Sudan foes begin workshop on ceasefire details

NAIROBI, June 22 (Reuters) – Sudan’s government and southern rebels on Tuesday started a seminar on how to conduct ceasefire negotiations ahead of a resumption of talks this weekend expected to thrash out a final peace accord, rebels said.

The southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed a number of protocols with the government in May, paving the way for a final peace accord when talks resume.

Kenyan mediators have said a final deal could be concluded within two months of the re-start of negotiations which are expected to discuss the two issues of cease-fire arrangements and how to implement a final peace deal.

“It is a seminar to enlighten us on different ceasefire experiences in other parts of the world so that we know the do’s and don’ts of a ceasefire,” a rebel participant who did not want to be named said in Nairobi.

The seminar is organised by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, an East African body that has managed previous rounds of Sudan peace talks.

Often depicted as a conflict between the Arab, Muslim north and black animist or Christian south, the war which has killed two million people has been fuelled by divisions over control of oilfields and political power, and religious issues.

Previous accords set the terms for a vote in the south on secession after a six-year interim period, forming a post-war national army and the equal division of oil revenues during the transition.

The peace talks do not cover a separate conflict in the western region of Darfur, where human rights groups say horse-mounted Arab militias have forced more than one million black Africans to flee, raping and pillaging on the way.