Powell Secures Pledge to Finish Comprehensive Sudanese Peace Accord

David Gollust
Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt
22 Oct 2003, 16:28 UTC

Secretary of State Colin Powell joined Kenyan-sponsored Sudan peace talks and secured a pledge
by the former warring parties there to finish a comprehensive peace accord by the end of the year.

Mr. Powell's decision to go to Kenya, and make the bumpy four-hour round trip by car from Nairobi
to the conference site at Naivasha, won him plaudits from the Sudanese parties and the Kenyan
sponsors of the peace talks.

He came away from the lakeside town in Kenya's Rift Valley with a commitment from the sides to
complete an accord to end Sudan's 20-year-old civil conflict by the end of the year, an achievement
he said would be recognized by a ceremony at the White House.

The secretary met separately in Naivasha with the Sudanese delegation chiefs, Vice President Ali
Othman Taha of the Khartoum government and Sudan Peoples Liberation Army chief John Garang,
and then held a joint session with the principals and Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka.

At the press appearance that followed, Mr. Powell said while some differences remain, he is
confident that the peace accord, sought for nearly a decade, can be finished in a matter of weeks.

"Both parties have agreed to remain in negotiations and conclude a comprehensive settlement no
later than the end of December," he said. "And both gentlemen have committed themselves to that
goal of having a comprehensive settlement by the end of December. Once the parties have signed
the final comprehensive agreement for peace, President Bush looks forward, and has invited them to
come to the White House so that he can recognize their achievement and also endorse the
agreement."

Mr. Powell said a lot of work would come after a deal is finished, and that President Bush would
commit his administration to work as hard for implementation as it did for the agreement itself.

A White House event for a Sudanese peace accord would be reminiscent of the one that sealed an
Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty more than two decades ago.

Kenyan Foreign Minister Musyoka was quick to point out the parallel, saying that Naivasha had
become "our Camp David" and that Sudan's peace process is now "irreversible."

The Sudan conflict, which erupted in 1983 and killed an estimated two million people in combat
and war-related famine, pitted the Islamic government in Khartoum against the mainly Christian
and animist rebel movement.

The sides agreed last year on a six-year period of autonomy for the south, to be followed by a
referendum on the region's political future.

In a talk with reporters travelling with him, Mr. Powell said the parties have made considerable
progress on arrangements for sharing political power and the country's oil revenues during the six-
year interim period.

Still outstanding, he said, is the issue of who will control three contested zones - the southern Blue
Nile, the Nuba mountains and the area around Abyei - of which the latter is the most problematic.
The secretary repeatedly made clear, on his current mission, that there are incentives for the
Sudanese to finish the deal.

He says a comprehensive settlement, coupled with improved anti-terrorism cooperation by Sudan,

would lead to an upgrade of diplomatic relations and the possible end to crippling U.S. economic
sanctions against Sudan, including those stemming from its listing by the State Department as a
state sponsor of terrorism.