Dissent seen in Sudan ruling coalition over aid expulsion

March 10, 2009 (WASHINGTON) — First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit and other senior government figures, including some in the National Congress Party (NCP), object to the expulsion of 13 aid groups from Sudan, said an official belonging to the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Last week government security forces implemented a decision to kick out 13 aid groups whose services benefited 4.7 million people in Darfur alone, according to the United Nations. The NGOs were accused of working secretly to defame Sudan by passing information to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“The First Vice President of the Republic, who is the Chairman of the SPLM and President of South Sudan, he is not consulted; the Minister of Foreign Affairs who is SPLM is not consulted; the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs who is SPLM is not consulted; and even the top leadership of the National Congress Party, some of them are having different views of this,” said Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, the Head of Mission to the United States for the Government of Southern Sudan.

Gatkuoth suggested that spy chief Salah Gosh is responsible for the decision, saying that it was the security force that convinced President Al-Bashir to order the expulsion and that the matter was not open for discussion at a council of ministers held last week on Thursday. SPLM members were silent at the high-level session, he noted.

Neither the cabinet-level minister of humanitarian affairs Harun Lual, who is SPLM, nor the state minister of humanitarian affairs Ahmed Haroun, who is a wanted war crimes suspect, were consulted on the matter, he disclosed. Haroun has been excluded from ongoing discussions with UN humanitarian aid officials because of the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him for his alleged role in atrocities in Darfur.

“The SPLM is strongly condemning this unilateral decision by the NCP for expelling the NGOs from the region of Darfur and the three areas, which are Southern Blue Nile, Southern Kordofan and Abyei,” said the official, highlighting that the decision also affects aid operations in these three areas of special constitutional status.

Likewise, according to UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, who spoke in New York on Monday, it was unclear whether the aid efforts would be allowed to continue in these areas.

An SPLM crisis management team headed by Deputy Secretary General Yasser Arman and Foreign Minister Deng Alor and others is in the capital to support a reversal of the decision. Under the laws governing the aid organizations, the ousted groups are allowed a 30-day appeal process, which is being vigorously undertaken by the aid groups.

Despite these efforts, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Mutrif Siddig has declared that the move against the aid groups is irreversible.

But Gatkuoth, who also represents the SPLM party in the United States, stressed that “we are challenging this, we are telling them they should reverse this, because there are no linkages between expelling NGOs and what happened in The Hague by the ICC. This is a wrong decision that has been taken, and a decision like this, in accordance with the CPA agreement, should actually be done based on the consensus of the First Vice President of the Republic of Sudan.”

He also reiterated the offer made by First Vice President Kiir that the aid groups could relocate their headquarters to Juba as a temporary arrangement. But he acknowledged that this move would not make it much easier for them to operate in Darfur.

The council of ministers held another meeting today.

(ST)