Khartoum-rebel talks to resume at top level in Kenya in mid-October

KHARTOUM, Sept 28 (AFP) — Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha will return to Kenya to resume talks in mid-October with rebel leader John Garang aimed at reaching a final peace deal, state-run SUNA news agency reported Sunday.

Taha, who struck a breakthrough deal with Garang in Kenya last week, was quoted by SUNA as saying they would next meet in Nairobi on October 15 to “complete negotiations on what has remained of the issues in the peace process”.

He and Garang would catch up with experts from both sides who will start meeting in Kenya on October 6 to discuss sharing power and resources as well as the disputed regions of Southern Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains and Abyei.

Both sides have said in earlier statements that last week’s deal in Naivasha, which established security arrangements that include integrating some of their forces, would make it easier for other issues to be resolved.

Previous press reports say the power-sharing issue has provisionally been agreed upon, with President Omar el-Beshir remaining in office and Garang appointed as vice president.

Taha would be named vice president for cabinet affairs or prime minister, according to these reports.

Independent daily Akhbar Al-Youm reported Sunday the two sides reached a previously undisclosed deal in Naivasha to leave the fate of the Abyei region up to a referendum at the start of the second half of the transitional period.

In the meantime, it would be administered as part of south Sudan’s Bahr el-Ghazal region, the daily said.

Under a groundbreaking deal in Kenya last year, both sides agreed that southern Sudan will be allowed to vote on independence from Khartoum or unity with it after a transitional six-year-period of autonomy.