Senior South Sudan leader says Khartoum is involved in arming, financing and training militias in the SouthSouthern Sudan has suspended talks with Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) after accusations directed at Bashir involving a plot to overthrow the new government in the South, Al Jazeera reported last weekend. Secession is scheduled to become official on 9 July of this year, but fears have been expressed that these accusations might delay the process.
Pagan Amum Okiech, secretary-general of Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) has told Al Jazeera on Saturday that “the ruling National Congress Party [NCP] of Sudan is recruiting, arming, financing and deploying militias in South Sudan with the aim to destabilise the South. We have detailed information and documents showing the NCP and various institutions of government like military intelligence in Khartoum, so-called peace advisory council and or national security involved in arming, financing and training militias in South Sudan."
After the overwhelming result of almost 99% of the voters backing up independence in January's referendum, president Bashir promised to recognise Southern Sudan as an independent state. As a ‘reward’ for him accepting the South's independence he has hinted that the International Criminal Court (ICC) should withdraw the arrest warrant. Bashir is accused of links to war crimes committed against civilians in Darfur after rebels took up arms in 2003. Even though this is a separate conflict, the BBC reported last month that the African Union wants the arrest warrant to be dropped, as peace in the region now has priority over justice for crimes committed in Darfur. Until so far, there are no signs of the ICC withdrawing the arrest warrant.
Al Jazeera further reports that the autonomous southern government has accused the North of backing militias in the South to destabilise the region and keep control of its oil, an allegation dismissed by the government in Khartoum. This allegation follows a series of clashes, which erupted last weekend in and around the capital of South Sudan's Upper Nile statem Malakal. With the attack on Malakal, one of the South’s three main settlements, the clashes between the South’s army and the rebel fighters intensified. The number of casualties is yet unknown.
The escalation of violence between the South’s army and the rebel fighters indicates that peace is far away.
By Elisabeth Koek