West aided big African peace deals

Breakthrough agreements reached in the past week in two of Africa's most intractable conflicts – in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo – are offering new hope to the world's most war-ravaged continent.

Last weekend, the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudanese government surprised many with a deal guaranteeing the religious freedom of the southern Sudanese and allowing them to vote on secession.

Then, on Monday, the government of Congo agreed to round up the Rwandan opposition militias located on its territory, while the Rwandan government agreed to withdraw its troops from eastern Congo.

After years of unsuccessful negotiations, the agreements are being credited to a combination of growing economic interests in the countries, a post-Sept. 11 awareness that collapsed states can shelter terrorists, and intense diplomatic pressure, particularly from the United States.

Sudan's civil war has dragged on for all but 11 of its 46 years of independence. The rebels went to war for greater autonomy for the south and to prevent Khartoum from imposing Islamic law on the region's mainly non-Muslim population.

The war in Congo started in August 1998 when Rwanda invaded the east of the country, ostensibly to defeat the ethnic Hutu militiamen who carried out genocide in Rwanda in 1994. At its height, seven African nations had troops in Congo.

While the two wars appear quite different, the countries themselves share certain key similarities. Both are vast – each larger than the US east of the Mississippi – and geopolitically significant. Both are beset by deep ethnic divisions and effectively partitioned as a result of the war. Both are economically fragile, hugely in debt, and have been unable to attract significant funding from Western donors. And both hold great potential for natural resource extraction: Congo in minerals and hydro-power, Sudan in oil.

Sanctions imposed in 1990 have prohibited US businesses from making new investments in Sudan, which is on the US government's list of countries that sponsor terrorism. But since 1999, the country has moved from being a net oil importer to an exporter of more than 200,000 barrels a day. The government earned some $800 million from oil last year, and much of its proven reserves have yet to be tapped.

"It's become very important for the Sudan government to see the American sanctions lifted, and it's been made very clear to the Sudanese government they are not going to be lifted unless there was more progress toward a solution to the conflict in the south," says David Smock of the US Institute of Peace in Washington.

While the Clinton administration tried to isolate the government in Khartoum, the Bush administration – under pressure from the oil industry and the Christian right – decided to engage it. But according to State Department officials, the US was clear about its intentions. The administration's war on terrorism and US military intervention in Afghanistan was a not-so-subtle reminder of what could happen to uncooperative state sponsors of terrorism.

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