Subj: PRESS RELEASE Date: 5/3/00 4:27:20 AM Eastern Daylight Time From: peacedesk@swiftkenya.com (New Sudan Council Of Churches) To: SudanInfonet@cs.com NEW SUDAN COUNCIL OF CHURCHES NAIROBI MAY 2, 2000 EAST BANK NILOTICS RECONCILIATION CONFERENCE THE NSCC People to People Peace East Bank Nilotics Reconciliation Conference will be launched at the end of this week on May 8th. This is the second historic tribal traditional peace conference to be held by NSCC in its process for peace for Southern Sudan, which commenced in 1997 with the Dialogue held between NSCC and the SPLM/SPLA. Following a meeting with the West and East Bank chiefs and church leaders in Lokichoggio 1998 the first tribal peace conference was held on the West Bank of the Nile, at Wunlit, March '99. It was called to reconcile the Dinka and Nuer peoples of the West Bank. This peace is holding. The East Bank Nilotics conference will involve four additional ethnic groups of the East Bank, other than the Nuer and Dinka of the region. Participants have started to move on foot to the site through the hard terrain of swamp and plains, but others will be flown the vast distances of the area to the conference. Key members will be the traditional leaders, women, youth and local church leaders. The Movements support the NSCC People to People peace reconciliation. SPLM has given assurances to maintain security, as it did for the West Bank meeting. The Lou and Gaawar Nuer who comprise the majority of the Nuer bordering with the Dinka, Murle, Anuak and Shilluk have accepted the venue of the conference and are moving to the site. International observers and partners of NSCC have been invited, with selected media persons. NSCC will issue releases of the resolutions and recommendations of the meeting which is scheduled to conclude May 14th/15th. Signed: Dr Haruun L Ruun, Executive Secretary, NSCC For further information please contact Elizabeth Phillippo, peace & advocacy ____________________ Distributed by Sudan Infonet: An information and education service of the Sudan Working Group -- USA SudanInfonet@cs.com Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/SudanInfonet