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Gold/Mining/Energy : TLM.TSE Talisman Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tomas who wrote (505)	10/22/1999 11:14:00 AM
From: Casey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1713

Albright Backs Sudan Peace Efforts By DIANNA CAHN Associated Press Writer NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Calling on Sudan's government to take seriously the people of its rebellious south, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright today committed U.S. funding and support to end the nation's 16-year civil war. Albright, who will meet Saturday with rebel leader John Garang, said that despite hostile relations between Washington and the Sudanese government, she believed the United States could play a role in mediating the conflict. Her meeting with Garang ``should be viewed as an important support for what we think needs to be done ... to have the people of the south be taken seriously in Khartoum,' Sudan's capital, Albright said following talks today with Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi. Albright praised recent efforts to revive deadlocked peace talks. The regional Inter-governmental Authority on Development, which is sponsoring the talks, established a secretariat in July in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to conduct continuous negotiations. The United States and the European Commission already have been funding the IGAD-sponsored talks, which were conducted sporadically before the secretariat was established. But today, Albright committed U.S. funding to cover ``more than half the expenses' for the secretariat's first six months. ``I believe that we need a renewed effort,' she said. ``I think that we are all, on a daily basis, horrified by what is going on in Sudan and we believe that the IGAD process is the best way to go forward.' Nearly 2 million Sudanese have died since 1983, when the government of the Arab and Islamic north began fighting the rebels in the mostly Christian and animist south, led by Garang's Nairobi-based Sudan People's Liberation Army. Most of the deaths have been caused by war-related famines. Tens of thousands of Sudanese also have been abducted as slaves by pro-government forces, and hundreds of thousands of Sudanese farmers have been driven off their land. Albright dismissed alternative peace proposals by Egypt and Libya, saying all peace efforts should be under the umbrella of the IGAD process. That is in keeping with the rebel position. Parties to the peace process have agreed on granting some form of broader self-rule to southern Sudan, beginning with an interim two-year period of administration for the south, but the peace process has stalled over the plan's details. One sticking point is freedom of religion. The rebels demand either a secular state or suspension of Islamic law for the interim period, while Khartoum insists religious freedom is guaranteed under Sudan's Islamic constitution. Other disagreements include what the interim administration's boundaries would be and who would participate in a referendum on southern self-determination. dailynews.yahoo.com