Bashir says talks on Sudan’s border states’ conflict must not cross “redlines”
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September 25, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan
al-Bashir has asserted that any settlement to the ongoing conflict in
the country’s border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile must not
overstep the existing provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
(CPA).
JPEG - 26.6 kb
Sudanese President Omer Hassan al-Bashir arrives to welcome Ethiopian
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who is making an official visit, at
Khartoum Airport September 16, 2011 (Reuters)
South Kordofan and Blue Nile, which border the newly independent
Republic of South Sudan, descended into violence in June and September
respectively after clashes erupted between the Sudanese Army (SAF) and
fighters of the armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement
North (SPLM-N).
In the CPA, which ended more than two decades of Sudan’s north-south
civil wars in 2005 and paved the way for South Sudan’s secession in
July this year, the two states were accorded a special protocol
stipulating security arrangements to demobilize or integrate SPLM-N
combatants, who fought alongside the south in the war.
While the CPA gave South Sudan a vote on independence, the South’s
erstwhile allies in South Kordofan and Blue Nile were left orphaned
with only a vote called “popular consultation” to gauge local
satisfaction with the implementation of the agreement.
In an interview published on Sunday by the London-based Asharq
al-Awsat newspaper, Al-Bashir indicated his government’s willingness
to seek a negotiated settlement to the crisis, but he stressed that
such settlement must not cross the “redlines.”
“It is for the sake of peace that we have lost a dear part of Sudan
[the south] and therefore we will support and stand behind any efforts
to achieve peace. But there are redlines that cannot be crossed,” he
was quoted.
According to the Sudanese president, the redline lies in negotiating
on any basis other than the provisions already existing in the CPA.
“We will not seek any new thing unless we implement what has already
been agreed,” he declared.
In early July, the Sudanese president disavowed a framework agreement
signed by Nafei Ali Nafei, NCP deputy chairman and presidential
assistant, on 28 June with the SPLM-N chairman Malik Agar in the
Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
Addis Ababa deal, as it has become to be known, laid the foundation
for new security arrangements in the two states and recognition of the
SPLM-N as a legal political party in the north.
The Sudanese government later banned the SPLM-N, saying a political
force should lay down arms before to be authorized as political party.
Khartoum argues that the registered SPLM is no longer part of the
current Sudan, since the independence of South Sudan.
Addressing the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on 23 September, South
Sudan’s president Salva Kiir Mayardit called on the Sudanese
government to seek a negotiated settlement to the crisis in the two
states and reinstate commitment to Addis Ababa deal rejected by
President Bashir.
Foreign conspiracy
In the same interview, the Sudanese president said that what was
happening in Blue Nile and South Kordofan is a “conspiracy” to change
the government in Sudan.
According to al-Bashir, it is now clear that the failure to implement
the CPA’s security arrangements in South Kordofan and Blue Nile was
premeditated in order to "create a nucleus" for rebellion in the
country.
"We believe this is a foreign plot to change the government and we
know who is standing behind it," he said.
Earlier this month, the Sudanese government lodged a complaint to the
UN Security Council accusing South Sudan of supporting the rebellion
in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
In his address to the UNGA, Salva Kiir reaffirmed the south’s denial
to this charge, saying that his country fully adheres to respect for
sovereignty and would not interfere in any domestic conflict in Sudan.
(ST)
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