Sudan’s NCP dismisses UNSC’s “biased” concern over South Kordofan

July 17, 2011 (Khartoum) – Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has shrugged off as “biased” concerns by the UN Security Council over the situation in the country’s war-battered state of South Kordodfan.

The oil-producing state of South Kordofan, which abuts the newly independent state of South Sudan, has descended into violent clashes between north Sudan army and forces aligned with South Sudan since 6 June.

According to UN figures, more than 70,000 people fled their homes as a result of the fighting which escalated into artillery and aerial bombardment by the northern army amid reports of ethnically-targeted attacks on the Nuba population which largely sided with South Sudan during the second spell of Sudan’s north-south civil war.

NCP’s secretary of mobilization Haj Magidtold local reporters on Sunday that the government was still bent on hunting down and prosecuting Abdul Aziz Adam Al-Hilu, the deputy chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Siwar said that conducting a dialogue over the situation in South Kordofan is contingent on the SPLM’s compliance with the requirements of registering political parties and withdrawal of the SPLM’s forces to their positions prior to the outbreak of the war.

The SPLM and the NCP signed a framework agreement earlier this month to deescalate the situation in South Kordofan but the deal was quickly thwarted by NCP hardliners who objected to the agreement’s recognition of the SPLM as a legal political party in north Sudan.

Siwar stressed that his party pays no heed to the concerns voiced by the UN Security Council over South Kordofan, terming them “biased” in the sense that they hold the government responsible and ignore the fact that SPLM’s members took up arms and rebelled against the state.

(ST)