The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N), which controls parts of Sudan’s Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, has called for the signing of a ceasefire in both their own areas and rebel-held areas of Darfur.
In a position paper, the movement also clarified some of the conditions that it would set before participating in the ‘National Dialogue’ initiated by Sudan’s ruling party. This position paper is dated 12 November 2014, the date of the opening session of the talks in Addis Ababa.
Statement: SPLM-N position on the draft agenda
Referring to the subsequent resolutions of the African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) and the UN Security Council Resolution (2046) stipulating that the two parties to the conflict, the government of the Republic of the Sudan (GOS) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N), shall address the humanitarian situation in the two areas and to reach political settlement on the basis of the Addis Ababa Framework Agreement signed by the two parties on June 28th, 2011.
Furthermore implementing the Addis Ababa memorandum between the Paris Declaration Group and the AUHIP, and the same memorandum between the 7+7 and the AUHIP, and the subsequent resolutions and communiqué of the African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) resolution in its 456th Meeting of September 12th, 2014 calling for a comprehensive cessation of hostilities and a preparatory meeting between all stakeholders to resolve procedural issues leading to the National Constitutional Dialogue, in addition to the briefing of the AUHIP Chairperson to the UN Security Council on the same matter.
Therefore the SPLM-N is proposing the following agenda to these rounds of talks.
1) Endorsement by the two parties to the roadmap signed by the Paris Declaration Group and the 7+7, representing the committee of the National Dialogue and the AUHIP and expressing the readiness to implement what came from the African Peace and Security Council communiqué of September 12th, 2014.
2) Both parties to commit themselves to address the humanitarian situation and to reach a cessation of hostilities in the two areas as part of a wider cessation of hostilities that will include Darfur and would be negotiated under the AUHIP as one peace process with two coordinated tracks.
3) Both parties to participate in a preparatory meeting to resolve the procedural and roadmap issues leading to the National Constitutional Dialogue, with other stakeholders in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, prior to the convening of the national dialogue in Khartoum.
4) To finalise the framework agreement between the Government of Sudan (GOS) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N), and to agree on the mechanism of solving the particularities of the two areas within the framework of the National Constitutional Dialogue.
5) The two parties to agree on the postponement of the national elections until a national transitional government is established and precedes over the conduct of the national elections as part of the outcomes of the national constitutional dialogue.
6) The parties to the national constitutional dialogue process shall commit themselves to a timeframe.
Photo: Opening session of the Two Areas talks under African Union auspices
Related:
Timeline: Build-up to the current ‘Two Areas’ talks (15 Nov.)
Talks on Sudan’s ‘Two Areas’ open in Addis (13 Nov.)