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Bashir Fires Chief Adviser on Peace Process
Agencies, Arab News
KHARTOUM, 30 November 2003 — Sudanese President Omar Bashir fired his chief adviser on the peace process, Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani, the official Sudan News Agency reported yesterday. “The president ... issued a presidential decree yesterday relieving Dr. Ghazi Salah Eddin, the presidential adviser on peace affairs, from his post upon his (Atabani’s) request,” SUNA said.
The dismissal came as a surprise as state media had reported that Atabani would lead the government delegation when peace talks with the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army resumed in Kenya next week.
It was known that Atabani had differences with other members of the government over a number of issues in the peace process. Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail had denied that such differences existed. The government and the SPLA have agreed on a six-year transitional period and are now negotiating a final settlement to the 20-year civil war.
Atabani was due to be replaced in five days time by Sudanese First Vice President Ali Osman Taha as the talks with SPLA leader John Garang continue. No reason was given for Atabani’s resignation, but observers have speculated that he was angry at being replaced by Taha in the August round of talks, despite being included in the government’s delegation in October.
Kenyan-brokered peace talks have made significant progress over the last 15 months and the United States expects a final settlement to be signed by the end of the year.
A senior SPLA delegation will travel to Khartoum in the next few days for the first such visit since civil war broke out in 1983, officials said yesterday.
The trip by members of the rebels’ peace negotiating team is a “gesture of good will” before next month’s meeting between Garang and Taha, rebel spokesman Yassir Saeed Arman was cited as saying by Khartoum dailies. The delegation will meet with various political parties, including the ruling National Congress, and civil groups, Arman was quoted as saying by the independent Akhbar Al-Youm daily.
The visit is intended to lay the groundwork for the SPLM to declare itself a political party amid growing signs the war is drawing to a close and alert rebel supporters in the capital to operate as a party, he said.
He said that the delegation would leave for the capital as soon as it received final government approval, adding that they would travel via and be accompanied by officials from an unnamed neighboring country to guarantee their safety.
Sudan’s government welcomed the proposed visit by the rebels, with the undersecretary at the Foreign Ministry, Mutref Siddeiq, saying the move had already been agreed upon by Osman Taha and Garang at peace talks in Kenya in October.
“There is no need for a formal government approval of the visit as it was proposed by the first vice president,” said Siddeiq, who described the visit as “a good gesture”.
“The doors will be wide open to Khartoum”, said Siddeiq, adding that the rebels’ trip would be made before December 5. He also expressed hope their visit would be followed by the return to Khartoum of the movement’s leaders.
The SPLM has already initiated contacts with Khartoum-based political groups to open consultations on establishing a national political consensus, rebel spokesman Arman said.
The government and the SPLM rebels on Friday agreed to extend an ongoing cease-fire by two months, two days before the peace talks resume in Naivasha, Kenya.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03. |
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