08:08 AM Nov, 22 2015 سودانيز اون لاين
مبارك عبدالرØمن اØمد-كاودة
مكتبتى
رابط مختصر
In the Addis Ababa peace talks, the Sudan government wants Africa and the International Community to cast a blind eye to International Humanitarian Law
The 10th round of negotiations between General Bashir’s government and the SPLM-N are likely to conclude today, 22 November 2015, as we have been discussing a humanitarian cessation of hostilities after more than 4 years of an ongoing slaughter of the civilian populations in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile by the Sudan government. As a result, there are more than 700,000 internally displaced and more than 300,000 refugees in South Sudan and Ethiopia. There are more than 25,000 fallen causalities, wounded and dead, from the aerial and ground attacks of General Bashir’s air force and army. In all this period, the government of Sudan denied access to the civilian populations in the Two Areas, and very few voices have spoken out in defense of the forgotten civilian populations in the Two Areas of Sudan. As of now, the Sudan government is waging a charm offensive regionally and internationally in order to cause the international community to cast a blind eye concerning international humanitarian law and to allow the Sudan government to take international humanitarian law into their own hands and to tailor the law the way they want, ignoring the unquestionable right of the civilian populations to access humanitarian assistance and, for the world at large, to ignore the principles of impartiality, neutrality and the independence of humanitarian assistance and the need for unhindered access of humanitarian supplies. All this is being done in the name of sovereignty. It is worth mentioning it is the same government which accepted a Nuba Mountains Ceasefire Agreement at the invitation of the Government of the Swiss Confederation and the United States of America at Burgenstock, Switzerland from 13th - 19th January 2002. The SPLM-N is calling for multiple access of humanitarian delivery as it was the case in the Burgenstock agreement, with the same government of Sudan. The government of Sudan today feels that the international community’s plate is full of many other issues from Syria, Libya, Iraq and many other places, and therefore no one is willing to put pressure on them. They have a free hand to continue slaughtering the civilian populations of the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile or otherwise for them to surrender and accept the dictates of Khartoum to tailor their own humanitarian law and to dictate their own political terms, but the civilians and the SPLM-N, resilient as they are, will not accept the dictates of the genocidal regime of Bashir. They will only be ready for a humanitarian cessation of hostilities and a comprehensive political settlement that respects international humanitarian law and restores the dignity of the Sudanese people and takes Sudan into the future from war to peace and from dictatorship to democracy.
We call upon all friends of Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile and of the SPLM-N and those who care about international humanitarian law and the unquestionable right of the civilian populations to access humanitarian assistance, to stand up and raise their voices in support of the respect of international humanitarian law and the right of civilians for unhindered access to humanitarian assistance. We call upon all human rights activists and defenders to stop the attempt of rewarding the Sudan government at the expense of the civilians and human rights values. The SPLM-N will stand by the civilians no matter what the Sudan government does.
Yasir Arman
Chief Negotiator of the SPLM-N, Addis Ababa Peace Talks
22 November 2015