Sudanese rebels seeks inclusive settlement, rejects selective agreement
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May 10, 2012 (JUBA) - The Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), a coalition
of the Sudanese rebels, on Thursday said it is seeking international
support for “inclusive settlement” for the conflicts in Darfur, South
Kordofan and Blue Nile and that it would not accept “selective”
settlement.
JPEG - 15.4 kb
Abdel-Aziz Adam El Hilu (Reuters)
UN Security Council on 2 May endorsed a road map prepared by the
African Union to end the disputes between Sudan, South Sudan and the
SPLM-N. The Resolution 2046 urged all the parties to comply with the
decision and threatened to impose sanction if they refuse to
negotiate.
In accordance with the road map the talks between Khartoum and the
SPLM-N should be based on a framework agreement they signed between
the two parties after talks sponsored by the AU panel in June 2011.
But Sudanese president Omer Bashir denounced it.
The SPLM-N is the dominant party of the SRF, which also includes
Darfur rebels the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the two main
factions of the Sudan Liberation Army who have been fighting Khartoum
since 2003.
Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir said Wednesday that he did
not agree with the UNSC’s demand that his government negotiate with
SPLM-N. On Thursday he said: "We only do the things we want to do. And
no security council or the whole world for the matter can force us to
act otherwise."
The commander in chief of the SRF forces and SPLM-N chairman,
Abdel-Aziz Adam El Hilu, told Sudan Tribune that "the root cause of
conflict in Sudan can never be addressed through selective dialogue.
It is requires comprehensive understanding and settlement."
El Hilu’s comments indicate that the SPLM-N would be unwilling to
negotiate bilaterally with Khartoum’s ruling National Congress Party
(NCP). Since the SRF was formed in November 2011 the four rebels
groups have attempted to integrate their political and military wings.
Speaking from an undisclosed location, which he said was within SPLM-N
held territory in Sudan, El Hilu complained of the short memories of
the international community in relation to conflicts in Sudan.
"This is the government that has the ability and appetite to kill its
own people and deny them all rights including speaking for themselves
and decision to elect their leaders," said El Hilu.
UN agencies estimate that 300,000 people have died in Darfur since the
fighting began nine years ago. In the two-decade north-south civil war
- when the SPLM-N fought with the South Sudan-based SPLM - an
estimated two million died, many from disease and malnutrition caused
by the conflict.
As part of a 2005 peace deal that ended the north-south conflict gave
Blue Nile and South Kordofan special status and provisions. However,
these elements of the agreement were not completed by the time South
Sudan seceded in July year and the SPLM-N refused Khartoum’s ultimatum
that the group disarm or move south of the new international border.
In April last year El Hilu, formerly the deputy governor of South
Kordofan, lost elections to his NCP rival, the incumbent Ahmed Haroun,
in controversial circumstances.
El Hilu accused Bashir’s government of carrying out a genocide in the
Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan during the previous civil war killing
250,000 people. The SPLM-N also blame Bashir for escalating the
conflict after he came to power in a coup in 1989, declaring that the
civil war was holy war or ’jihad’.
The SPLM-N leading figure pointed out that Bashir had been indicted by
the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, crimes
against humanity and genocide in Darfur.
"It is the same government in Khartoum under the same Bashir who
introduced Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda to the world", he said,
referring to the fact that Khartoum hosted the terrorist leader for
five years in the early 1990s.
During Bashir’s rule Sudan was also accused of attempting to
assassinate former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopian
capital Addis Ababa in 1995, El Hilu said.
"It is the same Bashir who smuggles guns to Hamas. It is the same
Bashir who helped and established the Lord’s Resistance Army against
the government of Uganda," he told Sudan Tribune on Thursday.
Bashir received a lot of international credit when he accepted South
Sudan’s vote for independence last year but the former South Kordofan
deputy governor said that the international community has failed to
realise how many peace agreements Bashir had not honoured and his
disrespect for international law.
"Bashir has dishonoured more than 43 peace agreements including key
provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which was not a simple
agreement, it was the most important agreement, the baby of the
international community, arrived at by international pressure. I
didn’t expect the international community just to throw away it like
that, they should have defended it”, he said.
He said the conflict between the marginalised areas of Sudan and the
centre should be properly understood because was actually targeting
all Sudanese people, specifically from Darfur, in the East, far North,
Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains and Abyei. He explained that the vision of
the rebel alliance is to completely change the regime in Khartoum and
to transform the system.
"We are working for regime change, for complete transformation, for
writing a new constitution, a democratic constitution that recognises
diversity that accepts the liberal values of justice, equality,
individualism. We want to achieve lasting peace and justice in this
country. Some may say we are not qualified to reach this but I think
it is possible", he said.
(ST)
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