Sudan government and rebels expected to sign peace agreement Wednesday
(Updates 1133 GMT item with rebel comment.)
By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 25, 2004 (AP) — The Sudanese government and rebels have reached agreements on outstanding issues that have stalled efforts to end a 21-year civil conflict, paving the way for the warring parties to reach a comprehensive peace deal, officials said Tuesday.
The two sides will sign three protocol agreements Wednesday at the talks in the Kenyan town of Naivasha, the Kenyan foreign ministry said in a statement.
The agreements will represent a key breakthrough for efforts to end Africa’s longest-running conflict, leaving only the details of a comprehensive cease-fire and how to implement a final deal to be worked out.
“The signing of the protocols represents a major step toward the achievement of a final and comprehensive political settlement to the conflict,” the ministry statement said. “An agreement on cease-fire and implementation modalities is expected to be signed soon.”
More than 2 million people have perished, mainly through war-induced famine, since rebels from the mainly animist and Christian south took up arms against the predominantly Arab and Muslim north in 1983.
“There is an agreement,” George Garang, an official with the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army, told The Associated Press. “The rest of negotiations will focus on modalities of implementation, international guarantees, redeployment of troops and a few issues.”
It wasn’t immediately possible to speak to Sudanese government officials.
The latest peace process to end the conflict began in July 2002 and the Sudanese government and the rebels have already reached agreements on how to share wealth in Africa’s largest country and what to do with their forces during a six-year transition period.
But the talks have been stalled in recent months on how power should be shared in a transitional administration, whether the capital, Khartoum, should be governed under Islamic law and how three disputed areas in central Sudan should be administered during the six-year interim period.
The protocols to be signed Wednesday will include power-sharing and the status of the capital, while another will cover the administration of two of the so-called disputed areas, Southern Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains. The third protocol will deal separately with Abeyei, an oil rich area which both the government and the rebels wanted to administer during the transition.
After the protocols have been signed, negotiators will take a break before returning to talks to work out details of a comprehensive cease-fire and implementation modalities, said an official close to the talks.
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 . In July 2002, shortly after the peace process began, the parties agreed to a six-year transition period during which the south will have a regional administration. After that period, southerners will vote in a referendum on whether to secede.
The talks in Naivasha, 100 kilometers west of Nairobi, don’t involve insurgents fighting a 15-month rebellion in Darfur region of western Sudan . Fighting in Darfur has forced more than 1 million people from their homes, and aid workers have described the situation in that region as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.