Sudan rejects French proposal for a conference on CPA implementation

October 21, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government dismissed calls by the French government for an international conference to discuss the crisis between the partners in the government of national unity.

Sudan’s presidential adviser Ghazi Salah Al-Deen told the daily Al-Rayaam that the proposal “is useless” and noted that there are mechanisms within the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to resolve any issues that come up.

Al-Deen said that his government received an invitation for an international conference in Paris on the CPA through the French envoy in Khartoum. He added that several other countries were invited including US, China and Saudi Arabia.

Last Thursday Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) decided to suspend their participation in the national unity government because of what they describe as the NCP’s failure to fully implement crucial elements of CPA.

The latest move by the SPLM raised concern that the CPA that ended two decades of civil war between the Arab and Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian and animist black southerners may unravel.

The presidential adviser said that “there is no need to renegotiate on issues that were settled before and became part of the constitution”.

“Any intervention [foreign] will only complicate matters” he added.

Last week French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner expressed concern about the suspension of the SPLM participation in the National unity government.

Kouchner said that he had proposed to hold an international ministerial conference to reenergize the implementation of the CPA.

Analysts say that Sudan’s relations with France are strained over the latter’s hosting of the hardliner Darfur rebel leader Abdel-Wahid Mohamed Al-Nur. The Sudanese government accused France of not putting enough pressure on Al-Nur to attend the upcoming peace talks in Sirte, Libya.

Al-Samani Al-Wasila a state minister at Sudan’s foreign ministry described France’s position on Darfur as “isolated”. Al-Wasila suggested that the French position is motivated by a “power struggle” with the US in Africa.

The 2005 peace agreement brokered by the US and other western countries ended two decades of civil war between the Arab and Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian and animist black southerners.

(ST)