12/31/2004 2:00:00 PM GMT
The Sudanese government and southern rebels signed a permanent cease-fire agreement to stop the 21-year-old civil war in southern Sudan, the Kenyan foreign ministry said.
Sudanese officials and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed the last two of eight peace accrods that together make up an overall agreement ending war in souther Sudan.
"In signing these two protocols the parties have succeeded in meeting their own deadline," chief mediator Lazarus Sumbeiywo said, referring to pledges both parties made before the UN Security Council to reach a deal by year-end.
On Thursday, Sudan's Vice President, Ali Osman Taha, and Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) leader, John Garang, agreed on a permanent ceasefire agreement and on how the final peace deal will be implemented.
Both parties signed the agreement on Friday to solve procedural disputes that prevented them from finalizing a comprehensive peace deal.
Southern rebels and Sudanese officials were trying to resolve differences over financing a separate army that rebels want to maintain in southern Sudan as a security guarantee during the six-year transition, an official close to the talks said on condition of anonymity.
The rebels demand the government to fund the separate army, but Sudanese officials reject their demand because the force will not be part of the new national army.
The official also said that they were discussing details of international assurances they need during the transition.
“Peace and democracy”
Earlier, Yasir Amin, spokesman of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army confirmed that Khartoum and southern rebel officials will sign a final peace agreement on January 9 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
"The new year will be a year of peace and democracy in Sudan," Arman said. "It will be the end of the longest war in Africa."
Sudanese, South African presidents attend the signing
The Sudanese embassy in Kenya said on Friday that President Omar el-Beshir of Sudan and South African President Thabo Mbeki arrived in the Kenyan town of Naivasha to attend the signing of the accords.
"The signing of the Naivasha Agreement will herald a new dawn in Sudan's political and economic development bringing to an end Africa's longest running civil war and paving the way for reconstruction and development in Sudan," a South African foreign ministry statement said.
South Africa leads the African Union Committee on Post-Conflict Reconstruction of the War-Affected Areas in Sudan.
The southern civil war started in 1983 when rebels launched a rebellion against the government, demanding greater autonomy and a greater share of the countries’ resources. The war killed at least 1.5 million people and displaced four million others.
UN officials hope that the peace agreement for the civil war, which will include a new constitution and power-sharing government for Sudan, will help end a separate conflict in the Sudanese western region of Darfur.