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Sudanese Peace Talks Resume in Kenya
Reuters, Agence France Presse, Arab News
NAIROBI, 8 October 2003 — Sudan’s government and the country’s main rebel group launched fresh rounds of peace talks in Kenya yesterday, described by officials as complex and difficult, aiming to end 20 years of bloodshed in the country.
The delegates are discussing several unresolved issues, officials said. Namely, how to share power and wealth from the south’s lucrative oil wells, the status of the capital Khartoum and the political status of three disputed regions — the Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile and Abyei.
“Despite the fact that we have solved the most difficult issue, which is the security arrangements, the remaining issues are complex and require a lot of effort,” rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army spokesman Arman Yasser told Reuters.
Peace talks between the government and the SPLA were adjourned on Sept. 26 after the two parties signed a key security deal that cleared a major stumbling block in efforts to end the civil war that has killed some two million people.
The talks being held in Naivasha, a town 90 km northwest of Nairobi, commence at committee level. Sudan’s first vice president, Ali Osman Taha, and SPLA leader John Garang are expected to join them next week. The chief mediator, Kenya’s Lazaro Sumbeiywo, said the two parties were consulting separately with mediators and were scheduled to meet later yesterday to decide on an agenda and timetable for the talks.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell may travel to Kenya this month to cement the possible peace deal, senior State Department officials said in Washington on Monday.
The officials, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Powell was considering the trip because of the high priority US President George W. Bush places on the Sudanese peace process.
The officials stressed that no decision has yet been made on Powell’s attendance at the talks but said that possibility was being dangled to both Khartoum and the rebels as incentive for them to reach agreement as quickly as possible.
“We would want it done before we show up,” one senior official said. “We want to encourage them to conclude and this is one way to do that.”
Earlier Monday at a joint news conference with Kibaki, Bush praised Kenya’s mediation role in the peace process and pledged that the United States would remain involved in the quest to end the conflict. Sumbeiywo, and US special envoy for Sudan, former Sen. John Danforth, “have helped bring Africa’s longest running civil war very close to a peaceful end,” Bush said.
“America will stay engaged in this effort,” he vowed. “Yet only the (two parties) can arrive at a just and comprehensive peace and I urge them to do so quickly.” A retired US Marine Corps general helping the two sides finalize the landmark security deal they signed last month said earlier Monday in Khartoum that he was optimistic about progress being made toward a final peace pact.
“Both the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army have clearly shown their full commitment to achieving a comprehensive peaceful settlement as soon as possible,” the general, Carlton Fulford, told reporters in the Sudanese capital.
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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 (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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