Sudan’s Salva Kiir reiterates commitment to peace deal

KHARTOUM, Aug 13 (AFP) — New south Sudanese former rebel leader Salva Kiir reiterated his commitment to a January peace deal with the government Saturday, as he began work as first vice president in a power-sharing administration.

Salva Kiir, the new leader of SPLA/M, makes a point during a mourning for former rebel leader John Garang in Yei village in Southern Sudan August 5, 2005. (Reuters).

“We should not stop and look backwards… but we have to continue with, and implement what we have begun in Nairobi last January,” Kiir told a special cabinet meeting convened in his honour.

“We cannot return to the long war which has exhausted us and we do not want to return to the camps for displaced persons,” the official SUNA news agency quoted him as saying.

“We want to stop all this and work together for reconstruction, rehabilitation and development.”

Kiir was sworn in on Thursday succeeding John Garang, who died in a helicopter crash on July 30.

January’s peace deal, which brought to an end Africa’s longest-running conflict, provided for a referendum on independence for the south after six years of interim autonomy under a national unity government.

Observers had expressed concern that the deal might unravel under the new leadership of the more secession-minded Kiir.