Sudan says southern peace deal will be signed on time

KHARTOUM, Dec 28 (AFP) — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir said his government is committed to signing a final peace deal with southern Sudanese rebels on time, an official newspaper reported.

Sudanese Vice-president Ali Osman Taha (R) and SPLA rebel leader John Garang. (AFP).

Beshir said at a summit with leaders from Yemen and Ethiopia on Monday that a comprehensive agreement would be signed within the “set timeframe,” Al-Anbaa reported.

Kenya has been hosting talks in Naivasha aimed at finding a comprehensive settlement to the 21-year-old war between Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, Africa’s longest-running conflict.

The two sides had pledged in writing to the UN Security Council last month to sign the deal by December 31, when a temporary ceasefire is set to expire.

But the African Union on Monday claimed that an agreement would be signed on January 10, although this could not be confirmed.

Al-Anbaa said the two sides were striving to iron out final points of disagreement.

It said that differences remained over how to administer Khartoum during the six-year interim period leading to a referendum on self-determination for the south and the composition of the electoral and constitutional committees.

Government negotiators proposed that the national capital be administered according to the quotas agreed upon in the power-sharing arrangement between the two sides, which the SPLM rejected, according to the paper.

The paper added that the government also suggested that the two committees be made up exclusively of Sudanese government representatives and the SPLM, while the rebels prefer that other political forces join in as well.

It quoted Beshir as saying that once an agreement with the south is in place, it could be used as a model to resolve other conflicts in the country.

The president was apparently referring to the 22-month conflict with ethnic minority rebels in the western province of Darfur that has left tens of thousands dead and more than 1.6 million displaced.

The southern Sudan war erupted in 1983 as a freedom struggle by the mainly Christian and animist south against successive Islamic, ethnic Arab governments in Khartoum.

Since then, the conflict has killed at least 1.5 million people and displaced four million.