SPLM-N tells US officials regime change is the only option with Khartoum

Sudan peoples Liberation Movement – North

The SPLMN Representative to the United States of America, Anwar Elhaj and his Deputy Philip Tutu, have concluded a series of meetings in the last two weeks with a number of US Administration Agencies, Think Tanks, Advocacy Groups and Humanitarian Voluntary Organizations concerned with the situations in Sudan. These meetings followed up and build on previous discussions and contacts set on motion by the Secretary General of the SPLMN during his last visit to the United States.

1- Two meetings at the US State Department with the Assistants and the Advisors of the US Special envoy to Sudan Ambassador Princeton Lyman on October 28th and November 8th 2011.

2- Two meetings with Mr. John Prendergast and the Sudan Desk Staff at the Enough Project on the 2nd and the 10th of November 2011.

3- A meeting with the Director of the Sudan Program at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). The meeting was also attended by a number of representatives and organizations including Congress members staffers, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), The Woodrow Wilson International Center, The Netherland Embassy to the USA and other NGOs concerned with Sudan issues.

4- A meeting with Dr. Faith McDonnell, the Director of Religious Liberty at the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

5- Two meetings with the Charge de affair of the Embassy of the Republic of Southern Sudan to the United States and his staff.

6- A meeting with The Open Society Institute.

The meetings primarily focused on the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the war affected areas in South Kordofan State – the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile State where the Government of Sudan, led by National Congress Party (NCP), is using food as a weapon against civilians displaced by the war. In the face of the consistent refusal by the NCP government to give access to humanitarian agencies and organizations to deliver the urgently and desperately needed humanitarian assistance, it is of a paramount importance and urgency for the US and the rest of the International community to come up with alternative methods to deliver these assistance to IDPs who are still under a unrelenting indiscriminate aerial bombardment against civilians villages, water reservoirs, pasture and farms.

The meetings also discussed the unremitting random aerial bombardments against civilians’ villages, farms, pasture, cattle and water resources in the South Kordofan and the Blue Nile States that forced civilians to seek refuge across the boarders in the Republic of Southern Sudan or into Ethiopia or hide in caves and valleys. If such a disastrous situation continued undeterred, the consequences of will be far beyond the imagination of everyone in the region or the international community. An imposition of a no-fly zone over the States of the Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur will help to protect the lives of innocent civilians so that when the international humanitarian organizations and workers are permitted to operate, they should find somebody to shelter, feed and treat, or soon the area will completely be deserted and depopulated.

We have also drew the attention of these meetings to the unprecedented and appalled arrest and detention of more than 200 of the members and leaders of the SPLMN, the confiscation of all assets of the SPLMN in all States, and the subjugation of its members to extreme forms of physical and psychological tortures. The meetings also discussed the horrific events of arbitrary killings and ethic profiling against innocent civilians in the Nuba Mountain and the Blue Nile States for no reason other than the color of their skin, ethnicity or language. Such events requires and immediate action from the part of the international community to establish an Independent International Body to investigate these credible incidents which amount to crimes against humanity and war.

The SPLMN asserted in all of these meetings that the NCP government never listens to reasoning and niceties but responds positively to strong pressures and the only strategy left to end the wars in Darfur, the Blue Nile and South Kordofan is to change the regime in Khartoum. The change of regime in Khartoum is a prerequisite, since they have dishonored every agreement signed, for stability, democracy, freedoms, rule of law, security, anti corruption, development, sharing of wealth and power, equality, social justice and good governance.

Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement – North

United States – Washington D.C.

11/11/2011