Sudan’s Garang in Cairo for inclusion of exiled opposition in peace deal

CAIRO, June 1 (AFP) — John Garang, the former south Sudan rebel leader, was in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with Egypt’s president and exiled dissident groups to finalize their inclusion in a key January peace deal with Khartoum.

“John Garang is currently meeting with President Hosni Mubarak and will later meet with the National Democratic Alliance chairman and leadership,” a spokesman for Garang’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) told AFP.

“With President Mubarak, he will discuss mutual relations and Egypt’s role in the post-war era and reconstruction program in the south and other areas,” Yasir Arman said.

“And with the NDA leadership, John Garang will discuss way to finalize negotiations between the NDA and the Sudanese government,” he added.

The NDA, an umbrella grouping of more than a dozen mainly northern political organizations, has been banned by Khartoum for the past 15 years.

Garang and NDA leader Mohammed Osman el-Mirghani agreed in April to meet in Cairo to press Khartoum for the dissident group’s inclusion in a landmark Sudanese north-south peace deal signed in January.

Under the terms of an agreement sealed just a week after the north-south accord was signed in Nairobi, Khartoum and the NDA agreed to try to extend the peace deal beyond the SPLM.

A key point of the Nairobi deal that ended 21 years of north-south war — Africa’s longest-running conflict — is a six-year transitional period of autonomy for the south after which it will hold a referendum on secession.

The protocol covering political, constitutional and legislative issues between Khartoum and the NDA was to have been finalized in February but was never signed.

The NDA is seen as a rival to the Al-Umma party, Sudan’s legal opposition, and the outlawed Popular Congress.

Arman said Garang would stay in Cairo for a couple of days before heading to the United States.