Sudan’s NCP to slap ban on SPLM-north party
August 12, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) is contemplating a move to ban the armed opposition party Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the country, according to Sudan Tribune’s sources.
The SPLM northern sector in Sudan has been structurally bifurcated from the SPLM in South Sudan which rules the newly independent state.
SPLM northern sector is officially registered as a political party in Sudan but NCP officials have in the past said indicated that they would not allow it to continue its activities in the north, saying it would be considered as an extension of a foreign party after the south declares independence.
The potential ban comes against the backdrop of an alliance being forged by the SPLM northern sector with two rebel groups from the country’s western region of Darfur.
It has been reported that the alliance deal, which includes beside the SPLM northern sector two factions of the Darfur rebel group Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by the Uganda-based Abdul Wahid Nur and Minni Minawi, is not yet sealed as efforts continue to incorporate the other Darfur rebels Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
A reliable source speaking on condition anonymity to Sudan Tribune said on Wednesday that negotiations between SPLM, JEM and the two SLM factions would continue to bridge the gaps between the parties over the contentious issues in order to reach a final agreement.
The declared goal of the alliance is to overthrow the Khartoum government whose army has been battling Fighters of the SPLM’s military wing, Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), in Sudan’s southern region of Kordofan since early June. South Kordofan fighting continues to rumble on after the NCP reneged on a framework agreement signed by its negotiators last month with the SPLM to deescalate the situation.
Sudan President and NCP’s chairman Omer Al-Bashir expressed objection to the agreement’s recognition of the SPLM as a legal political party in the north, ordering the army to sustain its operations in South Kordofan until it is “purged” of whom he called rebels and the SPLM’s leader in the state Abdul Aziz Al-Hilu is arrested.
Meanwhile, the director of Khartoum’s Center for Human Rights (KCHR), a state-run organization, claimed that the continuation of the SPLM in north Sudan after the south’s split is inverse to the constitution.
KCHR director Ahmad Al-Mufti on Friday told the Sudan Media Center, a website run by the country’s security services, that the existence of the SPLM in north Sudan was rendered “unconstitutional” following the south’s secession last month.
He justified his legal edict by saying that the political parties law does not permit any party to have military wings.
In a related development, an NCP parliamentarian has called for a summit between Al-Bashir and South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir to address the tense situation in South Kordofan.
According to Afaf Tawor, the leader of the NCP’s bloc from South Kordofan in the national assembly, the solution to the crisis in South Kordofan lies in the hands of Al-Bashir and Kiir.
She told reporters in Khartoum on Friday that an urgent summit between Al-Bashir and Kiir is needed to put an end to the crisis.
The NCP’s parliamentarian accused the SPLM northern sector of seeking to exploit the indigenous Nuba population in South Kordofan and turn the state into a scene of military operations.
Tawar claimed that fighting broke out in the last two days between two tribes of Nuba and resulted in deaths and injuries.
(ST)