SPLM’s northern sector calls for continuation of economic sanctions on Khartoum
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March 26, 2011 (KHARTOUM) - A high-ranking delegation of the Sudan
People’s liberation Movement (SPLM) northern sector which is currently
visit the United Sates, urged Washington not to lift economic
sanctions on Khartoum until it affirms commitment to democracy and
human rights.
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Deputy chairman of the SPLM’s northern sector Yasir Arman (FILE PHOTO)
The northern sector delegation, which is led by its chairman Malik
Aggar and deputy chairman Yasir Arman, has extended its visit to
Washington on a request by the U.S’s permanent representative to the
UN Susan Rice who is scheduled to meet the delegation at a later date
in New York.
In a symposium held at Woodrow Wilson center in Washington, Yasir
Arman urged the U.S Administration of president obama not to lift
economic sanction it imposed on Sudan since 2007 over the situation in
Darfur region unless Khartoum demonstrates commitment to democratic
transformation, saying that President Al-Bashir’s government should
not be rewarded for separating the south but for giving “freedom and
democracy to the Sudanese people.”
Arman said that President Obama must include Sudan in his policy of
supporting popular uprisings against dictatorships in the Middle East.
He also stressed the need for writing a new constitution in north
Sudan, saying that the new constitution must be “free, democratic and
reflects the diverse nature of the Sudanese nation in terms of
ethnicity, religion, tribes and languages.”
Furthermore, Arman criticized President Al-Bashir’s assertion that the
north would be a purely Muslim country after the secession of the
south, warning that the SPLM’s “military strength of 40,000 soldiers
in north Sudan” should not be underestimated.
The SPLM’s delegation is scheduled to meet on Monday with White House
officials and the U.S congress, including ambassador Lyman who is the
Administration chief moderator for talks between north and south Sudan
on post-secession arrangements. North and South Sudan are currently
engaged in floundering talks over a wide-array of issues related to
the disentanglement of the two states, including citizenship, sharing
of oil revenues and external debts.
Yasir Arman said that the delegation had met with Daniel Baer, the U.S
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy Human Rights, and
discussed issues of arrests, tortures and violations of constitutional
rights, especially against women and youth, following a string of
crackdowns by the Sudanese authorities against peaceful
anti-government protestors over the last two months.
“The delegation discussed with Baer issues of constitutional
re-configuration in north Sudan and the need for a comprehensive
change and a national dialogue that excludes no one,” Arman said.
“There is no escape from new constitutional arrangements that take
into account the lessons of failure which led to the secession of the
south and a consensus on how the north should be governed before who
governors it,” he added.
South Sudan, whose population mostly ascribes to Christianity and
traditional beliefs, voted almost unanimously in a referendum earlier
this year to secede from the predominantly Muslim north and form an
independent state whose official existence is due to be declared in
July this year. The plebiscite was the final stage of the 2005’s
comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended nearly half a century
of north-south’s intermittent civil wars.
Arman stressed that the SPLM in north Sudan would revitalize the “new
Sudan project” in view of the existing reality of two states in order
to “reunify” Sudan on voluntary basis or achieve confederation between
the two states.
The SPLM’s delegation also met with the U.S’s Assistant Secretary Of
State for African Affairs Johnny Carson who, according to Arman,
affirmed the administration’s keenness on north Sudan issues and the
realization of new constitutional arrangements, a solution to the
conflict in Sudan’s western region of Darfur and respect for the
“popular consultation process.”
The two Sudanese states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, which lie in
the faultline between north and south Sudan, are scheduled to hold “a
popular consultation” vote on whether the CPA’s implementation “has
met public aspiration.” However, the vote does not entail the right of
self-determination to any of them since they are both considered a
part of north Sudan.
Arman said that the SPLM’s delegation had also met with Vicki J.
Huddleston, U.S Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Africa, and
discussed new security arrangements in the Blue Nile and the Nuba
Mountains area in South Kordofan.
The delegation also met with a number of American advocacy groups and
civil society organizations focusing on Sudan.
(ST)
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