In South Sudan the peace process is in danger of collapsing

After heavy fighting in South Sudan the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) warned on Friday that the peace process could collapse. „The struggle for an end to the genocide in Darfur must not blind us to the increasingly serious situation in South Sudan“, said the GfbV Africa expert, Ulrich Delius. „If the international community continues to remain silent on the infringement of the peace treaty, it is only a matter of time before the war breaks out there again“. In the fighting between the Sudanese army, the South Sudanese militia allied to it and the South Sudanese resistance movement SPLA several hundred people have been killed in Malakal in the past three days.

The Sudanese government is committing systematic infringements of the peace treaty signed in January 2005 and the tensions in the country are steadily increasing. South Sudanese politicians have criticised that many requirements of the agreement have after almost two years still not been put into practice by Khartoum. In particular they criticise the lack of transparency on the part of the Sudanese state oil industry and accuse Khartoum of cheating South Sudan of its fair share of the proceeds from the mining of the oil in South Sudan. According to the peace agreement North and South Sudan should each receive 50 percent of the proceeds from the oil. It is true that a part of the proceeds is paid to the South Sudanese provincial government, but South Sudanese politicians suspect Khartoum of keeping the true extent of the receipts from the oil business secret. They had in vain called for all sections of the supply contracts to be made public.

Peace in South Sudan is also being endangered by marauding South Sudanese militia operating on the instructions of the Sudanese army. During the genocide, to which more than 2.5 million South Sudanese fell victim, Khartoum allowed these militia to systematically persecute and massacre the civilian population. These militia were also entrusted with the protection of the oil-rigs.

The future of the approximately 20,000 militia-men is still uncertain. Attacks by relatives of these militia-men present a massive threat to the safety of South Sudan. So in September 2005 at least 38 civilians were killed by persons presumed to be militia-men. 23 others were murdered in one week at the middle of November in attacks by armed men.