Sudan ready to meet SPLM-N over vaccination campaign: negotiator
November 14, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government is ready for discussions over polio vaccination with the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N), announced the chief negotiator Ibrahim Gandour who accused the rebel group of hindering the campaign in the Two Areas.
The government, earlier this month, announced an unilateral cessation of hostilities discussed with the members of the tripartite initiative but declined to negotiate it with the rebels. But, the SPLM-N demanded a negotiated truce saying they do not trust unilateral decisions. The rebel also pointed that the AUHIP is the only body mandated to deal with these issues.
The African Union mediation, in order to facilitate the vaccination campaign, called on the two parties to meet in Addis Abba on 4 November, as the meeting had to deal only with the technical measures necessary to reach and immunise children in the rebel areas.
Gandour on Thursday said the government is ready to join the negotiating table and to negotiate with the SPLM-N over these technical plans needed for the campaign. However, he repeated that they did not receive an invitation to that meeting from the AU mediation.
The Sudanese chief negotiator went further to say the government is ready to discuss a negotiated settlement for the conflict in the Two Areas with the rebel group as it was announced recently by the president Omer Al-Bashir before the parliament.
He said they informed foreign diplomats based in Khartoum on the government’s position for peace in Sudan.
He also rejected Ging’s statements, adding it was the SPLM-N who impeded the conduct of the campaign.
The UN coordinator last Monday said the UN Security should reengage in a different and more effective way with the two parties, stressing that previous attempts did not bring tangible results.
On 10 October the UN Security Council issued a press statement expressing alarm and grave concern at the imminent threat of the spread of polio through South Kordofan. It further urged the two parties to resolve differences over the technical plans to allow this operation.
However, the president of the 15-member body for November announced on Monday 11 November that the Security Council is working to consider a way to enable the polio campaign in the Sudan to go ahead.
Speaking to reporters after closed-door consultations on Sudan and South Sudan, the Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations, Liu Jieyi said that the vaccination campaign is a concern for the UN body.
“It is an issue that bears on the well-being of children. Children are the future. So we do hope that the conditions will be there so that this polio vaccination campaign can go ahead immediately covering those children that need such a vaccination,” Liu said.
NEW CAMPAIGN IN DECEMBER
Sudanese humanitarian commissioner Suleiman Abdel-Rahman, on the other hand, announced that a new polio vaccination campaign will be organised next December in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.
The commissioner told reporters on Thursday that the next campaign “will begin on the first day of December”, expressing hope that SPLM-N softens its stance, otherwise the Security Council will be compelled to intervene to enforce the campaign, he further stressed.
Ging on Monday pointed out that the positions of the two sides obstruct the UN efforts to eradicate the Polio disease from the planet.
Abdel Rahman said the SPLM-N argues that civilians in the rebel held areas do not trust the government pointing out that the vaccination campaign is implemented by the UN agencies and the government is not party in it.
He also said the SPLM-N doubts the validity of vaccines, adding that UN officials reassured the rebel that it is fabricated outside Sudan under the supervision of the United Nations.
Previously the SPLM-N said the vaccines should be brought to South Kordofan directly from Ethiopia and Kenya. However, the rebel group changed its position and demanded that UN peacekeepers in Abyei region be tasked with the transportation of the vaccines to the rebel areas.
UN agencies say they target 165 children under five years in the Two Areas, over 147.000 are in the South Kordofan.
Different cases of polio, a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours, reappeared first in Somalia, a war ravaged country, in Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan recently.
(ST)
