Garang in Cairo for talks on stalled Sudan’s peace talks
By SALAH NASRAWI Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt, Aug 14, 2003 (AP) — Sudan’s rebel leader John Garang is consulting Sudanese opposition leaders in Cairo about the deadlocked peace talks in his African nation, an aide said Thursday.
Garang, leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army movement, arrived Wednesday and met first with Mohammed Osman el-Mirghani, leader of the opposition National Democratic Alliance, said Jorkoj Badag, the SPLA representative in Cairo.
He said Garang would meet other Sudanese dissidents. Egyptian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Garang also was scheduled to meet with some high level Egyptian officials but declined to give further details.
The latest session of Sudan peace talks in Nairobi, Kenya ended last month with no progress on resolving key issues.
Disputes over the makeup of Sudan’s army and how Islamic law will be applied in the country’s capital were among key issues threatening the peace process.
The Sudanese government has rejected mediators’ proposals, saying they call for the partition of the country and a retreat on Islamic law. Garang’s group has accepted the proposals as guidelines for negotiations.
Egypt has tried to bring the Sudanese sides together, working independently of the Kenya talks, which are mediated by an African regional body known as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
An Egyptian foreign ministry official said Sudan’s peace talks will be at the top of the agenda for upcoming talks between Egyptian officials and Kenya’s Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka, scheduled to arrive in Cairo Friday.
After an 11-year lull, the current phase of the civil war in Sudan began in 1983 when southern rebels took up arms against the government in a bid to obtain greater autonomy for the south. Although often simplified as a religious war, the conflict is also fueled by competition for oil, land and other resources. Sudan began exporting oil in 1998.
An estimated 2 million people have died in the fighting and through war-induced famine and disease in Sudan.