CAIRO, 18 June 2003 — Sudan’s southern rebel leader rejected a government proposal for a referendum on a future peace settlement and voiced support for a rebellion in the western region of Darfur, in an interview published yesterday. Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang, in the interview with the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, asked: “How can a referendum be held in war zones?
“Eighty percent of the inhabitants of the south are on our side, so how will the government reach them?” Garang asked. Last week, the Sudanese government proposed holding a nationwide referendum on a peace settlement with the SPLA, followed months later by general elections.
Kenyan mediators sponsoring a year of negotiations aimed at ending the 20-year civil war have predicted a peace settlement could be signed as early as August. The SPLA has been fighting for the rights of animists and Christians in southern and eastern Sudan. “What is happening in (eastern) Blue Nile state and in the (south-central) Nuba mountains ... is total resistance against Khartoum,” Garang was quoted as saying.
