KHARTOUM (Agencies)
Former south Sudanese rebels delivered a list of demands to the presidential palace on Sunday after President Omar al-Beshir refused to personally receive their letter detailing ways of resolving a crisis sparked by the southerners' pullout from government.
"President Beshir refused to personally receive the letter that Riak Mashar, vice president in the southern semi-autonomous government, was to deliver," Sudan People's Liberation Movement spokesman Dang Goj told AFP.
He said Beshir instead delegated Minister of Presidential Affairs Bakri Hassan Saleh to receive the letter.
"For us this is a negative signal, an escalation and negligence of our demands," Goj said, adding that Mashar had traveled to Khartoum to personally hand the letter to Beshir.
Former south Sudanese rebels delivered a list of demands to Sudan's presidential palace on Sunday to try to resolve a crisis that saw them withdraw their ministers from the country's coalition government.
Meanwhile, an official from the SPLM told Reuters it was ready to return to power-sharing as soon as Beshir agreed to the measures, including a reshuffle of main ministerial posts.
The SPLM withdrew its ministers from the national coalition government on Thursday, saying it had failed to follow through on a peace deal signed in 2005.
But the ruling NCP rejected the accusations, saying the SPLM was to blame for the failure to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended 21 years of war between the north and south that killed at least two million people and displaced millions more.
The withdrawal, however, sparked a wave of international concern, with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joining the U.S. State Department in urging both sides to keep the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between Sudan's government and the SPLM alive.
Commentators have said a collapse of the peace process would have a devastating impact on security across Sudan, including its war-torn western Darfur region.
A three-man SPLM delegation, led by Machar, handed the demands to Saleh soon after midday local time. |
