Libyan mediation between Khartoum and rebels
Sudan-Libya, Politics, 1/15/1999

Diplomatic sources told the London-based al-Hayat daily that the visit of Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismael and Sudanese Vice President Riak Mashar on Tuesday to Libya pertains to an initiative proposed by Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gaddafi in order to establish peace in Southern Sudan.

The sources said that leader of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, Col. John Garang, will arrive in Libya on his way to the United States.

The Sudanese government and the rebels in Southern Sudan will carry out on February in Nairobi a new round of negotiations in the course of the government commission for development and fighting draught, IGAD.

In August 1998, the two sides held a round of talks in Addis Ababa but they resulted in no concrete progress. Points of dispute between the two sides center on the "relations between the state and religion, the establishment of a secular state, separating religion from the state and the establishment of two states in the north and in the south."

From Tripoli, Garang headed for Cairo to attend the meetings of the committee which was formed by the Sudanese opposition in July, 1998. It included the chairman of the Democratic National Coalition, Muhammad Othman al-Merghani, commander of al-Ummah (nation) Party al-Sadeq al-Mahdi and the spokesman for the coalition, Farouk Abu Issa.

Members of the committee which al-Merghani will not attend for health reasons, will meet with high-ranking Egyptian officials concerned with the Sudanese issue. They are also expected to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Previous Stories:
  National assemblage calls for solidarity with Sudanese people   (1/14/1999)
  Sudanese officials arrive in Libya   (1/14/1999)
  Rebel awaits government's answer to return to Khartoum   (1/7/1999)

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