JUBA, Sudan (AP) - Southern Sudan's former rebels on Thursday suspended participation in the central government, accusing it of failing to abide by a peace deal in a dispute that threatens a rare success in the troubled nation. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement said it was withdrawing its 18 Cabinet ministers, including the foreign minister and the vice president, and three advisers.U.S. officials and other international observers have warned that a 2005 peace agreement between Sudan's north and south was in danger of unraveling, threatening a new civil war that could also dash hopes for ending a separate conflict in western Darfur.
Pagan Amum, the party secretary-general, said the decision was not intended to renew conflict but to push for better implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. ``We are working to avoid a return to war,'' he told The Associated Press. ``We want to make sure the CPA is implemented rather than dishonored.''
The People's Liberation Movement accuses the Khartoum government of multiple breaches of the peace deal, including not sharing oil wealth, failing to pull troops out of the south, and remilitarizing contested border zones where the main oil reserves are located.
| Surprise, surprise, surprise .... |
Amum urged the U.N. Security Council to meet to examine the peace deal's problems. ``These aren't delays, these are flagrant violations,'' he said.
There was no comment from the government in Khartoum, which seemed to have been caught by surprise by the decision. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq refused to comment on the southerners' decision except to say that the ministry's two deputies would take charge. Both are northern Arabs and members of the ruling National Congress Party.
The U.S. Embassy said it was aware of the southerners' decision to pull out from the government and said it continued to support the unity of Sudan. Andrew Natsios, the White House's special envoy to Sudan, said during a visit to Sudan last week that he was ``deeply concerned with the health'' of the 2005 agreement and warned, ``the risk of a clash is high.''
The Khartoum government led by President Omar al-Bashir has rejected a border drawn by an international commission, and both sides have reportedly massed fighters along the contested region.
Khartoum's hard-line Arab elite has ``its own power system,'' Amum said. Without the balance of the former southern rebels, ``They will go back to their old ways, which is the way of dictatorship,'' he said.
| Here's a situation wherein one of the two major parties is no real prize, but the other is a flat-out disaster for us. We should very quietly help the southerners as they manuever to form an independent government. Intel, small quantities of arms, training, etc. |