Sudan denies disagreement in the presidency over Darfur crisis
March 4, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese official has denied any disagreement within the presidency with regard to the Darfur crisis. He further said the position of the first vice president en favor of the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur is the SPLM position.
In an interview broadcast on the Egyptian Voice of the Arabs Friday 3 March, Presidential Press Secretary, Mahjoub Fadl Badri, said that “the stance towards Darfur has been settled through the different levels of government institutions in Sudan starting from the Presidency, the National Unity Council of Ministers to the national legislative authority”; hence, the official stance of the Sudanese government is coherent and unified.
He noted that any statements made otherwise “are no more than personal or partisan stances”. He highlighted that Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir’s statements regarding the failure of the government to achieve peace in Darfur is “an old stance and is nothing new”, and that “this is the stance of the Sudan’s People’s Liberation Movement and not the stance of the national unity government”.
Badri asserted that “Darfur is experiencing its best conditions nowadays” and that there is no fighting in the way that was widespread before. He said: “We adopt transparency in the path towards achieving peace in Darfur and we have implemented almost all the contents of the Abuja agreement.”
The First Vice-President Salva Kiir reiterated on Friday March 2 in an interview with al- Jazeera Satellite TV his support to the deployment of international forces in Darfur region. Kiir said that the Government of National Unity “failed to secure the safety of citizens and their properties in Darfur, or to stop fighting among civilians, or to insure humanitarian relief to the needy ones.” To resolve the crisis, affirmed the FVP, “there must be external support.”
(ST)