Peace deal unlikely by year end, Sudan rebel deputy says

By Opheera McDoom

CAIRO, Nov 11 (Reuters) – Sudanese peace talks are unlikely to reach agreement by the end of the year as pledged earlier by the government and rebels, the deputy leader of the main rebel group said Tuesday.

In an interview with Reuters in Cairo, Salva Kiir Mayardit, deputy leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army said the government should concede to rebel demands on power-sharing, oil wealth and the status of the capital Khartoum — issues he said were “very complex and difficult.”

Sudan’s Islamist government is in talks with the rebels to end two decades of civil war that have killed an estimated two million people, mainly from hunger and disease. Kiir said rebel leader John Garang would restart talks on Nov. 30 in Kenya.

But he said a time limit could not be fixed for any peace deal because of the complex issues still to be resolved.

“We start on November 30 and one month cannot really resolve these issues, but if you push it down to early next year it could be possible to January or the end of February,” he said.

Both sides pledged to Secretary of State Colin Powell, who attended the talks last month, that they would reach a deal by the end of December and end the conflict that pits the Islamist government in the north against the mainly animist, Christian south.

KHARTOUM TO CONCEDE

But Kiir said Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s government had to concede to rebel demands.

“They are the one to concede because we have nothing to concede to the government. We are the oppressed and there’s nothing that the oppressed can concede,” he said.

He said the rebels wanted up to 80 percent of the oil wealth in southern Sudan, where the main oilfields lie and the rebel movement is based.

“We want the lion’s share. We can take up to 80 percent because the oil is ours. It is in the south,” he said, adding that the government wanted 90 percent of the oil, while the mediators at the talks proposed a 50-50 split, a proposal rejected by both sides.

Kiir also said the rebels wanted three disputed areas claimed by both sides, Abyei, Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile, to be allowed a referendum for secession.

“We want the three areas to be consulted so that they give their own point of view. If they want to govern themselves in an autonomous form that is their decision,” he said.

Kiir, a former Sudanese army officer, said Khartoum should be free of Islamic law, or sharia and, during a six-year interim period after the signing of a peace deal and the presidency should be split equally with Bashir taking the first three years and Garang the next.

The position of the meditators and the government was that Bashir should remain as president, with Garang as deputy during the full interim period — a sticking point in the talks.

“We have not yet finalized this,” Kiir said. “This is very big…It is the position of the government on this that can jeopardize this.””