Sudan peace talks continue in Kenya, no concessions yet on key issues

NAIVASHA, Kenya, Sept 11 (AFP) — Talks aimed at ending the 20-year war in Sudan went into their second week here Thursday, with an official saying the government and rebels were unwilling to budge on key demands that have to be ironed out before a final deal is reached.

Khartoum Vice President Osman Ali Taha and southern rebel chief John Garang were still haggling over security arrangements as the talks entered their eighth day, and had not even begun debating other crucial issues of power and wealth sharing, or who holds sovereignty over three disputed regions, said an official at the talks’ venue, who asked not to be named.

In the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, meanwhile, state-run Al-Anbaa daily reported that the two sides were poised to sign a deal paving the way for a final peace agreement, and Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir began an intensive round of consultations on the talks.

Beshir met Thursday in his presidential palace in Khartoum with Ibrahim Ahmed Omar, the secretary general of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), to discuss the “progress of negotiations” in Kenya, a NCP official said.

The two met for about one hour and Beshir would continue separate meetings throughout the day with cabinet ministers and members of parliament, the official said.

He gave no other details but Omar told Thursday’s edition of Al-Anbaa that “cautious optimism is our general attitude towards the negotiations.”

Taha and Garang “are now tackling security arrangements, which is a major building block towards a comprehensive peace agreement,” said the official in Naivasha.

“Basically, they are focussing on the co-existence of the two armies during the interim six-year period,” the official said.

In Naivasha, an official said, “The talks are progressing, but still no major concessions on the key issues, although the leaders are working towards agreeing on common political principles.”

Several more officials agreed that ironing out differences on security arrangements was essential, to safeguard whatever peace agreement is reached.

“We must agree on security arrangements first because it will be the essential guarantee that both sides will respect the peace agreement after it is signed.

“It will also be an assurance that the agreement will be implemented after signature,” the officials, who also sought anonymity, told AFP.

Garang’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) wants to keep its forces intact during an interim period of self-rule for the south, agreed to in an earlier round of talks, but the Khartoum government wants the army disbanded to prevent the oil-rich south’s secession.

Mediation sources told AFP on Wednesday that one of the key issues now on the table is “a joint command board to solve the problem of either two armies or one army during the interim period” of self-rule for the south.

“This is the most sensitive meeting ever to take place over the Sudan peace process and we might reach an initial peace agreement, and if we do not, the country might plunge into anarchy again,” a source in the negotiations stressed.

“But both sides are showing an apparent determination to resolve the contagious issues that have kept peace at bay,” the source told AFP on Wednesday as Taha and Garang struggled to break the deadlock.

Sudan’s civil war, which erupted in 1983, has pitted the mainly Christian and animist south against the Muslim, Arabicised north. More than 1.5 million people have died in the conflict, Africa’s longest civil war, and more than four million others have been displaced.