SPLM/A accuses Khartoum of frustrating peace efforts

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Thursday accused the government of Sudan of frustrating efforts to end the country's 18-year civil war. The southern rebel group said in a statement they had been informed by Khartoum that it was postponing indefinitely participation in peace negotiations scheduled for 24 September to 6 October under the aegis of the East African regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

"The government is putting obstacles to frustrate the Sudan peace process by giving flimsy reasons for not attending," the SPLM/A spokesman, Samson Kwaje, said in the statement. According to the SPLM/A, the Sudanese government cited its "preoccupation" with the 11 September terror attacks in the United States, and preparations for a ruling party congress as reasons for pulling out of the talks. "These reasons are not genuine. The real reason is that the government of Sudan is backing away from IGAD's peace process in preference to other initiatives that do not address the root causes of war," Kwaje said.

Both the Sudanese government and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) - an opposition umbrella group including the SPLM/A - in June accepted the provisions of a parallel peace initiative proposed jointly by the governments of Egypt and Libya. Some NDA members, however, have criticised the Egyptian-Libyan proposal for failing to include the principles of separation of religion and state and self-determination for the south - both included in the IGAD-sponsored plan.

The latest round of IGAD-sponsored talks had already been rescheduled from 5 September. On that occasion, a postponement was made after non-arrival of the SPLM/A delegation at the talks' venue in the Kenyan capital, the state news agency SUNA reported on 5 September.