Sudan: Former rebel group to host peace talks on Darfur in south

Sudan: Former rebel group to host peace talks on Darfur in south
BBC Monitoring Service – United Kingdom
Published: Sep 17, 2006

Excerpt from report by Sudanese Media Centre website on 17 September

The [former rebel] SPLM has tasked its leader Salva Kiir Mayardit, who is also the first vice-president of Sudan, to set up a committee which would follow up the Darfur dossier.

The movement has also called on all warring parties in Darfur to gather in southern Sudan in a bid to get a quick solution to [Darfur] crisis.

At the end of the meeting of its political office in Juba yesterday, the movement announced its readiness to participate in the effort to normalize relations between the [Sudanese] Government of National Unity and the US Administration.

The movement further said that the Darfur crisis should not be take as a pretext to overthrow the peace accord and the interim constitution, pointing out the reintroduction of the press censorship and the breaking of peaceful demonstrations.

The SPLM secretary-general, Yasir Arman, has said that the movement’s political office has tasked President Salva Kiir Mayardit to form a committee to follow up the Darfur dossier, calling on all sides [in Darfur] to immediately end fighting, meet in southern Sudan and make the environment conducive for all parties in the region. [Passage omitted on SPLM’s meeting].

Source: Sudanese Media Centre website, Khartoum, in Arabic 0000 gmt 17