MOU “misunderstood”, SPLM says

The SPLM said the SRRA’s “good intention” to regularise operations with the NGOs had been “misunderstood and deliberately misinterpreted by some NGOs to mean control of their work by the SRRA”. Though some NGOs had accepted the government’s “operative regulations”, others appeared to “want to operate at will” in southern Sudan, SPLM humanitarian affairs chairman Nhial Deng Nhial said in a statement. “It is those NGOs who do not want to respect our laws, and who do not want transparency and accountability, that are opting to leave on their own,” he said. The SPLM looked forward to working with those “non-political and very caring NGOs who have opted to sign”.

The SRRA may be prepared to review the memorandum with those NGOs that signed, but those that did not were “irrelevant” and there would be no negotiations with them on the document, SRRA executive director Elija Malok told IRIN this week.