Rebels propose integrated force for transition in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Sep 15, 2003 (PANA) — The government and rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) began exploring for the first time on Sunday the possibility of establishing one integrated force to operate during a transition period to end the country’s 20-year civil war, the state-run Alanbaa newspaper reported here Monday.

The proposals, advanced by the SPLA would, if accepted, result in the creation of an integrated force of 3,000 troops from both sides, the daily paper said.

It quoted an official at the negotiations in Nairobi, who requested anonymity, as saying “The south is insisting on the formation of an integrated force, as the nucleus for a national army after the six-year transition, should a peace deal be reached and Sudan remained united.”

The SPLA has also proposed that Khartoum keep its current army in the north, while those of the SPLA will remain in the south during the transition period.

“Only the retrained integrated force will be allowed to operate both in the north and south,” the official quoted the SPLA as saying.

“Personnel in the integrated force would then be trained on new common ideologies before they are deployed in Khartoum in the north and Juba in the south,” the source added.

Khartoum has yet to reply to the proposals, but other sources at the negotiations said the government delegation was still mulling over them, the paper reported.

Khartoum, which has between 80,000 and 100,000 troops stationed in the south, is believed to be reluctant to withdraw its soldiers.

On Monday, Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and SPLA leader, Col. John Garang entered the 12th consecutive day of peace talks at Kenyan Rift Valley town of Naivasha, aimed at ending Africa’s longest civil war. But they are still bogged down by the issue of security arrangements.

Negotiations on the security arrangements have been an obstacle in the current round of talks because the rebels see security arrangements as the only guarantee to the implementation of a peace agreement reached between both sides.

“The absence of security arrangements was responsible for the collapse of an earlier agreement signed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in 1972 to end an earlier war between Khartoum and the southern rebels,” the paper recalled.