Negotiators working on two issues to end Sudan’s 21-year war, rebel spokesman
By TOM MALITI, Associated Press Writer
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 12, 2004 (AP) — Negotiators trying to patch together a peace deal to end Sudan’s 21-year war are working to resolve two last key issues before they can sign a final agreement, a rebel spokesman said Wednesday.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday that Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and John Garang, leader of the main rebel group the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, had for the first time since they began one-on-one talks last year indicated to the U.S. government that they think they had resolved all outstanding issues and were going to put it in writing and sign a peace deal soon.
“Generally we concur with Mr. Richard Boucher’s statement and we think we remain with very few issues,” rebel spokesman Yasir Arman told The Associated Press.
Sudanese government officials were not immediately available for comment.
Boucher said America’s top diplomat for Africa, Acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Charles Snyder, was to travel Tuesday to Naivasha, 100 kilometers west of Nairobi, where the talks are being held.
An U.S. embassy spokesman said Snyder is expected to arrive in Kenya by the end of week but couldn’t give any other details.
Arman said the only two issues remaining were how to share political power in two disputed areas of central Sudan and what percentage of posts the rebels would get in the national government.
“We think we can solve those issues and, in any case, if we don’t, we can seek arbitration of a third party,” Arman said.
He said that other major issues like the application of Islamic law in Khartoum and sharing political power and economic wealth in a third disputed area in central Sudan had been resolved but he declined to give details.
The two leaders have been struggling with these final issues since January. Negotiators called in mediators on April 16 to help break the deadlock.
The war erupted in 1983 when rebels from the predominantly animist and Christian south took up arms against the mainly Muslim and Arab north. The rebels say they are fighting for greater equality for the south and for southerners to have the right to choose whether to remain part of Sudan.
Last year, the two sides reached two key agreements on what to do with rebel and government forces during a six-year transition period and how to divide wealth in Africa’s largest country. In July 2002 negotiators agreed on a six-year transitional period after which southern Sudanese will vote in a referendum on whether to remain part of Sudan.
While the talks between the southern rebels and the government have inched forward, a separate rebellion broke out in February 2003 in the western Sudan Darfur region, forcing some 1 million people to flee their homes.