Date: Monday 12 August 2002
Subj: Nigeria: Reconciliation or Polarisation
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty E-mail Conference
From: Elizabeth Kendal, Conference Moderator
On 8 August I spoke with the Anglican Bishop of Kaduna, central Nigeria, Bishop Josiah Fearon, to gather his impressions regarding reports of escalating religious violence and persecution of Christians in the central regions of Nigeria.
The situation in Nigeria is worthy of considerable apprehension and close attention. Religion became a hot and divisive issue after the February 1999 Presidential elections resulted in a Southern Christian being democratically elected as president after decades of military rule, predominantly by Northern Muslims.
Presidential elections are due again in early 2003. These may be Nigeria's first elections where religion is a major election issue. In a nation split almost 50 / 50 between Muslims and Christians, one wonders if anyone could be a winner if religion is touted as a major and divisive election issue, anyone except the military that is.
- EK
----------------------------------------
Nigeria: Reconciliation or Polarisation.
ESCALATING SOCIAL TENSION
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) recently released a report that chronicled escalating violence in the central regions of Nigeria. Bishop Ben Kwashi of Jos wrote to CSW stating, "We are facing a new Muslim onslaught. Terror has been released on the majority Christian population of the Plateau." (Full report - see link 1)
The General Secretary of the Nigerian Evangelical Missions Association, Timothy Olonade, confirms that the Church in Jos (capital city of Plateau) is suffering increased persecution. "Yes, the story reported is true and it is the reality of a daily apprehension here. We share this story and its pain. When Jos appeared to be recovering (from the September 2001 violence), Muslim hoodlums went into cleansing mode, going from village to village to attack people and destroy properties. This now affects our everyday life, as Islamic aggression becomes our lot in this part of Nigeria."
Josiah Fearon is the Bishop of Kaduna in central Nigeria. Kaduna State, which was the scene of horrendous Sharia riots in February 2000, borders Plateau State. Bishop Fearon sees the tension and hostility through central Nigeria as predominately an ethnic conflict being played out in a religious dimension primarily because the opposing ethic groups are of different religions and because those desiring power are willing to manipulate the conflict and capitalize on it for their own purposes.
"In Jos you have people from Bauchi and other northern states, Hausa and Fulani people, who came to Jos years ago for business, and their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren have grown up there," says Bishop Fearon. "But now they are being told by the indigenes, 'You don't belong here.' But they have no other place to go! They are predominantly Muslims while the indigenes are predominantly Christian.
"However, I also want to identify with the people of Jos. They have said, 'If you live here, you have to abide by the rules and adjust to the culture, but unfortunately the Hausa have often tried to lord it over the people and it has been very difficult." (The indigenous population of Jos are mainly Christian or Animist of minority tribes. Many have resented the powerful influence of the wealthier 'immigrant' Hausa-Fulani Muslims).
"The solutions lie predominantly in governance," says Bishop Fearon. "The government needs to make sure the development is evenly distributed. Nigerians, in the central parts in particular, need to learn to accept one another again. Central Nigeria has always had a culture of accommodating people from other parts of the country, but suddenly that has all changed, and it is frightening. The whole climate has changed, and all in the name of religion. But it is not really religion - it is power. Power is the real issue here.
"It is naive to say the problems are purely religious. The problems are very complex. But having said that, we do know that there are Muslims who have plans to divide the nation - there's no doubt about it."
2003 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
Q - EK. Do you anticipate the 2003 Presidential elections bringing these issues to a head?
A - Bishop Josiah Fearon. "Unfortunately one of the presidential candidates, a former military ruler who is seeking now to be president, General Buhari, has said that Muslims should vote for whoever will promote Sharia. That is not going down well with those of us who are working for reconciliation and integration. For that to come from someone who has been Head of State shows what 2003 is likely to become. He is calling for polarisation."
-------------------
In early May the Lagos paper, Daily Champion, printed an article entitled, "Between Obasanjo and Buhari, the Religion Question" by Joy Onyekwere. Her analysis begins, "Next year's elections may be like no other before it. And between Obasanjo and Buhari, two likely presidential intenders, the looming issue that might define the voting pattern could be religion."
Joy Onyekwere goes on to say, that while religion was not an issue in the 1999 election it appears that religion may stand at the centre of the forthcoming 2003 election between "Gen. Buhari, who of late has been whipping up Sharia sentiment," and "President Obasanjo, who has at a number of occasions trumpeted his 'born again' Christian life." (Full article - see link 2)
Obasanjo set up Nigeria's Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC) soon after being elected president. The HRVIC is investigating the killings, torture and other human rights violations committed during the years of military dictatorships. Both General Buhari (who has publicly proclaimed that Muslims should vote for Muslims), and another presidential candidate, General Babangida (another former military dictator and one of Nigeria's richest men), are presently facing charges of human rights abuses. (See links 3 & 4).
Analysts have long suspected that while a quest for power is the primary issue behind the push for Sharia, it is also being used by some to destabilize the government and divert attention away from the corruption probes and the HRVIC. There appear to be many reasons why former military dictators would seek to reinvent themselves as Islamic religious reformers.
"THE NEXT TEN MONTHS WILL BE CRITICAL."
Twelve northern states have now adopted Sharia in defiance of the Constitution. As such, Nigeria is already a nation divided. With presidential candidates like General Buhari encouraging the polarization of Nigeria along religious lines, Nigeria will need all the help it can get, to get to and through the next presidential elections without serious religious division and bloodshed.
Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim has identified the 2003 transitional elections as "the greatest challenge" facing Nigeria as a nation. (See link 5) "The greatest challenge facing this nation today is the transition from civilians to civilians. The next ten months will be critical. We have tried before and failed, but if we allow it to fail this time around it will be a disaster. It is clear," he said. "It is our hope and prayer that all lovers of democracy, all lovers of the continent of Africa should come to the aid of Nigeria to help Nigeria succeed."
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) Christian Solidarity Worldwide http://www.csw.org.uk/
"Christians attacked and killed by Islamic fanatics in Nigeria" 18
July 2002 http://www.csw.org.uk/Latestnews.asp?Item=309
2) "Between Obasanjo And Buhari, the Religion Question" Daily
Champion (Lagos) Analysis 4 May 2002 by Joy Onyekwere
http://allafrica.com/stories/200205040002.html
3) "3 New Parties Registered; IBB For President?" by Associated
Press Writer Haruna Barhago, 22 June 2002.
http://www.nigeria.com/dcforum/DCForumID1/1217.html
4) "Buhari dismisses insinuations of seeking office to settle
scores" by Taye Obateru and Godwin Akor, Vangard. 28 June 2002
http://www.vanguardngr.com/news/articles/2002/June/28062002/r2280602
.htm
5) "2003 Elections Must Succeed, Says Anyim" by Bature Umar in Abuja
and Abel Orih in Yola, ThisDay News, 9 August 2002
http://odili.net/news/source/2002/aug/8/43.html
BACKGROUND
"Nigeria's turbulent prospects" 11 January 2002
By the BBC's Dan Isaacs in Lagos
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1753559.stm
"Analysis: Nigeria's Sharia split" 15 October 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1600804.stm
WEA RLP 133 Nigeria: Bloodbath in Jos 12 Sept 2001 and
WEA RLP 136 September Update 27 Sept 2001
Monday, August 12, 2002
Wednesday, July 31, 2002
North Korea: Reassessing self-reliance?
Date: Wednesday 31 July 2002
Subj: North Korea: Reassessing self-reliance?
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty E-mail Conference
From: Elizabeth Kendal, Conference Moderator
North Korea is one of the world's most severe abusers of religious liberty and cruelest persecutors of Christians. The Reunification Talks that commenced in Pyongyang, North Korea, in June 2002, opened a window of hope that change may be possible in the previously impenetrable "Hermit Kingdom". However, the talks have constantly been frustrated and beset with difficulties.
In these testing times we should not forget that many believers, especially South Korean believers, have prayed consistently; even daily for some fifty years, for God to liberate North Korea.
Famine is the primary factor forcing North Korea to once again return to the negotiating table, and to reassess its policy of "Juche" or "self-reliance". While none of the diplomatic or economic changes outlined below relate directly to any religious liberty issues, they do however, give grounds for optimism that North Korea may truly be seeking to end its isolation and commence real engagement with the outside world - in which case, real opportunities to exert influence and leverage regarding religious freedom should also open up.
------------------------------------
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who recently visited North Korea and met with Kim Jong-il, reports that North Korea is seeking constructive dialogue with Japan and the US to talk unconditionally about lessening its international isolation.
On 25 July 02, only days after Mr. Ivanov's visit, North Korea expressed "regret" to South Korea over the naval clash that occurred on 29 June in which five South Korean sailors were killed. What makes this so significant is that it is so out of character - it is only the third time North Korea has ever expressed remorse in a long history of attacks on South Korea. In this same message, North Korea also proposed the resumption of reunification talks between the North and South - an offer South Korea has accepted. South Korea's Unification Ministry has now offered to send a working-level team to North Korea's Mount Kumgang resort from 2 - 4 August to prepare for a ministerial meeting in Seoul.
But most remarkable, is the news that North Korea has scrapped its centralised state rationing system and is replacing it with public markets that have been operating since 1 July 02. Wages have been increased accordingly to accommodate the change. Factories and companies will also end their reliance on state subsidies and become self-supporting with profits linked to productivity.
A BBC correspondent in Seoul, Kevin Kim, says that recently the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, called for a new way of thinking, suggesting he was more open-minded about adopting capitalist systems in his country. (see link 1) Some observers have compared the steps to those China took in the late 1970s as China gradually opened up its economy.
BACKGROUND
Christians in North Korea have long suffered severe Communist oppression, firstly under the Soviets who controlled North Korea after WWII, and then under Stalin's handpicked successor, Kim Il-sung. It is estimated that some 2,300 North Korean Christian congregations with around 300,000 members have disappeared since the border closed in 1953 at the end of the Korean War. An estimated 100,000 Christians are amongst the one million North Koreans currently suffering as prisoners of conscience in North Korea's gulag of some 200 concentration camps where torture and starvation are commonplace.
It has been reported that in the camps and prisons, Christians are especially despised and singled out for the most severe treatment. Hundreds of North Korean believers found with Bibles have been executed. The government insists that the dead but "Eternal President" Kim Il-sung be worshiped as a god, and his son, the present ruler Kim Jong-il, to whom all manner of supernatural phenomena are attributed, be the object of "ardent worship".
Links
1) BBC "North Korea 'moves to market economy'" 19 July 2000
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/asia-pacific/2137826.stm
Subj: North Korea: Reassessing self-reliance?
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty E-mail Conference
From: Elizabeth Kendal, Conference Moderator
North Korea is one of the world's most severe abusers of religious liberty and cruelest persecutors of Christians. The Reunification Talks that commenced in Pyongyang, North Korea, in June 2002, opened a window of hope that change may be possible in the previously impenetrable "Hermit Kingdom". However, the talks have constantly been frustrated and beset with difficulties.
In these testing times we should not forget that many believers, especially South Korean believers, have prayed consistently; even daily for some fifty years, for God to liberate North Korea.
Famine is the primary factor forcing North Korea to once again return to the negotiating table, and to reassess its policy of "Juche" or "self-reliance". While none of the diplomatic or economic changes outlined below relate directly to any religious liberty issues, they do however, give grounds for optimism that North Korea may truly be seeking to end its isolation and commence real engagement with the outside world - in which case, real opportunities to exert influence and leverage regarding religious freedom should also open up.
------------------------------------
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who recently visited North Korea and met with Kim Jong-il, reports that North Korea is seeking constructive dialogue with Japan and the US to talk unconditionally about lessening its international isolation.
On 25 July 02, only days after Mr. Ivanov's visit, North Korea expressed "regret" to South Korea over the naval clash that occurred on 29 June in which five South Korean sailors were killed. What makes this so significant is that it is so out of character - it is only the third time North Korea has ever expressed remorse in a long history of attacks on South Korea. In this same message, North Korea also proposed the resumption of reunification talks between the North and South - an offer South Korea has accepted. South Korea's Unification Ministry has now offered to send a working-level team to North Korea's Mount Kumgang resort from 2 - 4 August to prepare for a ministerial meeting in Seoul.
But most remarkable, is the news that North Korea has scrapped its centralised state rationing system and is replacing it with public markets that have been operating since 1 July 02. Wages have been increased accordingly to accommodate the change. Factories and companies will also end their reliance on state subsidies and become self-supporting with profits linked to productivity.
A BBC correspondent in Seoul, Kevin Kim, says that recently the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, called for a new way of thinking, suggesting he was more open-minded about adopting capitalist systems in his country. (see link 1) Some observers have compared the steps to those China took in the late 1970s as China gradually opened up its economy.
BACKGROUND
Christians in North Korea have long suffered severe Communist oppression, firstly under the Soviets who controlled North Korea after WWII, and then under Stalin's handpicked successor, Kim Il-sung. It is estimated that some 2,300 North Korean Christian congregations with around 300,000 members have disappeared since the border closed in 1953 at the end of the Korean War. An estimated 100,000 Christians are amongst the one million North Koreans currently suffering as prisoners of conscience in North Korea's gulag of some 200 concentration camps where torture and starvation are commonplace.
It has been reported that in the camps and prisons, Christians are especially despised and singled out for the most severe treatment. Hundreds of North Korean believers found with Bibles have been executed. The government insists that the dead but "Eternal President" Kim Il-sung be worshiped as a god, and his son, the present ruler Kim Jong-il, to whom all manner of supernatural phenomena are attributed, be the object of "ardent worship".
Links
1) BBC "North Korea 'moves to market economy'" 19 July 2000
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/asia-pacific/2137826.stm
Friday, July 26, 2002
Sudan: Translating a Document (Machakos Protocol) into a Reality
Date: Friday 26 July 2002
Subj: Sudan: Translating a Document into a Reality
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty E-mail Conference
From: Elizabeth Kendal, Conference Moderator
The Peace Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Sudan and the Southern People's Liberation Movement/Army, signed at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) talks in Nairobi on 20 July 02 is, in itself, nothing short of a miracle. Reactions to the peace deal have ranged from jubilant optimism to bitter skepticism and angry rejection. Continued prayer and international leverage will be needed if the miraculous peace agreement is to be translated into a miraculous reality.
----------------------------------------
After 19 years of bloodshed, destruction and jihad (Islamic holy war) - what circumstances have produced this opportunity for peace in Sudan? One month ago, analysts were saying that both sides were intransigent, that both the government and the southern rebels had sacrificed too much and fought for too long to make compromise an option. However, the very issues that were considered the major sticking points, the issues that have derailed all previous peace negotiations - the Southerner's demand for religious freedom and their request for a referendum on self-determination - have been granted by a government that is under intense international pressure to make peace, and which indeed, needs peace if it is to develop and receive any benefit from its oil industry.
Three main circumstances have put the Government of Sudan in this position:
* Firstly - the falling-out in 2001 between President Omar el-Bashir and Sudan's chief Islamist ideologue Hassan Turabi, the primary mastermind behind el-Bashir's political Islamist program. This opened the door for a degree of moderation and engagement that was never even remotely possible with Turabi wielding power and influence.
* Secondly - the both desperate and patient, long-suffering, persevering advocacy of Christian and other human rights and anti-slavery groups, that have made human rights and religious liberty in Sudan, issues with political significance. The advocacy of these groups and individuals produced the domestic leverage necessary to encourage influential governments to exercise international leverage.
* Thirdly - the terrorist attack on USA on 11 September 2001 has forced Sudan to make watershed decisions regarding direction and allegiances.
An Associated Press article posted on Tuesday 23 July 2002 entitled, "This Sudanese agreement could be different" by Donna Bryson in Cairo, Egypt, sums up the situation well. Quoting excerpts from that article: (the full article can be found using link 1 below)
"With Saturday's announcement in Kenya, the government, which had vowed to create an Islamic state after seizing power in 1989, agreed state and religion should be separate. It also said that six years after a full peace agreement was signed, Sudanese in the mainly Christian and animist south would be allowed to vote on whether to remain part of the country.
"The government had for years resisted those rebel demands.
"John Ashworth, a South Africa-based analyst who works for Sudanese churches, said leaders in Khartoum could be yielding now in hopes peace will open the way to international aid and oil entrepreneurs and help end talk of their extremism - a label they fear could make them targets in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
"'They've been looking for international credibility and international respectability,' Ashworth said in a telephone interview.
"'After Sept. 11, things changed,' Tombe agreed (Rev. Enock Tombe is head of the Sudan Council of Churches).
"Sudan's desire to be seen as an ally by the United States gives Washington great influence. Strong U.S. interest in resolving Africa's longest war, fueled in part by U.S. Christian groups who have rallied to the southerners cause, was expressed in the appointment last year of former U.S. Senator John Danforth as special presidential envoy to Sudan.
"Hard-liners in Khartoum already have questioned whether the government was offering to give up too much.
"'Issues and established facts such as Islamic law, federal rule and unity should not be compromised,' Mohammed Hassan al-Amin told The Associated Press Sunday (21 July). Al-Amin is an official of the Popular National Congress headed by Hassan Turabi."
A Sudanese communist party member, requesting anonymity, expressed his concern that the issue of retaining Sharia law in the north is likely to undermine the peace agreement. "Sharia law is unpopular in both the south and the north," he said. "Keeping the law in the north is unlikely to bring peace to Sudan." (see link 2)
Ibrahim Elnur, a Sudanese analyst at the American University in Cairo added that the agreement needed to include other northern and southern parties, otherwise it could collapse like a similar north-south deal in 1972 that sparked a return to war in 1983. "Now we need to widen it and bring in a democratic element. This is the only guarantee of stability," he said. (see link 2)
The agreement is known as the "Machakos Protocol" because the talks have been held in the Kenyan town of Machakos.
Eric Reeves, a Sudan analyst says, "The Machakos Protocol holds out extraordinary promise, even as it is burdened by exceedingly great difficulties if that promise is to be realized in a just and lasting peace. We do no service to the peace process if we ignore either the promise of Machakos or the many and various obstacles. This is the moment of truth for peace in Sudan. We should ask - with honesty, appropriate skepticism, and moral determination - how the peace process can be supported."
Reeves continues, "Machakos means only as much as the international community forces it to mean. Unrelenting pressure must be exerted on the National Islamic Front to build on the Machakos Protocol, rather than seek ways to renege and walk away from what has been
agreed. There is no room for complacency or self-congratulation: we are at best well begun."
Mel Middleton of Freedom Quest International agrees, "Two things are certain: 1. This 'agreement' still has a long way to go before it is, in fact, a 'just peace' agreement - the fighting has not stopped yet. 2. The need for vigilance is greater now than ever before."
Talks will resume on 12 August 2002. Issues on the agenda are: power sharing, distribution of oil revenues, human rights and a ceasefire. Peter Woodward, a professor of politics at Britain's Reading University, told Reuters (see link 3), "We have got a lot more to be negotiated, and really it's very much a question of keeping the pressure on to do it."
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) Associated Press "This Sudanese agreement could be different" by
Donna Bryson, CAIRO, EGYPT 23 July 2002
http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/5454.html
2) Reuters "Sudan Hails Peace Deal, Opposition Wants Democracy" by
Alfred Taban, KHARTOUM, SUDAN 21 July 2002
http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/5424.html
3) Reuters "ANALYSIS-Sudan on path to peace but bumpy ride likely"
by Fiona O'Brien NAIROBI, KENYA 23 July 2002
http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/5453.html
Freedom Quest International http://www.freedom-quest.ca
For all news on Sudan: http://www.sudan.net
Subj: Sudan: Translating a Document into a Reality
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty E-mail Conference
From: Elizabeth Kendal, Conference Moderator
The Peace Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Sudan and the Southern People's Liberation Movement/Army, signed at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) talks in Nairobi on 20 July 02 is, in itself, nothing short of a miracle. Reactions to the peace deal have ranged from jubilant optimism to bitter skepticism and angry rejection. Continued prayer and international leverage will be needed if the miraculous peace agreement is to be translated into a miraculous reality.
----------------------------------------
After 19 years of bloodshed, destruction and jihad (Islamic holy war) - what circumstances have produced this opportunity for peace in Sudan? One month ago, analysts were saying that both sides were intransigent, that both the government and the southern rebels had sacrificed too much and fought for too long to make compromise an option. However, the very issues that were considered the major sticking points, the issues that have derailed all previous peace negotiations - the Southerner's demand for religious freedom and their request for a referendum on self-determination - have been granted by a government that is under intense international pressure to make peace, and which indeed, needs peace if it is to develop and receive any benefit from its oil industry.
Three main circumstances have put the Government of Sudan in this position:
* Firstly - the falling-out in 2001 between President Omar el-Bashir and Sudan's chief Islamist ideologue Hassan Turabi, the primary mastermind behind el-Bashir's political Islamist program. This opened the door for a degree of moderation and engagement that was never even remotely possible with Turabi wielding power and influence.
* Secondly - the both desperate and patient, long-suffering, persevering advocacy of Christian and other human rights and anti-slavery groups, that have made human rights and religious liberty in Sudan, issues with political significance. The advocacy of these groups and individuals produced the domestic leverage necessary to encourage influential governments to exercise international leverage.
* Thirdly - the terrorist attack on USA on 11 September 2001 has forced Sudan to make watershed decisions regarding direction and allegiances.
An Associated Press article posted on Tuesday 23 July 2002 entitled, "This Sudanese agreement could be different" by Donna Bryson in Cairo, Egypt, sums up the situation well. Quoting excerpts from that article: (the full article can be found using link 1 below)
"With Saturday's announcement in Kenya, the government, which had vowed to create an Islamic state after seizing power in 1989, agreed state and religion should be separate. It also said that six years after a full peace agreement was signed, Sudanese in the mainly Christian and animist south would be allowed to vote on whether to remain part of the country.
"The government had for years resisted those rebel demands.
"John Ashworth, a South Africa-based analyst who works for Sudanese churches, said leaders in Khartoum could be yielding now in hopes peace will open the way to international aid and oil entrepreneurs and help end talk of their extremism - a label they fear could make them targets in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
"'They've been looking for international credibility and international respectability,' Ashworth said in a telephone interview.
"'After Sept. 11, things changed,' Tombe agreed (Rev. Enock Tombe is head of the Sudan Council of Churches).
"Sudan's desire to be seen as an ally by the United States gives Washington great influence. Strong U.S. interest in resolving Africa's longest war, fueled in part by U.S. Christian groups who have rallied to the southerners cause, was expressed in the appointment last year of former U.S. Senator John Danforth as special presidential envoy to Sudan.
"Hard-liners in Khartoum already have questioned whether the government was offering to give up too much.
"'Issues and established facts such as Islamic law, federal rule and unity should not be compromised,' Mohammed Hassan al-Amin told The Associated Press Sunday (21 July). Al-Amin is an official of the Popular National Congress headed by Hassan Turabi."
A Sudanese communist party member, requesting anonymity, expressed his concern that the issue of retaining Sharia law in the north is likely to undermine the peace agreement. "Sharia law is unpopular in both the south and the north," he said. "Keeping the law in the north is unlikely to bring peace to Sudan." (see link 2)
Ibrahim Elnur, a Sudanese analyst at the American University in Cairo added that the agreement needed to include other northern and southern parties, otherwise it could collapse like a similar north-south deal in 1972 that sparked a return to war in 1983. "Now we need to widen it and bring in a democratic element. This is the only guarantee of stability," he said. (see link 2)
The agreement is known as the "Machakos Protocol" because the talks have been held in the Kenyan town of Machakos.
Eric Reeves, a Sudan analyst says, "The Machakos Protocol holds out extraordinary promise, even as it is burdened by exceedingly great difficulties if that promise is to be realized in a just and lasting peace. We do no service to the peace process if we ignore either the promise of Machakos or the many and various obstacles. This is the moment of truth for peace in Sudan. We should ask - with honesty, appropriate skepticism, and moral determination - how the peace process can be supported."
Reeves continues, "Machakos means only as much as the international community forces it to mean. Unrelenting pressure must be exerted on the National Islamic Front to build on the Machakos Protocol, rather than seek ways to renege and walk away from what has been
agreed. There is no room for complacency or self-congratulation: we are at best well begun."
Mel Middleton of Freedom Quest International agrees, "Two things are certain: 1. This 'agreement' still has a long way to go before it is, in fact, a 'just peace' agreement - the fighting has not stopped yet. 2. The need for vigilance is greater now than ever before."
Talks will resume on 12 August 2002. Issues on the agenda are: power sharing, distribution of oil revenues, human rights and a ceasefire. Peter Woodward, a professor of politics at Britain's Reading University, told Reuters (see link 3), "We have got a lot more to be negotiated, and really it's very much a question of keeping the pressure on to do it."
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) Associated Press "This Sudanese agreement could be different" by
Donna Bryson, CAIRO, EGYPT 23 July 2002
http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/5454.html
2) Reuters "Sudan Hails Peace Deal, Opposition Wants Democracy" by
Alfred Taban, KHARTOUM, SUDAN 21 July 2002
http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/5424.html
3) Reuters "ANALYSIS-Sudan on path to peace but bumpy ride likely"
by Fiona O'Brien NAIROBI, KENYA 23 July 2002
http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/5453.html
Freedom Quest International http://www.freedom-quest.ca
For all news on Sudan: http://www.sudan.net