Sudan’s president thanks U.S. for role in peace
KHARTOUM, Dec 31 (Reuters) – Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Wednesday Sudan would work towards normalising relations with the United States and thanked the U.S. president for his efforts towards a peace deal to end a bloody civil war.
Sudan — which Washington lists as a state that sponsors “terror” — is negotiating a deal with the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) to end a civil war that has killed more than two million people and displaced up to four million in the south of Africa’s largest country.
“Sudan will be working towards normalising relations with America post peace,” Bashir said in a speech to parliament to commemorate 50 years of Sudanese independence.
“I want to take this opportunity to thank America especially for the role it has played in supporting the peace process. And I would like to thank President George W. Bush for all he has done.”
Bashir said on Monday he expected a final peace deal within a week, but analysts say with contentious issues such as the status of three areas claimed by both sides and power-sharing still unresolved, this deadline seems unlikely.
Bashir also thanked Kenya for hosting the peace talks and the mediators, IGAD, among others.
The war broke out in 1983 and broadly pits the Islamist government in Khartoum against the mainly animist, Christian south, complicated by issues of ethnicity, oil and ideology.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has attended talks between SPLA leader John Garang and first Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha in Naivasha in Kenya where he said both sides had pledged a deal by the end of the year.
This timetable has slipped, but with the SPLA’s first official visit to Khartoum earlier this month, hopes are high a comprehensive deal will be reached by early next year.
Bashir in his speech did not mention an escalating conflict in the remote western Darfur region that analysts say could derail any peace deal in the south and develop into another full-blown civil war.
Two main rebel groups launched a revolt in Darfur in February accusing Khartoum of marginalising the arid area. The United Nations estimates more than 600,000 people have been displaced by the conflict and warns of a serious humanitarian crisis in the region that borders Chad.
The United States has said as well as the peace process, Sudan’s record on human rights and press freedom will help determine the pace “of hoped for improvement in our bilateral relations”.