SPLM/A to press funding of 3 armies at Sudan peace talks

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 28, 2004 (PANA) — Ahead of the resumption of Sudan peace talks in Kenya 7 October, a senior
official of the southern Sudan People’s Liberation
Army/Movement (SPLA/M) said Tuesday the organisation
would insist on the funding of three separate
armies.

Castello Garang Ring, SPLA/M International Co-operation
and Development Commissioner said an earlier attempt
to bridge the financing gap for the three armies provided
for under a Security Arrangements Protocol stalled
because the Khartoum government had insisted on funding
only one army.

Based on the accords they signed in the Kenyan
south-western town of Naivasha, the Sudanese parties
are expected to reach a final peace deal setting up a
permanent ceasefire commission and army financing.

“The SPLA/M is supposed to be one of the three armies
for Sudan, there is supposed to be a separate national
army and the existing Khartoum-based one, but we are
expected to give 50 percent of our oil revenue to finance
the two other armies,” Ring told PANA.

He said “the issues for discussion are how to transform
the agreements into laws, which must be respected and the
financing of the three armies.”

Earlier talks held between 21 June and 28 July in Naivasha,
Kenya, ended in deadlock over security arrangements
disagremment.

Meanwhile, Lazarus Sumbeiywo, Kenya’s Special envoy to the
talks brokered by the Inter-Governmental Authority on
Development (IGAD), said the Sudanese sides had reached
“important understandings” on the ceasefire zones, the
time for entry into force of the ceasefire agreement as
well as the monitoring and verification of the agreement
and military missions.