No SPLM-N participation in Carter Center workshop on Sudan peace talks

The rebel Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) will not take part in a workshop organised by the Carter Center for the Sudanese opposition in the Kenyan capital.

In a statement on Friday, Mubarak Ardol, the spokesman for the SPLM-N Peace Department said that the SPLM-N has declined the Carter Center’s invitation to discuss the current impasse in the Sudanese peace negotiations in a workshop in Nairobi.

The SPLM-N decided to suspend all political negotiations with Khartoum because of the government's targeting of people in Sudan on a racial basis, its continued attacks against civilians in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, and its refusal to allow foreign tracks for the transport of relief items to the conflict-affected people in the two areas. The statement also pointed to the nationwide detention campaign of political leaders and activists and the increased curbing of the media.

The rebel movement will only discuss humanitarian issues with Khartoum, the rebel spokesman stated. He further demanded an investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Darfur.

Last week, a delegation of five experts of the Carter Center arrived in Khartoum for deliberations with “all Sudanese stakeholders” on a possible resumption of the Sudanese peace negotiations. “The meetings are not part of the official mediation that the African Union is conducting, but rather supplemental, exploratory gatherings designed to begin to identify points of common ground among all key Sudanese parties,” the Center said in a statement.

Humanitarian aid

The last round of simultaneous negotiations between the Sudanese government and the SPLM-N on the Two Areas (South Kordofan and Blue Nile states), and the Justice and Equality Moment (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement headed by Minni Minawi (SLM-MM) on Darfur, brokered by the AU High-Level Implementation Panel in Addis Ababa collapsed in August this year.

Both sides accused the other of obstructing the peace talks. While the introduction of new issues by the JEM and SLM-MM caused the negotiations on Darfur to collapse, the provision of humanitarian aid to the war victims lead to a deadlock in the talks concerning the Two Areas.

Chemical weapons

In reaction to a report of Amnesty International about the alleged use of chemical weapons in Darfur in September, the SPLM-N decided to stop negotiating any issue with the current government except for the provision of humanitarian aid to the people in the Two Areas South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

On 2 December, the SPLM-N called for the ouster of President Omar Al Bashir, in response to the austerity measures taken by the government in November. The rebels also stated that they keep to their decision to suspend the peace negotiations with Khartoum.