Sudan opposition alliance backs former SPLM rebels
October 20, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Former Sudanese rebels who pulled out of a unity government last week have secured the support of an opposition alliance in their stand-off with President Omar al-Beshir’s ruling party.
Officials from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) met Saturday in Khartoum with members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a group including the Democratic Unionist, Communist and Baath parties, and independent personalities, opposed to Beshir’s regime.
The NDA expressed its support for the SPLM “in its search for peace, democracy and free elections.”
A statement also said alliance members would meet in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, to discuss the political crisis stemming from the SPLM’s withdrawal from government. No date has been set for the meeting.
The SPLM is a member of this opposition umbrella but since the CPA signing and the death of the late Garang the current SPLM leadership seemed more preoccupied by the self-determination for southern Sudan than the democratic transition in the whole country.
The SPLM pulled out of the cabinet on October 11, saying Khartoum had failed to implement key clauses of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between north and south Sudan.
The group’s demands focus on getting Khartoum’s troops out of the south, resolving the fate of the disputed oil district of Abyei, demarcating the north-south border and releasing all political prisoners.
In a gesture aimed at wooing the southern partners back, Beshir reshuffled the government and appointed Deng Alor, a senior SPLM leader, as foreign minister to replace Lam Akol, seen by the south as too close to Beshir’s NCP.
Beshir’s National Congress Party has, in turn, blamed the SPLM for delays in implementing the peace deal, which ended a war that erupted in 1983 when southerners took up arms to demand an equal share of national wealth from Khartoum.
At least 1.5 million people were killed and four million displaced.
(ST/AFP)
Anyang Ngong Ayuen
Sudan opposition alliance backs former SPLM rebels
They say ” one word is enough for a wise man” it can presummably be rebutted when we say that,a decision for a wiseman takes a fool decades to make it. I just want to reckon the great view and decision that the Sudan Opposition Alliance has shown in recommending the SPLM decisions. The nation Sudan is not meant for any singe party but for all the legally, politically recognized political parties with their supporters across the country. The recent decision by the SPLM was not a move to provoke the agreement that ended the longest war in African but it was aimed at catalysing the slow pace of the CPA implementations, which i believe is the major concern to transforming the whole of sudan. Its hard to believe that SPLM was genuine in making its move but lets argue it from the facts of the sections of the CPA that Bashir wanted to silently amend without consulting its negotiating partner.SPLM in few words means a party that acts as a bridge to achieving the long dream of transforming sudan.I just can shout to the top of my voice but wants to humble commend on the support of the NDA.The Bashir’s government has always been a block to the full implementation of various wings of the CPA and that in other words will lead us to a grave of words, where we end up with the game of HIDE AND SEEK.If Bashir thinks he is an island then he should be ready to leave that chair for full realization of CPA.Its not all about contradicting the policies of the ruling government by the opposition or keeping the government on toes but the truth of the junk is that we want to see a just and liberal relief of the worries that sorrounds the document of peace-CPA. We should look at the move by NDA as an element in what the outside sees of the Bashir’s government. I believe we are tired of such happenings and if it means abandoning him for the sake of the majority we will do that.The few political parties that look at the move by the SPLM as a jeopardy to the full implementation of the CPA has quoted it wrong and that gives us a clue of what they want. SPLM/A was in the bush for 21 years fighting for the rights of a common southerner..parties are coming up now claiming to know more about the Comprehensive peace Agreement, where were you during the war and in particular during the negotiations? lets not hoot those soundless horns to confuse the fate of what we are fighting for.Its a fact to say that CPA will continue to suffice as long as we all nurse.
(The author is a Law student at Kampala International University)