Sudan rejects negotiating with SPLM-N Agar: government negotiator
September 16, 2017 (KHARTOUM) – A member of the government negotiating team said they wouldn’t negotiate with a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/North (SPLM-N) that has no ability to implement what will be agreed upon.
The Sudanese army has been fighting the SPLM-N rebels in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan, also known as the Two Areas since 2011.
The SPLM-N is now divided into two factions: one in the Nuba Mountains led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu and the other in the White Nile State led by Malik Agar. The rift emerged several months ago over the right of self-determination and other organisational issues.
Abdel-Rahman Abu Median, a member of the government negotiating team, in statements to the semi-official Sudan Media Center (SMC) on Friday, expressed doubts about the ability of the SPLM-N Agar to hold a general conference for its members next October saying “Agar has no influence on the ground”.
“The government delegation does not accept negotiating with any group from the SPLM-N that does not have the ability to implement what is agreed in the negotiating on the grounds,” he said on Friday.
He underscored that the government negotiating position is “clear and unified”, expressing readiness to resume negotiations at any time.
The SPLM-N al-Hilu has a similar point of view as they say there is no split within the rebel movement, but only a change of leadership stressing they have the SPLA-N support.
The SPLM-N Agar recognize the rift and propose to form a joint delegation. If this proposal is rejected they propose to coordinate with the SPLM-N al-Hilu.
The mediators met the two factions last August, but they didn’t fix a clear position on the matter, while the facilitators from the Troika countries and the European Union also didn’t determine a unified position over the matter.
The armed groups in Darfur and the other political forces members of the Sudan Call alliance are expected to push for the inclusion of the two factions in the peeace process, because Agar’d faction is supporting their position for a comprehensive and inclusive peace process.
Abu Median added the African mediation has informed the SPLM-N factions that talks would resume on the basis of what has been reached in the previous rounds of negotiations.
In March 2017, the Nuba Mountains Liberation Council (NMLC), an SPLM-N political body in South Kordofan, rejected the resignation of al-Hilu from his position as the SPLM-N deputy chairman and announced its support to the right for self-determination, and refused to disband the SPLA-N during the interim period.
Furthermore, the NMLC decided to remove Yasir Arman from the position of secretary general and chief negotiator of the rebel group in support of al-Hilu who accused Arman of accepting the dissolution of the Movement’s army during the transitional period and refusing to include the self-determination in the SPLM-N’s position paper to the negotiations.
The two tools are seen by al-Hilu as the only guarantee for the full implementation of any peace agreement they would sign with the government.
Mahmoud Kan, the AU representative in Khartoum, told the SMC last week that the SPLM-N al-Hilu in a recent meeting with the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) explained its position on the self-determination reiterating its commitment to the unity of Sudan.
The SPLM-N al-Hilu wants “a Sudan united on the basis of the Movement’s conditions related to the recognition of religious rights and particularities of the people in the Two Areas, the rights of people in the Two Areas (for developments) and not to apply the Islamic law on Christians in the two Areas,” said the African Union official.
(ST)