- News>
- World
Sudan slams aims of rebel merger
The Sudanese government has attacked the aims of a merger of two rebel groups after a 10-year split for stressing that their aim was to fight Khartoum instead of seeking peace, a press report said Tuesday.
The Sudanese government has attacked the aims of a merger of two rebel groups after a 10-year split for stressing that their aim was to fight Khartoum instead of seeking peace, a press report said Tuesday.
"We expected that the merger agreement would talk about reaching peace in Sudan instead of showing an intention for escalating the military operations," Foreign Minister Mostafa Ismail was quoted by independent Akhbar Al Youm daily as saying.
He was commenting on a merger agreement signed in Nairobi at the weekend between John Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and Riek Machar's Sudan People's Democratic Front (SPDF).
Ismail added that "even after the merger, the rebel movement will never manage to resolve the issue militarily."
He said the agreement "demonstrates the militant mentality of John Garang."
He also alleged that the field commanders of the SPDF are opposed to reuniting with the SPLA "because of heir knowledge of treachery of John Garang."
He predicted that Machar would face the same fate as other rebel leaders who were "liquidated" by Garang after reuniting with him, citing Kerbino Kuanyn who rejoined the SPLA after breaking with the government ranks in 1999.
A statement after the merger said the two groups agreed to immediately halt fighting each other and to work towards forming a single military entity to "resist the aggression" of the Khartoum government.
Sudan's civil war has raged since 1983. As well as fighting the Islamic government in the north, the various rebel groups in the south have done much fighting amongst themselves.
Machar's group reached a peace agreeement with Khartoum in 1997 and he later served as assistant president under Omar el-Beshir, but resigned early in 2000, claiming the government had reneged on the agreement.
Bureau Report
"We expected that the merger agreement would talk about reaching peace in Sudan instead of showing an intention for escalating the military operations," Foreign Minister Mostafa Ismail was quoted by independent Akhbar Al Youm daily as saying.
He was commenting on a merger agreement signed in Nairobi at the weekend between John Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and Riek Machar's Sudan People's Democratic Front (SPDF).
Ismail added that "even after the merger, the rebel movement will never manage to resolve the issue militarily."
He said the agreement "demonstrates the militant mentality of John Garang."
He also alleged that the field commanders of the SPDF are opposed to reuniting with the SPLA "because of heir knowledge of treachery of John Garang."
He predicted that Machar would face the same fate as other rebel leaders who were "liquidated" by Garang after reuniting with him, citing Kerbino Kuanyn who rejoined the SPLA after breaking with the government ranks in 1999.
A statement after the merger said the two groups agreed to immediately halt fighting each other and to work towards forming a single military entity to "resist the aggression" of the Khartoum government.
Sudan's civil war has raged since 1983. As well as fighting the Islamic government in the north, the various rebel groups in the south have done much fighting amongst themselves.
Machar's group reached a peace agreeement with Khartoum in 1997 and he later served as assistant president under Omar el-Beshir, but resigned early in 2000, claiming the government had reneged on the agreement.
Bureau Report