Sudan appeals to Arab League for support

TUNIS, Tunisia, June 17, 2004 (PANA) — Sudanese first vice president Ali Osmane
Mohamed Taha has begun in Tunisia a tour of Arab and African
states which will take him to Egypt, Libya and Saudi Arabia.

Taha held talks Wednesday with Tunisian President Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali, current chairman of the Arab League, whom he
briefed on the peace process underway in his country, and the
preliminary accord reached in June in Nairobi, Kenya, between
Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A).

According to him, the government and the rebels of southern Sudan
are expected to sign a final peace accord in August in the
Kenyan capital.

Addressing a news conference before leaving Tunis, Taha said
that he called on Ben Ali to remind him of the league’s
undertaking to offer financial aid in the reconstruction of
southern Sudan and other war-ravaged areas.

“President Ben Ali displayed an in-depth understanding and a firm
determination to back the efforts towards the establishment of
peace in Sudan,” Taha said.

In addition, Taha described the conflict raging in the Darfur
region as “a new variant of the campaign aimed at exerting
pressure on Sudan.”

He intimated that the problem in the Darfur region was “less
complicated” than the one in the southern part of the country,
expressing optimism that it would be solved.