Sudan ready to talk with southern rebels: Defense minister
* KHARTOUM | Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:26am EDT
(Reuters) - Sudan made its first offer to hold direct talks with rebels on
its border with South Sudan on Wednesday.
Sudan Defence Minister Abdel Raheem Mohammed Hussein said Khartoum would be
willing to have discussions with the SPLM-North rebel group in its Blue Nile
and South Kordofan states, providing the dialogue was based on protocols set
out in a 2005 peace agreement with South Sudan.
"We are ready to meet with the northern sector (of the SPLM), on the
condition that the dialogue and discussion is based on the Comprehensive
Peace Agreement and the protocol for the two areas as a reference," Hussein
told reporters at Khartoum's airport on Wednesday.
Sudan has previously refused to meet the rebels and accused South Sudan of
backing the SPLM-N, a former ally of the SPLM, whose decades-long war with
Khartoum resulted in the 2005 peace deal and the secession of South Sudan in
2011.
The SPLM-N rebellion in Blue Nile and South Kordofan to overthrow the rule
of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir began shortly after secession.
South Sudan denies backing the SPLM-N.
There was no immediate comment from the SPLM-N, but leaders have previously
said they would be willing to talk to Sudanese officials in Addis Ababa,
where the African Union has been brokering talks between Sudan and South
Sudan.
Fighting in the two border states has forced hundreds of thousands of people
to flee their homes, and complicated ties between Sudan and South Sudan.
This month, the two countries agreed on a timeframe to withdraw troops from
their disputed, roughly 2,000-km (1,200-mile) border, something they agreed
to do in September but have failed to implement because of lingering
tensions.
The withdrawal was seen as a vital first step to resuming southern oil
exports through Sudan, which both countries depend on for revenue and
foreign currency.
South Sudan shut off its roughly 350,000 barrel-a-day output in January last
year in a dispute with Sudan over how much it should pay to send it through
Sudanese pipelines to a Red Sea port.
Sudan's north-south civil war was one of Africa's longest and deadliest,
killing some 2 million people. The war over oil, religion, ideology and
identity devastated much of South Sudan and sucked in many of its neighbors.
(Writing by Alexander Dziadosz, editing by Paul Casciato)
