Sudanese peace talks to resume in Kenya: Kenyan FM

NAIROBI
Mar 2, 2003 (Xinhua)

Peace talks between the Sudanese government and a rebel group will resume in Nairobi on Tuesday, Kenyan Foreign Minister Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka said here on Sunday.

While speaking at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) ministerial sub-committee on the Sudan which was held in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, Musyoka said that the talks will be focused on three disputed areas in central Sudan that have been scrambling for a long time.

The Sudanese civil war has been fighting for 20 years since the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) took up arms fighting for self-determination in the south in 1983. The conflict has killed some two million people, most through war- induced famine and disease.

Last July, the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A began peace talks under the auspices of IGAP, which groups Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Uganda and Kenya.

But the government refused to go on discussing the "conflict areas" with the rebels, saying it is beyond the negotiation's agenda.

Mediated by Kenya, the government and the rebels have agreed to resume peace talks in Nairobi next week.

Once the problem of the disputed areas has been discussed, the talks will go back under IGAD's mediation, Musyoka said, adding that the outcome of the talks will be included in a comprehensive peace agreement.