Garang, Taha to push for progress on Sudan peace

KHARTOUM, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Rare face-to-face talks were due to begin on Wednesday between the head of Sudan’s main rebel group and a top government official to try to break an impasse in talks to end a 20-year-old civil war, a Sudanese daily said.

Yasir Arman, a spokesman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M), had told Reuters late on Tuesday that SPLA leader John Garang was going to Kenya for talks with First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and to head the SPLA team at a fresh round of peace talks, due to start on September 10.

“Direct official talks are due to begin today (Wednesday) in the surroundings of Naivasha, 90 km (55 miles) from Nairobi, between…Taha and…Garang to look into the future of the partnership between the government and the People’s Movement and to remove the obstacles facing the peace process,” the independent al-Sahafa reported on Wednesday.

The paper said the three days of talks were made possible by U.S., Egyptian and Kenyan efforts.

Arman had said Garang’s trip proved the rebels’ commitment to ending the conflict, which has killed two million people in Africa’s largest country.

The war, which has been raging since 1983, pits the Islamist government in the north against rebels seeking more autonomy in the south, where Christianity and animist beliefs dominate.

“By placing at the head of its delegation its highest ranking official, the SPLM means to send a very definite message regarding its commitment to these talks. The ball is now in Khartoum’s court,” Arman said by telephone from southern Sudan.

Peace talks have stumbled in recent months after reaching a breakthrough outline accord just over a year ago.

A Sudanese government negotiator said last month Khartoum and the rebels had made some progress on power-sharing in their latest rounds of talks in August, raising hopes over the largely deadlocked bid to end the war.

But rebels played down reports of progress, accusing the government of attempting to derail the peace process by trying to sideline agreements made at earlier rounds of talks.

The rebels and the government reached an outline agreement in July 2002 under which southern Sudanese would vote in a referendum on secession after a six-year transition. But they have since been unable to agree on several vital issues, including how to share power and wealth.