Khartoum vows to sign Kenya peace deal by Friday amid US pressure

KHARTOUM, April 14 (AFP) — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has pledged to sign a framework peace deal with southern rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army by Friday, after a US mediator briefly pulled out in frustration at the slow pace of Kenyan talks.

Beshir said Tuesday evening he expected the long-awaited deal to be signed “today, tomorrow or the next two days,” state radio, and both pro-government and independent Khartoum dailies reported.

“Peace Agreement to be Signed Today,” ran the jubilant if not entirely accurate headline in several papers.

The reports said the breakthrough came after the SPLA abandoned demands for non-Muslim residents of the capital to be subject to secular rather than Islamic sharia law during a promised six-year period of southern autonomy leading up to a referendum on independence.

The president said Khartoum “will have only one legislation after the movement (SPLA) agreed to non-application of two laws after we gave them convincing guarantees regarding the cultural and religious diversities among the citizens.”

Beshir said the government had also made “several concessions” in its bid to achieve the “tremendous gain” of a peace deal.

He said the it had accepted special security arrangements for the capital under which 1,500 SPLA fighters would be stationed in Khartoum.

The Sudanese media said Vice President Ali Osman Taha and SPLA leader John Garang had met late into Tuesday night in Naivasha, Kenya, in a bid to finalise a deal.

The progress in the negotiations came as Washington announced that it had sent its special advisor Jeff Millington back to the talks after pulling him out on Saturday.

Millington was returning to “send another message to the two sides that it’s time to make the decisions,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher announced late Tuesday.

Washington had been pushing for a deal by the end of last year to end the civil war, which is Africa’s longest-running conflict.