Rebel leader Garang briefs Libyan leader on peace process

By London-based Al-Sharq al-Awsat daily newspaper

LONDON, Dec 13, 2003 — Dr John Garang, leader of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement [SPLM], yesterday contacted Libyan leader Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi and underlined the importance of reaching a fair and comprehensive peace in Sudan and the importance of the SPLM delegation’s visit to Khartoum that started from Tripoli.

SPLM spokesman Yasir Arman told Al-Sharq al-Awsat that Al- Qadhafi and Garang asserted that the SPLM delegation’s visit bolstered the chances of peace and democratic change.

Garang and Sudanese First Vice President Ali Uthman Taha attended together Kenya’s national day at the invitation of Kenyan President Moi Kibaki.

Arman said the SPLM delegation briefed Garang on its tour of Khartoum and held a preliminary assessment of the visit. He added: “There is a conviction that the visit had served its purpose and the SPLM was able to conduct direct dialogue with the all the active forces in Sudanese society and concluded that the Sudanese people’s desire is the establishment of a fair peace and a democratic change now.”

“A committee was asked to draft a very detailed report and present it to the SPLM leadership, which will take the decisions on every one of the issues that require decisions to be made. These are the dialogue with the ruling National Congress, the meetings with the various opposition parties, the relationship with civil society’s establishments, and the development of relations with new sectors that the SPLM has contacted for the first time,” he said.

The SPLM spokesman went on to add: “Other issues are the development of the results of the first meeting with the Sudanese Copts who are one of the components of Sudan’s national fabric and promotion of the dialogue between the tribes on the areas of contact. We prefer harmony instead of friction, the points of agreement between the north and south, and the setting up of the SPLM publicly in Khartoum and northern Sudan as well as the importance of dialogue with the new forces and the marginal organizations and popular relations between all Sudan’s peoples and provinces.”

BBC Monitoring Middle East