Sudanese official : Southerners signing of oil drilling deals “unacceptable”

KHARTOUM, Feb 25, 2005 (SUNA) — The ruling National Congress (NC) secretary-general, Ibrahim Ahmad Omar said that the Naivasha agreement stipulated the procedure and party allowed to sign agreements with foreign parties, and that any thing else outside this framework would be unacceptable, and in breach of the agreement.

He added “Although we have not seen any official document to prove what you have just, it is still unacceptable that an agreement on oil should be signed the way you described.”

The secretary-general said “we will only say our final word when we see the official documents. We do not base our decisions on reports such as these.”

Omar made this statement in reply to questions by the press on the reports that the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, SPLM, has signed agreements with a number of countries and firms to drill for oil and extend the railway line to the south, and whether such agreements were in violation of the Naivasha agreement,