In Sudan, cautious hope for peace

When US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice alights from her plane in Sudan Wednesday, she'll look out across the dusty metropolis of the capital, Khartoum, onto a distinctly different national landscape from what her predecessor, Colin Powell, saw when he visited 13 months ago.

Since then, Sudan has elected a national unity government, penned a peace agreement with rebels in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, increased its flow of oil, and reinforced its status as a valuable partner in the US fight against global terrorism.

Ms. Rice's visit represents an acknowledgment of these changes - and that Khartoum is beginning to be "welcomed back into the civilized world, so to speak," says John Ashworth, a longtime Sudan observer with ties to South African church groups active in Sudan.

The July 9 inauguration of a new national-unity government in Khartoum represents another step in solidifying the end of Africa's longest civil war, which raged for 22 years between the government and southern rebels. Now the rebel leader is a vice president - and the new constitution expands religious and political rights.

On July 6, the government and rebels from the troubled Darfur region signed a "declaration of principles" - a small step toward peace. Observers say the north-south peace deal can be a template for Darfur, and a separate growing rebellion in the east.

Sudan's strategic value to the US is also far more evident. Since the north-south peace deal, oil exports have spiked. And an April trip to Washington by Sudan's intelligence chief - in a CIA jet - hints at how the US relies on Sudan in the war on terror. Africa's largest country, once home to Osama bin Laden, may still be a gathering point for terrorists.

While there has been much progress made, Mr. Ashworth stresses, the shifts hardly guarantee continued progress on issues like Darfur. It's crucial that the US and other outside powers continue to apply pressure, he says.

"What a lot of Western diplomats fail to realize," Ashworth says in a warning to Rice, is that throughout "the history of Sudan, all sorts of things have been agreed to; but what's written on paper is not always respected, to put it diplomatically."

In Darfur, for instance, the need for progress is great. The so-called "hungry season" is about to begin. That's the three-month period between planting and harvest. Some 3.5 million lives are at risk, according to the United Nations, although malnutrition levels are less severe than last year.

About 2 million people were forced to flee because of government-backed attacks on Darfur villages over the past two years. The African Union now has some 3,000 troops in place monitoring a much-ignored cease-fire between government and rebel forces. Talks based on the July 6 "declaration of principles" are set to resume in August.

Amid the continuing Darfur crisis, the US has maintained its sanctions on Sudan - and kept it on the "state sponsors of terror" list.

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