SPLM-N denies peace talks on S. Kordofan, Blue Nile conflict
November 19, 2013 (PARIS) – The Sudan People Liberation Movement –North (SPLM-N) chief negotiator, Yasir Arman, dismissed statements saying that peace talks will resume during the upcoming weeks as it was announced by a Sudanese government negotiator.
Speaking from the headquarters of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, he stressed that such statement about negotiations are part of the public relations campaigns the regime used to launch, but the regime has no real intention to reach a peaceful settlement.
A member of the Sudanese negotiating delegation , Hussein Hamdi, last Sunday stated that they will meet with the SPLM-N in Addis Ababa by the end of this month or early December in Addis Ababa.
Also the Sudanese top negotiator Ibrahim Gandour announced last week the government’s readiness to discuss peace with the SPLM-N on the basis of the 2005 peace agreement and the UN resolution 20146 (2012).
Arman said the decision of the UN Security Council demands to engage talks on the basis of a framework agreement signed on 28 June 2011, stressing that the latter speaks about comprehensive solution in Sudan.
“We in the SPLM are ready to sit down and negotiate with the government but the Sudanese issue cannot be resolved only by two parties. It must be resolved in a comprehensive manner”, he said.
He further said that their different meetings with the European officials confirm that the international community supports the holistic approach to bring peace in Sudan.
“And we also want a comprehensive solution”, he stressed.
Sudan and SPLM-N delegations met last April but the two parties failed to agree on the agenda for the talks as Khartoum denounced the 28 June framework agreement.
John Ging, Director of Operations, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, last week slammed the Sudanese government and the SPLM-N for their failure to meet over a polio vaccination campaign UN agencies plan to carry out in the SPLM-N controlled areas.
He urged the Security Council to do something effective and different from a press statement it had issued last October calling to the parties to agree on the technical plans for this vaccination operation.
Following the end of the 12-day unilateral cessation of hostilities in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan, Sudanese official vowed to crush the rebel groups in the two areas. Different attacks and counter-attacks are reported since the 15 November.
The Sudanese government, supported by the African Union, refuses to hold a comprehensive process aiming to dismantle the regime of president Omer Al-Bashir and organising new elections in the country.
Some western countries, including the USA, say favourable to the holistic approach. However the Security Council supported a call by the African Union on the non-signatory Darfur rebel groups to negotiate a peace agreement with Khartoum under the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur.
(ST)