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SPLM Supporters to Embark on Protest Monday, Says Official

   The  spokesman  for the Sudan Peopleās Liberation Movement (SPLM) says
   members  will  embark on a peaceful demonstration Monday to press home
   their demand for democratic reforms.

   Peter Clottey | Washington, DC 27 December 2009
   A  Sudanese opposition supporter shouts slogans as protesters wave the
   flag   of   Sudan   People's   Liberation  Movement  (SPLM)  during  a
   demonstration against the government in Khartoum, 07 Dec 2009

Photo: AFP

   A  Sudanese opposition supporter shouts slogans as protesters wave the
   flag   of   Sudan   People's   Liberation  Movement  (SPLM)  during  a
   demonstration against the government in Khartoum, 07 Dec 2009

   The  spokesman  for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) says
   members  will  embark on a peaceful demonstration Monday to press home
   their demand for democratic reforms.

   Yien  Matthew  Chol  said  President Hassan Bashir's National Congress
   Party  (NCP)  is  determined  to  thwart  all  efforts at implementing
   democratic reforms that have been agreed on.

   "Tomorrow (Monday) in the whole south and Nuba Mountains as well as in
   the  Blue Nile, people will go for tranquil and peaceful demonstration
   calling for the government of the national unity and the parliament to
   enhance  passing  those laws as they were agreed by the Sudan People's
   Liberation Movement and the NCP," he said.

Sudan Tribune

   Yien Matthew Chol, SPLM's Spokesman.

   SPLM  members of parliament staged a walk out last week after accusing
   the  NCP of pushing through a bill in parliament that allowed Diaspora
   southerners,  including  those  in the north, to cast absentee ballots
   for the 2011 referendum.

   Sudan  media  reported  that  last week's disputed referendum bill was
   scheduled  to  be  resubmitted  to  parliament  Monday  for  a  second
   deliberation but was later taken out of the agenda.

   The SPLM accused the NCP of removing the referendum bill from Monday's
   agenda -- a charge Khartoum denies.

   But Chol said the NCP seems disinterested in democratic reforms.

   "The  position  is that the past Referendum Act was only passed by the
   northerners  without  the  southerners, which makes it actually an NCP
   act  and  not  of  Sudan. The other thing, which is very important, is
   that  the  SPLM will never ever compromise the issues of the remaining
   laws  and  bills  because  they are related directly to the democratic
   transformation.   And   that   is   the   essence  of  the  whole  CPA
   (Comprehensive Peace Agreement)," Chol said.

   Sudan police have often banned pro-democracy demonstrations.

   But Chol said the SPLM will continue its fight for democratic reforms.

   "The  SPLM as we've made very clear has got plans A and B and C, which
   we  will  promulgate in due time. However, at the moment as our leader
   and  the chairman of the SPLM calls for calm then we are just for call
   while  our  position  on  the  referendum  bill  remains unchanged and
   stagnant," Chol said.

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