Ex-rebel soldiers to arrive in Khartoum soon

Text of report by Sudanese newspaper Al-Khartoum on 29 August, BBC Monitoring Middle East.

Aug 29, 2005 (Khartoum) — The office of the official spokesman for the armed forces has said all preparations have been completed to receive forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement [SPLM] in Khartoum. The expected SPLM forces will be merged with the armed forces to form ‘the joint forces’.

In this regard, Al-Khartoum has learnt from sources that an SPLM delegation comprising a number of military leaders visited the forces’ camps in Kasala, where troops were inspected in readiness to move them to Khartoum. This would be the second batch to arrive in Khartoum after the recent arrival of the batch led by Abd-al-Aziz al-Hilu.

The source added that the delegation had gone to [Sudan’s eastern] borders to inspect its troops in Hamashkoreb, Rabdah, Jamayka and Kashgar in preparation to move them to Kasala and subsequently Khartoum.