Negotiators of Sudan and South Sudan on
Wednesday shared views of what they expect from each other in order to settle
security and border issues, Sudan Tribune has been told.
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FILE
PHOTO - Pagan Amum (left), chief negotiator from
South
Sudan, lead mediator for the African Union,
Piere
Buyoya (centre) and Sudan’s head negotiator
Idriss
Abdu Qadir
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Sources privy to the talks being held
in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa said that the negotiating teams of
Khartoum and Juba agreed after a lengthy meeting to form a mini-committee
comprising three representatives from each side as well as two representatives
from the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), the facilitator
of the talks.
Negotiations between Khartoum and Juba
resumed on Tuesday after a two-month hiatus that saw the two neighbors fighting
a war around disputed oil region of Heglig which was briefly occupied by South
Sudan before being re-taken by Sudan.
The sources revealed that the two
sides had presented proposals on security issues, including cessation of
support to rebels, disputed regions and cross-border hostilities.
According to the sources, the proposal
of Khartoum’s negotiators contained demands that Juba severs its ties with “the
9th and 10th divisions” of the southern army, SPLA, in reference to the
combatants of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) which
is fighting the Sudanese government in the country’s border regions of South
Kordofan and Blue Nile.
Khartoum’s negotiators said that the two
SPLA divisions-turned-rebels in the run-up to South Sudan’s secession last year
must accept to be disarmed in order to find a comprehensive solution to their
situation, either through the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration
program (DDR) which is a key provision of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
(CPA).
Sudanese negotiators also indicated
the possibility of holding direct negotiations with the commanders of SPLM-N
forces under the supervision of the AUHIP led by former South African President
Thabo Mbeki.
The security problems have gradually
been part of the talks on the outstanding issues in the implementation of the
CPA the two parties signed in 2005.
The fight in South Kordofan between
the Sudanese army and the SPLM-North results of the failure of the two sides to
agree on the implementation of security arrangements. The lack of a clear
mechanism in the CPA on how and when they should be disarmed led to military
confrontation between them when the Sudan Armed Forces threatened to forcefully
disarm the SPLM-N combatant.
On the other hand Juba, since even the
start of South Kordofan rebellion, accuses Khartoum of backing rebel groups
that appeared in South Sudan after April 2010 elections.
Furthermore, the negotiators demanded
that South Sudan ceases all forms of support to rebel groups from the western
region of Darfur and expels them from its territories. Khartoum’s team also
demanded that SPLA forces withdraw south of the 1956 borders and asked for the
formation of a committee to monitor this process.
On the other hand, Juba’s proposal
insisted that Khartoum reinstates commitment to all previous agreements,
including the one signed in June 2011 between Sudan’s presidential assistant,
Nafie Ali Nafie, and the SPLM-N rebels in Addis Ababa.
The said agreement provided a
framework for settling the conflict in South Kordofan as well as recognizing
the SPLM-N as a legal political force in Sudan. It was however scrapped by
President Al-Bashir following a fierce campaign by anti-SPLM forces in Khartoum.
South Sudanese negotiators also
insisted that Sudan pledges “in writing” to cease support to southern rebel
groups as well as aerial bombardment in southern territories.
South Sudan repeatedly accuses
Khartoum of conducting air raids on its territories as well as supporting rebel
groups operating mainly in the South’s northern states of Unity and Upper Nile.
The southern delegation further
demanded that all disputed border regions be turned into demilitarized zones
under a joint administration. The sources added that the southern delegation
also demanded the immediate start of negotiations on oil exports.
Sudan Tribune’s sources said that the coming hours
would be crucial in determining the course of the negotiations. They said they
expect that if the mini-committee manages to make progress, it would pave the
way for holding a meeting of the joint political-security committee headed by
the ministers of defense and chiefs of security from both sides within 48
hours.
The sources also added that the two
sides are competing to demonstrate commitment to the AU roadmap and the UN
Security Council (UNSC)’s resolution number 2046, which ordered them to
conclude negotiations on citizenship, oil, borders and the status of Abyei
within three months. They also said that each side is trying to show the other
to be reluctant to abide by the resolution.
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