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Sudan Experience
Project: Questions for Participants
NEGOTIATIONS OF THE
COMPREHENSIVE PEACE AGREEMENT
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Background
The January 9, 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement
ended the war between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s
Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA), Africa’s longest and deadliest civil
conflict. The complex agreement provides for power sharing, oil wealth
sharing, security arrangements, an interim period of six years and a final
referendum on self-determination for Southern Sudan. Negotiations were
facilitated by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) peace
process, a regional initiative based on a declaration of principles that
provided the framework for the agreement. Kenya chaired the IGAD process,
joined by mediators from Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Norway and the United
Kingdom played key roles. US involvement was necessary to
insure a settlement.
The Sudan Experience Project will interview fifty American and foreign
officials involved in peacemaking and peace building in Sudan. The first
interviewees will be those who played key roles in negotiating the peace
agreement that ended the North-South Conflict. The remaining interviews will
involve American and foreign officials who are engaged in implementing the
agreement. The project will identify lessons learned and include them in
training programs for those who will serve in Sudan.
Questions
Identification
- Describe the role you played in the negotiations on the Sudan CPA. At what stage did you enter the negotiating process? Were you operating alone, or as a member of a broader US effort?
- Describe US objectives at that stage in the negotiating process. What were your instructions? Were you appropriately placed and supported? Were your instructions relevant and realistic given the circumstances?
Primary Actors
- Who were the important Sudanese parties to the talks at the time you became involved in the negotiations? What were their roles? What parties played a constructive role? Which parties acted as spoilers?
- What was the role of international organizations, the IGAD, UN, EU, and the AU? How did these organizations play a constructive role? How did the US delegation relate to the international actors?
- What non-state actors (local and international) were involved in the process (NGOs, Religious Groups, etc.)?
- Describe the role of regional states. What was the role of the regional mediators? What were the results of military interventions and other activities of neighboring states?
- Describe the role of the “major powers.” What role did the UK, Norway and the US play at the point where you were engaged in the negotiations?
Negotiations
- Describe the modalities and the flow of the negotiating process. What were the major turning points during the period you were involved? How did these achievements relate to the overall agreement? Why was this a critical stage in the process?
- As a negotiator, what were the challenges you faced in achieving your objectives? Were these challenges consistent with your expectations or unexpected? Where were you successful? Did you encounter obstacles you could not over come? Were failures a matter of personalities, the capacity of the parties or were the issues too difficult?
- In hindsight, if you could change the policies or practices of the US in the negotiations, what would have been differently? What would you have asked of the Sudanese parties, and the other parties in the negotiations?
- In retrospect, would another approach to these negotiations have been possible or have made a difference? Would an increased or more timely US or international involvement compelled a more rapid conclusion to the conflict? What was the impact of congressional passage of the Sudan Peace Act in October 2002?
Implementation
- In hindsight, describe the primary shortfalls in the CPA that have led to problems with implementation. Where these problems inevitable given the complexity of the agreement, the length of the negotiations and the capacity of the parties? Are there problems with implementation that stem from current circumstances that could not have been foreseen?
- What are the most important lessons we should we learn from negotiating the CPA and the problems with implementation?
- To what extent did the peace process between north and south lay the foundation for violence in Darfur? If it is a contributing factor, how could it have been managed differently to avoid the Darfur crisis?
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