 2007 (SUNA).
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) commemorated Monday evening at Khartoum Stadium the second anniversary of death of Dr. John Garang, with participation of folklore groups from the different parts of the Sudan to reaffirm SPLM attachment for a united, and democratic Sudan in implementation of the ideas of Late First Vice President John Garang, the organizers said.
The event was attended by members of the SPLM, National Congress, political forces, political parties and a number of members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Sudan.
The commemoration ceremony was addressed by SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amom, who greeted the masses and called for implementation of the CPA for the sake of unity and stability.
Amum affirmed commitment of the SPLM to all provisions of the CPA. He also urged the withdrwal of the Sudan Armed Forces from the oil fields in Upper Nile and Unity States underscoring that security is well established in these regions.
The occasion was also addressed by the Deputy Secretary General of the SPLM Malik Aggar, who reviewed the stances of late Dr. Garang towards the process of peace, unity and justice equality for creating a new Sudan.
He pointed out that late Dr. John Garang had called for solution of Darfur problem, pointing out that the SPLM is endeavouring for realizing stability in Darfur.
The occasion was also addressed by representative of the National Congress Party Salah Mohamed Adam, who said the memory of late Dr. Garang will remain in the hearts of the Sudanese people, pointing out that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) will remain the candle that lights the way for overcoming difficulties.
He affirmed commitment of the National Congress to implementation of the CPA.
The state minister at the ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Anna Essito, hailed Garang’s concern for the equality between men and women and urged the implementation of his vision in this regard to create the New Sudan.
The meeting also was addressed by the Kenyan Ambassador and the US chargé d’affaires in Sudan.
The Rest @ Sudan Tribune
Pagan Amum (left) and Malik Agar wave their hands to greet people attending the second anniversary of Garang Death, Khartoum, July 30, 2007 (SUNA).
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) commemorated Monday evening at Khartoum Stadium the second anniversary of death of Dr. John Garang, with participation of folklore groups from the different parts of the Sudan to reaffirm SPLM attachment for a united, and democratic Sudan in implementation of the ideas of Late First Vice President John Garang, the organizers said.
The event was attended by members of the SPLM, National Congress, political forces, political parties and a number of members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Sudan.
The commemoration ceremony was addressed by SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amom, who greeted the masses and called for implementation of the CPA for the sake of unity and stability.
Amum affirmed commitment of the SPLM to all provisions of the CPA. He also urged the withdrwal of the Sudan Armed Forces from the oil fields in Upper Nile and Unity States underscoring that security is well established in these regions.
The occasion was also addressed by the Deputy Secretary General of the SPLM Malik Aggar, who reviewed the stances of late Dr. Garang towards the process of peace, unity and justice equality for creating a new Sudan.
He pointed out that late Dr. John Garang had called for solution of Darfur problem, pointing out that the SPLM is endeavouring for realizing stability in Darfur.
The occasion was also addressed by representative of the National Congress Party Salah Mohamed Adam, who said the memory of late Dr. Garang will remain in the hearts of the Sudanese people, pointing out that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) will remain the candle that lights the way for overcoming difficulties.
He affirmed commitment of the National Congress to implementation of the CPA.
The state minister at the ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Anna Essito, hailed Garang’s concern for the equality between men and women and urged the implementation of his vision in this regard to create the New Sudan.
The meeting also was addressed by the Kenyan Ambassador and the US chargé d’affaires in Sudan.
The Rest @ Sudan Tribune
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