w as a political refugee, and therefore g u aran teed a safe h av en in Egypt u n d e r Article 53 of the C onstitution.36
D uring the la s t m onths of N im eiri's presidency, M ubarak is said con stan tly to have urged him to improve the h u m an rig h ts situation in Sudan; nevertheless, Egypt's refusal publicly to deal w ith opposition groups and its apparently unw avering support for N im eiri's policies caused Egypt's nam e to be tarn ish ed by association.37 The In teg ratio n C harter, for exam ple, was identified w ith N im eiri, and deeply unpopular. On 9 October 1985, Siw ar al-T hahab announced the tem porary 'freezing' of the C harter.
Politically, th is was a significant gesture; in fact, th e re was nothing m uch to be 'frozen', for the in teg ratio n experim ent h ad been largely a facade. The Suprem e Council of In teg ratio n m et only th ree tim es, as did th e Nile Valley P arliam en t; and the In teg ratio n F u n d h ad m anaged by 1985 to a ttra c t only $33 m illion in capital, in stea d of th e $165 million established as the ta rg e t for th a t d ate.38 T rade betw een th e two countries h ad not notably increased: in 1983, E gyptian exports to the Sudan am ounted to 1 per cent of its to tal exports, and th e corresponding figure for im ports was 0.9 per cent.39 D espite the plethora of successes' claimed and
36 The Sudanese prime minister, al-Jazuli Daf Allah, was reported (al-Ahram, 10 August 1985) as having asked for Nimeiri's extradition. But ASR, 1985, p.372, says no official extradition request was made. See also ASR, 1986, p.454, for details of Egypt's official position on Nimeiri's status.
37 Khaled, Nimeiri, p.386. Egypt's semi-official press had given virtually no coverage to Nimeiri's domestic troubles; the opposition press, by contrast, had attacked him, and supported calls for his extradition. See, for example, S. Ibrahim in al-Ahali, 2 May 1984, and al-Ahali, 6 Nov. 1985.
38 Malak, 'Al-Takamul', pp. 182-7.
39 H. Ayeb, 'Le bassin du Nil: un espace conflictuel', Bulletin du CEDEJ, No.22 (1987- 2), p.46. The figures have not improved since: in 1987 only 2.65% of Egyptian exports went to Sudan, and 0.9% of imports originated there. The corresponding figures for Sudan were 15.9% and 4.5%. See Direction of Trade Statistics Yearbook
the volume of press coverage given to th e relationship, th e period 1974-85 had w itnessed exceedingly lim ited achievem ents.40
The victory of Sadiq al-M ahdi's U m m a p a rty in the S udanese elections of April 1986 brought about a m arked deterioration in b ila tera l relations. A nti-E gyptian sen tim en t had been a featu re of the election cam paign; at the very least, m ost p articip an ts in the debate w ished to see th e in teg ratio n process and the Jo in t Defence A greem ent reconsidered.41 Only days before the vote, Si w ar al-T hahab bowed to popular p ressu re and declared th a t all plans for political in teg ratio n were to be scrapped, pending reconsideration of th e entire process by the new C onstitutional Assembly.42 U sam a al-Baz said th a t Egypt had tak e n no final decision on th e in teg ratio n process; b u t Cairo's general response was th a t only th e 'essence' of the relationship, not its form al shape, really m attere d .43
The presence of N im eiri in Cairo continued to be a n irrita n t. The Sudanese governm ent - and public opinion in S u d an - clearly w ished for his handover, to enable him to be trie d as a crim inal. The Sudanese Lawyers' Syndicate, rejecting the arg u m en t th a t he was a political refugee, lodged an appeal w ith th e E gyptian courts for his extradition on crim inal charges. Following a m eeting betw een M u b arak and A hm ad al-M irghani, chairm an of th e S tate Council, Sudan's collective presidency, on 7 Ju ly 1986, it was agreed th a t both p arties would abide by th e decision of the E gyptian courts.44
40 Harb, 'Egypt's Foreign Policy', p.85. The author notes that this lack of success is reflected in the extreme paucity of Egyptian academic studies of the relationship. 41 Mahmoud Murad in al-Ahram, 8 April 1986.
42 SUNA, 30 March 1986, in FBIS-MEA, 1 April 1986. 43 See al-Ahram, 7 April 1986 and ASR, 1986, p.454.