Sudan rebel, southern political factions meet to discuss peace deal

NAIROBI, Apr 18, 2005 (AP) — Dozens of representatives of southern Sudanese rebel groups, political factions and religious organizations met in neighboring Kenya Monday to discuss a peace deal that ended two decades of civil war in Sudan .

The Jan. 9 peace agreement between the main rebel force, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, and the Sudanese government didn’t include other factions from southern Sudan .

Organizers of the four-day gathering in the Kenyan capital hope to persuade other groups to honor the deal.

“This is a meeting following the Jan. 9 peace agreement. It is a dialogue. It is a reconciliation,” said Aaron Tuikong, director of the Moi Africa Institute. The institute, set up by former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi in 2003 to help in peace negotiations, organized the meeting.

Tuikong said the gathering brought together 120 representatives of southern rebel groups, political parties, churches and Muslim organizations as well as non-governmental organizations.

The 21-year war pitted the Arab Muslim-dominated government in Khartoum against rebels fighting for greater autonomy and a larger share of the country’s wealth in the largely African animist and Christian south. More than 2 million people died, mainly from war-induced famine and disease, and at least twice as many fled their homes.

Southern Sudan ‘s conflict was separate from one in the country’s western Darfur region, which broke out more than two years ago when rebels in that region took up arms against Sudan ‘s government. To combat the insurgency, the Sudanese government turned to Arab militiamen, who have been accused of targeting the region’s non-Arab inhabitants.

The conflict has since killed some 180,000 people, mainly from war-induced hunger and disease, according to U.N. estimates.