Khartoum to boycott peace negotiations if it will to discuss marginal areas
Sudan, Politics, 1/14/2003

Doubts overwhelmed the question of resuming the Sudanese peace negotiations in Kenya which the southern Sudanese rebels announced will be resumed tomorrow, while Khartoum refused to take part if the negotiations will be dedicated to the issue of the three "margined" central areas, the rebels want to have.

The spokesman for the rebels Samsoun Kawaji said from Nairobi that the talks will be resumed on Wednesday in a special session to be presided over by Kenya on the question of Jibal al-Nouba, the blue Nile province and Aibi area.

Meantime, a Sudanese official said that Sudan will not take part in the negotiations if these negotiation will deal with the issue of the three areas.

The presidential advisor for peace affairs Salah Eddine al-Atabani told journalists that his government will invite to Khartoum the Kenyan envoy Lazaro Sombyu "to discuss with the Sudanese officials concerning the elimination of obstacles that impede the resumption of talks." Gen. Sombyu is the special delegate for IGAD which includes East African states and sponsors the negotiations between the Sudanese government and the rebels.

The rebel movements stressed it had received an authorization from the people of Jibal al-Nouba, and the Blue Nile in order to represent them in the talks while the government stresses that it controls 90% of these territories.

Meantime, the Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Maher called in Khartoum for maintaining cooperation between al-Khartoum and Cairo in order to preserve Sudan's unity.

He added "we are convinced that a joint work between the two countries will permit reaching the common objective concerning Sudan's territorial unity." Maher stressed before leaving Cairo "Egypt's desire for further cooperation to achieve the common objective which is to maintaining peace and the Sudanese territories."

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