Sudan confirms southern rebels will be arriving in Khartoum

KHARTOUM, Dec. 03, 2003 (dpa) — The Sudanese government confirmed Wednesday a visit for the first time in 20 years of a delegation from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) to government-controlled areas.

Undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mutrif Sadiq told journalists that a ten-man delegation from the SPLA would arrive in Khartoum aboard a Libyan airliner on Friday morning from Nairobi.

The visit was at the request of Sudanese First Vice President Ali Osman Taha to SPLA leader John Garang de Mabior during the last round of peace talks held in Naivasha, Kenya in September.

Secretary General of the Sudan’s main opposition group of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Pagan Amoum, would lead the mission to Khartoum. Amoum had been a key rebel player during all rounds of peace talks with the government.

The team would meet with Taha, government negotiators to the talks plus other key government figures.

After that, the undersecretary explained, Taha and his aides would travel to Nairobi where the talks were officially set to resume between the two leaders to hammer out the remaining issues on power sharing, oil revenues and the three contesting areas between the South and North Sudan.