Sides accuse each other of violating peace deal

Recent claims by Sudanese rebels accusing the government of violating a peace agreement have raised fears of a resumption of hostilities between the two sides and cast a cloud over ongoing peace talks.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army on Tuesday claimed government soldiers and militia forces had launched surprise attacks on the rebel-held town of Tam in the Western Upper Nile region and on Reang, east of Koch in southern Sudan. It said the attacks were repulsed by the SPLA.

SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje also accused Sudanese President Umar Hassan al Bashir of "beating war drums" via the Khartoum media.

Under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed in November at the end of the latest round of peace talks underway in Kenya, the parties agreed on a cessation of hostilities throughout the country. The agreement was to last until the end of March 2003. Peace talks are due to resume in the Kenyan town of Machakos later this month.

"This is again a violation of the truce, which contradicts article 6.3(a) of the MOU," Kwaje said in a statement. "Similarly, for the last few days, Umar al Bashir has stepped up hostile press propaganda against the SPLM/A and its leadership."

Bashir reportedly told a mass rally in the eastern Sudanese border town of Kassala at the weekend that he would use the "barrel of the gun" to bring peace to the war-torn country, if the ongoing negotiations failed.

In response to Kwaje's statement, the Sudanese authorities said the SPLM/A's accusations themselves constituted a violation of the MOU, which expressly prohibits the use of media campaigns by both sides.

Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, told IRIN on Thursday a communications committee had been set up in Machakos during the talks, through which such grievances could be channelled and discussed.

He said he could therefore not comment on the issues raised by the rebels as that would be tantamount to violating the MOU. "We had agreed not to continue media campaigns about each other. We have channelled our responses to all the allegations through the committee," Dirdeiry said.

South Sudan has been the scene of fierce fighting between the Khartoum government and the SPLM/A since 1983. An estimated two million people have been killed and four million displaced as a result of the war, which has been complicated by ethnic rivalries and issue of oil.