THE KOKA DAM DECLARATION
24 March 1986
On the basis of experience of the past years making up
the post-independence period, and mindful of the heroic
achievement of our people in their continuous mass political
and armed struggle against all forms of injustice, oppression
and tyranny; a struggle which was expressed in the course
of two (2) decades through two (2) great revolutions.
And rejecting all forms of dictatorships and absolutely
committed to the democratic option.
And out of the conviction and absolutely committed to the
democratic option.
And out of the conviction that it is necessary to create
a New Sudan in which the Sudanese individual enjoys absolute
freedom from the shackles of injustice, ignorance and disease
in addition to enjoying the benefits of real democratic
life; a New Sudan that would be free from racism, tribalism,
sectarianism and all causes of discrimination and disparity.
And genuinely endeavoring to stop the blood shed resulting
form the war in Sudan.
And fully aware that the process leading to formation of
a New Sudan should begin by the convening of National Constitutional
conference.
And in the firm belief that the propositions put forward
and herein spelt out by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement
and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLM/SPLA) and the
National Alliance for the National Salvation as essential
perquisites for convening the said constitutional Conference
do constitute a sound basis for the launching of such a
process.
The delegation of the National Alliance for National Salvation
and that of the SPLM/SPLA, both of whom shall herein after
be together preferred to as the "The TWO SIDES", agree that
essential prerequisites which would foster an atmosphere
conductive to the holding of the proposed National constitutional
Conference are:
One) A declaration by all political forces and the
government of the day of their commitment to discuss the
Basic Problems of Sudan and not the so-called problem of
Southern Sudan and that shall be in accordance with the
Agenda agreed upon in this "Declaration".
Two) The lifting of the State of Emergency.
Three) Repeal of the "September 1983 Laws" and all
other laws that are restrictive of freedoms.
Four) Adaptation of the 1956 Constitution as amended
in 1964 with incorporation of "Regional Government"
and all other such matters on which a consensus opinion
of all the political forces shall be reached.
Five) The abrogation of the military pacts concluded
between Sudan and other countries and which impinge
on Sudan's National Sovereignty.
Six) A continuous endeavor by the two sides to take
necessary steps and measures to affect a cease-fire.
The SPLM/SPLA believes that a public commitment by all
the political forces and the government of the day, that
the said government shall dissolve itself and to be replaced
by a New Interim Government of National Unity representing
all the political forces including the SPLM/SPLA and the
Armed forces as shall be agreed upon at the proposed conference,
is an essential prerequisite for convening the proposed
Constitutional Conference. Consequently the two sides have
agreed to defer the matter for further discussions in the
near future.
4. The two sides have agreed that the proposed Constitutional
Conference shall be held under the banner of peace,
justice, equality and democracy.
They have further agreed that the agenda for the conference
should comprise the following:-
One) The Nationalities Question
Two) The Religious Question.
Three) Basic human Rights
Four) The system of Rule
Five) Development and Uneven Development
Six) Natural Resources
Seven) The Regular Forces and Security Arrangements.
Eight) The Cultural Question, Education and the Mass Media.
Nine) Foreign Policy.
The two sides have provisionally agreed that the above
agenda does not in any way purport to be exhaustive.
The two sides have provisionally agreed that the proposed
Constitutional Conference shall be held in Khartoum during
the third week of June 1986, to be preceded by preliminary
meetings, and that the conference shall actually be held
after the government of the day provides and declares the
necessary security arrangements and the necessary conducive
atmosphere.
6. Mindful of the need for regular consultation with
one another, the two sides have agreed to set up a joint
liaison committee comprising five members from each
side.
The two sides have further agreed that Wednesday, May 7th,
1986 shall be the date for conducting the committee's first
meeting, which shall take place in Addis Ababa.
7. This "Declaration" is issued in both English and
Arabic. The two sides have agreed that the English text
of the same shall be the "Original" and in the event
of any discrepancy it shall prevail over its Arabic equivalent.
8. Having issued this "Declaration" the two sides appeal
to the Sudanese people as represented in their various
political parties, Trade Unions and Associations to
work earnestly for the realization of the objectives of
this "Declaration".
LONG LIVES THE STRUGGLE OF THE SUDANESE MASSES.
For Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLM/SPLA).
Lt. Col. Kerubino Kuanyin Bol,
Deputy Commander in Chief of SPLA and Deputy Chairman of
SPLM Provisional Executive Committee.
For National Alliance for National Salvation
Awad El Karim Mohamed
Secretary General for the National Alliance for National
Salvation.
SUDAN CHARTER:
NATIONAL UNITY AND DIVERSITY
First: Religious Affiliation and the Nation
1. The People
A) Sudanese are one nation:
- United by common religious and human values, and by the
bonds of coexistence, solidarity and patriotism,
- And diversified by the multiplicity of their religious
and cultural affiliations.
B) The Bulk of Sudanese are Religious: The following
principles shall therefore be observed in consideration
for their dignity and unity:
Respect for religious belief, and for the right to express
one's religiousness in all aspects of life. There shall
be no suppression of religion as such, and no exclusion
thereof from any dimension of life.
2. Freedom of choice of religious creed and practice,
and sanctity of religious function and institutions. There
shall be no coercion in religious affiliation, and no prohibition
of any form of religious practice.
3. Benevolence, justice, equality and peace among different
religious affiliates. They shall not prejudice or hurt any
another by word or deed. There shall be no hostility in
religion - none shall excite antagonism, impose domination,
or commit aggression among religious individuals or communities.
The Muslims are the majority among the population of the
Sudan: The Muslims are unitarian in their religious approach
to life. As matter of faith, they do not espouse secularism.
Neither do they accept it politically. They see it as a
doctrine that is neither neutral nor fair, being prejudicial
to them in particular: it deprives them of the full expression
of their legal and other values in the area of public life,
without such detriment to those non-muslim believers whose
creed is exclusively relevant to private and moral life.
Historically, the Muslims are not familiar with secularism,
which developed from a peculiar European experience - arising
from the conflict between the Christian Church and secularists
in politics, economics and science. The doctrine is, therefore,
of little relevance to the historical development or the
legacy of the islamic civilization. The Muslims, therefore,
have a legitimate right, by virtue of their religious choice,
of their democratic weight and of natural justice, to practice
the values and rules of their religion to their full range
- in personal, familial, social or political affairs.
D) In the Sudan there is a large number of those who
adhere to African religions, a substantial number of Christians
and a few Jews: These have their particular beliefs, and
do not believe in Islam, and should in no way be prejudiced
or restrained only for being in minority. That is their
due by virtue of their own creed, in concurrence with the
Islamic Sharia and the fundamental rights of all men to
freedom and equality. Non-Muslims shall, therefore, be entitled
freely to express the values of their religion to the full
extent of their scope - in private, family or social matters.
2. The State
The State is a common affair among all believers and citizens
of the Sudan. It observes the following principles:
A) In the Sphere of Freedom & Equality:
Freedom of creed and cult for all is guaranteed, (in a
context of the prevalence of general freedom, of the supremacy
of the constitution, of the rule of law and of government
that is judicially and religiously responsible). The privacy
of every man is also guaranteed; his intimate personal affairs
are immune against the powers of government; every one may
conduct his devotional life in the manner he chooses. None
shall be penalized for any act or omission, if such is a
recognized ceremonial or mandatory practice of his religion.
None shall be legally barred from any public office only
because of his adherence to any religious affiliation. But
religiousness in general may be taken into consideration
as a factor of the candidate's integrity. The freedom of
religious dialogue and propagation is guaranteed; subject
to any regulation that may ensure social tranquility and
regard for the respective religious sentiments of others.
B) In The Sphere of Law:
The state shall establish a legal system in full consideration
of the will of the Muslim majority as well as the will of
the non-muslims. Wherever the entire popular mandate is
harmonious, a basis of national consensus is thereby provided
for all laws and policies. Where mandates diverge, an attempt
shall be made to give general, if parallel, effect to both.
In common matters where it is not feasible to enforce but
one option or system, the majority option shall be determinative,
with due respect to the minority expression. The Sudan does
not conform to the doctrine of centralism or absolute universality
of law. (Its people have in fact been simultaneously governed
by various legal systems, Islamic, civil or customary, applied
according to person, subject matter or district). The scope
of some laws can be limited as to particular persons or
places - such that a general legal order is established
intersected by personalized or decentralized sub-orders.
Thus: Islamic jurisprudence shall be the general source
of law:
- It is the expression of the will of the democratic
majority.
- It conforms to the values of all scriptural religions,
its legal rules almost correspond to their common legal
or moral Teachings.
- It recognizes, as source of law, the principles of
national justice and all sound social customs.
- It specifically recognizes the principles of religious
freedom and equality in the manner mentioned above; and
allows for partial legal multiplicity in regard to the religious
affiliation of persons or to the predominance of non-muslims
in any particular area, in the manner detailed below. Family
law shall be personal, as rules of conduct intimately relating
to a person's private religious life, where - in a variable
legal system can be practically administered with reference
to the specific religious affiliation of the parties in
a limited, stable social unit: the family. Thereby the privacy
and the religious and cultural autonomy of the family is
safeguarded. Thus:
a) Every parent is entitled to bring up his issue in the
religious manner of his liking. The freedom of religious
education and its institutions is ensured.
b) The rules relating to marriage, cohabitation, divorce,
parenthood, childhood and inheritance shall be based on
the religious teachings of the couple. To the Muslims shall
apply the Sharia. To scriptural religious denominations
shall apply their respective church laws. To the followers
of local cults shall apply their special customs. Any of
these or others can of course choose to be governed by Sharia.
The effectiveness of some laws shall be subject to territorial
limitations, considering the prevalence of certain religions
or cultures in the area at variance with the religion dominant
in the country at large, and regarding matters where an
exception can be made from the general operation of the
legal system - not according to each person's or family's
choice but to the dominant choice in the area. In these
matters exclusive local rules can be established in the
area based on the local majority mandate - any local minority
remaining subject to the democratic principle. Thus the
legislative authority of any region predominantly inhabited
by non-muslims can take exception to the general operation
of the national law, with respect to any rule of a criminal
or penal nature derived directly and solely from a text
in the Sharia contrary to the local culture. The said authority
can instead opt for a different rule based on the customs
or religion prevailing in the area. The general presumption,
otherwise, is for law to be effective country-wide over
all persons and regions, except for any limitation deriving
from the requirement of the constitutional decentralization
system or from the very letter and purpose of a particular
law.
Second: Ethnicity and Nationhood
The Sudan is one country:
- Whose people are bound by one common allegiance to nation
and land.
- But are diverse as to ethnic origin, local custom or
cultural association.
- Wherein Arab origin is mixed with African origin, Arab
culture with African culture, with inputs from other origins
or cultures.
- Ethnic and tribal origin shall be duly respected. Customary
rules of solidarity and conduct, special to a specific tribal
or local precinct may be observed. But ethnicity is a natural
trait not deriving from human attainment and no good as
a basis for discriminating between people or citizens in
socio-political or legal relations. Moreover the expression
of ethnic arrogance, rancour or strife should not be allowed.
- Local subcultures (tongues, heritages, ways of life,
etc....) are respected and may be freely expressed and promoted
-without deviation towards the excitement of animosity between
fellow country-men, or the hampering of free dialogue and
interaction , between subcultures towards the development
of a national human culture, and without derogation from
the national education policies or from the status of the
official language.
- In its foreign and domestic policy, the state shall show
consideration for the import of its different cultures.
It shall pay regard in its international relations to the
sense of cultural attachment or geographical neighborhood
of the different sub-nationalities or inhabitants of the
Sudan. It shall, for example, allow for no discrimination
between nationals of different origins in policies of information
or housing, and shall not show bias in foreign relations
towards the development of pan-Arab rather than pan-African
ties.
Third: The Region and the Country
The Sudan is a united state:
- Independent by virtue of its own national sovereignty,
- Whose people are mobilized in one central political allegiance,
- But diverse as to its far-flung regions inhabited by
heterogeneous populations wherein prevail different needs,
circumstances and standards of life.
- The nature of the Sudan generally calls for an increased
national effort to reinforce the unity of the land and to
strengthen the central national allegiance.
- It requires also with respect to the governance of the
country due consideration from regional remoteness and socio-political
disparity.
- In consideration for the identity of the different regions
and the special needs, conditions and cultures of their
inhabitants, and for the difficulty of administering the
Sudan from one centre, there shall be established separate
regions governed autonomously in certain regards and integrated
into the national government otherwise.
- For the same considerations the composition of the central
government Leadership shall incorporate elements from all
regions. Government shall be organized in collegial and
composite forms to allow for this representation. Some regional
balance shall also be observed as far as possible in public
service enterprises and in the different institutions of
national government and administration.
- In consideration for the unity of the land, the national
constitutional system shall preserve the integrity of those
national powers necessary for maintaining a united sovereign
country and for promoting the development and insurgence
of the nation or coping with the states of national emergency.
The general laws and policies shall also ensure the oneness
of the national territory by regulating and facilitating
contact, communication and intercourse as well as the free
circulation of persons, goods and information across regions
towards a closer interaction and a more perfect union of
the entire nation.
A) The Sharing of Power
- The regional self-government system established in the
South by virtue of the Self-Government Agreement of the
early seventies, and by constitutional amendment in the
North since the early eighties, is based on the principle
of assigning to regional authorities the right of the legislative
initiative and executive autonomy with respect to certain
matters, without restraining the central authority from
legislating on the same matters with absolute authority
that overrides regional laws.
- A federal system would transfer to the federated regions
matters of an even wider scope, but, more importantly, attribute
to regional measures immunity from interference by central
authorities through participation or abrogation, except
with regard to a matter specifically designated as concurrent.
- In view of the scope and degree of federal autonomy,
federalism requires the setting up of adequate infrastructure
- material and human, and presumes the provision of sufficient
financial resources independently raised by or transferred
to the regions. All this may not be possible except through
a process or a period of preparation and gradual transition
to be duly conceived. The detailed evaluation of the respective
government powers and relationships in the Sudan may lead
to preference for a mixed system -comprising federal and
regional elements in any equation or with respect to different
matters. Besides this system of decentralization, a measure
of deconcentration may be introduced. This is an administrative
policy that merely broadens the scope of delegation to regional
departmental branches with full central political control.
- Some of the major powers normally reserved for the centre
to be administrated with high centralization or with administrative
deconcentration are: national defence and security, foreign
relations, nationality immigration and aliens, trans-regional
means of communication and transport, the judicial system
and the general legal codes, the financial order and its
institutions, external and inter-regional trade, the natural
resources - fluvial subterraneous and atmospheric, the general
education and economic plans,... etc.
- Some of the matters normally assigned to the regions
to enjoy thereto the initiative or the monopoly of legislation,
according to the regional or federal principle respectively,
are: regional security and administration, local government,
culture, social affairs, tourism, education, health and
social services, agriculture and industry, regional commerce,...
etc.
- Some of these matters or of any other residual powers
may be concurrent, for joint action by the centre and the
regions.
- Provision should be made for a sharing formula between
the centre and the regions with respect to land, internal
revenue resources, joint major economic projects, the organization
of professions and trades, the institutions of higher education,
... etc.
Provision should also be made for safeguards of the freedom
of communications, traffic and the passage of information,
persons and goods, for the immunity of lands, projects,
institutions and functionaries belonging to one authority
as against the interference of another authority.
- Provision should likewise be made for a defined emergency
regime that permits the national authorities to transgress
the normal limits and equations, of power sharing to the
extent of the necessity (wars, calamities, constitutional
collapse...).
- Provision should finally be made for the participation
of the regions in all constitutional amendments that relate
to their legal status.
- Consideration for regionalism can also be confirmed by
special arrangements in the composition of central agencies
response for the planning of national policies. The political
traditions and the financial means of the Sudan may not
make a bicameral legislature commendable as long as the
national deputies are in fact representatives of regional
constituencies. As to the leadership of the executive branch
of government, the parliamentary system of government might
be preferred, as it is based on collegiate executive power
and allows for any political convention or usage governing
regional representation or balance. The balanced presence
of regions may also be observed in any consultative councils
or permanent committees under the auspices of the executive,
or even in the civil service.
- The National Islamic Front stands for the adoption of
a federal system in the constitutional regulation of decentralization
in the Sudan, with equal regard to all regions, or with
special arrangements for some, and through any process of
gradual transition.
B. The Sharing of Wealth:
- In view of the wide discrepancy in the relative economic
standard of the regions, and in order to ensure a fully
integrated economic development, so that no region in the
land would claim exclusive rights to natural resources within
its borders, the national government would not be deprived
of the means necessary for the upkeep of the common weal,
no region would be left too far behind in the general progress
of the country and no region would be left too far behind
in the general progress of the country and no region would
develop without positive contributions for the development
of the country at large - through contributions to central
state resources, the attraction of emigrant labour and the
intensification of economic exchange in the national market:
The state shall adopt a comprehensive plan for economic
development with a view of promoting general prosperity
and ensuring the balance of regional development through
the encouragement, direction and dispensing of projects
towards depressed sectors and areas. In the transfer of
national funds in support of regions, the state shall take
into consideration the relative size of the population and
the feasibility of utilization as well as a positive preference
for less developed regions to further their growth towards
parity. Notice should be taken, in the composition of national
economic and planning agencies for the balance representation
of the different regions. The persons and the institutions
of the private sector should be encouraged to intensify
their economic initiatives in those regions that are disadvantaged.
The same should be observed in the extension of administrative,
funding or taxation concessions. The state shall endeavour
to link all the regions of the country through roads and
other means of communication and transport, so that the
economic movement should freely and evenly roll on across
the national territory. Every region where a national project
is situated, may retain a reasonable share of the opportunities
and returns provided thereby, without prejudice to the due
share of the state as a whole in all national opportunities
and resources.
Peace, Transition and Constitution
In the pursuit of peace and stability the substantive issues
which have always been in dispute among Sudanese are better
taken up first for dialogue and resolution. Only thereafter
should procedures and measures necessary for implementing
any national consensus be dealt with. The most important
of the latter is an agreed arrangement determining the destiny
of the present political institutions, of the various national
political forces as to participation in public life. The
national concord and the program for its implementation
shall be decided upon in a general constitutional conference
whose legal resolutions shall be ultimately put before the
constituent authority for adoption in the permanent constitution
or in appropriate legal measures. Political resolutions
shall be the subject-matter of a national charter. A national
body, agreed upon by all parties concerned, shall be charged
with preparation for the conference - undertaking studies,
organizing the paper work and extending invitations to participants.
A government agency shall handle the necessary technical
and administrative work under the supervision of the above-mentioned
body. The various political forces shall conduct preliminary
consultations and dealings designed to coordinate stands
and points of view, and shall promote a favorable political
climate to ensure the success of the conference. Participation
in the conference is open to all national political forces,
whatever the respective weight and irrespective of recognition
of, a participation in the present government or political
set-up or otherwise and of operation inside or outside the
Sudan. (The participation of Sudan People Liberation Movement
is subject to an agreed cease-fire arrangement). Observers
from African countries as well as international regional
organizations and the United Nations Organization may be
invited to attend the conference. The conference shall determine
all the issues of substance concerning the ordering of public
life in the Sudan, especially its justice as to differences
of religious association and cultural identity or as to
distribution of power or wealth, and shall consider any
constitutional or political matter relating thereto. The
conference shall also settle the issues of transition, including:
The completion of the Constituent Assembly as to full regional
representation. The form of government during the transition.
The administration of southern and northern regions pending
the establishment of a final constitutional system. The
plight of those citizens who were displaced, or who incurred
damage, deserted the public service or left the country
because of the state of fighting and insecurity. The resolutions
of the conference shall be adopted by unanimity, while recommendations
may be adopted my majority.
THE NATIONAL ISLAMIC FRONT
Khartoum: JUMADA I, 1407
JANUARY, 1987.
