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Exchanged accusations heighten between Sudan, South Sudan
Xinhua | 2012-7-22 8:20:35
By Agencies
Exchanged accusations have recently escalated between Sudan and South
Sudan of violating fragile agreement of ceasefire, at a time when the
African Union was seeking to bring the two sides back to the table of
negotiations, hosted by Ethiopia.
South Sudan delegation to the Addis Ababa negotiations on Friday
announced suspension of direct negotiation with Sudan at the Ethiopian
city of Bahar Dar due to what it said bombardment by Sudan's army of
areas inside South Sudan, but Sudan denied those claims and accused
South Sudan of supporting Darfur rebel groups.
Atif Kiir, spokesman of South Sudan delegation said, "the negotiations
were suspended in protest against Sudanese army's bombardment of area
in North Bahral-Ghazal State."
However, Sudan denied South Sudan government's accusations that
Khartoum's army had bombarded areas inside South Sudan.
"These accusations are absolutely untrue. We have not conducted any
bombardment south of the international borders," Al-Sawarmy Khalid
Saad, spokesman of Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), told Xinhua on
Saturday.
"These accusations have political dimensions. The south may want to
stop the negotiations currently going on in Ethiopia," he added.
He said the Sudanese army was ready to cooperate with monitoring
committees formed by the African Union (AU) to verify such
allegations, saying "there are monitoring and complaint committees and
we are ready to cooperate with them."
Sudanese political analysts believe that suspension of the direct
negotiations marked the beginning of the collapse of the current round
of negotiations, led by Thabo Mbeki, Chairman of the African Union
High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP).
"It was not easy to persuade the two sides to engage in direct
negotiations and therefore suspension of the direct negotiations means
returning to the zero point," Mussa Awad, a Sudanese political
analyst, told Xinhua.
"The recent events at Heglig have caused a lack of confidence between
the two sides; therefore it was not easy to bring the two sides back
to the negotiation table. South Sudan's decision to suspend the direct
negotiations could be the beginning for the collapse of this round."
He further accused South Sudan of attempting to foil the current round
of negotiations, saying "Juba had worked to foil the previous round
via its adherence to a new map including strategic Sudanese areas, and
presently it is trying to hamper the negotiations through escalation
of accusations against Khartoum."
The Ethiopian resort of Bahar Dar has been hosting the most recent
round of negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan, under the
mediation of the African Union.
Many previous rounds of talks have failed to resolve the outstanding
issues between the two countries including security, oil sharing and
border demarcations files in addition to the affiliation of the
disputed oil-rich area of Abyei.
Received on Sun Jul 22 2012 - 20:33:24 EDT
