Sudanese government, southern rebels complete talks on cease-fire deal

By TOM MALITI, Associated Press Writer

NAIVASHA, Kenya, Dec 31, 2004 (AP) — Sudanese government and rebel negotiators have resolved differences that delayed the signing of a permanent cease-fire deal and endorsing a plan to end a 21-year civil war in southern Sudan, a rebel official said.

A Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement supporter dances while holding SPLM flag in Naivasha, Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement supporters dance while holding a SPLM flag in Naivasha, Kenya, Friday, Dec. 31, 2004. (AP).

The adversaries have agreed on the funding for a separate army that rebels plan to maintain in southern Sudan as a security guarantee during the six-year transition period, said Yasir Arman, spokesman of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

The rebels were pushing the government to fund the force, but Sudanese officials had refused because the military unit will not be part of the new national army.

The differences were overcome at the last-minute talks between Sudanese Vice president Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and southern rebel leader John Garang.

“I was with Dr. Garang, everything is finished,” Arman told The Associated Press. He refused to give additional details.

The development clears the way for the warring sides to sign a permanent cease-fire deal Friday and endorse a plan to implement a series of protocols they signed since the latest round of peace talks began in Kenya in 2002.

Sudanese government and rebel officials were expected to sign the deal at 1400 GMT, Arman said.

Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir and South African President Thabo Mbeki will observe the signing of the last main protocols that will form part of the comprehensive peace deal, said Esther Tolle, permanent secretary in Kenya’s ministry of foreign affairs.

South Africa heads the African Union Committee on Post-Conflict Reconstruction of the War-Affected Areas in Sudan.

The Sudanese government and the southern insurgents will sign the final peace deal on Jan. 9 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, said Yasir Arman, spokesman of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

“The new year will be a year of peace and democracy in Sudan,” Arman told The AP. “It will be the end of the longest war in Africa.”

The north-south war has pitted Sudan’s Islamic-dominated government against rebels seeking greater autonomy and a greater share of the country’s wealth for the Christian and animist south. The conflict is blamed for more than 2 million deaths, primarily from war-induced famine and disease.

The warring sides have signed six protocols on how to share power and natural wealth, what to do with their armed forces during a six-year transition period and how to administer three disputed areas in central Sudan.

Under the agreements signed on May 26, a referendum should be organized six years after a final peace treaty is reached to determine the future of the south.

U.N. and U.S. officials are hoping that a solution to the civil war — which will include a new constitution and power-sharing government for Sudan — will spur an end to the separate conflict between government-backed forces and rebels in the western Darfur region.

Disease and hunger have killed 70,000 in the Darfur region since March, the World Health Organization says. Nearly 2 million are believed to have fled their homes since the start of the crisis.