A Landmark Encounter Between Sudanese President Al-Bashir & Rebel Leader Garang

27/07/2002| IslamWeb

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and rebel leader John Garang met on Saturday for the first time and were to discuss how to advance a deal aimed at ending Sudan's 19-year-old civil war, a Sudanese diplomat in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. Sudan's charge d'affaires in Uganda, Mohammed Surjudin, told Reuters the landmark meeting between Garang, leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), and Bashir is taking place in Kampala and that it began at about noon (0900 GMT).

Following five weeks of talks in the Kenyan town of Machakos, Khartoum and the SPLA agreed on July 20 to settle key issues of religion and self-determination blocking an end to the fighting in which about two million people have been killed.
"There was an agreement signed in Machakos last week and the two leaders will be talking about it, seeing what they can do to move it forward," Surjudin said.

On Friday Bashir and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni discussed the Sudan accord, which allows southern Sudan the chance to vote for independence after a six-year transition period.

Analysts say the option of secession for south Sudan could raise concerns in neighboring states. Khartoum has also sent its vice president on a tour that will include Egypt to explain the deal.

Broadly, the war that began in 1983 has pitted the Islamic government in the Arabic-speaking north against rebels seeking more autonomy for the largely animist or Christian South. Oil, ideology, ethnicity and religion have complicated the conflict.
There are still outstanding issues, such as power-sharing, human rights, dividing up oil wealth, and a cease-fire -- and more talks are planned to discuss these in Kenya in mid-August.

Officials said Bashir and Museveni also discussed an operation launched by the Ugandan army this year to root out bases of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in southern Sudan, which analysts say appears to be going badly for Kampala.

Khartoum and Uganda had traded accusations that each supported the others' rebels for years, but since March, Khartoum has allowed the Ugandan army to chase the LRA in southern Sudan.

Observers say the operation has not been as successful as Kampala had hoped. Brutal attacks have recently increased since a unit of the LRA slipped back into Uganda.

They say Bashir might be prepared to offer Kampala more leeway in its bid to end the fifteen year struggle with the LRA, if in return Uganda could lessen its support for the SPLA.

PHOTO CAPTION

(L) John Garang, leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), and Sudanese President Omar Bashir (R) opened a landmark meeting in Kampala at about noon (0900 GMT) Saturday.