Bashir snubs Kiir demand on Sudan’s cabinet reshuffle

October 17, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese president snubbed a request by his First Vice President not to announce the cabinet reshuffle before they meet in Khartoum, reliable sources said.

Sudan Tribune has learnt that the cabinet reshuffle announced late Tuesday night by President Omer al-Bashir was a “blatant disregard” to the instructions of Silva Kiir as outlined in his letter.

“Kiir has clearly told Bashir in his letter to not announce the reshuffle before their meeting.” The sources said.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) members quit the cabinet last Thursday, complaining key elements of a 2005 peace deal were being ignored.

Al-Bashir met with Kiir’s deputy Riek Machar on Tuesday for the first time since they withdrew their ministers from government. Machar delivered a letter from the SPLM leader detailing the demands before the southern ex-rebels will revoke their withdrawal decision.

The Sudanese president reshuffled three ministerial posts, two presidential advisors and six state ministers.

The official said that Al-Bashir overlooked some of the proposed names for ministerial posts and the advisors.

SPLM Deputy Secretary-General, Yasir Arman, “was the first one on the list of nominees for presidential advisors but Al-Bashir chose to ignore it.” Said the sources.

Pagan Amum the SPLM Secretary General told the Agence France Presse that the new posts announced by Bashir corresponded roughly to a list the SPLM handed the president though “some names were not chosen.”

The SPLM had been strongly pushing for the removal of the former Foreign Minister Lam Akol, viewed by the south as too close to the ruling National Congress Party (NCP). He was also seen as defending government actions in the Darfur crisis.

However Amum said that the movement would not rejoin the government until a raft of other demands are met.

“The southern ministers are ready to take their new positions as soon as the differences with the National Congress Party are resolved,” he said.

The outcome of the Bashir-Kiir summit on Thursday will be crucial for the participation of the newly appointed ministers in the central government.

On Tuesday, Kiir assured a pro-SPLM rally in Juba that his group would not go back to war but would pursue the push for full implementation of the peace deal.

The 2005 peace agreement brokered by the IGAD, US and other western countries ended two decades of civil war between the north and the south.

(ST)