Mediator says Sudan peace deal won't last

Tuesday April 22, 2003 21:53

by James Macharia

The chief mediator in Sudan's peace talks ruled out a final deal by June after the government and rebels failed to make concessions on key security issues, such as whether they should merge or retain their armies. The latest round of talks ended late on Wednesday without overcoming key obstacles to ending a 20-year conflict that has killed around 2,000,000 people in Africa's largest country. President Omar Hassan Al Bashir and rebel leader John Garang, who met earlier this month in Nairobi, had hoped to sign a final peace deal by June when the current ceasefire expires.

It will not be feasible by June," chief mediator of the talks, Lazaro Sumbeiywo, said.

"Both parties kept to their positions. They did not agree, but at least they engaged and were not antagonistic."

The Sudanese government would like a unified army with a single command.

But the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) would prefer two autonomous forces that could work together.

War broke out in Sudan in 1983, pitting the Islamic government in the Arab-speaking north against rebels seeking more autonomy for the largely animist Christian south.

Oil, ideology, ethnicity and religion have complicated it.

The sides agreed last year to a waiver on Islamic law in non-

Muslim areas and a six-year transitional period from January 2004 after which the south would vote on whether to secede.

"There was no breakthrough and our positions remain apart," George Garang, the deputy SPLA spokesman said.

"SPLA cannot accept to be absorbed in a national army as Sudan government wants, because how can we join an army of the National Islamic Front which is another party?"

Ahmed Dirdeiry, Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, said the security talks had been expected to be tough.

"It is not very easy to agree on issues such as these in ten days," Dirdeiry said. "It is a thorny issue but at least we can talk about what to do with our armies now that there is a cease-fire."

"We have to somehow resolve this issue as you cannot talk of two armies in one country, it is a recipe for more conflict."

In March, both sides extended a temporary cease-fire to June.