Sudan moves parliament south to heal rift

KHARTOUM - Sudan will convene its parliament in the southern capital Juba four times a year to try to rebuild relations in the shattered coalition government, two senior officials said on Wednesday.

The move was one of a list of confidence-building measures announced to help heal a rift between the government in Khartoum and former southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

The SPLM pulled its ministers out of the Government of National Unity in October, accusing its political partners in Khartoum of stalling on implementing a 2005 peace agreement that ended Africa's longest civil war.

Late on Tuesday, the SPLM said it would order its ministers to rejoin government after their leader, Salva Kiir, met Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and resolved a list of grievances.

The agreement between Kiir and Bashir followed weeks of meetings by a top-level committee of senior members of the SPLM and the dominant National Congress Party (NCP).

The NCP's co-chair on the committee, Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed, told reporters on Wednesday the parties had now agreed to move Sudan's National Assembly to Juba every quarter, along with the whole coalition cabinet and the leadership of Sudan's major political parties.

"This is a new idea," said Al-Dirdiri. "At the beginning it might be a symbolic act as the facilities in Juba are still run down. But we are going to have a flurry of activities in Juba."

The SPLM's co-chair on the same committee, Yasir Arman, said the move would send an "important signal" about the new political landscape in Sudan.

"It will help smooth the path towards national reconciliation," he said.

If the quarterly move to Juba occurs, it will be a major departure for the dominant NCP, which has traditionally built up power in the north.

Arman and Al-Dirdiri said the parties had also agreed to set up a new Development Commission to focus on improving transport links and communications between the north and the largely undeveloped south.

Jan. 9 -- the date that the SPLM signed the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement with the Sudanese government -- would also be named a national day of peace, said the officials.

The SPLM on Tuesday said it had resolved all outstanding issues with Khartoum except one -- the borders of the central oil-rich Abyei region.

Abyei's status was left unresolved in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Khartoum eventually rejected the findings of an independent commission on the demarcation.

Al-Dirdiri said Kiir and Bashir had agreed to try and agree on Abyei by Dec. 31 -- either by resolving the issue outright or agreeing how it could be solved.

Arman declined to name a precise date for the return of SPLM's ministers to government.

"There are only some procedural, administrative and technical issues to be resolved now. You will see the SPLM ministers return to work in the cabinet soon. ... The political crisis has been resolved."

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement created Sudan's coalition government and set up ways for the north and south to share oil revenues.

Since it was signed, both sides have accused each other of failing to implement key protocols, including the redeployment of soldiers, the demarcation of their mutual border and preparations for elections in 2009 and a referendum on the possible secession of the south in 2011.

Sudan's north-south war claimed 2 million lives and drove 4 million people from their homes. It largely pitted Khartoum's Islamist government against mostly Christian and animist rebels.