Sudanese govt in new peace talks with opposition NDA

KHARTOUM, July 28 (AFP) — The Sudanese government began a new round of peace talks Friday with what remains of the main opposition alliance forged after its 1989 seizure of power.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, right, watches his Sudanese counterpart Lt. Gen. Omar el-Bashir, left, as he shakes hands with National Democratic Alliance ( NDA) chairman Mohammed Osman Mirghani, center, after signing the Sudanese reconciliation accord in Cairo between the Sudanese government and the National Democratic Alliance, an umbrella opposition grouping, Saturday, June 18, 2005. Arabic slogan read as Cairo accord. (AP).

The talks were aimed at settling thorny issues left over by a June preliminary accord signed in Cairo, such as the future of the military wings set up by several opposition groups.

The chief negotiator for the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Abdel Rahman Saeed, said its participation in a power-sharing government set up after a January peace deal between Khartoum and southern rebels “depends on the outcome of the present negotiations.”

Saeed said the talks would tackle “controversial issues left over from Cairo negotiations of last June”, particular the future of NDA militias in eastern Sudan and neighbouring Eritrea.

The Khartoum government promised to show good faith in the new round of talks.

“We have come to this meeting with open hearts and minds to listen and negotiate patiently for achieving our sole goal of emerging from the meeting with full agreement,” said the government’s chief negotiatior, Nafie Ali Nafie.

The NDA was formed in the mid-1990s as an alliance between northern opposition groups and southern rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

Since the SPLM entered the peace talks that culminated in January’s landamark deal, several northern opposition groups have broken away to pursue their own separate deals with the government.