Sudanese peace talks in Cairo involving Darfur rebels postponed

CAIRO, Sept 28 (AFP) — Peace negotiations between the Sudanese government and its political opponents including Darfur rebels that were due to open in Cairo on Tuesday have been postponed, a leading opposition figure said here.

Abdul Rahman Saeed, vice chairman of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a grouping of northern and southern opposition groups, said the meeting was put off for logistical reasons.

“It has been postponed, for a week or two, for logistical reasons,” Saeed told AFP, adding that the majority of NDA leaders, especially those based in eastern Sudan, had not arrived.

NDA chairman Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani was due to lead his group at the talks, to be held under the auspices of the Egyptian intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman.

Sudan planned to send a high-level team headed by Vice President Ali Osman Taha, who led the government’s delegation at negotiations with southern rebels in Kenya.

Talks in August resulted in agreement on a 13-point agenda, which is expected to form the basis for the Cairo talks and includes constitutional and economic policy issues as well as plans for general elections.

Also on the agenda for the next round of talks would be the crisis in the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan.

“One of our agenda concerns the west,” added Saeed in reference to Darfur, where up to 50,000 people have died in the 19-month conflict between the rebels and government forces backed by Janjaweed militias.

African Union-sponsored peace talks between the government and the two main rebel groups in the region, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement, in Abuja, Nigeria, broke down earlier this month over strong differences on security arrangements.

Saeed said the Darfur-based SLM, which joined the NDA despite initial opposition from the Khartoum government, had been invited and would attend the Cairo talks.

Saeed denied the Cairo talks had been delayed because of last week’s arrest in the United Arab Emirates of Abdul Aziz Khaled, who heads the Sudanese Alliance Forces, a military element of the NDA.

The arrest “doesn’t affect our work”, he said.

Khaled was arrested on Friday at Abu Dhabi airport on an international warrant from Interpol charging him with terrorism, the official Emirati news agency WAM said.

He had arrived from the Egyptian capital, where he has been living since his expulsion a month ago from Eritrea, where his forces operate along the border with Sudan.

The Cairo talks are aimed at ending an NDA campaign launched in 1995 to topple the government of President Omar al-Beshir.

Sudanese officials say that they hope the talks with exiled northern opposition groups will herald their return to the country and resumption of political activities.