SITREP 15 & 16

HELLO ALL, SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY, BUT THIS WAS LOCKED UP IN A COMPUTER

THAT NEEDED SOME WORK. · SITREP 15 14 JAN 05

GENERAL SITUATION:

A peace agreement of sorts was in fact signed in Naivasha, Kenya last week. Unfortunately, many key items

were apparently unresolved at the time of signing. Notable among these was the entire Darfur issue which

continues to be the slobbering drunk at the Temperance Union tea party. By the time I return to Sudan in a week

the ramifications and realities will hopefully be more apparent and I will have more substantial information

for all you SITREP readers. · SECTOR 3 OPERATIONS:

NTR this week. I will have us all up to speed next week, Insh’allah.

MICHAEL’S WORLD:

I am enjoying myself immensely. Being with Karen and seeing friends has been a rejuvenating experience.

I even did a little horseback riding yesterday! Just enough to fall off once and discover some muscles that had

obviously been underused while monitoring the CFA. (Thanks again, Carol and Betsy.)

I’ll pass on a philosophical thought or two in this issue, since it’s perforce a bit shorter SITREP than usual.

The first thought regards age. After sitting through a number of village meetings in the company of more

experienced monitors, I began conducting my own and was pleasantly surprised at the positive reception

I got from the sheiks, omdas and elders with whom I was dealing. I must confess that I had anticipated a certain

level of wariness (if not skepticism) as the new guy in the game. I never experienced these reactions from the

people I met and it caused me to wonder why. I suddenly realized that I was no longer in the West where youth

and beauty are the standards by which people are all too frequently judged, but rather in a part of the world in which

age and its hopefully attendant wisdom are respected. I enjoyed the benefit of being seen as an elder myself.

I must confess that it is refreshing to deal with those who see no necessity to use Botox to obtain the esteem

and respect of the populace. · T

he second thought regards the affects of tribalism in African life and politics. Tribalism pervades every aspect

of African life. There is seldom if ever the sense of “nation” unifying disparate sub groups in Africa similar

to that which we take for granted in America. Many of the problems in Africa stem from the territorial divisions

imposed by the colonial powers without regard for tribal/geographical considerations. Current national borders

encompass traditional enemies in some cases and divide traditionally homogeneous tribal groupings in others.

It should be noted that while ancient tribal rivalries can make nation building difficult in some situations, it can be

a positive force in reuniting politically divided but traditionally homogeneous groups. I see this constantly in Sudan,

where the reunification of the warring factions is facilitated by an overriding traditional tribal unity. But make no error;

no one who does not understand tribalism and all its implications cannot and will not enjoy any more success in

Third World nation building than the colonialists had in building nations in these areas.

The third thought is that the common people of Sudan are being particularly ill served by the leadership of both factions.

I will deal with this in some depth at some future time, but the biggest problem in the “top down” governmental structure

of Sudan may be the dearth of good leadership on either side. And I think I’ll leave this consideration at this point

for now. For those who would like to know more about the background to today’s Sudan, profiles of the leaders

of both factions, and about the genuine genocide that took place in Rwanda as well as the events in Somalia I highly

recommend a book entitled Me Against My Brother by Scott Peterson (published by Routledge).

Please let me extend my sincere wish for a wonderful 2005 for everyone. More from Sudan next week.

And that’s it for this week from Clarke County, VA, U.S.A. Michael

SITREP 16 28 JAN 05 · GENERAL SITUATION:

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement has been signed, at least in principle. This is a good thing, and long overdue.

Now only time will tell if it will be enough.

My main concern is that the implementation may have to be driven from the bottom up in a country in which the

declared will of the people, taken for granted in the First World, is seldom the force for change and action that it

should be. Six months of fairly close interaction with the ordinary people of the Nuba have only reinforced my initial

opinion that they truly desire peace. Whether that will be sufficient in the face of tribalism and the interests of those

with much to lose if the peace does not favor them and their interests is up in the air now.

Politics at village level are handled by sitting in council and discussing issues until consensus or something

approaching it is reached. 51% won’t get you too far here. Total agreement is the goal; 90% will usually work;

less than 75% will probably not suffice. But that is where democracy in Africa normally ends. Starting at district

government level it is top down and authoritarian. It has always been this way, and the colonial powers did little

if anything to introduce bottom to top democratic traditions or methods. There is little tradition of, or experience

with, representative national or state government. In addition there is little concept of an overarching national

entity which supersedes local or tribal interests.

I think a bit of explanation of what “tribalism” means may be in order here. A tribe here is the largest grouping

of voluntarily associated people to which the people will turn of their own will for adjudication and problem resolution.

It is not necessarily an ethnic grouping (although it can be), but rather more of a political entity. The ethnic homogeneity

which westerners ascribe to the tribe is more a clan function. In the Nuba, for instance, the Moro people are often split

in their loyalties between GOS and SPLM. While their ethnic heritage is Moro, they will have separate sheiks and

councils depending upon where their political allegiances lie. Some Muslims, supportive of the SPLM, can be said to

have tribal ties to the SPLM sympathetic local faction as this is the political entity to which they turn for issue resolution.

This is an anomaly in a place where fundamentalist Islam is practiced. Think of the splits among families during the

American Civil War, with “tribal” loyalties to North or South, and it may be easier to grasp the implications.

The loyalty precedence tends to be the same throughout the continent. It goes (highest to lowest) Family> Clan>

Tribe> Nation. Compare and contrast this to the developed world, where treason against the national government

might well result in repudiation by the perpetrator’s own family. This follows custom and practice throughout

the Third World. Isolation and limited communications combine to create local focus and commitment. Outside

authority is usually visited upon the local communities to the detriment of the visited. “I’m from the government

and I’m here to help you” on steroids, if you will.

The political structure in Sudan is such that authoritarianism and disregard for the will of the common people are

not only to a large extent de jure ,but also part of the traditional and social history since “the memory of man runneth

not to the contrary”. Therefore, I am not certain that the people believe in, nor are those in power inclined to pay heed to,

the will of the common folk as manifested by their votes. There is reason to believe that change will truly only come to

those who can seize and hold power by force. With such a tradition in place it is not hard to see why both governors

and the governed hold the democratic process in lower regard than those who have had the benefit of centuries of the

freedom and democratic process normally taken for granted in the West. The people do seem willing to give the process

a fair chance, however, so if the holders of power even approach keeping their end of the bargain there may be hope.

All that can be said of the CPA and transition to UN control is that the process is unclear at every level and

behind schedule already. · SECTOR 3 OPERATIONS:

We continue to operate as usual. At Sector level, all is going very well indeed. We are spreading the glad tidings

to a happy population, explaining what we can in greater depth, carrying out our regular military inspections and

conducting ever increasing numbers of village visits. We are also attempting for the first time to codify the village,

payam (next level UP in the SPLM areas) and district, and county civilian structure.

Needless to say we would all like to have a better handle on what may be forthcoming, but we are all experienced

enough to not get involved in idle speculation about the potentialities of groundless (or even possibly grounded) rumors.

MICHAEL’S WORLD:

I’m back in harness and hard at it. For those of you whom I missed when I was on leave, I’m sorry not to have

seen you all. But there just wasn’t enough time to do all that I needed to, let alone all that I wanted to. Next leave

I really have to get organized! I am planning it during the end of May- beginning of June time frame. And that should

do it for another week. Michael