Sudan After Separation
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DEMOCRACY VOLUME 28 Sudan after Separation VOLUME 28 Sudan after Separation New Approaches to a New Region Contributions by Francis M. Deng, Edward Thomas, Magdi el-Gizouli,Aly Verjee, Jok Madut Jok, Paula Cristina Roque, Wolfram Lacher, Laura James, Kathrin Maria Scherr, Harry Verhoeven Edited by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Toni Weis PUBLICATION SERIES ON DEMOCRACY VOLUME 28 Sudan after Separation New Approaches to a New Region Edited by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Toni Weis Notes to the photos All pictures inside this volume are stills from Change of a Nation, a film in the making: four filmmakers, four protagonists, all born in Sudan, all from different cultural and social backgrounds. Four storylines intertwine into a visually and emotionally capturing testimony of the birth of two new states and the effects this dramatic event has on the people in North and South Sudan. The documentary film is going to be produced by Perfect Shot Films in Berlin and was supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in its initial phase. Published under the following Creative Commons License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Sudan after Separation New Approaches to a New Region Volume 28 (English Edition) in the publication series on democracy Edited by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Toni Weis 2012 Graphic design: feinkost Designnetzwerk, Sebastian Langer (according to designs by blotto Design) Photos (film stills): Perfect Shot Films Cover photo: Sven Torfinn, panos pictures Printing: Lokay Druck, Reinheim ISBN 978-3-86928-085-1 This publication can be ordered from: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Schumannstr. 8, 10117 Berlin T +49 30 28534-0 F +49 30 28534-109 E [email protected] W www.boell.de CONTENTS Preface 7 Francis M. Deng The Paradox of Southern independence – Some personal Reflections 11 Edward Thomas The New Governments in Juba and Khartoum – and How to Oppose Them 21 Aly Verjee New North, Old North:The Republic of Sudan after the Split 35 Magdi el-Gizouli Sudan, the Arab Spring, and the Politics of Fatigue 46 Jok Madut Jok South Sudan: Building a Diverse Nation 58 Paula Cristina Roque The SPLM: Political Transformation or Strategic Adaptation? 68 Wolfram Lacher International Policies Towards the Two Sudans:What Role for Germany? 81 Laura James Sovereign Debt and Debt Relief 95 Kathrin Maria Scherr Legal implications of Sudan’s Separation: the Question of Citizenship 100 Harry Verhoeven Hydropolitics of the Nile 104 Timeline 108 List of Acronyms 111 The Autors / The Editor 113 PREFACE Hardly a year has passed since Sudan split in two. For much of this time, the dominant question has not so much been whether the two countries will eventually return to war, but whether or not they have already done so. As early as 3 February 2012, Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir declared his country to be «closer to war than to peace» with South Sudan.1 Since then, both sides have continuously been embroiled in conflict along their border as well as further inland; in some places this means direct military confrontation, in others old allies and new proxies confront one another. Bashir’s call to «liberate the south» has done little to defuse the tensions, nor has the south’s new-found military audacity. Clearly, the Republic of Sudan and its new neighbour to the south – these «two states born out of the fatigue of constructing one»2 – have been off to a rough start. Many observers are quick to point out that the years of relative peace represented an anomaly in Sudan’s recent history and that the country’s original fault lines are still in place. There is an element of truth in this: Sudan’s old periphery has been replaced by a new but no less contested one, and those in power have remained the same. Yet the independence of South Sudan has fundamentally altered the political landscape. It has left the economy of the north, and the government that depends upon it, consid erably poorer; it has uprooted hundreds of thousands of people whose lives strad dled both sides of the new border; and it has turned the leaders of north and south, erstwhile accomplices (if not partners) in the previous Government of National Unity, once again into enemies. The end of unity in Sudan also meant the end of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). For political leaders on both sides, the agreement had stipulated clear goals; for the international community, it had structured political debate and engagement on the ground. As Aly Verjee states in his contribution, the CPA, «for all its deficiencies, provided numerous milestones, that if nothing else could be checked off as being missed.» With the CPA a thing of the past, the governments of north and south lack a clearly defined framework within which to discuss the many outstanding issues, and the international actors, too, who remain active in the Sudans are trying to identify new points of engagement. More than ever, good analysis is needed, and is essential to make sense of the never-ending stream of breaking news flowing from the region in recent months. Building on its 2010 publication, Sudan – No Easy Ways Ahead, the Heinrich Böll 1 AFP, «Sudan closer to war than peace with south: Bashir», 3 February 2012. 2 Magdi el-Gizouli, «The Sudanese divorce: one wine, two broken bottles», blog post on 14 September 2011, http://stillsudan.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/sudanese-divorce-one-wine-two Preface broken.html 7 Foundation has therefore brought together a new group of authors to reflect on the challenges of the post-separation era. Their contributions lay out ‹new approaches to a new region,› providing guidance to understand the complex political realities of the two Sudans, and pointing out areas where constructive international engagement is possible. The book opens with a panoramic view of the two Sudans one year after the split. Francis Deng, one of the most seasoned and compassionate observers of Sudan’s troubled history, shares his personal reflections on what he calls the «paradox of Southern independence.» Recalling the «bitter-sweet response» he felt during the independence celebrations in Juba, he pleads with the governments of both north and south not to take separation as an excuse for continued acrimony, but to accept the shared history of the two Sudans as the basis for peaceful coexistence. Eddie Thomas then goes on to develop a convincing analogy for Sudan’s post-separation predica ment: that of a «strange duopoly» that has given way to two unstable monopolies. Outlining the various «modes of opposition» faced by the NCP in Khartoum and the SPLM in Juba, he traces the fault lines of the new polities and looks at the difficult times ahead. The next two chapters look at the ways in which the south’s independence has transformed the north. Aly Verjee highlights both changes at the centre, where military hardliners face the dilemma of controlling a more urban population with substan tially fewer means, and in the peripheries, where old and new military contenders are joining forces against the government in Khartoum. Magdi el-Gizouli then addresses the question of how the NCP managed not only to dodge the regional turmoil of the Arab Spring, but even to portray its own rise to power as a «Sudanese foretaste» of the latter. He points to the Islamic movement’s increasingly populist rhetoric, which has mobilised its constituency in the wake of the south’s separation, and to the discon nection between Khartoum’s «generation facebook» and impoverished populations in the peripheries. The contributions by Jok Madut Jok and Paula Roque, on the other hand, focus on some of the challenges facing the new Government of South Sudan. Jok, an under secretary in the Ministry of Culture, makes the case for an inclusive nation-building project that can unite South Sudan’s diverse population even in the absence of a common enemy. Roque, drawing on recent interviews with the South Sudanese leadership, traces the SPLM’s transformation from rebel movement to ruling party. She argues that, while the SPLM has shown its ability to adapt to radically altered circum stances, it is reluctant to trade in its liberation credentials for a more democratic kind of legitimacy. The book concludes with concrete advice on ways in which the international community, and the German government in particular, can play a positive role in this to a New Region New Approaches tense political climate. Wolfram Lacher presents an overview of the main points of contention among international actors: Which side is to blame in the post-separa tion conflicts; who among the foreign powers should get involved; and the question whether a confrontational stance makes sense or not. Contrasting Germany’s consid erable financial investment in the Sudanese peace processes with its limited leverage Sudan after Separation 8 on the ground, he stresses that the best approach would not be to inflate bilateral aid, but to push for greater co-ordination and commitment within the EU and the UN. The convoluted nature of post-CPA politics in the two Sudans calls for clear security guarantees and unequivocal sanctions, not for an even greater cacophony of donors jostling for influence. No Easy Ways Ahead was the title we chose for our previous report on Sudan, and there is little in the above to suggest that the road ahead will be any smoother.