Sudanese vice president, rebel leader carry on talks without progress
NAIVASHA, Kenya, May 01, 2004 (Sudan Tribune) – Talks between Sudanese top negotiators continue without real progress after the rejection by Sudanese vice president of a proposal on the capital status formulated by IGAD mediators while the rebel leader expressed his reservation towards the proposed percentage to SPLM in the power sharing.
The discussions in the Kenyan town of Naivasha have been stalled for weeks. Vice president Taha left the talks on April 17 for consultations in Khartoum. Rebel leader Garang later left on a visit to Eritrea. Both men returned to Kenya in the past week but resumed official talks only on Thursday 29, April.
As peace negotiations since last month hit a deadlock over power-sharing and the application of shari’ah in the capital, Khartoum, IGAD submitted a proposal to the two parties trying to come up with a compromise.
The Sudanese vice president refused a separated status for the non Muslims in the capital. A high ranking official said the government was ready to make concessions to the rebels “as long as they do not cross the red line”.
For Khartoum, the two sides had already agreed in Machakos Protocol on July 20, 2002 that shari’ah would continue to be applied in north of the country, “and Khartoum is in the north”. “We have given them guarantees that shari’ah application in Khartoum will not adversely affect the religious rights of non-Muslims. We are still working on finding a workable solution to this,” the official stressed.
A proposal on the power sharing in the Nuba mountains and southern Blue Nile suggested that both the government and the SPLM would have a 40 per cent share of the two regions, while 20 per cent would go to the remaining political forces.
SPLM had requested the right to appoint a governor in both regions but the government was against it. The mediators proposed a governor by region for the two sides.
However, the government was in favour of granting the SPLM the right to appoint a governor in Al-Wahdah (Unity) and Western Equatoria States in southern Sudan. The general tendency was to keep the south divided into 10 states instead of three regions.
Regarding the central government, the secretariat suggested that 70 per cent should go to the north and 30 per cent to the south. But Garang expressed his reticence toward this proposal.
A western source in Nairobi told the London based Asharq al-Awsat that the government was cleverly wasting time after the US administration did not censure Sudan before the US Congress. “Khartoum will keep on going to the negotiating table until the US elections.” It further said this could go on until June if the current talks did not result in an agreement.