News Article by AFP posted on August 24, 2000 at 09:09:17: EST (-5 GMT)
SPLA rejects plan to allow Khartoum to monitor relief flights
NAIROBI, Aug 24 (AFP) - The Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army
(SPLM/A) on Thursday rejected a proposal, accepted by
the United Nations,
that would allow Khartoum to monitor relief
flights entering Sudan from
neighbouring Kenya.
"We will not accept the proposal because it will be against the
tripartite
agreement," Samson Kwaje, spokesman for the rebel group,
told AFP, referring
to a 1989 arrangement between the UN, Khartoum
and the SPLA, which spawned
the multi-agency relief effort Operation
Lifeline Sudan (OLS).
The new proposal, which would allow representatives of the
Khartoum regime
to deploy in Lokichokio, the northern Kenyan base of
humanitarian relief for
Sudan, was accepted by the UN on Wednesday,
but still requires approval from
Nairobi.
SLPM officials already monitor humanitarian activity in
Lokichokio.
Khartoum has accused aid organisations of using their flights
into Sudan
to deliver weapons to the rebels in the south.
On Tuesday, the UN announced it would end a suspension of aid
flights into
Sudan that was imposed August 8 after OLS agencies
accused Khartoum of
stepping up bombing raids on civilian targets.
The announcement followed assurances from Sudanese President
Omar
al-Bashir about the safety of aid workers.