Bashir says no return to war in south Sudan

September 16, 2007 (ROME) — Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir said on Friday 14 September that the Sudanese Army had no intention of going to war again in South Sudan, despite problems surrounding the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

Bashir was responding to a question from an Italian reporter on statements made earlier in the week by First Vice president and the head of the Government of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, warning of a possible return to war in South Sudan, because of what he considered as feet-dragging on the implementation of the CPA.

“As for talk about return to war, we say war will not return, because we have decided not to fight in South Sudan again,” Bashir said at a press conference in Rome at the end of three days of talks with Vatican and Italian Government officials.

“We have given the right to the sons of South Sudan, through a referendum at the end of the transitional period, to define the future of South Sudan, to become either an independent state or a part of Sudan,” Bashir added. “We have now completed withdrawing our forces in South Sudan to the level of 86 per cent, and it will be completed in the near future to 100 per cent.”

“If we had any war intention we would not have withdrawn our forces,” Bashir went on. “Our forces were not defeated in the South, and the last battles are witness to this; that our forces were victorious, but we sought a peaceful solution. This is a solution we have worked out ourselves, and we respect this solution.”

“In any event, we have joint mechanisms between the National Congress Party (NCP) and the [former rebel] Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLM) that are adequate and capable of removing any problems or residues,” Bashir said. “Brother Salva Kiir is now in Khartoum and, we shall clear all points about which disputes could arise.”

Bashir said the main problems included in addition to Abyei the demarcation of borders between North and South Sudan, an issue which he said had no easy solution and required extensive work. He said Sudanese delegations have paid recent visits to the United States, Europe, and Egypt in order to search for maps that might help in defining the borders prevailing during colonial rule, accepted as the legitimate borders in the African continent. He noted that the work of the border demarcation committee would have to stop during the rainy season.

Other problems cited by Bashir included a population census now scheduled for next February. He said no agreement has been reached yet on a specific date for the general and presidential elections stipulated for late 2008 or early 2009 under the terms of the CPA.

(ST)