Introduction:
The theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein once said, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". This article intends to analyze the Government of Sudan’s (GoS’s) use of entering peace agreements with armed rebel groups in order to maintain political power, while at the same time orchestrating the continuance of conflict. Political scientists and conflict analysts have described a peace treaty as a contract between two or more conflicting parties; it is intended to end a violent conflict, or to significantly transform a conflict, so that it can be more constructively addressed(Yawanarajah, 2003). This is the ideal on which many conflict resolution scholars and practitioners have written and worked for. Unfortunately in Sudan, “peace treaties” mean a continuation of war, while at the same time complicating and creating new conflict dynamics. As a result of peace treaties, tribal fighting escalates, peacekeepers experience an increase in violence, and crime and corruption increase.
I argue that the agenda and perception of the conflicting parties is not for achieving lasting peace. The Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) was signed on May 5, 2006 and followed by many other fragile agreements. The most recent one was the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) May 2011?—which has also failed to bring peace or stability to Darfur. The agreement rather is creating more problems in the region, and the suffering continues. Peace agreements create the impression that the violence will end and create the false sense of hope for security, development, and increased ability to have basic needs met. Civilians and victims had a new hope of security, development, and increased prosperity to meet their basic human needs.
Another objective of this research is to develop recommendations to address the risk of such peace agreements, with a particular focus on peace education as being the best way to secure peace and stability in Sudan. While peace education will be necessary within Sudanese communities, it can also help transform corrupted Sudanese institutions to become democratic institutions over time.
On Saturday, October 10th, 2015, the Sudan National Dialogue officially began in the absence of the real opposition groups most actively involved in the conflict. The conference seemed to be for those groups who are loyal to the Government of Sudan (GoS) or those that seek positions within the government, although there were some other, more legitimate people involved as well. Many peace treaties that the GoS signed included political accommodation for parties including the armed rebel groups. Those agreements either collapsed or helped to escalate civil wars by creating intertribal fights, eventually resulting in changing the conflict dimensions. Signing peace agreements is one among other tactics the GoS has been using to maintain power in Sudan.
The record of the current regime in signing peace agreements and subsequently dishonoring them is amazing. During the past ten years, 45 peace agreements have been signed between the GoS and various opposition groups including the armed rebel groups. Most of the agreements were dishonored by the GoS. Regrettably, not even one of these agreements has brought a period of peace or security to Darfur, South Kordofan or Blue Nile. These unfulfilled agreements have increased the level of insecurity and created numerous divisions among the rebel groups. Meanwhile, the social fabric of ethnic groups in the conflicting areas is being actively destroyed. A more accurate term for these documents would be war agreements as opposed to peace agreements.
The GoS has rarely honored or respected any protocols orconventions either For both the rebel signatories and the government, peace negotiation has become a ruse for their own personal gain in political positioning and job creation. The greatest challenge still facing civilians to this day is the need for security and protection in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. In order to understand what is needed to achieve peace among all involved parties it is necessary to evaluate all of the previous failed agreements in order to understand what did not work, what went wrong, and how to write a peace agreement that will not fail.
This introduction is excerpted from a longer work. To read the rest of this article, visit Beyond Intractability.