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 DAILY PRESS REVIEW, Wednesday 11 June 2003
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DAILY PRESS REVIEW
Wednesday 11 June 2003
National Press
Al Ayam Paper, Khartoum: Southern Sudan Defence Forces accuses SPLM/A of occupying Akobo, Upper Nile
The pro-government Southern Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF) threatened to use military force to recapture the town of Akobo, unless the committee on verification and monitoring of the cessation of hostilities manage to make a peaceful evacuation of SPLM/A forces from the town.
The Commander of the SSDF, Taaban Goj, in a press conference in Khartoum yesterday said that the attacking forces of the SPLM/A killed 31 people and displaced some 8,000.
Taaban regarded the attack on Akobo a flagrant violation of the cessation of hostilities.
The SPLM/A has denied any connection with the attack, saying that the incidents in Akobo were government-fed tribal conflicts.
International Newswires
Xinhua, Nairobi: Kenyan special envoy says visit to Sudan on peace talks successful
Kenyan special envoy for peace in the Sudan Lazarus Sumbeiywo said here Tuesday that his recent visit to the Sudan is very successful.
Sumbeiywo, also chief mediator of the Sudan peace talks, arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on June 3 to meet with Sudanese government officials in order to remove the stumbling blocks to the talks.
"We discussed all the outstanding issues on power sharing and wealth sharing, security arrangement and issues on the three conflict areas which fall under Kenyan mediation where I received very good response," Sumbeiywo told Xinhua by telephone.
These issues were raised in the fifth round of the Sudan peace talks which concluded late last month in Kenya.
Sumbeiywo said that during his one-week stay in the Sudan, he also presented his intention to the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) to areas where they would like him to visit, so as to discuss with the other side of the peace talks.
"As soon as I receive communications from them (SPLA), I would again visit the Sudan," he told Xinhua.
After hearing views from the two sides, Sumbeiywo said, he would prepare reconciliatory proposals for them to consider as a framework for a final peace agreement.
The special envoy said he expects the agreement to be reached by mid-August this year that could end the 20-year civil war between the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A.
"But I can't say that (definitely) right now because I have to visit the southern Sudan for a similar mission," he emphasized.
AFP, Khartoum: Sudan opposition wants level playing field before elections
Two leading Sudanese opposition parties on Tuesday urged the government to level the playing field before moving on its proposal for general elections following a settlement of Sudan's 20-year civil war.
The Umma Party and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) rejected outright the government's proposal for a referendum on the settlement itself, which Kenyan mediators predict could be signed as early as August.
A DUP official feared the government would rig the results of the referendum to show
people oppose the agreement and keep the war going.
The government on Monday proposed holding a referendum immediately after a settlement is signed as well as organising presidential and parliamentary elections within 18 months of its signature.
A member of Umma's politburo, Adam Mussa Madibbu, told AFP that elections should be preceded by an agreement on a constitution guaranteeing general freedoms in addition to lifting a three-year state of emergency.
Madibbu suggested elections instead be held "at least two years after a peace agreement is reached when the (current) term of President Omar al-Beshir will be over."
Khartoum has proposed that the elections be held in the first year of the six-year-transitional period, which would start six months after a settlement is signed under a landmark peace blueprint agreed in Kenya last year.
In those two years, a transitional government made up of the current one and the opposition should oversee the formulation of a new constitution, Madibbu said.
It would also oversee the enactment of an election law, the formation of an election commission, and a review of voter registration before holding "free and fair elections under local, regional and international monitors", he said.
Madibbu also said that, in order to create a suitable atmosphere for elections, "the current state of emergency should be lifted and all political detainees be freed."
The Umma official also opposed a referendum on a peace deal and proposed instead that political parties and civil community organisations meet to endorse it "in consensus" since they "represent the people of Sudan".
Ali Ahmed al-Sayyed, a senior official with the opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), charged the government was planning to "rig" the elections and referendum by calling them so early.
Time is needed for "transforming all the single party-dominated institutions into national ones", he said.
The police, prosecution, security and election institutions are currently "dominated by the government and its party", he said.
Sayyed, a lawyer who is also official spokesman of the opposition umbrella National Democratic Alliance (NDA), added that opposition parties needed time to prepare themselves for elections after having been outlawed for so long.
"Elections cannot be held before the general freedoms are provided and before the state of emergency is lifted," Sayyed said.
Sayyed also denounced the proposed referendum on a peace agreement as "unconstitutional".
He predicted the government would " rig the result of the referendum to make it appear that the people are against the agreement and thus take the country back to square one of fighting".
It was not immediately possible to obtain a reaction from the southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the key member of the NDA and the government's sole partner in peace negotiations in Kenya.
The UN System in the National Press
Al Rai Al Aam Paper, Khartoum: Sudan agenda for the meetings with UN secretary-general's envoy
The Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, Mr Tom Eric Vraalsen, arrived Khartoum yesterday on a weeklong visit to Sudan.
The UN official is to review, with the minister of humanitarian affairs and the commissioner general for humanitarian aid, the implementation of the agreements signed between the government, Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the UN, on the delivery of humanitarian assistance and opening of the land and river routes.
The UN's official will also meet a number of senior government officials and pay visits to Juba and Rumbeik [southern Sudan] before heading to the Kenyan base of Lokichogio.
The Commissioner General of HAC, Dr. Sulaf El Din Salih, in a press statement said that the
Government will raise with Vraalsen the overstepping of the SPLM/A in the field of humanitarian work.
Dr. Salih said the government would convey to Vraalsen “good news” which he said is related to progress in the humanitarian aid file and the flow of relief.
However, he remarked that the government would inform the UN official on its earlier reservation over the management of the humanitarian operation from outside the country. He noted “the imbalance” in the flow of relief between the government and SPLM/A held areas and also the poor response of the donors.
Dr. Salih indicated that the government will also brief the envoy on the arrangements for a meeting in Washington during the third week of this month between the government, SPLM/A and the UN on developing of the special agreement on the programme of rehabilitation and capacity building which was signed by these parties last month in Nairobi.
Salih said the Washington’s meeting which was scheduled tomorrow, was delayed due to administrative arrangements and has no connection to the reported crisis between the government and the USAID following the current controversy between the two sides over the relief shipment of genetically modified food to the affected people in the Sudan.
Dr. Salih said the government shall decide on whether to allow entry of the food or not after laboratory tests were received within two days.
Salih said the government has requested the USAID and the United Nations to help the Sudan to find alternatives to the genetically modified food, however, he said if proved impossible, and if a decision was taken to refuse the WFP food aid, then the government would be ready to cover the gab in the food requirements from its own resources.
Vraalsen, in an arrival statement yesterday said that the objective of his visit is to discuss with the Sudanese officials the progress of the relief operations.
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peace builder
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست