US seeks to end stalemate in Sudan peace talks
By Stephen Mbogo
Nairobi, Kenya, March 23, 2004 (CNSNews.com) — With Sudan peace talks dragging on, the United States has proposed a solution to overcome what may be the final hurdle standing in the way of an agreement to end Africa’s most costly civil war.
The U.S. wants the oil-rich area of Abyei to be granted interim self-administering status pending a referendum to determine whether it should join the Islamic north or the mostly Christian and animist south.
President Bush’s special envoy to the peace talks, John Danforth, made the proposals when he met with mediators in the Kenyan town of Naivasha where the talks are taking place.
Sudan’s Arab Muslim government says the central area of Abyei falls under its administrative jurisdiction based on the terms set out at independence, but the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) say that as the area is inhabited by black Africans like most of southern Sudan, it should be part of the south.
However, the U.S. has proposed what analysts here see as a compromise.
It is suggesting that Abyei be given special self-administering status but continue to fall under the sovereignty of a unitary Sudan during a six-year transition period that forms the basis of the peace plan.
Actual administration during this period would be under the local executive council, elected by Abyei residents, and the area would be entitled to two per cent of Sudan’s oil revenues.
Khartoum and the SPLA have already thrashed out the status of two other controversial areas, the Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile, as well as arrangements on how to share wealth and power in a post-war Sudan.
After the expiration of the six-year transition period, the U.S. proposes that Abyei, like the whole of southern Sudan, holds a referendum to determine its future.
Mediators from the two sides said they welcomed the U.S. proposals and would consider them, along with others.
Danforth told the negotiators that time was running out, warning that “there are many issues in the world that need [U.S.] attention.
“President Bush has instructed me to express his concern that the longer this process drags out, the more possibilities there are for a real breakdown within Sudan,” he said. “So he believes time is of the essence.”
The administration has until April 20 to report to Congress on the progress of the peace talks, and whether or not it deems the parties to be negotiating in good faith, in terms of the Sudan Peace Act.
The president will be required to impose further economic and political sanctions on the government if it is found not to be negotiating in good faith – but only if the rebels are themselves found to be negotiating in good faith.
After hopes of an agreement by the end of 2003 fell through, the U.S. gave the mediators a March 17 deadline to come up with the final peace deal. When that was not achieved, Monday was set as the next deadline, although mediators said Monday the talks would again be extended.