July 3, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The ruling National Congress Party in North Sudan dismissed on Sunday suggestions of any in-party discord over the framework agreement it signed with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the north on new security and political arrangements in the war-battered state of South Kordofan.

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) north’s secretary general Yasir Arman speaks during a joint news conference with Malik Agar, head of the northern branch of SPLM, in Khartoum, July 3, 2011 (Reuters Pictures)

NCP’s chairman and Sudan President Omer Al-Bashir on Friday appeared to be overruling an agreement signed between his party and the SPLM in Addis Ababa last week to start talks on a ceasefire in South Kordofan, saying he had ordered the army to continue its operations there until the state is "purged" and the "rebel" SPLM’s leader in the state, Abdel Aziz AL-Hilu, is caught and brought to justice.

“We order the armed forces to carry on its operations and not to stop until South Kordofan is purged as Abyei was purged before, and Abdel Azizi is arrested and brought to trial," Al-Bashir told a gathering of citizens following Friday prayer at a mosque in Khartoum.

North Sudan’s army known as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has been fighting elements aligned with the opposition SPLM in South Kordofan state since early June. The fighting escalated into artillery and aerial bombardment by SAF, resulting in the displacement of more than 70,000 people, according to UN figures.

The Addis Ababa agreement stipulates the NCP’s recognition of the right of the South Sudan’s ruling SPLM to continue as a legal political party in the north despite previous assertions by NCP hardliners that the SPLM would not be allowed to exist in the North after secession.

The agreement also acknowledges that SPLM’s fighters in South Kordofan are Northerners and should therefore be integrated into SAF. It further stipulates that the two parties should start talks on an agreement to cease-hostilities in the state.

The NCP’s political secretary Al-Haj Adam Yusif announced on Sunday that the party had formed a committee to consider remarks expressed by the party’s leadership over the framework agreement. He said, according to Sudan official news agency SUNA, that the remarks would be communicated to the party’s negotiating team before it starts the new rounds of talks.

Adam denied any "contradiction" between what was agreed in Addis Ababa and the president’s instruction for the army to continue its operations against "the rebellion" in South Kordofan. Adam pointed out that the agreement does not contain any provisions of a truce on the ground.

The NCP official went on to defend Al-Bashir’s description of Al-Hilu as a "rebel," saying it is “true considering that he [Al-Hilu] resorted to war in South Kordofan.”

Adam further suggested that the military situation in South Kordofan is somewhat detached from the political negotiations.

"We are now talking in political terms, the agreement is political and has no relation with the military affairs," he said. "We in the NCP talk only on the political side, the military side concerns the armed forces."

Adam stressed that the SAF was the only body authorised to use arms to confront rebel forces, and that the president in his capacity as a commander-in-chief had the right to issue directives for the army to do whatever necessary to safeguard the lives of citizens in South Kordofan.

In the meantime, the SPLM claimed its forces had achieved major victories on the ground and inflicted great losses on SAF and its allied militias in South Kordofan.

Gamar Dalman, the media adviser to the SPLM’s chairman in South Kordofan, on Saturday said that SPLM forces on Thursday achieved its “biggest victory” over SAF since the war broke out in early June.

According to Dalman, SPLM forces inflicted great losses on SAF in Kahliat area to the west of Kadugli, the state’s capital. Dalman went on to claim that the SPLM had seized six vehicles and large amounts of ammunitions whereas SAF fled the area leaving behind 83 killed soldiers.

The SPLM’s spokesman regretted Al-Bashir’s order for continuation of military operations in South Kordofan, saying that Al-Bashir’s “unhelpful” statements shows that he is "frustrated" and proves a state of division within the NCP.

Meanwhile, the SPLM’s northern sector’s secretary-general Yasir Arman has warned against reneging on Addis Ababa agreement, saying that those trying to persuade the government to scrap the agreement and hit with a fist of iron were “playing with fire.”

"There are voices in Khartoum against this framework agreement, those voices are playing with fire," Arman told a press conference in Khartoum on Saturday.

The veteran SPLM figure further warned that the only alternative to this framework agreement is “a war that runs from the Blue Nile to Darfur.”

Anti-SPLM media in North Sudan have been scathingly criticizing the Addis Ababa agreement, saying it gave the SPLM too many concessions.

Arman expressed confidence that the agreement would be implemented and reach its logical conclusion of a cease-fire in South Kordofan.

He further disclosed that the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zinawi and the AU moderation team led by Thabo Mbeki were considering sending a private jet to transport Al-Hilu from the field in South Kordofan to Addis Ababa.

Arman said that the SPLM’s delegation was ready to sign an agreement on cessation of hostilities immediately.

(ST)