Khartoum asks for Arab mediation, al-Bashir denounces IGAD proposals
Sudan, Politics, 7/15/2003

The Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir called yesterday IGAD for providing an alternative for the peace proposals debated in the negotiations with the rebels, otherwise "leave us and go to hell."

Meantime, the Sudanese government called on the Arab League and Egypt to interfere with the rebels and IGAD to withdraw their proposals which resulted in blocking the negotiations.

Al-Bashir told the BBC that the peace proposals submitted in the negotiations with the southern rebels by IGAD are considered very bad. He added addressing IGAD and supporters of its initiative " if you have an accepted alternative for these proposals, we welcome you, other wise, avoid our sight and go to hell."

For his part, the spokesman for the rebels Samsoun Kawaghi said in a statement from Kenya's city of Nakoro that one of the points of differences was that the rejection of the Sudanese government to suspend the Islamic Sharia in the city of Khartoum during the provisional period, when the mediators proposed that the city to be a joint and shared capital. He added that the government also refused a proposal to chop part of Khartoum and join it to the shared capital.

In line with Bashir's statements, the chairman of the council for coordinating southern states and deputy chairman of the ruling Congress Party in Khartoum, Reyak Qai, said in a press statement following his meeting yesterday in Cairo with the secretary general of the Arab League AL Amr Moussa in Cairo that he had asked Moussa to interfere with IGAD and the rebels to pullout their proposals which were considered as leading to the obstruction of the negotiations. Qai added that the proposals given by the rebels and IGAD "are not serious and will lead to the perpetuation of two states and undermine Sudan's unity before starting the provisional period as stated by Mashakos protocol."

Qai said that Moussa promised to play a basic role in the coming phase in order to bring view points closer together. He stressed he had asked Egypt to play also an "important role in every mediation between the two sides or the conflict especially in this critical phase." Meantime, the Egyptian daily al-Ahram said that Qai met on Sunday with the Egyptian minister of information Safwat al-Sharif and handed him a message from the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to his Egyptian peer Hosni Mubarak.

Qai indicated that Khartoum rejected IGAD's proposals, considering that it gives the rebels of Sudan "the ultimate authority in the south and margins other groups in the area." He added that Khartoum also rejected all these proposals because they offer "the vice president who might be from the south, the right of veto on the decisions taken by the President of the Republic and permits the establishment of two armies ( southern and southern ), together with two ministries of defense."

On the other hand, the spokesman for the Sudan's liberation army, the military wing of the rebels, Arko Beini, announced control on the strategic al-Tenah town near the border with Chad following a "fierce battle" with its military patrol.

Beini said that the rebels killed almost 250 troops and seized 14 armored vehicles and other equipment, noting that the rebels losses "are very slight as only one member was killed and other 7 wounded.."

Previous Stories:
  15 Sudanese soldiers, 30 rebels killed in a new attack; Kenya's peace talks fail   (7/14/2003)
  New Sudanese conditions for signing an agreement with Garang   (7/12/2003)
  al-Hyatt al-Seyasia: Syrian- Sudanese relations are prosperous   (7/12/2003)

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