Sudanese government, rebels begin final talks to end 21-year civil war
By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer
NAIROBI, Kenya, June 28, 2004 (AP) — Sudanese government and rebel officials have begun negotiating cease-fire details as part of a comprehensive agreement to end a 21-year war in Africa’s largest nation, the chief mediator said Monday.
The talks seek to set a cease-fire date, hammer out details on peacekeeping and monitoring as well as demobilization of troops and their reintegration into civilian life, chief mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo said. The talks began Sunday.
“This is very significant because without the details, the war doesn’t stop,” Sumbeiywo told The Associated Press.
The latest efforts to end the civil war in south Sudan began in Kenya in 2002. The Sudanese government and the main southern rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, have already agreed on how to share the wealth and power in the country.
They have also agreed on how to demobilize their armies during a six-year transition period and how to administer three disputed areas in central Sudan.
Government and rebel experts are now fine-tuning the agreements in talks in Naivasha, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, Sumbeiywo said.
The negotiations in Kenya are unrelated to fighting in the Darfur region of western Sudan, where fighting between the government and rebels has forced more than 1 million people from their homes and raised fears of ethnic cleansing.
Chad, Sudan’s western neighbor, mediates separate peace talks for Darfur province, a region the size of Iraq.
The latest talks in Kenya are scheduled to end on July 19, Sumbeiywo said.
They will be followed by another round of negotiations focusing on how to implement the peace deal, Sumbeiywo said. Those talks are expected to end between August and October.
Negotiators will set the date for the start of the transition period and schedule elections expected to be held halfway through the six-year interim period, said Samson Kwaje, a spokesman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.
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 north.
The insurgents say they are fighting for better treatment and for southerners to have the right to choose whether to remain part of Sudan.
Although often simplified as a religious war, the conflict is fueled by historical disputes and competition for resources, including major oil reserves.