S. Sudan Rebels Urge Support for Democracy, Peace

KHARTOUM, Dec 5 (Reuters) – A delegation from Sudan’s main southern rebel group making a rare visit to the capital on Friday called on Sudanese to back a peace process which aims to end the country’s 20-year-old civil war.

“The peace process needs the support of all the Sudanese people,” said Pagan Amum, head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) delegation, during the first visit of its kind to the capital during a war that has cost around two million lives.

Amum, also a member of SPLA’s highest decision making body, told a news conference peace was not possible without democratic transformation in Africa’s largest country.

Shouting: “Welcome to the heroes, welcome to the new Sudan,” hundreds of people crowded round the convoy of cars carrying the delegation, which has come to Khartoum as part of efforts to build broad support for the talks taking place in Kenya.

The delegation made its way to the ruling party’s headquarters from the airport surrounded by chanting supporters, some of whom kissed the windshields of the cars.

“We have come from the outlying areas of Khartoum to welcome our brothers, they have been away too long,” one of around 2,000 supporters at the airport said.

SPLA leader John Garang told Reuters earlier that the delegation would meet opposition politicians in the first visit of its kind during the war.

Supporters said police had largely shown restraint and the atmosphere was peaceful.

The government and a group of opposition parties signed an agreement on Thursday in Saudi Arabia backing the peace talks.

The text of the agreement signed by Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) said it aimed to “consolidate the peace process.”