Thirteen stories from over the course of today (some newer than others); updated originally to add the one from Uganda's "Monitor"; updated further both to reflect newer versions of the AP, AFP, and Radio New Zealand stories, and to note that Sudan Tribune has several original reports:
(Note that a couple of these stories are interview/analysis features. - EJM)
THE Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) has suspended its participation in the national government over delays in the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Pagan Amum, the secretary general of the SPLM, told a news conference in Juba that the party had recalled all its ministers and presidential advisers from the government of national unity.
“Presidential advisers, ministers, and state ministers will not report to work, until these contentious issues are resolved,” Amum said.
The [Comprehensive Peace Agreement], signed in January 2005 by the late [SPLM] leader John Garang and Sudan’s President Omar el Bashir, ended 20 years of war between the dominantly Arab north and [the] Christian south. Garang, who died only weeks after being sworn in as Sudan’s [first] vice-president, was succeeded by Salva Kiir.
The peace agreement laid down wealth- and power-sharing arrangements between the national government and the semi-autonomous government in the south. It also provides for a referendum in 2011, in which the southerners can vote for self-determination.
The SPLM representative in Kampala listed four reasons which led to yesterday’s [Thursday's] decision: the demarcation of the north-south border, wealth-sharing, the withdrawal of troops from the South, and arrangements concerning the oil-rich Abyei area.
“The ruling National Congress has impeded the work of the border commission by not availing it with resources,” said James Ernest Onge Aremo, South Sudan’s envoy in Uganda.
“So far, no work has been done in demarcating the border. This could result in delaying the population census, the expected elections in 2009 as well as the 2011 referendum.”
He also accused Khartoum of violating the security provisions. “The Sudan armed forces are still deployed in the south, especially in the oil fields. In the Unity and Upper Nile states, they have 14,000 soldiers. Yet, by July they should have moved all their troops to the north.”
On wealth sharing, Aremo complained of lack of transparency in oil production and revenue. According to the agreement, the government of South Sudan was supposed to get 50% of the oil extracted from the south.
“The SPLM is excluded from the management and development of the oil sector. The government of South Sudan does not know the exact figure of oil production. They are locked out,” he said.
Another contentious issue, according to Aremo, is the oil-rich Abyei area, which was supposed to be administered by a council appointed by the presidency in an initial phase, before elections.
“The government of national unity has rejected the implementation of the Abyei boundary commission, and refused to set up the Abyei administration as an interim measure.”
The SPLM representatives emphasised that their protest action should not lead to the resumption of war. “We have not declared war. Sudan has suffered a lot. We don’t need war. Going back to war would not be helpful to President Bashir or any other groups.”
He called upon Ugandans working in South Sudan not to panic. “They should continue their work normally. This will not affect them. There is no cause for alarm.”
The SPLM has just over a quarter of government posts in Khartoum, including the foreign- and humanitarian-affairs ministries, the two key liaison posts with the international community.
One of the main northern opposition parties, the Umma Party, said [that] the SPLM move would force the hand of the National Congress Party. “This is the ultimate thing that could have been done, it’s very serious, it’s very positive, and the NCP has to respond in a responsible way,” spokeswoman Mariam al-Mahdi said.
By the AP's Alfred de Montesquiou...
Southern Sudan's former rebels on Thursday suspended participation in the central government, accusing it of failing to abide by a peace deal in a dispute that threatens a rare success in the troubled nation.
U.S. officials and other international observers have warned that a 2005 peace agreement between Sudan's north and south was in danger of unraveling, threatening a new civil war that could also dash hopes for ending a separate conflict in western Darfur.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement said [that] it was withdrawing its 18 Cabinet ministers, including the foreign minister and the [first] vice president, and three advisers.
Pagan Amum, the party secretary-general, said [that] the decision was not intended to renew conflict, but [instead] to push for better implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
"We are working to avoid a return to war," he told The Associated Press. "We want to make sure [that] the CPA is implemented rather than dishonored."
The People's Liberation Movement accuses the Khartoum government of multiple breaches of the peace deal, including not sharing oil wealth, failing to pull troops out of the south, and remilitarizing contested border zones where the main oil reserves are located.
The 2005 agreement ended two decades of civil war between the Arab and Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian and animist black southerners. The war, Africa's bloodiest conflict, left some 2 million people dead in fighting, related disease or famine.
Amum urged the U.N. Security Council to meet [in order] to examine the peace deal's problems. "These aren't delays, these are flagrant violations," he said.
There was no comment from the government in Khartoum, which seemed to have been caught by surprise by the decision.
Sudan has been dominated by a small elite of northern Arab tribes since its independence from Britain in 1956.
The U.N.- and U.S.-brokered agreement that ended the southern civil war was a diplomatic victory, and fueled hopes that the Darfur conflict could be resolved.
But the 4-year-old crisis in Darfur has only worsened between government forces and ethnic African rebels. The government is accused of unleashing Arab militias, known as the janjaweed, blamed for atrocities against ethnic African villagers. More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in Darfur.
In the latest violence, Arab militias attacked the rebel-held town of Muhajeria this week. The U.N. said [that] part of the town was burned and [that] its 20,000 inhabitants had fled; the rebels have claimed [that] at least 48 people were killed.
Clashes between rebel and government forces were also reported in other parts of Darfur, prompting aid and U.N. workers to pull out of those areas. The U.S. Embassy said [that] it was temporarily withdrawing its staff from Darfur for security reasons.
The United Nations' special envoy to Darfur called on the government and rebels to begin upcoming peace talks with a cease-fire, and urged both groups to make concessions.
Jan Eliasson's visit to Sudan was focused on generating momentum for the peace discussions, which are scheduled to take place in Libya on Oct. 27.
"The parties should put an end to the violence in the Darfur region as a first step in the coming negotiations," Eliasson told reporters in Khartoum. "Fighting should not be the means for achieving political goals."
The U.S. Embassy said [that] it was aware of the southerners' decision to pull out from the government, and said [that] it continued to support the unity of Sudan.
Andrew Natsios, the White House's special envoy to Sudan, said during a visit to Sudan last week that he was "deeply concerned with the health" of the 2005 agreement, and warned [that] "the risk of a clash is high."
The Khartoum government led by President Omar al-Bashir has rejected a border drawn by an international commission, and both sides have reportedly massed fighters along the contested region.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq refused to comment on the southerners' decision, except to say that the ministry's two deputies would take charge. Both are northern Arabs and members of the ruling National Congress Party.
Khartoum's hard-line Arab elite has "its own power system," Amum said. Without the balance of the former southern rebels, "They will go back to their old ways, which is the way of dictatorship," he said.
Al-Bashir's government came to power in a military and Islamist coup in 1989, and there have been no elections since.
From AFP...
Sudan was beset by crises on two fronts [on] Thursday, after the main party in the south withdrew from government because of Khartoum's failure to share power, and as hopes faded for peace in Darfur.
Former rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) suspended their participation in the national government as fighting escalated in the western region of Darfur, where rebels have again taken up arms, complaining of abuse and marginalisation by Khartoum.
Darfur peace talks in Libya on October 27 have been put at risk by reports that Khartoum forces and their allied militias have intensified attacks on the rebels, including the only faction to have signed a peace deal.
The Sudan Liberation Movement-Unity accused Khartoum of trying to kill its leaders, after the army threatened to shoot down an African Union plane carrying the group's military leadership.
The leaders were headed to the southern capital of Juba for "routine bilateral talks with SPLM leaders," spokesman Mahjoub Hussein told AFP.
UN envoy to Darfur Jan Eliasson warned that any delay to the Libya talks would lead to more violence, as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon accused the government of slowing the deployment of a bolstered peacekeeping force.
In Khartoum, a senior SPLM official said [that] the decision to withdraw from government was taken at a meeting in Juba presided over by party leader Salva Kiir.
"Our participation in the government is frozen until we can find a solution to our differences" with the north, he said.
But later in the day, SPLM members said [that] they were open to talks with their northern partners, saying [that] their decision to quit was a way to "sound the alarm" over delays in implementation of a peace deal between north and south.
"We are ready to sit with the National Congress Party to discuss the problems," Yasser Arman, joint secretary general of the SPLM told reporters, refering to President Omar al-Beshir's northern party which dominates the national government.
"We are knocking at the door of the NCP, and we hope to have an answer and to work together for a real partnership," he said.
The SPLM and its armed wing signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement with Khartoum in 2005, ending 21 years of war between the Muslim north and [the] Christian and animist south that killed at least two million people and displaced millions more.
While former southern rebel leader Salva Kiir holds the post of first vice president in the national government, further implementation of the agreement has been dogged by problems and mutual accusations of stalling.
The SPLM has 19 ministers and deputy ministers in the cabinet, as well as its own parliament sessions in Juba, the capital of the semi-autonomous south.
The SPLM official said [that] key problems were the withdrawal of northern troops from the south, the fate of the disputed oil-rich region of Abiye, and "the evolution of democracy in Sudan," adding that the group would return to government, once the differences were resolved.
In Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Army faction of Minni Minawi, the only rebel group to have signed a 2006 peace deal with Khartoum, threatened to take up arms again after, it said, more than 50 people were killed in a government-backed attack on Muhajariya, a southern Darfur town [that] it controls.
The following day the UN reported clashes between government troops and Minawi forces near the north Darfur town of Tawila, but the circumstances were unclear.
Eliasson, outlining efforts to broaden rebel attendance at the talks, which at least two rebel factions have said [that] they will not attend, said [that] any delay to negotiations "will lead to more bloodshed."
He described the situation in Darfur as "deeply alarming", and said [that] he hoped [that] the talks would end fighting on the ground.
UN chief Ban said in a report that Khartoum was slowing down the deployment of the 26,000-strong hybrid UN-AU force.
"The implementation timeline for UNAMID is being delayed owing to ... delays in obtaining feedback regarding the list of troop-contributing countries submitted to the government of Sudan," said the report released [on] Thursday.
"I remain extremely concerned about the continuing violence in Darfur. The ongoing loss of life and displacement of civilians is unacceptable, and is not contributing to an atmosphere conducive to peace talks" in Libya.
In Khartoum, Eliasson called on all parties to seize the opportunity at the Libya talks on October 27 to end the conflict which has killed 200,000 in four years.
"This is an opportunity to change the future ... The alternative to me is very scary."
From VOA...
The ruling party of southern Sudan has suspended participation in the national government, saying [that] Khartoum has held up implementing the peace deal that ended Sudan's north-south civil war.
Officials with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement said [on] Thursday that its 18 ministers in the central government will not report to work until key issues are resolved. Those ministers include Sudan's Foreign Affairs Minister, Lam Akol.
Party officials say [that] the issues include a dispute over oil-producing areas, Khartoum's failure to withdraw troops from the south, and Sudan's progress toward democracy.
There has been no comment from the central Sudanese government.
The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended 21 years of war in Sudan that killed an estimated two million people.
On Saturday, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan said [that] Washington is "deeply concerned" about the state of the peace deal.
Envoy Andrew Natsios said [that] important deadlines have been missed, and [that] tensions in the north-south border areas are rising. Sudan's central government later condemned those statements, saying [that] they were inaccurate and would not help narrow differences between the sides.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement is the political wing of the southern rebels who fought the northern government.
The peace agreement set up a semi-autonomous government in the south, and also laid out arrangements to share wealth and power. However, southern Sudanese officials have complained for months that Khartoum is obstructing implementation of the deal.
Southern Sudan is scheduled to hold a referendum in 2011 on whether to become an independent country.
An interview feature by VOA's Douglas Mpuga...
Southern Sudan’s main party has suspended its participation in the national government. It says [that] Khartoum has not held up its end of the 2005 peace deal that ended Sudan’s north-south civil war. Officials with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement said today [Thursday] that its ministers in the central government will not report to work until many issues are resolved.
David Mozersky is an analyst on Sudan for the International Crisis Group. He told VOA English to Africa reporter Douglas Mpuga that the situation is very worrisome, because “you cannot have a sustainable peace process without the implementation of the peace agreement. There was a systematic effort by the National Congress [Party] to undermine core elements of the agreement. We have been warning them, and the SPLM has been speaking up publicly about this for the last couple of months.”
Mozersky described the SPLM action as “a trump card, a political trump card that the SPLM holds; hopefully, it sends a fair-enough message to the National Congress Party that the only way forward is to implement the agreement. If not, this could lead to a downward spiral.”
He said [that] the core elements are commitments to which they signed up in the peace agreement (CPA). “[The National Congress Party] can’t have it both ways; [it] can’t have a partnership with SPLA/M while, at the same time, undermining the party,” he said.
Mozersky said that the Sudanese government is failing to implement that part of the agreement that would reform the national government. “Basically, they are undermining the areas of the peace agreement [that] they view as a threat to the status quo. Unfortunately, those are the core provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA),” he said.
He said [that] the SPLM is trying to make its point in a peaceful way. “In a sense, this a culmination of the political efforts that are available to them. [The SPLM] has had ongoing political discussions between the leadership of the parties, and even tried to request the involvement of the international community, without success,” he said.
Mozersky also explained that “Sudan is at a crossroads. The future of the country could go in a number of different directions. The consolidation of peace, and the basis for peace in Darfur and elsewhere in the country, [begin] with the implementation of the CPA.”
There has been no comment from the central Sudanese government.
The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended 21 years of war in Sudan that killed an estimated two million people.
From DPA...
South Sudanese legislators temporarily suspended their partnership with the northern government, the BBC reported [on] Thursday, plunging the 2005 peace agreement to end a 20-year civil war into uncertainty.
The former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement said [that] the northern government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir failed to meet certain stipulations of the 2005 peace deal, including border-demarcation issues and the redeployment of northern troops from the south.
The decision, which is not a full suspension of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement but rather a more-temporary threat, would see the southern government members retreat back to the southern capital, Juba, until the conditions are met.
'The leadership, the political group, and our chairman called the advisers and the ministers and the state ministers to our headquarters in Juba, and they are going to be there until we resolve the contentious issues,' Yasir Arman, deputy SPLM secretary general, told the BBC.
The United States envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, said [that] the move could bring a return to hostilities, as either side could make 'miscalculations' about the other's intentions.
South Sudan emerged from the epic civil war completely bereft of infrastructure, and the CPA wealth- and power-sharing deal was meant to get the region on its feet ahead of an independence vote in 2011.
From the BBC...
Former southern rebels in Sudan have suspended their involvement in the national unity government.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) said [that] its northern partners had failed to implement parts of a 2005 deal that ended a 21-year civil war.
These include boundary demarcations and the redeployment of northern troops from the south.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir warned recently [that] there could be a return to war, if the deal was not kept to.
Some 1.5 million people died in the conflict - Africa's longest civil war - which pitted the mainly Muslim north against the Animist and Christian south, before the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) was agreed [to].
So far the only government response has come from the spokesman at Sudan's London embassy, who said [that] he was disappointed at the development but [that] it was not a death blow to the CPA.
"It is a suspension, not a withdrawal, as earlier reported by some news agencies," Khalid Al Mubarak told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
"It is a suspension which is temporary and, pending discussions, hopefully this cloud will disappear."
'No consultation'
"The leadership, the political group, and our chairman called the advisers and the ministers and the state ministers to our headquarters in Juba, and they are going to be there until we resolve the contentious issues," Yasir Arman, deputy SPLM secretary general, told the BBC.
The BBC's Amber Henshaw in the capital, Khartoum, says [that] the Comprehensive Peace [Agreement] (CPA) signed two years ago has been looking increasingly fragile over the last few weeks, as importantant deadlines have been missed.
Mr Arman said [that] the CPA had been violated in several ways, and [that] the north's National Congress Party had disregarded the wishes of SPLM leader Mr Kiir, who is also the country's [first] vice-president.
"They are not consulting Mr Kiir; they are not consulting our ministers; they are taking many decisions - including expelling the representatives of the (UN) secretary general and different diplomats in Khartoum - without taking the opinion of the SPLM into consideration."
US envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios said [that] there was a real possibility of a return to conflict.
"This is one more step in this sequence of events, and what I am concerned about is that both the southerners and the northerners may make miscalculations about each [other's] intentions," he told the BBC's Newshour programme.
"One thing [that] we are worried about is that the senior political leadership in the north and the south maintain control over their field commanders."
The power- and wealth-sharing deal is intended to pave the way for elections by 2009, and to give the south the right to decide whether to split from the north by 2011.
Correspondents say [that] there is not yet an agreement on the final border between north and south, which means [that] the division of oil wealth cannot be completed.
According to an SPLM statement, the party is also unhappy that its request to reshuffle its ministers in the coalition government has been ignored.
Currently there are 10,000 UN peacekeepers in southern Sudan.
The main party in southern Sudan has suspended participation in the national government until its northern partners restart a stalled peace process.
The move comes as the United Nations criticised the Sudanese government's use of red tape to delay the deployment of the combined UN-African Union force to the western region of Darfur.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement says [that] it has recalled all ministers and presidential advisers from the [Government of National Unity].
The former rebel group says [that] the northerners have failed to carry out many provisions of the 2005 agreement.
The deal laid down wealth- and power-sharing arrangements between the national government and the south's semi-autonomous government to end two decades of fighting.
The decision by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement is the culmination of months of disagreement between the two main partners in the national government.
America's envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, says [that] there is now a real risk of a return to hostilities through a mistake by field commanders from either side.
UN critical of Darfur 'red tape'
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has accused Khartoum of failing to approve a list of troop-contributing countries.
He says [that] the UN is also being prevented from obtaining land in Darfur for offices and accommodation.
About 2 million people have been displaced and at least 200,000 have died during the four-year conflict, and there is growing pessimism about the prospects for peace talks this month.
From IRIN...
Sara Pantuliano, a research fellow at the Humanitarian Policy Group of the ODI think-tank in London, said [that] the decision by Southern Sudan’s former rebel group and now leading party to withdraw from the central government was a “badly needed wake-up call for the international community", which has neglected the North-South peace process, partly because of the Darfur conflict.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) announced on 11 October that it was boycotting the national unity government, accusing the north of violating the terms of the 2005 peace deal. However, the party ruled out an imminent return to arms.
Her research in Southern Kordofan and northern Bahr el Ghazal had contributed to Pantuliano's view that "the CPA [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] is collapsing ... tension is escalating, even at the local level". There is "very little international support" to keep the process on track, and the humanitarian consequences of a return to war would be "an unimaginable level of suffering ... people have already suffered through many years of war".
Even so, she told IRIN, the move may send a useful signal internationally. "I can't see an immediate confrontation unless an incident sparks it off on the ground." Key flashpoints, she said, are Abyei, Southern Kordofan, and the southern oil-producing areas.
"The SPLM has recalled all ministers and presidential advisers from GoNU [Government of National Unity]," said SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amum. "They will not report to work, until these contentious issues are resolved."
Amum said [that] the decision was prompted by the failure of SPLM’s counterparts in the unity government – dominated by the National Congress Party – to comply with the peace-accord obligations to withdraw 15,360 northern troops from the South's oil fields, and to implement a protocol on the oil-rich Abyei area.
If these key issues were resolved, the SPLM would reconsider its boycott, Amum added, stressing that its “disintegrating” relationship with Khartoum, the seat of government in the North, would not lead to a return to war.
A Southern Sudan analyst, who wished to remain anonymous, told IRIN that while things were as yet unclear, the announcement could be a "continuation of the rhetoric" of the Southern partner in the peace deal regarding "fundamental issues that need to be addressed", including the status of the Abyei region, the north-south border, and oil-revenue sharing. In his opinion, the SPLM was "not ready for a fundamental break", but was "raising the stakes".
He added: “They don’t want to be seen as the one giving up on the process first … No one wants to go back to war ... Not yet."
Oxfam's Sudan country spokesperson, Alun McDonald, said that although it was too early to judge what kind of impact the move could have on the peace agreement, he hoped [that] it would be a wake-up call to the international community.
"We have said quite frequently [that] the CPA is wobbling, and the international community has taken its eye off the South, understandably, because of Darfur," said McDonald.
He said [that] the problems with the North-South peace agreement were a “growing concern”.
"And not just for the South; there can be no peace in Darfur [or] in the east, unless the CPA is implemented fully," he added.
A senior SPLM official told IRIN by telephone that the move would “unite the SPLM and remove recalcitrant officers [and] engineer a real unity. [It was] an opportunity for SPLM to reassert itself."
Former rebels in southern Sudan have withdrawn their members from a national coalition government, party officials said on Thursday, [in order] to pressure their northern partners to reignite a stalled peace process.
"The SPLM (Sudan People's Liberation Movement) has recalled all ministers and presidential advisers from the government of national unity," SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amum told reporters in the southern capital, Juba.
Amum said [that] the National Congress Party (NCP), the SPLM's former foes and the dominant party in the coalition, had failed to carry out key parts of a 2005 peace agreement.
"Presidential advisers, ministers, and state ministers will not report to work, until these contentious issues are resolved," he said after a week of intense talks.
The NCP had used its majority of 52 percent of government and parliament to continue a one-party state, deputy secretary-general Yasir Arman said, expressing concern at unconstitutional actions and rights violations by the NCP.
"The (SPLM) condemns...unlawful detention of political opponents...censorship of the press and harassment of journalists...expulsion of diplomats without consultation," Arman said listing just a few grievances.
The NCP blamed divisions within the SPLM for delays in implementing the peace agreement, and officials handed journalists a 12-page list of dozens of violations of the deal [that], they said, were committed by the southerners.
"How can you resolve these problems by withdrawal?" asked NCP official Sayyid al-Khatib.
The peace deal ended Africa's longest civil war and created a coalition government in Khartoum, with the SPLM taking just over a quarter of the posts.
It shared wealth, enshrined democratic transformation, and paved the way for [both] elections by 2009 and a southern referendum on secession. Decades of conflict had claimed 2 million lives and drove 4 million from their homes.
The decision by the SPLM, the political wing of the southern rebel movement which fought the Khartoum government for more than 20 years, is the culmination of months of disagreement between the two main partners in the national government.
NOT QUITTING GOVERNMENT
Arman said [that] the party was not quitting the government, and [that] lines of communication would remain open. Parliament would continue, and Salva Kiir would remain in his post as first vice president.
"We hope that we will resolve this crisis," he said in Khartoum. "The National Congress Party (NCP) created this crisis, and Salva Kiir is ready to resolve it."
The SPLM formed a high-level committee that will work on unresolved issues of the deal, such as demarcating the north-south border, redeployment of northern troops from southern oil fields, and creating an administration for the oil-rich Abyei area.
The NCP has expelled Western diplomats, aid workers, and even the head of the U.N. mission in Sudan in recent years. It has also detained some 25 opposition figures without charge for weeks, contravening Sudanese law.
Nafie Ali Nafie, Sudan's most-powerful presidential adviser, said [that] the NCP was ready to talk. "We have always been so (ready to talk) and we will continue to be," he said.
He said [that] the parties would not seek international mediation, and [that] there was deadlock over the oil-rich Abyei area. The partners agreed [that] independent experts should define Abyei's borders, but the NCP later rejected theirs findings.
The failure to implement the north-south deal may hinder peace talks in Libya this month on Sudan's western Darfur region, because rebels doubt the NCP's willingness to talk seriously.
(As always, the video version is housed on YouTube. - EJM)
The main political party in south Sudan has suspended its participation in the national government for what it calls Khartoum's failure to implement a peace deal.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement [(]SPLM[)] said on Thursday that all its ministers and advisers had been recalled after a meeting chaired by Salva Kiir, the party's leader.
"Presidential advisers, ministers, and state ministers will not report to work, until these contentious issues are resolved," Pagan Amum, the SPLM's secretary-general, said.
He said [that] the SPLM's northern partners had failed to carry out many of the provisions of a 2005 peace agreement.
The decision by the SPLM, the political wing of the south-Sudan movement which fought the Khartoum government for more than 20 years, is the culmination of months of tension and disagreement between the two main partners in the national government.
Under the peace agreement, the southerners will have a chance to vote in 2011 on whether they want to remain part of Sudan.
'Poisonous' atmosphere
In September, heavily armed police stormed three SPLM offices in Khartoum, vandalised property and, in one case, broke down a door in raids that the SPLM says took place after defamatory attacks against senior SPLM officials in the national media.
Andrew Natsios, the US envoy for Sudan, said last week that relations between the northern and southern politicians had deteriorated into a "poisonous" political atmosphere.
"We are deeply concerned with the health of the comprehensive peace agreement [between north and south]," he said after a 10-day trip to Sudan.
Southern demands
Amum said [that] the contentious issues that needed resolution included "the obstruction of democratic transformation, lack of initiation of a national reconciliation and healing process ... non-completion of SAF [Sudanese army] deployment, [and] lack of transparency in oil sector operations."
The 2005 peace agreement laid down arrangements for sharing of wealth and power between the national government and the semi-autonomous government in the south.
But the two sides have argued over many aspects of implementation.
The southerners have consistently raised doubts about the sincerity of the National Congress Party, the northern party which dominates the national government.
They [are] saying [that] the National Congress Party has been implementing the peace agreement selectively, and has tried to renegotiate some aspects of the text.
The most-contentious issues include the protocol on the oil-rich Abyei area, demarcation of the north-south border, and withdrawal of northern forces from the south.
Unresolved issues
Mohammad Vall, Al Jazeera's Sudan correspondent, said [that] several issues had led disrupted a lasting agreement between the different parties.
"It is mainly a problem of sharing power, a problem about the ministries, and about the policies in the federal government," he said.
"Secondly, there are a number of issues that are unresolved. For example, the borders between the two sides, and the democratic forces ...
"That the government is putting all types of obstacles in front of achieving the necessary democratic and legislative reforms that will lead to a national consensus that will lead to free elections in Sudan.
"It is also about other issues, such as oil revenues that the SPLM say they don't get enough of. And they complain that the government does things without consulting them, such as firing diplomats and curbing media freedoms."
He said [that] the Khartoum government has its own perspective on this too - they say that the SPLM has failed to implement the changes in the south that [are] under their jusrisdiction, in terms of development.
"And now they want to create a crisis to divert attention away from their crisis in the south, which is their failure to build anything, even though they have $1 [billion] in revenue every year," Vall said.
South Sudan's former rebel movement, which signed a historic peace agreement two years ago with Sudan's governing party to end one of Africa's longest-running wars, abruptly pulled out of the national unity government on Thursday, in the gravest blow yet to the peace accord.
The former rebels said [that] the move was intended to press Sudan's governing party to live up to the multifaceted agreement, which has been hobbled by disputes over borders, troop movements, and sharing Sudan's oil profits.
While much of the recent international attention on Sudan has been focused on Darfur, in the west, tensions over the fragile peace deal in the south have been bubbling for months. American officials recently warned that South Sudan could plunge back into war.
The agreement was supposed to foster peace by melding the rebels' organization, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, with the governing party, the National Congress Party, in a national unity government that would rule Sudan until multiparty elections in 2009. But the former rebels have said that the unity government was a charade, because the governing party consistently ignored their demands.
The liberation movement announced [on] Thursday that its ministers and advisers in the government would not work until their grievances had been addressed.
"It was time for a wake-up call," Yasir Arman, a spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, said by telephone from Khartoum, Sudan's capital. But he added that the movement would not put its leader, Salva Kiir Mayardit, who is president of South Sudan and [first] vice president of the national government, on strike, because that would be too drastic.
Officials with the National Congress Party declined to comment.
The biggest issues are how to draw the north-south border and how to divide Sudan's oil wealth, intertwined issues because much of the oil lies along the border. In 2011, southerners will vote to remain in Sudan or [to] create their own country. The north-south treaty ended the fighting that raged off and on in South Sudan for nearly 50 years. An estimated 2.2 million people died — 10 times as many as in Darfur.
But critics of the men who run the country, a group led by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, say [that] northern leaders have backed away from the greater political changes [that] they committed to in the treaty — like power sharing and preparing Sudan for free elections. This may have gloomy implications for Darfur, where rebel leaders have pinned cooperation with the government on some of the same points.
At the United Nations, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said [that] plans to start to deploy an African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur this month were being jeopardized by government delays in approving the necessary foreign troops, turning over land needed for the operation, and granting landing rights to United Nations aircraft.
"It is of critical importance that the government extend the support and cooperation necessary," he told the Security Council.
Jan Eliasson, his envoy for Darfur, told reporters in Khartoum that renewed violence in Darfur would not affect the start of peace talks on Oct. 27 in Libya.
THE Sudan People's Liberation Movement, the political wing of the Sudan [People's] Liberation Army, has suspended its involvement in the national-unity government in Khartoum, until its northern partners meet a long list of demands, the secretary general of the party said yesterday [Thursday].
The SPLM said [that] its northern partners had failed to implement parts of the 2005 [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] that ended a 21-year civil war.
These include boundary demarcations and the redeployment of northern troops from the south.
Mr Pagan Amum of the SPLM told a news conference on Thursday: "The SPLM has recalled all ministers and presidential advisers from the [Government of National Unity]."
"Presidential advisers, ministers, and state ministers will not report to work, until these contentious issues are resolved," he added. South Sudan's President Salva Kiir warned recently [that] there could be a return to war if the deal was not respected.
Some 1.5 million people died in the conflict - Africa's longest civil war - which pitted the mainly Muslim north against the Animist and Christian south.
No consultation
"The leadership, the political group, and our chairman called the advisers and the ministers and the state ministers to our headquarters in Juba, and they are going to be there until we resolve the contentious issues," Yasir Arman, deputy SPLM secretary general, told the BBC.
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed two years ago has been looking increasingly fragile over the last few weeks, as important deadlines have been missed.
Mr Arman said [that] the CPA had been violated in several ways, and [that] the north's National Congress Party had disregarded the wishes of the SPLM leader Mr Kiir, who is also the country's [first] vice-president.
"They are not consulting Mr Kiir; they are not consulting our ministers; they are taking many decisions - including expelling the representatives of the (UN) secretary general and different diplomats in Khartoum - without taking the opinion of the SPLM into consideration."
The decision by the SPLM/A, which fought the Khartoum government for more than 20 years, is the culmination of months of tension and disagreement between the two main partners in the national government.
Khartoum raids
In September, heavily armed police stormed three SPLM offices in Khartoum, vandalised property, and in one case, broke down a door in raids [that] the SPLM says followed libelous attacks against senior SPLM officials in the national media.
The U.S. envoy for Sudan, Mr Andrew Natsios, said last week that relations between the [northern] and [southern] politicians had deteriorated into a "poisonous" political atmosphere. "We are deeply concerned with the health of the [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] (between north and south)," Mr Natsios told reporters after a 10-day trip to Sudan.
Mr Amum said [that] the contentious issues that needed resolution included "the obstruction of democratic transformation, lack of initiation of a national reconciliation and healing process ... non-completion of Sudanese army deployment, (and) lack of transparency in oil-sector operations."
The two warring parties - the SPLA/M and [the] Khartoum government - in 2005 agreed on six protocols, among them the Machakos Protocol, which provides Southern Sudan with the right to self- determination and the right to secede after [a] six-year period.
The late John Garang, Sudan's former first vice president and then head of SPLM, warned on January 9, 2005, after the signing of the [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] that the new-found unity with the Khartoum government would become unilaterally dissolved, if the peace accord ending the war in the country is breached within the next six years.
Garang was adamant about the full implementation of the peace accords, which [allow] the SPLA to become part of the national army, contributing a total of 12,000 soldiers in the joint national force, among them 1,500 troops stationed in Khartoum.
Garang died a year later, on July 30, in a Ugandan-presidential-helicopter crash on the Sudan-Uganda border. His death is still a subject of debate, with his wife Nyandeng backtracking on her earlier statement that the cause of the former guerilla leader's death was purely an accident. A few months ago, she said [that] it was a planned accident.
The 2005 peace agreement laid down wealth- and power-sharing arrangements between the national government and the semi-autonomous government in the south, but the two sides have argued over many aspects of implementation.
Oil reserves
The SPLM says that it has not been able to establish how much it is due from oil revenues, and it complains that not all northern troops have evacuated their positions in the south.
The southerners have consistently raised doubts about the sincerity of the National Congress Party, the northern party which dominates the national government, saying [that] it has been implementing the peace agreement selectively, and has tried to renegotiate some aspects of the text. The most-contentious issues include the protocol on the oil-rich Abyei area, demarcation of the north-south border, and withdrawal of northern forces from the south.
Kony talks
Peace in Sudan was key to the initiation of the South Sudan mediated peace talks between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army and the government in Kampala. The CPA also opened South Sudan to Ugandan businessmen.
Many foreign merchants, including thousands of Ugandans, flocked to open businesses in various towns of South Sudan. The economic livelihood of South Sudan hugely depends on routine supplies from Uganda.
In Kampala, [internal]-affairs minister and leader of the government peace delegation, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, was optimistic [that] the fall out between the [SPLM] and Khartoum would not affect the on-going peace talks between Kampala and [the] LRA. "Let us not speculate. The peace talks are on course, and the two parties will resume the talks in Juba after they complete their respective consultations," he said.
He, however, said [that] Uganda would not try to "interfere" with a view of resolving the conflict.
"As far as we (Uganda government) concerned, (the dispute) is an internal matter, and the parties should be respected as they handle it in the manner [that] they consider more appropriate in the governance of their country," Dr Rugunda said. But the fallout could bring fresh worries about peace in northern Uganda, because Khartoum has, in the past, supported the rebel LRA.
President Museveni has insisted that with or without the peace agreement with Kony rebels, peace would return to the north.
Comments