Sudanese Rebels Vow to Fight Until Peace in Southern Sudan

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 17, 2002

Sudanese Rebels Vow to Fight Until Peace in Southern Sudan

The Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels have vowed to fight the Khartoum government until there is peace in the southern Sudan, the Sunday Vision newspaper reported.

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The Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels have vowed to fight the Khartoum government until there is peace in the southern Sudan, the Sunday Vision newspaper reported.

SPLA commander Edward Abyel Lino, a director in the office of SPLA leader John Garang, was quoted by the Uganda's leading English newspaper as saying that the SPLA forces had stepped up their operations against government forces to protect areas under their control.

"We are definitely stepping up our operations. If the Khartoum government goes ahead with war we are going to fight them to the end," he said.

The SPLA made an advance and captured the southern Sudanese strategic town of Kapoeta from the government troops on last Sunday.

"Our advance on these areas has nothing to do with neighbors, "he said, adding that "we have to defend ourselves so that the liberation continues."

The SPLA commander's speech was carried out by the Uganda's newspaper one day before the peace talks on the Sudan conflict is scheduled to open in Kenyan capital Nairobi on Monday. The peace talks will be held under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) which groups seven east African countries: Kenya, Uganda, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia.

Meanwhile, Sudanese First Vice-President Ali Osman Taha has urged the United States to put pressure on the SLPA at the peace talks due to open in Nairobi, according to a newspaper report available here.

"If the United States places its weight behind the peace negotiations, the hopes of a successful IGAD initiative will be renewed," Taha told London-based daily Asharq al-Awsat.

Taha said the upcoming talks would be "important" because the United States, Britain, Norway, Egypt and Libya will attend, in addition to IGAD's seven members, adding that "United States should "pressure" the rebel SPLA "into serious negotiations and accepting a comprehensive ceasefire which the movement has always rejected."

The Nairobi talks will be conducted in three separate sessions to respectively discuss the issues of unity, distribution of wealth and power, and the relationship between religion and the state, according to a report reaching here.

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