GoS to resume negotiations with SPLM
KHARTOUM, Feb 11 (AFP) — The Sudanese government prepared to resume peace talks next week with the southern rebels, expecting tough going over the fate of the oil-rich area of Abyei, officials said in remarks published Wednesday.
Amin Hassan Omar told independent Al Rai Al Aam daily his delegation was holding almost daily consultations before leaving for Kenya on Monday to resume talks with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) on February 17.
The negotiations in the Kenyan town of Naivasha were adjourned on January 26 for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holidays. The new round, due to last until March 18, will focus on power-sharing between the government and the SPLA, said Omar.
The issue of Abyei, currently controlled part by Khartoum and part by the SPLA, “is more in need of a political decision than rounds of negotiations”, implying it should be left to President Omar al-Beshir to resolve.
The SPLA was previously reported to have demanded that Beshir issue a decree annexing Abyei to southern Sudan’s Bahr el-Ghazal State.
The newspaper said former state foreign minister Jebriel Rorec has proposed that the disputed region be put under the direct responsibility of the presidency.
Prominent southern leaders and members of the Southern States Coordination Council (SSCC) welcomed Rorec’s initiative when it was proposed by Vice President Moses Machhar during a briefing he gave them here Tuesday.
The other disputed regions are the Nuba Mountains and southern Blue Nile state.
In 2002, Khartoum and the SPLA struck a breakthrough accord granting the south the right to self-determination after a six-year transition period, and last September both sides reached a deal on transitional security, under which the government would withdraw its troops from the south.
Khartoum and the rebels then signed an agreement on a 50-50 split of the country’s wealth, particularly oil revenues.
The war in Sudan, Africa’s largest nation, erupted in 1983 between the south, where most observe traditional African religions and Christianity, and the Muslim, Arabized north.
The conflict and war-related famine and disease have claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced an estimated four million people, mostly in the south.