Sudanese gov’t optimistic about final peace deal by year end

NAIROBI, Dec 5, 2004 (Xinhua) — Sudanese First Vice President Ali Osman Taha arrived in Nairobi late Sunday and expressed optimism on the prospect of concluding a peace deal with the country’s southern rebels by the end of the year.

Speaking on behalf of Taha on arrival at the airport, Sudanese Chief Negotiator Nafie Ali Nafie said, “We are here in Nairobi on our way to Naivasha, hoping that this will be the last round of the talks and we hope we will be able to conclude the peace deal.”

“We are very enthusiastic and we feel that our brothers on the other side (southern rebels) will also be very keen to wrap up the peace deal by the end of the year. We are very optimistic,” he added.

Taha and John Garang, leader of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) are expected to resume negotiations later in the Kenyan town Naivasha, some 90 km northwest of the capital Nairobi, in a bid to reach the final deal by the end of the year.

“We hope to beat the deadline set by the United Nations Security Council in Nairobi,” Nafie said.

The United National Security Council on Nov. 18-19 held a two- day extraordinary session in Nairobi to push the peace negotiations to a conclusion and to stop a separate bloody conflict in Darfur region in western Sudan.

“The coming days are enough for discussing the remaining issues since the last round of talks has covered a lot and the remaining are not difficult,” Nafie said.

The Sudanese civil war started in 1983 when the SPLM/A took up arms fighting for self-determination in the southern part of the country, which has left some two million people dead, mostly through war-induced famine and disease.

The Sudanese government and the SPLM/A began peace talks in March 1994 in Kenya, under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, a seven-member regional group in east Africa, consisting of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan.

The parties signed key peace protocols in Kenya on May 26, paving the way for a full ceasefire and implementation pact to end the war that has cut Africa’s biggest country in two for over two decades.

The two sides have been discussing the final comprehensive peace agreement since June this year.