3 The Eastern Front and the Struggle against Marginalization By John Young Copyright The Small Arms Survey Published in Switzerland by the Small Arms Survey The Small Arms Survey is an independent research project located at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. It serves © Small Arms Survey, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva 2007 as the principal source of public information on all aspects of small arms and First published in May 2007 as a resource centre for governments, policy-makers, researchers, and activ- ists. All rights reserved. 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Printed by nbmedia in Geneva, Switzerland Small Arms Survey ISBN 2-8288-0081-4 Graduate Institute of International Studies 47 Avenue Blanc, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Phone: +41 22 908 5777 Fax: +41 22 732 2738 Email: [email protected] Web site: www.smallarmssurvey.org 2 Small Arms Survey HSBA Working Paper 3 Young The Eastern Front and the Struggle against Marginalization 3 The Human Security Baseline Assessment Contents The Sudan Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) is a two-year research Acronyms and abbreviations .............................................................................. 6 project (2005–07) administered by the Small Arms Survey. It has been developed About the author ................................................................................................... 7 in cooperation with the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UN Mission in Sudan, the UN Development Programme, and a wide array of international Acknowledgments ................................................................................................ 8 and Sudanese NGO partners. Through the active generation and dissemination of timely empirical research, the HSBA project works to support disarmament, Abstract ................................................................................................................... 9 demobilization and reintegration (DDR), security sector reform (SSR), and arms 11 control interventions to promote security. I. Summary ........................................................................................................... The HSBA is being carried out by a multidisciplinary team of regional, security, II. Land and people ............................................................................................. 14 and public health specialists. It reviews the spatial distribution of armed violence III. The roots of marginalization and armed struggle in the east .............. 17 throughout Sudan and offers policy-relevant advice to redress insecurity. HSBA Working Papers are timely and user-friendly reports on current research IV. The rise of the Beja Congress and the Rashaida Free Lions ................. 22 activities in English and Arabic. Future papers will focus on a variety of issues, V. The Eastern Front ............................................................................................ 30 including victimization and perceptions of security, armed groups, and local security arrangements. The project also generates a series of Issue Briefs. VI. Regional security and eastern Sudan ....................................................... 33 The HSBA project is supported by the Global Peace and Security Fund at VII. Negotiations and peace agreement .......................................................... 37 Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and the UK Government Global Conflict Prevention Pool. VIII. Conclusion .................................................................................................. 44 For more information contact: Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 46 Claire Mc Evoy Endnotes ............................................................................................................... 47 HSBA Project Coordinator Small Arms Survey 47 Avenue Blanc, 1202 Geneva Switzerland E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.smallarmssurvey.org (click on Sudan) 4 Small Arms Survey HSBA Working Paper 3 Young The Eastern Front and the Struggle against Marginalization 5 Acronyms and abbreviations About the author BC Beja Congress John Young is a Canadian academic who first travelled to Sudan in 1986 to CPA Comprehensive Peace Agreement work as a journalist with the Sudan Times and stayed for three years. He then DPA Darfur Peace Agreement returned to Canada to complete a PhD in Political Science at Simon Fraser DUP Democratic Unionist Party University, where he is currently a Research Associate with the Institute of ELF Eritrean Liberation Front Governance Studies. EPLF Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front Young spent most of the 1990s in Ethiopia as a professor at Addis Ababa EPRDF Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front University and doing field research in the areas of ethnic federalism, political ESPA Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement parties, and the Ethiopian-Eritrean War. He then worked for the Canadian ESRDF Eastern Sudan Rehabilitation and Development Fund International Development Agency in Addis Ababa as an adviser on the Suda- GoS Government of Sudan nese peace process. Leaving Addis, he moved to Nairobi and was assigned to IDP Internally Displaced Persons work as an adviser to Ambassador Daniel Mboya, Special Envoy for Peace in JEM Justice and Equality Movement Sudan for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Secre- NCP National Congress Party tariat. After working briefly, still in Nairobi, for the UN news agency IRIN as NDA National Democratic Alliance the head of information analysis, he took a position as a monitor with the Civil- NIF National Islamic Front ian Protection Monitoring Team (CPMT) working in South Sudan, and also PFDJ Popular Front for Development and Justice briefly with the African Union Cease Fire Commission, for the next two years. SAF Sudan Armed Forces Since leaving the CPMT in October 2004 he has lived in Khartoum, working SLM/A Sudan Liberation Movement/Army as an independent consultant and carrying out academic research in the areas SPLM/A Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army of peace, security, and regional relations. Young has written Peasant Revolution UAE United Arab Emirates in Ethiopia (Cambridge University Press, 1997) and published widely in aca- UNMIS United Nations Mission in Sudan demic journals. His most recent publications are on the South Sudan Defense Forces (SSDF), an analysis of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), a consideration of the legacy of John Garang, and a review of the regional secu- rity implications of the conflict in eastern Sudan. 6 Small Arms Survey HSBA Working Paper 3 Young The Eastern Front and the Struggle against Marginalization 7 Acknowledgments Abstract The author wishes to acknowledge the helpful and encouraging comments of For years international attention in Sudan focused on the southern civil war, Dr Sara Pantuliano, Research Fellow with the Humanitarian Policy Group at but the conditions of marginalization and resentment which motivated that the Overseas Development Institute, who is the leading academic authority conflict also existed in the east of the country. While dissidents in the south on eastern Sudan. moved quickly to launch a rebellion and were later joined by western rebels, their counterparts in the east endeavoured to overcome their problems by political means. However, successive dictatorial regimes in Khartoum led Beja Congress (BC) politicians to move to Eritrea, join the National Demo- cratic Alliance, and launch an armed struggle in the early 1990s. In 2005 the BC joined the Rashaida Free Lions to form the Eastern Front but weak leader- ship, lack of a clear political programme, poor organization, and dependence on Eritrea contributed to the failure of the military campaign. The Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement of 14 October 2006 calls for the absorption of the Eastern Front armed forces into the Sudan Armed Forces