Secret talks to end long war

Press, 26 February 1980, Page 9

Secret talks to end long war

NZPA Cairo Pro-Soviet Ethiopia and pro-Western Sudan, Somalia, and Egypt are quietly negotiating to end years of war- ! fare in the strategic Horn of Africa, an Egyptian diplomatic source has said. Sudan has been backing rebels in Ethiopia’s northern Eritrea province, and Somalia has been fighting for control of the Ogaden region. which is inhabited largely by ethnic Somalis but lies within Ethiopia. Settlement of both disputes would help quiet an arena of- big-Power competition. Some conservative Arab States view Soviet influence in. the area as the southern arm of a pincer movement around the oilrich Persian . Gulf. They say the other arm is Afghanistan, where an estimated 70,000 Soviet troops are backing the Marxist regime against Muslim rebels-. The Soviet Union and United States, are vying for influence in .the Horn of Africa, ■ which controls access to Red Sea and Indian OOean shipping routes. Washington is negotiating with Somalia for use of military facilities, while Moscow has signed 20-year friendship pacts with Ethiopia and South Yemen opposite the Horn of Africa on the Arabian Peninsula. What the source described as still tentative negotiations

began nearly a month ago ! with a Ministerial-level meeting between officials of : Sudan and neighbouring Eth- } ipia. ! Ethiopia’s Marxist leader. Mengistu Haile Mariam; and j the Sudanese Foreign Minister •! (Mr Mohammed Mirf ghani) apparently continued ; the talks at the Organisation .of 'African Unity Foreign Ministers meeting a week J ago in Lhe Ethiopian capital ! of Addis Ababa. The source said that the r Egyptian President (Mr • Anwar Sadat) was backing ■ the initiative in an attempt i to recoup prestige he lost among Arab and African I States by reaching a peace ; accord with Israel,