Sudanese rebels meet other opposition groups in Khartoum
KHARTOUM, Sudan, Dec 07, 2003 (AP) — The first group of rebels to visit Sudan’s capital since the civil war began 20 years ago spent Saturday meeting opposition parties to explain its vision of the country’s future.
Pagan Amum and his fellow senior members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army were greeted by a jubilant crowd of 30,000 opposition supporters when they landed at Khartoum airport on Friday afternoon. Their arrival was a landmark in the peace process as until recently any rebel leaders found in government-controlled territory would have been arrested and charged with treason.
On Saturday Amum met Sadiq el-Mahdi, the leader of the Umma party and the last democratically elected prime minister of Sudan. The Umma party traditionally polls the most votes in Sudan’s elections.
After their talks, el-Mahdi, who was prime minister during the early stages of the war, said the SPLA visit was a step toward “normalization of relations between yesterday’s foes.”
El-Mahdi said Amum had assured him that the final peace agreement – now under negotiation by SPLA and government delegations in Kenya – would not be a bilateral agreement between the SPLA and the government, “but rather a comprehensive agreement that will include all the sectors of the Sudanese people.”
Amum told reporters he and el-Mahdi discussed steps to be taken to achieve democracy in Sudan, “bringing about radical change that would make Sudan accommodate all people.”
The SPLA regards itself as representing the cause of southern Sudan, where the animist and Christian people want autonomy from Muslim-dominated government in the north. The war is also a competition for land and the oil resources that straddle the north-south border.
Amum, a member of the SPLA leadership council, also met Saturday with members of the Popular Congress party, led by Hassan Turabi, who used to be the chief Islamic ideologue in the government of President Omar el-Bashir.
In Kenya on Saturday, Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and SPLA leader John Garang joined the peace negotiations in bid to expedite them.
More than 2 million people have perished in the war through fighting and attendant famine and disease.