By Daniel Van Oudenaren
January 6, 2009 (WASHINGTON) – A senior official in the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) said that the ex-rebel group is experiencing growing popularity among people in Northern Sudan opening the door for success in the upcoming elections.
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“The SPLM it is in each town and village in northern Sudan. The flag of the SPLM is everywhere, the SPLM is a big force in northern Sudan and the vision of the New Sudan is flourishing everywhere in the north” Yasser Arman, joint secretary general of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) told Sudan Tribune in an interview today.
Arman was part of an eight-member advance team of senior officials that arrived last week just prior to the Sunday arrival of Sudan’s First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayadrit, the SPLM chairman who met with US President George Bush on Monday.
In the interview Arman stressed that the purpose of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) is to push for democratic transformation in the country and said that the Darfur crisis can only be resolved in that context.
The northern SPLM figure declined to speculate on what steps SPLM might undertake should an arrest warrant be issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, saying that they will “cross the bridge when we reach it".
He further called on the Sudanese national assembly to pass a new set of laws to harmonize the old ones with the country’s constitution.
Below is the full text of the interview.
ST: What were the main issues discussed, yesterday and today, with U.S. diplomats?
Arman: First of all, the Vice President met with President Bush and with President Bush and they took an account of the CPA implementations, especially since that day it was the day of the fourth anniversary of the agreement itself. And given the role played by this administration there were discussions on the status of the peace agreement and how the implementation is going on, focusing especially on the issues that have not been implemented and the flash points of the agreement. And the other issue which took a lot of time is the Darfur issue and the effort by the First Vice President and the chairman of the SPLM. President Bush appreciated the effort of the First Vice President of trying to unify the different movements in Darfur and Darfur remains in the heart of the focus of the international community’s, U.S. and the First Vice President as well and the Government of South Sudan.
ST: Specifically, what concerns did the First Vice President raise about your Government of National Unity partner, the National Congress Party?
Arman: He raised the issue of the border demarcation, the issues of democratic transformation and he raised an issue of Abyei, and the elections and the different laws including the law of self-determination for the people of Sudan and other laws pertaining to democratic transformations and also the development and the aid to South Sudan and other areas in Sudan.
ST: In your role as SPLM leader for Northern Sector, what key issues would you like to highlight for the incoming Obama administration—with regard to the north?
Arman: The main issue is what is the end game of what we are doing? Because we should not do things in pieces, we should look to the situation in its totality. That remains the main objective. And the CPA it is about two fundamental and cardinal points. It is about the peaceful exchange of power through democratic elections and democratic transformation in particular transformation for the center of Sudan. If you do not transform the center of Sudan then you will end up treating disjointed issues in a disjointed manner all over Sudan.
The issue of Darfur remains a core issue and in its essence it is the same issue of marginalization that the people of South Sudan they fought for—the people of Nuba mountains and south Blue Nile and eastern Sudan. So Darfur it is suffering from the same disease that attacked yesterday South Sudan, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile and Eastern Sudan. And we have to link Darfur and the CPA and democratic transformation. If we not link the democratic transformation and Darfur and the CPA nothing is going to move in the Sudan. So if you want me to summarize what I expect from the administration of Obama: I expect their focus to link together the CPA and the quick, speedy and just resolutions for Darfur and the democratic transformation for Sudan. They are interrelated, interconnected—you cannot do any one without the others.
ST: What will the political relationship of SPLM be with the Justice and Equality Movement? There will be a delegation here tonight from the JEM and you met with them in Chad in October, so given your experience, how would you characterize that relationship, both in the past and now moving forward?
Arman: We met them before and unfortunately they came at the end of our visit. Myself and others we are leaving tonight and the First Vice President is going outside Washington. Both the Justice and Equality Movement and the SPLM both are agreed to look for a just peace in Darfur and to promote the cause of peace, and that is the only agenda which can bring stability to Sudan. We need a just peace to Darfur. Darfur remains at the top of the agenda of the SPLM and we met with Dr. Khalil last time—the First Vice President is still willing very soon to meet with President Idriss Deby. We are ready to engage JEM, we are ready to do business with them, as well as also we are ready to engage the other movements in Darfur.
ST: There was another Darfur rebel faction that accused SPLA of killing one of its leaders, Sideeg Abdel-Karim. Could you explain the political circumstances behind those events?
Arman: Well in the first place the relations between the SPLM and the different factions of the Darfuri that came to South Sudan, they came for the unification. Any agenda apart from the unification is not the agenda of the SPLA. The incident was reported to the Political Bureau of the SPLM and the Political Bureau and the Chairman of the PSLM resolved that this incident has to be investigated and he directed the relevant authorities in southern Sudan to investigate it. And myself, I am in the leadership of the SPLM and there are agencies in the Government of South Sudan who are dealing with this issue and they are the ones who have to give an answer after they do their investigation.
ST: If the ICC issues an arrest warrant for president al-Bashir, would SPLM ask the president to resign?
Arman: Well first of all I can’t answer questions that are starting by probabilities; we will cross this bridge when we reach it. The SPLM is committed to the peace agreement, it is committed to strengthening the peace, and stability, and justice in Sudan.
ST: In recent years have you seen an increase in SPLM membership in the north, or decline—and why, do you think?
Arman: It’s definitely increasing, the vision of the New Sudan it is the only game in town. It is the only vision can unite the people of Sudan. In many occasions the SPLM in the north has demonstrated that it is growing, it is a force to reckon with. In fact it is one of the biggest forces, and it is to be noted that the SPLM—the movement that started in South Sudan, it is the first movement in the history of Sudan that started in a marginalized area and then it engulfed the whole of Sudan. That was demonstrated in the receptions of Dr. John Garang when millions went and saw him, it is again demonstrated in the commemorations of Dr. Garang, the first and the second commemorations. And it is demonstrated in our visit—I visited and I made rallies in more than 80 towns and big villages in northern Sudan. The SPLM it is in each town and village in northern Sudan. The flag of the SPLM is everywhere, the SPLM is a big force in northern Sudan and the vision of the New Sudan is flourishing everywhere in the north. And I am sure the SPLM is going to do very well at the time of the elections in northern Sudan. And also it is open to alliances with different forces but the SPLM is well placed in northern Sudan.
ST: On a related topic, President Salva Kiir has promised to visit Darfur. Why hasn’t he done that?
Arman: First of all there is a delegation headed by James Wani Igga that is going to go to Darfur soon. We decided and resolved at our last meeting, and this high delegation is going to visit Darfur this time; President Salva will go himself after the delegation and visit Darfur. He had this visit in his mind for long—due to the complexity of the politics and the relations within the national unity government and other factors he was not able to make it, but definitely soon he will go to Darfur.
ST: There’s a new press law expected in February; is there any chance this won’t be delayed?
Arman: Sudan now is a no-fly zone for the media—for free media and the press it is a no-fly zone. Only one security officer is the editor in chief of more than 53 newspapers. In fact he should be taken to Guinness Records because this security officer is editor in chief of 53 newspapers and with the heavy censorship the status of the media in Sudan is very bad now. In parliament I am also the chairman of the SPLM caucus.
We made it very clear, even we boycotted one of the sitting of the parliament recently because we need to extend the parliament session and we need to work quickly many laws ahead: the law of media and press, the national security law, the criminal law, because there are also articles dealing with the media in the criminal law. Because we need to change all those bylaws to match with the constitution and to give way for freedom and democracy in Sudan. We are also very much concerned to move the referendum and the popular consultations—the referendum for the people of South Sudan and the popular consultations for south Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains and the people of Abyei.
If they are not passed by this parliament, they should be passed by this parliament. This is our position we made it very clear, we reached an agreement with the National Congress that the parliament is going to reopen on the first Monday of this next February. We should do that and we should pass new laws for democratization.
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