Ethiopia pledges to enhance support to bring peace in Sudan: PM

ADDIS ABABA, Aug 5, 2003 (Xinhua) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has expressed that his government will enhance its support in the efforts to bring about sustainable peace in the Sudan.

Meles made the remark here on Monday while holding talks with a delegation of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development’s ( IGAD) Secretariat on Peace in the Sudan, the Ethiopian Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Meles told the delegation that the government of the Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army need to carry on with peace talks.

The two sides should exert efforts for the prevalence of sustainable peace by furthering the peace process under the auspices of IGAD, Meles said.

The two sides have already gone considerable distance in their peace talks and it was the consummation of this process, not war, which would bring about resolution, one of the negotiators who comprise the delegation, Ethiopian ambassador to Kenya Murad Mussa quoted Meles as saying.

Negotiators of the Secretariat are drawn from Ethiopia, Uganda, Eritrea, Kenya and Djibouti. Kenya holds the chairmanship.

The delegation told Meles that they have been exerting efforts since last October to bring about sustainable peace in the Sudan.

The delegation was now soliciting support from IGAD member countries to resolve the difficulty created concerning a draft negotiation document for the peace process, the negotiators said.

The delegation secured the required support from Meles and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, they said, adding they would head to Eritrea and Kenya on the same mission.

It was reported that the peace process launched with the aim of bringing about sustainable peaceful resolution to the 20-year-old conflict would resume as of Aug. 11.