SPLM-N accuses Sudan’s NISS of plotting to kill its secretary-general
May 7, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) has accused the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) of plotting to assassinate its secretary-general, Yasser Arman.
Media reports on Monday said the SPLM-N asked the AU mediation to offer its negotiating team guarantees to visit Khartoum in order to meet with political forces to discuss the national dialogue.
The reports said that the ruling National Congress Party’s (NCP) leading figure, Samia Ahmed Mohamed, welcomed the move and described it as a positive one.
However, the SPLM-N’s spokesperson, Mubarak Ardol, in a statement on Wednesday described those reports as “mere lies”, stressing that their delegation didn’t request any visit to the Sudanese capital.
He revealed that they received information that NISS held several meetings in Khartoum to discuss the most efficient way for assassinating Arman, adding that NISS continued to spread rumors and lies about the killing or death of the SPLM-N chairman Malik Agar, deputy chairman Abdel-Aziz al-Hilu and Arman.
Ardol also said their negotiating team presented a clear roadmap for the constitutional national dialogue based on confidence-building measures including ending the war, allowing freedoms and participation of civil and political society in a constitutional process that is not controlled by the NCP.
“No SPLM-N delegation will visit Khartoum before we make sure this roadmap is approved,” Ardol said.
He also denied that Arman received death threats from Taban Deng Gai, the head of the South Sudan rebel negotiating team, saying neither of the men were ever involved in a verbal altercation in Addis Ababa.
He described the incident as a fabrication and lie which discloses intentions of a larger conspiracy.
On 30 April, the AU mediation team suspended the stalled peace process aimed at ending conflict in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, as the government and SPLM-N delegations once again failed to conclude a framework agreement.
(ST)