The CPA cannot be bargained

An interesting commentary from the Juba Post.

"Regarding the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, the Sudan Government, led by the National Congress Party, has opted to use the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) as a bargaining chip in their protest against the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

Some senior members of the National Congress Party (NCP) have repeatedly threatened that if UN peace keeping forces are deployed in Darfur, they (NCP) will cancel the CPA. How is the CPA cancelled? The CPA is a document that guarantees the people of Southern Sudan their rights as citizens of this country, and their fundamental rights as human beings. These rights of the people of Southern Sudan have been violated by successive regimes in the Sudan since independence in 1956.Human rights are God given and no human being has the right to violate them. Dishonoring the CPA will make the image of the NCP much worse in the international eye.

If the CPA is not destroyed outright, it can be tampered with by mounting insecurity. If the international community starts putting pressure on Khartoum by creating “no-fly zones” in Darfur and freezing government assets, the National Congress Party will react by tampering with peace in the South. If enough destruction is done, the international community will capitulate and let Darfur continue in its present, atrocious state.

There may or may not be a coincidence that SAF-aligned militia activity has increased recently in previous Khartoum controlled towns such as Juba and Malakal. As relations between Khartoum and the international community worsen, the ruling party uses the south as their ace playing card. Denying the Darfuri the right to be protected by an effective force is abuse of human rights. The real motive to all the human rights abuses in the Sudan centers on resources. The NCP wants all the resources in the Sudan in their hands so that part of it can be used to advance Islam into the interior of Africa, even through jihad.

The NCP/NIF, is scared of any discovery of the magnitude of atrocities committed in Darfur, and those responsible for the acts. The added pressure of the International Criminal Court adds to this fear. Much lies have been said, playing down the humanitarian situation there, and naturally the truth will be bitter.

The international community, in the name of humanity, should not retract from their determination to the violence in Darfur while the NCP/NIF should leave the CPA alone and face its failures in Darfur realistically. "