THE news that a cease-fire has been agreed between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups is long overdue. If the deal sticks, international aid workers should be able to reach Darfur in the west of the country, which has been the scene of bitter fighting and where pro-government militias stand accused of ethnic cleansing.
It is no coincidence that in the week that the world remembered the start of the genocide in Rwanda, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that unless aid was allowed into Darfur the UN would have to consider a military intervention. The government in Khartoum has denied that any ethnic cleansing has been taking place — a claim contradicted by the tales told to aid officials in Chad by many of the 100,000 refugees who fled their homes in Darfur. The truth will doubtless become clearer when international representatives are able to reach the region and set about helping the luckless victims of a conflict that has been going on for over a year. The genesis of the trouble appears to have been protests by the largely black province that the government in Khartoum neglected it both economically and socially. The complaints finally gave rise to two separate armed rebel groups and violent confrontation with the authorities.
The Darfur insurrectionists deny government claims that they are mixed in with the deadly struggle in the south, between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which has dogged Sudan’s progress for decades and cost an estimated two million lives. The SPLA, which claims to represent the predominant black population of the south, has at various times demanded either autonomy or complete independence from the majority Arab Sudan. Some of Sudan’s southern neighbors have in the past been supported this bid. The Darfur protests, by contrast, apparently had no outside support. This seems to have been an uprising by a local population fed up with central government. The authorities in Khartoum have clearly been embarrassed by the allegations made against bands of their supporters opposing the Darfur rebellion. However, the imminent truce now gives the government an opportunity not only to resolve differences with its citizens in this region but also the chance to advance a resolution of the far more serious fight with the SPLA.
The key will be the good offices of the United Nations. Now that the UN has made the commitment to tackle the plight of the Darfur refugees and to see what aid needs to be given within the region itself, it can also be used to help broker a lasting agreement between Khartoum and the locals. If the Darfur deal works it could be used as a launch pad for UN involvement in a new drive for peace. It is high time all Sudanese enjoyed real peace.
