NCP denies discord over Addis Ababa deal as SPLM warns against scrapping it
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July 3, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The ruling National Congress Party in North
Sudan dismissed on Sunday suggestions of any in-party discord over the
framework agreement it signed with the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement (SPLM) in the north on new security and political
arrangements in the war-battered state of South Kordofan.
JPEG - 9.9 kb
Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) north’s secretary general
Yasir Arman speaks during a joint news conference with Malik Agar,
head of the northern branch of SPLM, in Khartoum, July 3, 2011
(Reuters Pictures)
NCP’s chairman and Sudan President Omer Al-Bashir on Friday appeared
to be overruling an agreement signed between his party and the SPLM in
Addis Ababa last week to start talks on a ceasefire in South Kordofan,
saying he had ordered the army to continue its operations there until
the state is "purged" and the "rebel" SPLM’s leader in the state,
Abdel Aziz AL-Hilu, is caught and brought to justice.
“We order the armed forces to carry on its operations and not to stop
until South Kordofan is purged as Abyei was purged before, and Abdel
Azizi is arrested and brought to trial," Al-Bashir told a gathering of
citizens following Friday prayer at a mosque in Khartoum.
North Sudan’s army known as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has been
fighting elements aligned with the opposition SPLM in South Kordofan
state since early June. The fighting escalated into artillery and
aerial bombardment by SAF, resulting in the displacement of more than
70,000 people, according to UN figures.
The Addis Ababa agreement stipulates the NCP’s recognition of the
right of the South Sudan’s ruling SPLM to continue as a legal
political party in the north despite previous assertions by NCP
hardliners that the SPLM would not be allowed to exist in the North
after secession.
The agreement also acknowledges that SPLM’s fighters in South Kordofan
are Northerners and should therefore be integrated into SAF. It
further stipulates that the two parties should start talks on an
agreement to cease-hostilities in the state.
The NCP’s political secretary Al-Haj Adam Yusif announced on Sunday
that the party had formed a committee to consider remarks expressed by
the party’s leadership over the framework agreement. He said,
according to Sudan official news agency SUNA, that the remarks would
be communicated to the party’s negotiating team before it starts the
new rounds of talks.
Adam denied any "contradiction" between what was agreed in Addis Ababa
and the president’s instruction for the army to continue its
operations against "the rebellion" in South Kordofan. Adam pointed out
that the agreement does not contain any provisions of a truce on the
ground.
The NCP official went on to defend Al-Bashir’s description of Al-Hilu
as a "rebel," saying it is “true considering that he [Al-Hilu]
resorted to war in South Kordofan.”
Adam further suggested that the military situation in South Kordofan
is somewhat detached from the political negotiations.
"We are now talking in political terms, the agreement is political and
has no relation with the military affairs," he said. "We in the NCP
talk only on the political side, the military side concerns the armed
forces."
Adam stressed that the SAF was the only body authorised to use arms to
confront rebel forces, and that the president in his capacity as a
commander-in-chief had the right to issue directives for the army to
do whatever necessary to safeguard the lives of citizens in South
Kordofan.
In the meantime, the SPLM claimed its forces had achieved major
victories on the ground and inflicted great losses on SAF and its
allied militias in South Kordofan.
Gamar Dalman, the media adviser to the SPLM’s chairman in South
Kordofan, on Saturday said that SPLM forces on Thursday achieved its
“biggest victory” over SAF since the war broke out in early June.
According to Dalman, SPLM forces inflicted great losses on SAF in
Kahliat area to the west of Kadugli, the state’s capital. Dalman went
on to claim that the SPLM had seized six vehicles and large amounts of
ammunitions whereas SAF fled the area leaving behind 83 killed
soldiers.
The SPLM’s spokesman regretted Al-Bashir’s order for continuation of
military operations in South Kordofan, saying that Al-Bashir’s
“unhelpful” statements shows that he is "frustrated" and proves a
state of division within the NCP.
Meanwhile, the SPLM’s northern sector’s secretary-general Yasir Arman
has warned against reneging on Addis Ababa agreement, saying that
those trying to persuade the government to scrap the agreement and hit
with a fist of iron were “playing with fire.”
"There are voices in Khartoum against this framework agreement, those
voices are playing with fire," Arman told a press conference in
Khartoum on Saturday.
The veteran SPLM figure further warned that the only alternative to
this framework agreement is “a war that runs from the Blue Nile to
Darfur.”
Anti-SPLM media in North Sudan have been scathingly criticizing the
Addis Ababa agreement, saying it gave the SPLM too many concessions.
Arman expressed confidence that the agreement would be implemented and
reach its logical conclusion of a cease-fire in South Kordofan.
He further disclosed that the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zinawi
and the AU moderation team led by Thabo Mbeki were considering sending
a private jet to transport Al-Hilu from the field in South Kordofan to
Addis Ababa.
Arman said that the SPLM’s delegation was ready to sign an agreement
on cessation of hostilities immediately.
(ST)
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