Sudanese rebel leader returns to Kenya to rejoin talks with government

NAIROBI, April 27, 2004 (Xinhua) — John Garang, the leader of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), came back to Kenya late Tuesday, rejoining the ongoing peace talks, a rebel official told Xinhua.

Garang’s return follows Sudanese First Vice-President Ali Osman Taha’s return on Sunday from Khartoum, SPLA spokesman Yasser Arman said.

Taha, the head of the government delegation to the talks, left the talks in the Kenyan town of Naivasha, the venue of the current round of Sudanese peace talks, for Khartoum on April 17 for consultations with his government over the talks and his departure was followed by that of Garang on April 23.

“Their return means they will be able to make decisions that need to be made to resolve the outstanding issues,” said Arman, who had accompanied Garang to Eritrea where they met with rebel leaders fighting in western Sudan’s Darfur region.

The Sudanese civil war started in 1983 when the SPLA took up arms fighting for self-determination in the southern part of the country, which has left some 2 million people dead, mostly through war-induced famine and disease.

The Sudanese government and the SPLA began peace talks in March 1994 in Kenya, under the auspices of The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a seven-member regional group in east Africa, consisting of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, Eritrea, Somalia and the Sudan.

During this round of talks, expected to be the last one, Taha and Garang have been negotiating in Naivasha since February this year, aimed at ending the longest civil war on the African continent.

However, the issue of Islamic law in the Sudanese capital is the latest issue blocking the signing of the final deal.

A mediator said that both Garang Taha, after consultations with their rebels and government delegations respectively, “will come up with a positive response to resolve the issues.”