Khartoum says no deadline possible for peace deal

NAIVASHA, Kenya, Oct 22 (AFP) — A senior Sudanese government official said Wednesday it was “impossible to dictate” a deadline for reaching a peace deal to end two decades of civil war in the vast country.

“It is impossible for anyone to dictate a date on the two parties that are negotiating,” presidential peace adviser Ghazi Salaheddine said in Kenya hours after US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced here that Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) had agreed to sign a comprehensive peace deal by the end of December.

After meeting Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha and SPLA leader John Garang in the Kenyan town of Naivasha, Powell declared: “Both sides have agreed to continue the talks and reach a comprehensive agreement no later than by the end of December.”

Asked whether this time frame was realistic, Salaheddine said: “It is not putting a deadline on the end of the negotiations, it is an expression of the desire to redouble efforts to reach an agreement.

“It is a sign of commitment and sincerity that genuine endeavours are in place to end suffering in Sudan,” added government spokesman Sayed el-Khatibu.

Another Sudanese government official was less diplomatic.

“The US is here to solve its own problems simply because elections are around the corner and they have never had success in the Middle East and Gulf region,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

Garang and Taha are engaged in what many expect to be a final round of negotiations to end a war that has killed some 1.5 million people and displaced more than four million since it began in 1983.