KHARTOUM, 28 May 2006 — Former southern Sudanese rebels met leaders of the ruling party in Khartoum yesterday for the first time since a peace deal was signed last year to end Africa’s longest running war. Leaders from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, including First Vice President Salva Kiir, were holding talks with National Congress Party leaders amid SPLM complaints that Khartoum was stalling implementation of the January 2005 peace deal.
“This is a historic day in which we meet together for the first time in this joint forum of the highest bodies,” President Omar Bashir told leaders from both parties, including former archfoe Kiir, at a ceremony ahead of the closed-door talks. Saying he wanted “a constant mood of dialogue” with the SPLM, Bashir stressed “the commitment by our two parties to pursue our common goal of implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.”
Following the signing of the deal, the SPLM joined a national unity government in 2005, ending the 21-year-old war between Bashir’s Islamist regime and the mainly Christian southern rebels that killed 1.5 million people and displaced four million. Kiir welcomed the talks as “a genuine dialogue to develop and transform our relations ... into a strong and meaningful partnership that will usher our country into comprehensive permanent peace and stable democratic governance.” He cited progress made since the deal was signed, including plans for several new universities and airports in the south, but said that “courage and honesty are much more required to make true our commitments.”
While hailing both sides’ “meticulous” observation of the cease-fire, Kiir said a number of sticking points remained. “Unless we make progress on these matters, I cannot see how the rest of the CPA can survive,” he said, citing the “historic responsibility” weighing on the shoulders of the NCP and SPLM.
He named chief problems as “the delay in the adoption of the Abyei Border Commission report ... slow and unmonitored withdrawal of (northern) forces (from the south and) questions pertaining to the accuracy of the oil revenue accounts.”
