A prominent member of Sudan’s governing National Congress Party (NCP) told VOA the prevailing calm between his party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPML) will help expedite “the resolution and agreement” of the rest of the outstanding issues between north and south.
Rabie Abdelati Obeid said President Omar Hassan al-Bashir should be credited with bringing about the peace during his visit to the south, where he promised to respect the outcome of the referendum ahead of the vote which ended last Saturday.
“This can be attributed to the address of our president before the conduction of the referendum. And the content of our president’s address to the SPLM leaders and the southern political parties, during his visit to Juba, (he) explained to them that unity, according to the CPA, (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) should not come by force,” said Obeid.
“He (Mr. Bashir) also promised the southern government that, even if the result of the referendum is secession, the cooperation will continue and the northern government will support and provide a lot of assistance to the southern government. And, this is according to the relationship between the north and the south, which is historical and what is indicated as realities on the ground in the intermingling area.”
Both the NCP and the SPLM have traded accusations in the run-up to the referendum, during which each side accused the other of undermining the full implementation of the 2005 CPA.
Obeid said both sides have realized the need for “greater” cooperation after the semi-autonomous south secedes from the north.
“The reason for the reduction of accusations between the SPLM and NCP can be attributed to the feeling of the southern government and the SPLM that they will shoulder the whole responsibility of the south after secession. This also gives them the indication that they will not stale (turn down) the effort and the cooperation of the north as it came to their mind that the north has a strong bond with them, and that the assistance that may be provided by the northern government will be more than any other assistance or support that they are expecting to come to them from any other country, (including) the international community,” said Obeid
Obeid also said that the peace existing between the two parties will also help resolve the rest of the outstaying issues, including the dispute over the oil-rich Abyei region.
“I think this atmosphere and understanding between the SPLM and the NCP will push forward both partners through the joint technical committees to solve all the post-arrangements of (the) referendum like the demarcation of borders and the sharing of the foreign loans. Also, this will help solve the problem of Abyei,” said Obeid.
