SPLM-N’s Arman to return to Khartoum to promote peace: statement
April 30, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) led by Malik Agar has decided to send a delegation to support the Sudanese revolution and to put the issues of war as a priority in the democratic transition process.
In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Tuesday, the group said the decision was taken in a leadership meeting including the group chairman Agar, his deputy Yasir Arman and the secretary-general Ismail Jalab.
“We are in contact with our allies in the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) and the Sudanese leaders abroad to form a joint delegation to go to Khartoum as soon as possible to support the objectives of our noble revolution, to meet with the Military Council and insist that the issues of war should be resolved in one package within the transitional arrangements”.
The executive leadership has decided that the SPLM-N Agar delegation will be headed by Yasir Arman and Ismail Khamis Jalab, further said the statement.
Agar and Arman left Sudan following the eruption of war between the SPLM-N and the Sudanese army in June 2011. Both are sentenced to death by Sudanese courts.
“The military junta, including the (Sudanese) Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, contributed to the change, the arrest of the former regime leader and his clique and refused to shoot protesters and worked to protect them. This makes them a party to change,” said the statement.
Despite the tension and divergence of vision in some issues, the unity of the Revolutionary Front, the Sudan Call, the Sudanese Consensus Forces, the Freedom and Change forces, the Sudan Liberation Movement – Abdel Wahid and the SPLM-N led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu is a key condition to achieve the objectives of the Sudanese revolution.
MEETING OF SPLM-N FACTIONS
The statement further revealed that President Salva Kiir facilitated the first meeting between Agar, al-Hilu and Arman for the first time since the split of the Movement, which fights the government in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, into two factions in April 2017.
“President Kiir today (Tuesday) flanked by SPLM historical leaders in South Sudan met in his office for long hours with comrades Malik Agar and Abdel Aziz al-Hilu and Yasir Arman for the purpose of unifying the SPLM-N,” read the statement.
“The President of Southern Sudan will continue his unswerving efforts to unify the SPLM-North,” stressed the statement sans elaborating on the outcome of the meeting and what the two sides discussed.
President Kiir after the signing of the revitalized peace agreement in September 2018, announced his plan to reconcile his former comrades and to reunite the SPLM-N factions before to facilitate a peace agreement between them and Khartoum.
Since he organized separate meetings with the two sides. Also, Agar and al-Hilu met several times during the past five months in Juba. But, Tuesday meeting was the first to gather the three leaders.
Al-Hilu accused Arman who was the secretary-general and chief negotiator of ignoring his demand to include the issue of self-determination for the Two Areas on the agenda of the African Union-brokered peace process.
(ST)