By Bruce Finley, The Denver Post
A leader of Sudan’s southern rebels has returned from a sojourn in Denver resolved to force a regime change in Africa’s largest country.
When Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Secretary General Pa’gan Amum landed last week in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, he quit his seat in a shaky coalition government set up under a cease-fire deal.
Instead of working with Sudan’s northern Arab rulers, Amum said Tuesday he’ll focus on leading southern Sudan people into elections next year and a 2011 referendum on whether war-ravaged Sudan (population 40 million) should stay together as one country.
Peaceful progress “requires a change in the government,” Amum, 50, said during an interview in Denver, where members of his family live.
“Sudan’s at a crossroads between a road to imminent collapse and disintegration, and a possible road to be a free, peaceful and prosperous society,” he said.
The northern regime “wants to keep the status quo, so it’s a matter of political struggle” and, if necessary, force, Amum said. “If they start fighting, we will fight them back. We aim at building a free society which is at peace with itself.”
Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir — targeted by the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes and genocide — cast Amum’s departure as a dismissal. Amum now will work from southern Sudan while another SPLM official sits in coalition meetings.
Amum led an SPLM delegation to U.S. political conventions in Denver and St. Paul seeking support. Sudan’s rulers since independence from Britain in 1956 have sanctioned slaughters of ethnic African Sudanese in the south and western Darfur provinces.
The next U.S. president must “support the democratic forces in Sudan,” Amum said following meetings with Obama and McCain advisers. His spouse, Dr. Suzana Deng, who fled Sudan to Denver a decade ago as a refugee, met with Michelle Obama.
Now SPLM leaders are turning to China, which wields the real clout in Sudan. A delegation next month will visit China and try to build relations with officials allied with Sudan’s rulers, Amum said.
China produces oil in Sudan — at least 500,000 barrels a day. Sudan’s vast reserves are located largely in southern Sudan, giving resource-hungry China an interest in better relations with the SPLM.
“We hope we can win over China and for China to become at least a neutral force,” Amum said.
SPLM leaders also are forging relations with Americans in Denver and elsewhere. A growing number of private aid projects deliver water and school help to southern villagers.
This work is useful “treating the symptoms,” Amum said. “The solution to the Sudan problem is not sending in peacekeepers to protect the civilians. It is not peace by force. It is not sending in humanitarian agencies, though that does save lives. The solution is having a democratic system that puts power in the hands of the people. We aim to release the energy of the Sudanese people.”
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or [email protected]