Unrest in Sudan’s west

An escalating revolt in western Sudan’s Darfur region threatens to blindside international efforts backed by the United States, now near completion, to end a 21-year-old civil war between the Muslim Arab-dominated government in Khartoum and its predominantly black southern rivals, the Southern People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

“A humanitarian crisis looms in western Sudan,” warned the International Crisis Group, an advocacy organization for humanitarian work and conflict reduction founded by philanthropist George Soros.

It urged that all parties, including the Khartoum government, the rebels, the United Nations and other international groups seek a comprehensive settlement, rather than let the Darfur revolt fester.

Asked what the connection is between the North-South conflict and the western rebellion, Sudanese Ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed told The Washington Times in an interview at his embassy last week that “the two phenomena are related.” He said that “the people in Darfur saw the approaching settlement [between Khartoum and the southern rebels] as leaving them out of things.”

The ambassador acknowledged that the western uprising posed dangers for peace in Sudan. “How can you make peace, when it is not a comprehensive peace at all because part of the country is in flames?” he asked rhetorically.

The North-South civil war, Africa’s longest conflict, has cost an estimated 2 million lives through combat, famine and disease. At its core is Col. John Garang, leader of the SPLM and its Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), who has widened his reach by allying with dissident groups in the North.

The western revolt was initiated by two black Muslim guerrilla groups in February 2003 to fight government-backed Arab militias in the region.

In the local terminology, the rebels are called “Africans” to distinguish them from “Arabs” who dominate the government, although the racial and ethnic realities are much less clear-cut.

The rebels in Darfur are organized under two groups, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement. Opposing them are a government-backed militia called Janjaweed and smaller armed Arab groups.

The rebellion intensified as the North-South agreement to share power and the country’s oil wealth neared completion. According to reports from East Africa, the rebels feared that Darfur would be left with virtually nothing. Moreover, they feared that once the North-South conflict was settled, the government could throw its full weight against the Darfur rebels.

Historically, the Darfur region has been unruly — affected more by the chaotic conflicts to the west in Chad and the Central African Republic than by anything happening elsewhere in Sudan, which is Africa’s largest country and has about 40 million inhabitants.

Unlike the long North-South territorial dispute, often billed as a rivalry between Muslims in the North and Christians and animists in the South, Darfur is largely Muslim.

On Monday, the nation’s president, Lt. Gen. Omar Bashir, was optimistic about the North-South war, declaring that a deal to settle the dispute was very close and an agreement would be signed soon.

Addressing the national parliament, he said negotiations “have progressed a lot and the stage of signing the final and comprehensive agreement is very close,” according to wire service reports.

But the United States is showing signs of anxiety that things are not moving fast enough.

On Monday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell phoned Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha, the government’s chief negotiator, who was in Naivasha, Kenya. The secretary stressed the importance of concluding a peace agreement quickly.

Naivasha is the venue of the North-South talks, which are being held under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a regional organization.

Also Monday, the State Department dispatched its top Africa diplomat, acting Assistant Secretary of State Charles Snyder, to Kenya to nudge the two sides toward a settlement.

There was no indication that Mr. Taha’s negotiating partner, Col. Garang, needed similar U.S. prodding, having got major concessions during the talks.

A guidance paper for journalists prepared by the State Department also noted the seriousness of the Darfur conflict, including threats by Khartoum to bomb the insurgents, the flight of refugees into Chad and the inability of relief agencies to work there.

Implicit in the U.S. actions is that delays in reaching a North-South settlement could impair the U.S. rapprochement with Khartoum that began after the September 11 terrorist attacks as Sudan made a U-turn from Islamic fundamentalism to support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

On Tuesday, the two Darfur guerrilla groups met with Sudanese representatives in N’Djamena, Chad, for peace talks, but there was no indication of progress.

The U.S. moves come against a backdrop of other signs of unrest in Khartoum.

A Sudanese official announced last week that 11 military officers had been arrested after showing reluctance to follow orders to carry out aerial bombardments. He did not say where the officers had been ordered to bomb, but witnesses quoted by wire services said government planes have raided civilian areas in Darfur in recent weeks.

The officers also were accused of plotting a coup.

In addition, on Saturday, chief Islamic ideologist Hassan Turabi and members of his Popular Congress Party were arrested.

They are being accused of plotting to assassinate key government figures and attack military installations. Mr. Turabi denies the accusations.

It is not clear whether trials will follow by a government intent on moving the country away from Islamic fundamentalism and toward greater support of the U.S.-led war on terror.

From 1990 until he was ousted in 1999 and put under house arrest, Mr. Turabi provided the ideological basis for Sudan’s adherence to Islamic fundamentalism.

As co-leader of a coup against an elected government, Mr. Turabi was instrumental in the government’s support of Saddam Hussein in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the temporary hosting of Osama bin Laden and a campaign to spread Islam in other African countries.

That campaign was a key reason why neighboring countries, such as Eritrea, Ethiopia and Uganda, decided to join the United States in applying economic and political pressure on Sudan in the 1990s.

With the 1999 “palace coup” against Mr. Turabi, Sudan decided to change political direction. As a stunned world reeled from the magnitude of the September 11 attacks, Sudan decided to gallop, not walk, in a new pro-Western direction.