Sudan rebel chief touts peace accords to people
By Alistair Thomson
NAIROBI, May 30 (Reuters) – Sudan’s southern rebel leader launched a campaign on Sunday to sell peace accords signed in Kenya last week to his people.
John Garang, leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) urged hundreds of Sudanese people living in Kenya’s capital Nairobi to embrace the accords, clearing the last hurdles to a full peace deal in Africa’s biggest country.
“These agreements that we have signed restore the dignity of the southern Sudanese,” he said to loud cheers from supporters and schoolchildren waving red, black and green SPLA flags.
“We have now signed a total of six protocols. These six protocols constitute the core peace agreement, so we can say we now have the basic peace agreement,” he said.
“The Sudan after this will not be the same again. We will see the true transformation of the Sudan.” He said he planned to hold similar briefings across Sudan shortly to inform the people back home about the peace process.
The SPLA and the Khartoum government signed three accords on Wednesday on power-sharing and administering disputed areas.
The war broadly pits rebels from the mainly animist and Christian south against the Arab- and Muslim-dominated north, and has been fuelled by squabbling over growing oil revenues.
After 10 years of on-off peace efforts, the last few months have yielded detailed accords on a six-month interim period leading to a six-year power-sharing transition, after which the south will be able to hold a referendum on secession.
The process, sponsored by regional and Western governments, aims to end Africa’s longest civil war between the SPLA and Khartoum, but doesn’t involve factions in Sudan’s other conflicts, notably the western Darfur region which the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
But analysts have said the SPLA accords could be a blueprint to bring peace to other parts of Africa’s biggest country.
REBELS EYE CAPITAL
After more than two decades fighting the Khartoum government, Garang said the SPLA was looking at sending a high-level delegation to establish a permanent presence there.
“We have to move closer to the epicentre of operations. How do we change things without being there?” he said. “I’ve told all (SPLA members) to report to their units so that we can begin to prepare for the start of the interim period.”
Garang said he would also consult traditional chiefs and elders on specific issues before the full peace agreement, which he said was expected in July or August. Special commissions are due to start working on the details on June 22 in Kenya.
“Our objective was the removal of the (Khartoum) regime. We did not succeed in that,” he said. “Similarly the objective of the other side was to destroy the SPLA. They did not succeed — we negotiated and reached a peace agreement.”
Garang hinted his support for sticking with the north even when the south has the option of seceding in a few years time.
“The onus is on those who value the unity of Sudan. That unity must be made attractive,” he said. “No one marries an ugly girl, and no girl marries an ugly man.