Sudanese negotiating parties urged to demonstrate commitment to achieving peace
NAIROBI, Aug 12, 2003 (Xinhua) — The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) were urged on Tuesday to muster necessary political will and commitment so that lasting peace and reconciliation can become a reality in the Sudan.
“Never before have the two parties been so close to reaching a comprehensive peace agreement. The people of the Sudan expect and deserve peace to end the trauma caused by the conflict,” Amara Essay, interim chairman of the AU Commission, said in a statement faxed to Xinhua.
He encouraged the parties to continue to demonstrate flexibility and a spirit of compromise that will enable them to build upon the achievements made so far.
“To seize the unique opportunity that exists today to make peace a reality for the long suffering people of the Sudan,” Essay said in the statement.
Essay recalled that during the meetings in Maputo, Mozambique, in early July 2003, the policy organs of the AU, namely the Executive Council and the Assembly of the Union, adopted a decision on the establishment of a ministerial committee that will follow up on the post-conflict reconstruction issues in the Sudan.
“This is a clear indication of the AU’s confidence that peace in the Sudan is imminent and that the parties have an onerous responsibility to work for the realization of this noble objective, ” Essay said.
The crucial round of the Sudan peace talks Monday opened in the Kenyan town of Nanyuki, central Kenya, aiming at ending Africa’s longest civil war in the country.
The Sudanese civil war started as the SPLA took up arms fighting for self-determination in the southern part of the country in 1983.
The conflict has left some two million people dead, mostly through war-induced famine and disease.
The Sudanese government and the SPLA began peace talks last July in Kenya under the auspices of the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a seven-member regional group in East Africa, consisting of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, Eritrea, Tanzania and the Sudan.
Kenya is the current chairman of the IGAD ministerial sub- committee on the Sudan.