Sudan peace talks adjourn for Christmas
NAIROBI, Dec 24 (AFP) — Peace talks in Kenya between the Sudanese government and rebels aimed at ending 20 years of conflict adjourned for Christmas, a rebel spokesman said.
The two delegations led by Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha for the government and John Garang, leader of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), on Friday reached a rough agreement on sharing the proceeds from the country’s 300,000 daily barrels of oil.
“The parties have decided to adjourn the talks on December 25 for Christmas and we will resume the talks the day after,” rebel spokesman Samson Kwaje told AFP.
“The two parties were discussing the final details in wealth-sharing and we hope to finalise a final deal (on that issue) on December 26 or 27,” he said.
The United States had said Tuesday that it harbored hopes for a peace deal by the end of the year, despite mediators saying at the weekend that a deadline to sign a comprehensive accord by then would be missed.
“We’re not at a point quite yet where I can say it’s wrapped up or that they have agreed, but they did promise the Secretary (of State Colin Powell) and have subsequently worked with us to try to keep to their commitment to finish the talks by the end of this year,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Kwaje said Garang and Taha were expected discuss the sticking points of power-sharing and the future of three disputed Sudanese regions when they return after Christmas.
“On the issue of power-sharing, the two parties will discuss how to share the political and administrative posts in the expected transitional government,” he said.
The disputed regions are Abyei, Nuba Mountains and southern Blue Nile state, which lie north of the administrative boundaries left over by Britain on independence in 1956, and are claimed by both the government and the rebels.
Most of Sudan’s oil is drawn from the south.
Oil accounts for some 43 percent of government revenue and has been central to the current, and supposedly final round of talks aimed the civil war.
“Under the issue of power-sharing, we will discuss how to share the political and administrative posts in an envisaged transitional government,” Kwaje added.
The war in Sudan, which erupted in 1983, has pitted the south, where most observe traditional African religions and Christianity, against the Muslim, Arabised north.
This war, Africa’s longest conflict, has claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced an estimated four million people.
Previous rounds of talks, also in Kenya, have yielded success, first in 2002 when the foes agreed that after six years of self-rule the south will hold a referendum on whether to join the north, and under what arrangement, or secede.
Last September, Garang and Taha clinched a deal on transitional security arrangements.