Sudan, South Sudan to discuss rebel support next month
Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:58am EST
(Corrects translation of quote from "useful" to "extensive" in paragraph 8)
* Sudan accuses Juba of supporting SPLM-North rebels
* Talks ended without a breakthrough on Tuesday
* Both sides under pressure from oil shutdown
By Alexander Dziadosz
KHARTOUM, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Sudan and South Sudan will tackle the sensitive
issue of support for rebel groups for the first time when they resume
security talks next month, Sudan's defence minister said on Wednesday.
The former civil war foes have been at loggerheads over their contested
border and other issues since South Sudan seceded last year under a 2005
peace deal.
The disputes came to a head in January - when landlocked South Sudan shut
down its entire 350,000 barrel-a-day oil output in a row with Khartoum over
transit and other fees - and again in April, when border clashes brought the
two close to all-out war.
Sudan accuses South Sudan of supporting rebels fighting in two states that
border South Sudan. Juba denies supporting the rebels, known as the
SPLM-North, and in turn accuses Khartoum of backing insurgents on its
territory.
The SPLM-North rebels were part of the southern insurgent army during the
civil war but were left in Sudan with partition.
Facing heavy pressure from the United Nations and African Union mediators,
Sudan and South Sudan signed a raft of deals in September including one to
pull back their armies from the border. Both sides say that step is needed
to resume oil flows.
But talks in Addis Ababa about how to put those agreements into practice
ended without agreement on Tuesday, and South Sudan's chief negotiator told
Reuters the negotiations were now "deadlocked".
Sudan's Defence Minister Abdel Raheem Mohammed Hussein n evertheless said
the negotiations had been "extensive" and that South Sudan had agreed to
discuss its alleged support for Sudanese rebels.
"This is a big step," he told reporters at the Khartoum airport after
returning from Ethiopia, adding that the two sides would meet again on Jan.
13 in Addis Ababa.
Hussein said the issue of rebel support had gone nowhere in previous
meetings between security officials but there had been more progress this
time.
"This time there was an agreement that this is an essential issue and should
be discussed," he said, adding the two sides would discuss it during their
next meeting.
Late on Tuesday, Thabo Mbeki, the African Union mediator and former South
African president, said the two sides had agreed to take "practical steps"
to demilitarise the border.
But the two were still in disagreement about how to dimilitarise a disputed
strip of land known as Mile 14, he said.
"The parties continue to agree that it should be demilitarised but they are
discussing how to effect that decision," Mbeki told reporters in Addis
Ababa.
Both economies are facing severe strain because of the loss of oil revenues,
which accounted for 98 percent of South Sudan's state income before the
shutdown and were Sudan's biggest source of revenues and foreign currency
before secession.
Some 2 million people died in Sudan's north-south civil war, which left
South Sudan economically devastated and awash with guns. (Additional
reporting by Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa; Editing by Alison Williams)
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Received on Wed Dec 19 2012 - 11:48:33 EST
