Sudan rebels urge government to help people of south
NAIROBI, Dec 11, 2003 (dpa) — Sudan must help the people of southern Sudan economically and politically, or southerners may vote to break away, a negotiator for the main rebel group told reporters Thursday at peace talks between the rebel SPLA and the Sudanese government in the Kenyan town of Naivasha.
For too long, people living in the south have been excluded from getting a share of the countrys wealth, which is confined mostly to the north, Pagan Amum, deputy negotiator of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) told reporters.
Amum arrived in Kenya Thursday morning from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, where he was part of an SPLA delegation visiting the north.
Southerners, who primarily follow Christianity or traditional African religions, are also frustrated by religious and cultural domination from the mainly Islamic north, said Amum.
These policies have made the choice of secession attractive,” said Amum. The policies that have been pursued in Sudan have led to people wanting to opt out of Sudan.
Last weekend, SPLA leader John Garang and Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha resumed their face-to-face talks aimed at ending 20 years of war between the two, which has claimed an estimated two million lives. The talks are being mediated by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development.
The two sides have already reached agreement on security arrangements, but have yet to work out details on how to share the countrys wealth and power. They also have to determine whether Khartoum should be ruled by Islamic or secular law.
The SPLA and government also have to determine whether the Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile, and Abyei fall under the jurisdiction of the north or south.
In a groundbreaking agreement made last year, the rebel group and government agreed that Islamic law would be confined to the north. They also determined that, after an interim period of six years, southerners could vote in a referendum whether to stay in Sudan, secede, or make some other arrangement.
Government officials have been pushing for a unified Sudan. They say they are committed to the talks and to bringing peace to Sudan.
Speaking in Geneva Thursday, Sudan’s Information minister Az- Zahawi Ibrahim Malik said the government was hoping that a peace accord could be agreed by the end of the year.
Britain’s Secretary of State for International Development Hilary Benn was on a two-day visit to Sudan Thursday to discuss long-term development and peace.
He called on the government of Sudan and the rebels to cease hostilities in the Darfur region.
“The situation in Darfur is extremely grave and serious, people killed, displaced, relief workers deprived access to the region,” the British official told the press Thursday.
However, he congratulated President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir on what he called the enormous progress achieved so far in the peace talks to end decades of wars between southern and northern Sudan.
“This is a crucial time for Sudan with a genuine opportunity for peace and stability,” he said.