Sudan army, SPLA trade accusations over troops redeployment

UNITED NATIONS MISSION IN SUDAN (UNMIS)
Media Monitoring Report, 19 July 2007 (SudanTribune.com; AlSahafa)

A tense regular meeting of the Joint Ceasefire Technical Committee ended with the two sides traded accusations over troop redeployment as per the CPA.

The SAF insisted that it maintain its 3,000 or so presence to protect the oilfields as per an agreement reached with the SPLA at a JDB meeting earlier but the SPLA insists there was no such agreement and no justification for such a presence of the SAF in those areas.

The head of the SPLA team to the committee, Brg. Mark Paul, revealed that the meeting reached
agreement that the SAF had redeployed 66.5% of its troops from the south and still has 33.5% spread around different parts of the south even after the 9th July deadline. He described this as a clear violation of the CPA. He pointed out that the SAF still has about 15,000 SAF south of the 1.1.’56 line.

The SPLA representative denied any link between this and the redeployment of SPLA from the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile region. He explained that the JIUs have not yet been formed in these areas and that the two sides still maintain their troops.

On the other hand, Peter Ajang, the SPLA Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, said that he personally supervised the launch of the SPLA redeployment from the Nuba Moutnains and the Blue Nile regions last week.

Despite the difficult terrain and the difficulties in movement as a result of the rains, the SPLA has started to redeploy from Kurmuk in the Blue Nile region and Kauda in the Nuba Mountains on foot, he said. He added that aircraft are used to ferry supplies to them en route as they head towards their new positions.

AlSahafa daily has learnt that the SAF had proposed that the issue be referred to the Ceasefire Political Committee for arbitration and from there to the Presidency but the SPLA says this is a violation of the mechanisms of the CPA.

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