Sudanese government and rebels move closer to ending 20-year conflict after signing deal on wealth-sharing

By ANDREW ENGLAND Associated Press Writer

NAIVASHA, Kenya, Jan 07, 2004 (AP) — Sudanese government and rebel officials overcame a significant hurdle toward reaching a comprehensive peace agreement Wednesday by signing a protocol on how to share the nation’s wealth, including oil revenues, one of the major issues in the 20-year civil war.

An international consortium of oil companies produces 250,000 barrels of oil a day from Sudan, which depends heavily on the revenues for foriegn income.

Wednesday’s deal leaves only the make up of a transitional administration, the fate of three disputed areas in central Sudan and whether the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, should be governed under Islamic law remaining, all potential deal-breakers, despite Wednesday’s optimism.

“It’s a historic day in the process of peace in Sudan,” said Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha. “This moment in which we have signed a wealth-sharing agreement spells an end to the long episode of war and conflict in our country.”

Both Taha and John Garang, leader of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army, said the agreement proved they were committed to reaching a final deal to end the conflict, in which more than 2 million people have perished, mainly through war-induced famine.

Garang said he hoped a comprehensive agreement will be reached this month, and promised to start a process to release all prisoners of war as a gesture of goodwill.

“It is a major achievement that will take us closer to a just and lasting peace in our country,” Garang said.

U.S. President George W. Bush has invited the men to the White House when they reach a comprehensive agreement. U.S.-Sudan relations have been tense since the government hosted Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist organization in the early 1990s. The government, along with Iran, also is one of two fundamentalist Islamic republics in the world.

The United States has imposed sanctions against Sudan for supporting terrorism, banning U.S. companies from doing business in the country. U.S. officials have said a peace agreement would be a good first step toward getting those sanctions dropped, but that they would remain in place for the foreseeable future as long as suspected Palestinian terrorists live freely in Khartoum.

Analysts and the chief mediator, Lazaro Sumbeiywo cautioned that the outstanding issues remain complex.

“The more they finish one issue, the more complicated it becomes because there are fewer options,” Sumbeiywo told The Associated Press. Past peace agreements between political leaders from north and south Sudan in the last 50 years have held for only a few years before fighting began again.

Under the wealth-sharing deal, the warring parties agreed to split net oil revenue from southern Sudan 50-50 during a six year transition period. Most of Sudan’s oil reserves are in the south.

A petroleum commission, with representatives from the north and the south, as well as from the oil producing states will be set up to manage the oil sector.

The agreement also confirmed that all current oil contracts will be respected. A consortium of The China National Petroleum Company, Malayasia’s Petronas and Sudan’s Sudapet control the vast majority of the oil leases and exploration options.

Chevron mapped out the oil fields during a brief period of peace in Sudan during the late 1970s and early 1980s, but no U.S. oil company has expressed interest in Sudan’s oil in recent years and current sanctions bar U.S. companies from returning to Sudan.

When Sudan began pumping oil in 1999, the rebels and international human rights groups accused the government of forcing tens of thousands of southern villagers to flee the oil region and the insurgents targeted oil facilities.

Despite the oil wealth, the majority of southerners live in simple mud huts and lack access to water and electricity and the region is regularly beset by outbreaks of disease and food shortages.

The agreement also sets up a monetary system which will allows for Islamic banking in the north and Western banking in the south, and to introduce a new currency.

Currently, all Sudan’s major banks are run under Islamic law, which forbids most forms of interest.

The latest war erupted in 1983 when southern rebels from the mainly animist and Christian south took up arms against the predominantly Arab and Muslim north, marking the collapse of a 1972 peace deal that had ended an earlier southern rebellion.

The rebels say they are fighting for greater equality and for southerners to have the right to choose whether to remain part of Sudan.

The parties also agreed that non-oil revenue from the south will be split 50-50, while all northern revenue will be distributed to northern states and the national government.

In July 2002, shortly after the peace process began, the parties agreed to a six-year transition period during which the south will have a regional administration. Southerners will vote in a referendum after the transition to decide whether the south should secede.

The focus of the talks will now shift to the three disputed areas, the Nuba Mountains, southern Blue Nile and oil-rich Abyei.