NAIROBI, 20 December 2003 — Talks intended to end the 20-year civil war in Sudan are making good progress and will continue until the Sudanese government and rebels achieve a comprehensive peace agreement, the chief mediator said yesterday.
The latest session of negotiations between the warring parties began in the Kenyan town of Naivasha on Nov. 20 and had been expected to adjourn yesterday for the Christmas holidays.
Mediators and delegates had hoped that the rebels and government would have reached at least a partial agreement on some of the outstanding issues by then, but sources close to the talks said they were not ready to sign any agreement by yesterday.
Meanwhile, Sudanese authorities have shut down the bureau in Khartoum of the Al-Jazeera satellite television and detained its correspondent for false programming and poor analysis, the SUNA news agency said, quoting an official statement.
“The Al-Jazeera channel, through its Khartoum office and its correspondent, Islam Salih Belo, took to preparing and transmitting a number of programs and materials stuffed with false information and poor, biased analyses and with pictures and scenes selected to serve its ends,” the National Security Authority statement said in Khartoum.
It cited as evidence reports about tuberculosis, land mine victims in Sudan and events in the western Darfur region.
Authorities had dealt with the channel in a civilized way, in appreciation of the distinguished role it plays, the statement said, but Belo “could not appreciate this attitude and employed it for serving his profession”.
