Army spokesman Lt.
Gen. Kuol Deim Kuol said Thursday the commander, David Yauyau, has requested a
cease-fire and the southern military has accepted.
Yauyau said he
would engage with southern leaders if “they are ready for solutions.”
Soldiers have been tracking Yauyau, who
sparked an uprising in the Pibor area of Jonglei after alleging fraud in
national and local elections in April, accusing the southern ruling party of
corruption.
"Yauyau was
the one who started the fight, but now it seems he has learnt the wisdom that
it is better to solve disagreements through peaceful settlement," said Kuol,
of the former rebel turned official Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).
"He has
approached the local authorities in Pibor to start talks and called for a cease-fire,
which has been agreed by SPLA headquarters to allow negotiations to go
ahead."
Yauyau, from the
Murele ethnic group, is not believed to have major military forces but is seen
as a destabilizing threat as the south gears up for a referendum on its
potential full independence due in January.
Two other rebel
commanders are also being sought by the south.
In June, the SPLA
said renegade colonel Galwak Gai had fled from Unity state into the key oil
field of Heglig, to sections controlled by northern military forces.
A third, George
Athor, a senior southern officer who began a rebellion after losing the
gubernatorial race in Jonglei and who Gai loyalists are thought to be close to,
is also still on the run.
The southern army
accuses the rebels of acting on behalf of former civil war enemies in Khartoum
in a bid to destabilize southern Sudan ahead of the upcoming referendum, a
charge denied by the central government.
Kuol said he hoped
the cease-fire would lead to the end of the rebellion.
"We are
hoping that Yauyau is honest in his intentions in calling for a cease-fire, and
not using this as a manipulative tactic to buy more time," the SPLA
official added.
"We believe
that sitting down to talk over problem matters is a better solution that just
jumping to a gun," he said.
South Sudan is
still recovering from decades of war with the north, during which about two
million people were killed in a conflict fueled by religion, ethnicity,
ideology and resources, including oil.
More than 800
people have been killed and over 222,000 people have been forced from their
homes in the south since January, according to UN estimates.
Despite
disarmament efforts, guns remain common in Jonglei, an isolated and swampy
state about the size of Austria and Switzerland combined but with limited mud
roads often impassable for months during heavy rains.
