Neither the simmering diplomatic row between Britain and Sudan nor the simplistic analysis in the mainstream media should obscure the complex crisis in Africa's largest country.
Portrayal of the conflict as being 'North against South' and Islam against Christianity and Animism' is only part of a larger story.
For 28 years there has been a bitter war between the central government and WORLD NEWS the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA).
Forcible
The largely Arab and muslim North has seen the African and non-muslim heritage of the peoples of the South as inferior for a long time. From the 1970s onwards there has been the forcible introduction of the shariat code and the teaching of Arabic and Islamic studies in the South.
However Mohamed Suliman has convincingly argued in Africa World Review (November 1993 - April 1994) that wars are now less a product of ethnic/religious tensions and more the outcome of resource conflicts triggered by environmental degradation.
This has caused great population movements leading to conflict in the Nuba mountains of central Sudan and Darfur in the West. The people affected are themselves muslim but this hasn't spared then from state sponsored atrocities.
Suliman observes, "Abandoned by both nature and the market, people begin to suffer from famine, poverty and total neglect. When life becomes almost meaningless the society is then ripe for dislocation, turbulence and ultimately war.' Islamisation policies were introduced by the military dictator, Ja'afar Nimery, in a bid to court the Gulf states.
After a brief period of multi-party government in the mid 1980s it was the coup led by General Omar Hassan alBashir in June 1989 that ushered in the severest phase of the Arabisation and Islamisation of Sudan.
Opposition parties, independent trade unions, secular womens? organisations and even professional associations are banned. A few Islamist opposition parties enjoy a semi-legal existence but their members are often harassed, tortured or worse.
Internal opposition is mute. The Sudanese Communist Party has been illegal for much of its existence. However its members are prominent activists in the National Democratic Alliance which groups the secular and progressive opposition. The NDA operates in exile because of state repression and is perceived as being weak and ineffective.
The government's economic proReign goods luxury items. • Khartoum SUDAN 200 miles Babr el Gbazal •Juba 42V2 -@Koboko ZAIRE UGANDA World Bank loans. the war in the South. gramme is a shambles. Inflation is running at 200 per cent and the devaluations of the Sudanese pound have made forIn spite of its Islamic credentials, the Khartoum regime has been following a neo-liberal economic course including privatisation of the public sector, liberalisation of prices and exchange rates and the liberalisation of foreign trade.
One oppositionist quoted in The sor. Guardian points out that none of these market reforms have won the confidence of the business community whom he estimates have stashed f47 billion in forReign banks. North. In a remarkable adthe Sudanese Minister of Finance was told by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Sudan had the right policies but 'had to gle solve their political problems with the Americans'. Western governments have blocked access to the missing ingredient from the selfgramme - an inflow of imposed austerity pro- pendence. foreign capital especially IMF and The "political problems' are not the violation of human rights or the lack of democratic freedoms or the brutality of It is Sudan's emerging role as a centre for Islamic fundamentalism that worries the West. Iran is a major source of financial and ideological support. The Sudan is a 'safe haven' for muslim militants from Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia seeing itself as 'an Islamic model' and a centre for the export of the Islamic revolution.
A split in the SPLA in August 1991 has weakened resistance to the military regime with fierce clashes between rival factions towards the end of 1993 rather than unity against their common oppresThe "Torit' faction, led by long-time leader, John Garang, has supported devolution and autonomy for the Southern Sudanese but association with the Alliance Under his leadership, the SPLA was a member of the National Democratic Alliance and saw the struggle for self-determination as part of the wider strugfor secularisation and democratisation of Sudan as a whole.
The 'Nasir' faction denounces all talk of federalism with the North. 'No ruling class, group or caste in history has ever surrendered its power or privileges out of human sympathy', they reason and their favoured model is full indeAttempts to heal the rift between the iwo factions have been fruitless. Yet the dominant feeling among the Southern Sudanese is the need for unity within the liberation army.
This experience proves once more the importance of internal democracy within liberation movements and the need for accountability to the people they claim to represent.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 55, January 15 1994, Page 13