East Sudan peace talks to start in December

Nov 7, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Peace talks between Khartoum and Sudan’s eastern rebel groups will kick off in December, an official for the rebel Eastern front told reporters Monday.

Beja people collect water in the rebel-controlled area of eastern Sudan, near the border with Eritrea June 4, 2005. The Beja people live a virtually medieval existence among desert plains and stony mountains in remote and rebel-controlled eastern Sudan. Lack of development in their region is one of the main grievances that spur the Beja rebels who have controlled this small area on the Eritrean border since early 1997. (Reuters).

“The negotiations will be held in the first week of next December,” said Amnah Dhirar, vice president of the Eastern Front.

“Our ultimate aim, even upon taking up arms against the central government, was seeking just peace for the east and for the Sudan at large and for this reason we have agreed to go into negotiations with the national unity government,” she said.

The Eastern Front is a coalition of rebel groups based mainly in Sudan’s Red Sea state.

The coalition is supported by Asmara, which accuses Khartoum of marginalising the eastern region, the scene of sporadic clashes since 1994.

Dhirar said a venue had not yet been chosen for the negotiations.

She said that among the Eastern Front’s demands were the inclusion of representatives from eastern Sudan in the higher levels of the state and the federation of three eastern states.

The east is rich in natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, gold and other minerals but “is deep in poverty and does not benefit from these resources,” Dhirar added.

With the assistance of a British NGO, the eastern rebels are due hold workshops in Asmara to harmonise and fine-tune their position ahead of next month’s planned negotiations.

The initiative is sponsored by Tripoli and the chief mediator in the talks will be Libyan diplomat Suleiman Shahoumi, Dhirar said.

Dhirar stressed that the Eastern Front’s decision to engage in talks with Khartoum came after the former southern rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement joined a national unity government with the old regime.

(AFP/ST)