People's Liberation Movement Research Articles

Bosnia and Herzegovina and the establishment of the AVNOY Yugoslavia (1943-1945)

Many states, like Yugoslavia, emerged from conflicting historical currents. A critical examination of the socio-historical multi-directional flows after the chaotic April War of 1941 and the rapid disintegration of monarchical Yugoslavia also encompasses rational knowledge of opposing political and national perspectives dating back to 1918 when it was established, with its problematic events between the two World Wars, their causes, and consequences. The turbulent interwar legacy and the failure to address acute problems within the state influenced the dramatic situation and conflicts in occupied Yugoslavia, leading to polarization, collaboration, and alignments. The state of war is a complex crisis situation. The breakup of Yugoslavia was met with divided opinions on whether (and if so, how and on what basis) to reestablish the state. Each Yugoslavia (the „old” and the „new”) also represented a „new constitutional concept of the relationship between its major nations/political groups” (Dejan Jović). The successful antifascist liberation struggle from 1941 to 1945 was primarily led by the partisan movement, with the dominant role of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY). Vladimir Dedijer wrote that in 1941, a revolutionary war began, and „no one dreamed what its nature would be.” It was a civil war, destroying the idea that this state could be rebuilt in the form it took in 1918. It was a complex war („a war of all against all”) with numerous burdens (national, religious, social, historical). Anti-Yugoslav forces were long more numerous than pro-Yugoslav forces, which eventually triumphed. The speech of Yugoslav antifascism is most symbolically recognizable by the phrase: „Death to fascism – freedom to the people,” and „brotherhood and unity.” By the decision on the federal organization of the state at the Second Session of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) in Jajce in 1943, the foundational pillar of the previous Yugoslavia—state and national unitarism—was denied. AVNOJ's decisions were of a framework and principle nature. The federation was established, but until the end, the forms of all its units related to their borders and the structure of alliance members („unitary or complex”) were not fully defined. The emergence of the federal Bosnia and Herzegovina was accompanied by harmonization at the top of the CPY and the People's Liberation Movement. The specificity of the „AVNOJ formula” was also reflected in the fact that in 1943, a federal state was formed, and in 1944, the members of the federation (republics). At that time, their provincial antifascist councils were constituted as the highest legislative and executive representative bodies. Many accompanying issues addressed in the decisions in Jajce on the structure of Yugoslavia remained under detailed consideration and clarification by the state-party leadership and AVNOJ in 1945. These issues have continued to be the subject of more detailed review and analysis in the context of the developments in historiography and have been exposed to considerations in a broader context. They have been reinterpreted, their facts have been analyzed, and there have been „in-depth” searches for more complete, multiperspective answers. The development of historiography is „marked by controversy.” Research into the formation of the „new” Yugoslavia should not be conducted with ideological biases and prejudices but should consider new experiences present in the flow of time and in the minds of contemporaries, including historians, as „children of their time.” Relevant historical contents must be separated from „declarative proclamations, pathos statements, ceremonial-protocol stances.” In a simplified understanding of the past, „everything appears simple and linear.” It is necessary to interpret historical phenomena and processes in a multidimensional, layered, and grounded manner.

Leadership, nation-building and war in South Sudan: the problems of statehood and collective will

Leadership, nation-building and war in South Sudan explores the historical contradictions in the foundation of the South Sudanese state as well as the country's future prospects. The book is based on fieldwork research that the author conducted between 2015 and 2018. With a historical approach, Sonja Theron seeks to explain why ‘South Sudan has not known peace since 1955’ (p. 15). Here, the author is alluding to the reigniting of old political feuds, including the outbreak of the civil war in 2013. Theron revisits the history of conquests, slave trade and the Islamic sentiments that propelled the Mahdist revolt of the late 1880s, which she places in the context of the push for independence, which lasted from 1821 until the outbreak of the Sudanese civil war in 1955. With the support of Christian missionaries and the Anya Nya liberation movement in the 1960s, a South Sudanese political consciousness flourished. The book also illustrates how the shaky foundation of the postcolonial state triggered the emergence of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in 1983, with a broad-based alliance against marginalization. Three decades later, the SPLM invoked the right to self-determination for South Sudan's independence in 2011. Crucially, Theron points to the peace agreements that the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) mediated between 2002 and 2018, and their failure to address the root causes of the conflict. According to the author, IGAD sought to accommodate the political priorities of different factions, which allowed them to continue plundering the state and which ultimately worsened the country's underdevelopment and political fragility.

Yugoslav Communists between peace and dispute

The Yugoslav Communists, since their very appearance on the socio-political scene, have occupied a significant place in the historical perspective. During the Second World War in Yugoslavia, there was a significant change in political and social relations. The existence of ideological and civil war in the period 1941-1945 is crucial for understanding war and post-war events. The People's Liberation Army, ie the party's military instrument for the implementation of political and social changes, proved to be a key and decisive factor for the establishment of communist rule. The communist party did not observe the war in Yugoslavia through anti-fascism and anti-fascist struggle but through the so-called national liberation struggle and the socialist revolution. The key goal of the Communist Party was a fundamental change of social paradigm. In order to realize that idea, the party acted realpolitik. Initially, the party promoted common goals. Nevertheless, the party turned to its partial interests as soon as favorable military-political circumstances were created. The initial promotion of common goals was just a mimicry of the real intentions of the party. The Communist Party had a clearly defined political platform and goals for the national liberation struggle. These goals included taking over and establishing power, modeled on the Soviet Union. The conflict in Yugoslavia contained all the elements of an ideological-civil war because all the warring parties used the turmoil of war to carry out their political goals. In the context of the CPY, the basic form of the uprising was the partisan war, which escalated into a war against the enemy, those who were considered a threat to the party's future plans. In 1942, the People's Liberation Army was formed with the first divisions and corps (within it), while the decisive battles in 1943 definitely strengthened the People's Liberation Movement. A real understanding of the place and role of the Yugoslav communists, within the framework of historical reality, is the basic problem of this research. The aim is to review this phenomenon without any idealization, but also without the reduction of historical relevance, to review this phenomenon. There is no doubt that the Yugoslav communists achieved enormous success, in a political and social context. In the first years of first Yugoslavia, it was a marginal group, which was soon banned. However, during the great war, in which the collapse of the previous state took place, as well as the forms of civil war, the Yugoslav communists had the opportunity to reorganize the social, political, and economic order. The research within this paper is limited by the interest in the activities of the Yugoslav communists, from their appearance on the political scene to the moments when they become a powerful political force, without which the period behind us cannot be understood. The elaboration of the mentioned topic implied the application of all basic methods of scientific research. Of the general scientific methods, the hypothetical-deductive method and the comparative method were used. Obtaining empirical data was achieved by applying the method of analysis (content) of relevant documentation.

The political deduction and building political security In Sudan post of 2019


 
 
 
 The political deduction in political security issues has become one of the topics that related with the attention of researchers and specialists. On the philosophical level, the deduction based on a certain reason to be as the basis for proving a specific issue that cannot be tackled by the existence of contradictions between two extremes - paradigm (Security and Instability). So that, the future of political security in Sudan is still instability, although the international community's ability to impose their Comprehensive Peace Agreement since February 2005, and according to the requirements of what included in the clauses of the agreement to complete the procurement of democratic transition period, as for the Sudanese opposition forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement which are represented the real partners of power. So, the ability of the National Congress Party at that time could have power to consolidate its inclusiveness as a dominant political party.
 From the another hand, the possibilities to infer the dimensions of political security in Sudan are ready to restore the army’s control over the political life, but with the need to maintain the settlement of critical political issues according to a new criteria that take into account the demands of civil forces; However, the civilian leadership was still inactive by as a result of internal divisions and rivalries within, so that the local, regional and international pressures remain to be the only source of strength to achieve a kind of consensus and satisfaction to overcome the critical period and accomplish what can be achieved for the benefit of the political security for Sudan, at the present and future alike. Finally, the absence of mechanisms for managing the divergent interests between civil and military leaders may lead to an unstable civil-military alliance, and they concern about losing of the whole absolute privileges and powers that they enjoyed during the past three decades for the rule of former President Omar al-Bashir, leaving the civilian leadership in 2019 to be as a drastically situation in its inability to form a united front that pushed towards neutralizing the military’s authority or resorting to confront a new period as a returning of violence as what happened in the past. As for the multiplicity of factors affecting on the political security crisis in Sudan, it meant that there is no real solution to subsequent crises in the future, so that the possibility of shifting towards civilian rule remains the only way to manage differences. And the differences between civilians and military alike might erupted at any reason or incentive.
 
 
 

Uzurpacija imovine vakufa džamije Azizije u Brezovom polju i džamije u Omerbegovači u srezu Brčko, nakon Drugog svjetskog rata

Immediately after the Second World War, the new communist government implemented harsh-radical measures aimed at changing ownership relations. Thus, the property of „enemies of the state“, emigrated Germans, private companies and banks, and the property of religious communities were hit. The property of the Catholic Church and the Islamic Community was particularly affected. In order to usurp the property of these institutions, the new communist government passed a set of regulations, such as those related to confiscation of property, nationalization, expropriation, and numerous other processes, such as agrarian reform and colonization. The adopted regulations gave the state the legitimacy to change the ownership of the property. These were complex processes, which left numerous consequences in the field of economic, social, legal and other areas, both for certain institutions and individuals. In this way, the new communist government wanted at all costs to disable the institutions it considered hostile, such as religious communities, and to settle those who contributed to the People's Liberation Movement and who supported their ideology. The aspirations of the communist authorities went in the direction of changing social and property relations and creating a new society, based on a new ideology. The Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina had significant waqf property, which contained numerous residential, business and office buildings, as well as significant land holdings. In the wider area of Brčko, the Islamic Community owned significant waqf property. Although it was a property that was protected from the aspect of religious (Sharia) law, in terms of any change of ownership, it came under the impact of the measures of the communist government. In the area of Brčko, the usurpation of the property of the Islamic Community began immediately after the establishment of the communist government and lasted until the 1990s and the establishment of the multi-party system. In the wider area of Brčko, property was confiscated from the Islamic Community through nationalization, confiscation, expropriation, arondation, and other measures adopted by the communist authorities. The same was done with the property of the waqf of Azizija mosque in Brezovo Polje and the waqf of the mosque in Omerbegovača in the Brčko district. This was a strong blow to the Islamic Community, which subsequently weakened economically, and within the Islamic Community ceased to exist many institutions and facilities that have been the bearers of the overall activities of these institutions for decades. Among other things, madrasas were abolished, a significant number of mektebs were closed, the charity „Merhamet“ ceased to operate, and many other important functions of the Islamic Community were completely or partially endangered. The goal was to weaken the property economically and confiscate the influence of the Islamic Community on society, in order to carry out its atheism, which was one of the important tasks of the new communist government. We will see the consequences of such actions on the example of the usurpation of the property of the waqf of Azizija mosque in Brezovo Polje and the waqf of the mosque in Omerbegovača in the Brčko district, immediately after the Second World War.

Русинский «Робин Гуд» - Андрей Савка

This article is devoted to Andrij Savka, a famous Rusin (Lemko) garnas - the leader of the Beskidniks (opryshki) robber detachment, a well-known leader of the insurrectionary and people's liberation movement in southern Poland and a hero of Eastern European folklore from Dukla (Poland). This valuable collection of little-known biographical information about this iconic figure focuses on the reasons why Savka became a robber, organized his own gang (Bursa) in the Beskydy Mountains and subsequently joined the Podhale Peasant Uprising of 1651 with his illustrious squad under the leadership of the Polish officer Aleksander Leon Kostka-Napierski. The main reason was the strong feudal oppression by the local Polish gentry, which forced the Rusin peasants to defend their interests, rights, and freedoms with deadly force, to fight against national and religious discrimination, serfdom, and oppression. The author emphasizes that Savka acted not in his personal and selfish interests, but out of a desire to help the commons. He distributed the property seized from magnates, landlords, and priests to poor Rusin peasants, for which he was dubbed as “Lemko Robin Hood”. The article thoroughly examines the significant role played by Savka and other famous Lemko rebels - Vasil Bayus and Vasil Chepets - in the people's liberation struggle that unfolded in Lesser Poland, Galicia and Subcarpathia and was supported by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky and his associates. The author highlights the reasons why the Podhale Peasant Uprising of 1651 failed, with its leaders captured and put to death. He concludes that Savka played a progressive role in the history of the Rusins, in which he epitomizes courage and determination in the struggle for freedom and justice.

Politika i historijski revizionizam: Tokovi relativizacije kolaboracionizma i normalizacije “Ravnogorskog antifašizma”

At the end of the 20th century, the perception of peoples and states on their own past changed profoundly in the Balkans as well, with major geopolitical changes. Its processing and instrumentalization are encouraged by the complex permeation of the global relationship between national and ideological forces and local ruling interests. Every political and ideological victory, "must find its legitimate stronghold in the past." The disintegration of the ideological paradigm and the Yugoslav state union was accompanied by a balancing of the past from the outside, in accordance with the interests of the time and dominant politics, the accelerated construction of new national identities, the outbreak of a "civil war between different memories", the reversal of consciousness. These processes in the post-Yugoslav countries, in "transitional historiography", along with the new "reduction of totality", led to "retraditionalization", to the problematic waves of historical revisionism especially related to the Second World War, the correction of the so-called historical injustices, normalization of collaborationism, nationalization and relativization of the notion of anti-fascism. National historiographies in these countries have made a turn from the former glorification of the People's Liberation Movement (NOP) to its relativization, as part of the general trend of radical "re-nationalization". None of them carried out such a "thorough confrontation with the anti-fascism" of the NOP as Serbia. Numerous historians, with the participation of parascientific formations, give legitimacy to constructions of devaluing the anti-fascist legacy and rehabilitating Quisling forces. The falsification of history has also led to the relativization of their responsibility at the expense of those who have in part confirmed themselves as anti-fascists. Revanchist historiography imposes alternative truths. There is a real consensus on the definition of "good" nationalism, which for many is "elementary patriotism". Various nationalist currents are portrayed as anti-fascist. The collaborationist forces defeated in 1945 became "misunderstood victims of historical destiny." Their actions are placed in the context of their anti-communism, promoted in reasonable national politics. Derogating from anti-fascism also led to "anti-anti-fascism". He relativizes the crimes of fascists and collaborators, re-evaluates victims and executioners. It is not common practice for "historical truths" to be written in parliaments and promulgated by law, as has happened in Serbia. Courts and parliaments cannot valorize someone’s historical role. Historical science can do that. Revisionism is based on selective forgetting and the construction of a "desirable history", it is "a reworking of the past carried by clear or covert intentions to justify narrower national or political goals." The obvious expression is "political culture in a society, that is, it speaks of the dominant political value orientations in it". Judicial rehabilitation is understood as an ideological and political measure of revision of history. A distinction should be made between the individual rehabilitation of innocent victims of persecution by the authorities after 1945 and a light revision of history. The political and ideological aspects of rehabilitation, with the support of the media and the pseudo-legal mechanism, include manipulating a number of topics to delegitimize the system that changed social, economic, political and national relations after 1945 - characteristic of monarchist Yugoslavia. In revisionist historiography, communists are treated as opponents of Serbian national interests ("red devils"), intruders in national history, and the socialist revolution as an excess. With the adoption of certain laws and the application of a whole arsenal of rhetorical means and concealment of a number of historical facts, the notion of Draža Mihailović's Chetnik movement in Ravna Gora was especially reworked, neglecting and relativizing his criminal practice, to make this "new anti-fascist" side a desirable "pre-communist ancestor". "authorities. This collaborationist movement is also relieved through anti-communism, it is marked as patriotic and anti-totalitarian. His rehabilitation in Serbia has multiple meanings and consequences in its social life, but also in regional relations.

The ambiguities of self‐determination: IGAD and the secession of South Sudan

AbstractThis paper examines the 1994 Declaration of Principles (DoP) for the resolution of the Sudanese civil war, adopted by the Inter‐Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). This was the only occasion on which an African inter‐state organization included separation as an option for resolving a civil war. It was the basis for South Sudan's independence in 2011. The DoP was drafted by the Ethiopian government, and imposed on belligerent parties, both of which were, at the time, unionist. The paper identifies two concepts of self‐determination within the DoP— independence for colonial territories and the Marxist‐Leninist idea of self‐determination for national groups. The rationale for including both arose from Ethiopian leadership within IGAD. The paper also examines the diverse Sudanese debates on self‐determination, including several strands of nationalism, Islamism, and the ‘New Sudan’ of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). There was radical disagreement among Sudanese on national identity and self‐determination, creating ambiguities that ironically facilitated the exercise in southern self‐determination in 2011. Drawing on documentation of Sudanese negotiations, the paper examines how the DoP unlocked the Sudanese debate on the issue, and how the different concepts fared up to the time of the independence of South Sudan.

MUTUAL RELATIONS OF COMMUNITIES OF SOUTH-WESTERN DAGESTAN WITH GEORGIA AND THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 18th - EARLY 19th CENTURY

The present article reveals the history of relations between the south-western unions of communities of Dagestan and the Kingdom of Kakheti in the second half of the 18th - early 19th century. It is established that political and economic contacts between them, due to mutual cooperation, were generally of a peaceful and good-neighbourly nature. In the second half of the 18th century there was a significant strengthening of military-political and cultural ties between Georgia and Dagestan. The arrival of the Russian Empire in the Caucasus in the early 19th century not only shifted the balance of military and political forces in the region, but also radically changed the nature of trade and economic relations between Dagestan and Georgia. In this regard, the main attention is paid to the processes that began after the loss of Georgian statehood, when the border Dagestan communities tried to negotiate with the new authorities. Furthermore, the author reveals the policy of Dagestan feudal rulers, whom the unions of Dagestan communities saw as intermediaries in their relations with the Russian Empire. On the basis of numerous sources, both already published and identified by the author in the Central historical archive of Georgia, the article considers the most important events that took place in the region during the study period. According to the author, before the appointment of A. P. Ermolov to the Caucasus, St. Petersburg did not rush to assert its power there, content at first with "external signs of citizenship" of the highlanders. With the arrival of the latter, who pursued the policy on the well-known principle of "divide and conquer", the trade and economic blockade of the highlanders of Western Dagestan increased significantly, leading to their subsequent active participation in the people's liberation movement of the highlanders of the North-East Caucasus in the 20-50s' of the 19th century..

South Sudan and the Emerging Security Implications for East Africa

South Sudan achieved political independence in 2011, before plunging into a series of civil wars that have culminated with the signing of the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development, IGAD, driven peace agreement. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement, SPLM, Government has not created conducive environment for political stability in South Sudan. Thus, the political and economic crisis has seen the intervention of neighboring countries in internal affairs of South Sudan to pursue their national interests or within the context of regional bodies such as IGAD to achieve the same. From the outset, the independence of South Sudan was necessitated by the USA led war against global terrorism that is more pronounced at the Horn of Africa and in the context of Sudan's civil war. The natural resources in South Sudan has attracted state and non-state actors with global and regional actors directly or indirectly getting involved in reconfiguring the security matrix with diverse outcomes, some of them with unintended outcome. Wildlife trafficking, gold mining, logging, ivory poaching and illegal charcoal production and commercial bush meat poaching, has created war economics and resource conflicts within the region and beyond. Political crisis in South Sudan, especially the most recent one that triggered civil war in 2013, and persisted to date, has received very little scholarly attention especially its regional security implications. This paper seeks to analyse the security ramifications of the ongoing war for East Africa. The paper will examine the emerging security threats and their regional ramifications. In particular, multiple security ramifications such as armed groups, humanitarian crisis, natural resources and refugees' crisis will be examined in detail to draw conclusions on the scope and depth of the emerging security threats in East Africa.

Building the nation's body: The contested role of abortion and family planning in post-war South Sudan

This paper offers an ethnographic analysis of public health policies and interventions targeting unwanted pregnancy (family planning and abortion) in contemporary South Sudan as part of wider ‘nation-building’ after war, understood as a process of collective identity formation which projects a meaningful future by redefining existing institutions and customs as national characteristics. The paper shows how the expansion of post-conflict family planning and abortion policy and services are particularly poignant sites for the enactment of reproductive identity negotiation, policing and conflict. In addition to customary norms, these processes are shaped by two powerful institutions - ethnic movements and global humanitarian actors - who tend to take opposing stances on reproductive health. Drawing on document review, observations of the media and policy environment and interviews conducted with 54 key informants between 2013 and 2015, the paper shows that during the civil war, the Sudan People's Liberation Army and Movement mobilised customary pro-natalist ideals for military gain by entreating women to amplify reproduction to replace those lost to war and rejecting family planning and abortion. International donors and the Ministry of Health have re-conceptualised such services as among other modern developments denied by war. The tensions between these competing discourses have given rise to a range of societal responses, including disagreements that erupt in legal battles, heated debate and even violence towards women and health workers. In United Nations camps established recently as parts of South Sudan have returned to war, social groups exert a form of reproductive surveillance, policing reproductive health practices and contributing to intra-communal violence when clandestine use of contraception or abortion is discovered. In a context where modern contraceptives and abortion services are largely unfamiliar, conflict around South Sudan's nation-building project is partially manifest through tensions and violence in the domain of reproduction.

Sudan and South Sudan: from one to two

Introduction: Liberation or Political Realism? 1. South Sudan: The Beginning of The Struggle for Political Emancipation 1947-2004 2. Northern Sudan and South Sudan: Denying The South Autonomy Led to Independence 3. The Anya-Nya Liberation Movement: 1955-72 4. The Southern Front and Self-Determination: 1964-2005 5. The Nimeiri Regime and the Oil Debate: 1980-83 6. South Sudan And The June 1989 Islamic Revolution in Sudan 7. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement And Army: As Liberators and as Rulers

Another civil war in South Sudan: the failure of Guerrilla Government?

Popular explanations for the outbreak of a new civil war in South Sudan have centred on ethnic factors and leadership personalities. This article demonstrates that the conflict is rooted in deep cleavages within the ruling political party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). When internal tensions came to a head in late 2013, a combination of neopatrimonial politics, a weak state structure and legacies of violence from the previous civil war allowed this to escalate into a full-scale armed conflict.

The Political Crisis in South Sudan

KeyWords: South Sudan; SPLM/A; civil warThe political crisis in South Sudan is now more than a year old, with no immediate end in sight to the fighting between armed factions. What began as a power struggle within the ruling party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), reignited factional fighting within the army, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), in December 2013. Both the political and military crises had their origins in unresolved tensions following the split in the SPLM/A in the 1990s and the incomplete integration of opposed factions into the army following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 (see Johnson 2014). Many South Sudanese expected that these tensions would eventually erupt in some form of conflict following independence in 2011, but the rapid escalation and intensity of fighting has still taken them by surprise.This commentary can give only the barest outline of a complex series of events motivated by a mixture of political disappointment, personal ambition, and ethnic rivalry. A more detailed reporting of various aspects of the crisis can be found in the updated reports of the Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) for Sudan and South Sudan and human rights reports by Amnesty International, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, and the South Sudan Human Rights Commission (2014).1The CPA was constructed around the assumption that John Garang would remain the leader of the SPLM/A, the head of the Government of South Sudan (GoSS), and the first vice president in the power-sharing Government of National Unity (GNU) with the National Congress Party (NCP) throughout the six-year interim period leading up to the South Sudanese independence referendum in 2011. His death in July 2005, three weeks after his inauguration as first vice president, catapulted two men into unexpected positions of power: Salva Kiir Mayardit, Garang's deputy, assumed the leadership of the party and his two constitutional positions, while Riek Machar, occupying the third highest position in the party, became vice president in the GoSS. Had Garang lived, it is unlikely that either man would have remained in their initial positions, as Garang was adept at moving potential rivals around, preventing them from entrenching themselves in positions of power within the party or the army.Salva Kiir, a veteran guerrilla of the first civil war, was, along with Garang, the last surviving founder of the SPLM/A, all others having been killed in the fratricidal warfare that engulfed the SPLM/A during the 1990s (see Johnson 201 l:ch.7). His survival was due, in part, to having kept aloof from the internal politics of the movement, seeing himself as a soldier rather than a politician. Tensions had arisen between him and Garang at the end of 2004, just before the signing of the CPA, and his future in a Garang-led government was uncertain.Riek Machar had joined the movement from a civilian, rather than a military, background and broke with Garang in 1991 over personal and ideological differences. His attempt to lead a reformed movement failed, and in the end he was forced to fall back on the support of sections of his own Nuer people, a significant proportion of them coming from Khartoumbacked militias. Machar soon lost control over both the formal and informal armed bodies under his command. His rebellion disintegrated into internecine fighting among Nuer, with civilians being the main targets, a pattern that was to reemerge in his current rebellion (see Johnson 2009, 2011:ch.8). He reconciled with Garang in 2002, just as internationally brokered peace negotiations with Khartoum began, and was elevated to the number three spot in the movement's hierarchy.Salva Kiir faced many challenges in forming a government to administer southern Sudan during the interim period prior to the independence referendum. As leader of the army, the party, and the government, he first appointed persons closer to himself than to Garang, some with strong ties to Khartoum, leaving many of the SPLM stalwarts-Garang's Orphans- marginalized within the party and government (see Nyaba 2011 ). …

Oil crisis and the potential role of agriculture in the post-separation of Sudan

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed by the Government of the Republic of Sudan (hereafter,the Sudan) and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement ended more than 20 years of civil war. Accordingto the CPA, in addition to the oil produced from northern wells, which represents about 30% of the total oilproduction in Sudan, Sudan's Government receives 50% of the oil exploited from wells of the southern part ofcountry. In January 2011, the people in southern Sudan voted for separation from Sudan and in July 2011, theRepublic of South Sudan was officially announced as Africa's newest state. Now, South Sudan possesses itsentire oil production, yet it needs to pay a negotiated amount of fees and customs to utilize the exportinfrastructure of the Sudan so that its oil can be exported. The independence of South Sudan created a huge lossin oil revenue for the Sudan since oil revenue constituted a growing share in its trade, government revenue, andGDP during the last decade. This paper investigates the consequences of the independence of South Sudan onSudan's economy using a Computable General Equilibrium model. Results show that the entire economy wouldbe greatly affected by the applied scenarios as represented by GDP, Households welfare, domestic productionand trade. The study introduces non-oil agricultural exports as an alternative to oil and recommends enhancingagricultural efficiency and promoting agricultural exports to gradually recover the economy.

Sudan–South Sudan: The Unfinished Tasks

ABSTRACT The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudanese Government in Khartoum and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the south ended a very long civil war and provided for a self-determination referendum for the people in the south. They voted to secede from Sudan to become an independent nation, South Sudan, in 2011. Nevertheless, major problems remain that threaten the peace between Sudan and South Sudan. Both countries also suffer from internal divisions that threaten stability, including the real danger that South Sudan may be entering a downhill trajectory toward state failure. The work of the international community, especially that of the United States, is far from finished.

The war against the Jews

The sustained anti-Israel de-legitimization campaign is a corollary of the millenarian obsession with the Jews in the Christian and the Muslim worlds. Since Israel is the world's only Jewish state, and since Zionism is the Jewish people's national liberation movement, anti-Zionism – as opposed to criticism of specific Israeli policies or actions – means denial of the Jewish right to national self-determination. Such a discriminatory denial of this basic right to only one nation (and one of the few that can trace their corporate identity and territorial attachment to antiquity) while allowing it to all other groups and communities, however new and tenuous their claim to nationhood, is pure and unadulterated anti-Jewish racism, or anti-Semitism as it is commonly known.

The Horn of Africa in the shadow of the cold war: understanding the partition of Sudan from a regional perspective

On 9 July 2011, following over four decades of intermittent civil conflict, Southern Sudan officially declared independence from the North. The historic secession of the Southern provinces was a culmination of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed by the ruling National Congress Party and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement in 2005. While conventional analysis has depicted the roots of the Sudanese conflict as a result of enduring conflicts over its national identity, and power and resource sharing, this article argues that the seemingly inevitable march towards the emergence of two new nation-states has been a result of a complex dynamic of external as well as local political developments in the greater Horn of Africa. More specifically, I argue that domestic-level factors having to do with regional conflicts in the Horn have greatly influenced the region's external relations in ways that are often obscured by international relations theories that privilege geo-strategic interests over the role of domestic politics. The article highlights the role of the cold war in influencing political developments in Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia in ways that shaped the relationship of the Middle East and the Horn region, and the trajectory of the civil conflict in Sudan in particular. I maintain that while security and strategic interests have provided the context for the relationship of the Horn and external actors, the role of domestic politics has played a crucial role in the shifting alliances between Middle Eastern states and the regimes and insurgent groups in the region. I conclude by highlighting the continuing importance of the role of local-level politics in these external relations following the end of the cold war by examining the advent of Islamism in the region in Sudan, arguing that the dynamic relationship between regional and domestic factors has played an important, albeit often neglected, role in the historic partition of the country.

A quick fix? A retrospective analysis of the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement

Critics decry the 2005 peace agreement between the government of the Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement as incomplete, a result of the desire of external actors for a quick solution that is neither truly comprehensive nor sustainable. Through a chronological analysis of the peace process between 2000 and 2005, this article demonstrates that the scope for compromise was limited and that a significantly ‘better’ deal was unlikely. The article's ambition is to present a concise and empirically grounded analysis of the peace process and to lay foundations for further investigation of a crucial, contested and complicated subject in Sudan's recent history.

Justice in Sudan: will the award of the international Abyei Arbitration Tribunal be honoured?

The Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that was concluded in January 2005 ended more than 20 years of civil war between the Government of Sudan (GoS) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). The CPA provides a framework for building peace and reforming Sudan within generally accepted principles of good governance and respect for rule of law. Despite its commitment to the CPA, the GoS opted not to implement the Abyei Protocol, one of the six protocols of the agreement. The GoS rejected the report of the Abyei Boundaries Commission (ABC), while SPLM accepted it as final and binding as per the provisions of the CPA. This dispute over this report lasted more than three years and resulted in eruption of war in the Abyei Area that caused massive displacement and loss of innocent lives. In an effort to avoid further conflict, the parties agreed to take their dispute to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague for final and binding decision. Since the Abyei Arbitration Tribunal issued its final and binding decision over the boundaries of Abyei Area, its implementation faces enormous challenges including the reluctance by GoS to respect the award. Sudan has a record of dishonouring agreements and if it is allowed again to dishonor this agreement, there will be no chance of addressing the root causes of conflict in the Sudan. The successful implementation of the decision of the Abyei Tribunal will be a litmus test to the commitment of the Sudanese leadership and the international community to the full implementation of the CPA as the only hope for building peace and reforming Sudan for better.