S. Sudan SPLM divided over Bashir visit

Hamas' Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh (L) and Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir shake hands during their meeting in Khartoum, Sudan, Dec. 29. UPI/Mohammad Alostaz/HO 

JUBA, South Sudan, March 19 (UPI) -- South Sudan ruling party members are divided on whether the country should host Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for talks, officials say.

The Sudan Tribune said the members of the ruling party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, also have expressed differences over whether Bashir should be arrested for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

A meeting is expected in the next few weeks between Bashir and Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, to sign a border deal and agreements on freedoms for people of both countries.

Kiir visited Khartoum in October.

Pagan Amum, the SPLM secretary-general and South Sudan's top negotiator, said he knows Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes but South Sudan would not arrest him "because we have problems to settle first." Amum noted South Sudan is not an ICC member.

But Deng Ajok Dut, another SPLM member, said South Sudan should arrest alleged war criminals, whatever their political standing.