SPLM’s northern sector calls for continuation of economic sanctions on Khartoum

March 26, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – A high-ranking delegation of the Sudan People’s liberation Movement (SPLM) northern sector which is currently visit the United Sates, urged Washington not to lift economic sanctions on Khartoum until it affirms commitment to democracy and human rights.

The northern sector delegation, which is led by its chairman Malik Aggar and deputy chairman Yasir Arman, has extended its visit to Washington on a request by the U.S’s permanent representative to the UN Susan Rice who is scheduled to meet the delegation at a later date in New York.

In a symposium held at Woodrow Wilson center in Washington, Yasir Arman urged the U.S Administration of president obama not to lift economic sanction it imposed on Sudan since 2007 over the situation in Darfur region unless Khartoum demonstrates commitment to democratic transformation, saying that President Al-Bashir’s government should not be rewarded for separating the south but for giving “freedom and democracy to the Sudanese people.”

Arman said that President Obama must include Sudan in his policy of supporting popular uprisings against dictatorships in the Middle East. He also stressed the need for writing a new constitution in north Sudan, saying that the new constitution must be “free, democratic and reflects the diverse nature of the Sudanese nation in terms of ethnicity, religion, tribes and languages.”

Furthermore, Arman criticized President Al-Bashir’s assertion that the north would be a purely Muslim country after the secession of the south, warning that the SPLM’s “military strength of 40,000 soldiers in north Sudan” should not be underestimated.

The SPLM’s delegation is scheduled to meet on Monday with White House officials and the U.S congress, including ambassador Lyman who is the Administration chief moderator for talks between north and south Sudan on post-secession arrangements. North and South Sudan are currently engaged in floundering talks over a wide-array of issues related to the disentanglement of the two states, including citizenship, sharing of oil revenues and external debts.

Yasir Arman said that the delegation had met with Daniel Baer, the U.S Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy Human Rights, and discussed issues of arrests, tortures and violations of constitutional rights, especially against women and youth, following a string of crackdowns by the Sudanese authorities against peaceful anti-government protestors over the last two months.

“The delegation discussed with Baer issues of constitutional re-configuration in north Sudan and the need for a comprehensive change and a national dialogue that excludes no one,” Arman said. “There is no escape from new constitutional arrangements that take into account the lessons of failure which led to the secession of the south and a consensus on how the north should be governed before who governors it,” he added.

South Sudan, whose population mostly ascribes to Christianity and traditional beliefs, voted almost unanimously in a referendum earlier this year to secede from the predominantly Muslim north and form an independent state whose official existence is due to be declared in July this year. The plebiscite was the final stage of the 2005’s comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended nearly half a century of north-south’s intermittent civil wars.

Arman stressed that the SPLM in north Sudan would revitalize the “new Sudan project” in view of the existing reality of two states in order to “reunify” Sudan on voluntary basis or achieve confederation between the two states.

The SPLM’s delegation also met with the U.S’s Assistant Secretary Of State for African Affairs Johnny Carson who, according to Arman, affirmed the administration’s keenness on north Sudan issues and the realization of new constitutional arrangements, a solution to the conflict in Sudan’s western region of Darfur and respect for the “popular consultation process.”

The two Sudanese states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, which lie in the faultline between north and south Sudan, are scheduled to hold “a popular consultation” vote on whether the CPA’s implementation “has met public aspiration.” However, the vote does not entail the right of self-determination to any of them since they are both considered a part of north Sudan.

Arman said that the SPLM’s delegation had also met with Vicki J. Huddleston, U.S Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Africa, and discussed new security arrangements in the Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains area in South Kordofan.

The delegation also met with a number of American advocacy groups and civil society organizations focusing on Sudan.

(ST)