Sudanese southern leaders said unwilling to serve in central government

Excerpt from report by Sudanese newspaper Al-Ra’y al-Amm website on 29 August, BBC Monitoring Middle East.

Aug 29, 2005 (Khartoum) — The majority of leaders from the SPLM have informed the first vice-president and president of the southern Sudan government, Lt-Gen Salva Kiir Mayardit, that they did not wish to join the central government and preferred to only participate in the southern government. However, it affirmed its readiness to serve in any area Salva decides on.

A prominent leader in SPLM told Al-Ray al-Amm that the leaders had informed Salva Kiir during their consultations in Juba recently that they were not psychologically ready to work in Khartoum during the forthcoming [interim] period.

The source added that the administrators of the southern states had given the first vice-president full authority to name representatives of the SPLM in the government of national unity, after they presented him with the list of candidates for the federal ministries after he asked every administrator to outline the list of candidates so that selection process can be facilitated.

The source affirmed that the SPLM was intending to select a woman for one of the ministerial portfolios.

The source said that nomination for the foreign affairs portfolio was still confined to three leaders – Nhial Deng, Pagan Amum and Deng Alor. [Passage omitted]