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Bashir warns SPLA over southern administration
Sudan military dictatorship front-man Omar Bashir Wednesday issued a warning to the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) over the contentious issue of the administration of three disputed areas of Sudan. Speaking at a press conference in the Northern Sudan town of Merowe, Bashir warned the SPLA that the dictatorship would not tolerate attempts to expand the southern Sudanese border to include areas in the north.
"I suppose you realize: this means war!"
"What the hell have we been doing all this time?" |
Despite recent advances in relations between the two sides, including last weekâs signing of a wealth-sharing pact, growing demands by southern rebels to extend the contested Abyei region to the town of Northern Bahr El Gazal were reported to have angered the Islamist dictatorship.
| Set them to seething, I'll bet... |
20 years of continuous conflict in Sudan between the non-Arab south and the Arab north have devastated the country and claimed some six million lives. The two sides have agreed the south should be autonomous for six years, after which a referendum on independence will be held. But the three disputed areas - the Nuba Mountains, the southern Blue Nile and the Abyei region - remain a serious bone of contention between the factions. While peace talks in Kenya have brought an end to 20 years of bloodshed in the south, the conflict between pro-democracy rebels in the non-Arab west of Sudan and the dictatorship has intensified, with the regime now diverting its military effort to "crush and wipe out" the resistance in Darfur.
| Which would take troops and camel-riding heroes away from the effort to "crush and wipe out" the southerners... |
Negotiations on the disputed areas of central Sudan between the dictatorship and the south Sudan SPLA rebels have begun under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a cross-border body with members drawn from seven Horn of Africa countries. However the Arab Islamist dictatorshipâs hardline stance and the statement of itâs front-man Bashir that it agreed to the talks just "to encourage the rebels" may threaten the peace process, analysts said. Other analysts believe the American pressures on the dictatorship to avoid a fate similar to Saddam Hussein and holding the carrot of removal from the U.S. list of terrorist states, will force the regime to reach a final settlement with the SPLA.
| I think Sudan is out of the terrorism business, though only as a tactical move to avoid being treated like Afghanistan. It's still one of the smelliest regimes on the face of the earth, and it should be dismantled just on general principles. |
Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-01-15 |
