CAIRO, 19 June 2005 — Khartoum and Sudan’s largest opposition bloc yesterday signed a landmark reconciliation agreement that officials said would boost efforts to bring peace back to Africa’s largest country. But an opposition leader told reporters that despite the signing, all issues had not been resolved and negotiators would remain in Cairo to iron out the final details of the agreement.
Muhammad Osman Mirghani, who chairs the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha signed the document during a ceremony at a conference centre in Cairo. “We are starting a new era where Sudan is free of struggle... Let us work hand in hand to offer the Sudanese the prosperity they have been lacking,” said Sudanese President Omar Bashir.
“This latest agreement clinched today will be the backbone of Sudanese unity,” he added after the signing, which was also attended by his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak. The agreement was widely seen as the most significant development in Sudan since the Jan. 9 North-South peace deal and comes amid growing international pressure for a solution in war-torn Darfur.
“The Sudanese people are the main beneficiary of this agreement, which heralds a new era in which all of us have to cooperate to achieve global peace, strengthen the march towards real democracy,” Mirghani said. “A sense of trust has been regained between the different partners in Sudan... This is a historical day for the Sudanese people,” said Taha.
However, NDA Vice Chairman Gen. Abdel Rahman Saeed told AFP “two problems remain on the fate of NDA forces and the power-sharing quota granted to the opposition in the interim institutions.” The NDA came to Cairo hoping to have its forces assimilated in the regular army and the share of power it was granted in the January North-South agreement increased significantly from its current level of 14 percent. “We have an agreement on the fact that the reconciliation agreement signed today will only be effective when a written deal is reached on both these issues,” Saeed said.
Yesterday’s signing ceremony comes less than six months after Khartoum signed a peace agreement with southern rebel leader John Garang, ending 21 years of civil war that killed and displaced millions. Garang, whose Sudan People’s Liberation Movement is also an NDA member, praised Egypt’s role in brokering yesterday’s deal and urged the Arab world to assist reconstruction efforts.
All the participants also voiced their hope that the end of the 16-year feud between the NDA and Bashir’s government would boost chances of a breakthrough in ongoing talks to solve the crisis in Darfur. “We are very hopeful that efforts under way in Abuja will now be crowned with an agreement for the stability and security of the people in Darfur,” Bashir said.
