SAF gives Sudan’s SPLA ultimatum to withdraw from Blue Nile & South Kordofan
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May 29, 2011 (JUBA) – The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) on Saturday said it
had given an ultimatum to the South Sudan army, the Sudan People’s
Liberation Army (SPLA), to withdraw its forces to the south of the
1956 borders from the two northern states of Blue Nile and South
Kordofan.
JPEG - 29.1 kb
Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) governor of Blue Nile state
Malik Agar (Reuters)
This new development will likely add pressure to already strained
tensions between North and South Sudan as the latter approaches
independence. A week ago, the SAF occupied the disputed town of Abyei,
in response to an attack on one of its convoys that it blamed on SPLA.
The SAF convoy that came under attack was being escorted by
peacekeepers from the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).
Western countries along with the United Nations Security Council
(UNSC) while acknowledging that Southern forces provoked the attack
they called on SAF to withdraw unconditionally.
They also urged Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir to revoke his
decision of dissolving the Abyei administration council last week.
In accordance with the security arrangement in the 2005 peace deal
between North and South, Joint Integrated Units (JIUs) of 24,000
soldiers, 12,000 each from SAF and SPLA were deployed in various towns
in South Sudan, Khartoum, Blue Nile and South Kordofan. The forces
were to serve as the nucleus for a future national army should the
people of South Sudan vote for the unity of the country in a
plebiscite agreed as part of the peace deal.
Following January’s referendum in South Sudan and the declaration of
its outcome in favor of independence, SAF components of the JIUs in
South Sudan withdrew to the north of the 1956 borders.
Speaking to the United Nations Radio, SAF spokesperson, Al-Sawarmi
Khalid Sa’ad, said they have given a deadline to the SPLA to withdraw
their forces from the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states before
Wednesday June 1.
Malik Agar, Blue Nile’s governor, said Sunday night to New York Times
(NYT) that northern forces had recently moved “dangerously close” to
the bases of southern-allied fighters and that he did not think the
southern-allied forces would surrender.
“It’s like putting a cat in a corner,” Mr. Agar said. “They will fight.”
Agar said that he had recently received a written order for the
southern forces in his area to disarm.
According to a letter provided to The New York Times, dated May 23 and
marked “Top Secret,” the northern Sudanese army will “redeploy its
forces to all areas north of the 1/1/1956 borders starting from 1 June
2011.” The letter is from Ismat Abdul Rahman Zain al-Abideen, the
chief of staff for the Sudanese military. Western officials have said
the northern military has threatened to attack any southern-allied
soldiers north of the border who do not withdraw immediately.
The southern-allied fighters there are in a more desperate situation
than southern troops were in Abyei. There is no easy way to flee to
the south even if they wanted to. And if the fighters in these areas
give up their weapons, they will be at the mercy of the northern
Sudanese forces whom they have fought for years.
“If it were only so simple for them to move south,” Mr. Agar said.
“But they are not southerners. They are from Blue Nile and they don’t
have any other place to go.”
But southern leaders indicated that they would not fight over Blue
Nile or Southern Kordofan either.
“It is not our priority now to get involved in a war,” said Barnaba
Marial Benjamin, the information minister for the government of
southern Sudan.
“The move into the Nuba in particular will be explosive,” said Eric
Reeves, a professor at Smith College and one of the leading academic
voices on Sudan. “The amount of weaponry and men under arms is
tremendous.”
Meanwhile officials from the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) on
Saturday confirmed that the advancing SAF forces from Abyei have
destroyed the bridge south of Abyei that connects the region to Warrap
state after they captured it from the SPLA.
The Minister of Regional Cooperation in the Government of Southern
Sudan (GoSS), Deng Alor, warned that South Sudan will not allow the
presence of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in Abyei after 9th July
independence.
Alor pointed out that the two partners to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace
Agreement (CPA) may not reach an agreement over post-referendum issues
before July 9 as SAF is occupying Abyei.
The Vice President of the Government of Southern Sudan, Riek Machar,
arrived in Khartoum on Saturday to meet with Sudan’s 2nd Vice
President Ali Osman Taha to try to defuse the escalating tensions
between north and south Sudan over the Abyei crisis.
Also on Saturday the SAF announced that it has ended its military
operation in Abyei which lies on the North-South borders, a week after
it moved in to seize control of the region, saying the situation had
returned to normal. It added that the forces will stay in Abyei until
a new security and political arrangement is reached by the parties
concerned and called on the fleeing Dinka Ngok and Misseriya
populations and other residents to return to Abyei.
Earlier, Al Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed, a member of the National Congress
Party, had said in press statements that Khartoum is ready for talks
with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
South Sudan president Salva Kiir on Thursday admitted that the cause
of the fighting in Abyei involved SAF and SPLA soldiers. He however
explained that it occurred as a result of quarrel between two
soldiers; one SAF and another SPLA, which then escalated into clashes
involving the two forces.
The 2005 CPA promised Abyei residents a referendum over whether to
join north or south, but that did not take place as neither could
agree who was qualified to vote.
(ST)
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