Gamal Nkrumah probes into the ripple effects of Darfuri deaths on the Nile
14-12-2012 02:21PM ET
The discovery of putrefying bodies of an undisclosed number of Darfur
students enrolled at Al-Gezeira University in a canal in the city of Wad
Madani corroborate petrifying portents for Sudan. Whether this grizzly
incidence dooms Sudan's peace prospects depends on how officials in the
Sudanese capital Khartoum handle the tragic incident.
There was barely time for the overflowing Blue Nile waters to wash away the
blood before the bloated bodies were discovered. And, it was not lost on the
protesters that the victims were young promising students from Darfur. This
could have grave political consequences for Sudanese national unity and
territorial integrity.
By the same token, the student demonstrations are growing apace with
Sudanese security forces reportedly shooting at students in Khartoum and
other Sudanese cities. The student protests in Sudan are fast gathering
momentum. And, are guaranteed to allow the ailing Sudanese President Omar
Hassan Al-Bashir many restless nights in the days ahead.
Sudan's students protests and the subsequent massacre of demonstrating
students by the police spells disaster for the faltering Sudanese peace
process. Sudan and South Sudan agreed on Monday to move their floundering
security talks from Khartoum to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Failure
to strike a deal on the disarmament of the forces of the Sudan People's
Liberation Army-North in the war-torn frontier provinces of South Kordofan
and Blue Nile is poisoning relations between Sudan and its 17-month old
neighbour South Sudan.
Sudanese Defense Minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hassan and his South Sudan
counterpart John Kung Nyuon attended an African Union Implementation Panel
(AUHIP) designed to iron out differences between Khartoum and Juba. Heading
the AU team is former South African president Thabo Mbeki.
The South Sudan Chief Negotiator Pagan Amum expressed hopes that the
negotiations will prove fruitful, if and only if the Sudanese authorities
offered meaningful compromises. "I had frank tete-a-tete with Deputy
Chairman of Sudan's ruling National Congress Party Nafie Ali Nafie and I
told him that it is impossible to control the SPLM-N fighters in South
Kordofan and Blue Nile because that would be tantamount to gross
interference in the affairs of another country," Amum told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Amum also said that: "South Sudan intends to construct alternative pipeline
routes through neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia because it is untenable to
rely on a single route to export South Sudanese oil through Sudan alone. We
must break that dependency," Amum stressed.
The export of oil by pipelines through Sudanese territory has been a
perennial bone of contention between Juba and Khartoum. "There are strong
indication that South Sudan territories are rich with oil reserves and that
is no secret to investors. We need the capital and technical expertise. It
is therefore imperative that we in South Sudan construct more pipelines to
diversify our options for exporting our oil," Amum told the Weekly.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir corroborated Amum's statements
emphasising that it is "impossible" to force the SPLM-N fighters in South
Kordofan and Blue Nile to lay down their arms.
To compound the country's problems, Sudanese women declared a "Day of Action
against Gender-based Violence". While the two incidents are not necessarily
connected, the women's protest would presumably be music to the ears of
those Sudanese activists and opposition forces, hitherto predominantly
peaceful, but who are set on provoking an "Arab Spring" Sudanese-style and a
confrontation and bloodshed with the Sudanese authorities.
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Received on Fri Dec 14 2012 - 17:40:37 EST
