From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: Sudan Settlement Stalled

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Sudan Settlement Stalled

September 11, 2005

After an historic peace Sudanese settlement earlier this year, supposedly ending 21 years of civil war between brutal, Khartoum-based Arab Muslim overlords in Sudan's north, and animist and Christian southern Sudanese - conflicts which have killed 2 million of the latter - things aren't working out as planned.

Not at all.

A new government was supposed to have been formed by early August, but no go, yet. Voice of America has a report today. Yes, VOA is an arm of the U.S. government, but there is no recent reportage by any of the MSM heavies, save for a Reuters piece about continuing arbitrary arrests and executions of southern Sudanese. Maybe, pray tell, the MSM will wade back in to the Sudan morass soon. I certainly hope so. In the meantime, here's VOA:

Professor Abendego Akok, the director of the Juba University Center for Peace and Justice Studies, says the Northern National Congress Party may not be ready to commit to power-sharing by relinquishing control of the (country's oil) ministry.
"The National Congress think it is a part of the game for them to remain in power,� said Mr. Akok. �That is one of the strategic ministries that they cannot give up, so they can cling to power, then propagate in the near future. The southerners think that the northern government may not be so honest to implement the agreement. There is a lack of confidence. There is a great mistrust between the north and the south."

As well there should be, unfortunately. The principles of accountability and transparency may take a while to settle, in Sudan, and all the more reason for pro-liberty forces to keep stressing systemic reforms.

..."The Ministry of Energy and Mining has a lot to do with oil, those who made the pipelines and where the oil is being sold,� Mr. Akok added. �No one is aware of who is purchasing the oil. Nothing has been revealed about the oil revenue. We have never heard anything about oil revenue."
The unity government was originally to have been formed on August 9. That date was delayed by the death of Sudanese Vice President and former southern rebel leader John Garang. Mr. Garang died in a helicopter crash on July 30, and was succeeded by his deputy Salva Kiir.

That crash, of a Russian-built copter, is now thought NOT to have been a result of technical malfunction, according to a Russian official. the death of the charismatic, iconic Garang sparked great unrest and suspicions among southerners, especially because it occured just as the new government was supposed to be forming. Even if it was totally an accident - and there is as yet no evidence to indicate otherwise - there may nonetheless be a real, if gradual, sabotage underway in Sudan, undermining the intent of the "historic" January peace agreement. If so, it is occuring away from the eyes of Western MSM foreign affairs correspondents, who have "moved on" from Sudan far too soon.