Final Sudan peace in few weeks?

AMMAN, Jordan, May 03, 2004 (UPI) — A high-ranking Sudanese official said Monday a final agreement for ending Sudan’s long-protracted civil war may be reached within weeks.

Kotbi al-Mehdi, political advisor to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, told United Press International during a visit to Amman that peace talks between the government and the separatist Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) led by John Garang “entered the last phase since the main issues of contention have already been settled in the Machakos agreement signed two years ago.”

He said the two “pending issues” are power sharing in the regions of the Blue Nile and Nouba Mountains in central Sudan and the implementation of Sharia, or Islamic law, in the largest province of Khartoum.

“The SPLA suggested to exclude the capital Khartoum from the Sharia law while other suggestions hinted to the possibility of applying Islamic laws only on Muslim citizens, but the Sudanese government rejected both proposals,” al-Mehdi said.

The SPLA has been fighting the mainly-Muslim north for more than 20 years for secession of Sudan’s mainly-Christian and Animist south.