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Sudanese
Government And Rebels Hold Talks In Switzerland
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| Riek Machar
(Sudan Peoples' Democratic Front), and John Garang (Sudan Peoples'
Liberation Army) |
KHARTOUM, Jan. 13 (IslamOnline & News
Agencies) - The Sudanese government and southern rebels will meet in Switzerland
this week in a bid to negotiate a U.S.-proposed limited ceasefire in the
18-year-old civil war, the state-run SUNA news agency reported Sunday.
Sudan's presidential peace adviser, Ghazi Salah
Eddin Atabani, said delegates of the government and the Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA) would hold direct U.S.-sponsored talks in Bern during the
week, SUNA said.
The agency did not mention the day it would
begin.
Atabani again accused SPLA leader John Garang
of being "concerned with war rather than peace", citing a merger of
the SPLA with Riek Machar's Sudan People's Democratic Front (SPDF) that would
lead to "an escalation of fighting" in southern Sudan.
Samson Kwaje, spokesman for the Sudanese
People's Liberation Army, tried to downplay the significance of the talks
scheduled to begin Monday in Geneva.
"These are technical committees and they
will only be discussing a cease-fire in the Nuba Mountains, the details of the
cease-fire plans," Kwaje said.
"These are not peace talks, they will only
be talking about that cease-fire," the SPLA spokesman added.
Washington has provided about $1.2 billion in
humanitarian aid to southern Sudan since 1989. The Sudan People's Liberation
Army draws support from southern Sudan, where the animist and Christian
population resent rule from the Muslim-dominated north. The rebels are seeking
to separate the south from the rest of Sudan.
Previous negotiations have been chaired
intermittently by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a group of
east and central African states. At an IGAD meeting last week, Kenya's President
Daniel arap Moi was asked by regional leaders to supervise all Sudanese peace
initiatives.
Sudan’s President, Omar El-Bashir, and the
SPLA have agreed in principle to holding a referendum for the self-determination
of what was defined as southern Sudan at the time of independence.
However, the SPLA wants to include other areas,
such as the southwestern Nuba mountains - a demand that the government rejects.
Danforth, a former Republican senator from
Missouri, has proposed a package of confidence-boosting measures beginning with
a cease-fire in the Nuba mountains, a halt to aerial bombardments, the creation
of "zones of tranquility" to allow the delivery of aid, and efforts to
stop the practice of militia enslaving civilians.
Danforth refused to comment on the planned
talks, saying only he was in the country on a four-day visit that will include a
trip Sunday to the southern Nuba mountains and talks with officials in Khartoum.
Danforth has said that if his current visit to
Sudan fails to yield progress, he will end his mediation.
Meanwhile, government teams and non-government
organizations (NGOs) halted surveys to assess the humanitarian needs of the
people in the Nuba mountains in protest at a recent SPLA attack on a
government-held area, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Governmental Humanitarian Aid Commissioner (HAC),
Sulaf Eddin Salel, was quoted Sunday by independent daily newspaper, Al Rai
Al Aam, as saying HAC and NGOs stopped the assessment surveys provided for
in a U.S.-brokered agreement between the government and SPLA on the Nuba
Mountains "following attacks by the rebel movement on Wednesday and
Thursday."
He said HAC had notified the U.N. office in
Khartoum of "the violations" by the SPLA in the Nuba Mountains and
would raise a relevant complaint to Danforth.
In Bern last week, Swiss officials said the
Sudanese government and rebels had been invited to talks on a limited ceasefire
under a joint Swiss-U.S. peace effort.
Swiss foreign ministry spokeswoman, Muriel
Berset-Kohen, said negotiations would focus on a limited-term, but renewable,
ceasefire in the Nuba mountains region in central Sudan that would be placed
under international supervision.
The Nuba mountains region is only one part of a
huge area of southern Sudan affected by the civil war in the country, which has
raged since 1983.
If the warring parties agree to meet, the talks
would be held at a secret location in Switzerland, Kohen added.
Swiss officials declined to say when they were
meant to start.
A U.S. embassy official in Switzerland said
recent diplomatic moves to bring about the "initial technical talks"
in Switzerland had centered on Sudanese government officials and local SPLA
representatives from the Nuba mountains.
The official, Bruce Armstrong, said the Swiss
were taking the lead in the diplomacy but that Danforth, who is U.S. President,
George W. Bush's peace envoy for Sudan, is playing a key role in the process.
Since 1983 Arab and Muslim governments in Khartoum
have been waging a war against SPLA rebels, made up mainly of animists and
Christians from the south. Northern groups also took up arms against Khartoum in
1995.
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