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Sudan Peace Talks Deadlock

The Nation (Nairobi)
NEWS
May 27, 2004
Posted to the web May 27, 2004

By Henry Owuor And Lucas Barasa
Nairobi
Sudan peace talks were yesterday deadlocked over power sharing in the Nuba
mountains and Southern Blue Nile.
But signs showed late in the evening the agreement could be signed after the
two sides finally agreed to share power.
The Muslim North, it was agreed, would control 55 per cent of the Nuba
mountains and Southern Blue Nile as the Christian and traditionalist
Southerners get 45 per cent.
Northerners were worried over handing the big area with its militias demanding
70 per cent control, while the south gets 30 per cent
Under the agreement, rebel leader John Garang would become Sudan's first vice-
president, while the current vice-president, Mr Ali Osman Taha, takes the
second VP slot.
Mr Taha is currently leading the Sudan government's delegation at the Naivasha
peace talks.
Mr Nick Haysom, the legal advisor to the peace talks chairman, Gen Lazarus
Sumbeiywo, said the protocol to the pact was to be signed between 7pm and 8pm.
"Today (yesterday) what is to be signed is the protocol. The real peace pact
will be signed in Washington before the end of June," he said.
The signing of the agreement will be witnessed by IGAD chairman President Mwai
Kibaki and the region's leaders, Presidents
Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Ali Omar Bashir (Sudan), Dr Garang, Isayas Afeworki
(Eritrea) and Ethiopia's premier Meles Zenawi.
The signing of the protocol was delayed by legal issues which Mr Haysom was
drafting last evening.
Once signed, a six year interim period has been set side before a referendum is
held over the Nuba mountains, Southern Blue Nile and Abeyei region to give the
residents a change of deciding whether they will remain part of Sudan.
Under the arrangement, SPLA/SPLM will be given a six-month period to form a
government and call back their people who are scattered all over the world due
to the 21 year civil war.
The third protocol will deal separately with Abyei, an oil rich area which both
the government and the rebels wanted to administer during the transition.

   

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