KHARTOUM, 10 October 2003 — Sudanese rebels have welcomed a proposal by the president for them to enter a political partnership with the ruling National Congress Party, a Sudanese newspaper reported yesterday.
Khartoum and the southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army launched fresh peace talks in Kenya on Tuesday aimed at ending a 20-year-old civil war that has killed some two million people.
“We welcome in principle these proposals made by President (Omar Hassan) Bashir for a partnership and the formation of a wide national front,” the independent Al-Ayam newspaper quoted Deng Alor, an SPLA representative, as saying.
Bashir proposed the National Congress Party seek a partnership with the political wing of the SPLA during a speech on Wednesday. Alor said the two sides had yet to discuss the idea. At the last peace talks in Kenya the two sides signed a security deal, clearing a major stumbling block in efforts to end the conflict.
Bashir on Wednesday invited the rebel group to form a partnership with the governing party here to cement what he predicts will be the end of 20-year civil war. In a televised speech to the opening of the NCP’s convention, Bashir said such a partnership was one of many steps needed to ensure peace endures after a final settlement.
He invited the SPLA to enter “an effective political partnership for running the ruling affairs during the interim period.” Under a framework peace agreement struck in July last year in Kenya, the peoples of southern Sudan will enjoy six years of self-rule before voting in a referendum on whether to stay part of Sudan or secede.
In another breakthrough reached last month viewed as a major stepping stone to a final settlement, the two sides worked out security arrangements, including integrating some of their forces. A partnership between the two sides would work toward “strengthening the foundations of peace, guaranteeing (Sudan’s) voluntary unity and giving others opportunities to participate,” Bashir told the biennial convention here.
Bashir, who chairs the NCP, also called for the establishment of a supreme peace council to serve as a national forum on which all Sudanese can participate to follow up a future peace deal.
