Sudan peace talks resume
2006-06-14 10:56
Asmara - Landmark peace talks on ending a decade of fighting between the Khartoum government and an eastern rebel group opened in neighbouring Eritrea on Tuesday, despite protest from an insurgent group claiming to have been excluded.
The Sudanese delegation, led by presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail, and the Eastern Front rebels, led by Musa Mohamed Ahmed, attended the Asmara opening of the peace parley aimed at finding stability for Africa's largest nation after nearly non-stop conflict since its independence in 1956.
Ismail said: "The government wants to reach a just and lasting peaceful settlement to the problems of east Sudan. It is a consolidation of peace throughout Sudan."
Much-awaited talks due
Ahmed said he hoped the Sudanese government was serious in its assurances that it seeked lasting peace in the Eritrea-mediated bid.
He said: "We hope that the other party is as serious as we are. If the objective is to manoeuvre, buy time, divide and avoid the real issues, it will certainly be counterproductive endeavours."
The much-awaited talks were due to open on Tuesday, but adjourned to allow foe-turned-friends Sudanese Presidents Omar al-Beshir and Eritrean President Assaias Afeworki to hold a meeting.
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.
JEM active in Darfur
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.
Earlier in the day, JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim warned against their exclusion from this latest instalment of the Sudanese peace process.
JEM's presence 'could not be ignored'
Ibrahim said: "We do not accept the decision to exclude us from the talks between the Eastern Front and Khartoum.
"Khartoum will not get peace if we don't participate in the talks," he said, warning that JEM's presence in the east could not be ignored.
Ibrahim said he had told Eastern Front rebels that they stood to benefit from JEM's group's participation in the peace negotiation.
He said: "If we join the Front in the talks they will get more. They need experience and political awareness - on the other side, there is a well-trained group from the government."
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.