Sudan foes play down Powell’s prediction of peace deal by December

NAIVASHA, Kenya, Oct 23 (AFP) — US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday that Sudan’s foes had pledged to sign a final peace accord by the end of the year, but officials on both sides of the 20-year-old war retorted that this was a loose objective and accused the United States of politicking.

“Both sides have agreed to continue the talks and reach a comprehensive agreement no later than by the end of December,” Powell told a news conference after meeting the vice president, Ali Osman Taha, and SPLA leader John Garang in the Kenyan town of Naivasha.
US officials said his statement had been made with the full approval of both leaders.

Powell added that US President George W. Bush would host leaders from both sides at the White House once such a deal was signed.

Sudan is currently on a US list of states that sponsor terrorism.

Ignited in 1983, the civil war there has killed some 1.5 million people and displaced more than four million.

“Both gentlemen have committed themselves to that goal,” of signing by December 31, Powell said.

But Khartoum bristled at this declaration.

“It is impossible for anyone to dictate a date on the two parties that are negotiating,” presidential peace adviser Ghazi Salaheddine told AFP.

A US official travelling with Powell defended his statement.

“It was done very carefully and with the full consent of the leaders,” said the official when Powell’s plane touched down in Egypt.

Asked whether the December 31 time frame was realistic, Salaheddine said: “It is not putting a deadline on the end of the negotiations, it is an expression of the desire to redouble efforts to reach an agreement.”

Garang himself said: “We will achieve peace for our country hopefully, as the secretary of state said, before the end of the year.”

“Powell came to nudge us in order to achieve peace,” Garang told the news conference. “He brought encouragement and hope,” he added.

A Sudanese government official was less diplomatic.

“The US is here to solve its own problems simply because elections are around the corner and they have never had success in the Middle East and Gulf region,” said the official, who asked not to be named

A similar line was taken by an SPLA official.

“It’s internal US politics whereby the Bush administration doesn’t want to go to the election with its self-created problems in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said the official, who also requested anonymity.

“They want something tangible to argue their case before the electorate and Sudan seems to offer the opportunity,” he said.

The plight of south Sudan’s Christians has struck a chord with their fundamentalist counterparts in the United States, and Bush is under pressure to show these US constituents that he shares their concern.

Sudanese government spokesman Sayed el-Khatibu later told AFP: “These negotiations are tough. … The coming of Powell was a morale booster.

“It’s a sign that people in other corners of the world are touched by the devastation in Sudan. We accept anybody who is willing us to help us reach peace,” he said.

Asked whether Powell had exerted any pressure on the negotiating parties, he added: “The US is helping us but I have neither seen a carrot nor a stick from their end.”

Powell told the news conference he felt it was “absolutely clear … that the way is now open to a final and comprehensive solution” to the war.

“Based on what I have heard, I believe that a final agreement is within the grasp of the parties,” he said, a couple of hours before flying from Kenya to the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he is expected to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

On Tuesday, Powell told reporters that such a deal, coupled with more work by Khartoum to ease Washington’s concerns about terrorism, could lead to the lifting of US sanctions against Sudan.

In the current round of talks, Taha and Garang are focusing on the status of three central regions claimed by both sides and on how to share power and wealth, notably that of Sudan’s oil reserves.

Previous rounds have already produced crucial agreements on a six-year interim period of self-rule for the south before a referendum and on the security arrangements to put in place during this period.

Sudan’s governing party Secretary General Ibrahim Ahmed Omar meanwhile said the two negotiating parties were well aware that an agreement needed more time than what people tend to believe.

“It is obvious that the two negotiating parties are well aware that the matter requires more time than what people have estimated,” Omar of the National Congress Party told reporters in Khartoum.

Asked to comment on Powell’s statement that the two chief delegates had told him they would sign a peace agreement by the end of December, Omar said: “This may take a longer time.”

In a related matter, the State Department announced later that Bush had found both sides to be negotiating in good faith and decided not to impose additional sanctions against Khartoum that are allowed under US law.

The Sudan Peace Act allows the president to impose new penalties on Sudan should he find the government not to be cooperating the peace process. The decision will be re-examined on January 21 should an agreement not be reached before then, the department said in a statement.