Sudan voices concern over fresh rebel SPLM allegations

NAIROBI, Nov 28, 2004 (Sudanese Radio) — While the government has demonstrated seriousness and keen readiness to begin the process and mechanism of implementing the peace agreement with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the official spokesman of the government delegation in Nairobi peace talks, Sayyid al-Khatib, has announced the absence of a number of key SPLM negotiators.

Sayyid al-Khatib spokesman of the Sudanese government’s delegation to the Nivasha talks with SPLM.

This, he said, would have a negative impact on the mode of negotiations in the work of technical committees, which begun their work on Friday 26 November.

He described statements by some SPLM leaders who alleged that the government had a hand in SPLM’s current problem as regrettable, saying that they represented a clear violation of the agreement to end hostilities.

Commenting the progress made in the talks up to now, Al-Khatib said “The opening ceremony of the peace talks took place as scheduled on 26 November and our delegation has been in Naivasha from that date with all its members, and has been participating in various committees — power-sharing, wealth-sharing, security and military arrangements. Our delegation is also ready to begin talks on the process and mechanism of the agreement”.

However, he noted the absence of many members of the SPLM delegation, including the key negotiators who have participated at the talks before. “In view of this, the talks in the respective committees, according to us, are not meeting our expectations”.

Press statements have been attributed to SPLM leaders to the effect that the government had a hand in the rift emerging within the SPLM leadership and that this reflected the government’s lack of interest in realizing peace in the country.

On this issue, Al-Khatib said, “I learnt this from a source other than the papers which carried SPLM statements and I believe it is a regrettable matter. We can say these statements are some sort of empty allegations that the government was behind some of the problems the SPLM is going through”.

He further added, these statements are irresponsible and baseless. There is no evidence to prove that the government has a hand in what is happening within the SPLM ranks. Secondly this statement is a violation of the agreement on cessation of hostilities between the two sides. In the agreement there are clauses which stipulate that there should be no accusations or attacks on each other in the media. Thirdly, our presence is evidence of our seriousness, desire and commitment to the agreement, which we signed in order to conclude these talks before the end of this year, and we are here for this purpose.

We hope the SPLM will be able to send its key negotiators because without their presence, our commitment alone will not be enough. There should be a second party which we can negotiate with and reach an agreement with, as it has to be a joint commitment and we have to sign together.

We will not be happy to see any obstacles on the path of peace. We should not resort to such old empty allegations which did not led to anything useful. Instead such allegations bring unnecessary dragging of the peace process and its conclusion.

There is no work which we are here for except this, to complete and conclude the peace talks. The side which is serious should prove its commitment by attending the talks diligently as we have all pledged to the international community.

Material from the BBC Monitoring Service.