Oil and Water in Sudan 193mensurate to relative population size. Given, however, that southerners
remain a significant minority in the Sudan, this basis for representation did
not place north and south on an equal footing.
Most environmental and natural resource management powers are vested
under state governments with the exception of mining and oil projects that
are considered national resources and are under the domain of the federal
government.
Though the Khartoum Peace Agreement is still under implementation, key
proponents of the agreement - including the late Commander Kerubino Bol
and Dr Riek Machar - defected from the agreement and resumed rebel activ-
ity, arguing that the government of Sudan had no intention of upholding its
end of the agreement.
Several initiatives have sought to resolve the conflict with limited success.
Non-African initiatives include those led by former United States president
Jimmy Carter in 1989; calls by the intergovernmental Authority on Develop-
ment (IGAD) Partners Forum (IPF); and, most recently, negotiations in
Switzerland in 2002 convened by the United States. Mediation efforts have
tended towards a 'quick-fix' approach emphasising immediate cessation of
hostilities without necessarily addressing the core issues of the conflict. This
incomplete approach has produced half-hearted 'partial ceasefires' by the
major belligerents - and the war continues. There is a sense of fatigue on the
part of western nations in the face of the endless Sudan conflict.
Likewise, African-led mediation efforts have made few gains on the keg
issues. The inability of track one peace initiatives directly to challenge the
parties to the conflict on contentious issues such as state and religion, the
right to self-determination for the south, and the more recent issue of oil, has
greatly limited any movement in negotiations. Relevant initiatives include the
Abuja peace talks and the KAD Sudan peace process.
The Sudan peace process, initiated by the Inter-governmental Authority on
Development, has included seven countries since 1993 to date: Djibouti.
Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. It was not until 1997
that a Declaration of Principles (DOP) was signed by the two parties, the gov-
ernment of Sudan and the SPLM/A as the framework for a peaceful and just
settlement of the conflict in the Sudan. The key components of this consen-
sus statement were:
securing unity of the Sudan through the establishment of a secular and
democratic state; and
affirming the right to self-determination for the south as per the borders of
1 January 1956, through a referendum.Until the recent signature of the Machakos Protocol, negotiations towards the
implementation of the DOP bore little fruit.