Beshir, Garang Face-to-Face for First Time
 |
| Moi, center, with envoys from Sudanese government and southern rebels |
KAMPALA,
July 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Sudanese President Omar
al-Beshir and John Garang, leader of the rebel Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA), began their first ever face-to-face meeting in
Kampala Saturday, July 27, 2002, according to the rebel movement and
Ugandan officials.
The
meeting, delayed from its scheduled midday (0900 GMT) start, was
expected to last two hours and was chaired by Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni in the Uganda International Conference Center, reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
meeting follows significant progress announced last week after talks
in Kenya aimed at ending the civil war in Sudan, which began in 1983
when the SPLA took up arms against the central government in Khartoum
to set up a separatist state in the south.
According
to BBC’s online news service, Sudan's Vice President, Ali Uthman
Muhammad Taha, also said he expects a ceasefire to be implemented with
the SPLA within weeks "if people are serious".
Sudanese
diplomatic officials told Reuters news agency that al-Beshir and
Garang would be discussing a fledgling peace agreement reached in
Kenya last weekend.
It
is still unclear how the country's oil wealth - largely derived from
the south - will be divided, and any actual ceasefire will not take
effect until the end of the process.
The
two leaders are not expected to get down to detailed negotiations -
that will be left to their respective delegations next month. But they
are expected to discuss how a transitional government of national
unity would work in practice.
The
significance of the historic meeting, according to the BBC, is not so
much in what is said as the fact that it is taking place at all.
Taha
said the Sudanese Government's priority was for a solution within a
united Sudan, and the agreement itself made it clear that unity was
the preferred option.
"The
framework of the protocol is very specific in giving unity a
priority," he said.
However,
Taha insisted that if there was finally a vote for secession the
government would honor the agreement and let the southerners go their
own way - taking their oil wealth with them.
After
five weeks of peace negotiations ended last week in the Kenyan town of
Machakos, the two sides agreed to a protocol that is to give southern
Sudan a six-year period during which it enjoys administrative autonomy
and not be subject to the Islamic law (Sharia) applied in the north.
At
the end of the six years, its people will be asked to vote on whether
they want to stay part of the country or secede.
The
deal comes less than a year after Washington became actively involved
in efforts to end the civil war.
Speaking
after the Machakos talks, SPLA officials explained that the conflict
started when southern soldiers in the Sudanese army mutinied in
November 1983 after former Sudanese president Jaafer Nimeiri decided
to abrogate a 1972 agreement that would have established a regional
government for the south.
Nimeiri
instead divided the south into three regions and placed control of
mineral-rich southern regions in the hands of the north.
In
the September of that year, Nimeiri also declared Islamic Sharia law
as the supreme law of Sudan and Arabic as the official language for
schools in southern Sudan, instead of English.
Observers,
however, see that as “a false explanation”, as by that time, the
mutiny had already begun.
Southern
army units joined the SPLA, led by the then renegade Sudanese army
officer Garang.
He
recruited and trained fighters from southern groups, who felt
oppressed by what they called the "Arab ruling clique" in
Khartoum.
By
1991, the SPLA controlled nearly 90 percent of the southern region.
A
rift within the rebel group in 1991 enabled the government to reverse
some of its losses. But after reorganizing and restructuring in 1995,
the SPLA pushed ahead in the south and now controls around 95 percent
of the region.
The
war and related calamities killed up to 1.5 million people and
displaced more than four million others, according to humanitarian
sources.
|
