Launch of the Darfur Regional Authority: a step forward?

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir

Last week Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir inaugurated the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA), a body intended to kick-start post-war reconstruction  and facilitate the peace process in the war-torn region of Darfur in western Sudan. The launch of the new body marks an important milestone in the implementation of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), the peace agreement signed in Qatar last year between the Sudanese government and one of Darfur’s rebel groups, the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM).  The deal has been rejected by other rebel groups, including the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which holds parallel talks with the Khartoum government.

President Al-Bashir announced the creation of the DRA on Wednesday in the region’s capital Al Fasher as well as a general amnesty for the prisoners of the LJM. He also urged the rebel movement to ensure that the security arrangements of the deal, which would envisage the integration of LJM fighters into the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), are correctly implemented. This would avoid a repeat of the failed 2006 Abuja agreement in which Minni Minnawi, the one rebel signatory, went back into rebellion after having rejected the security arrangements. Mr Bashir stressed the importance of repairing the social fabric of local communities after the nine-year war and bringing criminals to justice all the while inviting the non-signatory rebel groups to join the peace accord.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the inauguration of the DRA, recommending that the parties “take all necessary measures to equip the authority to fulfil its responsibility to promote reconciliation, early recovery and development so that peace dividends are realized by and equitably shared among the population of Darfur”. Ban Ki-moon further urged the rebel groups who have not signed the peace accord and the government to enter into negotiations for a final agreement immediately so as to pave the way for a comprehensive peace process.

Similarly the President of Chad, President Idriss Deby, who is believed to have supported the JEM during the war because he belonged to the same ethnic group as its former leader Khalil Ibrahim, pledged to put his country’s resources at the disposal of Sudan to aid the peace process and stressed the importance of dialogue as the only conduit for the resolution of problems.

Behind the bullish talk however lies a formidable task in ensuring that the Qatar peace process is actually implemented successfully. The appointment of an LJM member, Tijani Sese, as head of the DRA marks an important step in fulfilling a power-sharing arrangement, along with the inclusion of LJM ministers in the federal government. However it is as yet unclear how the DRA’s executive body will work with other authorities such as the state governors, who will probably be loath to accept a reduction in their powers. Whilst the launch of the DRA is no doubt a significant development in the long peace process in Darfur, the exclusion of other rebel groups and other unresolved issues presage a long road ahead.