Suchergebnisse

This essay studies the manipulation of food aid to South Sudan, and its interplay with US politics: the US is the major donor of relief aid to Sudan, and at the same time it appears as one of Khartoum's major opponents on the international scene. This essay argues that humanitarian aid, and especially food aid, is not a substitute for political action, but that it has become the main channel of the US's Sudan policy for the past ten years. Torn between its conflicting economic, political, geo-strategic, and moral imperatives, the US has had to adopt a difficult strategy: supporting the rebels, but not openly, and not enough to enable them to win the war. In this situation, humanitarian aid, with its reputation of neutrality and its moral appeal concealing a fundamental vulnerability to all sorts of manipulation, is a very efficient tool. Food aid is especially useful: it directly counteracts Khartoum's strategy (starving the South into submission) and directly helps the rebel movement and army in a number of ways (bringing them resources, as well as domestic and international legitimacy). Food aid also has the crucial advantage of fitting perfectly into western prejudices about Africa – a starving continent dependent on the West – so that no one thinks about questioning the underlying motives of US relief aid to Sudan.

The national liberation movements of the Oromos (in Ethiopia) & of the southern Sudanese are both anticolonial struggles with the aim of national self-determination. The emergence & development of these nationalisms by peoples first assigned colonial subject status & then second-class citizenship status by the Ethiopian & Sudanese nation-states, respectively, are described in the context of the global system. Their movements are similar in that resistance to colonial domination survived independence & carried itself into nationalism; problems & issues are also shared. The applicability of the principle of self-determination to these two cases is discussed. While self-determination is an option, the Ethiopian & Sudanese nation-states must also move toward becoming democratic, multinational, & civic states for durable peace to emerge in this area. 50 References. M. Pflum

This paper examines the role of NGOs in rebuilding socio-political order in South Sudan. It describes the socio-political determinants of the last ten years which will throw some light on the political stage in South Sudan and might contribute to the main question of who really has the political power and influence in South Sudan today. ; CONTENTS -- History of the conflict and INGO-involvement -- Present situation -- INGOs in South Sudan – The role of OLS -- The relationship between SPLM/A-SRRA and INGOs -- The 'Agreement on Ground-Rules'and the 'Memorandum of Understanding' between OLS/INGOs and SPLM -- Dimensions of the political impact of INGOs -- INGOs as peace-makers or war-mongers?Creating normality in an abnormal situation -- Shaping a ramshackle state: Ground-Rules as INGO-legislation and the Memorandum of Understanding as proxy for laws -- Civil society - The role of the churches, SINGOs, and new institutions