By Newsfromafrica
KHARTOUM - Negotiations between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/North (SPLM-N) on the situation in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states will begin Tuesday April 23 in Addis Ababa, the head of the Sudanese government delegation, Ibrahim Ghandour, told reporters in Khartoum on Sunday.
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Northern Sector (SPLM-N) also in a press release stated that the movement’s chairperson Malik Agaar received an official invitation from the African high implementation panel for the start of the direct negotiations between the SPLM-N and the Sudan government scheduled for 23rd of April.
The Sudanese government has confirmed its willingness to negotiate with the rebel group, SPLM-North, says Ghandour.
He claimed: “We are ready to sit at the negotiation table and negotiate with the northern sector and we are waiting for the time when dialogue will start.”
The Movement has responded positively to the invitation and reaffirmed their readiness to negotiate with Khartoum, claimed the official spokesperson of the SPLM-N negotiation team Zainab Mahmoud Al-Dhawi .
She revealed that the movement’ delegation to Addis Ababa constitutes 15 members adding that the delegation which will be headed by SPLM-N Secretary General Yasir Arman. She said that theyhad been prepared for these negotiations since the 15th of February.
Zeinab further reiterated her movement’s stance on the peace process as the means of ending the suffering of thousands of displaced people in the two areas of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile.
She stressed that the SPLM-N negotiating team will go to Addis Ababa for the talks based to the African Union’s decisions, and the UN Security council’s resolution 2046, and the frame work agreement signed between Nafei and Agar in 28 June 2011.
Ghandour said that his delegation will leave for Addis Ababa on Monday to engage in negotiations with the SPLM-N under the auspices of the African Union (AU), adding that negotiations will be confined only to the issues of the two states.
The Khartoum government had recently relayed their consent to negotiations with the SPLM-N to the African mediation.
This came after both government of Sudan and South Sudan agreed to implement the matrix on security that led to implementation of the cooperation agreement and the security arrangements between the two countries.
Last month, Sudan’s defense minister, Abdel-Rahim Mohammed Hussein, confirmed Khartoum’s new position that it is "ready to negotiate with the SPLM-N" but only based on the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
Sudan has been strongly resisting regional and international pressure to negotiate with SPLM-N rebels calling its leaders "outlaws" and issuing arrest warrants for them.
The Secretary-General of the SPLM-N, and head of its negotiations team, Yasir Arman, will lead a delegation comprised of fifteen members to Addis Ababa, and will meet with the head of the African Union (AU) mediation team, Thabo Mbeki, prior to the start of negotiations.
Official spokesperson of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), Yasir Youssef, said on Sunday that they are not concerned by the choice of Arman to lead the rebel delegation.
However he told reporters in Khartoum in Khartoum that the talks will be based on the protocol related to the Two Areas included in the CPA.
Meanwhile, The state governor Ahmed Haroun scoffed at this month’s shelling of South Kordofan capital city of Kadugli by SPLM-N calling it a result of internal developments within the rebel movement that ended up targeting the people and not the government.
Three people were killed and 6 others including three women injured in the SPLM-N shelling which was reportedly launched from the south-eastern part of the city thus landing in the neighborhoods of Gadisiyah.
