20101030
Sudan Tribune

Doha — Sudanese government has agreed to dedicate two billion dollar for Darfur rehabilitation and reconstruction, the move represents a breakthrough in Doha peace talks, a rebel leading official disclosed.

Tadjadine Beshir Niam, chief negotiator of Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) told Sudan Tribune that the stalled talks on the wealth sharing file reached this agreement in a meeting held Friday in Doha with the participation of Sudanese state minister for finance who joined the talks on Friday.

The talks between Sudanese government and LJM rebels now are held at the level of the steering committee to resolve the outstanding issues submitted by the five committees that finalized their meetings recently.

Niam said that this amount is different from the two billons that the host country Qatar pledged to donate for Darfur recovery and development. Qatar said will establish a foundation to finance development projects in the region.

He further said the parties have agreed to establish a microfinance bank to spur development and reduce poverty in the war ravaged region through small loans to poor people to implement individual projects.

In a peace agreement signed by the Sudanese government and the former rebel Sudan Liberation Movement in May 2006, the parties agreed to allocate 700 million USD to the development projects in Darfur.

Last August, Finance and National Economy Minister, Ali Mahmoud, announced that his government endorsed a plan to implement development and recovery projects in the restive region of Darfur at a total cost of $1.9 billion.

Niam said they will continue the talks on Saturday on the wealth sharing to discuss the percentage of Darfur from the oil discovered in the region.

The steering committee had to conclude the discussions today October 29, but the rebel negotiator pointed out that the government pledged to put on the negotiating table on Saturday a package of propositions dealing with the outstanding issues in the power sharing file.

LJM demands to accord a post of vice-president to Darfur region, the establishment of one administrative region in Darfur and the participation of Darfurians in the central government as well as the government of Khartoum region.

The mediation said it intends to discuss the peace agreement currently negotiated in Doha with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led with Abdel Wahid Al-Nur.

JEM, which suspends it participation in the talks, also is expected to send a delegation to Doha to discuss the resumption of negotiations with the government. Khartoum said it wants to reach end the talks with the rebel groups before the referendum on independence for southern Sudan.