Sudan sets up constitution committee

KHARTOUM, April 23 (AFP) — Sudan has formed a committee to draft an interim constitution, a key step in implementing a peace deal between Khartoum and southern rebels that brought an end to more than two decades of civil war.

Sudan’s First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha (L) and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement leader John Garang show the signed peace accord at a ceremony in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, January 9, 2005. (Reuetrs).

A new constitution is crucial as it would clear the way for the formation of a national unity government and mark the beginning of a six-year interim period called for in the January 9 peace accord signed in Nairobi.

Key issues that government officials, former rebels and other experts will have to hammer out include power and wealth sharing, relation between state and religion, ethnic diversity and self-determination for the south.

Officials said the body’s first meeting has been postponed due to the absence of key players attending an Asia-Africa conference in Indonesia.

“The SPLM has appointed its delegates for the committee and so has the government. We were supposed to start work today but the conference has delayed the meeting,” said Sudan People’s Liberation Movement spokesman Samson Kwaje.

“We will be in Khartoum on Monday and expect to start working immediately,” he told AFP.

The Nairobi deal, signed by Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and SPLM chief John Garang, ended Africa’s longest-running conflict.

The 60-strong National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC) should have completed its work six weeks after the deal was inked, but progress was held up by squabbling over its composition.

Sudanese media reported Friday that a deal had finally been reached for the share of seats attributed to the ruling National Congress party and former rebels, but no details were immediately available.

The NCRC should include representatives from the African Union and the Arab League while Sudan’s Muslim Brotherhood and the Popular Congress party of jailed Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi will also take part.

But the opposition Umma party of former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, whose government President Omar al-Beshir toppled in a 1989 coup, had demanded a number of measures limiting the power of the National Congress and the SPLM.

It argued unanimity should be required for votes in the committee rather than a majority system giving too much weight to the two heavyweights.

The Umma party had also suggested that once the drafting was over, the new interim constitution should be submitted to the approval of an all-inclusive national conference instead of the National Congress-dominated parliament and the SPLM’s legislative organ.

The National Congress and the SPLM have insisted on applying general power-sharing quotas agreed upon in the January deal, which give them 52 percent and 28 percent of the seats respectively, leaving other parties a paltry 20 percent and no power to block decisions.

Khartoum and the SPLM expect the interim constitution to be in place by July when the six-year interim period is due to commence as demanded by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between north and south.

A referendum is due to be held on the south’s self-determination at the end of the six-year period.