Pro-government militia in south Sudan vows to fight for survival
KHARTOUM, July 18 (AFP) — A pro-government militia in southern Sudan which could be outlawed under a peace deal aimed at ending more than two decades of conflict has warned it will fight for its survival.
Sudan’s government and the main southern rebels Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) are expected to wrap up Monday a penultimate round of peace talks in Kenya to secure a permanent ceasefire crucial to ending Africa’s longest civil war.
Part of the an earlier agreement broadly outlined how Khartoum would withdraw regular soldiers from southern Sudan and how troops from both sides would be integrated into a new army.
However, the head of the National Popular Forces, a pro-Khartoum militia with some 50,000 men who have fought beside the army during the bitter and bloody conflict, Major General al-Toam al-Nour Daldoum, has signalled he may take a stand against the peace deal.
“It is unacceptable that the National Popular Forces hands its positions and weapons over to the (Sudan People’s) Liberation Movement,” Daldoum was quoted as saying by the official Al Anbaa daily on Sunday.
He said he wanted clarification on what would happen to his militia, which he said holds 66 positions in the south.
The conflict erupted when the rebels rose up against Khartoum, ostensibly to end Arab and Muslim domination and marginalisation of the black, animist and Christian south in 1981.
While religion and ideology have also fuelled the war, they are just one facet of a very complex conflict, in which control of natural resources including oil has played an increasingly dominant role.
The peace accords being negotiated in Kenya do not cover a separate conflict raging in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, which erupted in February 2003 when black African rebel groups rose up against the Khartoum government, and which has sparked a massive humanitarian crisis.
Daldoum objected to an apparent threat by SPLA leader John Garang during a recent meeting with NPF leaders in Nairobi to cut off the militia supply route when he becomes leader of southern Sudan during an interim period.
Under the peace accords, southern Sudan will eventually enjoy a six-year interim period of autonomy before holding a referendum on its political future.
“The NPF has sent a clear message to Garang that it would not yield to his threats and would defy him during the transitional period,” Daldoum said.
The militia wants to “participate militarily and politically in the south,” he said, cautioning “the Sudan is not a property of anybody” and pledging to raise the issue with President Omar al-Beshir.
Garang had reportedly turned down a demand from the pro-government militias in Nairobi to establish joint military units.
In another troubling sign for peace, a Darfur rebel group has reportedly signed an alliance with a smaller eastern faction and vowed to continue fighting to topple the central government.
The Darfur Justice and Equality Movement signed a deal with the Free Lions Movement of eastern Sudan in the Eritrean capital Asmara on Thursday to keep waging war on Khartoum and unify their military, political and information efforts, Al-Sahafa daily said.