Sudan government, southern rebels days away from peace pact: reports
KHARTOUM, May 5 (AFP) — The Sudanese government and the main southern rebel group have reached agreement on key issues that have up been barring the way to an accord to end Africa’s longest civil war, press reports said here Wednesday.
Amin Hassan Omar, a member of the government team at peace talks with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the Kenyan Rift Valley town, Naivasha, told the independent Al-Hayat newspaper that “the two parties reached an accord on the capital” and other issues.
He added that he expected a “framework agreement to be signed in the next three days.”
Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osman Taha and SPLA leader John Garang resumed talks in Kenya last week to try to reach agreement on the remaining issues barring the way to peace.
The key issue on the agenda was the status of Khartoum during a six-year transition period, when the city will serve as joint capital before a referendum on self-determination is held for the south.
Another independent Sudanese daily, Al-Ayam, on Wednesday quoted an unnamed SPLA official at the talks in Naivasha as saying the two sides had reached agreement on the legislative status of Khartoum.
The capital would remain under Islamic law but non-Muslims would be exempt from Islamic punishment, the official told Al-Ayam.
The official also said the two sides agreed on the structure of the security forces and the executive. Garang would be first vice president to President Omar al-Beshir and a second vice president will be appointed by the ruling National Congress Party, the paper quoted him as saying.
Al-Ayam also said Garang had told his delegation on Tuesday that an accord on the “remaining issues” barring the way to peace in the 20-year war would be reached by Monday.
If no agreement was reached by then, the current round of talks, which began in September 2003, would be adjourned and resumed after a week, the paper said.
It also reported that Garang told rebel delegates that the outstanding issues included the share of each side in a national parliament and government, participation of other political parties, and power-sharing in the southern Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains.
In previous rounds, the two sides have agreed to equally share resources, notably oil revenue, and Khartoum agreed to withdraw its troops from southern positions to pave way for the creation of integrated army units.
The war in Sudan erupted in 1983, when the south, where most people observe Christianity and traditional religions, took up arms to end domination by the wealthier Muslim and Arabised north.
The conflict, coupled by recurrent famine and diseases, has claimed at least 1.5 million lives and sent more than four million others fleeing from their homelands.
A separate conflict that broke out in the western Darfur region in February last year has claimed at least 10,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands. The conflict pits rebels against the Sudanese army and allied militia groups.