Progress at Sudanese peace talks

NAIROBI, Dec 15, 2003 (IRIN) — Sudanese peace talks on Monday moved closer to an agreement to end the country’s 20-year civil war, although doubts remained over its viability because of ongoing fighting in the west of the country.

A source close to the Kenya talks between the Sudanese government and rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) told IRIN on Monday that the parties were close to reaching an agreement on wealth sharing, one of the three remaining sticking points.

The other remaining issues in the talks facilitated by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD, include power sharing and the status of three disputed regions during a six- year transitional period.

According to the source, both sides had agreed on the idea of a central bank with two “windows” – one overseeing an Islamic banking system for the north and the other commercial banking for the secular south.

“It was felt that wealth sharing would be easier to deal with,” the source said. “After that we can deal with the issues of power sharing and the disputed regions.”

He noted there could soon be an agreement on currency as well as the percentage of oil revenues to be shared between the north and the south. The north, he said, would continue with the dinar and south Sudan would adopt the new Sudan pound.

In its latest report, the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank has said that this peace process should take into account the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Darfur region of western Sudan, warning that one conflict risked being replaced by another.