Sudanese govt, opposition alliance finalize reconciliation deal

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF

CAIRO, Egypt, June 12, 2005 (AP) — Sudanese officials and opposition groups met in Cairo Sunday to conclude a power-sharing agreement, a key step toward strengthening democracy after two decades of civil war.

NDA spokesman Hatem al-Sir Ali.

The Sudanese government and southern rebels signed a peace treaty in January, ending Africa’s longest-running civil war. Shortly afterwards, the government and the National Democratic Alliance, an umbrella opposition grouping, agreed to support the southern cease-fire and work toward power-sharing.

Both sides said Sunday they were confident of achieving a final agreement by Wednesday, the last day of talks.

“The two sides are working within promising conditions according to the reconciliation deal and are upbeat about achieving a final agreement on Wednesday,” said NDA spokesman Hatem al-Sir Ali.

The Sudanese government delegation, which arrived in Cairo earlier Sunday, is led by the federal government minister Nafie Ali Nafie.

Opposition spokesman Ali said Egyptian mediators were “really very keen that the two sides should reach an agreement without a slightest possibility of failure.”

Sudan’s ambassador to Egypt, Hassan Abdul-Baqi, said there were no problems facing the talks since the major issues had been settled by the reconciliation deal and it remained only to agree on mechanisms to implement it.

In an agreement reached in Cairo in January, both sides supported the southern peace agreement, backed the drafting of a new constitution and committed to entrenching freedom and democracy in Sudan.

Ali said a political committee and a military and security committee had begun talks on the NDA’s share of power, “both in the legislative and the executive authorities, and in the committee to draft the constitution.”

The final agreement is scheduled to be approved on Thursday by Sudan’s Vice President, Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, NDA chairman Mohammed Osman Mirghani and John Garang, leader of Sudan’s People’s Liberation Army.

Ali said the meeting would not touch on the conflict in the western Darfur region because the issue has been discussed separately and the NDA had already expressed support for ending end the dispute peacefully. One of the main rebel groups there, the Sudan Liberation Army, is an NDA member.

Farouq Abu Essa, the NDA secretary-general and leader of the group’s Cairo office, said the issues to be discussed were clear and uncomplicated and a final agreement was possible. He did not say what would happen if an agreement was not concluded.

The NDA is a largely northern grouping of 14 political parties, trade union representatives and rebel armies. It includes the SPLA, the Sudanese Communist Party, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Arab Baath party, all of whom opposed attempts to impose Islamic rule and fled Sudan after the 1989 coup that brought the Islamic-oriented government of Omar el-Bashir to power.