Sudan: Govt, rebels sign truce
2006-06-20 09:24
Asmara - The Khartoum government and east Sudan rebels on Monday signed a ceasefire deal in peace talks aimed at finding stability for Africa's largest nation after nearly non-stop conflict since independence in 1956.
They also signed a declaration of principles that sets parameters for peace talks between the government and Eastern Front rebels in the Eritrean capital, Asmara.
Eritrean mediator Yemane Gebreab said both sides had signed an agreement on a "declaration of principle to guide negotiations between the two sides, as well as an agreement on creating a conducive environment for peace, which includes a cessation of hostilities, as well as a military standown".
Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail and the Eastern Front rebel chief Musa Mohamed Ahmed, who led their respective delegations to the talks, signed the deals.
Sharing political, military power
The talks to find a lasting truce for the region continued on Tuesday, with both parties getting down to specific sticking points, notably formulas for sharing political and military power with the insurgents, who had complained of marginalisation.
In a country where peace talks were known to be a convoluted spectacle and delegates had a shady reputation of abandoning talks mid-way as a form of protest, chief negotiators pledged to stick in the peace talks until they get a breakthrough.
Ismail said: "We are only at the beginning of the road, we have a long way to go." Ahmed also said: "The Eastern Front will continue discussions for a lasting peaceful settlement."
The much-awaited talks opened on June 13 after foes-turned-friends Sudanese Presidents Omar al-Beshir and Eritrean President Assaias Afeworki held a rare meeting in Khartoum, which experts believed boosted the chances of clinching a truce.
JEM 'key player in Darfur'
Several Libyan-sponsored initiatives failed to end the sporadic fighting that had plagued Sudan's impoverished eastern states, where the rebels held a strip of territory along the Eritrean border.
The Eastern Front rebel formation, created last year by the region's largest ethnic group, the Beja, and Rashidiya Arabs, had similar aims to its counterparts in the Sudan western region of Darfur - greater autonomy and control over the area's resources.
The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), active in Darfur, had also emerged as a key player in eastern Sudan. It demanded a seat at the presidency as part of any peace settlement, but had not been invited to the Asmara talks.
JEM had warned that its exclusion would scupper a realistic peace settlement in Sudan, a resource rich nation whose national politics aligned along religious and racial lines, complicating numerous attempts to launch genuine national reconciliation.
Sudan said the latest push to defuse the crisis in the east was part of an attempt to pacify the whole of Africa's largest country, by building on peace agreements reached recently with other rebels.