Signs abound that Sudan peace is imminent
By Mohamed Ali Saeed
KHARTOUM, Oct 21 (AFP) — Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir rammed home a new message that 20 years of civil war were about to end, as US Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Kenya Tuesday to help negotiations cross their last hurdles.
“The upcoming stage of peace will witness economic and social development and what was being spent on war will be spent on development and services projects,” Beshir said in remarks published by the official SUNA news agency.
The government here has listed economic development as a top priority to persuade people in the war-torn south to stay part of Sudan once the six-year interim period begins with a final agreement.
At the end of the interim period, the animists and Christians in the south are invited to vote in a referendum on whether to secede or stay united with the Arab Muslim north.
Beshir’s remarks only reinforced a growing number of comments in the past few weeks by senior Sudanese officials as well as newspapers that peace was finally at hand.
Vice President Ali Osman Taha and John Garang, the leader of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), have been holding high-level negotiations in the Kenyan town of Naivasha since Friday to smooth out remaining obstacles.
The negotiations are portrayed as a final push toward an agreement that would end a war that has killed 1.5 million people, including many who died from war-related famine.
On Wednesday, Powell was scheduled to become the first US government official to take part in the negotiations, with an analyst saying his visit would “put pressure” on both sides to make concessions.
Mahdi Ibrahim, secretary of information in the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), said the government would introduce dramatic political changes after the state of emergency is lifted with the signing of a final agreement.
“The coming stage will witness further openness for all political parties, including the (opposition Islamist) Popular Congress, which will enjoy freedom, like all other parties,” Mahdi told the official Al Anbaa daily.
Last week, Beshir released Hassan al-Turabi from more than two years of house arrest and lifted a ban on the activities of his Popular Congress as part of efforts to “prepare for the coming peace era.”
In the past few months, the official media have stopped describing the conflict with the south as a Jihad, or holy war.
Beshir also published in August two decrees for removing press censorship and ending a travel ban for some politicians.
In July last year, a week after both sides signed a breakthrough blueprint for peace that included the interim period, Beshir met Garang for the first time in Uganda.
Since then, the two erstwhile foes have praised each other, with Beshir welcoming the rebel leader’s sincerity in the negotiations.
Political analysts in Khartoum have said progress toward ending the war and political freedom in Sudan has been driven by US pressure, the discovery of oil as well as a desire to rescue the economy and end the nation’s isolation.
Powell prepared to lend his weight to Kenyan-hosted peace talks armed with a package of incentives to boost chances for a deal.
The US charge d’affaires in Khartoum, Gerard Gallucci, dangled a carrot earlier this month when he announced that Sudan would receive initial aid of 200 million dollars with a peace deal.
And General Beshir, who seized power here in 1989 in a military coup backed by Turabi, was confronted with his army’s failure to win a decisive victory over the SPLA, embedded in the south, but also present in the east and center.