CAIRO/KHARTOUM, 2 November 2003 — Sudan’s president accused the leader of southern rebel forces in his country of waffling on questions holding up their peace accord in an interview published yesterday by an Egyptian daily.
“(John) Garang has gone back on questions which were settled by the Machakos accord (in July 2002), such as the creation of a central bank for southern Sudan, of a currency only for the south, and of a defense ministry, all of which would pave the way to secession and we refuse that,” Omar Bashir told Al-Ahram.
“Why this procrastination, why these obstacles?” the president wondered. However, Bashir added that “the negotiations have covered most of the ground, and despite the problems, we expect to rapidly reach a peace accord.”
The Sudanese peace negotiations are scheduled to restart Nov. 30 after Ramadan in Kenya with both parties saying they expect to sign a comprehensive peace accord by the end of this year.
Khartoum and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, the southern rebel movement led by Garang, signed in July 2002 the Machakos accord, allowing for a period of autonomy of six years for the south at which point a referendum on self-determination would be organized.
Bashir said three questions still need hashing out before signing the accord — power sharing, resource sharing and the status of three contested regions in the center of the country, Abyei, the Nuba Mountains and the southern Blue Nile.
“Garang said that the inhabitants of these three regions supported him during the fighting and want to link up with him, but this is false because these regions are part of northern Sudan and Arab tribes live there”, the president said. “Besides, the SPLA has no presence in those regions.”
Meanwhile, rebels from western Sudan who signed a cease-fire with the Khartoum government two months ago said Sudanese armed forces launched an airstrike against their bases yesterday, a move they considered a “return to war”.
But Hassan Ibrahim, spokesman for the negotiation delegation of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, said the group remained committed to ongoing peace negotiations in Chad, and would respect the ceasefire as long as talks continued.
“We choose to inform the international community and the people of Sudan of this latest development which we consider to be a return to war and proof of the Khartoum government’s lack of sincerity,” Ibrahim told Reuters from the talks in the Chadian town of Abeche, near the borders of the two countries. “We are committed to the continuation of the negotiation process and will raise this matter with the Chadian mediator,” he said.
