Sudan’s Garang for inclusion of exiled opposition in peace deal

CAIRO, June 1 (AFP) — John Garang, the former south Sudan rebel leader, held talks with Egypt’s president on Wednesday and was to meet exiled dissident groups to finalize their inclusion in a key January peace deal with Khartoum.

Chairman of the Sudanese People Liberation Movement (SPLM) John Garang. (AP).

“We discussed the necessity for comprehensive peace in Sudan so that there is also peace in Darfur (in the west) and eastern Sudan and a solution to the problem of National Democratic alliance,” Garang told reporters after his meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement’s (SPLM) chief was due to meet NDA leader Mohammed Osman el-Mirghani later in Cairo, his spokesman said.

The NDA, an umbrella grouping of more than a dozen mainly northern political organizations, has been banned by Khartoum for the past 15 years.

Garang said Egypt could play a crucial role in helping include the NDA in the north-south peace agreement signed in Nairobi in January, since the dissident group is based in Egypt.

“Egypt is the mediator in the problem between the NDA and the Sudanese government,” he said.

Under the terms of an agreement sealed just a week, Khartoum and the NDA agreed to try to extend the peace deal beyond the SPLM.

A key point of the Nairobi deal that ended 21 years of north-south war — Africa’s longest-running conflict — is a six-year transitional period of autonomy for the south after which it will hold a referendum on secession.

The protocol covering political, constitutional and legislative issues between Khartoum and the NDA was to have been finalized in February but was never signed.

The NDA is seen as a rival to the Al-Umma party, Sudan’s legal opposition, and the outlawed Popular Congress.

Turning to the implementation of the January 2005 peace deal, Garang said he was hopeful the constitution being drafted for the six-year transitional period would be ready “before the middle of June.”

“Then the government of national unity will be set hopefully by July 9,” in line with the January peace deal, said Garang, who is to serve as first vice-president.

He also voiced hope that Sudan would stay unified six years down the line.

“We have six years to make unity attractive and we’ll work together in the north, south, east and west to create a new environment, new parameters for unity so that Sudan belongs equally to all its citizens whether they are of Arab origin or African Christians, Muslims or believe in traditional African religions.”

The conflict pitted the mainly Christian and animist south against the Muslim and Arab-dominated central government and cost an estimated 1.5 million lives, displacing more than four million people.

Garang raised the alarm over severe food shortages in the face of the anticipated return of millions of refugees that had fled the region during the war.

“We’re expecting something like three million southern Sudanese to return from the north and about one (million) from neighboring countries,” he said. “People are actually starving to death in some places.”

Garang, who arrived in Cairo on Wednesday will stay a couple days before heading to the United States, his spokesman said.