Sudan govt, rebels resolve final issues on peace deal : Mediators

(Adds Powell’s efforts, U.S. reaction and details of proposed accord.)

NAIVASHA, Kenya, May 26, 2004 (AP) — Overcoming last-minute brinkmanship, mediators said Wednesday that they had solved the remaining issues to reach a peace agreement ending 21 years of civil war in southern Sudan .

A Western diplomat at the talks said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned rebel leader John Garang to discuss the delays.

The Sudanese government and rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army are expected to sign – at 2000 GMT (4:00 p.m. EDT) – protocols on the last major issues that had prevented the two sides from reaching a final deal.

The signing was delayed for several hours because of disputes over the details of power-sharing, but Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka said mediators had “broken through.”

“A win-win situation has been reached,” Musyoka said. “In the final formulation, a very reasonably worked out formula has been reached,” for power sharing.

Kenya is hosting the peace process, which is mediated by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a regional body.

Earlier, Ad’Dirdeiry Hamed, deputy Sudanese ambassador to Kenya, said it was unlikely the government would sign on Wednesday, because of what he said was rebel intransigence on one of the protocols.

The rebels, however, insisted they would be signed.

“There are last-minute consultations going on,” said rebel spokesman Samson Kwaje.

If the protocols are signed, all that remains to work out are procedural matters to end Africa’s longest-running war, in which more than 2 million people have died, mostly from war-induced famine.

But it could take months to determine whether the diplomatic solution will translate to peace on the ground.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the signing will trigger a process leading to the establishment of normal relations with Sudan if certain conditions are met.

Boucher said these include the completion of a comprehensive peace agreement to end the southern conflict and an end to the violence and suffering in Darfur region of western Sudan , where a separate 15-month rebellion has made more than 1 million people homeless.

U.N. officials have described the situation in Darfur as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, but the rebels from Darfur are not involved in the peace process taking place in Naivasha.

The latest effort to end the southern conflict began in Kenya in 2002 and the Sudanese government and the rebels have already agreed on how to share the wealth in Africa’s largest country and what to do with their armed forces during a six-year transition period.

But the talks stalled in recent months as the parties wrangled over how to share power in a transitional government, whether the capital, Khartoum, should be governed under Islamic law and how Southern Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains and Abyei – areas in central Sudan – should be administered during the transition period.

Sudanese Transport Minister Elsamani Elwasila Elsamani told The Associated Press the disagreements on Wednesday centered on the government’s representation in administrations in the Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile.

Elsamani said the parties have agreed that in northern Sudan the government and northern groups will have 70% of positions in federal and state institutions, while the rebels and other southern groups will have 30%.

For institutions in the south, the rebels and other southern groups will have 70% of positions, while the government and northern groups will have 30%, Elsamani said, while waiting in a Nairobi hotel, 100 kilometers southeast of the talks in Naivasha.

He declined to give details of the power-sharing arrangements being discussed for the three disputed areas.

John Duku, a rebel negotiator, later said the two sides had agreed on the parties’ representation in separate administrations for Southern Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains, with the government having 55% of the positions and the rebels 45%.

Abyei will have special status until a referendum is held in that area to allow residents to decide whether to be considered part of northern Sudan or the south, Duku said.

The parties were still finalizing details of the rebels’ representation in national transitional administrations, with the insurgents and other southern groups likely to get between 30% and 33%, Duku said.

Khartoum will be governed under Islamic law, he said, adding that there will be provisions for non-Muslims, but no special protections or exemptions. He didn’t elaborate.

Human Rights Watch said Wednesday that the agreements should not deflect criticism of the situation in Darfur, where Arab militia, supported by the government, have been accused of conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Arab militia attacked five villages in Darfur on Tuesday, killing 46 civilians, according to local sources, the New York-based group said in a statement.

Yasir Arman, a rebel official, said the agreements reached between the southern rebels and the government could be used as a model to solve conflicts in other parts of Sudan , including Darfur.

The southern conflict broke out in 1983 after the rebels from the mainly animist and Christian south took up arms against the predominantly Arab and Muslim.

The insurgents say they are fighting for better treatment and for southerners to have the right to choose whether to remain part of Sudan . Southerners will have their own regional administration during the interim period and vote in a referendum at the end of the transition on whether to secede.