Sudan leaders due in Kenya for final push for peace
By Wangui Kanina
NAIVASHA, Kenya, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Sudan’s vice president and the country’s main rebel leader are expected to meet in Kenya on Saturday for peace talks which mediators hope will end two-decades of civil war by the end of this year.
Ali Osman Taha and John Garang, head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), have told the United States, which is putting heavy pressure on both sides, that they would sign a peace deal by the end of December.
Analysts warn the deadline is unrealistic.
“I don’t think there’s any chance they can get a final agreement by the end of the year,” David Mozersky of the International Crisis Group, told Reuters, adding that even if a framework deal was signed, the details would take time.
“There’s probably just too much to do in too little time…and they shouldn’t be rushed by artificial deadlines.”
Taha and Garang had initially planned to arrive at the talks venue on Kenya’s Lake Naivasha on Friday but officials said Taha had remained in Khartoum to meet an SPLA delegation on a confidence building mission to the capital.
Thousands of people turned out to greet the rebel delegates, making the first such visit to Khartoum since hostilities began in 1983, shouting: “Welcome to the heroes, welcome to the new Sudan”.
The war in Sudan has killed an estimated two million people. The SPLA and the government have been in negotiations since early 2002 and have made considerable progress, but critical issues still remain undecided.
“We have never been to Khartoum as a movement,” SPLA spokesman George Garang said. “This is a goodwill mission to assure the Sudanese people that the SPLA is committed to peace.”
Kenya, which is hosting the talks, is publicly optimistic that the current round of negotiations — which began earlier this week — will be the final one.
“I am optimistic that they will agree before the end of December, as they have said,” chief mediator Lazarus Sumbeiywo said. Timescales set for finishing negotiations have repeatedly been delayed over the past two years.
The war in Sudan has pit the southern-based SPLA against the northern Islamic government. Many other groups are also involved and issues at stake range from religious freedom to southern independence to control of lucrative oil fields.
The SPLA and Khartoum have already signed agreements on allowing the south to hold a referendum on independence, separating state and religion and structuring a postwar army.
But they still need to agree on how to divide power and wealth and on the status of three disputed areas.