Sudan, ex-Eastern rebels agree on implementation of peace deal
Dec 5, 2006 (ASMARA) — Commanders from the Khartoum army and former rebels from eastern Sudan have agreed on a timetable for implementing security and military arrangements envisioned in an October peace deal, officials said Tuesday.
The two sides have been meeting since Friday in the Eritrean town of Tessenei, near the border with Sudan, to discuss the implementation of the accord signed in October to end 12 years of insurgency.
“The high-level joint committee reached (an) agreement on the time schedule and implementation of the final agreement regarding security and military structures,” the Eritrean government said in a statement on its website.
The statement did not elaborate on the details of the agreement, but said delegates would meet again in the eastern town of Kassala on December 17 for another round of talks.
Under the October peace deal, both sides are to release prisoners of war and the estimated 1,800 former rebel fighters are to decide whether to return to civilian life or join the Sudanese army or police.
The Eastern Front rebel movement was created last year by the Rashidiya Arabs and the region’s largest ethnic group, the Beja. It had similar aims to its better-known counterparts in Darfur — greater autonomy and control of natural resources.
The accord with the eastern rebels is part of efforts to pacify the whole of Sudan, African’s largest country, by building on peace pacts the Arab regime in Khartoum has already reached with other rebel groups.
These include a deal last year with insurgents in the mainly Christian south and an accord in May this year with one of the rebel factions in the western region of Darfur.
But there are concerns that militias operating in the south are undermining the peace agreement there and Darfur continues to be plagued by a vicious civil war.
(AFP)