SPLM-N names external experts for talks with Khartoum

February 7, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) on Friday released the names of its negotiating team for peace talks with the government and a list of national experts including rebels, opposition parties and civil society members.

In line with its demand for a comprehensive process to end the different conflicts in Sudan and to establish a democratic regime, the rebel SPLM-N unveiled that it formed a panel of 24 national experts who will second its negotiating team which will start talks with the government delegation next week in Addis Ababa.

In a statement released on Friday, the spokesperson of the SPLM-N negotiating delegation, Mubarak Ardol, said that a group of seven experts will join their delegation in each round of talks with the government.

Ardol further determined the experts who will be part of their delegation in the meeting of 13 February to discuss a peaceful settlement for the three-year conflict in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, under the auspices of an African Union mediation team led by the former South African president Thabo Mbeki.

“The seven who will participate in the next round are: Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail, Farah Ibrahim Alagar, Shafie Khidir, Suleiman Jamous, Mohamed Abdellah Khater, Omar Ismail, and Najwa Musa” he said.

Suleiman Jamous, and Mohamed Khater are respectively leading members of the Justice and Equality Movement and Sudan Liberation Movement – Minni Minnawi . The two rebel groups took part in a workshop on peace in Darfur organised by the joint mediator and head of UNAMID Mohamed Ibn Chambas last December.

Bishop Elnail of the Kadugli Diocese, he wrote to president Obama and African leaders calling to take action to protect civilians in the Two Areas.

Farah Ibrahim Alagar is a former member of the National Congress Party in the Blue Nile state . He was sacked from the ruling party in December 2012 after launching an initiative calling to give the Two areas a large regional autonomy.

Shafei Khider, is a prominent member of the central committee of the opposition Sudanese Communist Party.

Omar Ismail, is a Darfurian activist and policy advisor at the Enough Project.

The SLM- Abdel Wahid Al-Nur which is a member of the rebel alliance Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) is not represented in the experts panel. The rebel group says it would only sit on the negotiating table with the regime when the latter accepts a holistic process under the terms of the opposition and rebel forces.

The SPLM-N delegation will be headed by its secretary general Yasir Arman and includes the deputy chief negotiator Gen. Murad Jcod Mekouar, Neron Philip Ajou, Hashim Orta al- Daw, Ahmed Abdel Rahman Saeed, Sylla Musa, Buthaina Ibrahim Dinar, Izdehar Jumma Saeed and the spoesperson Abdel Rahman Mubarak Ardol.

The SPLM- N says the peace process should negotiate a comprehensive cessation of hostilities and to ways to open humanitarian corridors to bring aid to the civilians affected by the conflicts in Blue Nile, Darfur and South Kordofan.

Sudanese government chief negotiator, Ibrahim Gandour on Thursday said the process will only negotiate a peaceful settlement for the war in the Two Areas on the basis of the framework agreement the two sides reached on 28 June 2011.

He also admitted that the humanitarian situation will be part of the process but stressed that the talks should address the root causes of the conflict in Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

(ST)