China welcomes reconciliation between Sudan govt, opposition NDA

BEIJING, Jun 23, 2005 (Xinhua) — China welcomes the reconciliation realized between the Sudanese government and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao here at a routine press conference Thursday.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, right, watches his Sudanese counterpart Lt. Gen. Omar el-Bashir, left, as he shakes hands with National Democratic Alliance ( NDA) chairman Mohammed Osman Mirghani, center, after signing the Sudanese reconciliation accord in Cairo between the Sudanese government and the National Democratic Alliance, an umbrella opposition grouping, Saturday, June 18, 2005. Arabic slogan read as Cairo accord. (AP).

Liu said the Chinese side will, as always, promote friendly and reciprocal cooperation with Sudan when asked to comment on the comprehensive reconciliation deal signed in Cairo last Saturday between the Sudanese government and the opposition NDA, a move believed to change the political landscape of the conflict-ridden African country.

The agreement, inked by the Sudan’s First Vice President Ali Osman Taha and NDA leader Mohamed Osman al-Merghani, ends 16 years of hostilities between Khartoum and the country’s largest opposition group.

The NDA, an umbrella opposition group, includes a dozen or so largely northern political parties, trade union representatives and the southern insurgent Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

Liu cited the agreement as another major achievement scored by the Sudanese government in the process of its national reconciliation after peace was realized between the north and the south of the country at the beginning of this year.

“It is conducive to the promotion of stabilization of the situation in Sudan,” said Liu.