Washington, DC — President Salva Kiir Mayardit of the Government of Southern Sudan said in Washington, DC on Wednesday that the south’s boycott of the country’s Government of National Unity will not end until the north commits to the 2005 peace agreement which ended the country’s decades-long civil war.
Kiir’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) last month recalled its ministers and presidential advisers from the government in Khartoum to protest the slow implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in Kenya in January 2005. Kiir also serves as first vice-president of the central government.
“No minister will take the oath of office until the demands of the SPLM are met,” Kiir said. “This is the status we are… in today. We will not move from there until we get what we have demanded.” He was speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.
Kiir also told the audience that a cabinet reshuffle carried out by Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir was not enough. Southerners are more than just “job seekers,” he said.
Kiir’s statement suggests that there will be tough bargaining in the talks currently under way in Khartoum to settle the differences between the north and the south. On Tuesday, an SPLM member negotiating with the north told Reuters that both sides hoped to conclude a deal by the time Bashir, who has just concluded a visit to South Africa, and Kiir return to Sudan. Kiir is expected back from the United States shortly.
In his speech, Kiir blamed Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP) for the SPLM pullout, claiming that it is “dragging its feet” on the peace process.
“The National Congress Party... shows the lack of political will from their side to implement the CPA and have shown their deliberate intention to dishonor the CPA like other agreements they have signed before,” said Kiir.
One issue over which Kiir believes the NCP lacks political will is the status of the oil-rich region of Abyei. The initial findings of a commission to draw the region’s boundaries, called the Abyei Protocol, was rejected by the north in 2005.
“The Abyei Protocal remains in the shelves,” Kiir said. “It has never been touched.” Kiir reported that Abyei has no administration, and that the status quo is a violation of the CPA.
Kiir also said northern armed forces continue to maintain troops in the Abyei and other disputed regions. According to Kiir, Sudan’s forces were supposed to withdraw fully from the south by July. He admitted that southern troops have also not redeployed as required, but blamed the NCP for making the process difficult.
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Kiir also took issue with what he said was the lack of progress in demarcating the border between northern and southern Sudan. Although he admitted that it is “really difficult” to draw a border, he said the lack of a demarcated border was slowing down other parts of the peace process.
“You cannot have a census... if the borders are not demarcated. The same for the elections,” Kiir said.
Kiir gave an assurance that despite the SPLM’s boycott of the central government, it remains committed to the peace process, and there are no plans for the south to unilaterally declare its independence prior to a referendum scheduled for 2011.
“The CPA is moving like a drunken person, struggling going forward,” Kiir said. “But it is still holding. It has not fallen and it will not fall.”
