KHARTOUM, 4 September 2003 — The head of Sudan’s main rebel group and a top government official are to hold rare talks before a new round of peace negotiations to end a 20-year-old civil war resume next week, a rebel spokesman said yesterday.
But Kwaje Samson, a spokesman for the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), denied a newspaper report that the face-to-face talks in Kenya was to take place yesterday, since leader John Garang had not yet arrived from southern Sudan.
“There are moves to arrange such a meeting,” Kwaje told Reuters in Nairobi. “But it will not happen today.”
Yasir Arman, another rebel spokesman, had told Reuters late on Tuesday Garang was going to Kenya for talks with First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and would lead the rebel team at the next round of peace talks, due to start on Sept. 10.
Garang, who does not normally attend the peace talks, usually splits his time between Sudan and Nairobi, where he has a house.
Sudan’s independent Al-Sahafa daily had reported that the talks between Garang and Taha were due to start yesterday near Naivasha, some 90 km from Nairobi, “to remove the obstacles facing the peace process”.
The paper said the talks had been arranged with the help of the United States, Egypt and Kenya.
Arman had said Garang’s trip proved the commitment of the rebels’ political wing, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), to ending the conflict, which has killed two million people in Africa’s largest country.
The war, which has been raging since 1983, pits the Islamist government in the north against rebels seeking more autonomy in the south.
“By placing at the head of its delegation its highest ranking official, the SPLM means to send a very definite message regarding its commitment to these talks. The ball is now in Khartoum’s court,” Arman said by telephone from southern Sudan.
Peace talks have stumbled in recent months after reaching a breakthrough outline accord just over a year ago.
A Sudanese government negotiator said last month Khartoum and the rebels had made some progress on power sharing in their latest rounds of talks in August, raising hopes over the largely deadlocked bid to end the war.
But rebels played down reports of progress, accusing the government of attempting to derail the peace process by trying to sideline agreements made at earlier rounds of talks.
The rebels and the government reached an outline agreement in July 2002 under which southern Sudanese would vote in a referendum on secession after a six-year transition. But they have since been unable to agree on several vital issues, including how to share power and wealth.
