US official appreciates Sudan’s decision to resume talks with rebels in Ramadan

BBC Monitoring Middle East

By Sudanese opposition National Democratic Alliance radio

Oct. 31, 2003 — A US diplomat has appreciated yesterday’s government decision to resume peace talks with the people’s movement [Sudan People’s Liberation Movement SPLM] during the ongoing month of Ramadan.

Government’s sources announced that the official concerned with Sudanese peace talks dossier in the US administration, Jeff Millington, asked the government officials to resume the peace talks in a week’s time in the Kenyan town of Naivasha. The sources considered the US diplomats efforts as coming within the framework of intensified US efforts to reach a Sudanese peace agreement before the end of this year.

The US official concluded a unexpected visit to Khartoum, during which he met senior officials of the government of Al-Bashir. During the visit he met [the first] vice-president of President Al-Bashir, Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha, before returning yesterday to Nairobi yesterday where he was expected to meet SPLM leaders.

The sources disclosed that contacts have been, in the last two days, with senior officials to ensure resumption of peace talks takes place within the month of Ramadan. The sources said the contacts included a communication between Al-Bashir and Garang on one hand, and the IGAD [Inter-Governmental Authority on Development] secretariat and the two negotiating delegation on the other hand. The sources said the government and the SPLM were not objecting to resumption of the next round of peace talks in a week’s time at experts level, to joined later by the Ali Uthman and Dr Garang a week later. This is in accordance with a new US proposal which is described as a better way of trying to decisively solve outstanding issues and eventually make difficult decision at the summit level.

However, a high-ranking official of the Foreign Ministry of the Khartoum government refuted there being any intention of resuming the negotiation at the summit level during the month of Ramadan. He said the two sides would resume the talks at the technical committees’ level in preparation of the next round of peace talks scheduled for 30 November.

[UAE based] Gulf News reported that the US diplomat spent one day only in Khartoum during which he held lengthy discussions at the Republican Palace with Ali Uthman, the negotiating government delegation and a [prominent] southern leader, Mawlana al-Fadil [honorific] Abel Alier.

According to sources, the talks with the US diplomat in Khartoum aimed at discussing the period of suspending peace talks and trying to bridge close opinions of the two sides on outstanding issues, especially the issue of the three [disputed] regions. [The Nuba Mountains, Abyei and southern Blue Nile].