Sudan rebels say talks stuck on oil revenue shares
By Wangui Kanina
NAIVASHA, Kenya, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Negotiations on ending Sudan’s civil war are stuck on the key issue of sharing oil revenues but the gap between the two sides is narrowing, a delegate from the main rebel group said on Friday.
Nearly two years of talks between the government and the southern-based SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) rebels on ending the 20-year conflict have produced deals on some issues, but sharing wealth is one of three outstanding topics.
“We have been stuck on wealth-sharing for the past 10 days,” said SPLA negotiator Malik Agar.
“We are, practically, stuck on petroleum commission and the percentages. It has been a public secret that the government was willing to give only five percent (to the SPLA) but we are insisting on 60 percent. Up to this point the government has moved to 17 percent (for the SPLA).”
Government officials would not give details about the negotiations. Khartoum controls all of Sudan’s oil revenues.
Agar told southern Sudanese expatriates demonstrating outside the Kenyan hotel where the negotiations were under way that some sort of deal would be reached. “We will sign something but we don’t know when, and how, or what,” he said.
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Sources at the talks said mediators had suggested giving the parties two more days to come up with a wealth-sharing deal. But even if they sign that, it would be some way off the full peace deal they had promised by the end of December.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka said in the northern Kenyan town of Naivasha he was still hopeful.
“I’m convinced that the talks are on the right track and I still hope that first vice-president Osman Ali Taha and (SPLA leader) John Garang will be able to live up to their pledges, the declarations made here in Naivasha that they would come up with a final peace settlement,” Musyoka said.
The war has killed an estimated two million people and uprooted four million since it began in 1983.
It broadly pits the SPLA against the Islamic government, but other conflicts still bubble within Africa’s largest country, including a revolt by two groups in the western Darfur region.
Peace talks between the government and SPLA began in early 2002. They have agreed on separating state and religion, forming a postwar army and letting the south hold a referendum on independence after an interim period.
The main outstanding issues are sharing wealth, dividing power, and the status of three contested areas.
Mediators, especially the United States, have been putting pressure on both sides to finalise all issues by the end of the year, even if only in a framework accord.
But on Friday Kenya’s special envoy to the talks, Lazarus Sumbeiywo, said: “It is up to the two parties. They have not indicated to me that they are ready to sign anything.”