Sudan rebel leader arrives in Kenya for peace talks with government
NAIROBI, Oct 16 (AFP) — The leader of southern Sudanese rebels, John Garang, arrived in Nairobi for a new round of peace talks with Vice President Ali Osman Taha in the Kenyan Rift Valley town of Naivasha.
Immediately after arriving at Nairobi’s Wilson Airport, Garang declared the commitment of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) to the peace process in Africa’s largest country.
“I am going to Naivasha with the same commitment, determination and focus which enabled us to resolve the issue of security arrangements during the interim period,” Garang told newsmen on arrival.
The last round of talks ended late September when the two leaders signed a deal on the security arrangements to be put in place during a six-year transition period, during which the south will enjoy self-rule.
After the test period of autonomy, an internationally supervised referendum will be held to allow southern Sudanese to choose whether to remain part of Sudan or become independent.
“That breakthrough injected a new momentum into the peace process,” said Garang, who will spend the night the Kenyan capital, before driving on to Naivasha on Friday morning.
“The SPLA delegation and myself are fully ready and prepared to negotiate and resolve the remaining outstanding issues and reach a comprehensive and just peace agreement,” Garang said.
“But the outstanding issues have difficult and thorny aspects, which will require a lot of effort from the parties to overcome,” Garang added.
Taha had arrived in Kenya earlier Thursday, and said he hoped the new round of talks would hammer out an agreement.
“We are glad to be back in Nairobi to resume another round of peace talks in Kenya, which we hope will be the final one,” Taha told journalists on arrival at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
“We are determined to fully resolve the outstanding issues in this round and we hope to come out with a comprehensive settlement,” Taha said.
The talks, which will focus on issues still waiting to be resolved in a peace process that has already seen several agreements signed since July last year, were to have resumed in Naivasha on Wednesday, but were delayed because Taha and leader John Garang had not arrived.
Taha and Garang are due to discuss power- and wealth-sharing between the mainly Islamic and Arab north of Sudan and the Christian and animist south and the three disputed regions — Southern Blue Nile, the Nuba Mountains and Abyei.
The two sides have been locked in war since 1983, in which more than 1.5 million people have been killed and more than four million others displaced.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka told Taha on his arrival earlier in the day that “the fact that you have chosen to come back so soon gives everybody hope that soon there will be peace in the region.”