Sudan’s SPLM menaces to seek IGAD, UN arbitration

Jan 30, 2006 (KARTOUM) — The former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) has threatened to seek IGAD and UN arbitration over the slow implementation of the peace agreement or “return to war” as a final option should such arbitration fail to bring dividends.

SPLM spokesperson Walid Hamid told the Khartoum based al-Sahafa that the conduct of First Vice-President, Salva Kiir during the last period was smooth and he was working in perfect harmony.

Many SPLM officials blamed the northern partners NCP for not implementing the peace agreement but this is the first time that Kiir speaking publicly about the issue.

On Saturday 28 January, Kiir said that the implementation of a peace deal to end Sudan’s north-south civil war was extremely slow and that monies owed to the south still had not been paid.

“We still have not got the real share of the oil revenues,” he told reporters in Khartoum, adding there were differences over the amount of oil produced in Sudan.

On January 9, 2005, the Sudanese government and the southern rebels signed a peace deal that put an end to a war that lasted 21years, killed 1.5 million people and displaced four million others.

(ST)