DR. JOHN SPEECH TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL – NAIROBI KENYA, NOVEMBER 2004
SPLM Chairman’s Address to the UN Security Council
(Nairobi, Kenya: November 18, 2004)
Your Excellency President Mwai Kibaki;
Your Excellency, Mr. Kofi Anan, the UN Secretary General;
Your Excellency Ambassador John Danforth, President of the UN Security Council;
Your Excellencies: Ambassadors of the Member States of the United Nations Security Council;
Your Excellencies: Representatives of the African Union;
Your Excellencies: Heads of State and Government of IGAD Countries or their Representatives;
Your Excellencies: Gen. Sumbeiywo, Chief Negotiator, and his colleagues: Ambassadors of the IGAD Sub-Committee on Sudan;
Your Excellency the Representative of the African Union;
H.E. The First Vice President of the Sudan, Ustaz Ali Osman Taha and Members of the GOS and SPLM Delegations;
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen;
First and foremost, I would like to thank you heartily for having invited the SPLM to this significant and historic UN Security Council sitting on Sudan to give our perspective on the peace process and the situation in our country in general. I understand that this is the fourth time in its history for the UN Security Council to meet outside its New York Headquarters. But only for the second time in Africa. We appreciate this significant gesture and concern.
This is indeed another momentous occasion in the history of our country. I would like to take the opportunity to reiterate our unwavering commitment to the peaceful resolution of all conflicts in the Sudan. It is our hope that the sitting of this august body in Nairobi, will expedite the bringing of the IGAD Peace process on Sudan to a speedy closure.
The core of the peace agreement in the form of the six Protocols is already in place. The task that remains is to finalize the agreement on the comprehensive ceasefire and modalities for implementation, which shall be annexes to the peace agreement. The Parties signed the six protocols with the view to implementing them and with the primary aim of ending the war. The two annexes – on Comprehensive Ceasefire and Implementation Modalities – should therefore obviously not be stumbling blocks to closing the deal. In this regard I want to assure you that the SPLM is willing and prepared to work with the other Party to move speedily to complete and sign the final comprehensive peace agreement in the shortest time possible. We in the SPLM absolutely have no reason to cause delays; on the contrary we have every reason to expedite the process and to sign the final agreement today rather than tomorrow.
Under the ceasefire negotiations of the first Annex, there are two outstanding issues, the cardinal being the funding of the armed forces. According to the Security Arrangements Protocol (section I b), it has been agreed that the two armed forces, namely, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) are to be “considered and treated equally as Sudan’s National Armed Forces (SNAF) during the Interim Period”. This entails that the two armed forces (SAF and SPLA) as well as the Joint Integrated Units (JIUs), which shall be constituted from the two armed forces, are all to be funded in all aspects from the National Treasury. It was precisely for this reason that the SPLM settled for only 50% of revenues from oil extracted from Southern Sudan, and only 50% of non-oil revenues collected in Southern Sudan so as to enable the National Government retain sufficient financial resources to meet national obligations including expenditure on the national armed forces. The other party’s position on this issue is both untenable and inconsistent with the meaning and spirit of the Security Arrangements Framework Agreement during the Interim Period. It limits funding from national coffers, to only the (SAF) component of the National Armed Forces meanwhile completely ignoring funding of the other component of SNAF, i.e., the SPLA, or relegating it to funding by the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), which is a sub-national level of Government and therefore not responsible for funding of national institutions including the SPLA.
The second outstanding issue in the ceasefire agreement, though relatively less problematic than that of funding of the armed forces, is the timeframe for incorporation of Other Armed Groups (OAGs) into SAF or SPLA structures depending on their individual choice, as stipulated in the Security Arrangements Agreement signed by the Parties in September 2003, in which Para. 7 (a) states that the process of integration of OAGs should be accomplished before the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) comes into effect, so that by then, there will only be two armed forces (SAF and SPLA) as agreed upon.
Regarding the second Annex on “Implementation Modalities” for the agreement, sufficient progress has been generally achieved in respect of the two areas (Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile) as well as Abyei. Further work needs to be done to bridge the gaps in relation to power sharing. However, the biggest obstacles are in the implementation modalities for the Wealth Sharing Protocol, where two main outstanding issues must be resolved. Firstly, the Government of Sudan (GOS) proposes a system for the transfer of funds that seeks to deny GOSS direct access to its share of oil revenues, insisting on a bizarre position that the GOSS receive its share in local currency. Secondly, GOS is still unwilling to share information on oil revenues. The SPLM finds these two positions incomprehensible and therefore unacceptable. For us the GOSS must have direct access to its share of oil revenues and we believe in the principle of transparency in the sharing of information concerning oil revenues; and this is precisely what the Agreement on Wealth Sharing says in Para 4.1: “The SPLM shall appoint a limited number of representatives to have access to all existing oil contracts. The representatives shall have the right to engage technical experts. All those who have access to the contracts will sign confidentiality agreements”.
Mr. President, Your Excellencies; in summary of this part of my presentation, I want to state the SPLM position in unequivocal terms that the GOS and SPLM have the core agreement already in place in the form of the six protocols, and as stated in the 5th of June 2004 Nairobi Declaration, we consider the Sudan peace agreement essentially already completed. The two outstanding issues in each of the two annexes of ceasefire agreement and implementation modalities should not take time to resolve, especially in view of the very precarious situation our country is in and the fact that peace has a price. Once more, I want to assure Your Excellencies, that the SPLM is willing and ready to work with the other Party to resolve the outstanding issues in the two annexes to bring the process to a speedy closure and to work in partnership with the National Congress Party in establishing a new coalition Government of National Unity in accordance with the six protocols.
Mr. President, Your Excellencies, the SPLM views the agreement as a prelude to the beginning of the process of democratic transformation, a paradigm shift in socio-economic development of the country, and observance of human rights and freedoms as endorsed by the Parties in a comprehensive Bill of Rights in the Power Sharing Agreement. The SPLM will seek to participate effectively in the coalition Government of National Unity and other levels of Government to ensure the realization of a new political dispensation in the Sudan. In this context the SPLM shall work energetically in partnership with the National Congress Party (NCP) and all the other political forces in Sudan to ensure timely, free and fair legislative and presidential elections. In this context we are committed to preserve peace, stability and territorial integrity of the Sudan during the interim period and to ensure the holding of a free internationally monitored referendum on the right of self-determination for Southern Sudan towards the end of the six-year Interim period.
We remain fully committed to the implementation of all aspects of the peace agreement and will make full use of the Assessment and Evaluation Commission (AEC) throughout the Interim Period to assess and monitor the implementation of the peace agreement. This is necessary to rectify any shortcomings, without renegotiating the agreement. Through international guarantees and assistance, the international community will play a significant role in the implementation of the Sudan peace agreement, and the present sitting of the Security Council in Nairobi is a positive signal, which we very much welcome and appreciate. We appeal to the international community to assist us in the faithful implementation of the peace agreement because even if either party to the agreement feels that there are too many risks associated with the agreement; in the final analysis the cost of non implementation of the agreement would be much higher than the cost of implementation for the country as a whole, and both Parties are therefore best advised to desist from anything that might undermine implementation of the peace agreement.
Mr. President, Your Excellencies, before I conclude, I would like to highlight an issue of grave concern to the Sudan and to you in the Security Council. You are undoubtedly aware of the fact that our country is in dire straits. The situation in Darfur is rapidly degenerating into chaos and anarchy as the Government counter-insurgency policy and campaign in that Region has seriously boomeranged and continues to spiral out of control. Furthermore, the GOS has recently foiled a coup attempt and the prospects for fresh insurgencies emerging in other parts of the Sudan are increasing. The GOS destabilization of Southern Sudan through its militias continues unabated. The IGAD peace process has almost stalled leading to a precarious ‘No War No Peace’ situation in Southern Sudan, Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile. To make matters worse, the GOS is threatening to unilaterally go ahead with the selective implementation of aspects of the Naivasha Protocols, notably the Wealth Sharing Protocol, even in the absence of a final Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which is a euphemism for the longstanding GOS policy of “Peace from within”. This overall situation if left unchecked can eventually cause Sudan to implode and degenerate into another Somalia and serious insecurity consequences for the whole Region are obvious.
The only way to avert this looming tragedy is to expedite the Naivasha process and speedily conclude the comprehensive peace agreement on Sudan; and to install a broad based coalition government of national unity that can best deal with such threats. It is imperative that the International Community does its utmost to consolidate the Sudan peace process. We therefore call upon the Security Council to pass a specific resolution in this important Nairobi sitting that, inter alia, recognizes, endorses and declares the six Protocols signed thus far by the GOS and the SPLM as binding and irrevocable commitments that the Parties may not under any circumstances whatsoever renegotiate. This is in addition to Your Excellencies urging of the Parties to expeditiously complete negotiations on the two annexes and sign the comprehensive peace agreement by a specified date. As I have already said earlier, I see no serious obstacles that could prevent us from signing the final peace agreement by the end of this year, 2004. The four main remaining issues outstanding in the two annexes can be resolved in a matter of days, and the situation in the Sudan is sufficiently serious for the two Parties to appreciate the urgency of quick conclusion of the Naivasha process and signing of the comprehensive peace agreement. Furthermore, the Parties could use this comprehensive peace agreement as a basis for making a fair and just peace for the country as a whole including Darfur (thanks to the current efforts of the UN and the AU under the Abuja Process) and Eastern Sudan, applying and adapting the agreements to the particular situation as well as using the new political dispensation to maintain peace, stability and territorial integrity of the country during the Interim Period. We firmly believe that this is the way out of the current Sudanese crisis and debacle, and the SPLM assures you, Excellencies, as well as the GOS, that the Movement will play a positive role and working in Partnership with the National Congress Party and other political forces to bring comprehensive peace to all parts of the Sudan.
Mr. President, Your Excellencies: allow me on behalf of the suffering people of the Sudan to conclude by thanking you most sincerely for having organized and held this historic and rare meeting in our neighbourhood. This signifies your recognition and awareness of the gravity of internal Sudanese conflicts. The Sudanese people eagerly await the outcome of your deliberations and hope that you will not leave this venue without sending them a message of hope for Christmas and the New Year.
We would also like to pay tribute to the IGAD Secretariat headed by H.E. Ambassador Lt. Gen. (Rtd.) Lazaro K. Sumbeiywo, IGAD member states, the IPF Quartet, namely Italy, Norway, UK and USA, the Government of the Netherlands and the African Union (AU) for their unrelenting efforts in the search for a just and lasting peace in the Sudan.
Thank you for listening.
Dr. John Garang de Mabior
Chairman and Commander-in-Chief, SPLM/SPLA
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