Powell weighs personal intervention in Sudan peace talks: officials
By Matthew Lee
WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (AFP) — US Secretary of State Colin Powell may travel to Kenya this month to cement a possible peace deal between the Sudanese government and southern rebels that would end their 20-year civil war, senior State Department officials said Monday.
The officials, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Powell was considering the trip because of the high priority US President George W. Bush places on the Sudanese peace process, talks for which resumed earlier Monday outside the Kenyan capital amid high hopes for success.
The officials stressed that no decision has yet been made on Powell’s attendance at the talks but said that possibility was being dangled to both Khartoum and the rebels as incentive for them to reach agreement as quickly as possible.
“We would want it done before we show up,” one senior official said. “We want to encourage them to conclude and this is one way to do that.”
That official and others said the idea was discussed in Washington on Monday with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki who is on a state visit.
“It is in the very preliminary planning stages and may not happen, but if he does go, it would certainly be a very good use of the secretary’s time,” a second official said.
Should Powell go, the Kenya visit would be sandwiched between stops in Asia around annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meetings in Bangkok that begin on October 17 and his participation in an international donors conference for Iraq in Madrid on October 23 and 24, they said.
There is considerable optimism that the Sudan talks, being held in the Kenyan town of Naivasha 50 miles (90 kilometers) from Nairobi, will produce a final settlement in the coming weeks, according to US, Sudanese and rebel officials.
The current round focuses on wealth-sharing, power-sharing and the status of three disputed regions of a country ravaged by war since 1983.
Sudan’s First Vice President Ali Osman Taha and John Garang, the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) are expected to join the talks on October 15 after which Powell might make his appearance.
Earlier Monday at a joint news conference with Kibaki, Bush praised Kenya’s mediation role in the peace process and pledged that the United States would remain involved in the quest to end the conflict.
Chief Kenyan mediator, retired general Lazaro Sumbeiywo, and US special envoy for Sudan, former senator John Danforth, “have helped bring Africa’s longest running civil war very close to a peaceful end,” Bush said.
“America will stay engaged in this effort,” he vowed. “Yet only the (two parties) can arrive at a just and comprehensive peace and I urge them to do so quickly.”
A retired US Marine Corps general helping the two sides finalize a landmark security deal they signed last month said earlier Monday in Khartoum that he was optimistic about progress being made toward a final peace pact.
“Both the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement have clearly shown their full commitment to achieving a comprehensive peaceful settlement as soon as possible,” the general, Carlton Fulford, told reporters in the Sudanese capital.
Fulford said his visit to Sudan “reflects the intensified engagement of the United States to support efforts to reach a comprehensive peace accord within the coming weeks.”
His comments came as Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir praised the SPLA/M’s leadership for dramatic progress in negotiations in Kenya in a speech opening parliament and said an end to the war was near.
The war, which has claimed 1.5 million lives, takes place against a background of domination of the mainly animist and Christian south by the Arabised, Islamic north, but has become increasingly driven by a fight for control of natural resources, notably oil.