Opposition groups meet in Asmara

Sudanese opposition groups, under the umbrella National Democratic Alliance (NDA), are meeting in the Eritrean capital Asmara this week to discuss Sudan's peace process. Eritrean state media reported on Tuesday that senior NDA officials, including the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) John Garang, were attending the meeting. The SPLM/A spokesman in Nairobi, George Garang, confirmed that the meeting was taking place. "They will be discussing current issues, including the peace process," he told IRIN. According to Eritrean radio, Al-Amin Muhammad Said, the secretary of Eritrea's ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), told the meeting his country supported the search for comprehensive peace in Sudan, and would "make boundless efforts to that end". However, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, spokesman at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, told IRIN the Asmara meeting went against the spirit of the peace process organised by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). He said an agreement, signed last October, on the cessation of hostilities allowed for such a meeting to take place within Sudan and to involve Sudanese communities. "As we know, the international community is currently focusing its attention on the IGAD peace process to assist the parties and the Sudanese to solve their problems and bring them together," he said. "We are now in a period of tranquility. So the meeting should take place on Sudanese soil, so that it can be owned by all the Sudanese people. But unfortunately, this is not the case." Relations between Sudan and Eritrea have continued to deteriorate over the past few months, with Khartoum accusing Asmara of supporting and arming its dissidents. Eritrea, for its part, accuses Sudan of sponsoring terrorist activities on its territory, including the recent murder of a British national.