Yasir Arman: Sudan Needs a New Paradigm To End its Conflicts
By: Brian Adeba
September 8, 2011
Hundreds of people have been displaced from Sudan’s Blue Nile State following fighting between government forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North) in early September. The SPLM North claims it has captured two garrison towns in Blue Nile. The advent of hostilities in Blue Nile followed political unrest in the state of southern Kordofan a few months earlier. Blue Nile State and southern Kordofan had fought alongside South Sudan, which seceded in July 2011. Analysts had long warned about the possibility of conflict in both regions which straddle the border with South Sudan if disputes on political control are not resolved amicably between the government and the SPLM-North, the dominant party in both regions.
Brian Adeba spoke to Yasir Arman, the secretary general of the SPLM-North, about the conflict in Blue Nile and the prospects for a peaceful resolution.
Following the fighting in Blue Nile, the SPLM North has been accused of failing to redefine its objectives to appeal to a broad Sudanese spectrum, away from focusing on a narrow base in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states. How do you respond to this accusation?
Yasir Arman: Part of this accusation is genuine. The other part is just part of the campaign against the SPLM. The SPLM is not a new organization as you know. It is an organization that has worked in northern Sudan for a quarter of a century. For the last six years, I have been involved with the party in Khartoum and worked extensively with everybody. Our objective is clear. What we want now, after the situation in Blue Nile and southern Kordofan, is that the regime must change. The National Congress Party, if they don’t want this change to be effected by force, they have to spell a clear program of change and a new road map, a new paradigm shift. Sudan cannot be the same after all that happened in South Sudan. The National Congress Party is a party that is fighting everybody. It fought South Sudan, Darfur, Eastern Sudan, Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains in southern Kordofan.
Now let us take a look at the rebellions taking place. Of course Darfur is still on fire, then there’s Blue Nile and southern Kordofan. Is there an initiative from your side, to forge a united front among the armed groups in these regions to confront the Khartoum regime?
Yasir Arman: We already started the process where we reached a memorandum of understanding with the Darfurian resistance movements. We already agreed on everything. We also agreed with the Justice and Equality Movement on the remaining issue and it is one issue, the issue of the state and religion, but I believe we will resolve it. More than that, this alliance has to extend to all democratic forces in the country so that we form an alliance that will restructure the centre and will build a new state based on equal rights of citizenship and will provide democracy and transformation and permanent peace and food to our people. That’s what we are aiming for.
As the fighting in Blue Nile escalates, I understand that the SPLM North will be going to Addis Ababa for talks being mediated by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. What you can tell us about these upcoming talks?
Yasir Arman: Actually we are not going for talks. We are going for consultation. We have been invited by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. May be other participants will attend, especially the envoy of the UN secretary general, President Thabo Mbeki and may be others from the international community. And we said we are ready to consult and listen to what exactly Prime Minister Zenawi will tell us. But what we want to say is that the situation now is different from the situation when we signed the framework agreement which was dishonoured by President Omar El Bashir. There is a new situation on the ground. The SPLM North has been banned by the government of the National Congress Party and we will listen to what Meles Zenawi will tell us.
What would it take for peace to reign in Blue Nile and southern Kordofan from your perspective as SPLM North?
Yasir Arman: From our perspective there is a need for change. There is a need to accept the will of the Sudanese people, and that is a very important. There is a need to admit that Sudan is not going to be the same and the country is not going to be run by the National Congress—as a one party system. There is a need for a real transformation, for a new road map.
What specifically would this new road map entail?
Yasir Arman: It will entail agreeing on democratic transformation, agreeing on restructuring the centre in Khartoum in the interest of different regions, in the interest of accepting diversity and equal citizenship. That we will have a new professional army, a professional police force, a professional public service and that Sudan will belong to all. Sudan now belongs only to the National Congress Party.
Have there be any one-on-one talks between leaders of the SPLM/N and members of the regime in Khartoum? I understand that Malik Agar called Vice President Ali Osman Muhammad Taha. Can you shed any light on that?
Yasir Arman: Malik was the governor and there were a lot of talks before the war but they [NCP] are trying to say is not correct, it is rubbish. They are trying to get themselves out of the responsibility that they are the ones who launched the attack in Blue Nile. What they are saying is implicating them more. Malik Agar as the governor, he played his role as a statesman. Up to the last moment, he was trying to avoid the confrontation. And they [NCP] went into this confrontation and they have to be held responsible for what they did.
If there’s one last word that you would want to say, what would that be?
Yasir Arman: What I would like to say is that we are very much concerned about the humanitarian suffering and that Khartoum is denying access to humanitarian operations and using food as a weapon. They [Khartoum] are preventing the displaced from moving to camps, they are using them as human shields. There is a need for strong pressure from the international community to have safe passages and access without let or hindrance to the needy people. And there is a need for a no-fly zone from Blue Nile to Darfur to protect the civilian populations.
About Post Author
