President says government “will never abandon issue of three regions”

BBC Monitoring Middle East

By Sudanese radio

AL-UBAYYID, Nov. 08, 2003 — The president of the republic, Staff Lt-Gen Umar al-Bashir, has denied that the government delegation at Naivasha peace talks was subjected to foreign pressure.

Addressing a meeting of [government] officials and public leaders which was held today in Al-Ubayyid [capital of Northern Kordofan State, central Sudan], with the attendance of the Speaker of the National Assembly [NA], a number of federal and states’ ministers, governors of the Greater Kordofan States, public and party leaders, the president said the government would not abandon the issue of the three regions [The Nuba Mountains, Abyei and southern Blue Nile]. He said the borders of Sudan will remain the way they were from the time of attaining its independence from Britain in 1956.

The president of the republic said the [National] Salvation [Revolution NSR] will never dismantle the Popular Defence Forces. He pointed out that peace will remain a strategic objective for the government, despite the fact that Sudan will continue to be targeted by the enemies.

For his part, the Speaker of the NA, Al-Ustadh [honorific] Ahmad Ibrahim al-Tahir, said the NSR had fulfilled what it had promised the nation. He said the revolution spread a religious spiritual morality in all parts of the country after it had been limited to the Khalawi [Koranic schools] and places of worship.