SPLM’s Garang to Cairo for talks with opposition alliance

KHARTOUM, May 29, 2005 (Sudan Tribune) — The Chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), John Garang, said he would be visiting Cairo, Egypt, next week for talks with the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on their participation in the national constitution commission and participation in the national unity government.

Thee NDA has been officially informed that the government will not sit with it unless NDA fixed the date for signing the Cairo peace accord.

Sudanese opposition alliance termed the government’s conditions and its new stand as dangerous and stubborn, adding that that it lacked vision for the national interests.

Outstanding issues, in the talks between Khartoum and the NDA, include the fate of the military wings which some northern opposition groups set up in exile in neighbouring Eritrea in the mid-1990s.

The NDA indicated it would not participate in the constitutional committee before the signing of political agreement with the Sudanese regime.

Also it has demanded a bigger share of the seats on the commission in order to have what it calls a real say in what will be the basis of Sudan’s new government.