Sudan parties to sign framework accord on Wednesday: mediators
NAIROBI, May 24, 2004 (Xinhua) — The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) are expected to sign a framework accord to end more than two decades of war on Wednesday, mediators said Monday.
“We have reached an agreement on all the remaining issues (on the agenda of the current round) and I can confirm to you that we shall sign it on Wednesday at a time to be communicated to you later,” Kenyan special envoy to the Sudan peace talks and chief mediator, Lazarus Sumbeiywo, told Xinhua by telephone from Navaisha, 90 km northwest of Nairobi, where the current round of negotiations are underway.
Sumbeiywo said all sticking points and obstacles to the much- awaited peace deal have been resolved. The current round of negotiations in Kenya led by Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha and SPLA leader John Garang is dealing with power-sharing and the status of three disputed areas of Abyei, Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile.
Sumbeiywo said even if texts are signed on Wednesday, another round of talks will be needed to clinch agreement on the details of a comprehensive ceasefire, the modalities for its implementation and the nature of an international peacekeeping force.
Regional analysts said this could take some time. All previous peace agreements inked by both sides shall fall under a new comprehensive peace deal, the mediator said.
The breakthrough in Sudan peace process came after marathon talks between Taha and Garang.
Sources close to peace talks told Xinhua that once protocols are signed, the parties will take a break of two to three weeks to allow for time “to bring together all the earlier agreements into a comprehensive peace agreement.”
They said six protocols and two annexes will make up a comprehensive peace agreement.
These are the Machakos protocol governing a referendum on secession for the south after a six-year interim period, which was signed in July 2002; a protocol on security arrangements during the interim, signed in September 2003; and another on wealth- sharing concluded in December 2003.
Protocols on the status of Abyei, the three disputed areas and on power-sharing and two annexes governing the implementation of security arrangements and international guarantees on monitoring the ceasefire will have also to be signed.
The war, coupled with recurrent famine and disease, has claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced more than 4 million people.
The south, where most people observe Christian or traditional faiths, has been fighting to end the domination and marginalization by successive governments in Khartoum.