HE Dr Hasan has been Ambassador to the United Kingdom since 2000 having been a Lecturer at the University of Khartoum from 1970-1977 and Associate Professor in Saudi Arabia from 1983-1988 and served as Ambassador to Algeria and Iraq, in 1990-92 and 1993-97 respectively.
The Chairman, Sir Ronald Halstead, introduced the Ambassador and pointed out that the country has been going through difficult times.
The Ambassador replied that he was a strong believer in brevity especially when coupled with pertinence. He hoped that his talk would create greater understanding of the Sudanese position, Sudan’s importance to Africa and the region, and the country’s determination to see peace restored, with the help of the international community and the UK in particular.
He freely admitted that the country faced a humanitarian crisis of huge proportions, but it was one he believed that could be surmounted by peaceful methods and negotiation. There was no other way.
Darfur
He felt that there was little international understanding of awareness of the vastness of the region known as Darfur. It is the size of France with a population of over five million people. Area faces problems of desertification, successive cycles of drought, a fragile ecosystem in which nomadic tribes have clashed with more settled farming communities over access to resources and water. Increasingly these clashes have been fuelled by sophisticated automatic weapons and grown in intensity as a result.
There are no less than eighty different tribes and ethnic groups in the region. The Sudan is a melting pot of cultures and colours. Into this tinderbox was launched, early last year, an armed rebellion against the Government by two groups: the self-styled Sudan Liberation Group and the Justice and Equality Movement. The SLA has been identified with the Zaghawa tribe that crosses over the border into Chad the JEM is run by extremist Islamic political leaders with ultimate ambitions of power. The Sudanese Government resisted this assault on the security of the citizens and on public property in Darfur. The situation got dangerously out of hand.
Neither the SLA or the JEM have obtained any international credibility. They have no constructive solutions or longer term strategies.
The tragedy is that tens of thousands of displaced people and refugees now live in camps in Darfur, or along the Chad border, and have missed a whole planting season. They will have to rely on international aid for many months and will stay in the camps for some time. As the UN Sec General’s Special Envoy for Sudan has said: “The danger of another Somalia is looming. Do we want to surrender Darfur to rootless Somalia-type gunmen motivated by opportunism and greed?”. Only the US has accused Sudan of genocide – not the UN nor the EU.
Sudan in context of Africa as a whole
Sudan is the largest country in Africa bordered by ten African and Arab countries and the ninth largest in the world. It is a microcosm between the Arab and African worlds – and a melting pot of cultures. Only in the southern part of the country is there a clear ethnic and religious divide. The South is mainly animist with Christian and Muslim minorities.
The Sudan has enormous potential which, in certain sectors, is now being realised. The oil industry has helped drive economic development. Sudan has the world’s largest integrated sugar project – exporting sugar to the Middle East and African countries such as Kenya. Economic growth has risen by an average seven per cent, perhaps the fastest in Africa. Education has progressed: in 1989 when the present Government came to power there were 16 high schools; now there are 250. The University of Khartoum is almost 100 years old and take students from many African countries and the Middle East.
However, the debilitating civil in southern Sudan has help back the country from realising its potential. It has drained resources and driven some of the best qualified and brightest people to seek careers away from Sudan (about 2,000 Sudanese medical doctors are working in the UK and Ireland).
Peace in Sudan
In 1972 after the signing of the Addis Ababa Agreement there was peace for ten years. Sadly, the peace was squandered and development failed to trickle down to the South. Local tribal animosities surfaced and the Government in Khartoum interfered with the political process in the South: war broke out and the whole cycle began again.
Peace was agreed again partly because there was recognition that the Sudan was not a terrorist state and the North and South of Sudan came together and worked out their differences to the long term benefit of Sudan. Sudan will be a democratic state and there will be a peace agreement.
Comprehensive Peace Agreement
It is hoped that the Darfur crisis will not jeopardise the Peace Agreement. The Agreement will usher in a new federal era for Sudan in administrative and political history terms. It will: strengthen regional automony, observe human rights, and there will be national parliamentary elections. After six years there will be a referendum and the Southern people will be free to decide if they wish to remain part of Sudan or become their own independent entity.
Conclusion
The challenge will be how to replicate the agreement in Darfur. There is a huge desire for peace in Sudan. The hope is for peace mongering so that it will become addictive and the people will abandon for ever the culture of war for the culture of peace mongering.
The Sudanese people will then be able to take their place proudly in the international community and contribute their diverse talents to developing their country and region. There is much to gain and win with international understanding and support.