Khartoum will not sign an “unfair” peace agreement: president

CAIRO, Aug 10 (AFP) — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir will not sign an “unfair” peace with southern rebels and voiced “doubts” about the intentions of their leader, John Garang, he told an Egyptian government daily Sunday.

The comments were published as Beshir’s government was due to resume peace talks Sunday in Kenya with Garang’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

In an interview with Al-Ahram newspaper, Beshir said Khartoum would resort to other “options”, without specifying what, should “deadlock” persist.

“We are not going to sign any peace agreement that does not implement justice,” Beshir was quoted as saying.

Asked whether he thought the SPLA is “serious” about peace, Beshir said: “We still have doubts about Garang, who aims to spread conflict and polarise the political spectrum”.

But questioned about whether he would allow Garang to become vice president, Beshir said: “Certainly… if we sign a peace treaty with him, nothing could preclude such a partnership”.

He said the current chances of peace were “possible, if negotiators don’t play a negative role… as they have done with their (previous) proposals”.

On Saturday, the president slammed a draft accord, put forward by the east African body, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) as “aimed at dismantling not only the present regime but the whole of Sudan.”

The last round of talks in Nakuru, Kenya broke down in July when the government rejected a draft accord on outstanding issues such as power- and wealth-sharing and security arrangements during a six-year transition period, which would grant southern Sudan a separate army and independent central bank.

In the Kenyan town of Machakos in July 2002, the two sides struck a breakthrough accord granting the south the right to self-determination after a six-year interim period and exempting the south from Islamic laws.

The SPLA has been fighting since 1983 to end domination of Sudan’s mainly Christian and animist south by the Arab Muslim government in Khartoum.