Sudan lays bare reservations over AU roadmap, IGAD role
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May 2, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – A Sudanese official explained on Wednesday
why his country is reluctant to fully accept the African Union’s (AU)
roadmap on the conflict with South Sudan.
JPEG - 14.7 kb
AU mediator Thabo Mbeki (FB)
Khartoum says it has agreed “in principle” to last week’s AU roadmap
which demanded that Sudan and South Sudan cease hostilities and resume
talks to settle disputes over oil exports, disputed regions and
citizenship within a three months deadline or risk “appropriate
measures” with the involvement of AU partners, including the
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the UN Security
Council (UNSC).
In an interview published on Wednesday by the Sudanese Media Center
(SMC), a pro-government news website, the official spokesman of
Sudan’s foreign ministry, Al-Obayd Adam Marawih, stressed that
Khartoum’s acceptance of the roadmap is “preliminary” due to a “great
number of reservations.”
Marawih revealed that among these reservations is the three months
deadline since, he said, previous experiences proved that South Sudan
is “not willing to reach a solution.”
Furthermore, he said that Khartoum is not happy with the AU’s
double-dealing as evidenced by the fact that it has already referred
the roadmap to the UNSC for endorsement.
Today the UNSC voted a resolution threatening Sudan and South Sudan
with sanctions if they failed to conclude negotiations within the
three months ultimatum given by the AU.
“We believe it is inappropriate for one subject to be handled by two
organizations at the same time,” he said.
He further added despite all of its reservations, Khartoum still
prefers the AU as the “best place” to discuss issues of the two
countries.
This sentiment, however, is not shared by South Sudan whose officials
repeatedly express distrust in the mediation of the AU, led by former
South African President Thabo Mbeki, and call for the involvement of
IGAD which mediated the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)
between the two countries.
Sudan is known to be deeply distrustful of the IGAD whose member
states include Uganda, a country Khartoum accuses of being biased in
favor of South Sudan.
When asked about Sudan’s position on the involvement of IGAD, Marawih
did not mince his words.
“We have already informed the AU and the UNSC about the negative role
played by Uganda in acts of aggression against Sudan, and it is for
this reason that we have refused and we will refuse in the future any
role by IGAD in mediation between Sudan and South Sudan”, he said.
“IGAD countries are not impartial.”
Further criticism of the AU roadmap and involvement of IGAD came from
Sudan’s presidential adviser Ghazi Salah Al-Din who warned in a
commentary published on Monday against accepting the AU roadmap.
“The [AU] resolution [roadmap] is full of shortcomings and outright
bias in favor of the [Sudan People’s Liberation] Movement [South
Sudan’s ruling Party].”
The Sudanese official wrote that the contents of the AU roadmap are
identical in “languages and ideas” to the positions of the United
States (US) government.
He accused IGAD of being an organization that executes “Western
agendas” and urged popular, legal and official resistance to water
down the roadmap.
(ST)
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