Eritrea is proposing that Sudan accept a transitional government as part of a six-point plan to end a 17-year civil war with its mainly Eritrea-based opposition, a newspaper said Thursday.
The independent As-Sahafi Ad-Dawli reported the plan, which it said was being conveyed by a high-level Eritrean delegation that arrived here Wednesday.
The daily, which did not say how it obtained the document, said the plan calls for establishing a transitional government in order to restore confidence between the warring sides.
It then proposes that incumbent President Omar Bashir be appointed head of state and Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang serve as prime minister during the transitional period.
The third point requires the commitment of the transitional government to observe the country's ethnic and religious diversity, democracy, political and trade unionist freedoms, human rights and equal citizenship.
The fourth point calls for canceling the constitution, which would be replaced with a democratic transitional one drawn up by all parties, the newspaper said.
Point number five provides for holding a referendum on self-determination in southern Sudan and a nationwide free and fair election by the end of the transitional period.
Under the sixth and final point, and upon agreement of the previous proposals, the two sides will declare an end to fighting and conclude a comprehensive peace accord, the daily said.
It added that in Asmara, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the umbrella grouping for both the northern and southern opposition movements, had consented in principle to this plan.
The Eritrean delegation, led by Foreign Minister Ali Sayyed Abdallah, had a closed-door meeting with ruling National Congress (NC) party Secretary General Ibrahim Ahmed Omar.
It is scheduled to meet with Bashir to hand him a message from Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki and with other Sudanese officials, the press report said.
Eritrea succeeded in sponsoring an exploratory meeting in Asmara in September between Beshir and NDA chief Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani.
The men agreed on holding direct negotiations, also in the Eritrean capital, for discussing a lasting solution to the conflict – KHARTOUM (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
