South Sudan rebels urge wider peace process
By Nima Elbagir
KHARTOUM, Dec 7 (Reuters) – A Sudanese rebel official has said all opposition parties need to be included in the peace process to end 20 years of war in the south in order to keep the poor African state united.
Yasser Arman, spokesman for the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), also told Reuters late on Saturday during the group’s first official visit to Khartoum that it would try to help resolve a fresh conflict in Sudan’s west.
The long civil war in Africa’s largest country has pitted the SPLA from the mainly Christian and animist south against the northern Islamist government.
Other groups are also involved and issues range from religious freedom to control of lucrative oil fields. Around two million people have died.
A new revolt emerged in February in the west where rebels complain of neglect by the government.
The SPLA and the Khartoum government on Saturday began what is meant to be the final round of talks in Kenya. Hurdles remain but several key issues have been agreed, including offering southerners a vote on secession after a six-year transition.
The SPLA has said it wants unity provided it is on fair terms.
Arman said the peace process needed to include other opposition groups to avoid the secession of the south.
“The most important condition for the achievement of unity will be the integration of the Sudan as a whole into the peace process during the interim period and to achieve this we need to engage all political forces,” Arman said in Khartoum.
Arman said the biggest concern of opposition groups the SPLA delegation had met in Khartoum was a transition to democracy in Sudan, which has been ruled by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir since a 1989 coup overthrew a democratically elected government.
“What we are attempting to achieve is to include the political forces in their entirety in the peace process and to hear their concerns and perceptions of it,” Arman said. The SPLA has held talks with opposition parties including the Popular National Congress lead by Islamist Hassan al-Turabi and the Umma party headed by ex-Prime Minister Sadeq al-Mahdi during the visit, Arman said.
They also met officials from the ruling National Congress party and southern groups from government controlled areas.
Arman said resolving the revolt in the western province of Darfur was vital to safeguarding Sudan’s unity.
“We consider the situation in Darfur to be a consequence and a manifestation of political, economic and cultural marginalisation and it must be resolved in the correct way,” he said.
Two main rebel groups have emerged in the west, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). “We are already in contact with the SLM and this line of communication will remain open,” Arman said.