Security at heart of north and South Sudan crisis

The Chairman of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), Thapu Mpeki, said that he saw little change in Khartoum’s position regarding the resumption of negotiations with Juba, during his talks today with the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. Mbeki’s visit comes more than two weeks after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution,  demanding that north and south Sudan sit down for talks on key post-independence issues including oil, border demarcation, citizenship and the disputed region of Abyei. The UN has said that both sides must reach an agreement within three months after which the mediation would propose its own solution to the deadlock. The council threatened non-military sanctions on any party deemed not to be in compliance with its decision. While Sudan accepted the resolution, it insisted that the issue of security and particularly Juba’s alleged support to northern rebels must be tackled first before they move to other items. The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) foreign relations secretary, Ibrahim Ghandour, told reporters after the lengthy Mbeki-Bashir meeting, that the Sudanese leader underscored the importance of reaching a permanent peace with South Sudan that guarantees no more attacks from both countries against each other. Last month the Sudanese army managed to recapture the oil-rich region of Heglig inside South Kordofan after South Sudan's army (SPLA) briefly seized it. The clashes ignited fears of an eruption of a full-scare war between the two countries. Bashir told Mbeki that rapprochement with Juba requires ceasing support to rebels, halting attacks near borders, respecting previous border monitoring accords and withdrawing what Khartoum claims to be the presence of 9th and 10th SPLA divisions inside the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, where Sudan's army has been battling rebels since last year. The Sudanese leader expressed readiness to implement Mbeki’s proposal of a demilitarised zone 10 kilometers inside each country’s borders. For his part, Mbeki mentioned Khartoum’s willingness to withdraw to within the 1956 borders, but added he is not clear if it includes the disputed Abyei region, which according to last year’s agreement requires both countries to pull out their troops. This month Juba completed its withdrawal, but Khartoum has refused to follow suit despite Security Council resolutions, stating that they will only do so after completing the deployment of Ethiopian peacekeepers.