KHARTOUM, 29 August — Not much news has been forthcoming from the second round of peace talks aimed at ending Sudan’s 19-year-old civil war.

The first round of talks, called the Machakos Protocol, was signed on July 20 in Kenya. Many observers feel the talks represent a real opportunity to end the civil war, achieve national peace and establish unity in the country.

Last week’s talks between the Islamic government in Khartoum and the Sudan’s People’s Liberation Army in the south have focused on key strategic issues such as sharing national power and wealth and establishing the necessary provisions for a cease-fire. The new round of talks comes on the heels of breakthrough negotiations last month, which included an agreement to allow the mostly Christian southern Sudan to hold a referendum on independence in six years.

“What happened in Machakos is very significant, and what is coming up after the peace agreement is even more significant,” Dr. Ghazi Salahuddin Attabani, Sudan’s presidential peace adviser and secretary-general of Sudan’s National Congress Party, told Arab News last week shortly before leaving for the peace talks in Nairobi. “What happened in Machakos last July opens the way for this. We want to consolidate peace first; as we don’t want to have setbacks we had in the 1972 peace agreements.”

Attabani, speaking to this correspondent during a visit organized by the London-based Al-Moustakila satellite TV, said the first issues to be discussed would be wealth sharing in the country. But before all, “we want to advance is the cessation of hostilities, [as] the situation is very precarious in the south and could slip out of control if we were to carry on fighting each other.” Basic differences between the two parties include an end to fighting. “The SPLA says it cannot stop fighting until the peace agenda is signed,” said Attabani during the meeting that was attended. “We are going to try to convince them to agree to a cessation of hostilities.” Asked if the Khartoum government could “sweeten the offer” by proposing, for example, an end of the government’s arms imports to the area, Attabani said it was impossible. “That would be unfair, as we have an army and we need to maintain it. But another ‘sweetener’ made to us by former Sen. John Danforth, [special US peace envoy to the Sudan,] is to provide open and unilateral access to humanitarian aid throughout the south,” he said.

Attabani said he was very optimistic the talks would end positively for several reasons. Most importantly, he said, the SPLA “has a very good negotiating team,” at the talks in Machakos “who are serious about establishing peace. These are the people who will be able to deliver on what they sign.”

Additionally, Attabani said the recent meeting in Kampala, the very first of its kind between President Bashir and SPLA leader John Garang “was surprisingly good.” He implied that both the president and southern leader hit it off as well as arch rivals could. “It was a very positive meeting and very important for confidence, which adds to my optimism.”

Attabani said the most important obstacles were overcome during the first round of talks. “We still have things we need to work through, but the major obstacles are out of the way.

“This is Addis Ababa Plus. We will have a federal government and decentralized south, which can ultimately lead to unity.”

Attabani said Islamic Shariah law would be applied in the north, but not in the south. “The breakthrough is the administration setup.”

“Southern Sudan is the epicenter for all stability for all Sudan. It is also very important you prove to the Southerners, during this interim period, that the south can be a positive factor in the development of the north, and vice versa.”

Attabani said there are over 100 small tribes in the south. “We keep reminding them if they succeed to achieve independence — which the south will vote on following a 6-year interim period with the north — this will be a recipe for disaster for all the region, we have learned this from the precedents of Eritrea and Ethiopia, and India and Pakistan. The whole region would be affected.”