First direct meeting between the Sudanese government and Darfour rebels: settling main differences
Sudan, Politics, 4/7/2004

The delegation of the Sudanese government and the rebels of the people's movement for the liberation of Sudan yesterday in Kenya had a new step towards signing a peace agreement that ends the civil war in Sudan. This was manifested in reaching an agreement on sharing the authority and running three areas under disputes.

The two issues of sharing the authority and running the three areas were the main two pending issued before ending the longest inter- African conflict since 1983 between the southern part of the country where a Christian majority live and the Arab north Muslims, resulted in killing more than one million.

The main mediator, the retired Kenyan Gen. Lazaro Sambyo said in a telephone call from the headquarters of the talks in Nivasha ( Northern west Nairobi) that " a great progress is made and they have reached agreements on sharing the authority and areas of conflict." He added " but they have asked for four or five days before signing documents. And there are still details to be agreed upon on security and measures for implementation," refusing to give more details on the agreements.

The two sides, however, were in conflict over the areas of Eibi, al-Nouba mountain and Anqashnah area in the southern Blue Nile district.

The two sides delegation are led by the Sudanese Vice President Ali Othman Taha and the leader of the southern rebels John Garang. They had started negotiations in Nivasha in September, 2003 and resumed them on February 17 after suspension during al-Haj rituals. The current round was due to be ended on March 16 and was extended to march 31 and then the two sides agreed to continue the talks. On January 7th, the Sudanese government and the people's movement for the liberation of Sudan signed an agreement on wealth share which used to be one of the main points of differences.

Meantime, a spokesman for the opposition Sudanese people's congress party warned that the government intends to detain other leaderships in the party after arresting its leader Hassan al-Turabi. Al-Mahboub Abdul Salaam, member of the Shoura council in the party and its spokesman abroad, said in a telephone call from London " I expect the increase of the pace of the campaign against the party and arresting more members if its leadership."

In Njamina, well-informed sources said that the delegations of the Sudanese government and the two rebel movements in Darfour started yesterday a direct meeting which was the first of its kind since the beginning of Chad's initiative, in the presence of the President of Chad, Idris Deibi and international observers. The government's delegation and the two delegations of the justice and equality movement and the Sudan liberation movement entered the same hall at Chad's foreign ministry where the talks started in a close door session.

Earlier Njamina's negotiations between the rebels movement in Darfour and the Sudanese government seemed to be deadlock, to the extend that a source close to the mediators expected them to be suspended as no direct meeting was held between the two sides since February 2003.

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