Breakthrough security agreement signed

A key stumbling block in Sudanese peace negotiations was overcome on Thursday with the signing of a security agreement between the government of Sudan and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in Naivasha, Kenya. Under the deal, Sudan will have two separate armed forces as well as integrated units and an internationally monitored ceasefire agreement once a final deal has been signed. The breakthrough, achieved after three weeks of unprecedented talks between SPLA leader John Garang and Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha, has raised hopes on all sides for a final peace settlement. "Your persistence in the matter...was a clear demonstration that you have both decided to put the interests of your country, the Sudan, before your own interests and that you are determined to realise a just and durable peace," Kenyan mediator Lazarus Sumbeiywo told the sides at the signing ceremony. "We are now sure that you will bring to a close the remaining issues of power sharing, wealth sharing and [the] conflict areas [Southern Blue Nile, Abyei and the Nuba mountains]," he added. Garang told reporters he had spoken to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday night and they had congratulated each other on the step taken towards a "just and fair settlement". "With this agreement, the direction and orientation for peace in Sudan is irreversible," he said. The parties would return to the negotiating table immediately to resolve the remaining issues with the same "commitment and resolve". "We will not lose momentum," he stressed. Garang added that this deal, unlike others, would be binding because guarantees had been built into it. The SPLA had been allowed to keep its own army, and "neither of the parties will have the capacity to break it", he said. "The Sudanese people will not allow it to be tampered with." Speaking of a final peace settlement, Sayeed El-Khativ, the chief negotiator for the Sudanese government said: "Nothing is going to be beyond our attainment - we are going to achieve this." Domenico Polloni, deputy head of mission at the Italian Embassy in Nairobi and one of the observers to the talks, said it was the first "substantive agreement" between the two sides since the Machakos agreement was signed in July 2002. "It's really a big breakthrough," he said.