Roundup: Sudan's armed groups reject peace deal despite AU deadline

Though the African Union (AU) mediation has set March 28 as a deadline for all Sudanese parties to sign a roadmap agreement, the Sudanese armed groups are still refusing the deal at a time when the Sudanese government regards the document as final and non-adjustable.

Sudan's government on Monday unilaterally signed a road-map in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, proposed by the AU mediation, stipulating arrangements related to cease-fire at the two areas and Darfur region, entering a peace process and involving the armed movements in the national dialogue currently convened in Khartoum.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector, the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudan Liberation Movement (SLA)/Minni Minnawi faction and the opposition National Umma Party, led by Siddiq Al-Mahdi, refused to sign the road-map.

The AU Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma earlier urged in a statement the Sudanese parties which did not sign the roadmap to do so by March 28.

"The chairperson notes that the other parties to the strategic cConsultations did not sign the roadmap agreement," the statement said.

Zuma "calls upon these parties to urgently sign the agreement in order to give impetus to a process that shall lead to the settlement of Sudan's multiple conflicts," it added.

She called on the parties who have not yet signed the agreement "to desist from making any unhelpful public statements, so as to avoid jeopardizing what they have committed to achieving; namely lasting peace in Sudan."

Nevertheless, Zuma's call has not received response from the parties rejecting the proposed AU roadmap.

To this end, Sudanese media reported Yassir Arman, Secretary General of the SPLM/northern sector, said that "we will not respond to any pressures by the AU Peace and Security Council or the UN Security Council regarding the signing of the roadmap."

Arman described the roadmap document as "useless," adding that "we have not met the government side because the government side is not serious and calls us for dialogue and reject to negotiate with us as a group."

He said the AU mediation's proposed roadmap was to involve four forces in the currently administered dialogue which is at its final stages.

Head of the opposition National Umma Party Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, for his part, called on the Chairman of the AU High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) Thabo Mbeki to put pressure on the Sudanese government to accept the opposition's reservations on the roadmap.

Local Sudanese media quoted al-Mahdi as saying that "the gap between the two sides is not that far, hadn't it been for the rush of the mediation."

The Sudanese government negotiating delegation insists that the roadmap is final and not subject to amendment.

At the conclusion of the consultations, the AU mediation proposed a roadmap which was signed by the head of the government delegation Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid and Mbeki, while representative of the opposition expressed reservations over some points and declined to sign.

The Darfur armed groups and the SPLM/northern sector insist that a preparatory conference be held, according to decisions by the AU Peace and Security Council and the UN Security Council, whichthat brings together all the Sudanese political forces to agree on procedures to initiate an equitable dialogue with the government, a demand that the Sudanese government rejects. Endit