Rebel leader Garang explains stalling of peace talks

John Garang, Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) chairman and leader of its army, cited the items on the agenda and a two-track peace initiative as the main reasons for the stalling of the peace efforts in Sudan.

In an interview with Kenyan television on 3 September, Garang defended the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development(IGAD), saying that the IGAD “has been accused of being too slow - that it is not moving. But that is an unfair criticism in my view. Things are not moving in terms of a solution to the Sudanese conflict not because of the slowness of the IGAD, but rather because of the intractability of the issues.”

Speaking more specifically, Samson Kwajje, spokesman for the the SPLM in Nairobi, told IRIN on Monday that “three times the government of Sudan has changed the timetable for the peace talks, first indicating that they would attend, and then [that they would] not.”

He added that the two fundamental reasons for the stalling of the peace talks were, firstly, the government’s outright refusal to include religion on the agenda by saying “Sudan is an Islamic country” and, secondly, what he called the government’s “lack of seriousness on the issue of self-determination” for people living in the south of the country. He reiterated that both these issues were critical to the success of any future peaceful solution to the conflict.
In Garang’s interview on Sunday, the SPLM leader called for a one-track peace initiative. Speaking on behalf of his movement, he said: “Whereas we recognise the Egyptian-Libyan initiative, we cannot negotiate on two tracks.”

Regarding his movement’s position on what he called “multiple-negotiation diplomacy”, he added: “Until that one track is evolved we will continue to negotiate in the IGAD initiative, because the IGAD initiative was primary - it came first, and it has an international dimension.” He called for the two peace initiatives to converge their efforts into one track “within the context of the IGAD declaration of principles.”

Meanwhile, on 2 September, the official Sudan News Agency (Suna)in Khartoum reported that the Sudanese government had agreed to a new round of negotiations between the government and the SPLM to commence on 21 September in Nairobi.