Khartoum prepares to give IGAD "one more chance"

A delegation from the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) is scheduled to travel from Kenya to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, for consultations with the Sudanese government on on Thursday 25 October on the forthcoming round of IGAD talks on the Sudanese conflict, according to a press statement released on Thursday by the Sudanese embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The delegation would include Daniel Mboya, presidential envoy from Kenya, which is mediating in the IGAD process on Sudan, it said. Khartoum welcomed the scheduled visit and reiterated its position "of giving the IGAD peace process one more chance to reach a final settlement of the dispute," the statement added. Sudanese peace adviser Ghazi Salah-ed Din had made it very clear that if the coming round of talks failed, "a comprehensive review of the process should be undertaken with a view to rejuvenating the eight-year-old peace process, revitalise its future prospects and give it a new lease of opportunity," according to the statement. "The main challenge which the IGAD envoys are going to face ... is to convince the rebel SPLM/A [Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army] to change its agenda of using the IGAD negotiations to dismantle the government, to an agenda of negotiating in good faith," said the Sudanese charge d'affaires in Nairobi, Dirdeiry Ahmed. The SPLM/A's aim of dismantling the government in Khartoum was considered by it to be the main reason for the absence of substantial progress in the IGAD talks, he added. The government has given its backing to a joint Egyptian-Libyan peace memorandum released in July. However, the SPLM/A said in August it would not negotiate under the joint peace initiative unless it incorporated a number of controversial amendments suggested by senior members of the opposition umbrella National Democratic Alliance, including acceptance of the principle of self-determination for the south, and separation of religion and state. The SPLM/A also called on "all mediators" to consider the IGAD peace initiative as the basis for peace talks, with which the Libyan-Egyptian initiative could be merged.