Sudanese rebels commemorate anniversary with pledge of new Sudan
KHARTOUM, May 17 (AFP) — South Sudan rebel leader John Garang has pledged to build the new Sudan as he said his movement is for all Sudanese, whether in the north, south, east or west, Khartoum press reports said Monday.
Colonel Garang, the head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), and Vice President Ali Osman Taha were, meanwhile, quoted by a senior US official as saying a final peace agreement has come “very near”.
“The movement is committed to building the new Sudan for all the Sudanese people and in accordance with the declared programmes and goals of the movement,” Garang was quoted by newspapers, including Al Ayam daily, as saying.
The rebel leader was speaking in a telephone relay to a gathering held Sunday night at the University of Khartoum by student supporters marking the 21st anniversary of the establishment of the SPLM/A.
The coming peace was not a partnership of the SPLM/A and the ruling National Congress party but one in which “all Sudanese people must take part for building the new Sudan,” Garang said.
Reporting from Naivasha, Kenya, the official Al Anbaa daily said US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Charles Snyder planned to rally world leaders for participation in a ceremony to sign the Sudan peace agreement.
Snyder, however, blamed the negotiators for taking a long time in reaching a peace agreement saying that such a delay would impair efforts for stopping a separate armed conflict and humanitarian crisis in Darfur, where two other rebel movements are fighting government troops and Arab militias.
Following a meeting with Taha and Garang, Snyder told reporters that both men informed him that “the final peace agreement has become very near”. They had managed to “overcome all basic issues and what remains can be resolved in a couple of days.”
The US administration will rally the largest possible number of the world leaders to the final agreement signing ceremony which, according to Snyder, will be held in Nairobi rather than Washington as was previously reported.
The northeast African country, the largest on the continent, is roughly divided into an Arabised, Muslim north and a mainly black south where many of the population are Christians.