Sudan government and rebels sign key security deal ( 2003-09-26 10:12) (Agencies)
Sudan's government and main
rebel group signed a key security deal on Thursday, clearing a major stumbling
block in peace talks aimed at ending a 20-year-old conflict that has killed some
two million people.
"This is a historic occasion. It has paved the way for a peace process and
stability in Sudan," Sudan's First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha told
reporters.
"We have got miles to cover ahead. What has happened gives us the drive to
negotiate on other issues."
Witnesses said delegates clapped as representatives from the government and
the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) signed the deal near Lake
Naivasha, some 55 miles northwest of Kenya's capital Nairobi.
Security has been the biggest sticking point in three weeks of talks between
Taha and John Garang, head of the SPLA, to resolve Africa's longest war.
However differences remain on a host of other issues, ranging from the status
of the capital Khartoum to how to share power and wealth from the south's
lucrative oilfields.
"There is no doubt that the issue of security has been a difficult one," said
Kenyan chief mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo.
"However the courageous decision on the status of the two armed forces,
cease-fire, redeployment... is a clear demonstration that the Sudanese have
jointly decided to cross the bridge of peace together," he added.
The United States applauded the agreement and encouraged both sides to keep
up the momentum.
"We have urged both leaders to capitalize on this historic achievement and
negotiate the remaining details of a final peace accord. Both sides have
committed publicly to bring the process to closure as rapidly as possible," the
State Department said in a statement.
Peace has eluded Sudan despite years of efforts to end the civil war, which
broke out in 1983, pitting the Islamist government in the north against rebels
seeking greater autonomy in the mainly animist and Christian south.
In a notable breakthrough last year, the two sides agreed to give southerners
the right to a referendum on secession after a six-year transition.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan commended both sides and urged
them "to sustain the pace of the talks and reach a speedy settlement of the
conflict," a spokesman said.
SECURITY DEAL
The security deal provides for two separate armies with the creation of
integrated units comprising government and SPLA troops during the interim
period.
A copy of the deal obtained by Reuters shows that an integrated force of
24,000 troops would be deployed in the south. Another unit of 3,000 troops would
be sent to Khartoum.
Two integrated units of 6,000 troops each would be sent to the disputed Nuba
Mountains and Southern Blue Nile, which along with Abyei, are regions claimed by
both sides.
The government would have up to two and a half years to pull its troops out
of southern Sudan, while the SPLA agreed to withdraw from eastern Sudan within a
year of the interim period.
Both sides also agreed to an internationally monitored cease-fire that would
come into effect once a final peace deal is signed.
"We have responded to the wish of the Sudanese people for a fair and just
political settlement that is durable and this agreement is a basis for such a
fair and just settlement," Garang said.
SPLA officials said both delegations planned to adjourn talks on Saturday but
they had not yet decided when negotiations would resume.
