NAIROBI, 29 November 2003 — Sudan’s government and main rebel group signed a two-month truce extension yesterday amid hopes a new round of talks starting today could reach a final peace deal by year’s end to halt a 20-year-old war.
The two sides still face major obstacles, having failed so far to agree the status of three disputed areas and the sharing of power and wealth. But a security deal last year allowing southerners a referendum on secession after a six-year transition raised hopes of broader agreement.
“Our tradition has been that we extend for three months, but there will be no need because we will have a comprehensive ceasefire by the end of January. This is my hope,” Kenyan Lazaro Sumbeiywo, the chief mediator in the peace process said.
The accord to extend the truce until the end of January was signed by representatives of the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army at a ceremony in Kenya.
The current truce is due to expire today when the two parties resume negotiations at Lake Naivasha, some 90 km north west of the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Sudanese rebel leader John Garang said last Friday he saw a good chance of reaching a peace agreement with the government by the end of the year. But he did not see the target favored by the United States as a deadline for reaching peace when the talks resume after a break for the fasting month of Ramadan.
Garang and Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha are scheduled to join the talks on or around Dec. 5. More than 2 million people have died as a direct or indirect result of the war, launched by Garang’s movement to claim greater autonomy for non-Arab southerners.
“Delegates from the parties start meeting today to discuss the three outstanding issues, to prepare options for the principals to come and make the decisions.”
Last year’s breakthrough security deal provided for two separate armies with the creation of integrated units comprising government and SPLA troops during an interim period. The SPLA said it plans to visit Khartoum to meet top political figures ahead of the Garang and Taha talks in what would be the first such trip in 20 years, but no date was set.
“The meeting is meant to cement the peace process and make sure there will be no retreat from the process,” SPLA?M spokesman Yasser Arman said.
Meanwhile, the leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement said that Sudanese government planes have carried out two bombing raids in the country’s violence-plagued western Darfur region, killing 14 civilians. Antonov planes owned by the army bombed Thursday the town of Bishau in North Darfur State and the Ashmara region in western Darfur, Abdel Wahed Mohammed Ahmed Al-Nur told AFP in Cairo by telephone.
Six civilians were killed and the town’s reservoir devastated in the first raid, Al-Nur said. Another eight civilians were killed in the Ashmara bombing, he added, charging that the attacks were a flagrant violation of a ceasefire agreement signed by Khartoum and the SLM.
Amnesty International said Thursday it had “compelling evidence” that Khartoum was mainly to blame for the violence devastating the area and warned the trouble could turn into a new civil war. The conflict has displaced around half a million people, including thousands of refugees who have fled to Chad, the organization said.
The United Nations estimates half a million people have fled their homes because of the conflict in Darfur. Human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement the Sudanese government had “severely restricted” the outside world from access to the area.
