SPLM/A and Didinga community end long-standing dispute

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), which controls much of southern Sudan has reached an agreement with the Didinga people of the Equatoria region in the south to end their long-standing bilateral conflict. A two-page declaration issued after a "reconciliation and healing" conference between the Didinga and SPLM/A held in Nakwatom between 8 and 12 August said about 170 delegates from the local Didinga community, as well as from the neighbouring Toposa, Latuka and Dinka communities, attended the conference, according to a statement from the Kenya-based New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC). Telar Deng, the NSCC Peace and Advocacy Coordinator and main facilitator of the conference, told IRIN on Tuesday that the declaration was a breakthrough, because it had resolved a "problem that has existed for a long time". He said a special committee had been set up to ensure the smooth implementation of the declaration, which would be supervised by himself. "This agreement is different in the sense that it gives people the opportunity to express their views freely. Previous initiatives failed because they were done by the SPLM/A, yet it was accused of oppressing the people. There was a high presumption that the SPLM/A, because of being a party to the conflict, couldn't resolve it," he said. In the declaration, signed on 12 August under the auspices of NSCC, the two parties apologised to each other, pledged to unite and to work towards solving the many problems affecting war-ravaged southern Sudan. "Having listened to all our deliberations and perspectives, we acknowledge and regret the shameful loss of life, suffering and destruction of property that occurred over the years, and ask forgiveness for the suffering caused to our loved ones, relatives and the community at large," the declaration said. "We all share the blame for yielding to 'blind revenge' and thus identifying the crisis, but we pledge today to forgive one another and open a new chapter," it added. According to Deng, relations between the Didinga community, who occupy the Chukudum area in Budi sub-county of the Equatoria region, and the SPLM/A had been tense for many years, but worsened in 1998, which saw increased fighting between the civilian population and the SPLM/A authorities. The conflict has been attributed to security concerns, governance in the area, socio-cultural factors, and economic interests, in addition to general conditions occasioned by the war between the Khartoum government and the SPLM/A. The 12 August declaration, said Deng, was also of "great significance" in the overall Sudanese peace process and the current talks on ending the country's 19-year civil war. The talks, which opened last week in the southwestern Kenyan town of Machakos under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, are a follow-up to the July talks which resulted in an agreement between the Sudanese government and SPLM/A for the holding in six years' time of an internationally supervised referendum on whether the south should secede from the north. The agreement was hailed as a breakthrough.