JM Burr,
Agreed IMO no African oil will ever flow down any NIF pipeline until the war has concluded. Your point on Abyei is very interesting as see the attached news article from Reuters east Africa today- Abyei is included in the southern Zone- Larry I was correct in my guess of what would be included in the southern Zone except that the northern portion of the Southern Blue Nile would remain with the northern zone (I had suggested that all of the Blue Nile would go into the southern zone).
So I guess that almost the entire oil field would be in the southern zone. Let's see how the NIF Junta responds to the SPLA position. If they do not answer soon, then assume that the NIF Junta refuses to admit defeat and that the issue will be resolved only on the battlefield. Right now the NIF Junta is massing forces near Tonj while the SPLA keeps trying to "close the loop" on Juba- perhaps create the Dien Bien Phu of the NIF Junta....
As to Arakis, things are actually looking up- the move/removal by the Board of Directors of Khan is a major step forward in mending relations and assuming a more neutral stance, as Khan himself is viewed in East Africa as an Islamic Fundamentalist- in East Africa that is not a good title to have hanging around your neck. Khan is perceived by many to have actively supported the widespread and systematic torture, deportation into slavery into Saudi Arabia and Mauretania, and murder of Africans by the NIF Junta.
Let's see what happens....
Sincerely,
Doug F.
Rebels say Sudan talks progress at snail's pace
10:17 a.m. Nov 07, 1997 Eastern
By Matthew Bigg
NAIROBI, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Peace talks between the Sudan government and rebels aimed at finding a solution to the 14-year civil war are progressing at a snail's pace, the rebel side said on Friday.
Mediator Kalonzo Musyoka, Kenya's foreign minister, continued separate talks with the leaders of the two delegations after plenary talks on Monday and Wednesday.
Musyoka met Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) chief-of-staff Salva Kiir on Thursday and was due to meet Sudan's foreign minister, Ali Osman Mohammad Taha, later on Friday, an SPLA spokesman said.
''There's really nothing definitive. The consultations are still going on between the mediators and the respective heads of the delegations,'' SPLA spokesman for the talks Commander Nhial Deng told Reuters.
''Nothing has emerged from the consultations....We will wait and see,'' Deng said.
Rebels and Sudan analysts say the next stage will be a formal response from the Khartoum government to an SPLA paper on Monday containing a series of fresh demands for resolving the conflict.
According to the document southern Sudan should vote on self-determination after two years and during that time the country should be divided into a ''confederation'' of north and south governed by a central authority.
During the interim government troops would have to withdraw under the auspices of an international peace-keeping force to areas outside the provinces of Equatoria, Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, Abyei, Southern Kordofan and Southern Blue Nile, the document said.
The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, a regional grouping including Sudan and Kenya, is hosting the peace talks, aimed at resolving a conflict that has claimed an estimated 1.3 million lives since its modern phase began in 1983.
Self-determination is one clause in a 1994 IGAD declaration of principles which the Khartoum government only agreed to discuss in September.
Monday's SPLA document introduces additional conditions, outside the IGAD declaration and the government could well reject it on that basis, according to a source close to the talks.
The government, dominated by the National Islamic Front, could also find it difficult to swallow an IGAD position contained in the SPLA document enshrining the separation of the state from religion.
Few analysts believe that, at least in their early stages, the peace talks will be more than a sideshow to a war both sides remain intent on winning.
SPLA troops have tightened the noose around the southern capital Juba after an offensive in March, while the rebels' umbrella group the National Democratic Alliance based in Eritrea threatens the Roseires Dam in east Sudan, Khartoum's main power source.
Meanwhile the government was reinforcing positions north of the contested town of Tonj in Bahr el Ghazal, rebel sources said.
Military calculations influencing the progress of the talks are also affected by Sudan's upcoming short rains which will impede major troop movements. |
