Government, SPLM/A invited to Nuba ceasefire talks

The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) have been invited to talks next week on a limited ceasefire under a joint Swiss-US peace intervention, AFP news agency reported on Thursday, citing Swiss government sources. Invitations to the two parties were handed out by a joint delegation in Sudan following contacts there in recent weeks, according to Swiss foreign ministry spokeswoman Muriel Berset-Kohen. Negotiations would focus on a limited-term but renewable ceasefire in the Nuba [Nubah] Mountains region of Southern Kordofan State, in south-central Sudan, she said. That ceasefire would be placed under international supervision, to be carried out "by international observers but not in the remit of the United Nations," she added. If the warring parties agreed to meet, the talks would be held at a secret location in Switzerland, AFP quoted her as saying. A US official confirmed the joint effort and said recent diplomatic moves to bring about the "initial technical talks" in Switzerland had centred on Sudanese government officials and local SPLM/A representatives from the Nuba Mountains region, the report stated. "We are at this point not 100 per cent sure that it will, in fact, take place," it quoted US embassy official Bruce Armstrong as saying. "Obviously there are political issues but also - because we are talking about a country that is not extremely easy to travel in and out of - for the SPLA people a very big logistical issue," he added. US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner wrote to Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir on Sunday, 6 January, encouraging him to take advantage of renewed activity by the IGAD peace secretariat by meeting Garang under the auspices of Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, as leader of the IGAD process on Sudan. "This is an opportune time for you to continue the momentum all the parties have established and direct it towards serious peace negotiations," he stated, in a letter seen by IRIN. Armstrong indicated that the Swiss were taking the lead in the diplomacy surrounding the initiative but that US peace envoy John Danforth was playing a key role in the process. After a mission by Danforth to Sudan in November, the government of Sudan and SPLM/A agreed on an internationally monitored cease-fire to cover the Nuba Mountains region and on "military stand-downs" to implement a US-proposed initiative to eradicate polio. The two parties "agreed to immediately observe and extend the current military stand-down and to apply it to the entire Nuba Mountains region to facilitate the negotiation of the cease-fire and the relief and rehabilitation programme," Washington stated in a press release. At the same time, the government and the SPLM/A agreed to the immediate dispatch of relief and rehabilitation assessment missions to the Nuba Mountains, which are currently under way and the findings of which are supposed to be the basis for the development of a relief and rehabilitation programme. Danforth was due to arrive in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Monday (14 January) to follow up on proposals for enhanced humanitarian access in the country, and continue negotiations and discussions on peace, the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported on Wednesday. Presidential peace adviser Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani said in a statement that the government would present its vision on the realization of peace to the American envoy, it added. Atabani also alleged that the SPLA had attacked [unnamed] government-held areas in the Nuba Mountains, and described it as "a serious violation" of the agreement reached with the US, SUNA reported. This [alleged] aggression came as a result of Monday's formal signing of a merger agreement between the SPLM/A and the Sudan People's Defence Forces (SPDF) militia of Riek Machar, which provided for the escalation of military action, he said. Atabani had earlier condemned the merger as "a negative step". Atabani said he regarded the rebels' [alleged] incursion in the Nubas as a deliberate attempt to achieve military gains prior to the coming round of negotiations on a ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains, which he expected to take place next week, the Sudanese newspaper Al-Sahafi al-Dawli reported on Thursday. Meanwhile, Berset-Kohen defended the secrecy surrounding the possible Nuba peace talks, which, she said, followed "numerous contacts, at different levels and in different places" by Switzerland and the US. "It's a genuine negotiation that demands a certain degree of discretion," AFP quoted her as saying. In the past two years, there have been a series of behind-the-scenes meetings in Switzerland between rebel groups and some political factions in Khartoum, it added. News of the proposed talks comes as regional leaders were meeting in Sudan under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to assess the Sudanese peace process, among other issues.