KHARTOUM/NAIROBI, 9 December 2003 — The Sudanese government and rebels said yesterday a general amnesty would be included in a peace deal they are now negotiating in Kenya with the aim of ending 20 years of civil war in the south. A spokesman for the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army said it would establish reconciliation committees in the south to deal with war crimes committed in the conflict.
“We have ... agreed that there will be a general amnesty announced on the signing of the peace agreement for the whole of Sudan,” the SPLA’s Samson Kwaje told Reuters in Khartoum, where a rebel delegation is making its first official visit.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Nagheib Al-Kher, who also said the deal would contain a general amnesty, added that people would not be prosecuted retrospectively.
Kwaje said the amnesty would be similar to one declared in South Africa in 1994, where those seeking amnesty had to disclose their offences but not in public and a truth commission was formed to establish what happened during apartheid.
“We will create a regional truth and reconciliation committee to deal with war crimes so that we as a people can move on,” Kwaje said. Kwaje said the amnesty would be part of a “healing process” in Sudan after years of violence and would exempt people from actual judicial proceedings. Sudan’s vice president and the SPLA leader resumed face-to-face talks in Kenya on Sunday amid predictions they will clinch an end to two decades of war before the end of the month.
In Cairo on Saturday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail told reporters a deal would be signed “at the end of the current year”. Taha and Garang committed themselves to this deadline when United States Secretary of State Colin Powell met them both in Naivasha in October. Previous rounds, also in Kenya, have yielded success. Last year, the foes agreed that, after six years of self-rule from the day a final accord is reached, the south will hold a referendum on whether to join the north or secede.
