Sudanese government’s negotiating team to meet Mbeki on Two Areas conflict
July 2, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – A member of the government negotiating team on the conflict in the Two Areas Saturday said his team would meet with the chief African mediator Thabo Mbeki following the Eid al-Fitr (the Festival of Fast-Breaking) to discuss the latest developments on the Roadmap Agreement.
However, only Khartoum government signed the framework text while the four groups declined the text, saying the Roadmap would reproduce the regime.
The opposition groups handed over a supplemental document to Mbeki and vowed to reconsider their rejection of the Roadmap if he accepts it to ensure that the Roadmap becomes a gateway to an equal, serious and fruitful dialogue.
In his reply to the opposition, the chief mediator said in his quality as facilitator he cannot hold such negotiations with any of the Sudanese parties, pointing that he forwarded the proposal to the Sudanese government and requested its response.
On Wednesday, the Sudanese government told the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, Donald Booth, that it sticks to the Roadmap and refuses the supplemental agreement proposed by the opposition.
Member of the government negotiating team on the conflict in the Two Areas Hussein Karshoom revealed that his team will meet with Mbeki after Eid al-Fitr to discuss the latest developments on the Roadmap, saying the government has furnished the mediation with some clarifications on the peace plan.
He told the semi-government Sudan Media Center (SMC) that his team will meet with the Sudan Call if they sign the Roadmap in order to arrange for the cessation of hostilities and agree on the security and humanitarian issues besides completing the framework agreement which they had previously agreed on 90% of its items.
South Kordofan and neighbouring Blue Nile state have been the scene of violent conflict between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/North (SPLM-N) and Sudanese army since 2011.
Last December, negotiations between Khartoum and the SPLM-N stalled after the government delegation insisted that the objective of talks is to settle the conflict in the Two Areas, while the SPLM-N team has called for a holistic approach to resolve ongoing conflicts across Sudan.
Karshoom stressed government readiness to continue the talks if the opposition signs the Roadmap as a general framework that paves the way for holding the national dialogue with the participation of the holdout groups.
The opposition calls to hold a preparatory meeting for the national dialogue; ensuring political and press freedoms, release of political detainees and to set up a transitional government to implement the outcome of the national dialogue.
Karshoom further renewed the government rejection to any supplemental documents to the Roadmap, saying the peace plan has received large support.
The Sudanese government has received widespread international and regional support for the signing of the Roadmap. The UN chief, African Union chairperson, the United Kingdom and the United States have also urged the opposition groups to join the peace plan.
(ST)