Sudan Conference Hermannsburg, Germany, June 12-14, 2009
Visions of Transition 3: Transformation from War to Peace
or Protection of Prejudices and Privileges ?
Conference Resumée
Within the general frame of this important Sudan conference organized by the Sudan Forum e.V. and others, the participants discussed a number of hot issues the Sudan is confronted with at present, among them the following:
· The first issue raised was the question of unity. Is unity possible in Sudan in spite of its great and manifold diversity? Or is it a dream only – as was asked in the conference programme ?
The example of Somalia shows that cultural homogeneity does not guarantee unity. However, to the contrary, India and the USA prove that unity in diversity is possible. Various speakers expressed the opinion that Sudan has a chance of achieving unity, if its people are able to overcome the notion of the supremacy of Arabism and Islamism. Society as well as the Government should undergo thorough transformation.
The following related points were mentioned:
– Cultural diversity should be respected.
– Free access to resources, basic services and employment should be secured for people.
– Racial, religious and gender discrimination should be overcome.
As Asha El Karib (Gender Centre, Khartoum) maintained in her lecture, religious laws in the Sudan not only discriminate against non-Muslims, but also against women. She called on all Sudanese to reflect upon their mistakes and take over responsibility for the situation in which they live.
– A change of behaviours and of attitudes at the individual, political and governmental levels must take place to make unity possible in Sudan.
– Democracy, equity, the rule of law, and the freedom of expression must be guaranteed, since they are the prerequisites of true unity.
– Speaker Isaac Kenyi (Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference) stressed the fact that religion should not be imposed on politics, quoting as an example of the negative effects of such a thing how through the 1998 constitution class conflict was transformed into a religious one based on Jihad. The sad result was that there were two constitutions in the country: one for the North and one for the South.
· The conference participants complained about the lack of good governance, of accountability, of transparency and of security in the country, added to the widespread corruption and the terror by soldiers and security forces, both in the North and in the South.
· One of the highlights of the conference was the discussion on Sudanese identity, which was conducted with unprecedented frankness. Speaker Al-Baqir al Afif Mukhtar (Adlan Centre for Peace and Social Change, Khartoum) held that the group of Arabized Muslim Nubians living on the banks of the Nile had highjacked Arabism and propagated its presumed superiority. He maintained that Arabism is a mere political construct, a chosen identity, and not one that was built up historically, like the Nubian one. Lovise Aalen (University of Oslo) more or less underlined the fatal consequences of such an attitude in her presentation when she stressed that nation-building in divided societies becomes extremely difficult, if one ethnic group imposes its own superiority. According to her, nation-building requires the creation of a national identity, cross-cutting – and not overlapping – the different ethnic identities in a country.
· Regionally, the conference preoccupied itself in particular with questions concerning Southern Sudan and Darfur.
Concerns about the South concentrated on the fragility of the CPA, on the forthcoming elections, and on the prospects of unity or secession after the Referendum. Preparations for the elections are lagging behind schedule, and visions of transition are lacking, both in the North and in the South.
The discussion on Darfur came up with the following plea:
We very urgently ask the Government of Sudan to
1) allow a quick return of the expelled relief organizations to Darfur and facilitate their work
in order to alleviate the sufferings of the displaced people there
2) stop the settlement of people from outside in the villages and on the land of the displaced Darfurians (the census of April 2009 showed that the Arab population had increased by three-fold in the home areas of displaced Darfurians, which is much more than the natural population increase could be)
3) facilitate the return of displaced people to their villages so that they can resume their family and social lives, regain their dignity by earning their own livelihoods and bring up their children in peace
4) release the prisoners of the current civil war according to international agreements
5) immediately carry out serious peace negotiations with the Darfur movements
6) fulfil the peace agreements it signed with the Darfur movements
7) create a conducive climate for dialogue and reconciliation among the struggling Darfurian tribes in order to lay the foundation for sustainable peace
8) empower the civil society in Darfur and give it a real chance to be politically active, to gather and to express itself.
I think that the Sudan Forum’s Sudan Conference 2009 was very successful.
Great thanks are due to the organizers, especially Marina Peter and Hermann Hartmann. Hopefully they will continue organizing the yearly Sudan conference, until all the country’s problems have been peacefully resolved.
Fouad Ibrahim, Wunstorf
حركة العدل و المساواة السودانية
موقع متخصص بنقل آخر الأخبار و البيانات و القرارات لحركة العدل و المساواة السودانية