Sudanese rebel heads SPLA’s Garang, SLA’s Abdelwahid hold first-ever talks in Eritrea
NAIROBI, April 24 (AFP) — Two Sudanese rebel leaders Saturday held first ever talks in Eritrea over reaching peace with the government on protracted wars that have killed and displaced millions in Sudan, rebels said.
The leader of Sudan’s People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) John Garang met with the chief of the Sudan Liberation Movement’s (SLM) Abdulwahid Mohammed Ahmed on ongoing separate peace talks in Kenya and Chad.
“For the first time Garang met with the leader of the SLM,” SPLA spokesman Yasser Arman told AFP by telephone from from the Eritrean capital, Asmara.
“Both parties expressed their determination to achieve a just peace and usher Sudan into a new era of peace, democracy and development,” said Arman.
SPLA rebels have been negotiating with the government for months in the Kenyan town of Naivasha to try to end a two-decade old conflict in Africa’s largest country — responsible for 1.5 million deaths and four million displaced people.
Meanwhile, talks in Chad between the SLM and another rebel group in the western region of Darfur, the site of the worst current humanitarian disaster according to the United Nations, resumed on Friday.
Around 10,000 people are believed to have died and up to a million others displaced in 15 months of fighting in Darfur, which started with a rebellion against the government amid allegations it had backed the marauding militias and was neglecting the region.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged the international community to consider decisive measures, including military action, if oil-rich Sudan fails to allow swift aid and human rights workers into the area.
But on Friday, the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva adopted only a softly-worded resolution over alleged government atrocities in the region. Sudan Saturday admitted there had been human rights violations in Darfur, but denied accusations of “ethnic cleansing.”
Arman said the SPLA chief, who left Naivasha on Thursday, held talks in Kampala on the same day with Ugandan President Yoweri Museven. He then travelled on to Asmara for a meeting with Eritrean leader Issaias Afeworki.
“Both President Museveni and Afeworki affirmed their support for a final peace agreement. Both presidents stressed that the Sudan peace deal would contribute positively to the stability in the region and the world at large,” said Arman.
Garang also spoke on Saturday by phone with the former Sudanese prime minister Sadiq al-Madhi and the head of the opposition alliance Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani, Arman said without elaborating.
Previous talks between Khartoum and the SPLA have clinched deals on the withdrawal of government troops from the southern region, as well as on the creation of integrated military units and the sharing of the national wealth, notably oil revenues.
The south, where most people observe Christian or traditional faiths, has been fighting to end the domination by successive governments — military or elected — in Khartoum.