Sudan agreement on a general amnesty

The US President George W. Bush informed the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Washington's proposal to host the final signing ceremony on the peace agreement with the southern rebels, while Khartoum and the rebels said that the peace agreement which is under negotiations between the two sides in Kenya will include general amnesty.

The Sudanese official news agency said that Bush made a telephone call with al-Bashir yesterday, in which he announced the US welcomes being proposed a host to this big event in Washington. The agency said that Bush announced in the telephone call, which lasted for half an hour yesterday, the US unlimited support to the march of peace in Sudan, so as to reach its set objectives shortly. He also stressed US cooperation with the international community to rebuild what was destroyed by the war, stressing his country's care to normalize its bilateral relations with Sudan.

For his part, Bashir stressed that the peace negotiations are proceeding smoothly, promising to reach a final agreement.

Meantime, the spokesman for the rebels of southern Sudan said that the army will form a reconciliation committee in the south, to deal with war crimes committed during the conflict. Two million persons were killed during two decades of the civil war, most of them victims of starvation and diseases.