Ongoing Sudan Peace Talks Come to Crucial Stage

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, July 12, 2003

Ongoing Sudan Peace Talks Come to Crucial Stage

The ongoing peace talks between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) have come to a crucial stage, according to official sources Friday in Nairobi.

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The ongoing peace talks between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) have come to a crucial stage, according to official sources Friday in Nairobi.

"We are happy with the draft document presented do us by mediators. We hope document will be the basis of a comprehensive peace agreement. We have agreed with all the contents in the proposals," an SPLA official who refused to be identified told Xinhua by telephone.

Lazaro Sumbeiywo, Kenyan special envoy to the Sudan peace talks and chief negotiator, told Xinhua that the rebels have expressed their willingness to negotiate the draft document but they are still waiting the acknowledgment from the Sudanese government side.

"The success of the current round of talks depends basically onthe contents of the proposals presented by the mediators and how they are applicable for implementation, agreed with the principles of a justice compromise. The judge of issues is by their (the talks) conclusion," Saladin Atabani, a Sudanese government delegation official, also told Xinhua.

Beginning on July 6, this round of peace talks are being held in Nakuru, about 150 km northwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

The theme of the talks cover security arrangements in the post-war period, power-sharing arrangements, wealth sharing and the three conflict areas.

Sumbeiywo disclosed that this would be the final phase of the talks during which the two parties will prepare the final documents they expect to sign in the middle of August.

"We shall decide how best to proceed with the negotiations once both sides had responded to the draft," Sumbeiywo said, but adding that "we are going to have another negotiations after tomorrow (Saturday) to tackle more pending issues."

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 2 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.

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