Sudan’s Bashir affirms reservations on S. Kordofan accord
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July 4, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir
on Monday reiterated his opposition to certain aspects of the
agreement signed with the Northern sector of the Sudan People
Liberation Movement (SPLM) to de-escalate the situation in South
Kordofan.
JPEG - 41.2 kb
Sudanese President Omer Hassan al-Bashir is seen in Khartoum, after
returning from China, July 1, 2011 (Reuters)
Last month, the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) headed by Bashir
agreed in the Ethiopian capital to recognize SPLM-North "as a legal
political party in Sudan". Officials in North Sudan have said in the
past they will not allow the SPLM-North to exist after July 9th
calling it an extension of a foreign party.
Many hardliners within the NCP rejected the accord forcing what
appeared to be a backpedaling by Bashir who vowed last week to
continue military operations in South Kordofan against SPLM units
there headed by former deputy governor Abdel-Aziz al-Hilu.
Sudan official news agency (SUNA) reported that during the closed
summit of the Inter Government Agency on Development (IGAD) in Addis
Ababa, Bashir said that while he concurred with the spirit of the
agreement he stressed that the SPLM-North have yet to conform with
laws on creating political parties.
The Sudanese leader said once the SPLM-North does that then they are
welcome to operate in the North like other political parties already
in existence after the South becomes an independent state.
SPLM is the dominant party in the South but people of the Nuba
mountains and Blue Nile joined ranks with the them to fight the
central government in Khartoum during the civil war years.
Bashir also emphasized that there will be no new arrangements that are
at odds with the protocols of Blue Nile and South Kordofan that were
part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
In a meeting with the former South African president Thabo Mbeki who
heads the African Union High Level Panel (AUHIP), Bashir called for
expediting the formation of the joint committees that will discuss the
security arrangements in the two border states.
South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, also held talks with Bashir in Addis Ababa.
The IGAD summit’s final communiqué called on the international
community to support the peace process in Sudan for the sake of
stability. It also hailed the recent agreement on the disputed border
region of Abyei and extended thanks to Mbeki who helped mediate the
accord.
"(IGAD) strongly commends President Bashir and ... Salva Kiir for
signing the framework agreement for continuing negotiations after July
9, 2011, for the resolution of all outstanding issues in the spirit of
the CPA," IGAD said in a statement.
But it said it was concerned about the lack of progress in other
areas, including post-referendum discussions over splitting debts and
how the south will pay the north to transport its oil to Sudan’s only
sea port, on the north’s Red Sea coast.
In a related the issue, the head of the NCP political bureau Ibrahim
Ghandour criticized remarks made by governor of Blue Nile state Malik
Agar in which he warned of an all-out war that extends all the way to
Darfur if the Northern party reneges on the agreement signed in June
under the auspices of the African Union (AU).
Agar signed the agreement on behalf the SPLM-North with presidential
assistant representing the NCP side.
The north and south, which fought a civil war for decades, have yet to
agree on the position of their shared border and how they will manage
oil revenues.
The north’s army and fighters with links to the south have also been
clashing in Southern Kordofan, the north’s main oil state since early
June displacing thousands of civilians and killing an unspecified
number.
(ST)
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