Khartoum silent on troubled peace talks with rebels

KHARTOUM, Aug 16 (AFP) — Sudanese government officials kept silent Saturday on the development of peace talks with southern rebels in Kenya, reported to be on the verge of collapse.

State radio made no mention of the talks in its morning news bulletins.

A source from the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) said Friday the talks, which opened Monday in Nanyuki, central Kenya, were “deadlocked and on the verge of collapse”.

The source told AFP the talks had reached stalemate after the Sudanese government refused to negotiate on the basis of a framework document drawn up by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an east African regional body.

The government delegation maintains that the document, rejected by Khartoum, should not be referred to in the talks. But the SPLA insists that the IGAD-approved text must be the basis for attempts to reach a settlement ending Sudan’s 20-year civil war.

Khartoum and the SPLA struck a breakthrough accord in July 2002 granting the south the right to self-determination after a six-year transition period and exempting it from Islamic law.

But Khartoum and the rebels are still wrangling over power-sharing and security arrangements, and the distribution of wealth during the interim period.

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir last week slammed the IGAD document as opening the way to secession of the south, but nevertheless sent a delegation to the Kenya talks.

Beshir has repeatedly cast doubt on the neutrality of the mediators from IGAD — whose members are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia — since the talks began.

Sudan’s civil war between the Arab Muslim north and the mainly Christian and animist south is the oldest armed conflict in Africa. It has claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced four million people.