SPLM-N accuses Khartoum of sabotaging Sudan peace talks
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
December 7, 2014 (ADDIS ABABA) – The chief negotiator for the the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Yassir Arman, has blamed the government delegation of trying to sabotage the peace process, saying they come to negotiate for a comprehensive settlement while the government had insisted on a partial solution.
However, the mediators were forced to suspend talks on Darfur last week as negotiations between the Sudanese government and SPLM-N rebels in Ethiopia reached an impasse over differences in position.
“We (SPLM-N and the government of Khartoum) are coming too far apart from each other,” said Arman at a press conference he gave Sunday at the venue of the talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. He added they want a comprehensive peace while the government insists on a solution for the conflict in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
In addition to the cessation of hostilities in the Two Areas, the SPLM-N wants the negotiated framework agreement includes ways to coordinate and synchronise a comprehensive truce in the Blue Nile South Kordofan states and Darfur region, underlining that the AUPSC calls for a one-peace process held on two tracks.
The SPLM-N also insists on the inclusion of a preparatory conference for the national dialogue including all Sudanese political forces and civil society groups, while the AUPSC calls to hold at the end of talks between the rebels and the government.
Arman said an inclusive process is crucial before going to the national dialogue if all wars in the country are to end.
However, government side has insisted negotiations must be limited only on reaching cessation of hostilities in the Two Areas.
Government negotiating team says they are mandated to negotiate only on the Two Areas and all other remaining issues are addressed at the national dialogue, a demand rebels disagree with.
Arman further accused the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of refusing to recognise AUPSC resolution 456, which calls for synchronised talks between the government and rebel groups, but also for the inclusion of all the political forces in the process.
“It should be a credible process, an inclusive process, inclusivity is important for Sudan and for us to get into a final resolution to Sudan problems and that is the essence of the national dialogue,” he said.
Arman said the government is looking to disarm the SPLM-N forces and in exchange provide them basic needs and constitutional jobs.
“They want us to disarm before addressing the fundamental political issues,” he said.
“What we are here for is to address issues deeper than that [such as] Governance, equal citizenship, land, identity, culture, language and to bring a new paradigm shift that will enable those issues to be administrated within a united Sudan,” he added.
Approached by Sudan Tribune, members of the government delegation have declined to comment.
However, sources close to the process said that Mbeki seeks desperately to save the process but added that he may be forced Monday to suspend the process as the gaps between the two parties are widening.
Since recent weeks the two parties are being engaged in peace talks in Addis Ababa under the auspices of the African Union High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP).
ABU ISSA AND MADANI RELEASED
Arman also called for the immediate release of Farouk Abu Issa, head of the opposition alliance National Consensus Forces (NCF), and Amin Maki Madani, president of the Sudan Human Rights Monitor (SHRM).
Both were arrested on Saturday after the co-signing with the rebel groups of Sudan Call in Addis Ababa on 3 December. The political declaration calls for the end of war and democratic reforms in Sudan.
The SPLM-N chief negotiator said they formally asked the mediation to act for the release of the Abu Issa and Madani.
“We also asked the government top negotiator Ibrahim Gandour during a meeting with him in presence of the chief mediator president Thabo Mbeki to release the two detainees,” he said.
Arman said the detention of the two leaders because they called for peace and democracy in Sudan shows that the government is “unwilling for the national dialogue”.
He further disclosed that the government detained Farah Agar, a former NCP member and its candidate for governor in the Blue Nile state in 2010 election.
Agar was in Addis Ababa talks invited by the SPLM-N as adviser for the peace talks.
(ST)