July 19, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government unexpectedly opened the door today for accepting international peacekeepers in South Kordofan where fighting there has been ongoing since early June.

"If there’s an agreement with local leaders specifying the sending of foreign troops, it will be welcome," Sudan’s foreign minister Ali Karti said on the fringes of a conference in Vienna according to Agence France Presse (AFP).

"But at the moment we don’t have an agreement," he added.

The state which borders South Sudan and Darfur witnessed intense clashes last month between Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) units led by Abdel-Aziz al-Hilu who was former deputy governor of South Kordofan.

The fighting occurred shortly after the state’s gubernatorial elections in which al-Hilu lost to Ahmed Haroun who was the candidate of Sudan’s ruling party.

Haroun is one of the suspects wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur where 300,00 are estimated to have been killed since rebellion broke out in 2003.

Al-Hilu claimed the vote was rigged in favor of Haroun and thus declared the SPLM’s non-recognition of the result. Independent election observers endorsed the result despite controversial voter registration and constituency demarcation in the run-up to the poll.

A leaked United Nations report obtained by Sudan Tribune documented abductions, arbitrary arrests, aerial bombardments and attacks on churches in the course of the fighting in South Kordofan. The acts were blamed on SAF and may amount to war crimes, the UN said.

But Sudan’s top diplomat dismissed the allegations, saying there was fighting "but no atrocities," and spoke of "activists" spreading misinformation.

The African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) headed by former South African President Thabo Mbeki managed to broker a preliminary accord between Khartoum and SPLM-North in late June to de-escalate tensions in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

But Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir later rejected the agreement signed by his assistant Nafie Ali Nafie and ordered SAF to continue military operations in South Kordofan and called for the arrest of al-Hilu so he can be tried for what he described as crimes against innocent civilians.

He openly faulted his negotiators for agreeing to the terms of the accord for future talks with the SPLM, which he accused of committing an act of “treason” in South Kordofan.

Bashir’s position was widely seen by observers as a huge embarrassment to his powerful aide who denied any rifts within the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) over handling the situation in the border state. However, he acknowledged that officials in Khartoum have different views on the issue.

Karti’s remarks may stir further controversy within the NCP given the dominance of hardliners in the party who advocate the military solution to the crisis.

Sudan has staunchly rejected any attempts to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) which expired with South Sudan’s independence this month.

Several nations including the US and UK said they were concerned about the impact UNMIS departure would have on civilians, particularly in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

SAF and SPLA appear to be locked in a military stalemate though details from the ground remain sketchy with both sides claiming the upper hand.

Today SAF said it repulsed an attack launched by the SPLA in South Kordofan and inflicted heavy losses. The army denied a statement by Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) yesterday that it fought alongside SPLA in an attack against a SAF camp near the state capital of Kadugli.

(ST)