Sudanese govt. delegates back home for consultation on US proposal
NAIROBI, March 20, 2004 (Xinhua) — Senior members of the Sudanese government delegation to peace talks in Kenya returned to Khartoum, capital of the Sudan, on Saturday for further consultations with other officials over fresh proposal tabled by the United States.
“Four members of our delegation left today (Saturday) morning for consultations with the government in Khartoum on the new proposal tabled by US envoy (John) Danforth on Friday to the two parties on how to resolve Abyei region. They will be back in two or three days time,” a Sudanese government official who to declined to be identified told Xinhua.
Meanwhile, a statement from the Sudanese government delegation on Saturday welcomed Danforth’s proposals but noted that some of the contents had already being discussed during earlier consultations.
Danforth, the former US senator, arrived in Kenya late Thursday at the direction of US President George W. Bush to meet with various negotiating parties as the Sudan peace talks move into the final stages.
He presented to both sides ideals for ending the impasse with respect to Abyei during his staying in the east African country.
The oil-rich Abyei is one of the three disputed areas of the Sudan peace talks. Under the US proposal, Abyei would be given special status once a peace deal is reached, meaning it would have its own executive and would belong to both the north and south.
The proposal also suggests international monitors would be deployed in the region to ensure full implementation of the agreement, and at the end of a six-year interim period, Abyei residents would vote on whether to retain their special status or belong to the south.
The Sudan civil war started as the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) took arms fighting for self-determination in the southern part of the country in 1983.
The conflict has left some 2 million people dead, mostly through war-induced famine and disease.
The Sudanese government and the SPLA began peace talks in March 1994 in Kenya, under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a seven-member regional group in east Africa, consisting of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, Eritrea, Somalia and the Sudan.
This round of talks, supposed to be the last one, started on Feb. 17, 2004 in Naivasha, some 90 km northwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Kenya is holding the current chairmanship of the IGAD ministerial sub-committee on the Sudan.