Sudan president orders paramilitary forces mobilization, rejects Abyei report

Addressing a mass rally this morning at the Wad-Medani Stadium (capital of Al-Jazeera State), some 200 miles south of Khartoum, celebrating the 18th anniversary of the Popular Defence Forces (PDF), President al-Bashir ordered to the PDF to open its camps and mobilize troops and get prepared for any eventuality.

"Now we order the PDF, the legitimate son of the people, to open their camps and gather the Mujahideen [Holy warriors] not to wage war but it is obvious that we should be ready."

The Sudanese president reiterated his commitment to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the war between the North and the South. He reminded the crowd that the last report by the CPA Assessment and Evaluation Commission (AEC) showed that his party respected and implemented better the dispositions of the CPA.

The AEC report referred to by Al-Bashir has not been released last week but sources familiar with the matter told Sudan Tribune it appeared favoring the ruling National Congress Party(NCP) except on the issue of Abyei.

Al-Bashir said that the NCP is committed to the Abyei Protocol only with the border of 1905. He further said the government is not concerned with Abyei Boundaries Commission (ABC) report and that the latter is of no value to them.

?They [ABC writers] should dilute and drink it? Al-Bashir added.

In a rare and implicit threat to his partners in the government, Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM), Al-Bashir issued a warning to and said that they should not think that "We are weakened because we signed the peace and there is a war in Darfur.?

The Sudanese leader said that throughout the civil war years they were able to circumvent attempts by local and foreign forces to topple them.

?Our response has been stronger than their missiles and their slyness. As a result we became victorious in the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile and the stunning victory that shook all the monsters and tyrants in Torit? he added.

Al-Bashir criticized the travel by the SPLM leader and his Vice President Salva Kiir to Washington saying it is better for the southern ex-rebels to work with its partner and find a solution to the pending issues instead of rallying foreign countries to pressurize his government.

"We tell our brothers in the SPLM that America, Britain and Europe are not more interested in peace than us," he said.

?Is it conceivable that aircraft should carry thousands of children from Darfur and Chad to France without the knowledge of the government, the EU or the UN? All these are lies. They are all accomplices in this conspiracy. They want to bring back slave trade as they transported in the past millions to US and South America? he added, referring to the failed attempt by a French charity?s to fly children out of Chad.

The SPLM signed a peace deal in January 2005 with the government of the National Congress Party in January 2005 ending two decades of civil war in Southern Sudan. The peace deal made the SPLM, the ruling party in the south and the NCP the ruling party in the north.

But last October the SPLM suspended its participation in the national unity government to protest against the ill implementation of the CPA. The SPLM objections focused mainly on the Abyei issue, north-South border and troop redeployment.

Last week the US Administration had proposed, during a visit to Washington, a set of "confidence-building measures" to Salva Kiir, who is also the First Vice President of the republic. Abyei was at the top of these measures. However, the southern Sudan leader rejected the proposal.

The spokesman for the US State department Sean McCormack said last week that based on Kiir?s assessment of the CPA implementation, the new proposals are ?no longer relevant, because they?ve [SPLM & NCP] actually moved beyond it?.