APCJ_1528_Win2010_00i_122_4 12/30/10 3:22 PM Page 92 92 AFRICA PEACE AND CONFLICT JOURNAL LITERATURE ON THE PEACE PROCESS AND GRASSROOTS Political negotiations began in N’Djamena, Chad, in 2003 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict early on. A peace deal signed in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2006 between the government and one faction of the three main armed movements drew a great deal of criticism for the deficiencies in its provisions as well as for not being implemented. Many criticized the agreement for its failure to address security issues and power and resource sharing, lack of involvement of certain armed and non-armed groups, and its contribution to the fragmentation of the armed movements.8 Soon after the agreement’s signing, Alex de Waal, one of its architects, publicly identified what he considered to be its main advantages. He recognized, however, that the agreement had little support and argued for the inclusion of the armed movements that did not sign in order to broaden the political base of its support.9 Observing the lack of government commitment to implementation, de Waal came to the conclusion that prospects for the settlement of the conflict would be better if the peace process were broadened and Sudan’s power structure transformed.10 In light of developments in the effort to broaden the peace process by engaging local civil society representatives, Theodore Murphy and Jérôme Tubiana argued that civil society representatives could generate momentum for the process, communicate community concerns to negotiators, and provide legitimacy for any agreement.11 They, however, recognized that civil society representatives were subject to government manipulation and beset by divisions. Complicating the issue of broadening civil engagement was the government’s creation of its own civil society organizations.12 Top National Congress Party (NCP) leaders attended talks in Doha in 2009 in their capacity as representatives of civil society groups.13 In the meantime, the transformation of Sudanese politics and the reconfiguration of the country’s power structure are yet to occur, and government manipulation has rendered broadening the peace process almost meaningless. The focus in the literature concerning Darfur has been on the peace process solely as negotiations conducted at the national level. When civil so- 8. Katherine Pounds Taber, ‘Bringing peace to Darfur: Lessons of the Darfur peace agreement’, Houston Journal of International Law (September 2008), www.thefreelibrary.com/Bringing+peace+to+Darfur %3a+lessons+of+the+Darfur+Peace+Agreement.-a0193182661; Senait Woldu Tesfamichael, ‘Negotiating peace for Darfur: An overview of failed processes’, Beyond Intractability.org, March 2008, www .beyondintractability.org/case_studies/negotiating_peace_for_darfur.jsp?nid=6809; Stephanie Hanson, ‘Structuring the peace process’, Backgrounder, Council on Foreign Relations, 11 October 2007, www.cfr.org/publication/14455/structuring_a_peace_process_for_darfur.html; Nureldin Netabay, ‘The Darfur peace process: Understanding the obstacles to success’, Beyond Intractability.org, May 2009, www.beyondintractability .org/case_studies/darfur_peace_process.jsp?nid=6823. 9. A. de Waal, ‘The Darfur peace agreement, part 5: How to include the different Darfur movements’, Justice Africa, 2006, www.justiceafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/DeWaal_Darfur_Peace_Agree ment_5.pdf. 10. De Waal, ‘Prospects for peace in Darfur’. 11. Theodore Murphy and Jérôme Tubiana, ‘Civil society in Darfur: The missing peace’, United States Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C., 2010, www.usip.org/publications/civil-society-in-darfur. 12. Ibid., 6–7. 13. Abdellatif Abdelrahman, ‘Darfur NCP civil society groups to where?’ Sudan Tribune, 31 December 2009, www.thefreelibrary.com/Darfur+NCP+Civil+Society+groups+to+Where%3f-a0215496909.