Separatist Khartoum elite want break with South Sudan
KHARTOUM, Sudan, April 29, 2004 (PANA) — As Sudanese peace talks in the Kenyan town of Naivasha are deadlocked over power-sharing and the application of Sharia (Muslim code) in the Sudanese capital, a group of political elite in Khartoum has asked the government to stop the negotiations.
The group of political leaders of the North issued a manifesto here Wednesday rejecting peace talks between the Khartoum government and the rebel Sudan People`s Liberation Army/ Movement (SPLA/M) to end the 20-year long civil war in southern Sudan.
In 2002, Khartoum and the SPLA/M signed an accord granting the South the right to self-determination after a six-year transition period, while last September both sides reached a deal on transitional security under which the government would withdraw its troops from the South.
The war, which along with famine and disease has killed at least 1.5 million people and displaced over four million others, pits the Arab/ Muslim north and the war-ravaged south, where most people are Christians or practice traditional animist religions.
The rivals also clinched an agreement on a 50-50 split of the country`s wealth, particularly oil revenues from wells mostly found in the South.
But the manifesto, read at a public rally here Wednesday, demanded the government to stop negotiations immediately with SPLA/M because signed agreements were “unbalanced” and caused “injustices over the Arab Muslim north”.
The group read the manifesto barely a day after Washington piled pressure on the rival sides, saying their marathon talks hosted by Kenya had come to a “make-or-break” point.
The North leaders bitterly attacked SPLA/M chief John Garang labelling him as a “dictator” and accusing him of implementing “Israeli agenda inside Sudan”.
Accusing SPLA/M`s Garang as an Israeli agent in the region, the group said, “we noted time and time again that Israel wanted to strike the Muslim majority in Sudan and isolate them from their Arab and Muslim identity”.
The group led by former influential figures of the ruling National Congress party, includes former Finance Minister Abdelwahab Osman, former Khartoum State Health Minister Babker Abdelssalam, and opposition leaders like Abdurrahman Farah of the Umma Party.
It demanded President Omar Hassan el-Bashir to review negotiations strategy by giving a chance for all Sudanese nationals to vote on self-determination because “the final agreement which the government is expected to sign with the rebels would impact on all Sudanese citizens in the North and South”.
The politicians also want a referendum over the fate of the South instead of long transitional period. They urge President Bashir`s regime to allow “other ethnic leaders who felt social and political hatred in the west, east and north to take part in negotiations till the power and wealth-sharing is decided on just basis”.