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Khartoum, Sudan Rebels Agree On Key Security Issues
The main rebel group in Sudan and the Khartoum government have reached agreement on security issues that are crucial to a comprehensive accord to end two decades of war. "We have come to an agreement regarding the deployment of forces and the size of the forces, as well as other major issues that were sticking points in the talks," government spokesman Sayed Al-Khatibu told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in the Kenyan town of Naivasha. "We expect that the agreement on this framework will make the remaining issues of the talks easier," he added.The agreement comes during ongoing talks here between Sudan's vice president, Ali Osman Taha, and the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), John Garang, notably on how each side's forces will be deployed during a six-year period of self-rule in the south of the vast country. "There has been a breakthrough on one of the outstanding issues — that is security and military arrangements," SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje later told AFP. "We have agreed on substantial withdrawal of the government forces from the south, redeployment of SPLA forces in Khartoum and the formation of equal units of an integrated force in Southern Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains." On Sunday, September 21, both delegations in Kenya agreed to extend their ceasefire by two months beyond its scheduled expiration at the end of September 2003. Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-09-25 |
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