East Sudan former rebels fully deploy under deal

KHARTOUM, July 3 (Reuters) Former east Sudan rebels have left their camps and deployed to designated sites around main towns, where they will be disarmed or integrated into government forces under a peace deal for the economically vital region, a former rebel official said today.

A low-level insurgency in east Sudan dragged on for a decade until a peace deal last year mediated by neighbouring Eritrea, which had hosted Sudanese opposition for years.

One step in the agreement called for Eastern Front rebels, composed of the Beja Congress and Free Lions, to leave their training camps along the Sudan-Eritrea border and move to official camps.

''The rest of the forces completed their arrival yesterday,'' said Abdallah Moussa Abdallah, secretary-general of the eastern Beja Congress Party in the main regional town of Port Sudan.

Abdallah said 1,300 Beja Congress troops arrived on June 23.

Another around 400 Free Lions soldiers on June 28 and another 1,500 Beja Congress had just completed their deployment to east Sudan.

Under the deal they can choose whether to disarm or be integrated into local police or army.

Like insurgents in Sudan's south and west, the Eastern Front charged the central government with neglecting their area.

East Sudan has the nation's largest gold mine and the only port.

Sudan's oil pipeline also runs there carrying vital 500,000 barrels per day output.

Yesterday, a Chinese paper reported that state-run energy group China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) had signed an oil and gas exploration deal with Khartoum to explore 13 blocks off the east coast in the Red Sea.

The east complains it sees little of the money central government gets from its resources. It has one of the highest malnutrition rates in the country and there is little development.

The political protocol of the October 2006 peace deal has been hindered by infighting between the Eastern Front.

The group should have a junior cabinet post in Khartoum's central government and an assistant and advisor to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. They also get eight seats in central parliament and 10 in each of the three eastern states.

Bashir last week appointed the eight central parliament members.

Abdallah said the Eastern Front leadership would arrive in Khartoum ''within two weeks'' to take up their positions.

But he added there were divisions between his party and the Free Lions over sharing the parliamentary seats between them.

''They are much smaller than the Beja so should not get so many seats,'' he said. The Free Lions represent the relatively small Arab Rashaidiya tribe and joined the resistance much later than the Beja Congress.

The Beja, the largest eastern tribe, spans the border of Eritrea and Sudan.

REUTERS PD PM1809