Open Letter to President al Bashir of Sudan - Out of the Arab League Now!

Open Letter - The Way out of Darfur is the Way out of the Arab League

To His Excellency,
Mr. Umar Hassan Ahmad al Bashir,
President of the Republic of the Sudan

Your Excellency,

A few days before the UN consideration of options with regard to the Darfur crisis, I feel obliged to address to you a plan a national reconciliation, of nation building, and of restructuring and democratizing the entire country.

I feel sure that, if your government becomes the vicar of policies suggested and of changes proposed, Sudan will avoid once forever a series of pending adventures and dangers that can lead to complete and ultimate dismemberment of the country.

I want to hope that my love of your country and its great pre-Christian past that I studied and searched before publishing about it, my excellent memories from my repeated travels and explorations in remote areas throughout mostly Northern and Eastern Sudan, and my good intentions will be met with a feeling of responsibility and shrewd perception of the extremely difficult situation in which Sudan has found itself by now. I go straight to the subject now.

The Way out of Darfur is the Way out of the Arab League

In this Open Letter, an entire political set of concepts, principles, ideas and practices, is suggested. The entire set helps consider the policies the Sudanese government must introduce immediately in order to disapprove the Darfur Genocide and to prove its Innocence. At the same time this is going to be a genuine path for progress development and final disentanglement from a 50-year stagnation and misery. It is certain that it will be to the benefit of Sudan now, if the government of Sudan demands international force to control fanatic elements that have created the problems at Darfur. This attitude does not only mean anticipation of events and ability to put developments under control, but it also testifies to transparence and equity, fairness and justice.

1. A Pan-Sudanese Convention

This extraordinary meeting will gather the representatives of all the tribes and the peoples of Sudan. It must be announced immediately and be held within a month from now. A suggested date would be 21st September 2004.

Within this frame, it will be declared that all the participants (list at the very end of the letter) accept - and the government is going to adopt - that all the languages spoken in Sudan are of equal value to all, and that from now onwards they will be handled by all the people of Sudan in terms of equity, fairness and respect. The preservation, cultivation and promotion of all the languages will be declared as essential element of the governmental policies in Sudan.

On the first day of the Convention, Arabic will be abolished as official language.

On the first day of the Convention, Sharia law will be abolished as the official system of Law throughout Sudan.

The impossibility of imposition of one's culture and religion over the other will be solemnly declared by all the participants.

The reality of Sudan's underdevelopment will be addressed as issue no 1 for the entire country.

Sudan's rational development and speedy rise into a modern multicultural, multilingual, multiethnic and multi-religious state among the civilized world will be declared as main target of the present and future cooperation of all the participants.

All the members of the Pan-Sudanese Convention will accept the need to develop the various tribes and ethnic groups into conscious modern nations.

All the participants will agree for the need of a new Constitution that will stipulate the con-federal character of the Sudanese state.

Every ethnic and linguistic group of Sudan will have immediate access to self determination, and to the development of its independent cultural, linguistic, historical, educational, religious, and political identity within the con-federal umbrella.

The various participants of the Pan-Sudanese Convention will accept that their work has the perspective of at least an entire generation.

The participants will declare that their main immediate interest is the preparation of a new Constitution that will guarantee the principles announced within a text that will close the Pan-Sudanese Convention, namely the Declaration of the Rights and Aspirations of the Peoples of Ethiopia.

Within this text, the historical name of Ancient Sudan, which is Ethiopia in the Ancient Greek and Roman sources, and has been illegitimately usurped by neighboring Abyssinia, will be claimed and vindicated as name of the Confederation of the Sudanese Republics.

The country will be declared as unadulterated African country, and will quit the Arab League denouncing Pan-Arabism in all its forms of practice as a criminal colonial theory and system, responsible for all the evils Sudan faced during its half a century of existence.

As a first proof of anti-Arab policies, Sudan will recognize officially the state of Israel, will exchange diplomatic missions at the highest level, will establish regular economic and commercial exchanges, will introduce air and maritime transportation connection with Israel, and will enter into cultural, educational, scientific cooperation agreements, boosting for the first time tourism industry in Sudan in a way to counterbalance and outdo the Red Sea tourism of any other country.

The acting government will be empowered to sign and implement all these agreements by the Convention.

2. Participants in the Convention

1. Two (or more wherever indicated) elected representatives of the following linguistic groups: Acholi, Afitti, Ama (3), Anuak(3), Avokaya, Bai, Baka, Banda, Bari (5), Ta-Bedawi (10), Belanda Bor, Belanda Viri, Beli, Berta, Bongo, Borun, Dagik, Daju (3), Didinga (3), Dilling, Dinka – Northeastern (5), Dinka – Northwestern (3), Dinka South Central (5), Dinka – Southeastern (5), Dinka – Southwestern (5), Hugeirat, Feroge, Fulfulde (3), Fur (10), Gaam (3), Gbaya, Ghulfan, Gula, Gumuz, Hausa (10), Heiban, Indri, Jumjum (3), Jur Modo, Kacipo – Balesi, Kadaru, Kakwa, Kanga, Kanuri (3), Karko, Kadugli (3), Katcha, Miri, Katla, Keiga, Keliko, Kenuzi Dongola (5), Ko, Koalib, Komo, Krongo, Lafofa, Lango, Laro, Logol, Logorik, Lokoya, Longarim, Loppit (3), Lulubo, Luwo (3), Ma'di, Mabaan (3), Mandari, Masalit (3), Midob, Moro, Morokodo, Moru (3), Mundu, Murle (3), Nding, Ndogo, Ngile, Nubian / Mahas (5), Nuer (10), Nyamusa, Otoro, Otuho (3), Pari, Reel (3), Shatt, Shiluk (3), Swai, Sinyar, Sungor, Suri, Tagoi, Talodi, Tegali, Temein, Tennet, Tese, Thuri, Tima, Tingal, Tira, Tocho, Toposa (3), Tulishi, Tumma, Tumtum, Warnang, Yulu, Zaghawa (3), Zande (5), which mean a total of 299 participants.
2. Two hundred (200) Arabic native speaking businessmen, intellectuals, Human Rights activists, and academia, all rejecting the ideology of Pan-Arabism and agreeing on the African identity of the country, who will be elected through local mass meetings.
3. Seventy five representatives from the major opposition parties, namely the Popular National Congress or PNC (of Hassan al Turabi), the Democratic Unionist Party (of Muhammed Uthman Al Mirghani), the National Congress Party (of Ibrahim Ahmed Umar), the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (of Dr. John Garang), and the Umma Party (of Sadiq al Mahdi).
4. Twenty five representatives from the ruling National Congress Party (of Ibrahim Ahmed Umar).
5. In addition, up to fifty representatives of newly established, free, political parties that denounce Sharia, opt for secular and multi-ethnic Sudan, and reject absolutely the ideological falsehood of Pan-Arabism.

3. The Declaration of the Rights and Aspirations of the Peoples of Ethiopia

The founding text of the Confederation of the Sudanese Republics of Ethiopia will reassess the multiethnic History of Ancient, Christian, Islamic and Modern Sudan as that of a purely African, non-Arabic, state. There must be prepared following deliberations of three months. Suggested date is therefore the 21st December 2004.

* Equal rights for men and women,
* freedom of speech and public discourse,
* right to vote at the age of 18 for female and male citizens,
* separation of the religion from politics at both, the con-federal and the federal, levels,
* 12-year primary and secondary obligatory education,
* the introduction of writing for dialects that are not currently written,
* the imposition of the eight official - administrative languages (see below) of the country at the Primary and Secondary Education,
* the formation of an educational background in at least another 20 languages and dialects of the confederation (to offer the possibility of Primary and Secondary Education in a more diversified and representative way in the years ahead),
* market economy,
* deregulation and denationalization,
* employee participation in the denationalized companies,
* obligatory civil marriage,
* possibility of inter-religious and interethnic marriages,
* explicit prohibition of the excision, and of the strict forms of Islamic veil,
* full denunciation of sex, ethnic, linguistic and/or religious discrimination,
* local administration at the level of municipalities, provinces, and departments (currently called administrative divisions),
* parliamentary life first at the federal level and then at the con-federal level,
* obligatory indexation of female candidates at a minimum 35% for all the parties' lists and for the elected parliamentary members (implying eventually empty seats and by-elections),
* obligatory indexation of ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities of each federal state - within the context of every federal parliament - at fully proportional figures,
* imposition of eight official languages, namely
- Danglawi – Kenuzi Dongola,
- Nubian Mahas
- Dinka (South - Eastern),
- Ta-Bedawi,
- Fur,
- Haussa,
- Nuer, and
- Arabic at the con-federal level, as well as
* Imposition of a new flag and of a new national hymn, both inspired from the Kushitic – Meroitic past of Ancient Ethiopia, will be stipulated among other seminal issues in the Declaration of the Rights and Aspirations of the Peoples of Ethiopia.

4. The Constitutional Committee

Elected during the Convention, the Constitutional Committee will be an institutional body of 40 representatives that will compose the New Constitution of the Confederation of the Sudanese Republics of Ethiopia, based on the Declaration of the Rights and Aspirations of the Peoples of Ethiopia. The Constitution must be ready in a period of six months after the first consultation. This implies a deadline fixed on the 21st June 2005. During this period the government and the president will be limited to caretaker's activities, with the exception of the aforementioned changes of constitutional and diplomatic character (part 1). Any order and directive issued by the Convention and/or the Constitutional Committee will be imperative for the government and the president during the overall period of the nine months.

The Constitution
- will be based on the Swiss, German and Turkish constitutions,
- will declare the secular character of the country,
- will stipulate the details of the parliamentary elections in all the federal republics' parliaments (similar to those of the German Laender), and
- will specify the function of the con-federal parliament.

Absolute separation of the Legislative from the Executive and the Judiciary will form the base of the new political system.

Interior security and police will be established and organized locally, at the level of each federal republic, without central interference.

The country will have minimal military resources and will enter in international pacts and military cooperation agreements with the USA, Japan, China, Turkey, and Israel for the guarantee of its international borders that will be the present ones.

The aforementioned five guaranteeing countries will be in charge of the country's development and of the natural resources' exploitation, and will have to offer immediate support in any case of foreign attack.

The concept of minimal military expenses will be justified within the text of the Constitution itself by the urgent need of economic and educational development of the country.

The soil resources, as well as any work related to river water exploitation, will be declared as equally and fairly beneficial to the overall development of the Confederation, whereas agricultural and industrial development will be conceptualized and carried out according to the various particular needs of the federal states.

The establishment of a proper, modern net of land and fluvial transportation throughout the country will be shared by the federal administrations and the con-federal government.

The erection of dams, civil infrastructure and health institutions will also be shared by the federal administrations and the con-federal government.

The con-federal government will subsidize greatly the education as developed and managed by the federal governments.

A perspective of 25 years will be offered for the promotion of the aforementioned eight official languages as educational media at the level of respective universities.

The same time perspective will be given to another 20 languages so that they be developed and promoted properly in order to finally become medium for Primary and Secondary education for the native speakers.

At the level of the Primary and Secondary education, every pupil and student will be offered
- 12 years of education in the native language (for all courses),
- 9 years of English language course (or another foreign language course), and - 6 years of another Sudanese language course.

Because of the catastrophic role Arabic played in engulfing the country in stagnation, poverty, misery and underdevelopment, Arabic will not be allowed to be the choice of 'second' Sudanese language for any pupil.

5. Referendum for the Constitution followed by Federal and Con-federal elections leading to the formation of Federal Governments, and a Con-federal Government.

The Constitutional Committee will submit the Constitution to general referendum and simple majority of vote will signify its acceptance. Prior to the referendum appropriate and comprehensive deliberations will take place within every linguistic community and ethnic group. A three months period will be offered to the deliberations in this regard. Suggestive date for the referendum is the 21st September 2005. A special body of vigilant inspectors and international observers will be there to guarantee the pertinent, acceptable according to the democratic norms, completion of the referendum.

If the Constitution is rejected by the people of a Federal Republic, full access to total independence and statehood will be offered to the people in question, and all the military, police and administrative authorities of the present government of Sudan will withdraw from that territory.

The Federal Republics under formation and the official languages of each one are presented hereby:

1. F.R. of Nubia – currently Shamaliyah
Language: Nubian (Mahas)

2. F.R. of Dongola – currently Shamaliyah, part of Khartoum, and part of Nahr an Nil
Language: Danglawi (Kenuzi Dongola)

3. F.R. of Blemmyes / Bedja – currently Bahr al Ahmar, and part of Nahr an Nil
Language: Ta-Bedawi

4. F.R. of Fur – Nuba – currently Gharb Darfur, Gharb Kurdufan, Janub Darfur, Janub Kurdufan, Shamal Darfur, and Shamal Kurdufan.
Languages: Fur, Hausa

5. F.R. of Dinka – Nuer – currently Warab, Al Wahdah, Bahr al Jabal, Al Buhayrat, Junqali, An Nil al Abyad, Sharq al Istiwa'iyah, Gharb al Istiwa'iyah, Gharb Bahr al Ghazal, and Shamal Bahr al Ghazal.
Languages: Dinka, Nuer

6. F.R. of Meroe – currently A'ali an Nil, Al Jazirah, Kassala, Khartum, Al Qadarif, An Nil al Azraq, and Sinnar,
Language: Arabic

Following the successful acceptance of the New Constitution, general free elections for the federal parliaments and the con-federal parliament will be announced and will take place three months later (this suggest 21st December 2005). Again in this case, a special body of vigilant inspectors and international observers will be there to guarantee the pertinent, acceptable according to the democratic norms, completion of the referendum. Following the free elections, a new government will be elected and installed, and then the National Assembly, the extraordinary common session of the federal and the con-federal parliamentarians, will elect the new president of the Sudanese Republics of Ethiopia. The unity of the country will have thus been kept intact. International UN peacekeeping force will be present wherever demanded by local people in various Sudanese provinces during all this period.

My suggestions end at this very point; I am sure that you understand that I could not be more extensive, although several issues discussed may need a more analytical approach. I would be ready to prepare a more substantial approach to the crucial problems Sudan is currently facing.

The danger to see Sudan decomposed is real, great and, I am sure you know it, imminent. At the international level, strengths are pulled, and not to your favour; to large extent, the government of Sudan is managed and maneuvered without its own choosing.

Please, Your Excellency, consider and act!

Now!

For the young and beautiful country with the Great Past, Tomorrow will be too late!

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin MEGALOMMATIS