SHRO Reports

A Memorandum to Senator John Danforth

PEACE WITH JUSTICE

A Memorandum to Senator John Danforth, President`s Special Envoy for Peace in the Sudan. Submitted by: the Federation of Sudanese Civil Society Organizations (FOSCO) - New Sudan.

Dear Sir,

1.0 It is our pleasure and honour to welcome you to the New Sudan and wish you a pleasant and useful stay among our people. We also seize this opportunity to express, once again, our sincere condolences to the American people for the tragedy which international terrorists have inflicted on the innocent Americans and others on September 11th, 2001.

2.0 We deeply empathize and sympathize with the American people for what they have gone and are going through. Having ourselves been through state and militia terrorism of the Islamic fundamentalists in the Sudan since 1989, our people were in fact the first to stage demonstrations in the Southern Sudan. Those demonstrations were spontaneous and in solidarity with the American people and government in their fight against international terrorism.

3.0 What the US government is confronting today as international terrorism is precisely what the GOS has been inflicting on our people since 1992 as Jihad (holy war). Jihad is a predatory war ostensibly waged in the name of Islam, but prosecuted in total disregard of the norms of international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international law of war. Under jihad, ethnic cleansing, enslavement, wanton aerial bombardment of civilians and other non-military targets our people have gone through since 1989 are regarded legitimate by the NIF regime.

4.0 We the civil society organizations of the New Sudan wish you well in your august and challenging assignment as the President's Special Envoy for Peace in the Sudan. We trust that your ultimate reward shall be the assurance by the Prince of Peace that "blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God". For any peace to be durable, Your Excellency, it should be based on justice. Accordingly, we share with you the firm belief that what our people need is not just any peace, but peace with justice. Peace in the Sudan has hitherto proved elusive partly because some parties to the conflict did not sincerely and effectively address the justice component of the peace equation.

5.0 It is our belief that there cannot be peace with justice as long as the present rulers in the Sudan believe in forceful Islamization and Arabization of the African Sudanese. The ruling ideology of Islamic absolutism is fundamentally incompatible with peace with justice. In fact, it is inherently conflict generating.

6.0 The present regime has not shown good faith in the search for a negotiated settlement. It has preferred to pursue the mirage of military victory. It has therefore let passed veritable opportunities for a negotiated just peace. It forgot that the struggle of our people for justice and freedom can never be crushed militarily.

7.0 The list of broken promises by the GOS is not short. This regime only endorsed the IGAD Declaration of Principles (DOP) in July 1997 and that was only after it has suffered a series of military reverses at the hand of SPLA. In 1997 the regime concluded the Khartoum and Fashoda Agreements with several Southern groups. It promised them the government of the Southern states and conceded the right of the people of the South to self-determination. It violated systematically the letter and spirit of those agreements. Indeed, the IGAD process has largely stalled because of the regime's belief in military solution.

8.0 Self determination, Your Excellency, is a human, democratic and people's right. It is well recognized by all international and regional covenants to which the GOS is a state party. It is also recognized by the GOS in the political and constitutional instruments it has signed with those who became partners in government. Importantly, other political forces in the oppositional National Democratic Alliance (NDA) have unequivocally affirmed that right to be exercise by the people of the South and other kindred people before the end of an agreed interim period. Nevertheless, the government ignores all these undertakings and chooses to mobilize some Arab countries to extricate it from its commitments to the right of self-determination. Given this clear defection by the GOS from freely undertaken commitments, there is no guarantee that it can abide by any peace agreement. Dishonouring of covenanted commitments, Your Excellency, is probably the greatest challenge to your mission as a Peace Envoy.

9.0 Our civil society believes that the US would encourage attempts by Southern Sudanese to reach peace, reconciliation and a common consensus on their political destiny among themselves as indispensable preparation towards North-South negotiations.

9.1 We appreciate the US support for the people-to-people peace-making by the New Sudan Council of Churches and the civil society groups. We call for a continued support of this effective and innovative peace-making.

9.2 A peaceful, united and harmonious South is an asset to peace-making. A united, peaceful and harmonious South cannot fear to negotiate nor can it negotiate out of fear. It would have the confidence to take the risk of peace and overcome the "threat" of peace. Accordingly, moves by the GOS to prevent Southerners from forging a united front for peace with justice (e.g., as it did recently by pressing Nigeria to cancel a scheduled meeting of Southern Sudanese civil society groups in Abuja) should be seen and condemned for what they are: bellicose and oppressive designs of divide and rule.

10.0 Before concluding this memo, allow us to register that we welcome with thanks the support to Operation Lifeline Sudan, UNICEF and INGOs working in partnership with indigenous institutions, continuity and expansion of the US-supported SOAR/STAR programs. The emphasis could continue to be on the empowerment of the civil society and civil authority through capacity building, rehabilitation and development, and peace- making programs. The basic thrust of such efforts could still be to prepare the South for peace by empowering it to effectively establish and maintain a public order of justice, prosperity and human dignity.

11.0 And while still on the subject of STAR and SOAR, we wish to express our sincere thanks and appreciation for the dedication and understanding with which the USAID staff and US diplomatic personnel working on the Sudan have and are carrying out their mission. Their understanding of the of the human and humanist dimensions of rehabilitation and development, coupled with their sober professionalism are appreciated by us all.

12.0 Whereas the responsibility for liberation and for building our country is emphatically ours, we would like to see the US support for our efforts geared towards achieving the following:-

12.1 Support peace, reconciliation and unity among Southern Sudanese;

12.2 Strengthen the Southern Sudanese institutions of accountability, effective and inclusive participation and administration of justice;

12.3 Ensure that the GOS and its allies do not use the strategic assets of our people to enslave, subjugate or exterminate our people;

12.4 As a corollary to point 12.3 above, strengthen the capacities of the South to protect its people, resources, and way of life from the enslaving, expansionist and proselytizing drive of Islamic fundamentalism;

12.5 Enable our people to protect themselves from jihad - a euphemism for what is now correctly seen as international terrorism;

12.6 Guarantee free and unimpeded access to relief and of, humanitarian assistance;

12.7 Expedite the adoption of the Sudan Peace Act by the US Congress; and

12.8 Imposition of No Fly Zone below parallel 13 degree.

13.0 To ask for the above is to suggest ways by which the US and the international community could aid our people to help themselves by themselves.

Once again, we wish you well in your peace mission. Convey our best regards to the President and to the American people.


cc. Ambassador Bob Oakley

Signed by:

1. Mr. Mario Muor Muor, Bahr el Ghazal Youth Development Agency (BYDA)

2. Dr. Peter Adwok Nyaba, Larjour Consultancy

3. Mr. Acuil M. Banggol, Sudan Production Aid (SUPRAID)

4. Dr. Peter Kok, South Sudan Law Society (SSLS)

5. Dr. Pius V. Subek, Sudan Health Association (SUHA)

6. Ms. Awut Deng Acuil, New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC)

7. Mr. James Oryema, Skills for Southern Sudan

8. Mr. Anthony Akol, INFRAID

9. Rev. Abraham Mayom Athian, Rainbow Interbational

10. Br. Samuel Mabok, Resource Development Foundation (RDF)

11. Mr. Alinyjak Bol Bak, Mobilisation of AIDS Awareness for Southern Sudan

12. Mr. Peter Dongo, Sudan Christian JOY Foundation

13. Mrs. Twong Majok Deng, Sudan Women in Development and Peace (SWIDAP)

14. Mr. Philip Mamour Dhoup, Sudanese Community Development Organisation (SCDO)

15. Mr. Gregory Vasili, Sudan Integrated Mine Action Service (SIMAS)

16. Mr. Bosco Oryem Oryema, Awareness Campaign on Aids Control and Eradication in Southern Sudan (ACCESS)

17. Mr. Malaak Ayuen Ajok, Nile Relief and Development Society (NRDS)

18. Mr. Taban Sabestian, Losuk Sudan YMCA

19. Mr. Adwok Okok Yowin, Fashodo Relief and rehabilitation Association (FRRA)

20. Ms. Miriam M. Gitari, Association of Napata Volunteers (ANV)

21. Rev. John Sudan, South Sudan Operation Mercy (SSOM)

22. Rev. James Tor, PCOS/PRDA

23. Mr. John Luk Jok, Centre for Documentation and Advocacy (CDA)

24. Mr. Jacob Idris Rahal, Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Organisation (NRRDO)

25. Rev. Stephen Ter Nyuon, Presbyterian Relief and Development Association

End of document .\